Can't Get You Out of My Head: Original Song, 1974

I honestly look forward to this category every year, and I think the nominees say as much about the year in film as Screenplay or Best Picture. Back in the day, the winner might also be a chart-topper, and oh how I miss those days! Truly, there's nothing more I want to do then turn on the radio to hear "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me" (wait...it won, right?).

Besides, this is the category where all the freaks go. 2010 gave us two cartoons and a Gwyneth Paltrow movie few saw and fewer liked. 1974? Well, see for yourself.

"Benji's Theme (I Feel Love)" from Benji

***

Like the film, the titular song is beyond cheesy, yet somehow manages to work. A pretty lovable tune, actually, and it works within the film's squeaky clean, family-friendly environment. It really does sound like something the dutiful, adorable Benji would sing if he could.

"Blazing Saddles" from Blazing Saddles

***

A simple homage to the country themes of old. Frankie Laine performs, an ingenious move considering he was the singer of the themes for High Noon and Gunfight at the OK Corral. Solid, singable, and a real earworm tune. I like it, it fits the film, it's great.

"Wherever Love Takes Me" from Gold

*

I once read Gold described as a disaster film, which is completely misleading. Sure, there is a (man-made) disaster at film's climax, but it's more of a corporate thriller/soapy romance. Perhaps the presence of Maureen McGovern singing this all right love tune threw people off; after all, she also contributed to the soundtracks for The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno (talk about a niche market).

Sing this she does, though, and the context...fits, I guess? It plays when Roger Moore gets into the plane of his boss's wife and they fly across South Africa to a weekend getaway of sexy sex sex. So I guess, wherever takes them, that's where they'll want to go...in a plane. It fits the subplot, but not the main plot, and it's not very memorable, so I wonder how it got the nomination over the groovy title tune.

"The Little Prince" from The Little Prince

*****

I almost cried when I heard Richard Kiley sing this at the end of the film. There is no moment more emotional than the final scene between the Pilot and the Prince, when the formerly disillusioned man begs for the magical youngster to stay behind. By this time, we've seen the relationship take that classic journey from irritation/confusion to a brotherhood, one where each learns something from the other. The tune is exquisite, and Kiley's interpretation...well, I said it already. It moves one to tears. By far the most powerful moment of the film.

"We May Never Love Like This Again" from The Towering Inferno

****

One of those lovably corny songs that somehow won the Oscar and was probably the first dance at many a mid-70s wedding. It's hard to turn off once that first line gets going, and soon you're just basking in its earnestness. And hey, they actually put Maureen McGovern in the film so that she could sing it at the grand opening of Fiery Death Tower. I kind of wish she appeared more in the film, I want to know if she survived the inferno. Of course, what this song has to do with anything in the movie is anyone's guess. The sad attempt at a love story is a waste of Faye Dunaway's time, and the song isn't even used in that context either. It's just there.

Well, I guess the fact that the couples are slow-dancing gives it some relevance. And the song is just so damn nice.

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Oscar awarded the earworm song from The Towering Inferno. But for relevance and sheer, powerful beauty, I award the Oscar to...

LERNER & LOEWE for "THE LITTLE PRINCE"

from

THE LITTLE PRINCE

Greatness at the Edges: Supporting Actress, 1974

Remember when StinkyLulu had a 1974 smackdown on his blog? I consider this my way-late weigh-in, just like it's my way-late Academy vote. I need a watch. And a calendar.

Ingrid Bergman in Murder on the Orient Express

**

When I first saw this movie as a young lad, I remember a "huh?" moment when hearing Bergman won the Oscar. Bergman is very good in this, I think, and it's absolutely shocking to see Ilsa Lund play this frumpy missionary. I believe every word she speaks, I believe her naively referring to the children of her mission as "black babies born more backwards than I" just as I believe her yelling, "Thou shalt not kill!" after the discovery of the body. It's a role that strikes one as merely stereotypical in the novel, but Bergman manages to convey some humanity in it.

But while I don't think this performance is deserving of the bile it's received in recent years, I certainly don't think it's Oscar-worthy. It's a solid performance of a simply-written character, but with such a large ensemble, there were at least three other superior supporting actresses to choose from. I really do love this movie, though I admit to being an Agatha Christie fanatic!

Valentina Cortese in Day for Night

***

Cortese is so electric and hilarious at film's beginning, it's a shame we rarely get to see her. I really only remember three key scenes with Cortese's character: the dressing-room, the Big Scene that she keeps flubbing, and the farewell dinner. My sister once said that she hates people who declare themselves divas, because real divas don't need to declare it, and they're rarely aware of it. Certainly this describes Severine, who boozes her way through the set of May I Present Pamela. Of course, she has her reasons, but these are hastily explained and dispensed with, never to be heard of again. Yet now the subtext is there, deepening our perception of the character.

Is the performance that deep? Not in the same way, but sure. Cortese seems to be playing with her own motivations, ones that work just as effectively and heartbreakingly as the one scriptgirl Joelle offers. Severine is confused, now jolly, now deeply unhappy, now joking, now motherly. Really, I miss Severine when she's gone, and her last scene made me wish for more. And that...that's an accomplishment.

Madeline Kahn in Blazing Saddles

*****

Madeline Kahn is probably one of the funniest women to ever appear on screen. Her performances are as legendary as they are hilarious: Mrs. White, Elizabeth, the "brave, unbalanced woman" in What's Up Doc?, and of course, the Dietrich-parody that is Lili von Shtupp. She gets an entire sequence to herself, one in which she is tasked by the evil Hedley Lamar (Harvey Korman) to seduce and destroy the town of Johnson's black sheriff, Black Bart. She croons, she dances, she seduces, she falls for him. After all, what they say about men like Bart is twue.

Kahn's great ability as a comedienne, though, was not just to sell the jokes themselves, but to sell the character with sincerity. Seeing Lili go from exhausted singer-spy to a smitten romantic is not only amusing, but pretty adorable. Only Kahn could sell a song as corny/funny/bawdy as "I'm Tired" (They're alvays coming and going/And going and coming/And alvays too soon). Only Kahn could follow up an evening of carnality with the line, "Vat a nice guy." There's a reason why, more than ten years after her death, she's still one of the most admired and quoted character actresses around. It's a shame she quickly disappears after ten straight minutes of her hot comic genius, but I guarantee you'll be thinking about her at film's end. She;s easily the best part of one of the best comedies ever made.

Diane Ladd in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

****

Alice... takes an awful long time to get going. Maybe this is because I knew she had to get there, but the first 40 minutes really feel like one long set-up to getting Ellen Burstyn to that diner to be a waitress.

You know who makes that 40-minute wait worthwhile? Diane Ladd's Flo, the greatest of all greasy-spoon waitresses. She's loud, she's crude, and you know that hair put a hole in the ozone. Of course, like everyone brassy individual the movies throw at us, Flo has some simple wisdom to impart, shrugged off with a cigarette in the bathroom as her friends break down. Really, anyone who doesn't want to be Flo's best friend is probably a real drag.

Talia Shire in The Godfather: Part II

*

Shire has two big scenes: playing boozy, negligent mother who wants to run off with Tory Donahue; begging Michael to forgive Fredo after that famous kiss of death. Shire plays both pretty lousily, in my opinion. Clearly, it was the second scene that got her the nomination, and it's a damn well-written piece. Unfortunately, Shire's the actress in this case, and for some reason she's just no good in this movie. Like, at all. From her first scene to her last, I grit my teeth and begged for the end. I don't even think Shire's a bad actress for the most part, but this does not work for me.

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I can't believe Oscar chose Bergman, and that Bergman chose Cortese, because for me, it's so obvious that the Oscar should have gone to...

MADELINE KAHN

in

BLAZING SADDLES

she's pooped