For anyone not involved, the Retro Hugos are part of the Hugo Awards. Any particular Worldcon is allowed to present awards for years before the Hugos existed, provided they are exactly 50, 75, or 100 years in the past. So this year the Hugos will be giving out awards for 1941 (for works published in 1940).
Today I’m going to talk about about Dramatic Presentation, mainly because everyone seems to be getting it wrong. There are two categories: Long Form and Short Form, which are split at 90 mins. This is a poor choice of length. Iām not aware of anyone who uses 90 mins as a cut off. I run a short film festival and we sure donāt. We use 45 minutes. The most common divisions I see between feature and short is 60 min, 50 min, 45 min, or 40 min. In recent years, this hasnāt had a huge effect on nominations as most features are over 90 and most TV shows are under. But in 1940, it was different. Many features were less than 90 minutes and there were no TV shows worth speaking of. Almost all of the suggestions Iāve seen for Long Form have included multiple films that donāt qualify. So letās see what does:
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
1940 was not a big time for horror, science fiction, or fantasy film (I doubt if there are more than 20 that fit the requirements, and perhaps many less (I havenāt checked every film’s length). And outside of film, I can find nothing except serials. Some have suggested film or radio serials for the Short Form category, but that would be like plucking twenty minutes out of the middle of any random feature and calling that a short film. No, the serials go here. The problem is, they arenāt very good.
The top serials are The Mysterious Doctor Satan (easy to find online) and Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe. I find neither of these worthy of an award, though I suspect Flash Gordon will make it onto the ballot, and for history, I suspect thatās not a terrible thing. I watched it as a kid, and didnāt hate it.
In film, Iāve only two to suggest.
First, The Thief of Bagdad. It certainly has the name. And it is fun. But it really isnāt very good. Itās fine as a matinee, at home with the kids, but it just isnāt award worthy. Still, it is not an embarrassing nominee and is an important film.
Second, there is the one gem: Fantasia. It needs to run away with this category. It is a masterpiece.
So, that gives me as my nominees for Best Presentation, Long Form:
1- Fantasia
2- The Thief of Bagdad
3- Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe
4 & 5 – blanks
And no, the numbers don’t matter.
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
Everyone is saying they canāt find any, but this is where all the films are. With 90 minutes as the breaking point, almost every SF/F&H film ends up here. My top choices:
Pinocchio (88 min)
The Ghost Breakers (85 min)
The Invisible Man Returns (81 min)
The Invisible Woman (72 min)
Dr. Cyclops (75 min)
Mr. Bug Goes to Town (74 min)
There are more choices than in Long Form, but most of the films are not ones that Iād be a cheerleader for their nomination. They are so-so, but not classics. Surprisingly, my favorite is The Invisible Man Returns. It isnāt great, as so many of the earlier Universal horror films (or like the one that would come out the next year) were, but it is quite good. And a young Vincent Price alone is worth getting this on the ballot. Pinocchio is my next choice, though it works mainly due to a good song. For the others, The Ghost Breakers has some iconic moments (and one of cinemaās great scenes), but it falls apart into bad Scooby Doo land at the end, and the racism is hard to take. The Invisible Woman is sometimes funny. Mr. Bug is fun for kids. And Dr. Cyclops is technically a movie.
OK, so we have choices, but not great, award winning choices. Anything better? Well, not much. There are the radio shows to consider. I skipped consideringĀ The Green Hornet (the eps I listened to didnāt seem to be SFājust action). The only show that rises up is The Shadow, however, none of the specific episodes from 1940 are particularly goodānot even good enough to kick The Invisible Woman off the list. It is handy that they are easy to find online.
That leaves cartoons. There are a few out there (such as Ghost Wanted) which just donāt have much zing. The one exception is You Ought to Be in Pictures (9 min), which has Daffy Duck messing up Porkyās career by having him resign from cartoons to go into live action films. I suppose it counts as fantasy.
So, is there nothing great? Actually, there is, and it makes things complicated. Fantasia is a single entity, and should be nominated as such, but its parts do stand alone (thatās how I originally saw most of them, on The Wonderful World of DisneyāIN COLOR!) Almost every section fits as fantasy, and they are wonderful. The Sorcererās Apprentice and Night on Bald Mountain are both magnificent. Those are the two best Short Form presentations for the year. What Iām not sure about is how the committee will feel about that. If a single story is nominated in two categories, they move it to the correct one (or the one where it more people put it, if there is no ācorrectā), but how would they treat parts of a nominee being nominated in a different category? It has never happened before. Well, it seems like a good time to find out, as Iāll be going with:
Best Presentation, Short Form
1 – Night on Bald Mountain
2 – The Sorcererās Apprentice
3 – The Invisible Man Returns
4 – You Ought to Be in PicturesĀ
5 – Pinocchio
The Hugo committee could mess it all up, by accepting things that are the wrong length in the wrong category, though I hope not.Ā That would just make it confusing.