The nominees were ...
- Frank Capra, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
- Gregory La Cava, My Man Godfrey
- Robert Z. Leonard, The Great Ziegfeld
- W.S. Van Dyke, San Francisco
- William Wyler, Dodsworth
... when they should have been ...
- Charles Chaplin, Modern Times
- John Ford, The Prisoner of Shark Island
- Gregory La Cava, My Man Godfrey
- James Whale, Show Boat
- William Wyler, Dodsworth
And the Oscar went to ...
Like all Capra films, this blend of screwball comedy, social comment, whimsy, and pathos has adoring admirers. Others like me find that its message -- the little people are better than the fat cats and country folk superior to city slickers -- is presented so ham-handedly as to suggest its essential falseness. Give Capra credit for making Jean Arthur a star after more than a decade in the business, though.
... when it should have gone to ...
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| William Wyler |
Wyler was one of the most-honored directors, winning three Oscars -- for Mrs. Miniver, The Best Years of Our Lives, and Ben-Hur -- out of a record-setting twelve nominations. But his reputation has taken a hit from the auteur critics who find his work lacking in point of view, tasteful rather than stylish, subservient rather than daring. Andrew Sarris managed to make the words "meticulous craftsmanship" damning when he relegated Wyler to the "Less Than Meets the Eye" category of his book The American Cinema. It's true that there is no characteristic that we can call "Wylerian" to be isolated from such disparate films as Dodsworth, Roman Holiday, Ben-Hur, and Funny Girl, whereas a Howard Hawks could make films as various in subject and genre as Scarface, Bringing Up Baby, Red River, and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and leave us discussing the "Hawksian" elements in each. The point is strengthened by the fact that in the same year that Wyler made Dodsworth, he also took over a film that had been begun by Hawks, Come and Get It, and the seams left by stitching together the two directors are glaringly obvious. But "meticulous craftsmanship" should be honored, and it's one of the things that make a film like Dodsworth (and The Best Years of Our Lives, The Heiress, and Roman Holiday, to name what I think are the best of Wyler's oeuvre) still such a pleasure to watch.
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