Best Picture Winners 1950 -1954

1950 - The winner was All About Eve, and the other nominees were Born Yesterday, Father of the Bride, King Solomon's Mines and Sunset Blvd. B pictures for years to come would be thankful to King Solomon for supplying location footage to steal. FotB and BY provide excellent show cases for Judy Holiday and Elizabeth Taylor, respectively. But Sunset is the film that is arguably better than Eve. But they're both great, so this was a good pick by the Academy.

1951 - The winner was An American in Paris and the other nominees were Decision Before Dawn, A Place in the Sun, Quo Vadis and Streetcar Named Desire. I'm a big fan of Gene Kelly musicals, but Paris is not nearly as fun as Singin' in the Rain or On the Town, or even lesser films like The Pirate and Take Me Out to the Ballgame. Of the nominees, Streetcar probably deserved to win just for introducing the method acting of Brando to the screen. The real scandal was the films not even nominated that year: The African Queen, Strangers on a Train, Scrooge and The Day the Earth Stood Still.

1952 - The Greatest Show on Earth won and is often correctly cited as one of the worst Oscar picks. The hokey circus tale hasn't held up well, but nominees Ivanhoe and Moulin Rouge haven't held up particularly well either. Most say nominee High Noon should have won, but I would have gone with nominee The Quiet Man.

1953 - The winner was From Here to Eternity and the other nominees were Julius Caesar, The Robe, Roman Holiday and Shane. A decent Best Picture choice.

1954 - The winner was On the Waterfront, and the other nominees were The Caine Mutiny, The Country Girl, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Three Coins in the Fountain. I love Seven Brides, but it has its weak patches. Three Coins is pretty bad. This was an another decent best choice. (But the best film made this year was Hitchcock's Rear Window.)

So for this stretch, 3 out of 5 weren't bad.

Best Picture Winners 1945 - 1949

1945 - The winner was The Lost Weekend and the other nominees Anchors Away, The Bells of St. Mary, Mildred Pierce and Spellbound. All good films that are still watched to some degree or another. But no great films in the bunch. Can't help but wonder if part of Weekend's win was make-up to Billy Wilder for Double Indemnity the year before. I'm sure part of its win is due to the message "alcoholism is bad". Still, Weekend was a decent pick among the choices.

1946 - The winner was The Best Years of Our Lives and the other nominees were Henry V, It's a Wonderful Life, The Razor's Edge and The Yearling. It's a Wonderful Life is one of my very favorite films, makes me teary every time, but I'm still okay with Best Years as the winner. It is still one of the most powerful and respectful films about soldiers and war ever made.

1047 - Gentlemen's Agreement was the winner and the other nominees were The Bishop's Wife, Crossfire, Great Expectations and Miracle on 34th Street. Gentlemen's Agreement won as a message film - anti-semitism is bad. The film hasn't held out as well, it's more than a bit stiff. The winner should have been the rightly beloved and remembered Miracle on 34th Street.

1948 - The winner was Hamlet and the other nominees were Johnny Belinda, The Red Shoes, The Snake Pit and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Some might argue the winner should have been the ballet classic The Red Shoes and I'd argue it should have been Sierra Madre, but not many would argue much anymore for Olivier's Hamlet which didn't due the Bard justice and used a Freudian approach that gets creakier as the years pass.

1949 - All the King's Men won, also nominated that year: Battleground, The Heiress, A Letter to Three Wives, and 12 O'Clock High. King's Men stands as a great film about politics and a respectable Oscar choice.

So, today's count is 3 out of five choices weren't bad for a total of 9 out of 21 decent Best Picture Oscars.

Best Picture Winners 1940 - 1944

So, for the first 11 Academy Awards for Best Picture, I count three that I'm pretty confident were decent choices (All's Quiet on the Western Front, It Happened One Night and Gone with the Wind [even though I would have preferred Wizard of Oz.])

So as for the next five years:

1940 - The winner was Rebecca. The other nominees were All This and Heaven Too, Foreign Correspondent, The Grapes of Wrath, The Great Dictator, Kitty Foyle, The Letter, The Long Voyage Home, Our Town and The Philadelphia Story. Several of these choices would have been good. Grapes, Dictator and Philadelphia would all have been worthy in my book. But I'm okay with Rebecca as Best Picture. The greatest injustice this year was Alfred Hitchcock not winning Best Director for Rebecca (he directed Best Picture nominee Foreign Correspondent as well.)

1941 - The winner was How Green Was My Valley. One of the big mistakes by the Academy. Because among the nominees, along with Blossoms in the Dust, Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Hold Back the Dawn, The Little Foxes, The Maltese Falcon, One Foot in Heaven, Sergeant York, and Suspicion was Citizen Kane, which often comes out on top of polls as the greatest film ever made. (And if not for Kane, Falcon is better than Valley as well.)

1942 - The winner was Mrs. Miniver. The nominees were The 49th Parallel, King's Row, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Pied Piper, The Pride of the Yankees, Random Harvest, The Talk of the Town, Wake Island and Yankee Doodle Dandy. I haven't seen all of the nominees, but I've seen most, and I'm happy with Miniver as the winner. Bonus, Dr. Joseph Goebbels, head of Nazi Germany's Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda was extremely jealous of the film and believed it made a huge difference in the Allied war effort.

1943 - Casablanca was the winner. I don't need to list the nominees. Since Citizen Kane wasn't made this year, what could be better than Casablanca?

1944 - Going My Way was the winner. The Academy this year switched to the more manageable number of five nominees. The other four nominees were Double Indemnity, Gaslight, Since You Went Away, and Wilson. Since You Went Away and Wilson are both pretty bad. Gaslight and the winner Going My Way are pretty decent. But Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity is a masterpiece.

So that makes three good choices out of five for a running total of 6 out of 16 Best Picture choices that I'm pretty sure were decent.

Did Oscar Get it Right?

With the Oscars coming up soon, I thought look back at how often, in my opinion, they got it right. At least for best picture. Now the early years, I really can't judge because most of the first dozen years I haven't seen most of the films.

My plan here is to most days look at the Best Picture picks for five years. But I'm just going to start with the twenties and thirties, when, as I said, I don't know much. It's also strange, because the first few years two years were combined.

The first Academy Awards were for 1927 and 1928, silent years. I've seen the winner for Best Picture, Wings, but not the other nominees, The Racket and Seventh Heaven. Wings is ago, but the film that was given an award for Artistic Achievement, Sunrise, was much better. Sunrise is not only one of the best silent films, ever made, but one of the best films ever made.

The next award for 1928 and 1929 had a collection of films I haven't seen. I might have seen the winner, Broadway Melody, long ago, but if I did, it didn't stick with me.

For 1929/1930 (1929 was so great it was honored twice), I've only seen the winner, All Quiet on the Western Front. I haven't seen the other nominees, but it's hard to believe any of the other nominees were better than this great film.

1931 and 1932, I've only seen the winner, Grand Hotel, and it could well be that one of the other films was better.

1932 and 1933, I haven't seen the winner, Cavalcade. But I have seen some of the other nominees. 42nd Street and I Was a Fugitive from a Chain Gang were nominated, great films, probably better than the winner. But King Kong wasn't even nominated. KK is a true masterpiece.

We finally get to single year Oscars in 1934 and again I haven't seen most of the nominees. But the winner also won Best Actor, Best Actress, Screenplay and Director. It Happened One Night is a great film.

1935's winner was Mutiny On the Bounty isn't as good as the nominee, Top Hat.

1936's winner, The Great Ziegfeld, is a snooze, but I don't know the other nominees. I do know that Fritz Lang's Fury came out, wasn't nominated, though it's pretty great.

The winner for 1937, The Life of Emile Zola, is fairly dull, nominee Lost Horizon was much better.

1938's winner, You Can't Take It With You, is okay, not as good as nominee Pygmalion. The truly great nominee was The Adventures of Robin Hood.

With 1939, we're finally getting to a year when I've seen most all the nominees.This year has been called the greatest year in film history. And most people were pretty happy with the winner, Gone With the Wind. Most people are still pretty happy with that film. The other nominees were Dark Victory, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Love Affair, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Ninotchka, Of Mice and Men, Stagecoach, The Wizard of Oz and Wuthering Heights. A collection of really great films. But my vote would have gone to Wizard of Oz.

Next post, I'll just take five years.

My Submission to "Gold Dust", the Piner HIgh School literary publication Spring 1979

NIGHT OF THE PEP SQUAD

The change started slowly at first. Few people noticed and fewer people cared. Two or three new girls every week donned burgundy and gold uniforms. Of course, these were usually girls who were already on the brink anyway, with a constant inane smile on their faces and an inability to carry on an intelligent conversation.

I could not condemn them. After all, I had once been involved in rallies and had yelled for the team at games. But soon all but a few of the uglier girls in the library and smoking grounds were pushing candy.

Most of the girls seemed almost possessed. They were incapable of remaining still for any length of time without breaking into a spasmodic rendition of one of the many routine routines.

I knew something had to be done. Finally I realized I could no longer be uninvolved. I walked slowly into the student activities office.

Inside was Mr. Andy Ed, the pep squad advisor, a man with a mad gleam in his eye as he rose to greet me.

“When will it all end, Ed,” I asked with more than a twinge of disgust in my voice.

“Never,” he replied in the pseudo-calm voice of a mad man from Poe. “They thought I was finished after the flag team and the tumblers. But then I made the card team, the baton twirling team, the paratroopers, the manure tossers, go-go and belly dancers. But I’m not done. Next week I’m starting a guys’ yell-leading team, guy tumblers, guy song leaders and cheer leaders, till not one person in the school sits in the bleachers during rallies except the thumb-twirling team.”

“Surely you can’t believe that, Ed,” I replied. “The way you talk, ever the football team will be waving pom-poms.”

“Don’t be mad,” replied Ed dryly. “They’re doing hula routines.”

“You’re insane. I know I won’t wear one of your silly skirts, and there are plenty of other people who won’t either.”

“We’ll see about that. In about a month, you too will be screaming:

We’re got a team that’s out of sight,
Get it on in the morning,
Get it on at night.
Uh-huh, Un-huh, Uh-huh

and other moronic vulgarities, usually found only in the lyrics of disco songs.”

Hearing these disturbing words, I hurriedly left the office in an unexplainable state of fear. The following week, I spent more than one sleepless night, thinking of the strange curse Ed had put on me. But soon I put it out of my mind. Perhaps I would be one the few to escape this odd mental aberration known as school spirit.

Now, exactly a month later, I sit in shame and disgust. For I am now wearing burgundy and gold and am the leader of the Writers-of –Stories-with-Idiotic-Endings Team.

A Review of "Good Prose" by Tracy Kidder and Richard Todd (Random House, 2013)

To be honest, the initial emotion I felt reading this book was jealousy. This primarily a book about writing and a very good one; ranking with Stephen King’s “On Writing” and Anne Lamont’s “Bird by Bird”. But the book isn’t just about writing. It’s about a relationship, a friendship; but an unlikely one. The friendship is between a writer and an editor.
“Friend” is not the first word many writers think of when they think of their editors. “Boss” might be one of the kinder words that comes to mind. “Vandal”, “philistine” or “nemesis” is might be the less kind words other writers when they are avoiding obscenities.

For some writers an editor is the wall keeping her away from the public. For other writers, an editor isn’t a person but rather a red pen that desecrates his work. For most writers, an editor is an anonymous name on the letter of a masthead. An editor is not someone that can be known, but an unseen, perhaps sinister force.

As for me, I’ve had a good relationship for the most part with my editors. I’ve had a number of books published with a certain publisher. I’ve never seen an editor in person. The relationship with the first editor took place by phone, but communications with succeeding editors has chiefly been via e-mail. They’ve always been polite and helpful. But the editors have never had time for extensive revisions of my work, usually just tucks and tweaks.

But Richard Todd as an editor at the Atlantic took Tracy Kidder under his tutelage and helped him become a best-selling author. Kidder has written some of my favorite nonfiction works and this book made me thankful for Richard Todd’s part in bringing those works into the world.

Most of us think of editors as people that critic a writing product after most of the work is done. But Todd was in on most of Kidder’s project from beginning, a couple of times providing the ideas for the projects.

Kidder acknowledges the patience Todd has had through the long process of creating articles and books. And Kidder salutes the wisdom that Todd has provided through the years that enabled him to find not just the structure and facts for a book, but also the tone and texture.

And Todd expresses his appreciation for Kidder’s hard work in taking suggestions (and on occasion, orders) and making them work. Not many publishers can afford to give writers the time and attention that Todd has given Kidder through the years. But the book is a good reminder that editors share with writers the common goal of good prose.

About My Family...

When I was in seminary every student had to take the MMPI (the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) and then have the results evaluated by a student in the counseling department. I remember one particular agree or disagree statement (“I have black, tarry stool”) came up several times.

The woman who evaluated my results I hope went on to greater things, but didn’t seem stellar in the evaluation department. She said, “I see that taking care of your health is a high priority for you.” Since at the time I rarely exercised and made myself a peanut butter, Cap’t Crunch, marshmallow chocolate ice cream sundae most days, I’d say that perhaps this was not the case.

But she was really off when she said this. “You seem to idealize your family. Do you think you have built a fantasy about them to deal with some kind of personal pain?” I had to explain, no, in fact, my family is really great. At least, as far as my siblings and parents go, greatness is readily apparent.

And in the last couple of months, since my mom’s death, I’ve been reminded of what great brothers and sisters I have.
My Mom died at my sister Gwynne's house. Mom had gone to Southern California for a visit and her heath took a sudden dive and in a month she was gone. And during that time, my sister cushioned my mother’s fall toward death with amazing amounts of care and grace. Gwynne and her husband, Steve, provided all that could be asked to make my mom’s last days comfortable and filled with reminders of God’s presence.

Somehow my brother, Daryl, though halfway across the country, suffering the brutal Minnesota winter, remains a rock of consistency and stability for the rest of the family in California. He is a source of wisdom and calm (with the bonus of his wife, Carol’s, unparalleled sweetness.)

My sister, Lola was given the thankless job of executer of the will and has taken on a myriad of other responsibilities with fortitude and unflagging energy (even though faced with other major life challenges.) With her husband, Dave, she has worked hard with a kind and sacrificial spirit.

My brother, Dale, has had to take on the blows of losing a second parent without the support those of us with spouses and children enjoy. (Though I’m sure the cats are giving all the support they can mustard.) And he continues on with a cheerful and encouraging spirit.

Through the years, I’m observed what families can go through with the death of their parents, particularly when dealing with an inheritance. I’ve seen even good families sever and bicker over not just money, but over who should get that painting or the microwave. Fortunately, I’ve seen my family graciously looking out for each other, being careful to fight those greedy instincts we all have.

Over the last couple of months, I’ve done some pretty stupid things. (Posting a memorial to Mom on Facebook when not everyone in the family had been personally notified, for example.) But the foolish things I’ve done have been met with grace, forgiveness and understanding by Gwynne and Steve, Daryl and Carol, Lola and Dave and Dale. And I’m pretty sure I’ll continue to give them opportunities to respond graciously to more of my idiocy in the future.

At the memorial for my mom, as is always the case, it was said, “If only your mom could hear all the wonderful things said about her.” So I wanted to take an opportunity to send well deserved praise to my dear sisters and brothers.