1958--The Year in Review

Ultimately, this year, it comes down to two titles that still live large in the hearts of movie lovers. Hitchcock's masterpiece has recently arrived at the top of collective accolades (most specifically, the 2012 Sight and Sound poll), but I prefer the skeezier pleasures of Welles' astoundingly odd and vibrant B-movie, a film that I caught for the first time on late-night TV and was immediately hooked into its bizarre vision of a world literally exploding before our eyes. I adore many of the accomplished films released in its and its closest competitor's wake, but it's generally a period of middling product--a kind of yawn before the following year's landslide of astonishing cinema. Even so, in 1958, we have Wajda (exhibiting Cybulski's superb lead performance, right before he died too early, just like his US twin James Dean), Kurosawa (whose film would provide a kind of template for Star Wars many decades later), Tati (exhilarating as alter ego Mr. Hulot), and the wonderful work of Rosalind Russell, who'd played the exotic Auntie Mame hundreds of times on Broadway before perfectly assaying the character on film. Unsung supporting performers arrive at the top of their field this year, while in the short film categories, live action (and largely experimental) works overtake traditional animation which, in terms of studio product, took a marked downturn, sad to say (though, in an obvious attempt to right past wrongs, Bugs Bunny wins his FIRST Oscar this year). Still, in the short live action film category arrives Roman Polanski with his remarkable, student-made tribute to silent film comedy (it was a big year for Polish cinema, overall). Ray Harryhausen comes out on top for the first time in the effects category. Meanwhile, Jerry Lee Lewis, with an exciting opening number to a obscure cult film, bests all traditional songwriters in the Best Song category. 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: TOUCH OF EVIL (US, Orson Welles)
(2nd: Vertigo (US, Alfred Hitchcock), followed by:
Ashes and Diamonds (Poland, Andrzej Wajda)
Some Came Running (US, Vincente Minnelli)
The Hidden Fortress (Japan, Akira Kurosawa)
Mon Oncle (France, Jacques Tati)
Auntie Mame (US, Morton da Costa)
The Fabulous World of Jules Verne (Czechlosovakia, Karel Zeman)
The Horse’s Mouth (UK, Ronald Neame)
Terror in a Texas Town (US, Joseph H. Lewis)
Big Deal on Madonna Street (Italy, Mario Monicelli)
The Magician (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman)
I Want to Live! (US, Robert Wise)
Man of the West (US, Anthony Mann)
The Big Country (US, William Wyler)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (US, Richard Brooks)
A Time to Love and a Time to Die (US, Douglas Sirk)
The Lovers (France, Louis Malle)
A Night to Remember (UK, Roy Ward Baker)
Gigi (US, Vincente Minnelli)
The Defiant Ones (US, Stanley Kramer)
The Old Man and The Sea (US, John Sturges)
Separate Tables (US/UK, Delbert Mann)
The Left-Handed Gun (US, Arthur Penn)
The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (US, Nathan Juran)
I Bury the Living (US, Albert Band)
Horror of Dracula (UK, Terence Fisher)
No Time for Sergeants (US, Mervyn Le Roy)
Damn Yankees (US, Stanley Donen and George Abbott)
Buchanan Rides Alone (US, Budd Boetticher)
Cry Terror! (US, Andrew L. Stone)
Bell Book and Candle (US, Richard Quine)
Indiscreet (US, Stanley Donen)
South Pacific (US, Joshua Logan)
The Blob (US, Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr.)
The Fly (US, Kurt Neumann)
Thunder Road (US, Arthur Ripley)
The Last Hurrah (US, John Ford)
Run Silent Run Deep (US, Robert Wise)
King Creole (US, Michael Curtiz)
It! The Terror from Beyond Space (US, Edward L. Cahn)
High School Confidential (US, Jack Arnold)
tom thumb (US, George Pal)

ACTOR: James Stewart, VERTIGO (2nd: Orson Welles, Touch of Evil, followed by: Zbigniew Cybulski, Ashes and Diamonds; Alec Guinness, The Horse’s Mouth; Frank Sinatra, Some Came Running; Richard Boone, I Bury the Living; Sidney Poitier, The Defiant Ones; David Niven, Separate Tables; Andy Griffith, No Time for Sergeants; Spencer Tracy, The Old Man and the Sea) 

ACTRESS: Rosalind Russell, AUNTIE MAME (2nd: Shirley MacLaine, Some Came Running, followed by: Susan Hayward, I Want to Live!; Kim Novak, Vertigo; Elizabeth Taylor, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; Jeanne Moreau, The Lovers; Deborah Kerr, Separate Tables; Inger Stevens, Cry Terror!) 

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Joseph Calleia, TOUCH OF EVIL (2nd: Dean Martin, Some Came Running, followed by: Myron McCormick, No Time for Sergeants; Dennis Weaver, Touch of Evil; Burl Ives, The Big Country; Akim Tamiroff, Touch of Evil; Ray Walston, Damn Yankees; Burl Ives, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; Arthur Kennedy, Some Came Running)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Wendy Hiller, SEPARATE TABLES (2nd: Gwen Verdon, Damn Yankees, followed by: Marlene Dietrich, Touch of Evil; Hermione Gingold, Gigi; Judith Anderson, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; Maureen Stapleton, Lonelyhearts; Barbara Bel Geddes, Vertigo; Coral Browne, Auntie Mame; Angela Lansbury, The Long Hot Summer)

DIRECTOR: Orson Welles, TOUCH OF EVIL (2nd: Alfred Hitchcock, Vertigo, followed by: Andrzej Wajda, Ashes and Diamonds; Akira Kurosawa, The Hidden Fortress; Vincente Minnelli, Some Came Running; Jacques Tati, Mon Oncle; Karel Zeman, The Fabulous World of Jules Verne; Morton Da Costa, Auntie Mame)

NON-ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILM: ASHES AND DIAMONDS (Poland, Andrzej Wajda) (2nd: The Hidden Fortress (Japan, Akira Kurosawa), followed by: Mon Oncle (France, Jacques Tati); The Fabulous World of Jules Verne (Czechlosovakia, Karel Zeman); Big Deal on Madonna Street (Italy, Mario Monicelli); The Magician (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman); The Lovers (France, Louis Malle))

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Jacques Tati, Jacques Lagrange, and Jean L'Hote, MON ONCLE (2nd: Nedric Young and Harold Jacob Smith, The Defiant Ones, followed by: Ryuzo Kikushima, Hideo Oguni, Shinobu Hashimoto, and Akira Kurosawa, The Hidden Fortress; Louis Garfinkle, I Bury the Living; Ingmar Bergman, The Magician)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:  Orson Welles, TOUCH OF EVIL (2nd: Alec Coppel and Samuel A. Taylor, Vertigo, followed by: Alec Guinness, The Horse's Mouth; Jerzy Andrzejewski and Andrzej Wajda, Ashes and Diamonds; Agenore Incrocci, Furio Scarpelli, Suso Cecchi D'Amico, and Mario Monicelli, Big Deal on Madonna Street)

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: TWO MEN AND A WARDROBE (Poland, Roman Polanski) (2nd: Le Chant du Styrène (France, Alain Resnais); A Movie (US, Bruce Conner); Glass (Netherlands, Bert Haanstra); Grand Canyon (US, Walt Disney))



ANIMATED SHORT FILM: FREE RADICALS (UK, Lenny Lye) (2nd: Schwechater (Austria, Peter Kubelka), followed by: Hook, Line and Stinker (Chuck Jones); Knighty Knight Bugs (US, Friz Freling); Paul Bunyan (US, Les Clark and Walt Disney)



BLACK-AND-WHITE CINEMATOGRAPHY: Russell Metty, TOUCH OF EVIL (2nd: Ichio Yamazaki, The Hidden Fortress, followed by: Geoffrey Unsworth, A Night to Remember; Lionel Lindon, I Want to Live!; Jerzy Wojcik, Ashes and Diamonds)



COLOR CINEMATOGRAPHY: Robert Burks, VERTIGO (2nd: William H. Daniels, Some Came Running, followed by: Jean Bourgoin, Mon Oncle; Franz Planer, The Big Country; Harry Stradling, Jr., Auntie Mame)

BLACK-AND-WHITE ART DIRECTION: A NIGHT TO REMEMBER, The Hidden Fortress, Touch of Evil, Separate Tables, King Creole

COLOR ART DIRECTION: VERTIGO, Gigi, Mon Oncle, Auntie Mame, Bell Book and Candle

BLACK-AND-WHITE COSTUME DESIGN: I WANT TO LIVE!, A Night to Remember, Ashes and Diamonds, The Hidden Fortress, The Magician 

COLOR COSTUME DESIGN: GIGI, Auntie Mame, Some Came Running, The Buccaneer, Damn Yankees

FILM EDITING: TOUCH OF EVIL, Vertigo, I Want to Live!, The Defiant Ones, The Hidden Fortress 

SOUND: VERTIGO, South Pacific, Damn Yankees, I Want to Live!, The Defiant Ones



ORIGINAL SCORE: Bernard Herrmann, VERTIGO (2nd: Henry Mancini, Touch of Evil, followed by: Jerome Moross, The Big Country; Bernard Herrmann, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad; Dimitri Tiomkin, The Old Man and the Sea) 


 
ADAPTED OR MUSICAL SCORE: Ray Heindorf, DAMN YANKEES (2nd: Andre Previn, Gigi, followed by: Alfred Newman and Ken Darby, South Pacific)



ORIGINAL SONG: "High School Confidential" from HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL (Music and lyrics by Jerry Lee Lewis) (2nd: "I Remember It Well" from Gigi (Music by Frederic Loewe, lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner), followed by: "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" from Gigi (Music by Frederic Loewe, lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner); "Almost in Your Arms" from Houseboat (Music and lyrics by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans); "Teacher's Pet" from Teacher's Pet (Music and lyrics by Joe Lubin))
  


SPECIAL EFFECTS: THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD, The Fabulous World of Jules Verne, A Night to Remember, tom thumb

MAKEUP: THE FLY, Auntie Mame, Touch of Evil

1949--The Year in Review

Easily my most obscure Best Picture pick from the 1940s is Robert Wise's boxing noir The Set-Up, constructed in real time way before Fred Zinneman's 1952 western High Noon made it widely known a movie could be built in this fashion (though I suppose Hitchcock's 1948 film Rope did it earlier). I know many will have problems with this pick, simply because Carol Reed's extremely popular The Third Man appears as competition. But I think Reed's movie lacks a bit of energy when its main assets--Orson Welles and composer Anton Karas--aren't apparent. Wise's film, meanwhile, is still as strong and economical as it was the day of its release--a damning indictment of boxing, and its bloodthirsty fans, too (almost as good in this respect was Mark Robson's soapier boxing film Champion, with Kirk Douglas in the lead). The UK output was particularly lively this year, with comedic masterpieces Kind Hearts and Coronets, Passport to Pimlico and Whisky Galore, while Japan gave us prime films from Ozu and Kurosawa. Alec Guinness wins the lead actor award for his robust, eight-character performance in Kind Hearts and Coronets, while Olivia De Havilland lands her second lead nod in a row for her devastating show in William Wyler's The Heiress. The Oscars, meanwhile, saw fit to give its top awards to Robert Rossen's All The King's Men--a groundbreaker when released but sadly dated today (though Mercedes McCambridge's hard-bitten supporting turn still resonates). 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: THE SET-UP (US, Robert Wise)
(2nd: The Third Man (UK, Carol Reed), followed by:
The Heiress (US, William Wyler)
Kind Hearts and Coronets (UK, Robert Hamer)
White Heat (US, Raoul Walsh)
Late Spring (Japan, Yasujiro Ozu)
On the Town (US, Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly)
Stray Dog (Japan, Akira Kurosawa)
A Letter to Three Wives (US, Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
Battleground (US, William A. Wellman)
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (US, John Ford)
The Window (US, Ted Tetzlaff)
Champion (US, Mark Robson)
Criss Cross (US, Robert Siodmak)
Adam’s Rib (US, George Cukor)
Whisky Galore (UK, Alexander Mackendrick)
All the King’s Men (US, Robert Rossen)
Come to the Stable (US, Henry Koster)
Madame Bovary (US, Vincente Minnelli)
The Big Steal (US, Don Siegel)
Passport to Pimlico (UK, Henry Cornelius)
Jour de Fête (France, Jacques Tati)
Border Incident (US, Anthony Mann)
It Happens Every Spring (US, Lloyd Bacon)
Colorado Territory (US, Raoul Walsh)
The Fountainhead (US, King Vidor)
Sands of Iwo Jima (US, Allan Dwan)
Caught (US, Max Ophuls)
Intruder in the Dust (US, Clarence Brown)
I Shot Jesse James (US, Samuel Fuller)
Samson and Delilah (US, Cecil B. De Mille)
Take Me Out to the Ball Game (US, Busby Berkeley)
Mighty Joe Young (US, Ernest B. Schoedsack))

ACTOR: Alec Guinness, KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (2nd: James Cagney, White Heat, followed by: Broderick Crawford, All the King’s Men; Toshiro Mifune, Stray Dog; Dennis Price, Kind Hearts and Coronets; Robert Ryan, The Set-Up; Kirk Douglas, Champion; Joseph Cotten, The Third Man; John Wayne, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon; Spencer Tracy, Adam’s Rib) 

ACTRESS: Olivia De Havilland, THE HEIRESS (2nd: Setsuko Hara, Late Spring, followed by: Katharine Hepburn, Adam’s Rib; Loretta Young, Come to the Stable; Joan Bennett, The Reckless Moment; Patricia Neal, The Fountainhead; Jane Greer, The Big Steal; Jennifer Jones, Madame Bovary; Deborah Kerr, Edward My Son; Jeanne Crain, Pinky)  

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Orson Welles, THE THIRD MAN (2nd: Ralph Richardson, The Heiress, followed by: James Whitmore, Battleground; Wylie Watson, Whisky Galore; Dan Duryea, Criss Cross; Kirk Douglas, A Letter to Three Wives; Dean Jagger, Twelve O’Clock High; Arthur Kennedy, Champion; William Bendix, The Big Steal) 

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Mercedes McCambridge, ALL THE KING'S MEN (2nd: Thelma Ritter, A Letter to Three Wives, followed by: Keiko Awaji, Stray Dog; Celeste Holm, Come to the Stable; Margaret Wycherley, White Heat; Joan Greenwood, Kind Hearts and Coronets; Ethel Waters, Pinky; Jean Cadell, Whisky Galore; Jean Hagen, Adam’s Rib; Judy Holliday, Adam’s Rib)

DIRECTOR: Robert Wise, THE SET-UP (2nd: Carol Reed, The Third Man, followed by: Robert Hamer, Kind Hearts and Coronets; Yasujiro Ozu, Late Spring; Akira Kurosawa, Stray Dog; William Wyler, The Heiress; Raoul Walsh, White Heat; Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, On The Town;Joseph L. Mankiewicz, A Letter to Three Wives; William A. Wellman, Battleground)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Graham Greene, THE THIRD MAN (2nd: Valentine Davies and Shirley Smith, It Happens Every Spring, followed by: T.E.B. Clarke, Passport to Pimlico; Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, White Heat; Ryuzo Kikushima and Akira Kurosawa, Stray Dog; Carl Foreman and Ring Lardner, Champion)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Robert Hamer and John Dighton, KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (2nd: Ruth Goetz and Augustus Goetz, The Heiress, followed by; Art Cohn, The Set-Up; Kogo Noda and Yasujiro Ozu, Late Spring; Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Vera Caspery, A Letter to Three Wives; Compton Mackenzie and Angus McPhail, Whisky Galore)

ANIMATED SHORT FILM: LONG HAIRED HARE (Chuck Jones; Bugs Bunny) (2nd: Begone Dull Care (Canada, Norman McLaren), followed by: For Scent-imental Reasons (Chuck Jones; Pepe Le Pew); Little Rural Riding Hood (Tex Avery); High Diving Hare (Friz Freleng); Fast and Furry-Ous (Chuck Jones; Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote); Bad Luck Blackie (Tex Avery); The Counterfeit Cat (Tex Avery))

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: LAND OF PROMISE (aka DIM LITTLE ISLAND) (UK, Humphrey Jennings) (2nd: Who Done It? (Edward Bernds; The Three Stooges), followed by: The Lead Shoes (Sidney Peterson)

BLACK-AND-WHITE CINEMATOGRAPHY: Paul Vogel, BATTLEGROUND (2nd: Milton Krasner, The Set-Up, followed by: Yuharu Atsuta, Late Spring; Robert Krasker, The Third Man; Robert Surtees, Intruder in the Dust; Leo Tover, The Heiress; Franz Planer, Criss Cross)

COLOR CINEMATOGRAPHY: Winton Hoch, SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON (2nd: Harold Rosson, On The Town, followed by: Robert Planck and Charles Schoenbaum, Little Women)

BLACK-AND-WHITE ART DIRECTION: THE FOUNTAINHEAD, Madame Bovary, Late Spring, The Set-Up, The Heiress

COLOR ART DIRECTION: LITTLE WOMEN, The Adventures of Don Juan, Saraband

BLACK-AND-WHITE COSTUME DESIGN: KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS, The Heiress, Madame Bovary

COLOR COSTUME DESIGN: LITTLE WOMEN, Take Me Out to the Ball Game, Samson and Delilah 

FILM EDITING: THE SET-UP, Champion, Battleground, All The King's Men, The Window

SOUND: THE SET-UP, All The King's Men, Twelve O'Clock High, Champion, Sands of Iwo Jima



ORIGINAL SCORE: Anton Karas, THE THIRD MAN (2nd: Aaron Copland, The Heiress, followed by: Miklós Rózsa, Criss Cross; Dimitri Tiomkin, Champion; Victor Young, Samson and Delilah)

ADAPTED OR MUSICAL SCORE: Roger Edens and Lennie Hayton, ON THE TOWN (2nd: Morris Stoloff and George Duning, Jolson Sings Again, followed by: Roger Edens and Conrad Salinger, Take Me Out to the Ball Game)



ORIGINAL SONG: "Baby, It's Cold Outside" from Neptune's Daughter (Music and lyrics by Frank Loesser) (2nd: “Through a Long and Sleepless Night” from Come to the Stable (Music by Alfred Newman, lyrics by Mack Gordon); "My Foolish Heart: from My Foolish Heart (Music by Victor Young, lyrics by Ned Washington)

SPECIAL EFFECTS: MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, 12 O' Clock High

MAKEUP: KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS, The Heiress, Sampson and Delilah

1941--The Year in Review

In the year of Citizen Kane, nothing else could confidently approach it in most categories. It was still a landmark period, with Sturges (contributing two of his finest movies), Huston, Ford, Hawks. Korda and Wyler all throwing in yeoman work. But, honestly, there was no real competition--even though the Academy thought differently and handed most awards to John Ford's resilient memory piece How Green Was My Valley (mainly because of the powerhouse Hearst campaign against Citizen Kane, but maybe also as a makeup award for partially snubbing The Grapes of Wrath the year before). Still, Welles and crew had it locked down in terms of posterity, and Welles himself will probably remain the only film artist I'll choose for the titles of best director, actor, writer and producer for a single piece. Surely I'm not the only one who thinks this is just. And I should note: with the short films, I again went with The Three Stooges and their ridiculously epic pie fight and, for the second year in a row, Warner Brothers' newly-named Bugs Bunny. 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 Science (AKA The Oscars). When available, the nominee that actually won the Oscar will be highlighted in bold.

PICTURE: CITIZEN KANE (US, Orson Welles)
(2nd: Sullivan’s Travels (US, Preston Sturges), followed by: 
The Maltese Falcon (US, John Huston)
The Lady Eve (US, Preston Sturges)
Ball of Fire (US, Howard Hawks)
How Green Was My Valley (US, John Ford)
The Little Foxes (US, William Wyler)
Here Comes Mr. Jordan (US, Alexander Hall)
The 47 Ronin (Japan, Kenji Mizoguchi)
49^th Parallel (UK, Michael Powell)
Man Hunt (US, Fritz Lang)
That Hamilton Woman (UK/US, Alexander Korda)
Sergeant York (US, Howard Hawks)
Dumbo (US, Ben Sharpsteen, Walt Disney)
The Devil and Miss Jones (US, Sam Wood)
Meet John Doe (US, Frank Capra)
Suspicion (US, Alfred Hitchcock)
High Sierra (US, Raoul Walsh)
The Shanghai Gesture (US, Josef Von Sternberg)
Never Give a Sucker An Even Break (US, Eddie Cline)
Hellzapoppin (US, H.C. Potter)
The Wolf Man (US, George Waggner)



ACTOR: Orson Welles, CITIZEN KANE (2nd: Joel McCrea, Sullivan's Travels, followed by: Gary Cooper, Sergeant York; Humphrey Bogart, The Maltese Falcon; Henry Fonda, The Lady Eve; Cary Grant, Penny Serenade; Humphrey Bogart, High Sierra; Robert Montgomery, Here Comes Mr. Jordan; Charles Coburn, The Devil and Miss Jones; Gary Cooper, Meet John Doe)
 


ACTRESS: Barbara Stanwyck, THE LADY EVE (2nd: Barbara Stanwyk, Ball of Fire, followed by: Bette Davis, The Little Foxes; Olivia de Havilland, Hold Back the Dawn; Joan Fontaine, Suspicion; Vivien Leigh, That Hamilton Woman; Wendy Hiller, Major Barbara; Irene Dunne, Penny Seranade; Mary Astor, The Maltese Falcon; Jean Arthur, The Devil and Miss Jones)

 
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Sydney Greenstreet, THE MALTESE FALCON (2nd: Joseph Cotten, Citizen Kane, followed by: Claude Rains, Here Comes Mr. Jordan; George Colouris, Citizen Kane; Donald Crisp, How Green Was My Valley; Everett Sloane, Citizen Kane; Peter Lorre, The Maltese Falcon; James Gleason, Here Comes Mr. Jordan; S.K. Szagall, The Devil and Miss Jones; George Sanders, Man Hunt)



SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Veronica Lake, SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS (2nd: Patricia Collinge, The Little Foxes, followed by: Teresa Wright, The Little Foxes; Dorothy Comingore, Citizen Kane; Margaret Wycherley, Sergeant York; Maria Ouspenskaya, The Wolf Man; Sara Allgood, How Green Was My Valley; Joan Bennett, Man Hunt; Mary Astor, The Great Lie; Agnes Moorehead, Citizen Kane)



DIRECTOR: Orson Welles, CITIZEN KANE (2nd: Preston Sturges, Sullivan's Travels, followed by: John Huston, The Maltese Falcon; John Ford, How Green Was My Valley; Preston Sturges, The Lady Eve; Howard Hawks, Ball of Fire; William Wyler, The Little Foxes; Kenji Mizoguchi, The 47 Ronin; Fritz Lang, Man Hunt; Alexander Hall, Here Comes Mr. Jordan)
 
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Orson Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz, CITIZEN KANE (2nd: Preston Sturges, Sullivan's Travels, followed by: Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder and Thomas Monroe, Ball of Fire; Monckton Hoff and Preston Sturges, The Lady Eve; Emeric Pressberger and Rodney Ackland, 49th Parallel)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Henry Buchman, Harry Seagall and Seaton I. Miller, HERE COMES MR. JORDAN (2nd: John Huston, The Maltese Falcon, followed by: Lillian Hellman, The Little Foxes; Yoshikata Yoda, The 47 Ronin; Dudley Nichols, Man Hunt)  

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: IN THE SWEET PIE AND PIE (The Three Stooges; Jules White) (2nd: I'll Never Heil Again (The Three Stooges; Jules White), followed by: Words for Battle (Humphrey Jennings); An Ache in Every Stake (The Three Stooges; Del Lord); Christmas Under Fire (Harry Watt, Charles Hasse); Churchill's Island (Stuart Legg))

ANIMATED SHORT FILM: WABBIT TWOUBLE (Bugs Bunny; Bob Clampett) (2nd: Superman (Dave Fleischer), followed by: Lend a Paw (Mickey Mouse; Walt Disney); How War Came (Paul Fennell); Tortoise Beats Hare (Bugs Bunny; Tex Avery); Contrathemis (Dwinnel Grant))

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Gregg Toland, CITIZEN KANE (2nd: Arthur Miller, How Green Was My Valley, followed by: Kojei Sugiyama, The 47 Ronin; Sol Polito, Sergeant York; Rudolph Mate, That Hamilton Woman; Arthur Miller, Man Hunt)

ART DIRECTION: CITIZEN KANE, Here Comes Mr. Jordan, How Green Was My Valley, Blood and Sand, The Little Foxes

COSTUME DESIGN: THAT HAMILTON WOMAN, Blood and Sand, The 47 Ronin, The Chocolate Soldier, The Little Foxes 

FILM EDITING: CITIZEN KANE, Sullivan's Travels, Sergeant York, The Little Foxes, Man Hunt 

SOUND: CITIZEN KANE, How Green Was My Valley, That Hamilton Woman, Ball of Fire, Sergeant York 



ORIGINAL SCORE: Bernard Herrmann, CITIZEN KANE (2nd: Meredith Willson, The Little Foxes, followed by: Franz Wazman, Suspicion; Alfred Newman, How Green Was My Valley; Victor Young, Hold Back the Dawn)

ADAPTED OR MUSICAL SCORE: Frank Churchill and Oliver Wallace, DUMBO (2nd: Herbert Stothart and Bronislau Kaper, The Chocolate Soldier, followed by: Charles Previn, Buck Privates; Robert Emmett Dolan, The Birth of the Blues; Morris Stoloff, You'll Never Get Rich)



ORIGINAL SONG: "Baby Mine" from DUMBO (music by Frank Churchill, lyrics by Ned Washington) (2nd: "Chattanooga Choo Choo" from Sun Valley Serenade (music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Mack Gordon), followed by: "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B" from Buck Privates (music by Hugh Prince, lyrics by Don Rave); "The Last Time I Saw Paris" from Lady Be Good (music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II); "When I See an Elephant Fly" from Dumbo (music by Oliver Wallace, lyrics by Ned Washington)) 

SPECIAL EFFECTS: THAT HAMILTON WOMAN, Topper Returns, The Sea Wolf

MAKEUP: CITIZEN KANE, The Wolf Man, Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde

Film #77: Catch-22

Joseph Heller's now-classic 1961 novel was rejected by publishers 15 times. It started out as Catch-14, then Catch-11, Catch-17, and finally, upon publication, Catch-22. In the novel, Yossarian is a nervous WWII pilot who's fed up with risking his life and, by feigning insanity, wants to get drummed out of the force. In Buck Henry's college-try adaptation of this impossible-to-film novel (or so it was thought), Yossarian confronts Doc Daneeka about his plan, and discovers the maddening rock-and-a-hard-place bureaucrasy behind the infamous catch:

Yossarian: Can't you ground someone who's crazy?
Doc Daneeka: Oh, sure. I have to. There's a rule saying I have to ground anyone who's crazy.
Yossarian: Then why don't you ground me? I'm crazy. Ask Clevinger.
Doc Daneeka: Clevinger? Where is Clevinger? You find Clevinger and I'll ask him.
Yossarian: Then ask any of the others. They'll tell you how crazy I am.
Doc Daneeka: They're crazy.
Yossarian: Then why don't you ground them?
Doc Daneeka: Why don't they ask me to ground them?
Yossarian: Because they're crazy, that's why.
Doc Daneeka: Of course they're crazy, I just told you they're crazy, didn't I? And you can't let crazy people decide if they crazy or not.
Yossarian: Is Orr crazy?
Doc Daneeka: He sure is.
Yossarian: Can you ground him?
Doc Daneeka: I sure can. But first he has to ask me to. That's part of the rule.
Yossarian: Then why doesn't he ask you to?
Doc Daneeka: Because he's crazy, He has to be crazy to keep flying combat missions after all the close calls he's had. Sure, I can ground Orr. But first he has to ask me to.
Yossarian: That's all he has to do to be grounded?
Doc Daneeka: That's all. Let him ask me.
Yossarian: And then you can ground him?
Doc Daneeka: No. Then I can't ground him.
Yossarian: You mean there's a catch?
Doc Daneeka: Sure there's a catch, Catch-22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn't really crazy.
Yossarian: That's some catch, that Catch-22.
Doc Daneeka: It's the best there is.

The film Catch-22, released in 1970, looked great on paper, what with its excellent pedigree. Director Mike Nichols and Buck Henry were just coming off of their massive 1967/68 success with The Graduate. Alan Arkin, who was perfectly cast as Captain John Yossarian, was one of the top ten male stars of 1970. And Nichols had cobbled together an enormous cast of then newcomers: Richard Benjamin, Paula Prentiss, Art Garfunkel, Jon Voight, Charles Grodin, Martin Sheen, Peter Bonerz, Austin Pendleton, Bob Balaban, Richard Libertini and Buck Henry himself. Scattered among them, too, were seasoned veterans: Bob Newhart, Martin Balsam, Anthony Perkins, Liam Dunn, Jack Gilford (as Doc Daneeka) and Orson Welles (who wanted to film the novel ever since its release but encountered his usual money problems; when it looked like Nichols, in only his third outing as a film director, was going to get the assignment, Welles grudgingly settled on appearing as the supremely unreasonable General Dreedle).
Getting the story on film was a different matter, though. In adapting it, Henry had to throw out Heller's inventive, time-juggling structure and thereby took away some of the novel's unique appeal. Still, as it stood, Heller eventually approved of the project and of Henry's dialogue as well. The film's budget ballooned to over $20 million (about $100 million by today's standards) when the arial footage of the B-25 bombers became difficult to secure. But UK cinematographer David Watkin (who, in 1985, won an Oscar for photographing Sydney Pollack's Out of Africa) did a yeoman's job of capturing the action through his widescreen lens (I particularly remember dialogue scenes proceeding as airplanes land in the background; what a chore this must have been to coordinate). And regular Nichols collaborators Richard Sylbert (art director) and Sam O'Steen (editor) contributed their usual fine work.
But Catch-22 was overshadowed in 1970 by an equally acerbic anti-war comedy called M.A.S.H. Turns out that Robert Altman's farce pulled in the money and the critical raves the execs at Paramount were counting on Catch-22 to dredge up, and at a fraction of the cost. Still, Catch-22 lives on as a bleak curiosity that, like M.A.S.H., shows little warfare but much madness. Unlike the Altman film, however, there are a few moments of horrifying brutality that will stick with you forever (a still-standing torso-less body, chief among them). Arkin is perfection in the lead, and it's still mindblowing to see all the young faces of so many future lead and character actors all in one place. Bob Newhart, as Major Major, even gets one of his patented phone conversations, and it's a scream (Newhart began his stellar stand-up career doing one-ended phone conversations as part of his act).

And here's a trivia note: In 1969, singer Art Garfunkel left his recording partner Paul Simon in New York to finish the album Bridge Over Troubled Waters while Garfunkel traveled down to Mexico to start filming his acting debut in Catch-22. Long beset by fierce bickering, Simon and Garfunkel broke up soon afterwards, with Simon writing about it in the album's melancholy "The Only Living Boy in New York." In the song, he refers to Art as "Tom," the name Art originally had in the duo's first recording incarnation as "Tom and Jerry." It's a revealing, sad tune that tells a one-of-a-kind behind-the-scenes tale.

Film #41: Dad, Can I Borrow The Car?

When I was about nine years old, I tuned in to The Wonderful World of Disney one night to watch what I thought would be your typical Disney fare--cartoons, or a live-action adventure with li'l prairie dogs, or even a faboo tour of Disneyworld (an episode kids always wanted to see).

Instead, what I got was something that blew my mind, and I hope it blows yours. But first...

I was never a big fan of cars. Anyone who knows me also knows that automobiles and I have never found common ground. Other kids were drawing Torinos and Corvettes during geography lectures--me, I was drawing spaceships and movie logos. I have always found sedans to be burdensome, dangerous objects--certainly something I didn't want to control myself. A 3000-lb burnin' hunk of metal powered by fermented dinosaur juices? No way. Not for me, you can have my share. Believe me, the roads are safer without me on 'em. Besides, I think cars make people mean as hell and start them down the road thinking of other cars as mere obstacles to be vanquished rather than potentially deadly objects being controlled by other stressed-out people. It's all a big video game to most drivers. And certainly everyone's getting crabbier behind the wheel now that gas is four bucks a gallon some places. Geez, what're guys gonna be like when it hits $20 a gallon?! It'll be Mad Max all over again.

When I got to be a teen and then a young adult, living in Atlanta (the East Coast car capital of the USA) was very difficult for a guy who was not only unwilling to drive, but actually would get physically ill behind the wheel of a car. Lemme tell ya, it made dating nearly impossible, unless the girl was willing to do the carting-around, which is still seen (unfairly, I think) as a sign of male weakness (and what girl wants that?)

It became a big issue for me. Why's everybody so car-crazy? Why is life like this? And I started to think and think about it, and I came to the only conclusion, really: that it's all about sex. This love affair we have with cars is because they make sex and access to it much easier, even inevitable. Yes, ya got those people who'll tell you it's about freedom. And it is. Freedom to get sex. Freedom to make money to get sex. Freedom to pick up girls who want to have sex. That's what cars are all about. Chicks love cars. They love feeling safe and pampered, going fast and having the world at their feet. It turns 'em on. And most guys like turned-on girls (including me!)

"But it's not just that! I love to drive! It's fuuuuun!" Look, Clarence, driving ain't supposed to be fun. You want fun, go get on a rollercoaster, laughing boy. That's fun. Driving's supposed to get you somewhere you wanna go and when you get there, then you have your fun. It's this "fun" idea that causes horrible, bone-crushing, gore-gushing accidents. And stop talking on your cell phone, for Christ's sake, you ignoramus!!! Goddammit, fuckstick, turn your goddamn radio down so you can hear me honkin' my goddamn horn at ya! Hey, Mac! See this?! See this?! Yeah! You know what you can do with that finger! Yep! You got it! Right up there, too--sun ain't shinin' down there!!! WHAT?! WHAT?! I'LL KIIIILLLL YOU!!! Ahh, same to ya, jerk-off! Jesus, God, just get me home...what time is it?!


I mean, I...I...sigh...I could go on about my dislike of cars, touching on their negative environmental, political, and cultural aspects, blah blah blah. But I won't...Orson will do it for me. The movie quote below is my favorite exchange from Mr. Welles' 1942 masterpiece The Magnificent Ambersons. Joseph Cotton plays an early inventor of cars and devoted suitor to Isabel Minafer, George Minafer's mother (played by Dolores Costello). George (the young Tim Holt) hates Eugene not only because he's stealing his mother away from him, but because he sees Eugene as an agent of change from the old ways to the new. With Uncle Jack Minifer (Ray Collins) at the table, patriarch Maj. Anderson (Richard Bennett) starts things off:

Maj. Amberson: So your devilish machines are going to ruin all your old friends, eh Gene? Do you really think they're going to change the face of the land?

Eugene: They're already doing it major and it can't be stopped. Automobiles...

[cut off by George] George: Automobiles are a useless nuisance.

Jack: What did you say, George?

George: I said automobiles are a useless nuisance. Never amount to anything but a nuisance and they had no business to be invented.

Jack: Of course, you forget that Mr. Morgan makes them, also did his share in inventing them. If you weren't so thoughtless, he might think you were rather offensive.

Eugene: I'm not sure George is wrong about automobiles. With all their speed forward they may be a step backward in civilization. May be that they won't add to the beauty of the world or the life of the men's souls, I'm not sure. But automobiles have come and almost all outwards things will be different because of what they bring. They're going to alter war and they're going to alter peace. And I think men's minds are going to be changed in subtle ways because of automobiles. And it may be that George is right. May be that in ten to twenty years from now that if we can see the inward change in men by that time, I shouldn't be able to defend the gasoline engine but agree with George - that automobiles had no business to be invented.

Brilliant talk there.

Anyway, this is all leading up to something much lighter. Back to Disney-time. So I'm sitting there, 1974 or so, Sunday night, and this INSANE thing pops up on screen as tonight's feature. I'll talk about it more later, after we watch it. So here it is, in three parts (it's 22 minutes long), via the wonderful You Tube (God, I love that site). From 1970 and narrated by a young Kurt Russell, get ready for: Dad, Can I Borrow The Car?



Gee, is there anything better than Dad, Can I Borrow the Car? Noooo. By far, the Disney company's coolest moment, it was directed by Ward Kimball, one of the original "Nine Old Men" who advised the Disney machine back in the day. He was an animator in the Diz biz since 1934, was the one who designed Jiminy Cricket from Pinnochio and redesigned Mickey Mouse from the '20s black-and-white little guy to basically the version of the character we know today. He'd won an Oscar the year before for another Disney short It's Tough to Be a Bird. So he was 56 years old when he produced Dad, Can I Borrow the Car? And you thought this was directed by some refugee from The Monkees or something. Nope. Kimball, pictured above, really let loose a bunch of old-guy hipness when he made this thing. That pic makes him look like a pretty funny character--I think that monster claw was even used in the movie!

The screams of laughter Dad provokes from my guttiwuts are endless--the wild-ass beginning with the "racing stripes" (if I were a rich man, I'd have exactly the car in this credits sequence, painted just like that buggy ends up); that bitchin' opening montage with that melange of oddball hotrods like a guy driving a burning cigar, a lemon on wheels, and a car hauling Mt. Rushmore away; that incredible, long B&W auto dealership commercial with all that gobbeldygook about "wrap-around hoods" and "pre-greased upholstry" (who IS that astounding actor with the fake bald wig anyway--that's the best commercial of all time!); those talking vehicles begging to be purchased (I love the old one that coughs and says "Get me soon, cause I'm goin' fast"...if only Cars could have been this cool); and, hey, was that a young, long-haired Jamie Lee Curtis as the girl who thinks he's trying to cheat off her test at the DMV? (The IMDB says Timothy Hutton's in this, too, but I couldn't spot him, could you? And, yeah, that was the Maytag repairman, Jessie White, a veteran of many a movie and TV show, doing some of the voices).

And, of course, there's all the references to sex and getting laid which, as I said, is what cars are all about. That scene with he and his friends taking the convertible under the car wash has to be one of the most suggestive things in a Disney film up to that period. I swear, some of the shots looked like soft porn! And with young Johnny watching over to the side, too! Gracious! Weird ending to this thing, too, with that kissing montage!

The killer graphic design was by John Emerson and Ed Garbert, with the stunning editing--the thing I think that first caught my young "WHAT IS THIS" eyes--is by Lloyd Richardson. And, naturally, there's Kurt Russell's funny, natural vocal performance, though I don't understand why they just didn't go on and use him as the lead actor; woulda made the movie that much better. I want to note that, though I saw this on TV, Dad, Can I Borrow the Car? did get a movie theater release, probably as a short in front of Superdad or The Cat From Outer Space or something. How do I know this? Because I have a movie poster for it!! Yayyyy! Coolest thing ever. I almost cried when I found it in this old warehouse I was helping clean up one time!! Score!!!