The nominees were ...
- Busby Berkeley, "Love and War" number from Gold Diggers of 1937
- Bobby Connolly, "1000 Love Songs" number from Cain and Mabel
- Seymour Felix, "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" number from The Great Ziegfeld
- Dave Gould, "Swingin' the Jinx" number from Born to Dance
- Jack Haskell, "Skating Ensemble" number from One in a Million
- Russell Lewis, "The Finale" number from Dancing Pirate
- Hermes Pan, "Bojangles of Harlem" number from Swing Time
... when they should have been ...
- Busby Berkeley, "Love and War" number from Gold Diggers of 1937
- Bobby Connolly, "1000 Love Songs" number from Cain and Mabel
- Seymour Felix, "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" number from The Great Ziegfeld
- Dave Gould, "Swingin' the Jinx" number from Born to Dance
- Jack Haskell, "Skating Ensemble" number from One in a Million
- Russell Lewis, "The Finale" number from Dancing Pirate
- Hermes Pan, "Let's Face the Music and Dance" number from Follow the Fleet
Seymour Felix, "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" number from The Great Ziegfeld.
Felix began his career as a dancer in vaudeville, then moved into choreography on Broadway. He was lured to Hollywood in 1929 at the dawn of movie musicals. Although there is some dancing in the spectacular number for which he won the Oscar, it's mostly a triumph of sets and costumes, as Dennis Morgan (billed under his real name, Stanley Morner, and dubbed by Allan Jones) ascends a great staircase, spiraling around a column, while singing Irving Berlin's song to a bevy of chorus girls.
... when it should have gone to ...
Hermes Pan, "Let's Face the Music and Dance" number from Follow the Fleet.
Nothing against the "Bojangles of Harlem" number, or the other great number from Swing Time, "Never Gonna Dance," but "Let's Face the Music and Dance" seems to me the pinnacle of the collaboration of Astaire, Rogers, and Pan. It uses Irving Berlin's song as the basis of a dance narrative about the meeting of two down-on-their-luck gamblers, Astaire and Rogers, who find consolation in each other. Rogers wears a rather amazing gown with a weighted hem that swirls around her as she moves and whose fit and translucency shows off her extraordinary figure. The number ends with a breathtaking strut as the two exit.
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