Day Four: Best Supporting Actress, 1954

In both Damien Bona and Mason Wiley's Inside Oscar and John Harkness's The Academy Awards Handbook, the 1954 Best Supporting Actress race is heralded as the first instance of category fraud successfully resulting in a win.

At a time when the studio decided category placement, with no wiggle room for Academy members to decide for themselves (as when Kate Winslet won lead for The Reader when she was campaigned supporting), Columbia's decision to campaign Eva Marie Saint as supporting rather than lead was a surprise to many. It was also smart - it kept her out of the bloodbath happening between The Country Girl's Grace Kelly - named Best Actress of the Year by the National Board of Review, the New York Film Critics' Circle and the Golden Globes (in the Drama category) - and A Star is Born's Judy Garland, giving a ferocious performance that netted her the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy. Saint's performance was earning her magazine covers and praise from critics and audiences, but as a newcomer making her film debut, a win, hell maybe even a nomination, seemed a far-off bet. So, Saint was declared Supporting....where she was nominated....and eventually....

And so was born one of Oscar's favorite traditions! From Tatum O'Neal to Viola Davis, Jack Albertson to Mahershala Ali, there's always at least one winner whose category placement seems...suspect. Then again, supporting is often in the eye of the beholder - I think Davis is absolutely supporting in Fences, and Saint's case is a little less clear-cut than its reputation would suggest.

Still. All that really matters is - does the performance deserve the gold? Let's talk about that, and more...

Day Three: Original Song, 1954

The nominees for Best Original Song are:

"The High and the Mighty" from The High and the Mighty

music by Dimitri Tiomkin

lyrics by Ned Washington

** / disqualified

Like "Jean", a nominated song that doesn't even appear in the film! Not for us, anyway - Elmer Bernstein was reportedly so intent on repeating the Score/Song double dip of 1952's High Noon, he had a special print featuring his original song booked for one week in a Los Angeles theater, thus meeting the standards for qualification. A cheap stunt, if you ask me - and for a song that mars his own beautiful score with stupid, stupid lyrics!

"The Man That Got Away" from A Star is Born

music by Harold Arlen

lyrics by Ira Gershwin

*****

The song that convinces Norman Maine that Esther Blodgett is star material. Goosebumps! The song was shot a number of times with different outfits, background, etc. The one above made the cut, but no matter the look, the song - and Judy's performance of it - is perfect.

"Hold My Hand" from Susan Slept Here

**

Completely forgot about this moment, this song - but not the movie. It's a romantic-comedy about a 35-year-old screenwriter who weds a 17-year-old transient to keep her out of trouble. Lord have mercy. The song's not bad, though. It's fine.

"Three Coins in the Fountain" from Three Coins in the Fountain

music and lyrics by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn

***

we;ll talk more about the movie when we do Best Picture (oh, how we'll talk!), but this tune, performed over the opening titles by an uncredited Frank Sinatra, is....cute! It's certainly memorable. Very nice, very nicely done.

"Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)" from White Christmas

music and lyrics by Irving Berlin

****

Oh wow, watching this movie for the first time in four years was a great reminder of why it's a classic. what a gem! As for the song, I love it, even if the lyric where it's implied his "blessings" are his kids make absolutely no sense in this context.

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

"Three Coins in the Fountain" was a bona fide radio hit, so you better believe it won. Here's Dean Martin performing it on the broadcast:

For me, it's not even a question, no thinking required, my vote goes to

ARLEN & GERSHWIN

for

"THE MAN THAT GOT AWAY"

from

A STAR IS BORN

Tomorrow, the nominees for Best Supporting Actress: Nina Foch (Executive Suite), Katy Jurado (Broken Lance), Eva Marie Saint (On the Waterfront, Jan Sterling (The High and the Mighty) and Claire Trevor (The High and the Mighty)

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Day Two: Best Screenplay, 1954

Until 1957, the Academy Awards had three writing categories: Best Motion Picture Story honored original stories (obviously) as written in the treatment stage, but not the final screenplay; Best Story & Screenplay honored original works where the story and screenplay came from the same writer or writing team; and Best Screenplay honored the work of writers either adapting another work, such as a play or novel, or writing the script from the original story. Often it was more the former than the latter, and this year is no exception: two Broadway shows, two short stories, and a novel that was simultaneously adapted into a Broadway show while the film version was in production.

The nominees are...

Day One: Best Director, 1954

As I mentioned earlier, musicals brought me to 1954, particularly the Actor-and-Actress-nominated A Star is Born and Best Picture nominee Seven Brides for Seven Brothers - stellar cinematic works whose directors (George Cukor and Stanley Donen, respectively) went un-nominated. You'd think Seven Brides would have a better shot here, but 1954 was one of those odd years where only 2/5 of the Best Director roster helmed Best Picture nominees: On the Waterfront's Elia Kazan and The Country Girl's George Seaton.

The three "lone" director slots went to Alfred Hitchcock for the unassailable thriller Rear Window, Billy Wilder for the influential rom-com Sabrina, and William A. Wellman

 for the execrable-but-profitable disaster flick The High and the Mighty. For Hitchcock, it was the second of three times that he would be up for a film that wasn't a Best Picture nominee, the other two being Lifeboat and Psycho. For Wilder, it was the second time in a row, having been nominated just the previous year for Stalag 17 - he'd be a lone director nominee again for Some Like It Hot in 1959. For Wellman, it was a first, his previous nods having come from Best Picture nominees Battleground...and the original A Star is Born! Funny how things work out...

Was their 1954 output worthy of a nomination? Let's check after the jump....

Give Thanks...

...because the Retrospectives are back! Starting Monday, we're looking at the Academy Awards honoring the films of 1954! 

I have to thank Screen Drafts and hosts Clay Keller and Ryan Marker for inspiring this one. My best friend and I recently guest-starred to draft the seven greatest original American musicals of all time (reactions run the gamut from "I think this is my favorite episode" to "this is objectively wrong and bizarre"). The viewings introduced me to, among others, 1954 releases There's No Business Like Show Business, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and A Star is Born - and from there, I simply had to see the rest of the slate.

As in the past, each weekday covers an individual category, ranking and rating the nominees and deciding who my vote goes to. This time, I shan't be doing categories where I have not seen the full roster of nominees - I've previously abstained from rating a film I didn't get to, but it feels unfair to decide a "winner" when there's a gap. So, sorry, Motion Picture Story - unless I can find a copy of Bread, Love and Dreams in time, you shall have to sit this one out. I'm also not doing every category (though I will for my Retro Hollmann Awards at month's end), but keeping it to writing Awards, Acting Awards, Music Awards, Director and Picture.

November 4th - 8th covers, in this order: Director, Screenplay, Song, Supporting Actress, and Actor. The nominated films are:

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The 1969 Retro Hollmann Awards, Part Two

And the final day of 1969! I've given you the Top Ten, a full roster of nominees, and nine awards already. The final nine herein, beginning with....

Best Makeup and Hairstyling 

The Damned

Mauro Gavazzi, makeup artist

Luciano Vito, hair stylist

2. Black Lizard; 3. The Comic; 4. They Shoot Horses, Don't They?; 5. Once Upon a Time in the West 

The Damned takes its aristocrats from chic to ghoulish, all in the way they apply their makeup - and how much of it they're using. Martin's drag, Sophie's increasingly painted face, the blood (God the blood) - it's all perfect.

In second, Black Lizard gives you face. In third, The Comic's early cinema pancake and convincing old age. In fourth, the dried makeup and frazzled hair on tired, sticky faces in They Shoot Horses, Don't They?. In fifth, the sweat and beards of Once Upon a Time in the West. 

The rest of the show, after the jump....

The 1969 Retro Hollmann Awards, Part One

Day One of my awards for the best of 1969. For further context, check out the full list of nominees and my Top Ten. With the exception of the first category, all are presented in the order they appeared at the corresponding Academy Awards ceremony.

Best Ensemble 

Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice

2. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie; 3. Z; 4. Hello, Dolly!; 5. If....

Difficult to name a best in show for Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice - so I won't! The central four are terrific - including one of my favorite performances given by Natalie Wood - perfectly in sync with their characters' shared history, fantasies, morals. The ensemble surrounding them is just as perfect: Dyan Cannon's therapist, perfectly stone-faced, a challenge; Wood's tennis pro, young and handsome and willing and comically nervous; everyone at the retreat in the opening sequence, from guru to attendee, each on the wavelength that makes this film dryly funny without  being condescending.

In second, Miss Brodie and her "gehls" in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. In third, Z's political pawns and opponents. In fourth, screwball perfection embodied by Hello, Dolly's ensemble. In fifth, the students and clueless adults of If.....

Score, Supporting Actor, and more, after the jump...