Best Short Films, 1946

Awards presented March 13, 1947

The nominees were ... 
(Cartoon) 

• The Cat Concerto, Frederick Quimby, producer 
• Chopin's Musical Moments, Walter Lantz, producer 
• John Henry and the Inky Poo, George Pal, producer 
• Squatter's Rights, Walt Disney, producer
• Walky Talky Hawky, Edward Selzer, producer  

(One-Reel) 

• Dive-Hi Champs, Jack Eaton, producer 
• Facing Your Danger, Gordon Hollingshead, producer 
• Golden Horses, Edmund Reek, producer 
• Smart as a Fox, Gordon Hollingshead, producer 
• Sure Cures, Pete Smith, producer

(Two-Reel) 

• A Boy and His Dog, Gordon Hollingshead, producer 
• College Queen, George B. Templeton, producer 
• Hiss and Yell, Jules White, producer 
• The Luckiest Guy in the World, Jerry Bresler, producer 

And the Oscar went to ... 

(Cartoon) 

The Cat Concerto, Frederick Quimby, producer. 

For the fourth year in a row, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's Tom and Jerry slaughter the competition -- and each other. The steady violence of these cartoons has gone out of style, partly through the efforts of well-meaning censors but also because of the delicious satire of the "Itchy and Scratchy" parodies on The Simpsons, which shone a light on the essentially unfunny excess of the series. But The Cat Concerto is one of the best of the series: Tom is a concert pianist who awakens Jerry, asleep in the piano, during a performance of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. Jerry of course tries to sabotage the performance. Scott Bradley, the regular composer for the Tom and Jerry series, does a wonderful job of making hash of the rhapsody. 

 

(One-Reel) 
Facing Your Danger, Gordon Hollingshead, producer. 

Gordon Hollingshead

A team runs the Colorado River rapids through the Grand Canyon to Lake Mead. A producer for shorts at Warner Bros., Hollingshead won two short-film Oscars this year, bringing his total to four. He would win a fifth. 

(Two-Reel) 
A Boy and His Dog, Gordon Hollingshead, producer.

A rather sugary tale of a boy who rescues an abused dog. When its owner demands that he return it, a magistrate, played by the venerable character actor Harry Davenport, sorts things out. Directed by LeRoy Prinz, who is best known as a choreographer.  

Best Documentary, 1945

Awards presented March 7, 1946

With the war drawing to an end, the flood of documentaries from the various branches of the military slowed to a trickle. But the documentary award had established itself as an Oscar category, albeit one that would generate controversy in years to come. 

The nominees were ... 

(Feature) 

• The Last Bomb, United States Army Air Force 
• The True Glory, The Governments of Great Britain and the United States of America 

(Short Subject) 

• Hitler Lives? Gordon Hollingshead, producer 
• Library of Congress, United States Office of War Information Overseas Motion Picture Bureau 
• To the Shores of Iwo Jima, United States Marine Corps 

And the Oscar went to ... 

(Feature) 

The True Glory, The Governments of Great Britain and the United States of America. 

A survey of the course of the war in Europe from D-Day to the fall of Berlin, directed by Garson Kanin and Carol Reed, with a script credited to Paddy Chayefsky, although many other writers were involved, including Peter Ustinov. The chief British narrator is Robert Harris, but various British and American speakers recount their wartime experiences. A remarkable and often stirring record of the wartime experience, though slanted toward heroism rather than realism. 

(Short Subject) 

Hitler Lives? Gordon Hollingshead, producer.

A shrill, unsettling propaganda short, that presents Germany as an ongoing threat. Directed by Don Siegel, who also directed Star in the Night, which won the two-reel short film Oscar in the same year. The hectoring narrator is Knox Manning.

Best Short Film, 1945

Awards presented March 7, 1946

The nominees were ... 

(Cartoon) 

• Donald's Crime, Walt Disney, producer
• Jasper and the Beanstalk, George Pal, producer 
• Life With Feathers, Eddie Selzer, producer 
• Mighty Mouse in Gypsy Life, Paul Terry, producer 
• The Poet and Peasant, Walter Lantz, producer 
• Quiet, Please! Frederick Quimby, producer 
• Rippling Romance, Screen Gems 

(One-reel) 

• Along the Rainbow Trail, Edmund Reek, producer 
• Screen Snapshots' 25th Anniversary, Ralph Staub, producer 
• Stairway to Light, Herbert Moulton, producer; Jerry Bresler, executive producer 
• Story of a Dog, Gordon Hollingshead, producer 
• White Rhapsody, Grantland Rice, producer 
• Your National Gallery, Joseph O'Brien and Thomas Mead, producers 

(Two-reel) 

• A Gun in His Hand, Chester Franklin, producer; Jerry Bresler, executive producer 
• The Jury Goes Round 'N' Round, Jules White, producer  
• The Little Witch, George Templeton, producer 
• Star in the Night, Gordon Hollingshead, producer 

And the Oscar went to ... 

(Cartoon) 

Quiet, Please! Frederick Quimby, producer. 

The Academy's love of Tom and Jerry mayhem continues, this time with the addition of Spike, the bulldog, to the household. Spike wants to take a nap, but Jerry, sensing an opportunity to get Tom in trouble, devises ways to make noise and keep Spike awake. One of the few Tom and Jerry cartoons with voices: Spike's is Billy Bletcher, Tom's William Hanna. 

(One-reel) 

Stairway to Light, Herbert Moulton, producer; Jerry Bresler, executive producer.

Glossy and didactic account of the effort of late eighteenth-century French physician Philippe Pinel to bring about humane treatment of the mentally ill. One of MGM's "Passing Parade" shorts with narration by John Nesbitt.

(Two-reel) 

Star in the Night, Gordon Hollingshead, producer.

J. Carrol Naish plays a motel keeper with a Scrooge-like attitude toward Christmas until the star advertising his motel attracts a young couple named Jose and Maria Santos who are looking for shelter. Then three cowboys, who just happen to be carrying gifts, show up too. Get it? One of the first films directed by Don Siegel, who also directed the year's Oscar-winning documentary short Hitler Lives?

Best Short Film, 1944

Awards presented March 15, 1945
The nominees were ...
(Cartoon) 

• And to Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street, George Pal, producer  
• Dog, Cat and Canary, Screen Gems 
• Fish Fry, Walter Lantz, producer 
• How to Play Football, Walt Disney, producer 
• Mouse Trouble, Frederick C. Quimby, producer 
• My Boy Johnny, Paul Terry, producer 
• Swooner Crooner, Warner Bros. 

(One-Reel) 

• Blue Grass Gentlemen, Edmund Reek, producer 
• Jammin' the Blues, Gordon Hollingshead, producer  
• Movie Pests, Pete Smith, producer 
• Screen Snapshots' 50th Anniversary of Motion Pictures, Ralph Staub, producer 
• Who's Who in Animal Land, Jerry Fairbanks, producer 

(Two-Reel) 

• Bombalera, Louis Harris, producer  
• I Won't Play, Gordon Hollingshead, producer 
• Main Street Today, Jerry Bresler, producer; Herbert Moulton, associate producer 

And the Oscar went to ... 

(Cartoon) 

Mouse Trouble, Frederick C. Quimby, producer.

The usual Tom and Jerry mayhem, in which Tom gets a "How to Catch a Mouse" book and follows its instructions. They backfire (literally) of course.  

(One-Reel) 

Who's Who in Animal Land, Jerry Fairbanks, producer.

Another in Paramount's "Speaking of Animals" series, which proved extraordinarily popular with the Academy -- Speaking of Animals and Their Families won the 1942 Oscar. The only portion of it that seems to survive today is a version of "Cow Cow Boogie" sung by real cows. 

(Two-Reel) 

I Won't Play, Gordon Hollingshead, producer.

Dane Clark plays a marine on a South Sea island whose tall tales about his exploits among Hollywood celebrities earn him a reputation as a liar, until a real star (Janis Paige) appears on a tour and sets the record straight. This was the first of five Oscar wins for Hollingshead, who had previously won in the now-defunct assistant director category. 

Best Assistant Director, 1932-33

Awards presented March 16, 1934
(Films released from August 1, 1932 through December 31, 1933 were eligible.)

A very odd choice of category for the Academy to add at this point, before it started giving Oscars for music or film editing or supporting players (not to mention the ones that came much later, costumes and makeup) or revived the special effects category that it had given at the first awards. Especially because "assistant director" is a kind of catch-all title. The AD does everything that the director doesn't have time to do (or in the case of a powerful director doesn't want to do). This can be everything from making sure everything is on schedule to kicking ass and taking names. Most films today have a multitude of ADs, and most of them have assistants. Sometimes the title "assistant director" is used for a "second-unit director," who directs crowd scenes, establishing shots of scenery, and sometimes retakes of scenes, especially when the director has moved on to another set or location. Obviously, this category doesn't give us much opportunity to comment on alternative nominations, especially since in this first of the only five years in which it was awarded, there were multiple winners -- seven of them, out of eighteen nominations -- and no specific films were cited. But it's interesting to take a closer look at what happened to them later in their careers.  

The nominees were ... 

• Al Alborn (Warner Bros.)
• Charles Barton (Paramount)
• Scott Beal (Universal)
• Sidney S. Brod (Paramount)
• Charles Dorian (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• Bunny Dull (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• Fred Fox (United Artists)
• Gordon Hollingshead (Warner Bros.)
• Percy Ikerd (Fox)
• Arthur Jacobson (Paramount)
• Eddie Killey (RKO Radio)
• Joe McDonough (Universal)
• W. J. Reiter (Universal)
• Frank X. Shaw (Warner Bros.)
• Benjamin Silvey (United Artists)
• Dewey Starkey (RKO Radio)
• William Tummel (Fox)
• John S. Waters (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

And the Oscar went to ... 
Charles Barton (Paramount). 

Charles Barton

Barton was AD on Horse Feathers (1932), the Marx Brothers' movie. He moved into the director's chair in 1934, mostly on B pictures. In 1945 he went to Universal, where he directed many of the Abbott and Costello movies. In the early 1950s he began a long career as a TV director. 

Scott Beal (Universal).

Beal was AD on such 1932-33 films as Murders in the Rue Morgue, Back Street, and Only Yesterday. He began as an actor, and directed a few films, but most of his career was spent as an assistant director. He received another nomination in the category for Imitation of Life (1934). 

Charles Dorian (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

A former actor in silent pictures, Dorian worked on such films as Red-Headed Woman and Night Flight during the eligibility period. 

Fred Fox (United Artists). 

In addition to his work as AD, Fox, who was born in London, played small parts in movies in the 1940s, including Mrs. Parkington (1944) and Forever Amber (1947). The films that made him eligible for the 1932-33 Oscar include Baby Face, The Bowery, and Broadway Through a Keyhole. 

Gordon Hollingshead (Warner Bros.). 

Gordon Hollingshead

The most successful of all of the 1932-33 AD winners, Hollingshead would go on to collect five more Oscars plus ten nominations as a producer of more than two hundred short films. The movies that qualified him for the 1932-33 AD win include 42nd Street, Footlight Parade, Picture Snatcher, and Tugboat Annie. In 1960 he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

Dewey Starkey (RKO Radio). 

Starkey was AD on A Bill of Divorcement, The Silver Cord, and Professional Sweetheart. He remained an assistant director until 1944 when he switched to production manager, ending his career as a production supervisor on such TV series as "Gunsmoke" and "Perry Mason." 

William Tummel (Fox). 

Tummel's work on the 1932-33 best picture winner, Cavalcade, put him in contention for the assistant director Oscar.