Writer: Robert Riskin (from the story “Night Bus” by Samuel Hopkins Adams).The only big 5 winner until 1975, the only sweep until 1958 – It Happened One Night (1934) To have four films that can’t even reach *** is just ridiculous. Only three of them were really worthy of the nominations and most of them ranged from mediocre to just plain terrible. It Happened One Night easily won, sweeping all five of its nominations, the first film to win the big 5 and the only film until 1958 to sweep.īut the group of 12 were terrible overall. While the National Board of Review named a Top 10, only three of the films, It Happened One Night, The Thin Man and Viva Villa, ended up with Best Picture nominations (only two of the other seven received any nominations – The Lost Patrol and Eskimo). On the other hand, three of the nominated films, Here Comes the Navy, The House of Rothschild and The White Parade all failed to get any other nominations (and all are very difficult to find these days). Of Human Bondage not only failed to earn Bette Davis a nomination, but didn’t receive any nominations.
Affairs of Cellini earned 4 Oscar nominations, but Best Picture wasn’t among them (it was the only film to receive multiple nominations to not get a BP nom).
The Results: The Academy expanded to 12 Best Picture nominees but without much sense as to how they were chosen. It Happened One Night was the Best Picture winner, immediately moving Capra to the frontrunner position. With the Academy calendar finally matched up the calendar year, it meant that the Oscars were lining up with the National Board of Review. Other big successes of the year included The Thin Man, which instantly made a star of Myrna Loy and One Night of Love, which prompted a move to start signing opera stars to film contracts. It was one of the most talked about films of the year, along with Of Human Bondage, for which Bette Davis had to beg Jack Warner to allow her to go make at RKO. It didn’t start out doing well, but word of mouth eventually got around.
When he thought he had won for Lady for a Day only to find out it was Frank Lloyd, he pushed himself even harder and come through with It Happened One Night. The Race: As Frank Capra would later write about in his autobiography and is chronicled on pages 24 to 27 of Oscar Dearest, Capra was desperate to win the Oscar and had been for several years. Rank (out of 82) Among Best Picture Years: #79 Most Surprising Omission: Affairs of Celliniīest Eligible Film Not Nominated: Death Takes a Holiday Gable and Colbert: both won Oscars for It Happened One Night (1934)