Day Three: Best Scores, 1961

A double dose of Oscar fun today, as we look at the nominees for Best Dramatic/Comedy Score and Best Musical Score. The former is what we would now know as Original Score; the latter, an unused category that has gone through many permutations, from Adapted Score to Song Score to Original Musical Score. This year was an especially odd one - a non-musical is nominated for its original score in the Musical category, while a film not in the Musical category lifted its score entirely from another medium. The very next year, the categories were distinguished between Substantially Original Score and Adaptation Or Treatment Score. You'll see why.

We start with the nominees for Musical Score - after the jump...

Babes in Toyland

George Bruns

adapting the music of Victor Herbert

***

Grammy Award Nominee for Best Sound Track Album/Recording of Original Cast from a Motion Picture or Television

Flower Drum Song

Alfred Newman / Ken Darby

adapting the music of Richard Rodgers

*****

Grammy Award Nominee for Best Sound Track Album/Recording of Original Cast from a Motion Picture or Television

Khovanshchina

Dmitri Shostakovich

didn't see it!

Paris Blues

Duke Ellington

****

Grammy Award Nominee for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media

Not just substantially original - but a non-musical score. Sure, the film is about jazz players in Paris, but this thing don't exactly have dance numbers.

West Side Story

Saul Chaplin / Johnny Green / Sid Ramin / Irwin Kostal

adapting the music of Leonard Bernstein

*****

Grammy Award Winner for Best Sound Track Album/Recording of Original Cast from a Motion Picture or Television, Grammy Award Nominee for Album of the Year

Also in the conversation:

• Blue Hawaii (Grammy Award Nominee for Best Sound Track Album/Recording of Original Cast from a Motion Picture or Television) - ****
• One Hundred and One Dalmatians (Grammy Award Nominee for Best Album for Children) - ***

And as for the nominees for Dramatic/Comedy Score:

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Henry Mancini

*****

Grammy Award Winner for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media; Grammy Award Nominee for Album of the Year and Best Engineered Album (Non-Classical)

El Cid

Miklos Rozsa

*****

Golden Globe Nominee for Best Music - Original Score

Fanny

Morris Stoloff / Harry Sukman

adapting the music of Harold Rome

***

Golden Globe Nominee for Best Music - Original Score

I guess this one, adapting the music of a 1954 Broadway musical for a non-musical motion picture, is what necessitated an "adapted score" shakeup.

The Guns of Navarone

Dimitri Tiomkin

***

Golden Globe Winner for Best Music - Original Score, Grammy Award Nominee for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media

Summer and Smoke

Elmer Bernstein

****

Golden Globe Nominee for Best Music - Original Score

I wish the movie were as good as this score!

Also in the conversation:

• La Dolce Vita (Grammy Award Nominee for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media) - *****
• King of Kings (Golden Globe Nominee for Best Music - Original Score) - ****
• The Parent Trap (Grammy Award Nominee for Best Sound Track Album/Recording of Original Cast from a Motion Picture or Television) - ***

--------------------------------------------------

Here's where the Academy went with their Score awards:

And here's where I'm going:

Pardon me for thinking they got it right! Again!

Will I continue to agree with their decision tomorrow? The category is Best Actor: Charles Boyer (Fanny), Paul Newman (The Hustler), Maximilian Schell (Judgment at Nuremberg), Spencer Tracy (Judgment at Nuremberg) and Stuart Whitman (The Mark).



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