Best Films - 1943
by Andre Soares
Set in a 17th-century Danish village, Carl Theodor Dreyer’s masterful Vredens dag / Day of Wrath is a stark, but deeply felt indictment against religious fanaticism and intolerance. Moving performances by ingénue Lisbeth Modin and accused witch Anna Svierkier add a touch of humanity to the horrors shown on screen. It is not a coincidence that Vredens Dag was made in 1943, a time when Denmark was under Nazi occupation. The parallels — and the interconnectedness — between political and religious control are made quite clear in this harrowing masterwork.
FILM
Vredens dag / Day of Wrath
Northern Pursuit
This Land Is Mine
Titanic
DIRECTOR
Carl Dreyer (Vredens dag / Day of Wrath)
Ernst Lubitsch (Heaven Can Wait)
Jean Renoir (This Land Is Mine)
Herbert Selpin & Werner Klingler (Titanic)
Jacques Tourneur (I Walked with a Zombie)
Raoul Walsh (Northern Pursuit)
ACTOR
Joel McCrea (The More the Merrier)
Charles Coburn (The More the Merrier)
Gary Cooper (For Whom the Bell Tolls)
Charles Laughton (This Land Is Mine)
Paul Lukas (Watch on the Rhine)
ACTRESS
Jennifer Jones (The Song of Bernadette)
Jean Arthur (The Lady Takes a Chance)
Ingrid Bergman (For Whom the Bell Tolls)
Greer Garson (Madame Curie)
Kim Hunter (The Seventh Victim)
Lisbeth Modin (Vredens dag / Day of Wrath)
Gene Tierney (Heaven Can Wait)
Teresa Wright (Shadow of a Doubt)
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Helmut Dantine (Northern Pursuit)
Charles Coburn (Heaven Can Wait)
Laird Cregar (Heaven Can Wait)
Rex Ingram (Sahara)
J. Carroll Naish (Sahara)
Dick Rich (The Ox-Bow Incident)
Akim Tamiroff (For Whom the Bell Tolls)
Erich von Stroheim (Five Graves to Cairo)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Anna Svierkier (Vredens dag / Day of Wrath)
Patricia Collinge (Shadow of a Doubt)
Veronica Lake (So Proudly We Hail )
Carmen Miranda (The Gang’s All Here)
Una O’Connor (This Land Is Mine)
Katina Paxinou (For Whom the Bell Tolls)
Dame May Whitty (Lassie Come Home)
SCREENPLAY
Carl Dreyer, Poul Knudsen & Mogens Skot-Hansen (Vredens dag / Day of Wrath)
Dashiell Hammett (Watch on the Rhine)
Dudley Nichols (This Land Is Mine)
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Harry Stradling (The Human Comedy)
Carl Andersson (Vredens dag / Day of Wrath)
Edward Cronjager (Heaven Can Wait)
Roger Hubert (L’Éternel retour / The Eternal Return)
J. Roy Hunt (I Walked with a Zombie)
Arthur C. Miller (The Song of Bernadette)
Joseph Ruttenberg (Madame Curie)
John F. Seitz (Five Graves to Cairo)
Joseph A. Valentine (Shadow of a Doubt)
Charles Van Enger (Sherlock Holmes Faces Death)
ORIGINAL SCORE
Herbert Stothart (Madame Curie)
Max Steiner (Watch on the Rhine)
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