ACADEMY AWARDS 1944

1944
* Going My Way. Best actor, Bing Crosby; Barry Fitzgerald wins for supporting role. Best supporting actor was Leo McCarey. The song for the win is “Swinging on a Star,” It took some doing to persuade the staunchly Catholic Bing Crosby to play a happy-go-lucky priest in Going My Way; luckily he acquiesced, winning an Academy Award in the process. Crosby is cast as Father Chuck O'Malley, newly arrived at rundown, heavily in debt St. Dominic's Church.

Double Indemnity Billy Wilder and Barbara Stanwyck, nominated. When Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), a smooth-talking insurance salesman, and Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) meet to renew her husband’s automobile policy, sparks immediately fly. The adulterous couple cooks up a scheme to murder Mr. Dietrichson for his life insurance money in this 1944 .

Gaslight, Ingrid Bergman, best actress, Charles Boyer nominated as was Angela Lansbury. The film opens just after world-famous opera singer Alice Alquist has been murdered The perpetrator bolted, without the jewels he sought, after being interrupted by Paula (Bergman), Alice's niece, who was raised by her aunt following her mother's death.
Paula is sent to Italy so that she can train to be an opera star, with the same teacher who once trained Alice. She studies with him for years, all the while trying to forget that terrible night at Number 9 on Thornton Square in London.

Paula meets Gregory Anton (Boyer) and soon falls in love with him. She eventually ends her long tutelage to marry him. He persuades her they should live in the long-vacant London townhouse her aunt bequeathed her and, to help calm her anxieties, suggests they store all of Alice's furnishings away in the attic. Before they do, Paula discovers a letter addressed to her aunt by a man named Sergius Bauer, dated only two days before the murder, tucked away in a music book. Gregory's reaction is swift and violent, but he quickly composes himself, explaining his outburst as one of frustration at the bad memories his bride is experiencing. A fine mystery thriller.

Since you Went Away, Monty Woolley, Jennifer Jones, Claudette Colbert nominated. The film tells the story of how a woman copes at home while her husband has gone off to fight in the war.

Wilson Movie about President Woodrow Wilson

None but the Lonely Heart, Best supporting role by Ethel Barrymore, Also stars Cary Grant. A sickly English woman runs a store by herself, while her irresponsible son travels aimlessly, refusing to contact her. When told that his mother has cancer, the young man comes home, reforms himself, and helps his mom run the shop. Soon however, each becomes involved in illegal activities.


Mr. Skeffington, Bette Davis, nominated. Davis is cast as vain, flighty society woman Fanny Trellis. Informed by Jewish-American financier Job Skeffington play by Claude Rains that her brother Trippy has stolen money to pay his gambling debts, Fanny marries Job, securing his promise that he won't prosecute her thieving sibling. Angered by Fanny's agreeing to this loveless union, Trippy runs off to join the army, and is killed during World War I. Fanny holds Skeffington responsible for her brother's death, and demands a divorce with a generous cash settlement. Despite Job's oft-repeated belief that "a woman is only beautiful when she is loved," Fanny uses her coquettish beauty to flit indiscriminately from man to man. While on a sailing trip with her latest beau, Fanny comes down with diphtheria. The disease destroys her facial beauty, and before long the shallow Fanny is left completely alone.


Mrs. Parkington, Agnes Moorhead, nominated
Tells the story of a woman's life, told in flashbacks from hotel maid to society matron. Also stars Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon.

There were 368 movies made in 1944. Thrillers, mysteries, westerns, adventures, comedy, and military. People like the three Stooges, Andy Hardy, Charlie Chan, Zorro, Tarzan, and Laurel and Hardy never made it to the top, however, worth mentioning because they were the Saturday afternoon flicks at the local theater.

My person favorite, and one I try to watch yearly, is Meet Me in St. Louis starring Judy Garland. There are three movies, including, You've Got Mail and Meet Me in St. Louis that are both based on the comedy, Little Shop Around the Corner starring James Stewart. Do we call this a remake x 2?

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