And the Winner Is — 1938

 Our family is working our way through Oscar winners and whichever nominees take our fancy. Also as they are available, since these early films continued to be hard to find.

This year's movies had another delightfully mixed bag ranging from drama to screwball comedy. There are some treasures in the bunch but some real duds too.

Nominees not viewed: One Hundred Men and a Girl wasn't available, Dead End which we'd seen as part of our William Wyler viewing, A Star is Born which story we just don't like after having seen so many other versions.

WINNER

A fictionalized account of famous French writer Emile Zola and his involvement in the Dreyfus Affair.

What a dud. Boring, staid, and clearly an "important cause" movie. Almost every other nomination should have beat this. This has become code in our household for a boring movie — "It's no Life of Emile Zola." 

 NOMINEES

Unfounded suspicions lead a married couple to begin divorce proceedings, whereupon they start undermining each other’s attempts to find new romance.

The movie that got Cary Grant noticed. It was funny with a clever screenplay but the chemistry between Irene Dunne and Grant was the real bit that made it sparkle.

The ups and downs in the lives and careers of a group of ambitious young actresses and show girls from disparate backgrounds brought together in a theatrical hostel.

In some ways it was like a light-hearted version of All About Eve. I liked the boarding house environment, seeing so many people who would go on to be stars, and the dialogue. I LOVED Andrea Leeds as Kay. It was well acted and entertaining.

British diplomat Robert Conway and a small group of civilians crash land in the Himalayas, and are rescued by the people of the mysterious, Eden-like valley of Shangri-la.

Who knew Shangri-La could be so boring? The beginning and end were great but the middle dragged it down to the bottom with The Life of Emile Zola.

The O’Leary brothers – honest Jack and roguish Dion – become powerful figures, and eventually rivals, in Chicago on the eve of its Great Fire.

Not bad, but not as good as the previous year's nominee San Francisco, which it was clearly patterned on. It's a real Cain and Abel story set in a fictional story of the O'Leary family (yes, Mrs. O'Leary and the cow that start the Chicago fire). 

China, during the rule of the Qing Dynasty. The arranged marriage between Wang Lung, a humble farmer, and O-Lan, a domestic slave, will endure the many hardships of life over the years; but the temptations of a fragile prosperity will endanger their love and the survival of their entire family.

This should have won. We left it for last because this sort of movie doesn't usually appeal to me - long dramatic sagas of families struggling to survive, especially since I'd read the book long ago and hadn't liked it much. How wrong we were. By the end we were loving it. (My full review is here.)

The arrogant, spoiled son of an indulgent absentee-father, falls overboard from a transatlantic steamship and is rescued by a fishing vessel on the Grand Banks. The ship is at sea for several months and can't return to port. His experiences as part of the crew and especially under Manuel's tutelege, turns him into a mature, considerate young man.

As with every other movie this year, this was head and shoulders above the actual winner.

I found it engaging in a way that few coming-of-age movies do for me.  I also really loved the view into the fishing community — the good-natured rivalries, the shipboard culture, the way the fishermen come back together with their families after months at sea. Definitely recommended.

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All the Oscar viewing is here.