Awards presented March 20, 1948
The nominees were ...
... when they should have been ...
And the Oscar went to ...
Gentleman's Agreement. This earnest melodrama about a reporter who discovers anti-Semitism by posing as a Jew is full of high-minded speeches, but ultimately seems tame and a bit smug about being "controversial." It was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, the only head of a major studio who wasn't Jewish, and over the objections of Louis B. Mayer, Sam Goldwyn, and Jack Warner, who were. They feared that even broaching the subject would produce a backlash. In the end, however, it was a commercial success.
... when it should have gone to ...
Can't you sense things slipping away for the Hollywood studio system, just from the nominations (the real ones and my own) this year? A reviving Europe and, before very long, a revived Japan were showing up the glitz and fakery of American film. This great Italian neorealist movie, one of the first features directed by Vittorio De Sica, received a special award from the Academy for having been "brought to eloquent life in a country scarred by war, ... proof to the world that the creative spirit can triumph over adversity." It was the first foreign-language film to be so honored, leading to a regular special award given annually by the Academy and eventually to the current competitive award. But on the other hand, its screenplay, by Sergio Amidei, Adolfo Franci, C.G. Viola, and Cesare Zavattini, was nominated and lost to Sidney Sheldon's for
The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer. Really. No kidding.
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