Best Sound, 1943

Awards presented March 2, 1944

The nominees were ... 

• Hangmen Also Die, Sound Service Inc., Jack Whitney, Sound Director
• In Old Oklahoma, Republic Studio Sound Department, Daniel J. Bloomberg, Sound Director
• Madame Curie, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio Sound Department, Douglas Shearer, Sound Director
• The North Star, Samuel Goldwyn Studio Sound Department, Thomas T. Moulton, Sound Director
• Phantom of the Opera, Universal Studio Sound Department, Bernard B. Brown, Sound Director
• Riding High, Paramount Studio Sound Department, Loren L. Ryder, Sound Director
• Sahara, Columbia Studio Sound Department, John P. Livadary, Sound Director
• Saludos Amigos, Walt Disney Studio Sound Department, C.O. Slyfield, Sound Director
• So This Is Washington, RCA Sound, J.L. Fields, Sound Director
• The Song of Bernadette, 20th Century-Fox Studio Sound Department, E.H. Hansen, Sound Director
• This Is the Army, Warner Bros. Studio Sound Department, Nathan Levinson, Sound Director
• This Land Is Mine, RKO Radio Studio Sound Department, Stephen Dunn, Sound Director

And the Oscar went to ... 

This Land Is Mine, RKO Radio Studio Sound Department, Stephen Dunn, Sound Director. 

Charles Laughton plays a meek schoolteacher in a generic European country that has been occupied by the Nazis. He's drawn into heroic resistance to the Germans by his unexpressed love for his neighbor, played by Maureen O'Hara. Melodramatic propaganda, but of a higher sort, thanks to Dudley Nichols's screenplay and a fine performance by Laughton. Still, it's perhaps the weakest film from one of the greatest directors, Jean Renoir. The award for sound seems like the Academy's attempt to honor a movie not quite good enough to be nominated in any other category. This was the first of Dunn's two Oscars. He also won a scientific and technical award.