The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actor – 1936
I call 1936 the year with the first “Academy” film. That is, a film that seemed designed from the start to win Best Picture won Best Picture. The Great Ziegfeld is one of those films that has everything the Academy looks for in a Best Picture, and it makes perfect sense that it would win.
Luise Rainer also won Best Actress for the film (talked about here), which I don’t really like as a decision, but would have been okay with it, if only she didn’t also win Best Actress the year after this. Best Actor this year was Paul Muni for The Story of Louis Pasteur (talked about here), which is a good decision, since Muni deserved an Oscar, but I felt it came a year too early. Best Supporting Actress (the first in the category’s history) was Gale Sondergaard for Anthony Adverse (talked about here), which makes no sense to me. And Best Director was Frank Capra for Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (talked about here), which I really can’t even begin to fathom for a lot of reasons. That was a very poor choice, I felt.
And now we have the very first Best Supporting Actor category in the history of the Oscars. The problem with it is — when you look closely at it — it stinks. It’s weak as hell. But fortunately, Walter Brennan is Walter Brennan, so him winning alleviates any concerns of how shitty the category is.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR – 1936
And the nominees were…
Mischa Auer, My Man Godfrey
Walter Brennan, Come and Get It
Stuart Erwin, Pigskin Parade
Basil Rathbone, Romeo and Juliet
Akim Tamiroff, The General Died at Dawn (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actress – 1962
Love me some 1962. You get Lawrence of Arabia and you get To Kill a Mockingbird. And the great thing about it is — you know Lawrence was winning no matter what, so there’s really no argument to be had. We can just be happy for all the great movies.
Lawrence of Arabia wins Best Picture and Best Director for David Lean (talked about here). Gregory Peck wins Best Actor for To Kill a Mockingbird (talked about here). Perfect decisions, naturally. Best Supporting Actor was Ed Begley for Sweet Bird of Youth (talked about here), which is the lone poor decision for the year, but since it came in so minor a category it isn’t so bad. And Best Supporting Actress was Patty Duke for The Miracle Worker, which, she played Helen Keller. Obviously it was a good decision.
Bringing us to this category, which only had two choices, and I feel they made the right one.
BEST ACTRESS – 1962
And the nominees were…
Anne Bancroft, The Miracle Worker
Bette Davis, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Katharine Hepburn, Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Geraldine Page, Sweet Bird of Youth
Lee Remick, Days of Wine and Roses (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1954
1954 is a real easy year to recap.
On the Waterfront wins Best Picture, Best Director for Elia Kazan (talked about here), Best Supporting Actress for Eva Marie Saint (talked about here), and this category. All perfect decisions, obviously.
The two non-Waterfront winners were, first, Grace Kelly as Best Actress for The Country Girl. This is perhaps the most hotly contested Oscar category of all time, so you can read my thoughts on the matter here. And the other was Best Supporting Actor, which went to Edmond O’Brien for The Barefoot Contessa (talked about here). I’d have preferred a Waterfront nominee, but O’Brien was definitely worth an Oscar, so the decision works.
And then here — it’s Brando, it’s Waterfront. That “contender” speech alone gives him this Oscar.
BEST ACTOR – 1954
And the nominees were…
Humphrey Bogart, The Caine Mutiny
Marlon Brando, On the Waterfront
Bing Crosby, The Country Girl
James Mason, A Star is Born
Dan O’Herlihy, Robinson Crusoe (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actress – 1943
I love 1943. The synopsis goes by so quickly.
Casablanca wins Best Picture and Best Director for Michael Curtiz (talked about here). I rest my case.
Paul Lukas wins Best Actor for Watch on the Rhine (talked about here). Second worst Best Actor-winning performance (and probable worst Best Actor decision) of all time. Really terrible. Jennifer Jones wins Best Actress for The Song of Bernadette (talked about here). Makes sense, and was a solid choice, since Ingrid Bergman was nominated for the wrong film (not Casablanca). And Best Supporting Actor was Charles Coburn for The More the Merrier (talked about here). Great decision, although it breaks my heart to see Claude Rains lose.
Then there’s this category. Weak as hell, completely irrelevant, historically, and thoroughly forgettable in every way. The decision almost doesn’t matter.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS – 1943
And the nominees were…
Gladys Cooper, The Song of Bernadette
Paulette Goddard, So Proudly We Hail!
Katina Paxinou, For Whom the Bell Tolls
Anne Revere, The Song of Bernadette
Lucile Watson, Watch on the Rhine (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actor – 1999
Most people know 1999, so I’ll save the editorial.
American Beauty wins Best Picture, Best Director for Sam Mendes (talked about here), and Best Actor for Kevin Spacey (talked about here). Hilary Swank wins Best Actress for Boys Don’t Cry (talked about here), and Angelina Jolie wins Best Supporting Actress for Girl, Interrupted (talked about here). All pretty standard. I’m sure most people have opinions on this year.
And this category — I understand it, but don’t love it. Michael Caine is Michael Caine. I get it. Performance-wise? Terrible choice. Why not Cruise, I have no idea.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR – 1999
And the nominees were…
Michael Caine, The Cider House Rules
Tom Cruise, Magnolia
Michael Clarke Duncan, The Green Mile
Jude Law, The Talented Mr. Ripley
Haley Joel Osment, The Sixth Sense (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Director – 1983
1983 is a really weak year. When Terms of Endearment wins Best Picture, you’re witnessing a pretty weak year. It’s not that the film is bad, it’s just — it’s not a strong Best Picture winner.
Shirley MacLaine won Best Actress for the film (talked about here), which had to happen, since she was way overdue by this point, and despite the strength of the category, she needed to win. And Jack Nicholson won Best Supporting Actor for the film (talked about here), which, I don’t understand. I guess they just wanted to give Jack another one. Sam Shepard really should have won there. Best Actor this year was Robert Duvall for Tender Mercies, which, the category was pretty weak, and Duvall needed to win an Oscar (his snub in 1979 was Unforgivable). So I support the win, even though I wasn’t over the moon about his performance. Best Supporting Actress was Linda Hunt for The Year of Living Dangerously (talked about here). She played a man. ‘Nuff said.
Now this category. How the fuck was Phillip Kaufman not nominated for The Right Stuff? He’d have won the category with these nominees.
BEST DIRECTOR – 1983
And the nominees were…
Bruce Beresford, Tender Mercies
Ingmar Bergman, Fanny and Alexander
James L. Brooks, Terms of Endearment
Mike Nichols, Silkwood
Peter Yates, The Dresser (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actress – 1958
1958 is a pretty weak year. A weak Best Picture winner from a relatively weak set of nominees. I love Gigi, but it probably shouldn’t have won Best Picture, and wouldn’t have in a stronger year. And of the remaining nominees, only The Defiant Ones was really worth voting for. The rest were really stagy and were basically plays on film.
Vincente Minnelli finally won Best Director for the film (talked about here). Thank god. The man was practically owed two by this point. Best Actor this year was David Niven for Separate Tables (talked about here), which I guess is an okay decision. Curtis and Poitier cancelled each other out and Newman would eventually win one. And David Niven’s awesome. Best Actress was Susan Hayward for I Want to Live! (talked about here), which had been coming to her for some time. And Best Supporting Actor was Burl Ives for The Big Country, which was a great decision, since he was great in both that and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof this year.
And then there’s this category. Hiller had been solid for over 20 years, and was good enough to win Best Actress twenty years earlier. This was an easy one.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS – 1958
And the nominees were…
Peggy Cass, Auntie Mame
Wendy Hiller, Separate Tables
Martha Hyer, Some Came Running
Maureen Stapleton, Lonelyhearts
Cara Williams, The Defiant Ones (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actress – 1964
1964 is a quintessential Oscar year. My Fair Lady is so obviously a Best Picture choice that it’s almost not even worth questioning the fact that it beat Dr. Strangelove. Sure, (all of those things), but when you look at what the Academy likes, it makes perfect sense.
George Cukor (finally) won his well-deserved and earned-twice-over Best Director statue for the film (talked about here), and Rex Harrison also won Best Actor for it (talked about here). Then Best Supporting Actor this year was Peter Ustinov for Topkapi (talked about here) and Best Supporting Actress was Lila Kedrova for Zorba the Greek (talked about here). Both categories were shitty and both decisions really don’t matter too much. I’m cool with the Supporting Actor decision but dislike the Supporting Actress one. 1964 is actually a pretty weak year masked by some iconic, “Oscar” decisions.
Like this category. Weak as hell. Weak, weak, weak, weak, weak. Yet — Mary Poppins wins. Who’s gonna argue with Mary Poppins winning? The decision masks how weak the whole thing is.
BEST ACTRESS – 1964
And the nominees were…
Julie Andrews, Mary Poppins
Anne Bancroft, The Pumpkin Eater
Sophia Loren, Marriage, Italian Style
Debbie Reynolds, The Unsinkable Molly Brown
Kim Stanley, Séance on a Wet Afternoon (more…)
Hugo and the History of the Movies (Part III)
Yesterday we covered all of Hugo before the dramatic turn reveal through that the film is not about Hugo or the automaton or even Georges Méliès, but rather about the movies.
This is the part where it gets exciting for me, because I get to talk about the reason I love this film so much. Yesterday, I left off with the cover of “The Invention of Dreams.” Today, we’ll dive into just how Hugo is about the history of film, what it tells us, and how it manages to teach viewers about film history without them even realizing it. (It’s like that old tale of the kid not liking a vegetable, and then eating it without realizing it and going, “Oh, I guess I do like that.”)
Today, we go back through a history of the movies:
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actor – 1949
Still not sure what I think about 1949. All the King’s Men wins Best Picture, which I think was probably the strongest choice among the nominees. It’s a really great movie. It’s just on the weaker side of all-time Best Picture choices, and that tends to make me feel like the year is on the weak side.
Broderick Crawford won Best Actor for the film (talked about here) and Mercedes McCambridge won Best Supporting Actress for it (talked about here), both of which were terrific decisions. Best Actress was Olivia de Havilland for The Heiress (talked about here), which is one of the best decisions of all time in the Best Actress category (though that specific category was so weak it’s beyond words). And Best Director was Joseph L. Mankiewicz for A Letter to Three Wives (talked about here), which made absolutely no fucking sense to me at all. I cannot even begin to understand how they came to that decision.
And then there’s this category. This is another one of those decisions that I just don’t understand. Sure, the category was weak as hell, but — not Ralph Richardson? After the year he had?
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR – 1949
And the nominees were…
John Ireland, All the King’s Men
Dean Jagger, Twelve O’Clock High
Arthur Kennedy, Champion
Ralph Richardson, The Heiress
James Whitmore, Battleground (more…)
Hugo and the History of the Movies (Part II)
Yesterday, I talked about the first 12-13 minutes (depending on whether or not you want to count the opening studio logos and such) of Hugo and how brilliant they are.
Today — well, I’m just gonna keep going and see where I end up. We start where we left off, just at the title card, which is just about 13 minutes into the film. In fact, this next screenshot I’m about to post happens exactly 13 minutes into the film. Talk about being concise:
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1936
1936 is a year I feel was the first real Academy decision. You know? Typically, when I say “Academy decision,” I mean one of those films that — of course it won Best Picture. From Here to Eternity, The Sound of Music, Forrest Gump, Titanic — films that you know were gonna win Best Picture no matter their quality. The English Patient. That’s an Academy decision. It’s big, expensive, and it has all the things the Academy likes in their films.
The Great Ziegfeld, to me, is the first obvious Best Picture winner. Strange though, that its director didn’t also win Best Director. That went to Frank Capra for Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (talked about here). That decision makes no sense to me at all. Best Actress was Luise Rainer for Ziegfeld (talked about here), which I think was a bad decision, but one I can sort of understand based on the category. It’s worse, though, that she won the year after this as well. It highlights all the reasons she shouldn’t have won here. Best Supporting Actor (the first in the category’s history) was Walter Brennan for Come and Get It. If anyone should have won the first Best Supporting Actor Oscar, it was Walter Brennan. And Best Supporting Actress was Gale Sondergaard for Anthony Adverse (talked about here). I do not understand this decision at all, and I feel Alice Brady was a much better decision in almost every way.
Which brings us to this category. Paul Muni was gonna win an Oscar at some point. It was only a matter of time. Here’s a dude who just bled Oscar. Everything he did, it seemed, was worth a nomination. He’s the only guy to have his very first performance (The Valiant) and his last performance (The Last Angry Man) be nominated for Oscars. Thing is, though — I don’t think he should have won here. He deserved it, but I don’t think this should have been his year.
BEST ACTOR – 1936
And the nominees were…
Gary Cooper, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
Walter Huston, Dodsworth
Paul Muni, The Story of Louis Pasteur
William Powell, My Man Godfrey
Spencer Tracy, San Francisco (more…)
Hugo and the History of the Movies (Part I)
This was originally going to be my 1,000th post. I was thinking of something to write up, and saw that the article I wrote about my favorite moments from the film was getting a ridiculous amount of traffic as compared to everything else (I guess because of the HD screenshots), so I figured, “Well, that would be fun to talk about how the film relates to film history and all of that, plus I can throw in a lot of screenshots, and make it like those Tron articles (which still get by far the most views on the blog, because people just link to all the pictures).” Basically — fun, and a calculated risk to boost traffic. Because if you can, why not?
So my plan was to write up an article with screenshots about, as the title says, Hugo and the history of the movies. Only, with me, nothing is ever that simple. I started watching the film again (third time now) and then my film student brain turned on, and I started noticing all these great moments, which turned into a whole film analysis, and — it became a whole thing. I can never contain myself to just one article. Ever.
Anyway, here’s part one of me talking about Hugo and its use of and reliance upon the history of movies (as well as some other stuff. Mostly about how Martin Scorsese is a genius). (more…)
