(Films released from August 1, 1932 through December 31, 1933 were eligible.)
The nominees were ...
- George J. Folsey, Reunion in Vienna
- Charles Bryant Lang Jr., A Farewell to Arms
- Karl Struss, The Sign of the Cross
... when they should have been ...
And the Oscar went to ...
Charles Bryant Lang Jr., A Farewell to Arms. Lang shares with Leon Shamroy the record for most nominations (18) for cinematography. This was his only win. Shamroy, on the other hand, won four times. Lang spent most of his career at Paramount, then in 1951 began a career as a freelance director of photography until his retirement in 1973.
... when it should have gone to ...
Sol Polito, I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang.
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| Sol Polito |
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| Helen Vinson and Paul Muni in the final scene of I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang: "How do you live?" "I steal." |
Though Charles Lang was known for his expressive use of limited lighting sources, Polito takes it to the utmost in the haunting final scene of I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang. At the time, Muni's withdrawal into the darkness was so startling that director Mervyn LeRoy claimed he had the idea when a fuse blew on the set, but the scene is actually described in the script. Throughout the movie, Polito plays with light and shadow, often to echo the convict's stripes that Muni and the other chain gang members wear. Though Polito became one of the leading directors of photography at Warner Bros. by developing his skill at shooting in black and white, he was also a pioneer in color cinematography, acclaimed for the rich, lush use of color in one of the studio's first color films, The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). He was nominated three times, twice for color films, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939) and Captains of the Clouds (1943), and once for black and white, Sergeant York (1942), but never won.
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