Blithe Spirit – 1946 (WINNER)
The special effects in this film weren’t bad. They weren’t flawless, but they weren’t bad at all. It was based on a play by Noel Coward. As the title of the movie might imply, the story involved ghosts, so there were a few examples of floating objects, and people you could see right through. The effects weren’t brand new but they were done exceptionally well. It was the winner, but I have to ask why.
Well, to answer that question, I have to mention something that had a significant effect on the category as a whole. This was the year in which the number of nominations went from five or more to only two. In fact, from this point on, there would be only two, sometimes one, and sometimes zero nominations per year. The trend continued until 1982 where the number would rise to three, the only exception being 1979 in which there were five. Then in 2010 the number rose back to five, and has seemed to level off there until the present.
The point is that there wasn’t much competition for the Oscar. I have searched the internet and cannot find a specific reason for this shift in 1946 nominations, because there were certainly a lot of movies that were innovative and ground-breaking in the field of cinematic special effects. Whatever the reason, only Blithe Spirit and another film called A Stolen Life were nominated that year.
For me, one of the best special effects in the movie could partially be attributed to production design, cinematography, costume design, and makeup. The ghosts were all an other-worldly green, from their clothing to their skin. The only things that had any different color were their lips and their nails, both of which were a bright red. Their hair also retained a semblance of its natural color, though it was also tinted green. It set them apart and made them interesting to watch.
The expected floating objects were kept to a minimum as were the effect of people and objects passing through one another. In a black and white film, these effects would have been fairly simple, but this movie was filmed in Technicolor, certainly making it more of a challenge. Usually, a ghost on the screen would just be an actor being careful not to touch anything that would make her solid form obvious, though the spirits still had to open doors to go through them.
And speaking of doors, there were a couple of scenes in which doors would open by themselves, strong winds would blow leaves through them, and the dramatic music would swell, indicating than an angry ghost was making an entrance. And there were also a few shots of the spirits being less than solid or even fading away into invisibility. The effects were perfectly well-done and should be applauded. But considering all the wonderful films that weren’t even nominated for the category in 1946, I’m not exactly sure why this one took home the Award.