Here are the five nominees: (Winner in Bold)
Biggest Snub:
Alfred Hitchcock – Blackmail
My Overall Thoughts:
This is a year where the nominees were quite weak and barring any real front runner, any of them could theoretically have won even if it would be a lackluster win no matter what.
My Rankings:
Directing
5. Ernst Lubitsch (The Patriot) – Not Yet seen
4. Harry Beaumont
3. Lionel Barrymore
2. Irving Cummings
1. Frank Lloyd
Movies
5. The Patriot – Not Yet seen
4. The Broadway Melody – Complete waste of time. Don’t bother. Still can’t believe this won Best Picture.
3. In Old Arizona – Interesting early western that is quite tame, yet still well done for its time.
2. Madame X – Film with a intriguing premise that just doesn’t seem to feel as impactful as one would hope such an idea should have. The way things are portrayed here is a bit too tame and the story isn’t able to be as gripping as it should probably be. The idea of characters feelings shameful of their actions works well especially given that the audience is allowed to know many of the circumstances described even if some of the other characters remain in the dark.
1. The Divine Lady – Interesting premise that probably worked much better when it was made than it does now. Many of the ideas presented are alluded to very subtly due to the censors and the way that people thought at the time that things should be presented more virtuously on film. This was quite a weak year for nominees for Best Director and Frank Lloyd was able to win with this film probably due to the way he is able to depict sea battles which was quite groundbreaking at the time.
Do I agree with the Oscar winner? – I guess so! Very mediocre year but surprisingly TDL was probably the best of the lot even though I’ll never get to see if The Patriot is any good since it’s one of the few Oscar nominees out of print.
Let me know what you think about these films and my rankings!
MovieRob 