The nominees were ...
- Blithe Spirit. Special visual effects, Thomas Howard
- A Stolen Life. Special visual effects, William McGann; special audible effects, Nathan Levinson
Blithe Spirit. Special visual effects, Thomas Howard.
A novelist (Rex Harrison) hires a medium (Margaret Rutherford) to hold a séance to gather material for his next book, but discovers that she has summoned up the ghost of his dead wife (Kay Hammond), whom only he can see. On stage Noël Coward's play didn't require any special effects to get the point across, but the film version, directed by David Lean, added Howard's effects, which include some double exposures and objects transported by wires, but also tricks of makeup and lighting to give Hammond a ghostly but glamorous air. It was clearly not a year of great innovation in the effects departments -- the only other nominee, A Stolen Life, relied on conventional masking effects to turn Bette Davis into twins. This was the first of two Oscars for Howard, who had begun his career as an effects artist on The Thief of Bagdad, for which the effects director, Lawrence W. Butler, won an Oscar. A pioneer in front-projection effects, Howard spent his career in England, where he became head of the effects department at MGM's Elstree studios. His later work included 2001: A Space Odyssey, but once again, someone else walked off with the special effects Oscar: director Stanley Kubrick.
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| Kay Hammond and Margaret Rutherford in Blithe Spirit |
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| Hammond and Constance Cummings in Blithe Spirit |
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| Rex Harrison and Hammond in Blithe Spirit |
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