1976--The Year in Review

The British miniseries I, Claudius was really the "film" event of the year, but I can’t give a miniseries Best Picture; something about it seems unfair to even five-hour films. So I had to leave it to Scorsese, Lumet, and Pakula to battle it out for Best Picture and Director. Ultimately, I had to go with the film whose lonely, frank harshness has influenced decades of filmmaking hence, and whose lead performance from Robert De Niro has continually astounded all. Supporting Actor was a packed category this year, by the way--at least ten more possibilities were left by the wayside. Best Song, too, was a bear, with a very unlikely choice topping my list (the whole score for Alan Parker's still underrated and underseen Bugsy Malone nearly overtook the latter category. though ultimately I had to go another very surprising way, I did recognize Paul Williams for his extraordinary contribution to movies this year, though (he ended up winning the Oscar alongside Barbara Streisand for their "Evergreen" collaboration). As for Best Actress, I had to dip into television for the proper choice, and I do so without regret, though I do laud the runner up, who'd go on to do greater things. In the end, has there ever been a more contentious battle for Best Picture? I don't think so. Rocky, Taxi Driver, All The President's Men, Network, Bound for Glory. A perfect lineup. A rarity. 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: TAXI DRIVER (US, Martin Scorsese)
(2nd: Network (US, Sidney Lumet)
followed by: All the President’s Men (US, Alan J. Pakula)
Rocky (US, John G. Avildsen)
Bound for Glory (US, Hal Ashby)
The Front (US, Martin Ritt)
Small Change (France, François Truffaut)
Bugsy Malone (UK, Alan Parker)
Carrie (US, Brian de Palma)
Harlan County, USA (US, Barbara Kopple)
The Outlaw Josey Wales (US, Clint Eastwood)
The Bad News Bears (US, Michael Richie)
Sybil (US, Daniel Petrie)
The Man Who Fell to Earth (UK, Nicolas Roeg)
The Shootist (US, Don Siegel)
Stay Hungry (US, Bob Rafelson)
In the Realm of the Senses (Japan, Nagisa Oshima)
1900 (Italy, Bernardo Bertolucci)
The Memory of Justice (France, Marcel Ophuls)
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (US, John Cassavetes)
Kings of the Road (West Germany, Wim Wenders)
Nuts in May (UK, Mike Leigh)
The Tenant (France, Roman Polanski)
The Seven Per-Cent Solution (US, Herbert Ross)
Face to Face (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman)
Robin and Marian (UK, Richard Lester)
Heart of Glass (West Germany, Werner Herzog)
Next Stop, Greenwich Village (US, Paul Mazursky)
Silent Movie (US, Mel Brooks)
Marathon Man (US, John Schlesinger)
Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000 (Switzerland, Alain Tanner)
Allegro Non Troppo (Italy, Bruno Bazzeto)
Griffin and Phoenix (US, Daryl Duke)
Assault on Precinct 13 (US, John Carpenter)
Mikey and Nicky (US, Elaine May)
Car Wash (US, Michael Schultz)
God Told Me To (US, Larry Cohen)
Fellini Casanova (Italy, Federico Fellini)
Hollywood on Trial (US, David Helpern)
The Marquise of O (France, Eric Rohmer)
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (Brazil, Bruno Baretto)
The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (US, Nicholas Gessner)
The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings (US, John Badham)
The Blank Generation (US, Ivan Kral and Amos Poe)
The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea (US, Lewis John Carlino)
Silver Streak (US, Arthur Hiller)
Ode to Billy Joe (US, Max Baer)
Baby Blue Marine (US, John Hancock)
Mother, Jugs and Speed (US, Peter Yates)
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (US, Robert Altman)
Obsession (US, Brian de Palma)
Gator (US, Burt Reynolds)
Leadbelly (US, Gordon Parks)
Logan's Run (US, Michael Anderson)
Murder by Death (US, Robert Moore)
The Enforcer (US, James Fargo)
The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox (US, Melvin Frank)
Family Plot (US, Alfred Hitchcock)
The Last Tycoon (US, Elia Kazan)
The Missouri Breaks (US, Arthur Penn)
The Opening of Misty Beethoven (US, Radley Metzger))


  
ACTOR: Robert De Niro, TAXI DRIVER (2nd: Sylvester Stallone, Rocky, followed by: William Holden, Network; Woody Allen, The Front; Ben Gazzara, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie; David Carradine, Bound for Glory; John Wayne, The Shootist; Clint Eastwood, The Outlaw Josey Wales) 

ACTRESS: Faye Dunaway, NETWORK (2nd: Sissy Spacek, Carrie, followed by: Sally Field, Sybil; Liv Ullmann, Face to Face; Joanne Woodward, Sybil; Sonia Braga, Doña Flor and Her Two Husbands; Allison Steadman, Nuts in May; Jodie Foster, The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane) 



SUPPORTING ACTOR: Peter Finch, NETWORK (won as Best Actor) (2nd: Jason Robards, All The President’s Men, followed by: Ned Beatty, Network; Lawrence Olivier, Marathon Man; Richard Pryor, Silver Streak; Burt Young, Rocky; Burgess Meredith, Rocky; Chief Dan George, The Outlaw Josey Wales; Zero Mostel, The Front)



SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Jodie Foster, TAXI DRIVER (2nd: Piper Laurie, Carrie, followed by: Melinda Dillon, Bound for Glory; Beatrice Straight, Network; Martine Bartlett, Sybil; Talia Shire, Rocky; Jane Alexander, All the President’s Men; Dominique Sanda, 1900)

DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese, TAXI DRIVER (2nd: Sidney Lumet, Network, followed by: Alan J. Pakula, All The President’s Men; Martin Ritt, The Front; Hal Ashby, Bound for Glory; John G. Avildsen, Rocky; Francois Truffaut, Small Change; Alan Parker, Bugsy Malone)

NON-ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILM: SMALL CHANGE (France, François Truffaut) (2nd: In the Realm of the Senses (Japan, Nagisa Oshima), followed by: 1900 (Italy, Bernardo Bertolucci); The Memory of Justice (France, Marcel Ophuls); Kings of the Road (West Germany, Wim Wenders); Face to Face (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman); Heart of Glass (West Germany, Werner Herzog); L’Innocente (Italy, Luchino Visconti); Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000 (Switzerland, Alain Tanner); Allegro Non Troppo (Italy, Bruno Bazzeto); Casanova (Italy, Federico Fellini); The Marquise of O (France, Eric Rohmer); Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (Brazil, Bruno Baretto))



DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: HARLAN COUNTY USA (US, Barbara Kopple) (2nd: The Memory of Justice (France, Marcel Ophuls), followed by: Hollywood on Trial (US, David Helpern); The Blank Generation (US, Ivan Kral and Amos Poe))



ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Paddy Chayefsky, NETWORK (2nd: Paul Schrader, Taxi Driver, followed by: Walter Bernstein, The Front; Bill Lancaster, The Bad News Bears; Alan Parker, Bugsy Malone)



ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: William Goldman, ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (2nd: Robert Getchell, Bound for Glory; Stewart Stern, Sybil; Philip Kaufman and Sonia Chernus, The Outlaw Josey Wales; Nicholas Meyer, The Seven Per-Cent Solution)

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: RENDEZVOUS (France, Claude Lelouch) (2nd: Children (UK, Terence Davies), followed by: Plaisir d’amour en Iran (France, Agnes Varda); Kudzu (US, Marjorie Ann Short); To Fly! (US, Jim Freeman and Greg MacGillivrey))

ANIMATED SHORT FILM: THE STREET (Canada, Caroline Leaf) (2nd: Leisure (Australia, David Denneen), followed by: Le Paysagiste (Canada, Jacques Drouin); Arabesque (US, John Whitney Sr.); Dojoji (Japan, Kihachiro Kawamoto)



CINEMATOGRAPHY: Haskell Wexler, BOUND FOR GLORY (2nd: Gordon Willis, All The President's Men, followed by: Michael Chapman, Taxi Driver; Owen Roizman, Network; Vittorio Storaro, 1900)

ART DIRECTION: ALL THE PRESIDENT‘S MEN, Bugsy Malone, The Shootist, Logan’s Run, Bound for Glory 

COSTUME DESIGN: CASANOVA, Bugsy Malone, 1900, The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings, Bound for Glory  



FILM EDITING: TAXI DRIVER, Rocky, All The President’s Men, Network, Carrie 

SOUND: ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN, Rocky, Network, Bound for Glory, Silver Streak


 
ORIGINAL SCORE: Bernard Herrmann, TAXI DRIVER (2nd: Pino Donaggio, Carrie, followed by Bill Conti, Rocky; Jerry Fielding, The Outlaw Josey Wales; Bernard Herrmann, Obsession)



ADAPTED OR MUSICAL SCORE: Paul Williams, BUGSY MALONE (2nd: Leonard Rosenman, Bound for Glory, followed by: Patrick Williams, The Bad News Bears)



ORIGINAL SONG: “I Never Dreamed Someone Like You Could Love Someone Like Me” from CARRIE (Music and lyrics by Pino Donnagio and Merrit Malloy) (2nd: “My Name is Tallulah” from Bugsy Malone (Music and lyrics by Paul Williams), followed by: "Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star is Born)" (Music by Barbra Streisand, lyrics by Paul Williams); “I Wanna Get Next to You” from Car Wash (Music and lyrics by Norman Whitfield); “Hooked on Your Love” from Sparkle (Music and lyrics by Curtis Mayfield); “You Give A Little Love” from Bugsy Malone (Music and lyrics by Paul Williams); "Tomorrow" from Bugsy Malone (Music and lyrics by Paul Williams); "Ordinary Fool" from Bugsy Malone (Music and lyrics by Paul Williams); "So You Wanna Be a Boxer" from Bugsy Malone (Music and lyrics by Paul Williams); “Car Wash” from Car Wash (Music and lyrics by Norman Whitfield); "Gonna Fly Now" from Rocky (Music by Bill Conti, lyrics by Carol Collins and Ayn Robbins); "Gator" from Gator (Music and lyrics by Jerry Reed); "Please Don't Touch Me Plums" from The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox (Music and lyrics by Sammy Cahn, Melvin Frank and Charles Fox); "Crossroads" from Massacre at Central High (Music by Tommy Leonetti, lyrics by Jill Williams)

SPECIAL EFFECTS: LOGAN'S RUN

MAKEUP: TAXI DRIVER, Bugsy Malone, Rocky

Forgotten Movie Songs #17: "My Name is Tallulah" from BUGSY MALONE

Alan Parker's Bugsy Malone is one of the few films from my childhood that I still look at with the same adoration I first felt for it. Its melding of the adult and juvenile worlds seems now seamless. It stands as perfection, in its own odd way. When, as children, we all play at the grown-up games of rampant violence--whether it be cowboys and Indians, cops and robbers, superheroes and villains--I think Parker's clear, humane vision is exactly what we have in our heads. And I really like that Bugsy Malone doesn't short-shrift the loftier sexual aspects of all this rigamarole. Of course, we have Jodie Foster as the moll at the center of this very post. But we also have the now forgotten Florie Dugger (GREAT NAME!) as Blousie Brown, whom we root for as the eventual match for the title character, played by Scott Baio (surely the actor's finest showing--talk about peaking early!). Scott Baio's Bugsy is a playa, for certain, and he has his pick of the litter. I find that fascinating. Should it be shocking to note that kids have sexual lives, too? This movie seems to be one of the two or three I can name that has no problem in admitting that.

Bugsy Malone follows the title character as he tries to bounce between two gangster families who're aiming their pie-thrusting guns at each other (the "deaths" in this film are, for me, as stunning as anything I later experienced in, say, GoodFellas). Parker has the character buffeting between show biz, the boxing gym, the indigent and the well-fed realms in equal measures. It's an incredibly smart film. Bugsy Malone was largely ignored in the US, even though its score and songwriter, Paul Williams, garnered an Oscar nomination for his song score in 1976. In Britain--its country of origin (even though none of its cast members were British)--the film won five BAFTA awards, including two for Jodie Foster (Best Supporting Actress and Most Promising Newcomer), Best Art Direction, Best Sound, and Best Screenplay (it lost the award for costume design, direction, and Best Film). I seriously think it should have been in the running stateside for almost all of these awards (but it WAS an especially competitive year that year--Foster got a Supporting Actress nomination, but for her not-so-different role in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver). Maybe Parker's film was ignored because it was literally a diminutation of a uniquely American genre--the gangster film. But that makes no sense, ultimately, because the gangster film genre has never gotten much love from Hollywood. But never mind all that. The fact that a sweet, meaty, well-made movie like Bugsy Malone is now footnote in film history makes me angry even as I write now (there's not even a great DVD out there--and I think The Criterion Collection, if it were as ballsy as it purports to be, should get on this immediately).

The art direction, by Geoffrey Kirkland, is at first outstanding. All the sets had to be built in congress to the size of its all-kid cast (the pie-guns and bicycle-powered cars are a major plus). The film editing, by Alan Parker mainstay Gerry Hambling, is exquisite. And the same goes for Monica Howe's costume design, as well as for the expert makeup and hair styling team. The film gets absolutely nothing wrong in completing the illusion that these are adults in kid costumes. This becomes doubly amazing when you consider that none of the lip-synching is done to kid voices; Parker made the brave decision to have adults do all the singing, and even though it seems like a choice that could have spelled disaster, it works (he makes no effort to hide the fact, either, which makes it an extra-snap). In fact, Bugsy Malone doesn't just WORK, it's compelled into the stratosphere by the very things that must have seemed most risky. It's a strange effect, hearing these adult voices and attitudes behind these kid faces, but it is completely successful, in a variety of bizarre ways. After its all seen, Bugsy Malone is a one-of-a-kind picture. There's nothing out there that resembles it.

The BAFTA got it correct when it awarded then newcomer Alan Parker with the screenplay award. If the dialogue hadn't rung true, then none of this would've carried out. But Parker's writing is convincing, even out of babe's mouths. (It helps that the film is extraordinarily well-cast, down to the most expendable bit players; there are some actors here that you cannot believe are not adults. I especially like the unforgettable John Cassisi as Fat Sam, who's surely one of the greatest gangsters ever committed to film.) And the plot is never uninteresting. In a lot of musical comedies, the plot becomes beside the point. Just get us to the laffs and songs, usually, But not here: here, we actually CARE what happens. Given that, to this day, Parker's movie remains funny, clever, adorable, and threatening at a moment's turn. And when coupled with the exacting film craft and the wise selection of Paul Williams' music and lyrics, Bugsy Malone is unbeatable.

I could choose almost all of Williams' Bugsy Malone compositions as Forgotten Movie Songs entries. And I still might. But the first I will point to is Jodie Foster's introduction, called "My Name is Talullah." For me, this is a stone-cold classic of movie-centric songwriting. The only way I can explain its exclusion from the Academy Awards' Best Song race is that the movie itself seemed so wild (and, perhaps, uncomfortable to watch) for so many male Academy members that it's chances were sunk from the get-go. (This film has gone on to be a popular production on local stages, with "My Name is Tallulah" as a centerpiece; meanwhile, here are three of the Best Song nominees of that year: "Ave Satani" from The Omen, "Come to Me" from The Pink Panther Strikes Again, and "A World That Never Was" from Half a House -- surely you've heard of them). Even the eventual winner, "Evergreen" from A Star is Born (co-written by Paul Williams--coincidence?--with Barbara Streisand) is not as catchy as this tune.

I don't know who sung this song originally. But it's Jodie Foster lip-synching the performance (and I love how she plays it--especially when Parker has her interrupt her performance by taking a drink off a passing waiter's tray). I also have to comment on Parker's direction here; is it me, or has he been heavily influenced by Bob Fosse's Cabaret, in his use of lenses and varying shots? Certainly the sexuality is there for all to see; is this perhaps the thing that's kept this movie from being appreciated? Are we all so afraid of being perverts, after the Reagan era, that we can't enjoy this perfect movie? Well...I say, screw that. The exquisite music and lyrics are by Paul Williams (whom I suspect also arranged the tune). It's impossible not to want to see this movie in full, if you haven't seen it already, after you view this (it's available now on You Tube, in parts). The fun lyrics follow the clip:



My name is Tallulah
My first rule of thumb
I don't say where I'm going
Or where I'm coming from
I try to leave a little reputation behind me
So if you really need to
You'll know how to find me

My name is Tallulah
I live till I die
I'll take what you give me
And I won't ask why
I've made a lot of friends
In some exotic places
I don't remember names
But I remember faces

Lonely
You don't have to be lonely
Come and see Tallulah
We can chase your troubles away, oh
If you're lonely
You don't have to be lonely
When they talk about Tallulah
You know what they say
No one south of Heaven's
Gonna treat you finer
Tallulah had her training
In North Carolina

My name is Tallulah
And soon I'll be gone
An open invitation
Is the road I'll travel on
I'll never say goodbye
Because the words upset me
You may forgive my goin'
But you won't forget me

Lonely
You don't have to be lonely
Come and see Tallulah
We can chase your troubles away
If you're lonely
You don't have to be lonely
When they talk about Tallulah
You know what they say
No one south of Heaven's
Gonna treat you finer
Tallulah had her training
In North Carolina

SIDE ORDERS #9

For my first entry into this month's quickly-written SIDE ORDERS, we have the opening scene of Morton DaCosta's 1962 musical masterpiece The Music Man. If one were listing great opening scenes of any movie or stage production, one would have to include "Rock Island," the incredible white-rap penned by Meredith Wilson. The amazing thing about this scene is that only two of the characters on this chugging train will ever be seen in the movie again (and you only see the film's lead character, Robert Preston's Harold Hill, very quickly). It's a whiz-bang opening, filled with glib turn-of-the-20th-century references that now sound like otherworldly gibberish (though if you know what these guys are talking about, it deepens the piece). When I was a kid, I used to listen to the soundtrack of The Music Man on a cassette I recorded off of TV. Thus I can recite "Rock Island" (and the rest of the movie) completely by rote; I'm apparently the only one in the world who considers it one of the most notable movie musicals. I'd love to do "Rock Island" in kareoke one day, but, alas, I think this is simply a beautiful, unattainable dream.
I was talking to my friend Stacy McClendon in Atlanta today, and she admonished me for not including the soundtrack to Midnight Cowboy on my recent list of the 170 best soundtracks ever. I do think John Barry's theme to the Oscar-winning movie is brilliant, but the soundtrack as a whole--excepting Nilsson's "Everybody's Talkin'"--seems packed with filler (Midnight Cowboy is just one of scads of films that sport a catchy title theme which fails to take deep root in the score's body). Anyway, me and Stacy kept chatting, and I mentioned that I thought Ferrante and Teicher's version of the song was one of the 100 greatest singles of the rock era. Stacy then revealed to me that she was a Ferrante and Teicher uber-fan. See, this is why Stacy is my friend; she knows what's cool. Ferrante and Teicher, the piano-playing pair that cornered the market in 60s/70s-era elevator music, are the shit--just take a look at them performing John Barry's Midnight Cowboy theme in frilly tux shirts and cool sideburns. Then you can consider yourself edumacated.
One of the greatest of recent credits sequences: Kuntzel and Deygas's wonderfully retro title sequence to Steven Spielberg's Catch Me if You Can, from 2002, with astonishing music from John Williams.
Bugsy Malone's "My Name is Tallulah," written by Paul Williams, was crafted as the intro for the film's star, Jodie Foster, who in this same year, was nominated for an Oscar for a similarly precocious role as the underaged NYC prostitute Iris in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver. As fine as she is here, Foster doesn't do the vocals (all the singing in Bugsy Malone was overdubbed by adults, to surprisingly laudable effect). Pay close attention to the background players here, as well as to the expertly scaled-down sets and costumes: though it's a 30s-era gangster movie, there are nothing but kids in the cast. It's really a one-of-a-kind movie, Bugsy Malone (directed by Alan Parker, who also did four more musicals: The Committments, Pink Floyd The Wall, Fame, and Evita).
Finally, just because I love the film, the original trailer to Dan O'Bannon and John Carpenter's perfect sci-fi spoof Dark Star. Somehow, this movie's dread-filled atmosphere still gives me chills, even while it delivers uproarious laughs.
And now, finally, speaking of uproarious laughs, the famous "vessle with the pestle" scene from The Court Jester (Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, 55). Courtesy of Danny Kaye, has there ever been in cinema a more impressive diplay of verbal gymastics? I don't think so. (By the way, that's Glynis Johns as Maid Jean, and on the throne, Angela Lansbury and Cecil Parker, with Basil Rathbone off to the side).