Not Hollywood's Year

Come March, Hollywood will entertain itself at a sumptuous dinner, pass out statuettes and pat itself on the back for ,its achievements during 1946. But last week, the movie capital of the world was licking its wounds.

After glancing over the past year's crop of movies, most film critics had announced their lists of "ten best"--and, in view of its wealth and its energy, Hollywood had made a miserably poor showing.

High on almost everybody's list was one Hollywood film, Goldwyn's The Best Years of Our Lives, and its director, William Wyler. But, as the New York Times's Bosley Crowther put it, Hollywood has apparently run "dry of ideas"; except for The Best Years, "the most distinguished pictures . . . came from abroad." The foreign films most generally admired: Britain's Henry V and Brief Encounter, France's The Welldigger's Daughter, Italy's Open City.

The National Board of Review snubbed Hollywood in picking the best movie (J. Arthur Rank's Henry V* ), the best actor (Laurence Olivier in Henry V), the best actress (Anna Magnani in Open City).

New York City's daily newspaper critics decided that Wyler was the best director and his Best Years the best movie. But they gave first acting honors to Britain's Olivier and Celia Johnson (Brief Encounter). Open City, announced the critics, was the best foreign-language movie. (The New Republic's Manny Farber, admitting no language distinctions, called Open City the best movie--with the best actress, the best director and the best cameraman.)

After their collective rebuke to Hollywood, the Manhattan critics retired to their own offices and administered individual spankings. The Post's Archer Winsten, allowing only three Hollywood films among his "ten best," exhorted U.S. moviemakers to be "half as clever, twice as honest." Meanwhile, they had better ponder "how badly they have failed this year. . . ."

* Cinemagnate Rank's financial success in the U.S. is keeping pace with his kudos. In 1945, his pictures grossed a mere $2.5 million at U.S. box offices, jumped to $5.5 million in 1946, will this year take in an estimated $20 million.

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