Awards presented November 10, 1931
(Films released from August 1, 1930 through July 31, 1931 were eligible.)
The nominees were ...
And the Oscar went to ...
Floyd Crosby, Tabu. This was the third cinematography Oscar winner in a row -- after White Shadows in the South Seas and With Byrd at the South Pole -- to have been shot in an exotic location. And like the previous Oscar winners, it was shot as a silent, with sound effects dubbed in later. Moreover, it was the first movie ever shot by Crosby, who had been a still photographer before being hired by documentarian Robert Flaherty to go with him and director F.W. Murnau to Tahiti as cameraman. For these reasons, it caused controversy among cinematographers, some of whom contended that the Academy voters had been more impressed with the exotic subject matter than with the technical skill of the cinematographer. So for the following year, eligibility for the cinematography award was narrowed to films "photographed in America under normal production conditions." Crosby remained a documentary filmmaker for some years after Tabu, but in the 1950s moved into feature film work, most notably on High Noon in 1952. He was also the father of rocker David Crosby.
... when it should have gone to ...
Along with director Josef von Sternberg, Garmes is one of the chief creators of the Marlene Dietrich mystique -- this was the first of three films they made together. Garmes began shooting films in 1916, and became known for his artful lighting, departing from naturalism for dramatic and poetic effects. He is said to have shot as much as a third of Gone With the Wind, though the credit (and the Oscar) went to Ernest Haller and Ray Rennahan. Morocco, like most of Sternberg's Dietrich films, is dreamy trash, transcending all notions of taste and art and dramatic credibility -- and completely enjoyable as a result. Garmes is responsible for a lot of its dreaminess.
