The Best Years of Our Lives: 1946 Best Picture

“The Best Years of Our Lives” was RKO’s look at three Americans readjusting to civilian life after serving in World War II. This offering was twice as popular at the box office as “The Lost Weekend”, the previous year’s Oscar winner. It was nominated for 8 Oscars and won 7 at the 19th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (William Wyler), Best Actor (Fredric March) and Best Supporting Actor (Harold Russell).

Here are the other films nominated for Best Picture in 1946:
“Henry V” starring Laurence Olivier. This film was meant to boost British morale during WWII and Olivier was paid big bucks not to appear in another film for 18 months in order to assure the largest audience possible for this one.
“It’s a Wonderful Life”, starring James Stewart and, in her first starring role, Donna Reed. Now considered a Christmas “must,” at the time, it didn’t perform as well as was hoped. Still, it garnered 5 nominations but won none. A sequel is coming out in 2015.
“The Razor’s Edge” was another film about a man returning from war, only this one was World War I. It was based upon W. Somerset Maugham’s 1944 novel and he appeared in the film himself in a minor role. Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney were the stars, but it was Anne Baxter who picked up the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, the only award it won out of 4 nominations.
“The Yearling”, starring Gregory Peck and Jane Wyman, tells the heart-wrenching tale of a boy who adopts a fawn after he and his father kill its mother and what happens when the fawn starts eating their crops. It received 7 nominations and won these two: Best Cinematography, Color and Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color.

We only found two Jeopardy! clues on “The Best Years of Our Lives”:
THE “BEST” OF EVERYTHING $1000: 3 returning veterans from World War II readjust to civilian life in this Oscar-winning 1946 film
ACTORS’ REAL NAMES $500: Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel spent “The Best Years of Our Lives” with this name

More 1946 film clues:
SURREALISM $1200: This French surrealist made the 1946 film Beauty and the Beast
UNREAL ESTATE $200: Bedford Falls is the setting of this classic 1946 Christmas film
“P”EOPLE $400: The 1946 film “Night and Day” was about this composer who wrote “Begin the Beguine” & “It’s De-Lovely”
LEONARD MALTIN’S FAVORITE FILMS $800: (Leonard Maltin reads the clue.) David Lean’s 1946 British film of this Dickens tale is a real “Pip”, & the opening graveyard sequence is a gem
ROLE $600: In the 1946 film “The Green Years”, she played the daughter of her real-life husband Hume Cronyn
THREE ON A MATCH $200: Names of the Three Stooges at the time of the 1946 film “Beer Barrel Polecats”
FILMS OF THE ’40s $2000: Although this singer wanted to portray himself in a 1946 film biography, he was too old & Larry Parks was cast
“B” MOVIES $400: Bogie stars as Phillip Marlowe in this 1946 film noir classic based on Raymond Chandler’s first novel
MOVE “IT”! $800: This 1946 film was based in part on the story “The Greatest Gift”
ANGELS $400: After 200 years Clarence Oddbody finally gets his wings in this 1946 movie
WILLIAM FAULKNER $800: Faulkner worked uncredited on many movies but did get his name on this 1946 adaptation of a Chandler novel
COMIC GENIUSES $300: Legend of early TV seen here in his 1946 feature film debut: (Imogene Coca was later his comic foil)
RING A BELL? $200: “Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings” is a line from this 1946 classic film
THE “BIG” SCREEN $600: Humphrey Bogart played Philip Marlowe in this 1946 film
MOVIE CO-STARS $200: His wife Lauren Bacall was his leading lady in the 1946 film noir “The Big Sleep”
MOVIES BY THE NUMBERS $800: Alan Ladd got shanghaied in this 1946 film based on Richard Henry Dana’s seafaring saga
BOGART FILMS $400: William Faulkner was one of the writers of this 1946 film based on a Raymond Chandler novel
HISTORICAL FILMS $500: A 1946 Rosalind Russell film dramatized the life of this nurse famed for her work with polio patients
MOVIE TWINS $2000: An Oscar nominee 10 times, she played twin sisters in 1946’s “A Stolen Life” & 1964’s “Dead Ringer”
SHAKESPEARE’S FILMS $400: 1945’s patriotic version of “Henry V” was directed by this actor