Hollywood’s studio execs were beside themselves when not one, but two, British made films were nominated for Best Picture of 1948.

Warner Brothers’ Johnny Belinda led the nominations with 12 nods, but Hamlet and The Red Shoes equaled that number between them and would win a combined total of six to Johnny Belinda’s one, sending the execs into a state of anxiety from which they would never recover. They withdrew their financial support from the Academy, which forced it to seek funding elsewhere, ultimately leading to advertising support generated from televised broadcasts of the awards beginning with the 1952 ceremony. It was the end of an era.

Warner Brothers also had The Treasure of the Sierra Madre in the running for Best Picture with five nominations, while Fox filled the last slot with The Snake Pit,which had a total of six.

Laurence Olivier’s truncated 155 minute version of Shakespeare’s tragedy was considered the definitive screen Hamlet until Kenneth Branagh’s 242 minute complete version forty-eight years later.

Olivier’s melancholy Dane won the actor his only Best Actor award out of ten nominations. As the film’s producer, he also won the Best Picture award, but lost the Best Director award to John Huston for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Hamlet’s other wins were for Best Black-and-White Art Direction and Costume Design. It had also been nominated for Best Score and Best Supporting Actress (Jean Simmons).

Even more revered than Hamlet, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Red Shoes has long been considered the definitive dance film and one of the most brilliant examples of the use color in film. It’s also credited with inspiring more ballet students than any other source.

Anton Walbrook is mesmerizing as the leader of the dance troupe and Moira Shearer is stunning as the girl who dances herself to death. The film won for its one-of-a-kind Color Art Direction and Dramatic Score. It had also been nominated for Best Editing and Best Motion Picture Story, even though its main theme was taken from a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale.

John Huston’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre was the most critically acclaimed Hollywood release of the year, having won the New York Film Critics award for Best Picture while Huston swept the extant precursors – the National Board of Review and the Golden Globes in addition to the New York Film Critics – for Best Director. His dad, Walter Huston, had won the only two precursors for Supporting Actor – the National Board of Review and the Globe. Their selections were unsurprisingly endorsed by Academy, which also gave the younger Huston its Best Screenplay award.

A surprise box office smash and the year’s most nominated film, Jean Negulesco’s Johnny Belinda was a beautifully acted melodrama that managed to overcome its soap opera tendencies through the sheer power of its acting. Best Actress winner Jane Wyman is unforgettable as the deaf mute rape victim put on trial for killing her rapist when he tries to take her baby away from her.

Lew Ayres, Charles Bickford and Agnes Moorehead, all in Oscar nominated turns, as well as Jan Sterling and Stephen McNally are also memorable. The film’s other nominations, none of which it won, were for Best Director, Screenplay, Editing, Black-and-White Art Direction and Cinematography, Dramatic Score and Sound.

One of the first films to deal with mental illness, and still one of the best, Anatole Litvak’s The Snake Pit provided Olivia de Havilland with another brilliant opportunity for which she won the National Board of Review and New York Film Critics awards for Best Actress, as well as her fourth Oscar nomination. The film won an Oscar for Best Sound and was also nominated for Best Director, Screenplay and Dramatic Score.

There were a number of fine films nominated in categories other than Best Picture.

In addition to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, John Huston also had Key Largo, one of, if not the best, of the Bogie-Bacall films with outstanding supporting work from Edward G. Robinson, Lionel Barrymore and especially Claire Trevor who walked away with the year’s Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Huston not only became the first director to win both Best Director and Screenplay for the same film, and the first to direct a family member to an Oscar, he also became the first director to have directed two supporting players to wins in the same year.

Fred Zinnemann was the only nominated director whose film was not also nominated for Best Picture. His documentary style refugee film, The Search,was usurped by The Red Shoes in the main race.

Montgomery Clift’s second film, but the first to reach theatres, the film proved a major showcase for the actor and easily won him his first Best Actor nod as the sensitive G.I. who forms a quick friendship with displaced Czech refugee Ivan Jandl, who won a much deserved Special Oscar for Best Juvenile performance. Aline MacMahon also turns in excellent work as a refugee center official and Jarmila Novotka is unforgettable as a mother searching for her lost son. The film was also nominated for Best Screenplay and won for Best Motion Picture Story.

Clift’s other film was Howard Hawks’ Red River, a sprawling epic western and one of the best of the genre. Brilliantly cast with John Wayne in his first tough guy, older male role opposite Clift as his surrogate son, the film also features outstanding supporting work from Walter Brennan, Joanne Dru and John Ireland. It was nominated for Best Motion Picture Story and Best Editing. It was the year’s second biggest moneymaker, topped only by Easter Parade.

A hit early in the year, The Pirate, which was nominated for Best Scoring of a Musical, paired Judy Garland and Gene Kelly in a Cole Porter musical with Walter Slezak and Gladys Cooper. The pair was supposed to reteam for Irving Berlin’s Easter Parade, the megahit which won the category, but a sprained ankle forced Kelly out of the film. He was replaced by Fred Astaire, who came out of retirement to do the film and the rest as they say, is history.

Set in occupied Berlin, Wilder’s A Foreign Affair is a superbly written and played comedy-drama in which Jean Arthur and Marlene Dietrich have the lead roles. Arthur is actually the star of the film, but looks dowdy and unromantic compared to the still mesmerizing Dietrich who sings three songs including one of her signature numbers, “Black Market”. John Lund co-stars. The film was nominated for Best Screenplay and Best Black-and-White Cinematography.

George Stevens’ film of the hit play, I Remember Mama won Irene Dunne her fifth Best Actress nomination, her first in nine years, as the Norwegian matriarch of a turn-of-the-Century family in San Francisco. Barbara Bel Geddes, Oscar Homolka and Ellen Corby were all nominated in support. The film was also nominated for Best Black-and-White Cinematography.

Its success spawned an even more successful TV series starring Peggy Wood that ran from 1949-1957.

It wasn’t the first documentary style police drama, but Jules Dassin’s breathtakingly filmed The Naked City is the film that defines the genre. Nominated for three Oscars, it won two for Best Black-and-White Cinematography and Best Editing. It was also nominated for Best Original Story. Barry Fitzgerald and Howard Duff starred.

This filmalso spawned a successful TV series which ran from 1958-1963.

An Oscar winner for Best Special Effects and a nominee for Best Black-and-White Cinematography, William Dieterle’s haunting Portrait of Jennie is one of those films that gets better every time you see it. Jennifer Jones had one of her best roles as the mysterious title character as did Joseph Cotton as the artist who adores her. Ethel Barrymore all but steals the film as a sympathetic art dealer.

Not nominated for any Oscars, but nevertheless remembered as one of the best films of 1948, John Ford’s Fort Apachewas the first of three films in his famed cavalry trilogy starring John Wayne. Henry Fonda, Shirley Temple, John Agar and Ward Bond co-starred.

Max Ophuls’ Letter From an Unknown Woman is a cult classic that like Portrait of Jennie seems richer and deeper with every viewing. Joan Fontaine had perhaps the role of her career as the woman who lives in a fantasy world with Louis Jourdan almost as good as the lover who doesn’t remember her.

All discussed films are available on DVD in the U.S. except A Foreign Affair and Letter From an Unknown Woman.

Newly released on DVD are a number of long unavailable Paramount films seeing the light of day under special arrangement with Olive Films. Among the first releases are two 1950 classics, Dark City with Charlton Heston and Lizabeth Scottand Union Station with William Holden and Barry Fitzgerald.