Best Sound, 1944

Awards presented March 15, 1945
The nominees were ...

... when they should have been ... 
And the Oscar went to ... 
Wilson. 20th Century-Fox Studio Sound Department, E.H. Hansen, Sound Director.

Darryl F. Zanuck log-rolls another win for his pet project, but it was still a flop. This was the second of Hansen's two Oscars, out of fourteen nominations. It's also the last credit listed on his Internet Movie Database entry, although he lived until 1962. Did he retire at just over fifty years old and rest on his laurels? It would be nice to know. 

... when it should have gone to ... 
Meet Me in St. Louis. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio Sound Department, Douglas Shearer, Sound Director.

MGM's fondness for Kismet, which it nominated instead of Meet Me in St. Louis for both sound and art direction, the categories in which it was limited to a single choice, is puzzling. It remade Kismet after the Broadway musical version was a success in 1955, giving it two of the Freed unit's best directors, Vincente Minnelli and Stanley Donen, though even that version isn't anything special and received no nominations. So I've replaced Kismet with a superior movie, which would have given Shearer another win -- not that he needed one. As for whether Meet Me in St. Louis deserved an award for sound? It had Judy Garland singing, didn't it?  

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