The nominees were ...
- Olivia de Havilland in To Each His Own
- Celia Johnson in Brief Encounter
- Jennifer Jones in Duel in the Sun
- Rosalind Russell in Sister Kenny
- Jane Wyman in The Yearling
- Lauren Bacall in The Big Sleep
- Olivia de Havilland in To Each His Own
- Wendy Hiller in I Know Where I'm Going
- Celia Johnson in Brief Encounter
- Anna Magnani in Open City
And the Oscar went to ...
After two previous losses -- one of them to her sister, Joan Fontaine -- de Havilland, one of Hollywood's most capable stars, must have seemed overdue for an Oscar. And this sentimental melodrama about a woman who gives birth to a child out of wedlock, gives him up for adoption, becomes a successful businesswoman, and is reunited with him later in life, was pure Oscar bait. Moreover, de Havilland had been off-screen for three years while she fought a celebrated legal battle that broke the studios' hold on actors, so To Each His Own was something of a grand comeback and the Oscar a sweet triumph.
... when it should have gone to ...
The thing is, almost any Hollywood star who was neither too old nor too young could have played de Havilland's role in To Each His Own. But how many actresses, of whatever country, could have brought the beauty, the earth and fire to the role of Pina in Roberto Rossellini's neorealistic masterpiece about Rome under Nazi occupation? It was the film that launched her career and would eventually lead to an actual Oscar, for The Rose Tattoo. A more courageous Academy would have given it to her for this one.
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| Anna Magnani as Pina in Open City |
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| Aldo Fabrizi and Magnani in Open City |
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