Academy Awards from The 1940s
Oscar Winning Best Pictures: 1940 to 1944
Many of these 1940s Oscar movies are strong examples of powerful film making and are highly regarded today. Even the weaker ones are still enjoyable and worth a look.
All five of these movies were basically dramas although one did mix in a little comedy and music. All are worthy of viewing by true film buffs and others who like old films.
1940 Best Picture: Rebecca
- British director Alfred Hitchcock made his American debut a success with this adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s novel about a young, naïve bride brought into a mysterious house haunted by the memory of its former mistress, the dead Rebecca de Winter. A strong cast is led by Joan Fontaine, Laurence Olivier, and Judith Anderson as the eerie housekeeper who is determined to keep Rebecca’s memory alive. The movie won out over nine other nominees, including Hitchcock’s second American movie, Foreign Correspondent.
1941 Best Picture: How Green Was My Valley
- As in the previous year, ten movies were nominated for best picture and, looking back today, it is hard to believe that How Green Was My Valley beat out such classics as Citizen Kane and The Maltese Falcon. That it did, may have been in part for sentimental reasons, not only for its story of life in a Welsh coal mining town as seen through the eyes of a young boy, but also because of America’s growing bond with war-torn Great Britain. Nevertheless, the movie is still a memorable one, featuring a good cast and a well-written script. John Ford won his third of four best director Oscars for this film.
1942 Best Picture: Mrs. Miniver
- In a year in which the ten nominated movies, with the possible exception of Yankee Doodle Dandy and Kings Row, were not on the same level as in earlier years, Mrs. Miniver was meant as a tribute to the home front courage of ordinary Brits during the blitz early in World War II. In actuality, it is an above average soap opera melodrama with competent acting overcoming a trite script. Despite being an average film, the movie did receive twelve overall nominations and won six. In addition to Best Picture, it also won Best Actress (Greer Garson), Best Supporting Actress (Teresa Wright), Best Director (William Wyler), Cinematography, and Screenplay.
1943 Best Picture: Casablanca
- Ranked #2, behind Citizen Kane, in the American Film Institute’s Top 100 Movies, this story of wartime intrigue and lost love deserves every accolade it has ever received. Based on a never produced play, Casablanca benefits from a well written script filled with sardonic wit and memorable characters played by both strong lead and supporting casts. The film also has more famous lines on AFI’s Top 100 Quotes than any other film and this list doesn’t even include “I’m shocked! Shocked!” The film beat out a strong field of nine contenders which included For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Ox-Bow Incident, and The Song of Bernadette.
1944 Best Picture: Going My Way
- In a year when Oscar best picture nominations were pared down to the present day five, Going My Way was one of the top feel-good movies of the decade. The movie, a combination of drama, comedy, and music, centers on a younger Catholic Priest (Bing Crosby) taking over a parish from an older one (Barry Fitzgerald). Along the way, the priest solves the parish’s financial problems, reforms the neighborhood’s juvenile delinquents, helps a single mom, and sings a few songs. The strength of this somewhat syrupy, somewhat unbelievable, but still enjoyable movie is the warm interaction of Crosby and Fitzgerald. Incidentally, Fitzgerald is the only actor nominated for both best actor and best supporting actor for playing the same character in the same movie!
These Oscar winning best pictures are still enjoyable today as are those from the rest of the decade.
The copyright of the article Academy Awards from The 1940s in Classic Films is owned by John K. Davis. Permission to republish Academy Awards from The 1940s must be granted by the author in writing.
