The first Academy Awards not
only predated their nickname,
the Oscars, but the ceremony
mercifully last 10 minutes.
Then the 250 celebrities,
Hollywood moguls and spouses
tucked into a private
dinner in the ballroom
of the venerable
Roosevelt Hotel on
Hollywood Blvd.
That was 80 years
ago, on May 16, 1929.
The winners were
known for three
months. It was a casual
anti-climax when
William Wellman’s
fighter pilot film, Wings,
copped the first best-
picture prize. It beat
The Racket and 7th Heaven for this
top honour (originally called the
award for Outstanding Picture).
Forgotten is the parallel
“best picture” prize for what
the Academy called the
Unique and Artistic Picture. In
this category, F.W. Murnau’s
stunning masterpiece about love
and betrayal, Sunrise: A Song
of Two Humans, triumphed
over The Crowd and Chang.
The Unique and Artistic
Picture prize was eliminated
when the Academy Awards
took its ceremony public in
1930. That is a shame.
Although many artistic pictures
have won the Oscar
as best picture in the
decades since, many
others have not even
been considered.
Hollywood has always
struggled with art vs.
commerce. A parallel
best artsy picture prize,
whatever they call it,
might have righted
the balance. For films
of 1941, it could have
gone to Citizen Kane,
widely celebrated as
the best American film ever — but
a loser to John Ford’s How Green
Was My Valley as best picture.
You have a unique opportunity
to explore the creative milieu
that led to Sunrise and its small
success in Oscar’s first year. The
box set Murnau, Borzage and
Fox is now available, timely as
the Oscars strut their stuff.
This is a premium 12-disc set
housed in a gorgeous, sturdy box.
The only downer is being forced
to insert the discs in cardboard
slots that cause scratching.
Assuming you can find a
pristine set, this is a great gift to
bestow on a serious collector.
The set includes a clutch of
silents and early sound films
made by two titans of the silent-
to-sound transition era, Murnau
and Frank Borzage. It so happens
that three titles — Sunrise,
7th Heaven and Street Angel
— combined for five Academy
Awards (plus three honourable
mentions) at those first Oscars.
Murnau is represented by two
films: Sunrise (1927) and City Girl
(1930). Another Murnau film,
the lost 4 Devils, is recreated in
print in one of two books in the
box. Murnau, doomed to a tragic
death in a 1931 car accident,
made his mark with the classic
Nosferatu in Germany and
carried his expressionism into
Hollywood under the protection
of William Fox (whose name
remains at 20th Century Fox).
On the Fox lot, a new generation
of American filmmakers, including
John Ford, Raoul Walsh and
Howard Hawks, would stop
production on their own films to
watch Murnau at work. Ironically,
Ford would incorporate Murnau’s
flair so thoroughly that he made
the populist but beautifully crafted
film that toppled Citizen Kane.
Borzage, another Murnau
protege, is also worthy. He is
represented by 10 titles, including
7th Heaven and Street Angel, two of
the films that gave Janet Gaynor the
first Oscar as best actress (for early
Oscars, more than one starring
role was considered). Her third
Oscar-worthy role was in Sunrise.
Like directors, actors are
noteworthy for their body of
work. And that body is given
muscular shape in Murnau,
Borzage and Fox. This is living
history for any Oscar buff.
