The House on 92nd Street

The House on 92nd Street won the Oscar at 1946's awards ceremony for Best Original Screenplay. It was not nominated for any other awards.

The film is a spy story, based on true events and made with the cooperation of the FBI, about a double agent working for the FBI while posing as a German agent. The agent's task is to both discover what the Germans know about, and to throw them off the track of, the development of the atomic bomb.

The performances are less than stellar, due at least in part to the fact that many of the FBI agents in the film were portrayed by actual FBI agents instead of actors. The film uses a documentary-like style, with a lot of voiceover narration to explain what is going on, and "actual footage" spliced in, and a narrative that is heavy on exposition, but light on action or dialogue or character development. It was an unusual stylistic choice, but one that seems to have been very influential... on famed "worst director of all-time" Ed Wood. In fact, bad films everywhere seem to have learned a lot about storytelling from The House on 92nd Street. It seems to have ridden the wave of post-WWII patriotism to its award more than having earned it for quality.

Movie trivia question: What film, Oscar winner for Best Original Screenplay, marks the acting debut of film legend Warren Beatty?