Best Films of 1941: Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane among the most respected and most influential movies ever made
John Ford’s How Green Was My Valley was the Best Picture Academy Award of 1941. Yet what is generally regarded as the greatest film released that year – in the view of some, that and any other year – is Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, a fictionalized retelling of the life of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst.
Welles himself plays the titular Charles Foster Kane; Dorothy Comingore was cast as his untalented opera-singing companion (based on talented Hollywood actress Marion Davies, and possibly – pure speculation here – with elements from the life of untalented minor 1920s film actress/aspiring opera singer Hope Hampton, whose husband was politically influential movie magnate Jules Brulatour).
Best Film
Cheers for Miss Bishop – Dir.: Tay Garnett; Scr.: Sheridan Gibney & Adelaide Heilbron
Citizen Kane – Dir.: Orson Welles; Scr.: Herman J. Mankiewicz & Orson Welles
The Devil and Miss Jones – Dir.: Sam Wood; Scr.: Norman Krasna
Dumbo – Dir.: Ben Sharpsteen; Scr.: Joe Grant, Dick Huemer & others
The Great Lie. d: Edmund Goulding; Scr.: Lenore J. Coffee
Here Comes Mr. Jordan – Dir.: Alexander Hall; Scr.: Seton I. Miller & Sidney Buchman
The Lady Eve – dir. & Scr.: Preston Sturges
The Little Foxes – Dir.: William Wyler; Scr.: Lillian Hellman
Manpower – Dir.: Raoul Walsh; Scr.: Richard Macauley & Jerry Wald
Meet John Doe – Dir.: Frank Capra; Scr.: Robert Riskin
The Sea Wolf – Dir.: Michael Curtiz; Scr.: Robert Rossen
Teresa Venerdi – Dir.: Vittorio De Sica; Scr.: Vittorio De Sica, Gherardo Gherardi, Margherita Maglione & Franco Riganti
The Well-Digger’s Daughter / La Fille du puisatier – dir. & Scr.: Marcel Pagnol
Best Actress
Jean Arthur – The Devil and Miss Jones
Mary Astor – The Great Lie
Joan Crawford & Greer Garson – When Ladies Meet
Bette Davis – The Little Foxes
Greta Garbo – Two-Faced Woman
Hedy Lamarr – Come Live with Me
Vivien Leigh – That Hamilton Woman
Martha Scott – Cheers for Miss Bishop
Barbara Stanwyck – The Lady Eve & Meet John Doe
Best Actor
Charles Coburn – The Devil and Miss Jones
Gary Cooper – Ball of Fire
Gary Cooper – Meet John Doe
Gary Cooper – Sergeant York
Thomas Mitchell – Flight from Destiny
Robert Montgomery – Here Comes Mr. Jordan
Raimu – The Well-Digger’s Daughter
Edward G. Robinson – Manpower
Edward G. Robinson – The Sea Wolf
Orson Welles – Citizen Kane
Best Supporting Actress
Mary Astor – The Maltese Falcon
Constance Bennett – Two-Faced Woman
Spring Byington – The Devil and Miss Jones
Patricia Collinge – The Little Foxes
Rita Hayworth – Blood and Sand
Marie Lohr – Major Barbara
Anna Magnani – Teresa Venerdi
Simone Simon – All That Money Can Buy
Teresa Wright – The Little Foxes
Best Supporting Actor
Eric Blore – The Lady Eve
Charles Dingle – Herbert Marshal & Carl Benton Reid, The Little Foxes
Sydney Greenstreet & Peter Lorre – The Maltese Falcon
Walter Huston – All That Money Can Buy / The Devil and Daniel Webster
Robert Morley – Major Barbara
Claude Rains – Here Comes Mr. Jordan
Best Cinematography
Blood and Sand – Ernest Palmer & Ray Rennahan
The Bride Came C.O.D. – Ernest Haller
Citizen Kane – Gregg Toland
The Great Lie – Tony Gaudio
How Green Was My Valley – Arthur C. Miller
The Little Foxes – Gregg Toland
The Sea Wolf – Sol Polito
The Wolf Man – Joseph A. Valentine
A Woman’s Face – Robert Planck
Ziegfeld Girl – Ray June
Best Original Score
Cheers for Miss Bishop – Edward Ward
Citizen Kane – Bernard Herrmann
The Sea Wolf – Erich Wolfgang Korngold