by Nathaniel R
While I update some Oscar charts, let's talk 1938. The first decade of Oscar was tumultous with rule changes and size changes in the Best Picture category but it settled at ten pictures in 1936 and stayed there for most of its second decade until five became the norm in 1944 and stayed there for decades and decades. Here's what we got in '38...
BEST PICTURE NOMINEES
The whimsical family comedy You Can't Take It With You (7 nominations and 2 wins including Best Picture), the musical biopic Alexander's Ragtime Band (6 nominations and 1 win), the inspirational priest-saves-delinquents drama Boys Town (5 nominations and 2 wins), Bette Davis's star Southern Belle vehicle Jezebel (5 nominations and 2 wins), and the family of musicians drama Four Daughters (5 nominations) all had plentiful nominations. The swashbuckling classic The Adventures of Robin Hood was the favorite of the tech categories (4 nominations and 3 wins -- losing on its Best Picture bid).
Slightly less embraced but still nominated were the adaptation of Pygmalion (4 nominations and 1 win) starring Leslie Howard, the crusading doctor drama The Citadel (4 nominations. Though it might now be the least famous of these films, it was actually the NBR winner that year for Best Film), and the fast-living romantic drama Test Pilot (3 nominations) with Clark Gable and Myrna Loy. The French classic La Grande Illusion was nominated for Best Picture only.
Got a favorite?
ALSO RANS
Notable films that missed the Best Picture list included the romantic comedy Merrily We Live (which, with five nominations, was the top film outside the top category; Oscar liked comedies a lot in the 1930s but soon got stuffy about them), as well as Algiers and Marie Antoinette (both with 4 nominations. Oscar was less noticeably enthused by enduring favorites like Angels with Dirty Faces, Love Finds Andy Hardy, Holiday, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. They did give the massive hit Snow White a special Oscar but it would take another 53 years for them to actually take an animated feature seriously enough to nominate it in Best Picture.