The Oscar Quest: Best Director – 1934
I love 1934. That will never change, because my favorite film of all time was made in 1934. And also It Happened One Night was this year too. Which, coincidentally, those are the two films I’ll pretty much be talking about in this article. So, that’s cool.
1934 is the first year of the single digit Oscar years, the first year they really figured out how to start doing things. They got up on their feet this year. It would take them another two years to get the Supporting categories in, but, they’re working at it. Unfortunately, there’s nothing to recap here, since It Happened One Night literally won everything. Best Picture, Best Actor for Clark Gable, Best Actress for Claudette Colbert, and yes, even Best Director.
I’m not even going to hide my opinion. I’m voting The Thin Man all the way here. It’s my favorite film, and nothing’s gonna change. So I’m gonna make this one as quick as possible, since, we all knew, before I walked in the goddamn door, which film I was gonna vote for.
BEST DIRECTOR – 1934
And the nominees were…
Frank Capra, It Happened One Night
Victor Schertzinger, One Night of Love
W.S. Van Dyke, The Thin Man
The Oscar Quest: Best Actress – 1973
1973 is one of those years I love so much it makes me want to say it real loud. But then I get worried that not everyone feels as strongly as I do, so I mostly keep it to myself. But, everyone loves The Sting, right? We’d all have voted for that over The Exorcist, right? Because those seem to be the only two. If you say American Graffiti, I’ll laugh at you. It’s a great film but — not over those two.
Anyway, the rest of this year was also pretty good. Or at least, above average. Jack Lemmon finally got his Oscar and won Best Actor for Save the Tiger. Tatum O’Neal wins Best Supporting Actress for Paper Moon, which was a fantastic decision. Then John Houseman wins Best Supporting Actor for The Paper Chase, which I guess is okay, since he’s an acting legend, even though I’d have gone another way. Oh, and George Roy Hill finally wins his Best Director statue, which, was the best thing to come out of this year.
And now we have — the worst thing to come out of this year.
BEST ACTRESS – 1973
And the nominees were…
Ellen Burstyn, The Exorcist
Glenda Jackson, A Touch of Class
Marsha Mason, Cinderella Liberty
Barbra Streisand, The Way We Were
Joanne Woodward, Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actor – 1996
Hey, look at that, it’s our example category. Way back when, back when I first introduced this Oscar Quest, I was explaining how these articles were gonna work, and I picked a random category by typing in two random numbers after “19–” and one of the categories at random. And I came out with Best Supporting Actor 1996. Who’d’ve thought it would take six months to get to it?
Anyway, 1996 is a year that’s fresh in most people’s minds. The English Patient, a film that most people can say probably didn’t deserve to win, won Best Picture over the superior Fargo and even the superior Jerry Maguire. Anthony Minghella wins Best Director for it as well (talked about here), but with one goes the other. Juliette Binoche wins Best Supporting Actress for it, which I’m cool with, since I like her very much. Best Actress this year went to Frances McDorman for Fargo, which is awesome, don’t cha know. And Best Actor — yeah. Geoffrey Rush wins for Shine. I believe I had quite a few words to say about that one here. So in all, I think this is a pretty terrible year. Next to 1990, probably the worst of the decade. Great. Work’s cut out.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR – 1996
And the nominees were…
Cuba Gooding Jr., Jerry Maguire
William H. Macy, Fargo
Armin Mueller-Stahl, Shine
Edward Norton, Primal Fear
James Woods, Ghosts of Mississippi (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actress – 1977
Oh I know I must almost be done with this year. I’ve talked about everything but Best Actor. And Best Picture, but you should be able to guess that those are coming last, because you need to end with your good stuff. But, if we all didn’t know by now, this is the year Annie Hall beat Star Wars. And that about says it all.
Richard Dreyfuss wins Best Actor for The Goodbye Girl, Diane Keaton wins Best Actress for Annie Hall (written about here), Jason Robards wins Best Supporting Actor for Julia (written about here), and Woody Allen wins Best Director for Annie Hall (bemoaned here). I like being mostly done. I don’t really have to do the big intro.
This is one of those categories — hell, this is one of those years, aside from the bad Best Picture choice (but also, good Best Picture choice, which I’ve sort of explained in the other ones, since The Turning Point was the expected winner) — that people just ignore, because it’s business as usual. It’s not particularly exciting. But we’ll do our best to make it interesting.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS – 1977
And the nominees were…
Leslie Browne, The Turning Point
Quinn Cummings, The Goodbye Girl
Melinda Dillon, Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Vanessa Redgrave, Julia
Tuesday Weld, Looking for Mr. Goodbar (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actress – 1999
I’ve talked about 1999 a bunch already. American Beauty wins Best Picture, Best Director for Sam Mendes (which I talked about here) and Best Actor for Kevin Spacey (which I talked about here). Angelina Jolie wins Best Supporting Actress for Girl, Interrupted (which I talked about here), and Michael Caine wins Best Supporting Actor for The Cider House Rules. That’s about it. It’s great having said a lot of the stuff you’ve wanted to say about a year already. You can get right into the category.
And while we’re on that — what the fuck? Look, I don’t dislike Hilary Swank, she tries and she’s likable. But what did she do in this performance that was so good to have beaten Annette Bening? Are people just unwilling to say that because of the subject matter? Personally, I think the Academy once again went with the “likable” over “unlikable” character bullshit they’re known for. Which really fucked things up, historically. Great job, guys.
BEST ACTRESS – 1999
And the nominees are…
Annette Bening, American Beauty
Janet McTeer, Tumbleweeds
Julianne Moore, The End of the Affair
Meryl Streep, Music of the Heart
Hilary Swank, Boys Don’t Cry (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1941
1941. What can you do here but shake your head? Citizen Kane is almost entirely shut out from the Oscars in favor of How Green Was My Valley. Best Picture, Best Director for John Ford (his third, out of four, and second in a row), and even Best Supporting Actor for Donald Crisp, who beat out Sydney Greenstreet for The Maltese Falcon. What can you do?
Also this year, Joan Fontaine wins Best Actress for Suspicion, which is about as blatant a makeup Oscar as you can get (and yet, a good choice. Even though she deserved to win the year before this, everything ended up working out okay), and Mary Astor wins Best Supporting Actress for The Great Lie, which — I don’t think anyone even remembers that particular category, so it doesn’t really matter that much (though she also played Brigid O’Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon, so, even she won for another film, I think we can all be cool with that).
But really though, no matter which way you cut it, the blatant snub of Citizen Kane (mostly because of William Randolph Hearts’s doing), really leaves a black mark on this year that will always be there. We can’t pretend that it’s even remotely okay, even though it means nothing.
BEST ACTOR – 1941
And the nominees were…
Gary Cooper, Sergeant York
Cary Grant, Penny Serenade
Walter Huston, The Devil and Daniel Webster
Robert Montgomery, Here Comes Mr. Jordan
Orson Welles, Citizen Kane (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Director – 1974
I like years like 1974. Because all you need to say is something like — The Godfather Part II — and everything takes care of itself. Everyone’s like, “Oh, yeah, I get it.”
The Godfather Part II swept Best Picture, Best Director for Coppola (which is what we’re talking about here. Sorry to ruin the surprise) and Best Supporting Actor for De Niro. I talked about Best Supporting Actor already. Ellen Burstyn won Best Actress this year for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, which I’m very okay with, and I’ll explain why when I get to the category. Best Supporting Actress went to Ingrid Bergman for Murder on the Orient Express, which I’ve discussed in detail here. And Best Actor went to Art Carney for Harry and Tonto in what I consider one of the worst, if not the worst Best Actor decision of all time (I forget what the final prognosis was, but you can read all about it here).
Wow, I’m almost done with this year. Just Best Actress left to talk about. Which makes sense. This is a year where most people tend to see all the films very easily, even if they aren’t on an Oscar Quest.
BEST DIRECTOR – 1974
And the nominees were…
John Cassavetes, A Woman Under the Influence
Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather Part II
Bob Fosse, Lenny
Roman Polanski, Chinatown
François Truffaut, Day for Night (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actress – 1961
1961 was a good year for motion pictures. Films like 101 Dalmatians, West Side Story, The Guns of Navarone, Splendor in the Grass, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Parent Trap, Judgment at Nuremberg, The Children’s Hour, The Hustler, One, Two Three, A Raisin in the Sun, and Yojimbo will do that to a year.
West Side Story wins Best Picture in a perfectly acceptable choice. It’s a wonderful film, and deserved to win, even though I personally like The Hustler more. But even so, it’s still a great choice. Plus, the other three nominees for Best Picture were Guns of the Navarone, Judgment at Nuremberg and Fanny, so, really it was a good year all around. Robert Wise wins Best Director (with Jerome Robbins) for West Side Story, which is also a great decision. Best Actor goes to Maximilian Schell for Judgment at Nuremberg in a terrible decision. Not because he was bad, but because — Paul Newman was Fast Eddie Felson. He was so good in the role they gave him an Oscar for it when he reprised it 25 years after this. Best Actress went to Sophia Loren for Two Women, a decision I don’t agree with and will talk about pretty soon. And Best Supporting Actor went to George Charkiris for West Side Story, which I’m mostly okay with, even though I’d have gone another way. In all though, aside from some decisions I don’t like (to varying degrees), 1961 is a very good year.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS – 1961
And the nominees were…
Fay Bainter, The Children’s Hour
Judy Garland, Judgement at Nuremberg
Lotte Lenya, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
Una Merkel, Summer and Smoke
Rita Moreno, West Side Story (more…)
Pic of the Day: “You do well in school?” “Yeah.” “That’s good. I did too. They call that a paradox.”
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1995
1995, a good year, mostly because they made the best choice. Other than that, I’m not sure how great a year it was. Braveheart is a good film, but is it a Best Picture winner? In a year with better nominees, probably not. Or maybe even still. I don’t know. I only work with what I’m dealt. As it stands, the film was the best choice among the nominees. I love Apollo 13, but I don’t know if I’d give that Best Picture. And as much as I love Babe, it was never going to win.
Mel Gibson deserved to win Best Director. The reason for this is, Ron Howard, who won the DGA award for Apollo 13, wasn’t even nominated for the Oscar. Which made Mel a by default best decision there. And then Best Actress this year was Susan Sarandon for Dead Man Walking, a decision I do not like at all. Not even a little bit. I like that she has an Oscar, but, she beat better performances. Best Supporting Actor this year was Kevin Spacey for The Usual Suspects, which is such a good decision it doesn’t even matter whether he was lead or supporting. And Best Supporting Actress was Mira Sorvino for Mighty Aphrodite, which was a fucking fantastic decision. So, in all, it’s a good year for choices, but, I don’t know, I still can’t decide what I think about the year as a whole.
BEST ACTOR – 1995
And the nominees were…
Nicolas Cage, Leaving Las Vegas
Richard Dreyfuss, Mr. Holland’s Opus
Anthony Hopkins, Nixon
Sean Penn, Dead Man Walking
Massimo Troisi, Il Postino (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actor – 1977
1977. A year I try to mentally skip over whenever I see it. It conjures up bad memories. Annie Hall wins Best Picture this year, beating out Star Wars. That’s why. Now, granted, The Turning Point was the “favorite” to win, and by all accounts, Star Wars never had a chance, but, either way — come on.
Woody Allen wins Best Director and Diane Keaton wins Best Actress for Annie Hall, both of which I’ve talked about. Best Actor was Richard Dreyfuss for The Goodbye Girl, a decision I like, and Best Supporting Actress went to Vanessa Redgrave for Julia. I’d have gone another way, but that’s probably just because the category contained a type of performance that I almost always go for. Still, that’s cool, I guess.
Overall, this isn’t a terrible year, especially considering what it could have been, but it’s still not a good year, because — really, how does Star Wars not win?
BEST ACTOR – 1977
And the nominees were…
Mikhail Baryshnikov, The Turning Point
Peter Firth, Equus
Alec Guinness, Star Wars
Jason Robards, Julia
Maximilian Schell, Julia (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Director – 1955
1955 is usually a “skip” year for most people. That is, when you’re reading through a list, looking at all the high and low points, like, “On the Waterfront, all right!”, or, “Around the World in 80 Days? Really?”, when you see 1955 and see Marty, most people, either not recognizing it or viewing it as a kind of blank, just mentally skip past it without a word. Usually they’ll be say the title, but mostly as a mental pause, as they skip ahead to the next film.
The reason for this is that Marty, while a fantastic film utterly deserving of Best Picture this year, isn’t a big film. In any other year, it probably wouldn’t come close to winning. But, it wasn’t in the strongest of categories. And since it doesn’t have too much of a lasting reputation like the films around it do, most people skip it. Which is a shame. It is a great film. Ernest Borgnine won Best Actor for it, and I’ve talked about how, while I wouldn’t have voted for him, it’s great that he won. Also this year, Anna Magnani won Best Actress for The Rose Tattoo, in what was mostly a weak year. I’m somewhat undecided on my feelings on that. Best Supporting Actor went to Jack Lemmon for Mister Roberts, and Best Supporting Actress went to Jo Van Fleet for East of Eden. See? Nothing here particularly stands out, which is why this year, understandably, yet somewhat unfairly, keeps getting skipped over and overlooked.
BEST DIRECTOR – 1955
And the nominees were…
Elia Kazan, East of Eden
David Lean, Summertime
Joshua Logan, Picnic
Delbert Mann, Marty
John Sturges, Bad Day at Black Rock (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actress – 1970
Oh, 1970 — a year I don’t like, even though I know, there isn’t anything I can do about it.
Patton wins Best Picture, Best Director for Franklin J. Schaffner, and Best Actor for George C. Scott. Now, Best Actor I have no problem with. George C. Scott gives one of the best male acting performances of all time here. I completely understand that. And even Best Director I get. But Best Picture? I don’t know. I mean, it’s a perfect fitting Best Picture, but, the other film that was up this year was Love Story, and I’m extremely partial to that. That, to me, is a perfect film. Patton is kind of a long mess. Not really a mess, but, the only real reason I think it won is because it was “supposed to.” Looking at it you think, “There’s a film that’s a Best Picture,” but, really, is it? It’s kind of boring. It’s a good film, but — I don’t know. I don’t think it needed to win. (And just so we’re clear on this bias, I did see Patton before I saw Love Story, so I’m not just saying Patton should have lost because I really want a film I love to win at all costs. I don’t do that. I so stay as objective as I can. I respect Patton, but I’m not sure I can say I accept that it should have won. Plus, Love Story beat Patton in the Globes. I notice how, when one gets it wrong, the other usually gets it right. And I felt the Oscars got it wrong this year.)
1970 is also notorious for featuring the worst Best Actress decision of all time. Glenda Jackson won Best Actress for Women in Love, beating Ali MacGraw for Love Story. Now, everyone here says here that Glenda Jackson should not have won. This isn’t a sentimental thing. This is literally, she should not have won. The film is terrible, and she’s not even really a lead. Plus Ali MacGraw gave the performance of a lifetime. It’s a terrible decision all around, made worse by the fact that they gave her a second one three years later for A Touch of Class, which is a glorified romantic comedy (with some drama at the end), which would have been okay if they just gave her that one. I don’t know what the fuck the Academy was thinking there, and here. Don’t worry, I’ll have a lot to rail on when I get to that category. As for the rest of this year, though, Best Supporting Actor went to John Mills, for Ryan’s Daughter, because — well, I don’t fucking know. It’s decisions like that which are the reason I don’t like this year at all. (more…)
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