Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Picture 1942

The Contenders:

49th Parallel
Kings Row
The Magnificent Ambersons
Mrs. Miniver (winner)
The Pied Piper
The Pride of the Yankees
Random Harvest
Talk of the Town
Wake Island
Yankee Doodle Dandy

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Actor 1942

The Contenders:

Walter Pidgeon: Mrs. Miniver
Monty Woolley The Pied Piper
Gary Cooper: The Pride of the Yankees
Ronald Colman: Random Harvest
James Cagney: Yankee Doodle Dandy (winner)

The Piper Advanced and the Children Followed

Film: The Pied Piper
Format: Video from The Magic Flashdrive on rockin’ flatscreen.

I choose movies to watch on a given day for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, depending on my day, it comes down to length. I’ll watch a short one on a busy day and a long one on a day where I have much less to do. Sometimes, though, it comes down to the year and particular awards the film was nominated for. With The Pied Piper, it was a blend of this. I was extremely busy today and this film was available to me. Additionally, it was nominated for Best Picture in 1942, a category where I have a lot of work to do.

I knew absolutely nothing about this film going in. The title only makes sense after the opening couple of scenes. It has nothing to do with the old story about the man removing rats and then children from the town of Hamelin. No, this is a war tale that doesn’t have a great deal of war in it, at least in terms of our main characters. We have an older British gentleman named John Sidney Howard (Monty Woolley) who is currently in France despite the advancing Nazi war machine. We learn soon enough that he has fled England because despite his desire to help in the war effort in any way possible, he is repeatedly told that he is too old to be of any use. We also eventually learn that he has lost a son who flew for the RAF.