Awards presented March 15, 1945
The nominees were ...
... when they should have been ...
And the Oscar went to ...
Going My Way. This gooey heart-warmer about an easygoing parish priest in the inner city is pretty hard to take unless you have a high tolerance for cute kids, cute songs, and cute priests. And in the light of the Catholic church's pedophile scandals, it may even have some rather unpleasant, if unintentional, undertones.
... when it should have gone to ...
One of the greatest Hollywood mystery thrillers, full of lovable nasties and memorable lines, most of them given to Clifton Webb. It can be faulted today for its touches of homophobia in the treatment of the characters played by Webb and Vincent Price, but they're so deliciously camp that one has to wonder how director Otto Preminger -- always at war with the censors -- got them past the Code enforcers. Dana Andrews is one of the best hard-boiled detectives in movies. Some of us prefer this tale of obsession to Hitchcock's more celebrated treatment of the same subject in
Vertigo. Considering that it was a smash hit, it's surprising that
Laura didn't earn a best picture nomination, but 20th Century-Fox head Darryl F. Zanuck was determined to put his promotional muscle behind his big biopic
Wilson, which got a nomination and was still a flop.
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