Cinema: The Winners

For 23 years, Hollywood’s annual Oscars have seldom surprised industry “insiders.” But last week’s Academy Awards were neither cut nor dried. Oscars went to two actors who had scoffed at Oscars. The academy (1,742 members of the movie industry) acclaimed:

¶ Best Actress Vivien Leigh, for her playing of a faded nymphomaniac in Warner’s A Streetcar Named Desire.

¶ Best Actor Humphrey Bogart (who once snarled that Oscars are “hot air”), for his portrayal of a gin-soaked riverboat skipper in The African Queen (Horizon; United Artists).

¶ Special Award Winner Gene Kelly (who last November complained that academy “snobbism” would bar a musical from the laurels), for his acting-dancing “contribution” to the Technicolor musical, An American in Paris (M-G-M).

If Kelly needed further soothing, his musical got eight other top awards, for best picture, best story and screenplay, best musical score (in a musical), best sets, best (color) art direction, best (color) costume design, best color photography. Its Producer Arthur Freed won the prized Thalberg Award for merit.

Among the other Oscar winners:

¶ Best supporting actress and actor: Kim Hunter and Karl Maiden for their roles in A Streetcar Named Desire.

¶ Best direction: George Stevens, for A Place in the Sun (Paramount).

¶ Best foreign-language film: Japan’s Rashomon (Daiei; RKO’ Radio).

¶ Best cartoon: Fred Quimby’s Two Mousketeers (M-G-M).

¶ Best documentary feature: Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon-Tiki (RKO Radio).