Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

Can't fault any of the nominees in both categories.

Ernest Haller's cinematography for Mildred Pierce should have won the Oscar.

Black-and-White

Among the missing in this most bountiful year were And Then There None, The Body Snatcher, The Clock, The Corn Is Green, The House on 92nd Street, Scarlet Street, The Southerner, They Were Expendable, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Valley of Decision and The Woman in the Window.

Although I can't fault any of the nominees, I think that any of these eleven would have been just as worthy as either The Lost Weekend or Mildred Pierce both of which excelled more in other categories.

For me, it's a three-way race between The Picture of Dorian Gray, Spellbound and The Keys of the Kingdom, but with the first two I think they were honoring the artwork and camera tricks as much as the overall cinematography whereas Keys covered its many years and locations with craft and skill alone. Artur C. Miller gets my vote over Harry Stradling and George Barnes this time.

Color

Three glaring omissions here: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, the 1943 British classic being released in the U.S. this year; Rodgers & Hammerstein's glorious State Fair, and the original version of Mrs. Henderson Presents made in Hollywood as Tonight and Every Night with Rita Hayworth and featuring Florence Bates in what would become Judi Dench's role. All three of these were certainly more memorable than A Song to Remember and The Spanish Main remembered mainly for Maureen O'Hara's flaming red hair.

Here I think the Academy made the right choice in awarding the Oscar to Leon Shamroy for his gorgeous color cinematography in Leve Her to Heaven although I think it would have been more of a contest had Colonel Blimp and State Fair been nominated.