Wings (1928)

Directed by William A. Wellman

Starring Clara Bow, Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, Richard Arlen, Jobyna Ralston, El Brendel, and Gary Cooper

Wings is the first film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, and the only silent film to be so honored. There's not really much worth seeing here besides the historical significance. The story, about a beautiful girl and the two World War I soldiers that love her, is disposable and familiar. The scenes depicting airplanes in combat, though probably ground-breaking in their day, are no longer particularly impressive all these decades later. One bright spot is the cameo by a young Gary Cooper as a doomed hot-shot pilot. It should be noted that for the first and only time, the Academy awarded two Best Picture prizes: Best Picture, Production, which this film won, and is now considered the official historical predecessor of the modern Best Picture award, and Best Picture, Unique and Artistic Production. It's interesting to note that the winner of that second award, F.W. Murnau's Sunrise, is now considered an all-time classic, and Wings is all but forgotten.

Other nominees: Seventh Heaven (Frank Borzage) and The Racket (Lewis Milestone)

The Broadway Melody (1929)

Directed by Harry Beaumont

Starring Charles King, Anita Page, Bessie Love, Jed Prouty, Kenneth Thomsen, Mary Doran, and Eddie Kane

Undoubtedly one of the worst films to be honored by the Academy as the Best Picture of the year, The Broadway Melody ushered in the sound era with a completely forgettable backstage musical. Some of the songs, notably the title track, are worthwhile, but can also be found in much more worthy projects, especially Singin' in the Rain. The plot can be described as infuriating, as the song-writer/ performer protagonist (King) bounces from sister to sister (Page and Love), and neither sister seems to mind. This is definitely a movie that is only worth seeing if you are trying to see every Best Picture winner. Otherwise, don't waste your time.

Other nominees: No official nominees were announced in 1929.

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

Directed by Lewis Milestone

Starring Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray, Arnold Lucy, Ben Alexander, Scott Kolk, Owen Davis Jr., Walter Rogers, William Bakewell, Russell Gleason, Richard Alexander, Harold Goodwin, Slim Summerville, G. Pat Collins, Beryl Mercer, and Edmund Breese

The first classic Best Picture winner, All Quiet on the Western Front is a wonderful anti-war statement. It's surprisingly graphic in its handling of the horrors of war. When one thinks of black and white war films, most are patriotic movies made during World War II, which depicted war as something heroic and full of glory. This goes not glorify war in any way. One of the best sequences does not occur on the battlefield, but rather in a classroom. Lew Ayres's Paul had been inspired to enlist in the war by a fiercely patriotic teacher. When he returns to his school on leave after being in the war for a while, he ends up confronting the teacher, and trying to convince the new crop of young students to avoid the military. For his trouble, he is called a coward by all of the people who were not actually seeing combat. This is a stirring portrait that does not pull any punches, and the first great film of the 1930s.

Other nominees: The Big House (George W. Hill), Disraeli (Alfred E. Green), The Divorcee (Robert Z. Leonard), and The Love Parade (Ernst Lubitsch)

Cimarron (1931)

Directed by Wesley Ruggles

Starring Richard Dix, Irene Dunne, Estelle Taylor, Nance O'Neil, William Collier Jr., Roscoe Ates, George E. Stone, Stanley Fields, Robert McWade, Edna May Oliver, Judith Barrett, and Eugene Jackson

As of this writing, eighty-one movies have won the Academy Award for Best Picture. This is the worst. It's pretty much terrible in every aspect except the reliable Irene Dunne, who gives a pretty good performance. Richard Dix overacts shamelessly, the story is uninteresting, and worst of all, it's terribly racist. Eugene Jackson plays a young black servant named Isaiah who fulfills almost every possible black stereotype. He even salivates over a barrell of watermelons as the family enters a new town. This may have not been a big deal in 1931, but when seen today, it's simply nauseating. It takes a lot to beat out stinkers like The Broadway Melody and The Greatest Show on Earth, but Cimarron has what it takes to do it.

Other nominees: East Lynne (Frank Lloyd), The Front Page (Lewis Milestone), Skippy (Norman Taurog), and Trader Horn (W.S. Van Dyke)

Grand Hotel (1932)

Directed by Edmund Goulding

Starring Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone, Jean Hersholt, Robert McWade, Purnell Pratt, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Rafaela Ottiano, Morgan Wallace, Tully Marshall, Frank Conroy, Murray Kinnell, and Edwin Maxwell

A star-studded affair of the highest order, Grand Hotel featured all sorts of big stars interacting in a European hotel. Mixing comedy and drama, it is a nice movie to watch now and again, if only to see some of the biggest stars of the early 1930s working together. It also holds the somewhat dubious distinction of being the only Best Picture winner to not recieve any other nominations. Several from the cast would reunite one year later for Dinner at Eight, another film considered a classic, but which did not recieve the same accolades from the Academy. This a movie that's more about the spectacle than the actual content, but that spectacle isn't half bad.

Other nominees: Arrowsmith (John Ford), Bad Girl (Frank Borzage), The Champ (King Vidor), Five Star Final (Mervyn LeRoy), One Hour with You (Ernst Lubitsch and George Cukor), Shanghai Express (Josef von Sternberg), and The Smiling Lieutenant (Ernst Lubitsch)

Cavalcade (1933)

Directed by Frank Lloyd

Starring Diana Wynyard, Clive Brook, Una O'Connor, Herbert Mundin, Beryl Mercer, Irene Browne, Tempe Piggott, Merle Tottenham, Frank Lawton, Ursula Jeans, Margaret Lindsay, John Warburton, Billy Bevan, Desmond Roberts, Dickie Henderson, Douglas Scott, Sheila McGill, and Bonita Granville

A totally forgettable entry on the Best Picture list, Cavalcade, based on a play by the great Noel Coward, follows an English family through the events of the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. It's really just a statement about how many worldwide events affected the English in that relatively short period of time, with no big stars and no particularly memorable moments. 42nd Street and I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang have proven to be much more lasting that this film, so it's a shame neither of them won the award. The public's lack of interest in this early Best Picture is evidenced by the fact it is still not available on DVD.

Other nominees: 42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon), A Farewell to Arms (Frank Borzage), I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (Mervyn LeRoy), Lady for a Day (Frank Capra), Little Women (George Cukor), The Private Life of Henry VIII (Alexander Korda), She Done Him Wrong (Lowell Sherman), Smilin' Through (Sidney Franklin), and State Fair (Henry King)

It Happened One Night (1934)

Directed by Frank Capra

Starring Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns, Jameson Thomas, Alan Hale, Arthur Hoyt, Blanche Friderici, and Charles C. Wilson

It's seventy-five years old, and it's still one of the best romantic comedies ever made. Gable and Colbert are perfect in their roles, and their journey from hating each other to falling in love is totally believable. This is probably the first classic from Frank Capra, and arguably his best work. Roscoe Karns's extended cameo as sleazy bus passenger Oscar Shapely is one of the many highlights. People have been trying to duplicate the magic this movie made in the decades since it was released, and none have succeeded. One of the earliest classics in the Best Picture roll call.

Other nominees: The Barretts of Wimpole Street (Sidney Franklin), Cleopatra (Cecil B. DeMille), Flirtation Walk (Frank Borzage), The Gay Divorcee (Mark Sandrich), Here Comes the Navy (Lloyd Bacon), The House of Rothschild (Alfred L. Werker), Imitation of Life (John M. Stahl), One Night of Love (Victor Schertzinger), The Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke), Viva Villa! (Jack Conway, Howard Hawks, and William A. Wellman), and The White Parade (Irving Cummings)