Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Director 1945

The Contenders:

Leo McCarey: The Bells of St. Mary’s
Billy Wilder: The Lost Weekend (winner)
Clarence Brown: National Velvet
Jean Renoir: The Southerner
Alfred Hitchcock: Spellbound

A Pie with Legs

Film: National Velvet
Format: DVD from Sycamore Public Library on laptop.

Sometimes you can see a star in the making. National Velvet is that way. This wasn’t Elizabeth Taylor’s first movie; it wasn’t even her first movie with an animal. But it is a case where I don’t know that anyone expected that this would be a star turn for the young actress. She’s billed third on the film after Mickey Rooney and Donald Crisp despite clearly being the star of the film.

National Velvet is an interesting coming-of-age film in a couple of respects. Typically, and as I’ve said multiple times in the past, coming-of-age stories for boys are about death and for girls are about sex. In this case, it’s neither of the above. There’s not any death here and our main character is far too young for sex to be involved. This is a good thing, and noteworthy, really. It’s a little bit surprising, and I’m all for that.