Best Special Effects, 1944

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

• The Adventures of Mark Twain. Photographic effects by Paul Detlefsen, John Crouse; sound effects by Nathan Levinson   
• Days of Glory. Photographic effects by Vernon L. Walker; sound effects by James G. Stewart, Roy Granville 
• Secret Command. Photographic effects by David Allen, Ray Cory, Robert Wright; sound effects by Russell Malmgren, Harry Kusnick  
• Since You Went Away. Photographic effects by John R. Cosgrove; sound effects by Arthur Johns 
• The Story of Dr. Wassell. Photographic effects by Gordon Jennings, Farciot Edouart; sound effects by George Dutton  
• Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. Photographic effects by A. Arnold Gillespie, Donald Jahraus, Warren Newcombe; sound effects by Douglas Shearer 
• Wilson. Photographic effects by Fred Sersen; sound effects by Roger Heman 

And the Oscar went to ... 

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. Photographic effects by A. Arnold Gillespie, Donald Jahraus, Warren Newcombe; sound effects by Douglas Shearer.

Gillespie won three Oscars in his almost thirty years as head of MGM's special effects department. I don't know where the fourth one displayed here came from.

A dated but watchable account of the first American bombing raids on Japan in World War II, with Spencer Tracy as Lt. Col. James Doolittle. Lots of the usual family tensions, pre-flight jitters, and do-or-die speechifying. The special effects rely heavily on miniatures, which were Jahraus's specialty. Gillespie joined MGM in 1925 and became head of the special effects department in 1936. He worked on both the 1925 Ben-Hur and its 1962 remake. This was the first of three Oscars for Gillespie and two for Newcombe, but the only one for Jahraus. Shearer accumulated nine awards, including technical citations, over his career as head of MGM's sound department.