Update later today.

And I KNOW some of you bastards have tasted 1934's fruit.

WHAT HAPPENED TO 1934?!!!!!!!!!????!!!

I'd like to see this continued.

Yeah, love to see yoshue continue on this. Especially now I just saw the 1934 winner It Happened One Night!

I've seen it recently too!

A fine film.

A fine film indeed. In a lot ways remind me of Roman Holiday. Given how early the film is, an excellent achievement in terms of dialog and acting.

Hah, me too. I found myself thinking a lot about Roman Holiday during this. Though I must say I liked Roman Holiday more probably because I really prefered Audrey's performance to Colbert's and I found it a bit funnier too.

The chemistry between the leads in both of them is very good, though.

Ha, I have the same thought. While watching it, I was kind of wishing Colbert was a little younger and more naive looking, like Audrey.

Well, great minds think alike : )

Where is yoshue??!!!??

Actually, I'm planning on doing one, but limited to Best Original Song nominees in the 1980's. I just read probably the most fun (Ghostbusters, Shakedown)/hilariously awful guilty pleasures (Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now)/glorious (Kiss the Girl) lineup of nominees.

Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now!!! It is not hilariously awful. It is gloriously wonderful in its 80's pop way.

I stand corrected. It was the movie Mannequin that was hilariously awful, but the song was heaven.

Diane Warren-sugar-coated dreamland. But heaven nonetheless.

I totally don't have that song on my playlist for the gym.

I mean...

1934 Academy Awards

Best Picture
The Winner- IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT
THE BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE STREET
CLEOPATRA
FLIRTATION WALK
THE GAY DIVORCEE
HERE COMES THE NAVY
THE HOUSE OF ROTHSCHILD
IMITATION OF LIFE
ONE NIGHT OF LOVE
THE THIN MAN
VIVA VILLA!
THE WHITE PARADE

Twelve nominees, and this is the best they could do? Based on these, you'd be excused for assuming that 1934 was a weak-ass year at the cinema. IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT was the winner, and deserved, I'd say, too. THE THIN MAN is its only real competitor in terms of quality; either film would have been a fine choice.

THE GAY DIVORCEE is the first true Rogers/Astaire picture (they had already done FLYING DOWN TO RIO together, but only in featured roles), and a big smash, but they would improve upon the formula later.

What's missing? THE SCARLET EMPRESS, the movie that sorta ended Josef von Sternberg, is a brilliant exercise in style and a delicious film. But there's nothing surprising about its omission; it was a critical and popular disaster. Howard Hawks' great early screwball, TWENTIETH CENTURY, also went nomination-less. It is a movie that does any number of things right, not the least of which is that it showed that Carole Lombard was a terrific comedienne.


Best Actor
The Winner- Clark Gable, IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT
Frank Morgan, THE AFFAIRS OF CELLINI
William Powell, THE THIN MAN

Gable's legendary performance as, some say, himself, is a landmark of early comedy. But it's hard to see William Powell's great work in THE THIN MAN emerge as a loser.

I love Frank Morgan, but I don't know the first thing about THE AFFAIRS OF CELLINI.

It was a great year for male actors in comedy, and I can't help but lament the omission of John Barrymore's work in TWENTIETH CENTURY. His work is, quite literally, insane, and, as was his custom by 1934, he seems visibly shit-faced throughout. It is one of my favorable performances, a work of madness. He never won an Academy Award, and I wish he'd been recognized.


Best Actress
The Winner- Claudette Colbert, IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT
Norma Shearer, THE BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE STREET
Grace Moore, ONE NIGHT OF LOVE
Bette Davis, OF HUMAN BONDAGE....write-in nomination!

Colbert does some of her sweetest work in IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, so great. Myrna Loy is, unfortunately, missing for THE THIN MAN. She was never Oscar nominated. Go figure.

What's interesting here is Davis. She went un-nominated for her breakthrough work in OF HUMAN BONDAGE, which led to a massive campaign for write-in votes. She still lost, and is not an "official" nominee this year, but Oscar would call her name shortly...


Best Director
The Winner- Frank Capra, IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT
Victor Schertzinger, ONE NIGHT WITH LOVE
W.S. Van Dyke, THE THIN MAN

Frank Capra takes home his first Oscar for directing IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT. W.S. Van Dyke's smart, quick work was always overlooked, but he was at the helm of many of the best entertainments of the 30s. He was a valuable craftsman for MGM.


Best Writing, Original Story
The Winner- Arthur Caesar, MANHATTAN MELODRAMA

A silly yet very enjoyable flick that brought together William Powell and Myrna Loy for the first time (they finished filming this on a Friday; the next Monday, shooting began on THE THIN MAN. Such was life in the studio system). It is also notable for expecting us to believe Mickey Rooney as a young Clark Gable, and for being the movie John Dillinger watched right before the police riddled him with bullets. He was apparently a big fan of Myrna Loy.

As a screenplay winner...no.


Best Writing, Adaptation
The Winner- Robert Riskin, IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT

With this, IHON became the first movie to win the "big five" (picture, actor, actress, director, screenplay), a feat that, as of 2008, has been replicated only twice. THE THIN MAN was also nominated here; it went 0-for-4 at the ceremony.


Other notable winners include:
-CLEOPATRA for Cinematography, and MGM's lush remake of THE MERRY WIDOW for Art Direction. Hard to complain, but the aforementioned THE SCARLET EMPRESS, a protrait of decadence, surely deserved some recognition.
-"The Continental" from THE GAY DIVORCEE took home Best Song.
-Shirley Temple got a special award for, one assumes, being just-so-gosh-darn-cute.


Coming up in 1935! Three Best Actor nominees come from the same movie! Oscar begins giving out "sorry, let us make it up to you" awards (soon a common practice)! And write-in votes go crazy, leading to the only write-in candidate to ever win an Academy Award!

YAY yoshue

More on the Bette Daivs omission:

(Wiki)

It Happened One Night was sweet, but not great. Then again, I haven't seen any other nominees.

So, It Happened One Night got Picture+Director+Actor+Actress+Screenplay?

Has any other film done that?

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Silence of the Lambs are the only other two to do it.

Yeah, yoshue!

Strip off the chipmunk costume and get to it!

are we striving to be the next Argos here?

YOSHUE