The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actress – 1967
1967. The landmark year. Hollywood breaks from classical tradition. But not so you’d really notice it, the Oscars seemingly try to mask that change by picking the most watered down version of it. Of the five Best Picture choices, here’s the order in which they’d have been good choices for the year that was 1967: Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night, Doctor Dolittle. Dolittle of course would have been a complete rejection of the situation, and that wasn’t gonna happen. And some people might put In the Heat of the Night third (but I don’t). But still — it was not an ideal choice.
I think that’s evident in the fact that Mike Nichols won Best Director for The Graduate (talked about here). Even bad Best Picture choices also won Best Director (King’s Speech, anyone?). Though they did do a good job of spreading the wealth. Best Actor was Rod Steiger for In the Heat of the Night. I wouldn’t have voted for it, but it’s an acceptable decision, since he’d earned one of these from ’65 for The Pawnbroker. Best Actress was Katharine Hepburn for Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (talked about here), which, while I wouldn’t have voted for it, isn’t that bad, since all the other potential winners had, or later won, Oscars. Best Supporting Actor was George Kennedy for Cool Hand Luke (talked about here), which I love dearly.
Then there’s this category. Holy shit, was this a great decision. This is also one of the strongest Best Supporting Actress categories of all time.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS – 1967
And the nominees were…
Carol Channing, Thoroughly Modern Millie
Mildred Natwick, Barefoot in the Park
Estelle Parsons, Bonnie and Clyde
Beah Richards, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
Katharine Ross, The Graudate (more…)
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