Oscars 1990: Best Supporting Actor

1990's Best Supporting Actor race is full of surprises. The first is Al Pacino's nomination for the comic strip adaptation Dick Tracy, where he goes big as gangster Big Boy Caprice. Pacino being nominated wasn't the surprise - the Golden Globes so honored him earlier - it was the fact that he got in for Dick Tracy and not in Best Actor for The Godfather: Part III that shocked.

The bigger surprise was the winner. Before there were 105 "precursors," common wisdom still held that the New York Film Critics held a lot of sway with Academy voters; this year's winner was Bruce Davison in Longtime Companion. He also won the Golden Glove and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male. The only thing he didn't win was the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, though he was named runner-up to Joe Pesci in GoodFellas (Pesci was reportedly runner-up to Davison's NYFCC win). If you wanted to win your Oscar pool, you were predicting Davison.

And you would have lost:

Well, here's how I'd rank 'em:

Casting Coup Tuesday: The Mirror Crack'd

It's Casting Coup Tuesday, where we dream-cast an imaginary adaptation of a beloved work. All month long, we're celebrating the Queen of Crime as she and her works appeared on screen, in anticipation of the November 10th release of Murder on the Orient Express. Last week, we imagined a second Poirot. This week, may we suggest a Miss Marple?

Published in 1962, the majority of The Mirror Crack'd is an observation of the changing landscape of England, especially its countryside, 15 years after The War. Since then, St. Mary Mead has been incorporated, a new suburban row of homes - dubbed the Development - has been built behind the vicarage, Miss Marple has found need for a daily companion, Dr. Haydock is retired, and Mrs. Bantry is now a widow who has sold her home to a Hollywood star.

It's the Hollywood angle that made this an obvious choice for le cinema, as we discussed earlier today. Besides the 1980 flick, the Joan Hickson television series made this the series finale...and while the Geraldine McEwan-Julia McKenzie series kind of buried it, it did cast Lindsay Duncan.

I think the main issue - not with the Hickson version, that was perfect - but the main issue has been the pressure to do the Hollywood thing, but not taking advantage of the book's most interesting aspects. They do Hollywood catfights, but not Hollywood's prescription drug problem; they explore the pressure of older actresses to seem younger (which the book does not), but ignore the multiple adopted children of Hollywood starlets. What in the world!

Which makes it ripe for a remake.

The cast after the jump. All italicized descriptions come from the Cast of Characters on page xi of the large print edition published by G.K. Hall & Co. in 1992.

Casting Coup Tuesdays: Earthquake (a DISASTERPIECE)

Released the same year as The Towering Inferno, Earthquake is perhaps one of the most surprising entries in the DISASTERPIECE canon. Instead of focusing on a trapped handful, it's a sprawling ensemble. The star wattage isn't as bright as films like Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure. And the cinematography is just...it's just flat and ugly. And the ingenue has this big-ass afro that proudly announces, "Here I am! I am...THE 70s!"

Yet it all somehow works. Credit the strong screenplay by George Fox and Mario Puzo, who actually create engaging characters with real relationships. Or credit director Mark Robson, who gets far better performances from his actors than some of their characters warrant. Actually, credit that ensemble, giving their all without going over the top (except for Ava Gardner, gob-smackingly cast as Lorne Greene's daughter!!!). Ooh, or credit the editor, Dorothy Spencer, who keeps the film moving at an exciting pace without losing any sense of what's happening to whom -- and all at two hours! Maybe we should also commend John Williams, who has a good, sexy time with the score.

My point being, of course, that Earthquake is a fine film. So why even bring up a new cast for a remake? Because: (1) earthquakes in Los Angeles are always great fodder for drama; and (2) the original is SO 1974 -- remember Victoria Principal's afro? But most of all, it's (3) come on, that's not LA. Maybe it's just the specific areas of town they happened to be in, but the LA I've been in for two months is far more diverse than a single Richard Roundtree. I think my cast is more representative, however relative that may be. And I'm pulling Oscar winners, television personalities, and hot young stars into it. It's the old and the new.

So let's shake things up (yuk, yuk)! Let the title lead the way....

DEATH TOLL: 4 (leads only)

ROMANCES: 1 (leads only)