John Huston: The African Queen
Vincente Minnelli: An American in Paris
William Wyler: Detective Story
George Stevens: A Place in the Sun (winner)
Elia Kazan: A Streetcar Named Desire
What’s Missing
Some great movies in 1951, and a few that haven’t really aged that well both in what was nominated and what wasn’t. For the ignored, we can start with the ones that aren’t going to be nominated by the Academy in the early 1950s, including Robert Wise for The Day the Earth Stood Still and Charles Crichton for The Lavender Hill Mob. I’m a little surprised at the lack of love for Albert Lewin’s Pandora and the Flying Dutchman; it’s worth noting that I probably wouldn’t nominate him, but it’s a film that seems to beg for one. The same is true for Mervyn LeRoy and Anthony Mann’s work on Quo Vadis. Again, not my choice, but it’s surprising it’s not on the list. Hitchcock never got the Academy love he deserved, which leaves off Strangers on a Train, and foreign directors didn’t get any attention at this point, which explains the miss on Robert Bresson for Diary of a Country Priest. The biggest miss for my by far is Billy Wilder for Ace in the Hole.
Weeding through the Nominees
5. I don’t honestly dislike An American in Paris, but I don’t really understand the nomination for Vincente Minnelli. Oh, it’s certainly a pretty film and Minnelli knew his way around a musical and staged them very well, but this is also a supremely indulgent film, which detracts a great deal from just how much it’s worth watching. Cut the overlong ending ballet and he might move up a notch, but I’m still not sure what he’s doing on this list for this film. It’s a fine movie, but not worth this much acclaim.
4. Were this a look at Best Picture, The African Queen would be in last place for these five movies. I have to admit that John Huston’s work on it is good in terms of the technical aspects of the film. It looks good, and after that I’m not sure I have a lot positive to say about it. I don’t love the characters, I don’t buy the romance, and I think the ending is cheap. It’s a significantly flawed film, and while this is a director award, Huston was involved in the adaptation for the screenplay. Bluntly, I just think everyone involved was a lot better somewhere else.
3. Detective Story and the work of William Wyler is an interesting nomination simply because I’m not entirely sure why he was nominated, and yet I’m putting him in third. It’s a good movie, and it’s a well-told story, but it’s a case where, if I had to decide what it would be nominated for, I’d go with the screenplay (and it was nominated for its screenplay). It is a good movie, even a very good movie, but again, I think there are other directorial performances that deserve to be here a lot more than Wyler.
My Choices
2. Based on what I’ve seen, one of the hardest things to do as a director is create a movie based on a stage play and have it look substantially not like the stage play. There are certainly aspects of that in Elia Kazan’s work on A Streetcar Named Desire, but that’s not why I’m putting him in second and as a viable winner. Kazan got incredible performances out of his entire cast. Sure, he had a great cast to work with, including Brando at the height of his sexual charisma, but Kazan is still the person whose name is on the movie and so he gets the credit.
1. A Place in the Sun is a fascinating movie in the sense that I essentially dislike virtually every character on the screen and yet find the film and the story completely compelling. It’s a difficult film in a lot of ways, but I love that about it, and George Stevens could have done a great deal wrong with it. Instead, he tells the story with a deft touch, allowing us to understand all of these people and exactly why they are as terrible and undeserving of pity as they are. It’s a magnificent film, and George Stevens was a deserving winner.
Final Analysis