The Best of 1948

After spending much of the year complaining about what was wrong with the movies, the critics paused long enough last week to pick the ten best of 1948. By week's end, four notable lists' had appeared. Only two films landed on all four lists: Sir Laurence Olivier's monumental Hamlet and Warner's melodrama, Johnny Belinda. 20th Century-Fox's shocker about insanity, The Snake Pit, placed on three lists (its late release missed the deadline for the fourth).

Three other pictures won places on three lists: John Huston's Treasure of Sierra Madre, MGM's The Search and J. Arthur Rank's The Red Shoes. Two lists included Walter Wanger's Joan oj Arc, Robert Flaherty's documentary Louisiana Story, 20th Century-Fox's little comedy, Sitting Pretty, RKO's I Remember Mama and Samuel Goldwyn's The Bishop's Wife. Films that placed on one list: Call Northside 777, Apartment for Peggy, The Naked City, State of the Union, A Foreign Affair, The Pearl, Italy's Paisan and Denmark's Day of Wrath.

For individual kudos, few critics could ignore Olivier for his direction, production and acting of Hamlet. The year's outstanding performances by actresses were notable for a lack of glamor: Olivia de Havilland as a wild-eyed schizophrenic in The Snake Pit, Jane Wyman as a drab, deaf-mute slavey in Johnny Belinda, Barbara Stanwyck as a bedridden neurotic in Sorry, Wrong Number.

The National Board of Review bowed respectfully to Actress de Havilland, to Director Roberto Rossellini for his Paisan (which it called the best film, artistically, of the year), to Actor Walter Huston for his fine performance in Treasure of Sierra Madre, and to his son, Director John Huston, for writing the screen play of the same film.

No one was surprised to find a totally different verdict from the box office. According to Motion Picture Herald, none of 1948's top-grossing films appeared on the "best" lists. Ignoring the critics, as usual, most moviegoers flocked to see The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer, Cass Timberlane, Green Dolphin Street, Life with Father, Mother Wore Tights, Road to Rio and Unconquered.

* Two lists were put out by the National Board of Review, one on the basis of "entertainment," the other based on "artistic merit and importance"; one was prepared from The Film Daily's annual poll of some 500 U.S. movie critics and commentators; another was published by the New York Times.

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