The Oscar-winning Songs Countdown: 1944

In 1944 the Oscars were still a teenager, therefore still confused about the application of rules; which resulted in an Oscar anomaly, for the first (and last) time. But more of that later.

Ingrid Bergman had been to Hollywood for less than 5 years - and she was well on her way to becoming a legend: she had already starred in Casablanca and in For Whom The Bell Tolls. In 1944 she was given the lead role in gay director George Cukor's adaptation of the hit play Gaslight by Patrick Hamilton, the story of a young woman who moves back into the house that her aunt was murdered in with her new husband, who has a secret that he will do anything to protect, even if it means driving his wife insane.

The play had already been made into a successful film starring Anton Walbrook and Diana Wynyard in the UK in 1940. When this version was produced, MGM attempted to have all prints of the previous version destroyed. These efforts were ultimately unsuccessful, though the 1940 film was rarely seen for the next few decades.

Swedish Bergman, who studied the patients at a mental hospital to learn about nervous breakdowns, was not the only European cast member. The film's male lead was the famous French actor Charles Boyer, who had to wear shoes and boots with 2-inch heels throughout the movie, in order to look taller than Bergman.

The only American among the leads was Joseph Cotten. Furthermore, there were prominent British actors in the supporting cast, among them veteran Dame May Whitty and newcomer Angela Lansbury, who was only 17 when she made this, her film debut.

In fact, the scene in which Angela Lansbury lights a cigarette in contradiction of Ingrid Bergman's wishes had to be postponed until toward the end of production. Because Lansbury was under eighteen, she had to be monitored by a social worker. The social worker refused to allow Lansbury to smoke while she was a minor, so the scene had to be postponed until her eighteenth birthday. When Lansbury walked on set that day, Bergman and the crew had organized a party for her, and the cigarette scene was shot immediately after they celebrated her birthday.

The film became so famous over the years, that the expression 'gaslighting', a form of manipulation that seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or in members of a targeted group, hoping to make them question their own memory, perception, and sanity, originated from it. The movie sold a lot of tickets and got great reviews, especially for Ingrid Bergman: She placed second in the New York Film Critics awards, behind, Broadway legend and proud lesbian, Tallulah Bankhead, for her role in Alfred Hitchcock's latest offering, Lifeboat.

The film was shot entirely on a restricted set in which the boat was secured in a large studio tank. Alfred Hitchcock, always striving for realism, insisted that the boat never remain stationary and that there always be an added touch of ocean mist and fog compounded of oil forced through dry ice.

Even though they never went near the sea, seasickness hit the entire cast at various times during production, and many of them caught pneumonia after constant exposure to cold water, Tallulah Bankhead having suffered twice from it. Hume Cronyn almost drowned in a storm scene when he got caught under a large metal water-activator, used for making waves. Joe Peterson, a lifeguard hired especially for the production, saved him in the nick of time. Cronyn also suffered from cracked ribs during the course of filming.

Asked why he had decided not to have any musical score during the narrative of his film Lifeboat, Alfred Hitchcock reasoned that the audience wouldn't know where the music was coming from in the middle of an ocean: the composer David Raskin replied "Ask Mr. Hitchcock to explain where the camera came from and I'll tell him where the music comes from".

There are a lot of anecdotes concerning the filming of this movie: Tallulah Bankhead would climb a ladder every day to reach the tank where the filming took place. She never wore underwear and regularly received an ovation from the film crew. Also, during the beginning of filming, Mary Anderson asked Alfred Hitchcock what he thought "is my best side." He dryly responded, "You're sitting on it, my dear."

Although the film did good business in New York and other big cities, it failed to attract audiences in smaller theatres and rural areas. As a result, it was a rare Alfred Hitchcock film that actually lost money at the box office.

Going My Way certainly didn't lose money; in fact, it was the highest-grossing movie of the year. The film's director, Leo McCarey, wasn't a stranger to critical praise and Academy recognition- he had won the Best Director Oscar in 1937 for The Awful Truth - but Going My Way was no screwball comedy. To make the success of this series of vignettes about a Catholic parish church even more unlikely, McCarey chose crooner Bing Crosby for the leading role of a young priest. But McCarey's mixture worked, with most critics echoing the New York Post's Archer Winsten, who wrote, "The beauty and joy of Going My Way spring from the treatment of human relationships."

For the first time, critics called Crosby an actor rather than a singer, and exhibitors named him the #1 box-office star of the year. His costar, Barry Fitzgerald, as an aging priest, was declared the discovery of 1944 even though the alumnus of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin had been in Hollywood since 1937, appearing in such hits as Marie Antoinette, The Dawn Patrol, The Long Voyage Home, and How Green Was My Valley. Life told its readers to look out for "a wonderful Irishman named Barry Fitzgerald. His performance is one of the half-dozen finer things seen in motion pictures as they complete their first fifty years."

By the end of August, Paramount proclaimed that Going My Way had broken 2,420 house records. Let's see what were the other box-office hit of that movie season:

The #2 box-office champ was Wilson, a chronicle of the political career of US President Woodrow Wilson. Funny thing is, it wasn't a champ, far from it: The film, a pet project, and labor of love for producer Darryl F. Zanuck, the head of 20th Century-Fox, was a notorious box-office flop in its day, despite good reviews and award nominations, and despite the fact that when it played the Roxy in New York, it grossed more than any one movie had in a single theatre up to then. Zanuck was so heartbroken over the movie's failure that he forbade anyone who came into his presence to ever mention the film again.

The fact that the film lost money was almost inevitable: it cost a then gargantuan $5 million to produce, an insane amount of money to spend on such a box-office risk. (It actually cost more than Gone with the Wind (1939).) Consequently, it was known in the trade as "Zanuck's Folly".

Although Henry Fonda and Gary Cooper were both considered for the lead role, the part went to popular character actor, Canadian Alexander Knox. It was a rare leading role for him. Zanuck sighed a sigh of relief when Knox won the Best Actor Golden Globe, but then his heart sank when Best Picture and Best Director both went to Going My Way. Ingrid Bergman consolidated her position by winning Best Actress.

The New York Film Critics were a further source of grief for Zanuck: they awarded Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor (Barry Fitzgerald) to Going My Way. In fact, according to them, Wilson was the third best picture of the year, Preston Sturges' comedy Hail the Conquering Hero being the second.

By the way, if you're not familiar with Preston Sturges, the two films that he made in 1944, Hail the Conquering Hero and especially The Miracle of Morgan's Creek are a perfect place to start. They're both hilarious - and way ahead of their time.

Cary Grant was famous for his screwball romantic comedies at the time, so people were really surprised that he took the leading role in Clifford Odets' realistic drama None But the Lonely Heart. He was flanked by the Great Lady of American Theatre, Ethel Barrymore, and (yes) Barry Fitzgerald. The film was critically lauded, especially for its performances. Bosley Crowther wrote in the New York Times, "Mr. Grant's performance as Ernie Mott, the 'tramp of the Universe' - the 'citizen of the Great Smoke' who was 'barmy as the muffin man' - is an exceptional characterization of bewilderment and arrogance, and Miss Barrymore's performance as his mother glows with beauty and spiritual fire."

Going back to the box-office hits, at #3 we find the latest spectacle by the man responsible for Gone with the Wind, producer David O. Selznick. Selznick spent a staggering 4.5 million dollars, hoping to duplicate the success of Gone with the Wind. He even wrote the screenplay himself and was heavily involved with the film's direction, even though it was credited to John Cromwell. Even though this "epic of the American homefront", as he liked to call it, sold enough tickets and had decent reviews, it was no Gone with the Wind. The New York Times' Bosley Crowther says it well: "In his first screen production in four years - his first since Rebecca and Gone With the Wind - David O Selznick has surrendered again to his hankering for size and has turned out another massive picture in Since You Went Away. For two hours and fifty-one minutes, this new film at the Capitol delves with a warm and gracious sympathy into the heart of what it terms 'the American home' and yearns with a mother and her daughters whose best-loved men go dutifully to war. Although it makes several passes at observing surface phases of home-front life, its chief concern is three females and their immediate circle of friends. Its humors are frequent and cheerful; its spirit is hopeful and brave. But it does come off, altogether, as a rather large dose of choking sentiment."

He was, however, more generous where the actors were concerned: "As the mother and center of the family, Claudette Colbert gives an excellent show of gallantly self-contained emotion, and Jennifer Jones is surpassingly sweet as a well-bred American daughter in the first bloom of womanhood and love. Robert Walker is uncommonly appealing as the young soldier whom she tragically adores, and Shirley Temple, now grown to teenage freshness, is pert as the young sister. Monty Woolley makes a full-blown character of the man who comes to lodge."

At #4 & #5 of the box-office list, we find two musicals, Lady in the Dark, starring Ginger Rogers and the classic Meet Me in St. Louis, starring Judy Garland.

At #6 was that year's prestige movie by the First Lady of MGM, Greer Garson. Mrs. Parkington co-starred her regular screen partner, Walter Pidgeon, and included a highly enjoyable supporting appearance from Agnes Moorehead. The film was about a widowed matriarch who reminisces about her family fortunes, including her romance with a financier/mine owner. A solid, if not really exceptional movie. Let's turn again to the New York Times' Bosley Crowther, who wasn't enthusiastic, to say the least: "Don't let your expectations presume any great significance, or even any genuine human nature, in this elaborately concocted film. For writers, director and producer have all of them obviously conspired to give the two stars a rapturous workout and let reason fall where it may. As a consequence, we see here a picture in which the clichés of ideal romance have been piled up so richly and warmly that a point of suffocation is almost reached."

The First Lady of Warner Bros., Bette Davis, also featured at the box-office top 20 with her vehicle for that year, Mr. Skeffington, albeit at a lower position, at #16. Together with Bette Davis was her favorite co-star, Claude Rains. Bette Davis' part is of popular and beautiful Fanny Trellis, forced into a loveless marriage with an older man, Jewish banker Job Skeffington, in order to save her beloved brother Trippy from an embezzlement charge, and predictable complications result. The character of Fannie is said to have been partly based on the actress Fannie Ward, a silent screen star who in her 40s was still playing a young woman. She was still playing young women at age 50 but retired from the screen soon thereafter.

Gaslight wasn't the only classic film-noir to come out in 1944. There were two more, equally as good. Austrian Billy Wilder's third American film as a director (he had a lot more as a screenwriter) was Double Indemnity, the story of an insurance representative who lets himself be talked by the seductive wife of one of his clients into a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses an insurance investigator's suspicions.

Variety wrote, "Double Indemnity is rapidly moving and consistently well developed. It is a story replete with suspense, for which credit must go in a large measure to Billy Wilder’s direction." A few years later, The New Yorker's Pauline Kael, retrospectively reviewing the film, said: "This shrewd, smoothly tawdry thriller, directed by Billy Wilder, is one of the high points of nineteen-forties films. Barbara Stanwyck’s Phyllis Dietrichson - a platinum blonde who wears tight white sweaters, an anklet, and sleazy-kinky shoes - is perhaps the best acted and the most fixating of all the slutty, cold-blooded femmes fatales of the film-noir genre."

Another Austrian expatriate, Otto Preminger, directed Laura, the story of a police detective who falls in love with the woman whose murder he is investigating. Starring the dazzling Gene Tierney as Laura, Dana Andrews as the detective - and supported by three excellent supporting actors, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price, and Judith Anderson, giving us their wicked best, the film soon became a favorite of psychologists and analysts for its complicated (and quite daring for the mid-1940s) sexual subtext.

The critics agreed too: Variety said, "The film's deceptively leisurely pace at the start, and its light, careless air, only heighten the suspense without the audience being conscious of the buildup. What they are aware of as they follow the story [from the novel by Vera Caspary] is the skill in the telling. Situations neatly dovetail and are always credible. Developments, surprising as they come, are logical. The dialog is honest, real and adult."

The Nominations

Best Picture

Double Indemnity

Gaslight

Going My Way

Since You Went Away

Wilson

Best Director

Double Indemnity: Billy Wilder

Going My Way: Leo McCarey

Laura: Otto Preminger

Lifeboat: Alfred Hitchcock

Wilson: Henry King

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Gaslight: Charles Boyer

Going My Way: Barry Fitzgerald

Going My Way: Bing Crosby

None But the Lonely Heart: Cary Grant

Wilson: Alexander Knox

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Double Indemnity: Barbara Stanwyck

Gaslight: Ingrid Bergman

Mr. Skeffington: Bette Davis

Mrs. Parkington: Greer Garson

Since You Went Away: Claudette Colbert

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Going My Way: Barry Fitzgerald

Laura: Clifton Webb

Mr. Skeffington: Claude Rains

The Seventh Cross: Hume Cronyn

Since You Went Away: Monty Woolley

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Dragon Seed: Aline MacMahon

Gaslight: Angela Lansbury

Mrs. Parkington: Agnes Moorehead

None But the Lonely Heart: Ethel Barrymore

Since You Went Away: Jennifer Jones

Best Writing, Original Screenplay

Hail the Conquering Hero

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek

Two Girls and a Sailor

Wilson

Wing and a Prayer

Best Writing, Screenplay

Double Indemnity

Gaslight

Going My Way

Laura

Meet Me in St. Louis

Best Writing, Original Story

Going My Way

A Guy Named Joe

Lifeboat

None Shall Escape

The Sullivans

Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White

Address Unknown

The Adventures of Mark Twain

Casanova Brown

Gaslight

Laura

No Time For Love

Since You Went Away

Step Lively

Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color

The Climax

Cover Girl

The Desert Song

Kismet

Lady in the Dark

The Princess and the Pirate

Wilson

Best Cinematography, Black-and-White

Double Indemnity

Dragon Seed

Gaslight

Going My Way

Laura

Lifeboat

Since You Went Away

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo

The Uninvited

The White Cliffs of Dover

Best Cinematography, Color

Cover Girl

Home in Indiana

Kismet

Lady in the Dark

Meet Me in St. Louis

Wilson

Best Film Editing

Going My Way

Janie

None But the Lonely Heart

Since You Went Away

Wilson

Best Sound, Recording

Brazil

Casanova Brown

Cover Girl

Double Indemnity

His Butler's Sister

Hollywood Canteen

It Happened Tomorrow

Kismet

Music in Manhattan

Voice in the Wind

Wilson

Best Effects, Special Effects

The Adventures of Mark Twain

Days of Glory

Secret Command

Since You Went Away

The Story of Dr. Wassell

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo

Wilson

Best Documentary, Features

The Fighting Lady

Resisting Enemy Interrogation

Not agonizing for their chances of winning were the recipients of the honorary awards: Margaret O'Brien received the Juvenile Award for Meet Me in St. Louis. Bob Hope was awarded Life Membership in the AMPAS, for his many services to the Academy, while Darryl F. Zanuck received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, perhaps to soften the blow for Wilson's financial loss.

As usual, we leave the music nominations for last. The nominees for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture were:

Morris Stoloff, Ernst Toch, for Address Unknown. The only link I could find was that of the entire film:

... Same goes for the next nomination, Arthur Lange, for the film Casanova Brown. Here's the whole film, translated into Russian:

Max Steiner, for The Adventures of Mark Twain:

Dimitri Tiomkin, for The Bridge of San Luis Rey:

Hans J. Salter, for Christmas Holiday. It's not available on YouTube.

Miklós Rózsa, for Double Indemnity:

Walter Scharf, Roy Webb for The Fighting Seabees. The only link I could find was that of the entire film, dubbed in Italian:

Michel Michelet, Edward Paul, for The Hairy Ape. The only link I could find (again) was that of the entire film:

Robert Stolz, for It Happened Tomorrow:

Freddie Rich, for Jack London. It's not available on YouTube.

Herbert Stothart, for Kismet:

C. Bakaleinikoff, Hanns Eisler, for None But the Lonely Heart. This is the movie's trailer:

David Rose, for The Princess and the Pirate. This is the movie's trailer:

Max Steiner, for Since You Went Away:

Karl Hajos, for Summer Storm. This is the movie's trailer:

Miklós Rózsa, for The Woman of the Town. It's not available on YouTube.

W. Franke Harling, for Three Russian Girls. It's not available on YouTube.

Edward Paul, for Up in Mabel's Room. The only link I could find was that of the entire film:

Michel Michelet, for Voice in the Wind:

Alfred Newman, for Wilson:

A lot of nominees, don't you think?

The nominees for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture were:

Walter Scharf, for Brazil:

Carmen Dragon, Morris Stoloff, for Cover Girl:

C. Bakaleinikoff, for Higher and Higher:

Ray Heindorf, for Hollywood Canteen:

Alfred Newman, for Irish Eyes Are Smiling:

Werner R. Heymann, Kurt Weill, for Knickerbocker Holiday. This is the entire film:

Robert Emmett Dolan, for Lady in the Dark:

Edward J. Kay, for Lady, Let's Dance:

George Stoll, for Meet Me in St. Louis:

Leo Erdody, Ferde Grofé Sr., for Minstrel Man:

Mahlon Merrick, for Sensations of 1945:

Charles Previn, for Song of the Open Road:

Hans J. Salter, for The Merry Monahans:

Louis Forbes, Ray Heindorf, for Up in Arms:

What about the songs? Here are the nominees for Best Music, Original Song:

Rio de Janeiro, for the film Brazil • Music: Ary Barroso • Lyrics: Ned Washington. Performed by Tito Guizar:

Long Ago and Far Away, for the film Cover Girl • Music: Jerome Kern • Lyrics: Ira Gershwin. Performed by Rita Hayworth (dubbed by Martha Meers) and Gene Kelly:

I'll Walk Alone, for the film Follow the Boys • Music: Jule Styne • Lyrics: Sammy Cahn. Performed by Dinah Shore:

Swinging on a Star, for the film Going My Way • Music: James Van Heusen • Lyrics: Johnny Burke. Performed by Bing Crosby:

Songwriter Jimmy Van Heusen was at Crosby's home for dinner one night to brainstorm about a song for the film. One of Crosby's sons was griping about having to go to school the following day, so Crosby said if he didn’t go to school he might grow up to be a mule. Van Heusen took that retort, imagined Crosby's priest character in Going My Way saying such a thing to a group of young boys, and wrote the song with lyricist Johnny Burke. Inspiration often comes when you least expect it.

Singer Andy Williams debuted as one of the singing boys surrounding Bing Crosby during the song Swinging On A Star. Williams and his three brothers were performing as the Williams Brothers and were all cast in the scene.

I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night, for the film Higher and Higher • Music: Jimmy McHugh • Lyrics: Harold Adamson. Performed by Frank Sinatra:

Sweet Dreams, Sweetheart, for the film Hollywood Canteen • Music: M. K. Jerome • Lyrics: Ted Koehler. Performed by Joan Leslie:

Silver Shadows and Golden Dreams, for the film Lady, Let's Dance • Music: Lew Pollack • Lyrics: Charles Newman. It's not available on YouTube.

The Trolley Song, for the film Meet Me in St. Louis • Music & Lyrics: Ralph Blane & Hugh Martin. Performed by Judy Garland:

Remember Me to Carolina, for the film Minstrel Man • Music: Harry Revel • Lyrics: Paul Webster. Performed by Benny Fields:

Too Much in Love, for the film Song of the Open Road • Music: Walter Kent • Lyrics: Kim Gannon. Originally sung by Jackie Moran. Here it is sung by Buddy DeVito with The Harry James Orchestra:

I'm Making Believe, for the film Sweet and Low-Down • Music: James V. Monaco • Lyrics: Mack Gordon. Performed by Lynn Bari:

This is the hit version by Ink Spots & Ella Fitzgerald:

Now I Know, for the film Up in Arms • Music: Harold Arlen • Lyrics: Ted Koehler. Performed by Dinah Shore:

In case you haven't counted, that's twelve nominations. This would go on for one more year - and then the nominations would drop to the normal five. The favorite was Swinging on a Star, a smash hit for Bing Crosby. As a child, I used to love it, less so as an adult. The lyrical suggestion that kids will go to school and start washing up before dinner to avoid transformation into a mule, pig, or fish is an arrogant and insulting one, but getting to carry moonbeams home in a jar sounds pretty cool. If it were up to me, I would probably give the Oscar to the Trolley Song, or the non-nominated Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (both from Meet Me in St. Louis). Other possibilities would be the nominated I'm Making Believe, or the non-nominated Is You Is or Is You Ain't Ma Baby (see below).

Even though there were so many nominations, there were still eligible songs that were left out. Among them:

How Little We Know, for the film To Have and Have Not • Music: Hoagy Carmichael • Lyrics: Johnny Mercer. Performed by Lauren Bacall:

The Boy Next Door, for the film Meet Me in St. Louis • Music & Lyrics: Ralph Blane & Hugh Martin. Performed by Judy Garland:

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, for the film Meet Me in St. Louis • Music & Lyrics: Ralph Blane & Hugh Martin. Performed by Judy Garland:

Is You Is or Is You Ain't Ma Baby, for the film Follow the Boys • Music & Lyrics: Louis Jordan & Billy Austin. Performed by Louis Jordan:

Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year, for the film Christmas Holiday • Music & Lyrics: Frank Loesser. Performed by Deanna Durbin:

Barry Fitzgerald is the only actor to have received Leading and Supporting Actor nominations for the same performance. Voting rules were altered shortly after this occurred to prevent future such instances. (That's what I was alluding to in my introduction.)

These are the films that received more than two nominations each: Going My Way (10 nominations), Wilson (10 nominations), Since You Went Away (9 nominations), Gaslight (7 nominations), Double Indemnity (7 nominations), Laura (5 nominations), Cover Girl (5 nominations), Meet Me in St. Louis (an honorary Oscar and 4 more nominations), None But the Lonely Heart (4 nominations), Kismet (4 nominations), Lifeboat (3 nominations), Casanova Brown (3 nominations), The Adventures of Mark Twain (3 nominations), Lady in the Dark (3 nominations), Hollywood Canteen (3 nominations), Brazil (3 nominations).

It was obviously going to be a battle between Going My Way and Wilson, with Going My Way having the edge.

The Awards

Indeed it was... Going My Way swept all the major awards, ending up with seven: Best Picture, Director, Leading Actor (Crosby), Supporting Actor, Screenplay, Original Story, and Best Song. It was the first time ever that the Best Picture winner was also the Best Song winner. Did it happen again - and when was it? You can answer in the comments' section.

Wilson did well, with five awards: Best Original Screenplay, Editing, Sound, Color Cinematography, and Color Art Direction-Interior Decoration. The respective Black-and-White awards went to Laura for Cinematography and Gaslight for Art Direction-Interior Decoration. The latter also won for Best Actress, as expected, for Ingrid Bergman. Best Supporting Actress went to Ethel Barrymore. The Fighting Lady was named Best Documentary, while Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo won an Oscar for Special Effects.

Out of 9 nominations, Since You Went Away only managed to win one award, that of Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, while Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture went to Cover Girl.

Daryl Zanuck turned out to be a sore loser. Not content with his 5 (minor) wins and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, he told friends and underlings that the Academy was obviously a corps of philistines if they could pass over Wilson as Best Picture. And until he died, he bitterly complained that his dream project did not receive the rewards he felt it so justly deserved.