Lifeboat with John Hodiak and Tallulah Bankhead.
Best Films of 1944: Alfred Hitchcock thriller Lifeboat and star Tallulah Bankhead among the year’s finest
The New York Film Critics Circle’s Best Actress of 1944, stage and film veteran Tallulah Bankhead failed to receive a matching Academy Award nomination for her sensational star turn – stylishly adrift in a fur coat – in Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller Lifeboat.
In fact, none of the movie’s generally capable cast members – among them John Hodiak and master scene-stealer Walter Slezak – were shortlisted for that year’s Oscars.
Best Film
The Children Are Watching Us / I Bambini ci guardano – Dir.: Vittorio De Sica; Scr.: Cesare Zavattini, Vittorio De Sica, Cesare Giulio Viola, Adolfo Franci, Margherita Maglione & Gherardo Gherardi
Crime by Night – Dir.: William Clemens; Scr.: Joel Malone & Richard Weil
Dragon Seed – Dir.: Harold S. Bucquet & Jack Conway; Scr.: Jane Murfin, Marguerite Roberts
Home in Indiana – Dir.: Henry Hathaway; Scr.: Winston Miller
Jane Eyre – Dir.: Robert Stevenson; Scr.: John Houseman, Aldous Huxley & Robert Stevenson
Laura – Dir.: Otto Preminger; Scr.: Jay Dratter, Samuel Hoffenstein & Betty Reinhardt
Lifeboat – Dir.: Alfred Hitchcock; Scr.: Jo Swerling
María Candelaria – Dir.: Emilio Fernández; Scr.: Emilio Fernández & Mauricio Magdaleno
Meet Me in St. Louis – Dir.: Vincente Minnelli; Scr.: Irving Brecher & Fred F. Finklehoffe
Mr. Skeffington – Dir.: Vincent Sherman; Scr.: Julius J. Epstein & Philip G. Epstein
Phantom Lady – Dir.: Robert Siodmak; Scr.: Bernard C. Schoenfeld
The Suspect – Dir.: Robert Siodmak; Scr.: Arthur T. Horman & Bertram Millhauser
This Happy Breed – Dir.: David Lean; Scr.: Anthony Havelock-Allan, David Lean & Ronald Neame
The Uninvited – Dir.: Lewis Allen; Scr.: Dodie Smith
Best Actress
Tallulah Bankhead – Lifeboat
Claudette Colbert – Since You Went Away
Jeanne Crain – Home in Indiana
Bette Davis – Mr. Skeffington
Joan Fontaine – Jane Eyre
Judy Garland – Meet Me in St. Louis
Katharine Hepburn – Dragon Seed
Celia Johnson – This Happy Breed
Best Actor
Jerome Cowan – Crime by Night
Laird Cregar – The Lodger
Barry Fitzgerald – Going My Way
Edward G. Robinson – Double Indemnity
Edward G. Robinson – The Woman in the Window
Best Supporting Actress
Jean Adair – Arsenic and Old Lace
Faye Emerson – Crime by Night
Barbara Everest – Gaslight
Josephine Hull – Arsenic and Old Lace
Rosalind Ivan – The Suspect
Angela Lansbury – Gaslight
Priscilla Lane – Arsenic and Old Lace
Alison Leggart – This Happy Breed
Marjorie Main – Meet Me in St. Louis
Carmen Miranda – Something for the Boys
Claire Trevor – Murder My Sweet
Dame May Whitty – Gaslight
Best Supporting Actor
John Alexander – Arsenic and Old Lace
Leon Ames – Meet Me in St. Louis
Pedro Armendáriz – María Candelaria
Henry Daniell – The Suspect
Miguel Inclán – María Candelaria
Peter Lorre – Arsenic and Old Lace
Raymond Massey – Arsenic and Old Lace
Claude Rains – Mr. Skeffington
Walter Slezak – Lifeboat
Leonard Strong – The Keys of the Kingdom
Best Cinematography
Jane Eyre – George Barnes
Laura – Joseph LaShelle
The Lodger – Lucien Ballard
María Candelaria – Gabriel Figueroa
Meet Me in St. Louis – George J. Folsey
Mr. Skeffington – Ernest Haller
Mrs. Parkington – Joseph Ruttenberg
None But the Lonely Heart – George Barnes
Since You Went Away – Stanley Cortez & Lee Garmes
The White Cliffs of Dover – George J. Folsey
Best Original Score
The Children Are Watching Us – Renzo Rossellini
Laura – David Raksin
María Candelaria – Francisco Dominguez
The Uninvited – Victor Young