The 1959 Retro Hollmann Awards, Part Three

At last, the final day of the 1959 Retro Hollmann Awards.

Make sure you check out Part One and Part Two, as well as the complete list of nominations and the Top Ten.

On with the show!

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Ivan the Terrible, Part Two: The Boyars' Plot

Vasili Goryunov, makeup artist

2. Li'l Abner; 3. The Human Condition: No Greater Love

Yes, the greasy, matted hair and beard of Ivan is back, but there are some new looks to gawk at here. Like the massive Kris Kringle beard of one boyar, or the new goatee sprouting from the chin of Vladimir Staritsky, or the young Ivan'sMarilyn Quayle flip...

In second, the character-specific wigs and prosthetics for Li'l Abner. In third, the dirt and wounds of The Human Condition: No Greater Love.

Best Production Design, Best Actress, Best Picture - and more! After the jump, I mean...

The 1959 Retro Hollmann Awards: Part Two

Yesterday, the 1959 Retro Hollmann Awards began with Best Costume Design, Best Actor, and more.

We continue with six more categories!

The full list of nominations here.

And now - on to Best Supporting Actor.

Best Supporting Actor

Martin Landau as Leonard

North by Northwest

2. Stephen Boyd in Ben-Hur; 3. Sô Yamamura in The Human Condition: No Greater Love; 4. Murray Hamilton in Anatomy of a Murder; 5. Joseph N. Welch in Anatomy of a Murder

When Edmond O'Brien presented the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, he called the category "the best picture-stealer". That was more or less my criteria for this win. As the faithful, coded-gay assassin Leonard, Martin Landau is eighth-billed in the credits and number one in my heart. Landau is the one who gives Leonard a motivation beyond blind obedience to a cause, not with words, but with a walk and a glance and a sneer and the right pauses in the right places. There's a reptilian menace in his physicality, lithe but dangerous. It's a scene-stealer, a movie-stealer - it's the Best Supporting Actor performance of the year.

In second, Stephen Boyd's spurned former friend, armed with superiority and a broken heart. In third, Sô Yamamura's veteran, balancing his survival skills with what he knows to be right. In fourth, Murray Hamilton's cautious and loyal bartender proves a worthy opponent for James Stewart's defense attorney. In fifth, Joseph N. Welch's folksy, occasionally befuddled judge.


After the jump: Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, Best Sound, and more.....

The 1959 Retro Hollmann Awards: Part One

The 1959 Retro Hollmann Awards will be unveiled over a period of three days.

The full list of nominees here.

We start today with Best Costume Design.

Best Costume Design

Black Orpheus

Isabel Pons

2. Ivan the Terrible, Part Two: The Boyars' Plot; 3. Li'l Abner; 4. Some Like It Hot; 5. Imitation of Life

Everyone just looks so sexy, and that's before the party starts! The colors and designs that come out of the Carnaval costumes are the centerpieces: the veiled Eurydice, the armored (albeit in a way that still compliments his toned chest) Orfeu, the skeletal Death. It's breathtaking.

In second, the royal robes become part of the plot in Ivan the Terrible, Part Two: The Boyars' Plot. In third, the comic book colors - capital-c Costumes - in Li'l Abner. In fourth, the dresses fit for all shapes, sizes, and sexes in Some Like It Hot. In fifth, the fashionable gowns and practical housecoats of Imitation of Life.


More, including Best Actor, Best Original Song, and Best Visual Effects, after the jump....

The 1959 Retro Hollmann Awards Nominations

The nominations for the 1959 Retro Hollmann Awards are here! 63 films screened, 27 nominated across 18 categories. The order of the presentation of categories was decided by random drawing - Best Picture is somewhere in the midst of it all.

The nominees are....after the jump.

Top Ten of 1959

Presenting, with an, "I'm sorry!" to the shoulda-coulda-woulda entrants....

The 400 Blows, The Best of Everything, Imitation of Life, and North by Northwest....

...the Top Ten of 1959! In alphabetical order! After the jump....

The 1947 Retro Hollmann Awards, Part Two

We've shared the Top Ten. We've named the nominees. We've given out the first batch of prizes. Now, the final day of the 1947 Retro Hollmann Awards...which means the end of our look back at 1947. Each category is presented in the same order as at the 20th Academy Awards. Yup: we're closing out with Best Actress!

But first....

Best Actor

Nikolay Cherkasov as Tsar Ivan IV

Ivan the Terrible, Part One

2. Edmund Gwenn in Miracle on 34th Street, 3. Cary Grant in The Bishop's Wife, 3. Ronald Colman in A Double Life, 5. David Niven in The Bishop's Wife

Cherkasov is exhausting and all-in as the first Tsar of All Russia. He is sweating every single moment. The most surprising moments involve his scenes with wife Anastasia - that's real love, baby, real tenderness, real sorrow. His performance is a spectacle without equal. My understanding is that this definition of "terrible" isn't so much "Ivan the Bad" as it is "Ivan the Formidable" and, fuck me, Cherkasov is formidable.

Gwenn is Santa Claus. Grant exudes a gentle, holy warmth. Colman goes nuts, with subtlety. Niven does befuddled frustration without compromising the chemistry with Loretta Young.

Original Song, Adapted Screenplay, Best Picture and more, after the jump....

The 1947 Retro Hollmann Awards, Part One

At last, the 1947 Retro Hollmann Awards are here! Part One consists of nine categories, including three that were not awarded at the 20th Academy Awards. For a full list of nominees, refer to yesterday's full list of nominees.

Best Ensemble 

Black Narcissus

Adele Raymond, casting

2. Green for Danger, 3. A Matter of Life and Death, 4. Brute Force, 5. Miracle on 34th Street

A sister superior who clings to that second word. A cloister of nuns - loyal, flighty, tempted. A beautiful native girl and the prince who is smitten with her. A capital-m Male advising a distracted royal. A holy man permanently perched. Each embodied vividly in Black Narcissus.

Green for Danger boasts an impressive who's who in British character acting. Everyone in A Matter of Life and Death is game for fantastic realism and impossible romance. Brute Force is full of brooding, guilt-ridden, desperate men. Miracle on 34th Street's cast just looks like they're having a blast.

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Ivan the Terrible, Part One

Vasili Goryunov, makeup artist

2. A Matter of Life and Death, 3. Great Expectations, 4. Miracle on 34th Street, 5. Forever Amber

Ivan the Terrible has some of the most beautifully-applied lashes and liner in cinema. Big beards clutter the court, whether round and full, like the tsar's loyalists, or long, white, intricately carved, like the high priest. Ivan's own looks: the greasy beard, matted hair, the sunken-in eyes on his deathbed. And that one idiot boyar's lipsticked, femininely made-up face.

A Matter of Life and Death delivers impossibly rosy cheeks, French foppery, and very clean angels. Great Expectations makes a haggard prisoner, a wild-haired aging beauty, and the curls of Victorian male hair. Miracle on 34th Street delivers a real Santa Claus. Forever Amber is some good-ass 17th-century style.

Best Costume Design

Ivan the Terrible, Part One

Leonid Naumov

2. Black Narcissus, 3. A Matter of Life and Death, 4. Great Expectations, 5. Mother Wore Tights

Ivan the Terrible's costumes are incredibly detailed, as seen on Ivan himself - the ornate coronation robes, the intimidating simplicity of his court attire, his armor on the battlefield. Surrounded by men and women in big fur coats - so many heavy layers!

Black Narcissus' white habits, native garments, and royal finery. A Matter of Life and Death's looks across space and time. Great Expectations' styles spanning the class system. Mother Wore Tights' vaudeville glamor.


From here on, the categories continue in the same order as their counterparts at the 20th Academy Awards. But that's after the jump....

The 1947 Retro Hollmann Awards Nominees

Can you believe this is the thirteenth iteration of the Retro Hollmanns? Probably you never thought about it!

Following are my picks for what should have been nominated in 1947...but with some not so small differences:

• Best Costume Design - not an Oscar category until the following year; nevertheless, it is a Hollmann Awards category
• Best Makeup & Hairstyling - not an Oscar category until 1981; nevertheless, it is a Hollmann Awards category
• Best Ensemble - not an Oscar category; nevertheless, it is a Hollmann Awards category, awarded where possible to the casting director(s)
• Best Adapted Screenplay - not an Oscar category until 1957; nevertheless, it a Hollmann Awards category
• Best Original Screenplay - considered separate from Motion Picture Story until 1958; both are combined into this single designation for the Hollmann Awards

For a complete list of the 64 films considered, check out my Top Ten of 1947. Eighteen categories in all. And now, the nominees, in the order that I figured them out...except Best Picture, which comes at the end. I've linked to my review the first time each title appears.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

The Bishop's Wife

John P. Fulton, special photographic effects

Harry Redmond, Jr., special effects

Black Narcissus

Ivor Beddoes, special photographic effects

W. Percy Day, process shots / matte painter

Arthur George Day / Thomas Sydney Day, matte painters

E. Hague / Jack Higgins / Sydney Pearson / James Snow, special effects

Forever Amber

Fred Sersen, special photographic effects

A Matter of Life and Death

Stanley Grant, special photographic effects

William C. Andrews / Henry Harris / Douglas Woolsey, special effects

Song of the South

Ub Iwerks, special processes

Brad Case / Blaine Gibson / Joshua Meador / George Rowley, effects animators

18 more films, 17 more categories, all after the jump....

Top Ten of 1947

Many Top Tens are difficult to draft up, but I must confess, this was one of the easiest I've ever made. In alphabetical order....

The Bishop's Wife

dir: Henry Koster

scr: Leonardo Bercovici and Robert E. Sherwood, based on the novel by Robert Nathan

cin: Gregg Toland

Like the angel Dudley, the film possesses a deceptively light touch whose gentle caresses bring forth great depths of feeling. It's funny but not silly, fanciful but not absurd, and it winks at extramarital flirtations without compromising anyone's integrity. Given the subject matter, it is only fitting that it be, from beginning to end, a pure joy.

Black Narcissus

dir/scr: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, based on the novel by Rumer Godden

cin: Jack Cardiff

A triumph of craftsmanship - the awe-inspiring effects and matte work, Jack Cardiff's photography capturing warmth and tempestuousness in eye-popping Technicolor, the detailed decay of a mountaintop convent. A triumph, too, of narrative - the unhappy woman who shuts herself up behind convent walls in the Himalayas, little realizing that only here, high enough to touch the heavens, is she truly exposed. Sexy and sad!

Tsars, circus folk, holy men and more, after the jump....

1947, Part Four: Grab Bag (and Crossfire)

I didn't have a theme for this group of ten, I just watched a bunch of movies. Join us!

Captain from Castile

dir: Henry King

scr: Lamar Trotti, based on the novel by Samuel Shellabarger

Oscar Nominee: Best Dramatic Or Comedy Score

Spanish nobleman escapes the Inquisition and joins Cortez's Mexican expedition. Rousing music, beautiful costumes, and Jean Peters in her acting debut - my God but she's a presence! Flirts with complication by having our hero support Cortez, while not shying away from the conquistador's greed and megalomania, yet seems weirdly divided in its feelings re: Spanish colonization of Mexico.