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The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actor – 1943

You can’t help but love 1943. Casablanca is one of the greatest films ever made. Of course it should have won Best Picture, and Best Director for Michael Curtiz (talked about here), who desperately deserved one of these. It also should have won Best Actor, Best Actress and this award, but it didn’t. And all three are, to varying degrees, bad decisions. Only one of the three was atoned for. The other two — the worse decisions — were not.

Paul Lukas wins Best Actor for Watch on the Rhine, which is one of the worst five Best Actor winning performances of all time. It’s truly not good, and it’s shocking that Humphrey Bogart didn’t win. Then Best Actress was Jennifer Jones for The Song of Bernadette. This, I understand. Because — Ingrid Bergman, who should have won, wasn’t nominated for Casablanca. She was nominated for For Whom the Bell Tolls, which is a performance she shouldn’t have won for. So the Jennifer Jones vote makes perfect sense. Though it screwed up the year before this, when Ingrid Bergman did win and screwed Barbara Stanwyck out of an Oscar. Then Best Supporting Actress was Katina Paxinou for For Whom the Bell Tolls, which, I don’t really have an issue with, mostly because the category sucked. It’s a blank in history.

So, 1943 — they got the big decisions right, the medium decisions wrong (though both were atoned for later, in the sense that both Bogart and Bergman won Oscars), and the small decisions either wrong or indifferent. And this one — this hurts. There were two performances that should have won, but — after all is said and done, I consider this a bad decision. But it’s still a great performance. And that hurts more.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR – 1943

And the nominees were…

Charles Bickford, The Song of Bernadette

Charles Coburn, The More the Merrier

J. Carrol Naish, Sahara

Claude Rains, Casablanca

Akim Tamiroff, For Whom the Bell Tolls Read the rest of this page »

Posted by  |  October 9, 2011 | Categories: Movies, Oscars, The Oscar Quest | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Pic of the Day: “Perhaps the sight of beauty makes him lose control of himself, so he kills.”

Posted by  |  October 9, 2011 | Categories: Movies, Pic of the Day | Tags: | Leave a comment

The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actress – 1966

Love me some 1966. While my personal choice didn’t win Best Picture, a film that was just as good did.

A Man for All Seasons wins Best Picture, Best Director for Fred Zinnemann (talked about here) and Best Actor for Paul Scofield (talked about here). And my personal favorite of the year, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, wins Best Actress for Elizabeth Taylor (talked about here) and this category. All of those decisions are great. Had they gone with either film (the ones where both films were nominated) in any category, it would have been a good decision.

The non-Man for All Seasons or Virginia Woolf win was Best Supporting Actor, which went to Walter Matthau for The Fortune Cookie (talked about here). His only Oscar. Which is awesome.

So that’s 1966. Perhaps the quickest synopsis I’ve ever had. And I don’t have all that much to say about this category either, except — great decision.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS – 1966

And the nominees were…

Sandy Dennis, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Wendy Hiller, A Man for All Seasons

Jocelyne LaGarde, Hawaii

Vivien Merchant, Alfie

Geraldine Page, You’re a Big Boy Now Read the rest of this page »

Posted by  |  October 8, 2011 | Categories: Movies, Oscars, The Oscar Quest | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment

Pic of the Day: “I must know everything. I must penetrate the heart of his secret! I must become Caligari!”

Posted by  |  October 8, 2011 | Categories: Movies, Pic of the Day | Tags: | Leave a comment

The Oscar Quest: Best Actress – 1975

1975 is such a strong year. And it’s the crux of the 70s, too. Seriously, ’74, ’75 and ’76 were the three strongest years in the Academy’s history. And if they aren’t, they’re top five for sure. It’s incredible. Just listen to this murderer’s row of 1975 Best Picture nominees: Barry Lyndon, Dog Day Afternoon, Jaws, Nashville, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. How do you pick?

One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest wins Best Picture, Best Director for Milos Forman, Best Actor for Jack Nicholson, and this category. I love all the decisions except Best Director. That one — I know it was gonna happen because it synched up with Best Picture, but — it was probably the fourth best actual directing effort at best. You’re gonna tell me Forman did a better directing job than Stanley Kubrick, Sidney Lumet and (an un-nominated) Steven Spielberg? Okay…

The rest of the year was George Burns as Best Actor for The Sunshine Boys (talked about here), which I like. Nice veteran win for a great guy and a hilarious performance. And Best Supporting Actress was Lee Grant for Shampoo, which was a great decision because she was an actress who was gonna win won at some point, gave a great performance, and the category was weak as hell.

So, really, 1975 is actually a really strong year. The only category I really have any gripe with is Best Director, and even that — whatever.

BEST ACTRESS – 1975

And the nominees were…

Isabelle Adjani, The Story of Adele H.

Louise Fletcher, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Ann-Margret, Tommy

Glenda Jackson, Hedda

Carol Kane, Hester Street Read the rest of this page »

Posted by  |  October 7, 2011 | Categories: Movies, Oscars, The Oscar Quest | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment

Pic of the Day: “Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin’ back from the island of Tinian to Leyte… just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes. Didn’t see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. 13-footer….”

“…You know how you know that when you’re in the water, Chief? You tell by looking from the dorsal to the tail fin. What we didn’t know, was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn’t even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin’, so we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know, it was kinda like old squares in the battle like you see in the calendar named “The Battle of Waterloo” and the idea was: shark comes to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin’ and hollerin’ and screamin’ and sometimes the shark will go away… but sometimes he wouldn’t go away. Sometimes that shark he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. And, you know, the thing about a shark… he’s got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll’s eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn’t seem to be living… until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then… ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin’. The ocean turns red, and despite all the poundin’ and the hollerin’, they all come in and they… rip you to pieces. You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don’t know how many sharks, maybe a thousand. I know how many men, they averaged six an hour. On Thursday morning, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boatswain’s mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up, down in the water just like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he’d been bitten in half below the waist. Noon, the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us. He swung in low and he saw us… he was a young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper. Anyway, he saw us and he come in low and three hours later a big fat PBY comes down and starts to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened… waitin’ for my turn. I’ll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went in the water; 316 men come out and the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.”

 

Posted by  |  October 7, 2011 | Categories: Movies, Pic of the Day | Tags: | Leave a comment

The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1985

I hate 1985. Nearly every decision was wrong. It starts at the top. Out of Africa wins Best Picture and Best Director for Sydney Pollack. Let’s start with Best Picture. It was a terrible decision. The film just — isn’t that good. I mean, it’s a fine film and all, but — The Color Purple was also nominated this year. That, by all accounts, is clearly the better film. The fact that it didn’t win speaks to the oldest tradition in Academy history — racism. That’s the only explanation. Steven Spielberg, who directed The Color Purple and won the DGA Award for it, wasn’t even nominated for Best Director! (Which makes the Sydney Pollack decision okay, since he did a good job with his film and was a good director. Though the Academy did have the chance to award Akira Kurosawa here. But, I do understand the choice, if Spielberg wasn’t nominated.)

Then, Best Actress was another racist decision. Whoopi Goldberg was clearly the best performance in the category, and yet the Academy gives Best Actress to Geraldine Page for The Trip to Bountiful (talked about here). Oh, this racism is killing me inside. Geraldine Page was a respected actress with 8 nominations to her name. But don’t let that fool you. They used her veteran status as an excuse to be racist. Watch the performances — you’ll see what I mean. Then Best Supporting Actor was Don Ameche for Cocoon, which was a veteran win, no more, no less. This one I can kind of get behind. I mean, Klaus Maria Brandauer was strong in Out of Africa, but I don’t like that film, and Eric Roberts was awesome in Runaway Train, but I don’t think the Academy would have voted for him. So I guess this result is kind of okay. Then Best Supporting Actress was Anjelica Huston for Prizzi’s Honor (talked about here), which, I don’t really like all that much. At all, in fact.

So that’s 1985. Of the 6 decisions, I like one of them. This one. Then three of them are terrible, I don’t like one (Supporting Actress) but can live with it a little bit (though my dislike still stands) and can live with the other one (Supporting Actor). All in all a terrible year.

BEST ACTOR – 1985

And the nominees were…

Harrison Ford, Witness

James Garner, Murphy’s Romance

William Hurt, Kiss of the Spider Woman

Jack Nicholson, Prizzi’s Honor

Jon Voight, Runaway Train Read the rest of this page »

Posted by  |  October 6, 2011 | Categories: Movies, Oscars, The Oscar Quest | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment

Pic of the Day: “If you didn’t kill him, then who did, sir?” “Who can say? Best thing for him, really. His therapy was going nowhere.”

Posted by  |  October 6, 2011 | Categories: Movies, Pic of the Day | Tags: | Leave a comment

The Oscar Quest: Best Director – 1957

1957 is one of those great years for the Academy. A great film wins Best Picture and is so unquestionably obvious a choice that no one can really speak ill of it (even though another nominated film, in this case, 12 Angry Men, is just as good and is also a classic). The Bridge on the River Kwai wins Best Picture, along with this category and Best Actor for Alec Guinness. Great decisions, the lot.

Best Actress this year was Joanne Woodward for The Three Faces of Eve (talked about here), which is a fantastic decision that I not only love, but see as one people can’t disagree with, given the category. I love that. There’s nothing more annoying than a great decision that people don’t like because of whatever stupid reason they have. Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress this year were Red Buttons and Miyoshi Umeki for Sayonara, which I count as two of the worst decisions of all time in their respective categories (Best Supporting Actor because of the competition (and weakness of the performance), Best Supporting Actress because of the weakness of the performance).

So that’s 1957. Love the year outside of the Supporting categories. Which basically means I love the year. Because who gives a shit about the Supporting categories? Am I right? Right? High five!

(Awkward pause as we realize there is no joke going into the break…)

BEST DIRECTOR – 1957

And the nominees are…

David Lean, Bridge on the River Kwai

Joshua Logan, Sayonara

Sidney Lumet, 12 Angry Men

Mark Robson, Peyton Place

Billy Wilder, Witness for the Prosecution Read the rest of this page »

Posted by  |  October 5, 2011 | Categories: Movies, Oscars, The Oscar Quest | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Pic of the Day: “Who died and made you fucking king of the zombies?”

Posted by  |  October 5, 2011 | Categories: Movies, Pic of the Day | Tags: | Leave a comment