1963--The Year in Review

An abysmal year for American film, with only one Best Picture nominee (Elia Kazan's beautiful memory piece America, America) worthy of the honor. The slate was rounded out with two bloated epics--the now-dull Cinerama showcase How The West Was Won and the intermittently entertaining Cleopatra (the year's most controversial work, for all the wrong reasons)--and one good-hearted drama, Lilies of the Field, starring Sidney Poitier, who probably won the '63 Best Actor award because he wasn't even nominated for his supreme screen performance the year before (for A Raisin in the Sun). The winner, ultimately, was Tony Richardson's bawdy farce Tom Jones, a handsome and totally inconsequential choice (though one that harkens to the looming sexual revolution and British Invasion). It's holds, then, that Fellini takes the prize (here, at least) for his impressively thoughtful, visually striking personal epic about a filmmaker's bout with creative ennui; it kinda goes without saying that it's a dazzling work, deserving of the award even if American movies had been ten times their power. Spearheaded by Marcello Mastroianni's complex, charismatic lead performance, Fellini's soul-baring movie would be much imitated by only the bravest directors in later years, but never with quite as much verve (though Bob Fosse would come dangerously close in 1979). Still, the great Italian auteur spars mightily with Jean-Luc Godard, another master filmmaker critically examining his chosen craft with the brightly-colored and beautifully scored Contempt. The closest the US could come to this remarkable level of filmmaking aptitude was Martin Ritt's Hud, a sourly dour look at the death of the American West, led by nasty Paul Newman as an odious drunkard causing trouble for his aging cowpoke father (a stern, lovely Melvin Douglas) and straight-talking housemaid (Patricia Neal, whose wonderfully naturalistic, Best Actress-winning role really belonged in the supporting category). Instead, for Best Actress, I initially leaned towards competing performances delivered by Ingrid Thulin in service of Ingmar Bergman (agilely directing two intensely challenging movies about religious faith), but in the end had to give the award to Julie Harris. whose manic heroine finds solace with a haunted house (for me, it's her second Best Actress award, after 1952's The Member of the Wedding). In the newly lively Documentary Feature category, it was impossible to ignore Robert Drew's Crisis, an intimate examination of President John F. Kennedy's trying battle with Alabama's governor George Wallace over allowing black students into the state university. As for the short films, none surpass The House is Black, the shockingly frank look at a leper colony from Iran's Forugh Farrokhzad--a masterpiece if there ever was one. The same goes for Stan Brakhage's silent "animated" short film Mothlight, consisting of pieces of moth wings embedded withing long strips of 16mm editing tape (both films are like nothing you've ever seen--and you can watch them here!). And, finally, in the special effects category, Ray Harryhausen finally wins, this time for his most deeply loved work. Unbelievably, it wasn't even nominated for the Special Effects award. What the hell were the voters THINKING? NOTE: These are MY choices for each category, and are only occasionally reflective of the selections made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (aka The Oscars). When available, the nominee that actually won the Oscar will be highlighted in bold. 

PICTURE: 8½ (Italy, Federico Fellini)
(2nd: Contempt (France, Jean-Luc Godard), followed by:
Hud (US, Martin Ritt)
High and Low (Japan, Akira Kurosawa)
The Leopard (Italy/US, Luchino Visconti)
America, America (US, Elia Kazan)
Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (US, Robert Drew)
Winter Light (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman)
The Birds (US, Alfred Hitchcock)
Shock Corridor (US, Samuel Fuller)
The Haunting (US, Robert Wise)
Billy Liar (UK, John Schlesinger)
Lord of the Flies (UK, Peter Brook)
An Actor’s Revenge (Japan, Kon Ichikawa)
The Servant (UK, Joseph Losey)
Ladybug Ladybug (US, Frank Perry)
This Sporting Life (UK, Lindsay Anderson)
The Silence (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman)
The Big City (India, Satyajit Ray)
Charade (US, Stanley Donen)
From Russia With Love (UK, Terence Young)
The Great Escape (US/UK, John Sturges)
Cleopatra (US, Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
Bye Bye Birdie (US, George Sidney)
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (US, Stanley Kramer)
Jason and the Argonauts (UK, Don Chaffey)
The Nutty Professor (US, Jerry Lewis)
Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow (Italy, Vittorio de Sica)
La Baie des Anges (France, Jacques Demy)
Tom Jones (UK, Tony Richardson)
X--The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (US, Roger Corman)
The Cool World (US, Shirley Clarke)
Flaming Creatures (US, Jack Smith)
These are the Damned (UK, Joseph Losey)
Love with the Proper Stranger (US, Robert Mulligan)
Lilies of the Field (US, Ralph Nelson)
The Pink Panther (US, Blake Edwards)
The List of Adrian Messenger (US, John Huston)
The Cardinal (US, Otto Preminger)
Irma La Douce (US, Billy Wilder)
The Day of the Triffids (US, Steve Sekely)
Johnny Cool (US, William Asher)
Black Sabbath (Italy, Mario Bava)
Dementia 13 (US, Francis Coppola)
Blood Feast (US, Hershel Gordon Lewis))

ACTOR: Marcello Mastroianni, 8½ (2nd: Paul Newman, Hud, followed by: Toshiro Mifune, High and Low; Richard Harris, This Sporting Life; Jerry Lewis, The Nutty Professor; Dirk Bogarde, The Servant; Kazuo Hasegawa, An Actor’s Revenge; Ray Milland, X--The Man with the X-Ray Eyes; Gunnar Bjornstrand, Winter Light)



ACTRESS: Julie Harris, THE HAUNTING (2nd: Ingrid Thulin, Winter Light, followed by: Ingrid Thulin, The Silence; Tippi Hedren, The Birds; Sophia Loren, Yesterday Today and Tomorrow; Rachel Roberts, This Sporting Life; Audrey Hepburn, Charade; Madhabi Mukherjee, The Big City; Natalie Wood, Love With the Proper Stranger)



SUPPORTING ACTOR: Melvyn Douglas, HUD (2nd: Rex Harrison, Cleopatra, followed by: Walter Matthau, Charade; Larry Tucker, Shock Corridor; Robert Shaw, From Russia With Love; James Best, Shock Corridor; Roddy McDowall, Cleopatra; John Huston, The Cardinal; Paul Lynde, Bye Bye Birdie)



SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Patricia Neal, HUD (won as Best Actress) (2nd: Ethel Merman, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, followed by: Julie Christie, Billy Liar; Ann-Margret, Bye Bye Birdie; Lilia Skala, Lilies of the Field; Joyce Redman, Tom Jones; Diane Cilento, Tom Jones; Sandra Milo, 8½; Suzanne Pleshette, The Birds)



DIRECTOR: Federico Fellini, 8½ (2nd: Jean-Luc Godard, Contempt, followed by: Martin Ritt, Hud; Ingmar Bergman, Winter Light; Luchino Visconti, The Leopard; Elia Kazan, America America; Akira Kurosawa, High and Low; Alfred Hitchcock, The Birds; Samuel Fuller, Shock Corridor; Ingmar Bergman, The Silence)

NON-ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILM: 8½ (Italy, Federico Fellini) (2nd: Contempt (France, Jean-Luc Godard); High and Low (Japan, Akira Kurosawa); The Leopard (Italy/US, Luchino Visconti); Winter Light (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman); An Actor’s Revenge (Japan, Kon Ichikawa); The Silence (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman); The Big City (India, Satyajit Ray); Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow (Italy, Vittorio de Sica); La Baie des Anges (France, Jacques Demy))

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: CRISIS: BEHIND A PRESIDENTIAL COMMITMENT (US, Robert Drew) (2nd: The Cool World (US, Shirley Clarke))

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:  Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tulio Pinelli and Brunello Rondi, 8 ½ (2nd: Samuel Fuller, Shock Corridor, followed by: Ingmar Bergman, Winter Light; Eleanor Perry and Lois Dickert, Ladybug Ladybug; Elia Kazan, America, America)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Irving Ravetch and Harriett Frank Jr., HUD (2nd: Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Ryuzo Kikushima and Eijiro Hisaita, High and Low, followed by: Harold Pinter, The Servant; David Storey, This Sporting Life; Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall, Billy Liar)



LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: THE HOUSE IS BLACK (Iran, Forugh Farrokhzad) (2nd: Showman (US, Albert and David Maysles), followed by: Towers Open Fire (UK, Antony Balch); What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (US, Martin Scorsese); The Five Cities of June (US, Walter de Hoog and Bruce Herschensohn))


 
ANIMATED SHORT FILM: MOTHLIGHT (US, Stan Brakhage) (2nd: Labyrinth (Poland, Jan Lenica), followed by: The Critic (US, Ernest Pintoff); Automania 2000 (UK, John Halas); Le Nez (France, Alexander Alexeieff, Claire Parker))

BLACK-AND-WHITE CINEMATOGRAPHY: Gianni di Venanzo, 8½ (2nd: James Wong Howe, Hud, followed by: Sven Nykvist, Winter Light; Haskell Wexler, America America; David Boulton, The Haunting)
 

COLOR CINEMATOGRAPHY: Raoul Coutard, CONTEMPT (2nd: Leon Shamroy, Cleopatra, followed by: Giuseppe Rotunno, The Leopard; Robert Burks, The Birds; Walter Lassally and Manny Wynn, Tom Jones)

BLACK-AND-WHITE ART DIRECTION: THE HAUNTING, 8½, Hud, America America, Love with the Proper Stranger

COLOR ART DIRECTION: CLEOPATRA, The Leopard, Tom Jones, The Cardinal, Contempt 

BLACK-AND-WHITE COSTUME DESIGN: 8½, The Stripper, Love with the Proper Stranger, America America, Toys in the Attic

 COLOR COSTUME DESIGN: CLEOPATRA, The Leopard, Tom Jones, The Cardinal, Irma La Douce 

FILM EDITING: 8 1/2, Hud, The Great Escape, The Birds, America America 



SOUND: THE BIRDS, The Haunting, Bye Bye Birdie, The Great Escape, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World



ORIGINAL SCORE: Georges Delerue, CONTEMPT (2nd: Nino Rota, 8½, followed by: Henry Mancini, The Pink Panther; John Barry, From Russia with Love; John Addison, Tom Jones; Elmer Bernstein, Hud)



ADAPTED OR MUSICAL SCORE: John Green, BYE BYE BIRDIE (2nd: Andre Previn, Irma La Douce)




ORIGINAL SONG: "More" from MONDO CANE (Music by Riz Ortolani and Nino Oliviero, lyrics by Norman Newell) (2nd: "Bye Bye Birdie" from Bye Bye Birdie (Music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Lee Adams), followed by: "A Gringo Like Me" from Gunfight at Red Sands (Music by Ennio Morricone, lyrics by Dicky Jones); "Call Me Irresponsible" from Papa's Delicate Condition (Music by James Van Heusen, lyrics by Sammy Cahn); "Charade" from Charade (Music by Henry Mancini, lyrics by Johnny Mercer))



SPECIAL EFFECTS: JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, The Birds, Cleopatra

  MAKEUP: CLEOPATRA, 8 1/2, The List of Adrian Messenger

Forgotten Movie Songs #3: "Take Off With Us" from ALL THAT JAZZ

One of the biggest gob-smacking scenes from any movie I've even witnessed takes place at a crucial juncture for Joe Gideon (played by Roy Scheider). He's a director and choreographer, working at once on a new musical called NY/LA and a new movie about a troubled comedian, played here by Cliff Gorman. The musical he's toiling away at is a veiled version of the now world-famous Chicago, and Gorman was the actor who originally played the first notoriously blue-working comedian, Lenny Bruce, on Broadway in Julian Barry's Lenny. And both were directed in real life by Bob Fosse who, with longtime friend Robert Alan Aurthur, concocted one of the few director-driven film memoirs out there, called All That Jazz. Obviously inspired by Fellini's 8 1/2 (Fosse even stole Fellini's treasured collaborator, cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno, in order to shoot the film), All That Jazz is absolutely the greatest film autobiography available to us (only Fellini's admittedly fantastic originator and Woody Allen's similarly-inspired Stardust Memories approach this masterpiece, though neither own its unique force).

I have no idea who wrote the double entendre lyrics to "Take Off With Us"--I assume it was the libidinous Fosse himself--but I know that the music was composed and arranged by Ralph Burns, who'd won an Oscar previously for Fosse's Cabaret, and had worked on Fosse's debut film Sweet Charity, Woody Allen's Bananas, Mame, Lenny, Martin Scorsese's New York, New York, and Mel Brooks' High Anxiety before winning his second Oscar for All That Jazz. Somehow, this absolutely central song for one of the most acclaimed films of 1979 escaped an Oscar nomination. But that doesn't mean it wasn't good. In fact, it was the best song of the year, even though I absolutely love the eventual winner, "It Goes Like It Goes" (from Norma Rae, music by David Shire, lyrics by Norman Fox). To me, "Take Off With Us" was the musical event of 1979: it begins as a spoof of the old show-stoppers Fosse might have had to choreograph as part of The Pajama Game or Damn Yankees, but then it violently explodes those big marketing expectations by segueing into the darkly sexual "Airotica," which would have problems bringing in the family crowd on Broadway even these days. With "Take Off With Us," Fosse and Burns seduce us with show biz, and then smushes the sordidness of it all in our faces.

Here are only 18 carefully selected frame-grabs from this caffinated sequence, played in front of director Gideon (Schieder, doing a spot-on imitation of Fosse) and his producers (played scuzzily by William LeMassena, Robert Hitt, and David Margulies) and songwriter (the flaming Anthony Holland) The dancing team is spearheaded by the gorgeous Sandahl Bergman (whom most will probably remember as Red Sonja from the early 1980s Conan the Barbarian series); the dancing team features Fosse stage regulars Eileen Casey, Bruce Anthony Davis, Gary Flannery, Jennifer Nairn-Smith, Danny Ruvalo, Leland Schwantes, John Sowinski, Candace Tovar, and Rima Vetter (all of whom were acting under their own names). They are accompanied by the finest Broadway musicians available, set off to the side and beautifully photographed:

I think the reason this song wasn't nominated for an Oscar--even though Burns won for adapting and composing the score--was that the board was confused by its origin. It seemed like this song had been around forever. To add to the confusion, in the movie, the song didn't just end--it was augmented by the ominous "Air-otica" and, as it does with the guys playing the producers, it must have stunned the hell out of the Academy's song voters.

So here is Bob Fosse's crowning film sequence--the best thing he ever did, in my opinion--in its resplendent entirety, edited with utmost precision by Alan Heim (who won an Academy Award for this work). The song is presumably written by Bob Fosse (lyrics) and Ralph Burns (music):



Here are the song's lyrics (and I'm not including "Air-otica" in the mix); the backing vocals are in parentheses:

Take off with us! (Doo doo doo doo)
Take off with us! (Doo doo doo doo)
We're warming up, so (we're warming up) take off with us!

N.Y. to L.A., going all the way
Won't you climb aboard? You'll ride as smooth as glass (glass)!
Glass (...glass)

Meet our friendly, eager crew; they only live to service you!
[girls] (service, service, service, service)
[boys] (service you, service you)

(This flight) This flight comes complete, with your choice of seat.
And any seat you grab will be first class!

Up there where the clouds are pillowy,
You'll as-a close to heaven as you'll ever be.

Lean back, relax – here come the snacks!
Drop your diet have a ball – don't stop, don't stop, don't stop
with one – try ‘em all! (try ‘em all) [yeah, yeah, yeah]

Music's ready to begin;
Take out your headset – plug it in!

What's you're answer, chum?
Are you gonna come on the coolest, hottest
Coolest, hottest, coolest, hottest trip that's ever been?

(Don'cha, don'cha, don'cha, don'cha, don'cha,
Don't you wanna go?
(Don'cha, don'cha, don'cha, don'cha, don'cha,
Don't you wanna go?

Fly, fly, fly, fly

Lean back, relax, uh!