Sam Wood Articles

James Stewart remains one of the most beloved film actors in Hollywood history. Well, at least in the United States, where Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington are considered the apex of studio-era filmmaking. Stewart's shy, naive, wholesome, aw-shucksy boy-next-door (later man-next-door) manner continues to endear him to millions whose idea of shyness, naiveté, wholesomeness, and boy-next-doorishness has nothing [...]

Vivien Leigh, Hattie McDaniel, Gone with the Wind (top); Greer Garson, Robert Donat, Goodbye Mr. Chips (middle); Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer, Love Affair (bottom) Turner Classic Movies' homage to the Best Picture Oscar nominees of 1939 continues this evening with three more entries: Victor Fleming's Gone with the Wind, Sam Wood's Goodbye, Mr. Chips, and Leo McCarey's Love Affair. If you haven't watched all three [...]

Biggest Oscar Snubs #9a: List of Non-Nominated Directors – From William A. Wellman to Joe Wright The directors listed in the previous post — and I could add several other names to the roster — are those whose films received multiple Oscar nods, including Best Picture, but they (the directors themselves) failed to be shortlisted. [Note: Steven Spielberg for The Color Purple and Christopher Nolan [...]

Ingrid Bergman, Gary Cooper in Sam Wood's For Whom the Bell Tolls (top); "The Last Supper" scene in Luis Buñuel's Viridiana (middle); Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider in Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris (bottom) The ludicrous censors at the Motion Picture Association of America and their precursors at the Production Code Office have always had counterparts in other countries. Whether for political, religious, social, economic, [...]