The nominees were ...
- Norbert Brodine, Merrily We Live
- Robert de Grasse, Vivacious Lady
- Ernest Haller, Jezebel
- James Wong Howe, Algiers
- Peverell Marley, Suez
- Ernest Miller, Harry Wild, Army Girl
- Victor Milner, The Buccaneer
- Joseph Ruttenberg, The Great Waltz
- Leon Shamroy, The Young in Heart
- Joseph Valentine, Mad About Music
- Joseph Walker, You Can't Take It With You
... when they should have been ...
- Robert de Grasse, Vivacious Lady
- Tony Gaudio, Sol Polito, The Adventures of Robin Hood
- Ernest Haller, Jezebel
- James Wong Howe, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
- James Wong Howe, Algiers
- Christian Matras, Grand Illusion
- Victor Milner, The Buccaneer
- Joseph Ruttenberg, The Great Waltz
- Leon Shamroy, The Young in Heart
- Joseph Valentine, Mad About Music
- Joseph Walker, You Can't Take It With You
And the Oscar went to ...
The Academy was still shying away from color films, so all of its nominees were black-and-white. Which is a pity because two of the most successful Technicolor films to that time were released in 1938: The Adventures of Robin Hood and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The Academy gave the last of its special awards for color films to Oliver Marsh and Allen Davey for Sweethearts. But the black-and-white nominees were for the most part a visually distinguished lot. The Great Waltz is opulent, but a little dopey, memorable only because of a sequence in which Johann Straus, played by Fernand Gravet, takes a carriage ride, and squeaky wheels, horse's hooves, birdcalls, and hunting horns inspire him to compose "Tales From the Vienna Woods." It also earned Ruttenberg the first of his four Oscars. Otherwise, the movie is notable for its casting mishaps: It attempted but failed to make Gravet (who was known in Europe as Gravey, which was too much like "gravy" for American audiences) into a star on this side of the Atlantic. Likewise, MGM had hopes for Miliza Korjus, a Polish soprano whom Irving Thalberg had signed to a ten-year contract, and publicized with the line "Korjus -- it rhymes with gorgeous." But before she could make a second film, she was seriously injured in an automobile accident and after war broke out in Europe decided to stay in Mexico while recovering. And finally, the film's leading lady was Luise Rainer, who despite her back-to-back Oscars was unhappy with the direction her career was taking at MGM and soon departed from Hollywood.
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| Director Julien Duvivier and Joseph Ruttenberg on the crane for The Great Waltz |
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