Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Original Screenplay 1945

The Contenders:

Dillinger
Marie-Louise (winner)
Music for Millions
Salty O’Rourke
What Next, Corporal Hargrove?

What’s Missing

It hasn’t happened often, but it does happen. There’s not a single nomination in this category that I actually liked that much. I disliked two of these movies a great deal and didn’t love the other three, so I’m going to clearly be unenthusiastic about anything I put at the top. Truthfully, at least for the movies I’ve seen, there’s not a lot here to put in place of the nominations. My first choice, Children of Paradise, got its nominations the following year. I could see a lot of people wanting I Know Where I’m Going! here, and while I don’t love that movie, it’s probably better than the choices we have. Three potential choices, Detour, Christmas in Connecticut, and Rome, Open City are all based on stories that might be published (making them ineligible) or not (making them eligible). I’d be willing to change the rules for this sorry collection to make them eligible, though.

Weeding through the Nominees

5. I disliked Music for Millions a great deal. It’s unbelievably sappy, and I think the message that we ultimately get here (because of the desperate need for this to reach a happy ending) is actually dangerous. This film actually made me angry, and all of that comes from the plot. In fact, for my money, the only reasons to watch this film are the talents of Jose Iturbi and the fact that Jimmy Durante really was a hell of a showman. In terms of story, there’s nothing here worth seeing at all.

4. Next off the list is What Next, Corporal Hargrove, or the second of these movies that you’ve probably never heard of. The biggest problem with this movie, other than the fact that it’s not that good and not that funny for a comedy, is that it has no idea what it really wants to be. It’s a comedy and a war film and potentially a romance, and just about everything else. This is a movie that wants to be everything for everyone, and thus (as generally happens) ends up being not much of anything for anyone. It’s disappointing.

3. With Salty O’Rourke, we have another movie where the issues are going to be almost entirely from the nominated screenplay. The central romance here is one that happens specifically because the plot requires the romance to happen. The characters in question would never become a romantic item. That’s an issue when it’s the central focus of the film. Salty O’Rourke is incredibly difficult to find. I searched for it for about five years before I got a copy of it, and it was definitely not worth the wait.

2. I didn’t like Dillinger very much, but I didn’t hate it, either. Once again, the biggest issue I have with the movie comes from the nominated screenplay. In this case, that’s a cobbled and forced romance plot, since evidently we needed to have a romance in pretty much every movie from this era. But it is a case where the performances, particularly that of Lawrence Tierney, are the main reason to watch this. Something like Scarface: The Shame of a Nation or even I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang would be better choices, as would anything in the Little Caesar/Public Enemy line.

1. What this means is, that given the lackluster collection of nominations that we have, I’m going to go with the actual winner, if I’m limited to these five. The truth is that I didn’t really like Marie-Louise that much, but I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt. So much of what I ended up seeing in this movie had to be figured out as well as I could, because I couldn’t find a copy of this with English subtitles. That means I lost a great deal of the story here. The fact that I liked it as well as I did compared with the rest of the nominations indicates that it might actually be a movie worthy of the win.

My Choice

But I have to stick with what I have in terms of what I have seen, but I’m not limited to our five nominations if I don’t want to be. Rome, Open City is probably the best movie from the collection I suggested above, and it’s at the very least the most important of those movies. I do love Christmas in Connecticut as well, even if it’s a bit predictable. Still, it’s at least good fun.

Final Analysis