European film-making, which had been suppressed during World War II, re-emerged in earnest after the war. Beginning in 1946, films made at the end of the war, and some that had managed to get made during the war, found their way to the States and Oscar took notice.
From the United Kingdom came such films as Henry V (four nominations including Best Picture), Brief Encounter (3 nominations including Best Director), The Seventh Seal (winner, Best Screenplay) and Blithe Spirit (winner, Best Special Effects). From Italy came Open City and from France, Children of Paradise, both nominated for Best Screenplay.
Oscar’s Best Picture slate, aside from Henry V, was strictly Hollywood driven with the inclusion of The Best Years of Our Lives, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Yearling and The Razor’s Edge.
For the third straight year, the Best Picture/Director lineup was three for five with William Wyler (The Best Years of Our Lives), Frank Capra (It’s a Wonderful Life) and Clarence Brown (The Yearling) making the cut. Henry V’s Laurence Olivier and The Razor’s Edge’s Edmund Goulding made way for Brief Encounter’s David Lean and The Killers’ Robert Siodmak.
An expansion to ten Best Picture nominees would surely have to include the hugely popular Brief Encounter, which was also a nominee for Best Actress (Celia Johnson) and Best Screenplay.
It might be easy to dismiss Siodmak’s nomination as recognition for the three hit films he directed that year including The Dark Mirror (nominated for Best Original Story) and The Spiral Staircase (nominated for Best Supporting Actress, Ethel Barrymore) except for the fact that The Killers managed to grab three nominations in addition to the one for Best Director. Given its overall popularity I’d say The Killers would likely have taken one of the remaining slots.
What then, would the other three be? Certainly Notorious would have to be there. Although it was only nominated for two Oscars, Hitchcock’s film was arguably his best of the 1940s, certainly better than Suspicion and Spellbound, both of which made the nominations lists of their respective years.
Would they fill the last two slots with more of the foreign imports? Probably not, one usurping their territory was enough to give the studio moguls a case of heartburn, two would have given them mild heart attacks. Any more would have killed a few of them.
It’s a good bet that The Jolson Story (six nominations, two wins) and Anna and the King of Siam (five nominations, two wins) would have been the others in the mix.
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