The Oscar Quest: Best Actress – 1956
I fucking love 1956. There’s something great and terrible and yet okay about this year, all at the same time.
First off, I feel this is a particularly strong year for movies. I’ll tell you why in a second but first let’s go over the Oscar films. Around the World in 80 Days wins Best Picture in what some consider to be a terrible decision. It’s routinely listed among the worst choices of all time. Personally I don’t feel that way. Because the film — yes its long, yes it’s overdone, yes its kinda boring. But, the film is epic. There are cameos galore, which is kind of amazing. So many fucking famous people are in this movie, some of them for like, a second. That’s part of the fun of this movie. Also, is is perhaps one of the greatest scales of pictures I’ve ever seen. They shot the film in like, thirteen different countries. I understand why it won, even though I’d have much preferred the film that won Best Director (for George Stevens, his second), Giant, instead. But you know, shit happens. It’s not a bad decision, no matter what everybody says.
Now, for the other categories. Best Actor went to Yul Brynner for The King and I, which I do consider one of the worst decisions of all time. It’s not that I don’t like Yul Brynner (I fucking love Yul Brynner), it’s just that, it’s not a lead role. Dude’s basically a supporting character in the film, and the way I can prove it is that, when he won the Tony Award for the broadway version, it was for Supporting Actor in a Musical. The reason I consider it a terrible decision is because he was up against both James Dean and Rock Hudson for Giant, which were two vastly better performances than his. Similarly, and I’ll get to that in a second, I consider this Best Actress category to be just as bad if not worse than Best Actor. Best Supporting Actor for this year went to Anthony Quinn for Lust for Life, which I consider a poor, but not bad, decision, mostly because of a weak category, and Best Supporting Actress went to Dorothy Malone for Written on the Wind, a decision I love to death. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actor – 1974
1974’s a fun year. The Godfather Part II, Chinatown, The Conversation, Lenny, The Towering Inferno — and those are just the Best Picture nominees.
The Godfather Part II wins Best Picture in a decision nobody can contest, no matter how much we all love Chinatown. It also wins Best Director for Francis Ford Coppola — finally — after he was snubbed for The Godfather in favor of Bob Fosse for Cabaret a decision that works in the historical sense (both directors have Oscars, which is great), but not in the specific category. Best Actor this year was Art Carney for Harry and Tonto, a veteran/career Oscar, and one of the worst decisions of all time. I love Art Carney, but, come on, when you see who else was nominated in that category (hint, three of the four come from the Best Picture nominees), it was a terrible decision. Best Actress was Ellen Burstyn for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (most likely a makeup Oscar from 1973, but we’ll get to that another time), and Best Supporting Actress was Ingrid Bergman for Murder on the Orient Express, which I talked about already. So this year is almost like the opposite of — whatever other year I talked about recently, which had a bunch of good acting decisions but a bad Best Picture decision.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR – 1974
And the nominees were…
Fred Astaire, The Towering Inferno
Jeff Bridges, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
Robert De Niro, The Godfather Part II
Michael V. Gazzo, The Godfather Part II
Lee Strasberg, The Godfather Part II (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Director – 1944
1944. I consider this year a missed opportunity. The Academy could have really went out on a limb and gave a great film Best Picture. But instead they went with the safe choice. Going My Way, which is a very good film, but really didn’t need to win Best Picture, Best Director Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. Best Actor is cool, because who dosen’t like Bing Crosby? I can’t remember who he was up against offhand, but let’s assume it’s okay. (Note: Looked it up. Totally cool with it.) Oh, also, Barry Fitzgerald, who won Best Supporting Actor, was also nominated for Best Actor for the exact same role. Only time that’s happened in Academy history. After this they just settled into the standard category fraud that we’re used to.
Anywho, the other two awards we haven’t covered yet were Ingrid Bergman for Gaslight, a makeup Oscar if I’ve ever seen one — she was nominated for For Whom the Bell Tolls and not for Casablanca the year before this, plus she did a great job here, so there was really no way she wasn’t winning — and Ethel Barrymore for None But the Lonely Heart. I’m really not all that upset with most of the decisions this year — or at least, I don’t object too much, past Best Picture and this category, because those just weren’t necessary at all.
BEST DIRECTOR – 1944
And the nominees were…
Alfred Hitchcock, Lifeboat
Henry King, Wilson
Leo McCarey, Going My Way
Otto Preminger, Laura
Billy Wilder, Double Indemnity (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1959
1959 was Ben-Hur. Game over, man. But that’s just Best Picture and Best Director. The acting categories are fair game. Just because it won two acting awards does not necessarily mean it should have. That’s this category’s major issue. It’s like with Lawrence of Arabia. How much does just simply carrying a film of this scale count toward voting?
I like this. We have a theme. It only really counts for one performance, but fuck it, let’s run with it. As for the rest of the year, as I said, Ben-Hur swept Picture, Director and also Supporting Actor, which went to Hugh Griffith. Best Actress was Simone Signoret for Room at the Top, which I am so not happy about and will get to at some point. And Best Supporting Actress was Shelley Winters for The Diary of Anne Frank. This is a deceptively okay year. It seems like the decisions were fine because of the obvious choice in Ben-Hur, but, in actuality, I really don’t agree with any of the acting choices. I’m okay with one, maybe two of them, but, really, I think they could have picked better.
BEST ACTOR – 1959
And the nominees were…
Laurence Harvey, Room at the Top
Charlton Heston, Ben-Hur
Jack Lemmon, Some Like It Hot
Paul Muni, The Last Angry Man
Jimmy Stewart, Anatomy of a Murder (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actress – 1990
Ah, 1990 again. The year Goodfellas lost to Dances with Wolves. I think that about covers how well this year went.
Best Actor was Jeremy Irons for Reversal of Fortune, Best Actress was Kathy Bates for Misery, Best Supporting Actor was Joe Pesci for Goodfellas, and Best Director was Kevin Costner, for Wolves.
I like this category though. It’s filled with a lot of interesting performances that I liked a lot. It’ll be a fun one to go through, since, either Best Supporting Actress is a great category, or it’s fucking insufferable. They’re all veteran nominations, or they got in based on support for the film. It’s terrible. But here — oh man, this is gonna be fun.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS – 1990
And the nominees were…
Annette Bening, The Grifters
Lorraine Bracco, Goodfellas
Whoopi Goldberg, Ghost
Diane Ladd, Wild at Heart
Mary McDonnell, Dances with Wolves (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actress – 1977
Ah, 1977. Star Wars loses to Annie Hall. Or rather, Star Wars had no shot at winning Best Picture and Annie Hall upsets the presumed favorite, The Turning Point, a melodrama about aging ballerinas. Yeah, everybody makes mistakes.
What’s most interesting about this category in particular, is that the winner won for the wrong film. It’s not that Annie Hall was a bad film, it’s just, Diane Keaton wasn’t really acting in it. The other film she did this year, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, is, however, a fucking phenomenal performance and one that would have won this category hands down. But, in typical Academy fashion, they went with the “lighter” of the two performances because, well, I guess they can’t take depressing films.
The other winners this year were Richard Dreyfuss as Best Actor for The Goodbye Girl, Jason Robards and Vanessa Redgrave as Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor for Julia (Robards won this category two years running on this one), and Woody Allen winning Best Director for Annie Hall. I know. But we’ll try not to talk about it.
BEST ACTRESS – 1977
And the nominees are…
Anne Bancroft, The Turning Point
Jane Fonda, Julia
Diane Keaton, Annie Hall
Shirley MacLaine, The Turning Point
Marsha Mason, The Goodbye Girl (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1934
Everybody has one year they’re the most biased about. 1934 is mine.
Most years, you can at least have some sort of objectivity when you go, “Yeah, I guess it’s okay.” But, here, my favorite film of all time is contained amongst the nominees, and no matter what it’s up against, I’m always going to feel as if it should have won. So this one’s gonna be brief on the voting and everything. I will talk about how great all three of these movies and performances are, though. So you do get that. Because this category is fucking amazing. All three are great. It’s just — my favorite is my favorite.
Oh, yeah, basically what you need to know is — It Happened One Night swept everything. Beat the hell out of everything. Except my spirit.
BEST ACTOR – 1934
And the nominees are…
Clark Gable, It Happened One Night
Frank Morgan, The Affairs of Cellini
William Powell, The Thin Man (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actor – 1997
We just talked about 1997 a week ago. Titanic. Remember? Yeah, nuff said. Fortunately, though, Titanic doesn’t factor into this category, so we really get to have some fun here. This was a great year for Supporting Actor. All five are really good movies, and three of them didn’t get enough love past this category, so it’s nice to be able to talk about them.
Just to recap, Best Actor and Best Actress this year were Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt for As Good As It Gets (and just because it’s a great piece of trivia, I’ll point it out each time this comes up — all three times Jack Nicholson has won an Oscar (twice for lead once for supporting), the lady he was playing opposite won Best Actress for the same film. How incredible is that?), Best Supporting Actress was Kim Basinger for L.A. Confidential, and Best Director was James Cameron for Titanic. You know, despite the sweep this year, they did spread the wealth surprisingly well, considering. Sweep films so rarely get acting nominations.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR – 1997
And the nominees were…
Robert Forster, Jackie Brown
Anthony Hopkins, Amistad
Greg Kinnear, As Good As It Gets
Burt Reynolds, Boogie Nights
Robin Williams, Good Will Hunting (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actress – 1978
1978 was the year of The Deer Hunter. I think we’ve established that it was a good year. Won Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor for Christopher Walken, one of the best decisions the Academy has ever made. Perhaps top three in Vietnam war films. A great year. Best Actor and Best Actress this year were Jon Voight and Jane Fonda for Coming Home, another Vietnam film.
The only real downside to 1978 is that it kept Apocalypse Now from winning Best Picture in 1979. At least, I assume that’s what it was. If not, they fucked up without reason. And that’s not good. Though — typical.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS – 1978
And the nominees were…
Dyan Cannon, Heaven Can Wait
Penelope Milford, Coming Home
Maggie Smith, California Suite
Maureen Stapleton, Interiors
Meryl Streep, The Deer Hunter (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1981
We’ve discussed this before. I’ll dispense with any editorial past, 1981 sucked. Chariots of Fire. I think we all understand.
The big thing about 1981, aside from — that — was that it was the year Henry Fonda finally got his Oscar. And Kate Hepburn got her fourth. Meryl’s got the nominations, but Kate’s got the wins. All Best, too. Meryl’s only got one of each. (So you know they’re gonna give her another one soon.) So, both of them won for On Golden Pond, while John Gielgud won Best Supporting Actor for Arthur, and Maureen Stapleton won Best Supporting Actress and Warren Beatty won Best Director, both for Reds. So it was a pretty contained year, aside from — that.
BEST ACTOR – 1981
And the nominees were…
Warren Beatty, Reds
Henry Fonda, On Golden Pond
Burt Lancaster, Atlantic City
Dudley Moore, Arthur
Paul Newman, Absence of Malice (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actor – 1953
1953 is one of my personal favorite years for films. There’s such great stuff that came out this year. From Here to Eternity won Best Picture, and while that wouldn’t be my choice for Best Picture, it is without a doubt a great film and a classic.
Just to show you how great a year 1953 was — here’s a list of films that came out this year (Note: You may not know them all, but, I promise, by the end of this Oscar Quest, you will): Roman Holiday, Shane, The Robe, Peter Pan, The Band Wagon, How to Marry a Millionaire, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Mogambo, The Moon is Blue, Julius Caesar, House of Wax, Stalag 17, The Glenn Miller Story, The Big Heat, The Naked Spur, The Earrings of Madame de…, Hondo, Trouble Along the Way, Lili, I Vitelloni, Beat the Devil, M. Hulot’s Holiday, Pickup on South Street, Tokyo Story, Ugetsu, The Wages of Fear, and some little film called War of the Worlds. Pretty fucking strong, wouldn’t you say? This ranks right up there with 1939 for me as tops for film.
To recap the Oscar year, which, as you can imagine was so insanely strong it really becomes a matter of personal preference and no bad decisions — Best Actor was William Holden for Stalag 17, Best Actress was Audrey Hepburn for Roman Holiday, Best Supporting Actress was Donna Reed and Best Director was Fred Zinnemann, both for From Here to Eternity. I am in awe of this year.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR – 1953
And the nominees were…
Eddie Albert, Roman Holiday
Brandon de Wilde, Shane
Jack Palance, Shane
Frank Sinatra, From Here to Eternity
Robert Strauss, Stalag 17 (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actress – 1988
Best Director month is over. Back to the potpourri. It’s all gonna be jumbled again. Random category every day. This is where most of the work gets done on this. Hopefully, by the time the summer is over, I’ll have knocked out many of the categories. I’m trying to save the Best Pictures for last — or at least, at the point where there are only unavailables left and no more finished categories to do. Until then, let’s go back to the well. I’ve got lots of categories finished.
1988. We talked about this a little while ago. Rain Man won Best Picture and Best Director. Good film, product of a weak year. (Probably.) Solid choice, though, based on the category. Best Actor was Dustin Hoffman. Didn’t go full retard. Best Supporting Actor was Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda and Best Supporting Actress was Geena Davis in The Accidental Tourist. It feels like a solid, low-key year. Nothing overtly spectacular, but on the whole, good. Like a Best Picture nominee film, but one that clearly was never going to win.
BEST ACTRESS – 1988
And the nominees were…
Glenn Close, Dangerous Liaisons
Jodie Foster, The Accused
Melanie Griffith, Working Girl
Meryl Streep, A Cry in the Dark
Sigourney Weaver, Gorillas in the Mist (more…)
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