This selection of movies that won no Hollywood awards includes some that are famous like Garbo’s “Queen Christina” and “A Woman of Affairs”, William Wyler’s “Carrie” and “Detective Story”, Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis”, John Farrow’s “California”, Hitchcock’s “Young and Innocent”, John Ford’s “Wee Willie Winkie”, Albert Lewin’s “Pandora and the Flying Dutchman”, Mae West’s “She Done Him Wrong”, and DeMille’s original version of “The Ten Commandments”; some that deserve to be famous like “Tonight and Every Night”, “Sunnyside Up”, “Ambassador Bill”, “Diplomaniacs”, “The Nitwits”, “Fallen Angel” and “Rhythm on the Range”; and some that had no chance at all like “The Noose Hangs High”, “Words and Music”,... More > “The Bohemian Girl”, and ‘Wagon Wheels Westward”. Special added feature: a monograph on one of Hollywood’s greatest directors, Henry Hathaway.< Less
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By John Reid
Oct 15, 2009
"Why No Awards?" Here are movies that from today's perspective should have won a large swag of contemporary awards. It's hard to imagine that director William Wyler’s acclaimed "Detective Story" (it figured on the Ten Best lists of every critic in the country) won no Hollywood awards at all. Nor did "Footlight Parade", although James Cagney's bravura performance was one of the factors that made it even more popular when first released (number 8 at U.S. ticket windows) than it is today. Critical acclaim and contemporary popularity also failed to help Fritz Lang's "Metropolis". Or "On Moonlight Bay" (such a huge success for Doris Day, it inspired a sequel), "Poor Little Rich Girl" (boxoffice giant Shirley Temple joined by Alice Faye and Jack Haley), "Queen Christina" (Garbo, directed by Rouben Mamoulian), "Rhythm on the Range" (only western outing for Bing Crosby in his salad days. In fact, his only other... More > western was the 1964 "Stagecoach"), "Rhythm on the River" (Crosby at his boxoffice zenith again, this time joined by Mary Martin, Basil Rathbone and Oscar Levant), "She Done Him Wrong" (Mae West’s smash hit with both hat-tossing critics and adoring public), "Storm Warning" (Doris Day in her first dramatic role), "Sunnyside Up" (rave reviews and a boxoffice stampede for talkie debuts of Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, with some of DeSylva, Brown and Henderson’s most memorable melodies including "I’m a Dreamer, Aren't We All"), "Wee Willie Winkie" (Shirley Temple directed by John Ford, another sensational boxoffice bonanza), "Words and Music" (the critics praised it, moviegoers loved it—number 9 at USA ticket windows); "Carrie" (although censored in the USA to remove its most horrific scene, William Wyler's no-holds-barred picturization of the Dreiser novel, held both critics and public spellbound). That's just a brief runthrough of some of the movies that captured the praises of both professional reviewers and general moviegoers, but won no awards from Hollywood. Then there are the movies that captured awards everywhere else but Hollywood, and the films the critics hated but compelled intending audiences to queue up for miles. Finally, quite a few surprises like Albert Lewin's "Pandora and the Flying Dutchman", Otto Preminger's "Fallen Angel" and Alfred Hitchcock's "Young and Innocent" that captured little attention when first released but have since amassed a considerable cult following.< Less
