1961--The Year in Review

It's a very rare annum, indeed, when 18 out of 24 awards given by the Academy correspond with what I have deemed the best of the year (this is the first time I've agreed with the Academy since 1939). In another terrific period for world cinema, it remains just that Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins' stunning big-screen adaptation of the Sondheim/Bernstein Broadway hit ended up taking home ten Oscars; it's a movie that I once, in younger days, found sorely lacking in emotional impact--that is, until I finally caught it on the big screen, where it flourishes with rabid romance, violence, and frantically beautiful movement (the searing supporting performance from Rita Hayworth is another of its chief assets). It's painful for me to leave largely unrewarded one of my very favorite horror films, Jack Clayton's supremely eerie The Innocents. But, as much as I adore Deborah Kerr as that film's jittery governess. I had to give the Best Actress award to Natalie Wood, devastating as Deanie, the lovelorn schoolgirl who nearly buys the farm over her tempestuous romance with Warren Beatty's Bud. On the actor front, I had to side with two very different choices--one for an actor that would be recognized later for a lesser performance, and another for a comedian that never found a dramatic role quite as fitting as this one. In the short films, the very first appearance of computer graphics, via John Whitney' extremely influential Catalog, wins the animation award while Arthur Lipsett's ridiculously thought-provoking Very Nice Very Nice stuns us in its own fashion. Even so, overall, the Academy got things remarkably correct this year. 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: WEST SIDE STORY (US, Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins)
(2nd: The Innocents (UK, Jack Clayton)
followed by: The Hustler (US, Robert Rossen)
Through a Glass, Darkly (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman)
Yojimbo (Japan, Akira Kurosawa)
Judgment at Nuremberg (US, Stanley Kramer)
Divorce Italian Style (Italy, Pietro Germi)
Splendor in the Grass (US, Elia Kazan)
The End of Summer (Japan, Yasujiro Ozu)
One, Two, Three (US, Billy Wilder)
A Woman is a Woman (France, Jean-Luc Godard)
A Raisin in the Sun (US, Daniel Petrie)
The Misfits (US, John Huston)
101 Dalmatians (US, Hamilton Luske, Wolfgang Reitherman and Clyde Geronimi)
Last Year at Marienbad (France, Alain Resnais)
Viridiana (Spain, Luis Buñuel)
La Notte (Italy, Michelangelo Antonioni)
Blast of Silence (US, Allen Baron)
Baron Munchhausen (Czechoslovakia, Karel Zeman)
The Exiles (US, Kent MacKenzie)
Payroll (UK, Sidney Hayers)
Accattone (Italy, Pier Paolo Pasolini)
Of Stars and Men (US, John Hubley)
Pigs and Battleships (Japan, Shohei Imamura)
Victim (UK, Basil Dearden)
Whistle Down the Wind (UK, Bryan Forbes)
One Eyed Jacks (US, Marlon Brando)
A Taste of Honey (UK, Tony Richardson)
Summer and Smoke (US, Peter Glenville)
The Children’s Hour (US, William Wyler)
Underworld U.S.A. (US, Samuel Fuller)
The Guns of Navarone (US, J. Lee Thompson)
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (US, Blake Edwards)
El Cid (US, Anthony Mann)
Night Tide (US, Curtis Harrington)
Two Rode Together (US, John Ford)
The Hoodlum Priest (US, Irvin Kershner)
Lover Come Back (US, Delbert Mann)
The Pit and the Pendulum (US, Roger Corman)
The Curse of the Werewolf (UK, Terrence Fisher)
Five Minutes to Live (US, Bill Karn)
Barabbas (US, Richard Fleischer)
The Parent Trap (US, David Swift)
The Errand Boy (US, Jerry Lewis))

ACTOR: Sidney Poitier, A RAISIN IN THE SUN (2nd: Paul Newman, The Hustler, followed by: James Cagney, One, Two, Three; Marcello Mastroianni, Divorce Italian Style; Maximilian Schell, Judgment at Nuremberg; Toshiro Mifune, Yojimbo; Spencer Tracy, Judgment at Nuremberg; Dirk Bogarde, Victim; Clark Gable, The Misfits)

ACTRESS: Natalie Wood, SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS (2nd: Deborah Kerr, The Innocents, followed by: Harriet Andersson, Through a Glass, Darkly; Marilyn Monroe, The Misfits; Claudia MacNeil, A Raisin in the Sun; Piper Laurie, The Hustler; Rita Tushingham, A Taste of Honey; Billie Whitelaw, Payroll; Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s; Geraldine Page, Summer and Smoke)



SUPPORTING ACTOR: Jackie Gleason, THE HUSTLER (2nd: Martin Stephens, The Innocents,  followed by: George C. Scott, The Hustler; Montgomery Clift, Judgment at Nuremberg; Gunnar Björnstrand, Through a Glass, Darkly; George Chakiris, West Side Story; Tony Randall, Lover Come Back; Dennis Price, Victim; Pat Hingle, Splendor in the Grass)



SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Rita Moreno, WEST SIDE STORY (2nd: Judy Garland, Judgment at Nuremberg. followed by: Ruby Dee, A Raisin in the Sun; Arlene Francis, One, Two Three; Barbara Loden, Splendor in the Grass; Pamela Franklin. The Innocents; Thelma Ritter, The Misfits; Fay Bainter, The Children’s Hour)  



DIRECTOR: Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise, WEST SIDE STORY (2nd: Jack Clayton, The Innocents. followed by: Robert Rossen, The Hustler; Akira Kurosawa, Yojimbo; Ingmar Bergman, Through a Glass, Darkly; Alain Renais, Last Year at Marienbad; Stanley Kramer, Judgment at Nuremberg; Pietro Germi, Divorce Italian Style) 



NON-ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILM: THROUGH A GLASS, DARKLY (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman) (2nd: Yojimbo (Japan, Akira Kurosawa), followed by: Divorce Italian Style (Italy, Pietro Germi); The End of Summer (Japan, Yasujiro Ozu); A Woman is a Woman (France, Jean-Luc Godard); La Notte (Italy, Michelangelo Antonioni); Last Year at Marienbad (France, Alain Resnais); Viridiana (Spain, Luis Buñuel); Baron Munchhausen (Czechoslovakia, Karel Zeman); Accattone (Italy, Pier Paolo Pasolini); Pigs and Battleships (Japan, Shohei Imamura))

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: SKY ABOVE, MUD BELOW (France, Pierre-Dominique Gaisseau) (2nd: Chronicle of a Summer (France, Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch))

ANIMATED FEATURE: 101 DALMATIANS (US, Hamilton Luske, Wolfgang Reitherman and Clyde Geronimi) (2nd: Of Stars and Men (US, John Hubley))

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: William Inge, SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS (2nd: Ingmar Bergman, Through a Glass, Darkly, followed by: Alain-Robbe Grillet, Last Year at Marienbad; Akira Kurosawa and Ryuzo Kikushima, Yojimbo; Ennio De Concini, Pietro Germi, and Alfredo Giannetti, Divorce Italian Style)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Abby Mann, JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG (2nd: Truman Capote and William Archibald, The Innocents, followed by: Sidney Carroll and Robert Rossen, The Hustler; Ernest Lehman, West Side Story; Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, One, Two, Three)



LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: VERY NICE, VERY NICE (Canada, Arthur Lipsett) (2nd: Antonio Gaudi (UK, Ken Russell), followed by: The Fat and the Lean (Poland, Roman Polanski); Seawards the Great Ships (US, Hilary Harris))



ANIMATED SHORT FILM: CATALOG (US, John Whitney) (2nd: Ersatz (Yugoslavia, Dusan Vukotic, followed by: Nelly’s Folly (US, Chuck Jones), followed by: Beep Prepared (US, Chuck Jones); Aquamania (US, Walt Disney and Wolfgang Reitherman))

BLACK-AND-WHITE CINEMATOGRAPHY: Freddie Francis, THE INNOCENTS (2nd: Eugene Schufftan, The Hustler, followed by: Sacha Vierny, Last Year at Marienbad; Kazuo Miyagawa, Yojimbo; Daniel L. Fapp, One, Two, Three; Merill Brody, Blast of Silence) 


COLOR CINEMATOGRAPHY: Daniel L. Fapp, WEST SIDE STORY (2nd: Asakazu Nakai, The End of Summer, followed by: Raoul Coutard, A Woman is a Woman; Boris Kaufman, Splendor in the Grass; Jack Cardiff, Fanny; Robert Krasker, El Cid) 



BLACK-AND-WHITE ART DIRECTION: THE HUSTLER, Last Year at Marienbad, The Innocents, One Two Three, Judgment at Nuremberg 

COLOR ART DIRECTION: WEST SIDE STORY, El Cid, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Flower Drum Song, Summer and Smoke
 

BLACK-AND-WHITE COSTUME DESIGN: YOJIMBO, Last Year at Marienbad, The Hustler, The Innocents, The Children's Hour

COLOR COSTUME DESIGN: WEST SIDE STORY, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Flower Drum Song, El Cid, Pocketful of Miracles



FILM EDITING: WEST SIDE STORY, The Hustler, Yojimbo, Judgment at Nuremberg, The Innocents 

SOUND: WEST SIDE STORY, The Guns of Navarone, Judgment at Nuremberg, One Two Three, 101 Dalmatians

ORIGINAL SCORE: Henry Mancini, BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S (2nd: Miklós Rózsa, El Cid, followed by: Georges Auric, The Innocents; Masuru Sato. Yojimbo; Ernest Gold, Judgment at Nuremberg; Dimitri Tiomkin, The Guns of Navarone) 



ADAPTED OR MUSICAL SCORE: Saul Chaplin, Johnny Green, Sid Ramin, and Irwin Kostal, WEST SIDE STORY (2nd: Duke Ellington, Paris Blues, followed by: Alfred Newman and Ken Darby, Flower Drum Song)



ORIGINAL SONG: "Moon River" from BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S (Music by Henry Mancini, lyrics by Johnny Mercer) (2nd: "Town Without Pity" from Town Without Pity (Music by Dimitri Tiomkin, lyrics by Ned Washington), followed by: "O Willow Waly" from The Innocents (Music by Georges Auric, lyrics by Paul Dehn); "Let's Twist Again" from Twist Around the Clock (Music and lyrics by Kal Mann and Dave Appell); "Let's Get Together" from The Parent Trap (Music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman))



SPECIAL EFFECTS: THE GUNS OF NAVARONE, Baron Munchausen, Mysterious Island

MAKEUP: THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Judgment at Nuremberg

Film #121: Smokey and the Bandit

I can still vividly remember, as a 10-year-old Atlanta kid, first seeing Smokey and the Bandit. My parents had taken me to the Northeast Expressway Drive-In Theater on opening night (if you look at the top right hand corner of this blog, you can see a torn ticket from the theater). The film's star, Burt Reynolds, was then the number one box office attraction in the country, and nowhere was this more evident than in the South. Even though he was born in Michigan but raised in Florida, Burt was pretty much adopted as a hometown boy after his breakout performance in 1972's Georgia-filmed Deliverance, he was pretty much. He returned to the state to shoot White Lightning (1973), Gator (1976) and, in 1977, Smokey and the Bandit. So seeing the latter open at an Atlanta drive-in was a big event.

My father wheeled his much-adored red-and-white '57 Chevy onto the drive-in lot way before dusk, and we sat and waited for the light to change so we could see this film we'd been hearing about for so long. The action-comedy had been in production all throughout 1976, filmed primarily in neighboring Jonesboro and McDonough, with major scenes filmed at the Atlanta's Lakewood Fairgrounds, where a gigantic racetrack and rollercoaster were situated. It was unbelievably exciting for my ten-year-old self to be at the Northeast Expressway Drive-In Theater on opening night; only Burt's very presence could have made it more so.

When darkness fell, we settled in with our snacks and waited for the joy. And so it began, and the film was just gearing up when disaster struck. The frames fluttered and then cooked brightly on the screen, and we knew what this meant: the print had been damaged. The screen lights flashed on in surprise, and I remember instantly looking out the back window and seeing the second screen at the drive-in (this was the first multi-screened drive-in in Atlanta). Smokey was going to be such a Georgia hit that the managers had booked it on the other screen as well, and there, the film was still playing fine. Now, horns on our side were honking in protest as we all waited impatiently for the situation to be fixed. When the projector powered up again, we got a shock: we weren't gonna be seeing Smokey and the Bandit; instead, the second feature, Tobe Hooper's Eaten Alive flickered forth.

Now, I don't know if you've ever seen Eaten Alive, but no matter how much love gorehounds may have for it, it ain't no Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and it CERTAINLY ain't no Smokey and the Bandit. It's a nasty, scuzzy, unfrightening, totally mean-spirited piece of crap that has Neville Brand as a hotel owner who chops the heads off his guests with his scythe and feeds the corpses to his pet alligator. My mother, an avid animal lover (as we all were) was particularly scarred by the filmed feeding of a guest's pooch to the 'gator (to this day, my mother won't watch scary movies where a dog or a cat appears, because she's sure they're going to be killed off, and she's almost always right; it's a trend that's thankfully almost died off). Anyway, needless to say, we were mightilly pissed. But we stayed steadfast for Smokey, because Burt was our man. Happily, we weren't disappointed.

In it, Reynolds plays Bo "Bandit" Darville, a fast-talking, fast-moving rig driver who makes a massive wager with a bizarre, cocky pair of Texas businessmen (Big Enos and Little Enos, played by Pat McCormick and Paul Williams). They challenge the Bandit to deliver of truckload of Coors beer from Texarkana, TX to Atlanta, GA--a little under 1500 miles--in 28 hours (which was a little more difficult back when the speed limit was only 55 MPH). At any rate, Bandit has no problem with this. He hops into his black Trans Am (you know--the one with the T-top and the firey eagle on the hood) and gits, enlisting the help of Cletus ("When You're Hot, You're Hot" country singer Jerry Reed), who's to drive the actual payload while the Bandit's Trans Am serves as a decoy for the po-lice.

Only problem is, Reynolds takes the time to pick up Sally Field, who's decked out in a wedding dress and is thumbing a ride on the highway, escaping her marriage to a doofus played by former football star Mike Henry (who'd played alongside Reynolds in The Longest Yard). Henry's father happens to be a foul-mouthed, over-zealous country sheriff named Buford T. Justice (a dynamic, career-reviving, Southern-fried turn for certified New Yorker Jackie Gleason), who makes it his mission to catch the Bandit and foil his delivery of that Coors beer. So then we get nearly an hour of terrific car chase stunt-work from director Hal Needham, a former stuntman himself. Drive-in audiences (and four-wall audiences, too) wouldn't see so many cars pulverized for another three years, when John Landis' The Blues Brothers hit the screen. Next to that and H.B. Halicki's Gone in 60 Seconds, there has never been more wholesale destruction of Detroit product ever recorded on film. This makes Smokey and the Bandit one of the greatest drive-in movies ever (not one of the film's scenes takes place at night, which made it great for drive-ins, as it was hard to see, under the stars, scenes filmed in darkness).

Scripted by James Lee Barrett (The Greatest Story Ever Told) and Charles Shyer (Private Benjamin), the film was tight, funny, and fast. It may seem stupid today--and it is, really. But I defy you to admit you're not entertained at least a bit by it upon first viewing. Reynolds and Fields are a searing-hot couple (they'd go on to a real-life relationship that lasted for four years; together, they'd go on to appear in Smokey 2, Hooper, and the excellent Reynolds- directed comedy The End); Gleason, with his cornpone Southern accent, is ridiculously funny as the bumbling sheriff (I love it, against my better judgment, when he lets loose with the undying catchphrase "I'm gonna barbecue your ass," but my truly favorite scene--one that still makes me giggle like a kid--occurs when Justice walks out of a restaurant with a long stream of toilet paper improbably hooked onto his treasured smokey's hat). Henry also gets laughs as his idiot-boy son, always there making sure his dad's hat is secure (even after the top's been lopped off of their patrol car). Once cast as a villain in Gator, another Reynolds vehicle, Reed is quite charming (his "boogety, boogety, boogety" has become a rallying cry at present-day NASCAR events, and his songs "Eastbound and Down" and "They Call Him The Bandit" have become country classics). And my mom even got to instantly get over her distaste at the death of that dog in Eaten Alive, because Smokey starred a yelping basset hound named Fred as Reed's sidekick.

According to Box Office Mojo's ALL TIME BOX OFFICE CHAMPS adjusted for inflation list, Smokey and the Bandit ended up making more than $408 million, and became the centerpiece for the CB craze of the 1970s. Two sequels followed--the second was just okay, and the third was one of the most hilariously bad movies ever made); it also spawned countless rip-offs. My mom and dad liked it so much they ended up shelling out for a black Trans Am in 1978; now, THAT was bitchin' (though it broke down so much my parents swore never to buy another American-made car again). So, even now, after seeing all the Bergmans, Antonionis, Kubricks and Kurosawas the world has to offer, my fondness for Smokey and the Bandit remains as indelible as my love for fried chicken, cicadas, dogwood trees, and drive-ins.