Wonder Man – 1945 (WINNER)
This movie was good, and I understand why it won the Oscar for Best Special Effects, but I’m not convinced it should have. The effects were good, and from what I have read, some of them were even groundbreaking for their time, but I’m just not exactly clear on why. The effects seemed simple as versions of them had been done in earlier movies. The only distinguishing thing about Wonder Man was that it played a single actor opposite himself, something I haven’t seen in older films that used split-screen or double-exposure effects, though I’m sure this wasn’t the first time it had been done.
The main thrust of the movie’s special effects were plot-driven. Danny Kaye played twin brothers, Buzzy Bellew and Edwin Dingle, and there were a lot of split screen effects where he played opposite himself. According to an article on the TMC website by Lisa Mateas, “Kaye’s twin brother interactions were made possible by seamless and state-of-the-art (for its time) techniques which earned John P. Fulton (photographic) and Arthur Johns (sound) the Academy Award for Best Effects, Special Effects at the 1945 Awards.”
But there was more than just that. One of the brothers dies and comes back as a ghost, and so we also had a few instances of Kaye moving through objects like doors or stone blocks. There was one very amusing scene in which the ghost of Buzzy is drunk, (how can a ghost get drunk if he can’t touch the alcohol?) and can’t understand why he isn’t able to pick a glass of Bromo Seltzer. He humorously drives himself crazy because his hands keep passing through the glass.
In Wonder Man, there were also some effects that showed the ghost as a transparent entity. It was amusing as it floated through the nightclub. And there were also a couple of times when the ghost had to enter his brother’s living body and take control. Again, these effects were all plot-driven and were used mostly for comedic effect. In fact, the very last shot of the movie was one in which Kaye rises up out of a little container like a jack-in-the-box, except that for some reason, his arms seem to be missing.
And there was a funny little effect that in the movie, in which the living brother tries to walk away from the ghost, but his feet are glued to the spot. He ends up leaning impossibly far forward, though never falling. That one made me smile.
But all those split-screen visual effects were done perfectly. He passed in front of and behind himself, and it looked perfectly real. So why do I question whether this movie should have taken home this particular Oscar? Because it was up against movies like Hitchcock’s Spellbound and They Were Expendable, both of which were films that had some pretty impressive Visual Effects.