The awards for the 1937 film year has some firsts and lasts. This is the final year the Best Dance Direction and Best Assistant Director Oscars were awarded. I say good riddance to the Best Assistant Director category! There were many firsts - this is the first year in which a film received ten nominations (Best Picture The Life of Emile Zola (1936)), the first year a color picture was included as a Best Picture nominee (A Star Is Born (1937), the first time we see an actor with a second Oscar (Luise Rainer), and the first time the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award was presented for honoring creative producers (Darryl F. Zanuck was its initial recipient). The voting process underwent a change as well, with every Academy member and all industry-related unions, including the Screen Extras Guild, voting for nominees and winners in all categories. Its interesting to see how the voting rules have changed over time and this seems to be the time period in which the Academy Awards had the most people contributing in the voting process. And the results are:
Best Picture nominees:
The Awful Truth
Captains Courageous
Dead End
The Good Earth
In Old Chicago
The Life of Emile Zola
Lost Horizon
100 Men and a Girl
Stage Door
A Star Is Born
What won: The Life of Emile Zola
This is the second biopic Best Picture winner in a row but as far as biopics go, this doesn't commit too many sins of that genre. The passage of time is creative as we see Emile Zola, portrayed by the illustrious Paul Muni, age throughout the first third of the film. The focal point of the narrative evolves into the Dreyfus Affair, a miscarriage of justice and antisemitism that allows Muni to showcase is acting skills in the courtroom. Speaking of Muni, I think he should have won the Best Actor Award that night, even though he just won the prior year in another biopic. The film has come under scrutiny in the past decade or so. In the years leading up to America's involvement in World War II, Hollywood handled antisemitism in odd ways. Apparently, the producers didn't even want the word "Jew" uttered in the film. With Dreyfus' heritage being the key element in his case, it makes for somewhat shaky proceedings in the courtroom. With that being said, Muni's performance and the fact that this is the first film to receive ten nominations make this a noteworthy addition to the Best Picture catalogue.
What should have won: Stage Door
This took a lot of internal deliberation. I wasn't too impressed by the 10th batch of nominees. Not one film is head and shoulders above Zola but I have three reasons to knock the actual winner off its throne. One, I want to break the biopic pattern. Sure, I also de-selected the 9th Best Picture (The Great Ziegfeld), but the less biopics winning Best Pictures, the better. Like I stated previously, Zola doesn't trip over itself like most biopics, but the rags to riches storyline has been done over and over. Secondly, the mishandling of the role of antisemitism is enough for me to look back and give the award to another film. Finally, as you will see in my ratings below, I scored two films with higher star ratings than the Best Picture winner. If Zola had the same rating as these highest films, I would have kept the status quo, but let's let a really fun picture shine. Stage Door is an ensemble movie that stars Oscar-darling Katharine Hepburn, the vivacious and sarcastic Ginger Rogers, and a sullen first-time Oscar nominee Andrea Leeds. The film is witty with its rush of dialogue and the narrative is rich enough to keep you engaged until the time the various plot points intersect. The bummer about the film as a whole is that the concept of the casting couch couldn't be fully explored in 1937. Between the antisemitism in Zola and the methods that women might have had to endure within the industry as hinted at in Stage Door, the 1930s were an inhibiting time in our film culture. Other movies I considered were A Star Is Born, the first film in full color to be nominated for Best Picture, and The Awful Truth, a pleasant but not-too-ambitious screwball comedy.
My Best Picture nominee ranking:
1. Stage Door (8/10)
2. A Star Is Born (8/10)
3. The Awful Truth (7/10)
4. The Life of Emile Zola (7/10)
5. Dead End (7/10)
6. Captains Courageous (7/10)
7. Lost Horizon (7/10)
8. The Good Earth (7/10)
9. One Hundred Men and a Girl (7/10)
10. In Old Chicago (6/10)