THE MONTIES: 1940 - HIS GIRL FRIDAY nearly sweeps the Monties....

Time to kick off a new decade with another presentation of The Monties, my own version of the Academy Awards. Let's get right to it, shall we.

BEST FILM:

So we just won some Monties? Fancy that...

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
KITTY FOYLE
WATERLOO BRIDGE
THE PHILADELPHIA STORY
REBECCA
HIS GIRL FRIDAY (WINNER)
THE GRAPES OF WRATH
THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT
MY FAVORITE WIFE

My favorite film of all time, His Girl Friday, is the easy choice for me as Best Film of 1940. A perfect screwball comedy that has the fastest speaking dialogue ever. Check out the other films I nominated this year as two more Cary Grant films made the list with The Philadelphia Story and My Favorite Wife.


BEST DIRECTOR:

JOHN FORD - THE GRAPES OF WRATH
HOWARD HAWKS - HIS GIRL FRIDAY (WINNER)
ALFRED HITCHCOCK - REBECCA
GEORGE CUKOR - THE PHILADELPHIA STORY
ROBERT Z. LEONARD - PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

The second Montie goes to Hawks for his smooth direction of His Girl Friday. Hawks was a master of several different genres and he showed he could switch gears from comedy to drama to western with the greatest of ease.


BEST ACTOR:

LAURENCE OLIVER - REBECCA
CARY GRANT - HIS GIRL FRIDAY (WINNER)
HENRY FONDA - THE GRAPES OF WRATH
JAMES STEWART - THE PHILADELPHIA STORY
ROBERT TAYLOR - WATERLOO BRIDGE


Mr. Grant picks up his second Montie for his wonderful turn as the scheming and manipulative newspaper editor Walter Burns in His Girl Friday. This is one of my favorite performances by Cary as he is just phenomenal. Sorry Jimmy.


BEST ACTRESS:

VIVIEN LEIGH - WATERLOO BRIDGE
JOAN FONTAINE - REBECCA
ROSALIND RUSSELL - HIS GIRL FRIDAY (WINNER)
GINGER ROGERS - KITTY FOYLE
KATHERINE HEPBURN - THE PHILADELPHIA STORY


Rosalind Russell easily matched Cary tit for tat in His Girl Friday with her amazing performance as ace reporter Hildy Johnson. But this race was really close as I thought Leigh was outstanding with her follow-up to Gone with The Wind in Waterloo Bridge and a really good turn by Joan Fontaine in Rebecca. Sorry girls, but Roz gets this Montie. Her second consecutive I might add. Go Roz!


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

GEORGE SANDERS - REBECCA (WINNER)
WALTER BRENNAN - THE WESTERNER
DENNIS MORGAN - KITTY FOYLE
HUMPHREY BOGART - THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT
BASIL RATHBONE - THE MARK OF ZORRO

The sly and urbane George Sanders was very good in the film Rebecca. A foreshadowing of his other great future performance in All About Eve. Maybe he will pick up his second Montie for that performance as well. We shall see.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

JUDITH ANDERSON - REBECCA (WINNER)
JANE DARWELL - THE GRAPES OF WRATH
RUTH HUSSEY - THE PHILADEPHIA STORY
ANN SHERIDAN - THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT
GAIL PATRICK - MY FAVORITE WIFE

While Jane Darwell gave a powerful performance in The Grapes of Wrath, I went with Judith Anderson's truly wicked performance as the sinister Mrs. Danvers. Everytime I see this film, she just creeps me out.

So for the fifth year in a row, a comedy takes home the top prize as His Girl Friday just rolls over the competition and goes home with 4 Monties total. Rebecca grabs the other two awards in the supporting categories.

Up next: 1941...