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<\/a>Sometimes it\u2019s simply a question of an embarrassment of riches. Take the Best Actress competition in 1950. I love the wonderful Judy Holliday and would never begrudge her the Oscar she won for her portrayal of Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday<\/em>. But leaving Holliday out of it, how is it possible that Gloria Swanson could have gone home empty-handed that night after her brilliant portrayal of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard<\/em>. And that Bette Davis was not honored for her sparkling career-best performance as Margo Channing in All About Eve<\/em>? Then there are the years when people win because Academy voters feel guilty that they overlooked a better, earlier performance. I love Jimmy Stewart and The Philadelphia Story<\/em> is one of my favorite films of all time, but let\u2019s face it, he won the 1940 Best Actor Oscar primarily because he didn\u2019t win the year before for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington<\/em>. And does anyone believe that Elizabeth Taylor really deserved a Best Actress Oscar for the sleazy Butterfield 8<\/em> in 1960? Oh, come on. She won partly because she had almost died earlier that year and had basically come back from the dead and partly because she didn\u2019t win in previous years for her much better performances in films such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof<\/em> and Suddenly, Last Summer<\/em>. Hey, don\u2019t take my word for it \u2014 listen to Taylor herself. \u201cI still say it stinks!\u201d she famously said after winning the Oscar.<\/p>\nTo be honest, reviewing many of the awards since the Academy started doling them out 86 years ago, I\u2019m actually quite impressed by the majority of the voters’ choices. But then there are the Oscars that don\u2019t seem to make any sense at all. I\u2019m not even talking about performances or films that weren\u2019t nominated and should have been \u2014 that discussion would require a book-length treatise. No, just looking at the winners among that year’s nominees is sometimes cause for great concern. \u00a0Here is my list of ten of the Academy’s most egregious errors. Just my opinion, of course \u2014 feel free to be outraged at my outrage!<\/p>\n
<\/a>Luise Rainer, Best Actress, The Great Ziegfeld<\/em> (1936).<\/strong> Okay, I just started and I already hate myself. Why? Because I love Luise Rainer, I really do! I was lucky enough to see her in person, being interviewed (at the age of 101) by Robert Osborne at the 2011 TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood. Rainer was wonderful, talking about her career and introducing a screening of The Good Earth<\/em> (for which she won another Best Actress Oscar in 1937). But as much as I admire the actress, who is still with us at the age of 104, I still find it hard to believe that she won the top prize for her small role as Anna Held, the first wife of famed impresario Florenz Ziegfeld (played by William Powell) in the MGM extravaganza The Great Ziegfeld<\/em>. Rainer is delightful in the role, and I\u2019m sure she won the Oscar for her emotional telephone conversation with Ziegfeld after she finds out that he’s dumped her for actress Billie Burke (Myrna Loy). Forgive me, Luise, but I would have given the award that year to Carole Lombard for her wonderful performance (also opposite William Powell) in My Man Godfrey<\/em>. Frankly, I\u2019m not sure Rainer would have minded \u2014 after winning the Oscar two years in a row she later remarked \u201cNothing worse could have happened to me.\u201d But I still feel a little guilty for including her here \u2014 especially since she is currently the oldest living Oscar winner.<\/p>\n<\/a>The Life of Emile Zola<\/em>, Best Picture (1937).<\/strong> It\u2019s not that I have anything against this well-made William Dieterle film \u2014 I think Paul Muni gave a fine performance as the French author. It\u2019s just that, despite the film\u2019s pedigree, I don\u2019t think it really passes the test of time in taking precedence over such a fantastic slate of \u00a0Best Picture nominees that year including The Awful Truth, Captains Courageous, Dead End, Stage Door\u00a0<\/em>and A Star Is Born<\/em>. Personally? I love Gregory La Cava\u2019s Stage Door<\/em> starring Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou and many others so much that it definitely would have received my vote. But that just wasn\u2019t the kind of \u201cprestigious\u201d film that the Academy likes to honor. Maybe I\u2019m just bitter because while The Life of Emile Zola<\/em> covers important historical incidents such as the Dreyfus Affair, a major political scandal and miscarriage of justice that revolved around anti-Semitic feelings in France, it does so without ever mentioning the word \u201cJew\u201d or \u201canti-Semitism.\u201d A pretty cowardly move on the part of the largely Jewish studio heads in 1937. That said, the film is worth seeing for many reasons, not the least of which is Muni\u2019s performance along with Vladimir Sokoloff as Paul C\u00e9zanne and Joseph Schildkraut as Captain Alfred Dreyfus.<\/p>\n<\/a>Robert Donat, Best Actor, Goodbye, Mr. Chips<\/em> (1939).<\/strong>\u00a0Sigh. I have nothing against Robert Donat who ages 63 years (somewhat convincingly) over the course of this film that was based on the novel by James Hilton about the former headmaster of a boarding school for boys. Donat played opposite Greer Garson in the Sam Wood film (which was remade 30 years later as a musical starring Peter O\u2019Toole and Petula Clark). I think Donat was fine in the role, I\u2019m just pissed because I really think Clark Gable should have won for his performance as Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind<\/em>. I also think Jimmy Stewart was more deserving for Frank Capra\u2019s superb\u00a0Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.<\/em> But I would have voted for the underrated Gable. Sure, he barely even tried to attempt a Southern accent, but I think Rhett was a much more difficult part than people gave him credit for and he performed it perfectly. Especially since he was so reluctant to play the role in the first place \u2014 he was practically drafted into the film through sheer public outcry.<\/p>\n<\/a>Rebecca<\/em>, Best Picture (1940).<\/strong>\u00a0I\u2019m starting to worry that publicly declaring some of these decisions as \u201cmistakes\u201d may cause my movie-loving wife to consult a divorce lawyer. At the very least, I may have to sleep on the couch tonight when she sees that I\u2019m complaining about the Best Picture win for Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s Rebecca<\/em> starring Sir Laurence Olivier, Dame Judith Anderson and lovely Joan Fontaine who died two months ago at the age of 96. I love the film and have probably watched it dozens of times. But here, again, I can’t help but compare this film’s merits with some of the other nominees, especially two films that I consider true masterpieces: John Ford\u2019s The Grapes of Wrath<\/em> starring Henry Fonda and Jane Darwell, and George Cukor\u2019s The Philadelphia Story<\/em> starring Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart. Sorry Hitch, Larry and Joan, but it\u2019s crazy that Rebecca<\/em> was chosen over those two films. The Grapes of Wrath<\/em> is one of the most powerful films of all time, but as I\u2019ve already stated, I have a special place in my heart for\u00a0The Philadelphia Story<\/em> and that\u2019s the film that would have received my vote.<\/p>\n<\/a>Ginger Rogers, Best Actress, Kitty Foyle<\/em> (1940).<\/strong> Oh lord, with every entry on this list I\u2019m going to make more enemies among classic movie lovers. Let me state it clearly: I LOVE Ginger Rogers! In addition to her wonderful early films with Fred Astaire, I think she’s fantastic in films such as Stage Door, Bachelor Mother, The Major and the Minor, I\u2019ll be Seeing You, Storm Warning\u00a0<\/em>and so on. But Sam Wood\u2019s melodramatic Kitty Foyle<\/em>? Nope, especially not a Best Actress win over Katharine Hepburn\u2019s \u00a0brilliant performance as Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia Story<\/em>. (Have I made it clear how much I love that film?) Hepburn and Rogers had a wonderful rapport in Stage Door<\/em> a few years earlier even though they reportedly did not get along very well on set. And the fact that Hepburn turned down the lead role in Kitty Foyle<\/em> must have made this a sweet win for Ginger. Oh well. The other nominees that year weren\u2019t exactly chopped liver, either: Joan Fontaine in Rebecca<\/em>, Bette Davis in The Letter\u00a0<\/em>and Martha Scott in Our Town<\/em>. Hepburn went on to win more Oscars than any actor in history (four Best Actress statues) but I still say she was robbed!<\/p>\n<\/a>An American in Paris<\/em>, Best Picture (1951).<\/strong> I know, I know, this film is beloved the world over, and many say it\u2019s one of the best musicals ever made. I\u2019m certainly a fan of the Vincente Minnelli film which starred Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant and Nina Foch. The Gershwin songs, such as \u201cS\u2019wonderful,\u201d \u201cI Got Rhythm\u201d and \u201cOur Love Is Here to Stay\u201d are delicious and I am all for musicals winning the Best Picture award (nine have received that honor, most recently 2002’s Chicago<\/em>). But between you and me, this is far from my favorite Minnelli film (I prefer Meet Me in St. Louis <\/em>and The Band Wagon<\/em>) and my main objection with this win is that it took the prize from George Stevens\u2019 A Place in the Sun<\/em> starring Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift and Shelley Winters, and Elia Kazan\u2019s A Streetcar Named Desire<\/em> with Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando. Of course, these apples-and-oranges contests are crazy to begin with, but some films are so spectacular that you can\u2019t help but be outraged that they were bypassed for lesser films. If I were an Academy voter in 1951, I think I would have had to mark A Streetcar Named Desire<\/em> on my ballot.<\/p>\n<\/a>The Greatest Show on Earth<\/em>, Best Picture (1952).<\/strong> Sorry Mr. De Mille, but I don\u2019t feel any guilt at decrying the insane decision to name this film the Best Picture of the year. It\u2019s not that the Technicolor drama about the behind-the-scenes happenings of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus doesn\u2019t have its charms, but the film, which starred Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, Gloria Grahame and James Stewart as a clown who never takes off his makeup, doesn\u2019t hold a candle to some of the other nominees that year, most notably Fred Zinnemanns\u2019s High Noon<\/em> with Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly and John Ford\u2019s The Quiet Man<\/em> with John Wayne and Maureen O\u2019Hara. I know I promised to only talk about the nominees but I also have to contemplate this film winning the top prize when certain films from that year including Singin\u2019 in the Rain, The Bad and the Beautiful<\/em> and Come Back, Little Sheba<\/em> didn\u2019t even get nominated. FAIL! Academy voters seemed to prefer spectacle over story in the 1950s \u2014 we\u2019ll get to the worst example of that in a minute.<\/p>\n<\/a>Grace Kelly, Best Actress, The Country Girl<\/em> (1954).<\/strong> Yikes, here I go again. Who doesn\u2019t love Grace Kelly? Rear Window, Dial M for Murder, To Catch a Thief<\/em> \u2014 she was a wonderful, gifted actress and obviously wonderful to look at. With all apologies to the Princess of Monaco and her fans, I think she won the Best Actress Oscar in 1954 because she \u201cpulled a Charlize Theron.\u201d Nothing thrills Academy voters more than when spectacularly beautiful actresses make themselves look plain (or in Theron\u2019s case downright scary) for a movie role. It\u2019s not that I don\u2019t appreciate Kelly\u2019s performance in The Country Girl<\/em>, based on the Clifford Odets play and co-starring Bing Crosby and William Holden, but I believe the award that year really belonged to Judy Garland for George Cukor\u2019s A Star Is Born<\/em>, her \u201ccomeback\u201d of sorts after being booted from MGM a few years earlier. It was Garland\u2019s best shot at the Academy Award and all of Hollywood was sure she\u2019d finally nab one (other than the special juvenile Oscar she received in 1940). Time<\/em> magazine said that Garland \u201cgives what is just about the greatest one-woman show in modern movie history\u201d and I couldn\u2019t agree more. Not that it\u2019s Grace Kelly\u2019s fault that she won \u2014 I\u2019m sure she was as shocked as everyone else. At the time Groucho Marx quipped that it was \u201cthe biggest robbery since Brink\u2019s!”<\/p>\n