At Death’s Door: Best Actress, 1960

These are the 1960 nominees for Best Actress:

Greer Garson, Sunrise at Campobello

Deborah Kerr, The Sundowners

Shirley MacLaine, The Apartment

Melina Mercouri, Never on Sunday

Elizabeth Taylor, BUtterfield 8

What a storied race this was! Melina Mercouri made a splash for a Greek film but refused to "campaign", saying the publicity from the nomination made her miserable. Greer Garson, absent from the ceremonies since her neat five-in-a-row run in the 1940s (I didn't realize when I chose Hitchcock nominations I'd be getting Garson history, too!), got a final nod (and a Golden Globe!) in a biopic. Deborah Kerr believed she should have won the Oscar this time around. And Shirley MacLaine had as good a chance as any, with her Golden Globe win and the lead role in a Best Picture nominee.

Then there's Elizabeth Taylor, in a huge moneymaker that received good enough notices. And more to the point, she was at death's door. While filming Cleopatra in Europe, Taylor fell ill with a number of issues, with pneumonia finally delivering a near-fatal blow that had the world holding its breath. When news broke that she received an emergency tracheotomy and made a miraculous recovery...everyone else declined their invitations. Watch her category at that year's Oscar ceremony, she's the only nominee who showed up...or had reason to:

And did she deserve it, whatever the quality of the film itself? My rankings, from fifth to first:

Real Women: Best Actress, 1983

I found the Best Actress nominees of 1983 difficult to write about, and I'm not sure why. Perhaps it's because what they all have in common is that they all did so well, so subtly well, so realistically. No matter the genre, no matter the circumstances of the character or the plot, all five performances were of people who exist in the real world: your mother, your sister, your neighbor, your co-worker. That's the story of 1983. Stories about people.

Three of those people are mothers - indeed, none of them seem to have a career outside of it! Jane Alexander is a mom struggling to survive in the aftermath of a nuclear war. Shirley MacLaine is a mother who cannot fathom her daughter's decisions, and isn't shy about saying so. Debra Winger is her daughter, but also a mother of three making the best of things in a marriage that has more than its share of ups and downs.

The other two are young women you underestimate at your own peril. Meryl Streep may seem like a mess - she's consistently tardy, she flashes co-workers, she chews gum on the job -- but she's the lone voice speaking out against what could be corporate corruption. And Julie Walters is under-educated, with a coarse manner of speaking, but when she sets out to better herself, she reveals an unpolished wisdom.

Shirley MacLaine won the Oscar -- which only seems fair. After all, she had been nominated in this category four previous times, with a fifth nod in Best Documentary for The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir. Meryl Streep was just coming off her second win for Sophie's Choice the year before, where she had defeated An Officer and a Gentleman's Debra Winger. Jane Alexander had been nominated thrice previously - she, too, had lost to Streep, when both were up for Kramer vs. Kramer. And Julie Walters was making her film debut.

But here's what I think....

I've Got a Crush on You...

VALENTINE'S DAY

I never thought I would like Valentine's Day more than The Wolf Man. True, it was #13 on my 25 Most Anticipated this year, but The Wolf Man was #1 on last year's. In the end, though, I could not resist the charm of this ensemble rom-com.

It's uneven, certainly. Not tonally, of course, but quality-wise. Some moments are great, flirting with brilliance...others are just head-slappingly awful. Often, these come together, with clunky lines following witty gems. It's certainly an odd one to get into, too, for every scene plays like the climax. So many important story developments happen that you're wondering where all the character development went. And then you realize that there's still another hour and fifteen minutes to go, so this is technically just the big ACT ONE CURTAIN.

But it's hard not to fall in love with some of its most charming aspects. The great-looking cast, the great-looking costumes, those moments of brilliance. The old married couple of Hector Elizondo and Shirley MacLaine is realistically written and portrayed; the high school deflowering subplot is funny and sweet; the chemistry between Bradley Cooper and Julia Roberts gives us the most consistently great storyline of the film.

And yes, I wish the only Asians in the movie weren't stereotypes, and I hated the xenophobic "English with a Bulgarian accent" joke, and the gay couple could have at least hugged or shaken hands or something, and the scene in the school with Ashton Kutcher and Jennifer Garner was clunky, unnatural, and irritating to watch.

But the movie did make me admire the acting abilities of Kutcher, Jessica Alba and George Lopez, which is no small feat. It was interesting to see the whole gamut of great, awful, and eh in one movie, though. Only one performance stinks to high heaven, and that's Eric Dane as a pro football player. Non-actor Taylor Swift has dead eyes, though she makes an energetic first attempt at acting. Child actor Bryce Robinson is adorable, but midway through, you realize he, too, has dead eyes and a blank face. Patrick Dempsey and Kathy Bates are only cameos, and though Queen Latifah almost fits this bill, too, she is just so glorious to watch.

So, best in show: Jessica Biel, Cooper, Carter Jenkins, Kutcher, Anne Hathaway, Latifah, Lopez, Shirley MacLaine, Emma Roberts and Julia Roberts. With ten especially strong performances and only three awful ones in a cast of twenty-two, Valentine's Day is a real charmer.