6. How Green Was My Valley Wins Best Picture (1941)
Back in 1941, Orson Welles made a film that many now consider to be the greatest film of all time: Citizen Kane. John Hustons directorial debut The Maltese Falcon has also become a cinematic legend. But it was John Fords quaint coal country picture that wound up with the big prize. Ford also beat out Welles for Best Director. This one is a bit easier to forgive because Citizen Kane was decades ahead of its time; people today are still staggered by the technical prowess of that film. Similarly, The Maltese Falcon was a first film by a new director and voters tend to wait for people to pay their dues before getting rewarded. So while we may cut the Academy voters of 1941 some slack for their lack of forethought, this win looks severely out of place to contemporary critics when compared to the other two pillars of film history.
