1964 Oscar Watch

This is the most typical Oscar year ever.  It perfectly represents the 60s and the type of movies being made.  If you want to know what films were like in the 60s this is the year.  We have 2 big budget lavish musicals, a historical costume drama, a black and white comedy/drama and a movie about cold war paranoia.  If you look at the eligible films from 1964 you will find a bunch of musicals, historical epics, comedy/dramas and movies about the cold war.  All that's missing is a swinging beach movie.
You can see my GABBY winners and nominees HERE

Best Picture

 

5. Becket - Here we have a historical drama about King Henry II and his relationship with archbishop Thomas Becket.  Henry appoints his friend archbishop as a trusted confidant only to have Becket question him.  Historical dramas are not my favorite genre but this one is enjoyable almost exclusively because it stars Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton, two of Oscar's perennial bridesmaids, and it is fun to see them together in the same film.  There is no way I'm going to vote for it, I'm not upset I had to sit through it but I probably will never watch it again.

4. My Fair Lady - This is one of those movies I felt bad for never seeing.  I don't particularly care for musicals. it has a long running time and Audrey Hepburn's singing voice was dubbed were the reasons I stayed away from it for so many years.  I just got finished watching it and I still don't particularly like musicals, this movie is way too long and Audrey Hepburn's singing voice being dubbed bothered me.  This might be one of your favorites and I can understand why, it's a very charming movie.  It just didn't connect with me.  For those who haven't seen this, Rex Harrison is a professor of language who meets the very cockney and dirty Audrey Hepburn on the streets and takes a bet that he can transform her into a proper lady.  It's cute but long.  I liked Rex Harrison's performance but the awkwardly bad lip syncing from Audrey Hepburn kind of ruined the film for me.  I kept trying to suspend my disbelief but I couldn't get past the fact that when Audrey opened her mouth Marni Nixon's voice came out.  Ironically, I think it would be better if she wasn't that strong a singer.  Eliza Dolittle's first song didn't make much sense to me.  She is introduced as a gross, cockney pauper and then she sings a beautiful song.  Why doesn't she just sing everything?  She sounds lovely when she sings.

3. Zorba The Greek - This is a very uplifting comedy/drama about an Englishman going to Greece and meeting a man who teaches him how to enjoy life.  Alan Bates is an English writer with writer's block who goes to Greece to inspect an abandoned mine that his father owns.  While there he meets Zorba, played boisterously by Anthony Quinn.  Zorba says he has mining experience so he tags along and teaches Bates about living life to the fullest.  It's a very charming film, probably wouldn't hold up as a Best Picture winner, especially compared to the next two films on this list.

2. Mary Poppins - This movie is just fun and charming as all hell.  An upper class British family needs a new nanny and in flies Mary Poppins.  She comes in from the sky with her umbrella and teaches the children discipline and also how to be children.  She also imparts wisdom on the adults too.  This is a Disney live action/animation hybrid and that's where most of the fun comes from.  She takes the kids to the park where they meet up with a friendly chimney sweep, played by the always charismatic Dick Van Dyke, and they go into a magical fantasy world together.  It's impossible not to feel like a kid while watching this movie.

1. Dr. Strangelove, Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb - I've been thinking about this a lot lately while doing my own awards since I separate the screenplay categories into drama and comedy.  What is the difference between the two?  It's very slight but it's jut tone.  If this movie was directed differently it would be a drama but Kubrick saw the absurdity in this film's premise and made it into a comedy.  Because of that it is infinitely more enjoyable than any of the other cold war movies of the time that take themselves so seriously.  An army colonel goes mad and orders a military strike on Russia.  The ineffectual president and his advisers try to figure out how to stop it.  Peter Sellers plays 3 roles.  It's a hilarious cold war satire that mocks the people responsible for our global paranoia and exposes them for the scared children they are.

My Fair Lady is a really weak Best Picture winner historically and when you look at the year it was released it seems even weaker.  It's not even the best musical nominated, that would be Mary Poppins.  A lot of substandard films and musicals won during this time period so it doesn't stick out when you look at all the winners because it's in the same company as films like Gigi and Around The World In 80 Days and The Greatest Show On Earth.  What makes the win more egregious is that the best movie got nominated and they instead picked standard fluff like My Fair Lady.  Compare this to a year like 1959, I can't get mad that Ben-Hur won and Some Like It Hot didn't because Some Like It Hot wasn't nominated.  The academy had the sense to nominate Dr. Strangelove but when forced to pick a winner from their top 5 they went with one of the weaker films.

Oscar Winner: My Fair Lady

My Vote: Dr. Strangelove, Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb

GABBY Winner: Dr. Strangelove, Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb

Best Actor

 

5. Anthony Quinn - Zorba The Greek - This nomination makes me glad and sad that Anthony Quinn already won 2 Oscars by this point.  This performance is better than any of the performances he won for so I wish I could vote for him but I would still probably vote for Peter Sellers even if Quinn didn't have two Oscars on his mantle.  Quinn plays Zorba, an exuberant Greek that meets up with an American and teaches him about life.  It's an incredibly fun performance that's bigger than life.  The only reason he places 5th is because he's already won twice.

4. Richard Burton - Becket - Burton plays the titular Becket, archbishop to Peter O'Toole's Henry II.  At first he's Henry's buddy, feeding into his immaturity but then realizes that someone in power has to be level headed and starts to go against him.  Burton is fine here but he's in a lot of scenes with Peter O'Toole who chews every piece of scenery.  Burton plays Becket but has the movie stolen from him.  He should have been nominated for his role in The Night Of The Iguana instead.

3. Rex Harrison - My Fair Lady - Harrison plays Professor Higgins an upper-crust language expert who tutors Eliza Dolittle.  He is perfectly cast in the role, I believed him in every scene that he thinks he's smarter than everyone else.  He also created his own style of singing.  Harrison had a very limited vocal range so he would "talk sing" all his songs.  It's a way of staying in rhythm and hitting a few notes but he's mostly acting out his songs.  It's an incredibly interesting performance but not one that needed to win an Oscar.

2. Peter O'Toole - Becket - O'Toole plays King Henry II as a hedonistic child.  He doesn't care about anything but his own vices.  People will try to talk about important things to him but he's only interested in banging young ladies.  He wants to rule his country the same way.  He makes his buddy Becket the archbishop thinking that he will let him have his way.  He never imagined that he would do an honorable job.  O'Toole is scene chewingly great in the role.  He's so good that he would play the character again 4 years later in The Lion In Winter.

1. Peter Sellers - Dr. Strangelove - Sellers plays 3 characters in this film.  He's the titular Dr. Strangelove, a former Nazi scientist with an arm with a mind of its own.  He's also the president of the United States, a mild mannered man in over his head.  Finally, he's Captain Mandrake of the RAF who is furiously trying to figure out the codes to stop World War III.  There's really no discernible reason why Sellers needs to play all 3 parts but he's fantastic in all of them.  He's not doing this as a gag, he brings a completely different view to each character to the point where you almost forget that it's the same guy.

This year reminds me of 1968 where Peter O'Toole was nominated and they gave the win to Cliff Robertson.  Now Rex Harrison is a better winner than Robertson but I have the same reaction here as I did there, I really want to vote for either Burton or O'Toole.  It's harder here because they're in the same movie so they cancel each other out.  If I'm not going to vote for either of them then I think the choice is clearly Peter Sellers.  He plays 3 different roles completely different.  This isn't like when Eddie Murphy or Mike Myers does it, Sellers completely disappears into his parts bringing a different energy and level of humanity to each one.  Rex Harrison isn't a bad winner and in fact this is a can't lose category.  The only one who would be a bad choice is Anthony Quinn but that's only because he already won twice, the performance itself is Oscar worthy.  Still, the Oscars so often overlook comedic performances that when one does manage a nomination I am compelled to vote for it.  Comedy gets a bad wrap but it is infinitely harder than drama.  Imagine Peter Sellers in any of the other nominated roles, he could probably pull it off.  Now imagine Anthony Quinn or Rex Harrison playing Dr. Strangelove.

Oscar Winner: Rex Harrison

My Vote: Peter Sellers

GABBY Winner: Peter Sellers

Best Actress

 

5. Sophia Loren - Marriage - Italian Style - Foreign performances always land in last place here and seeing as how Sophia Loren just won an Oscar in 1961 there's really no way I can vote for her.  Marriage Italian Style is about a man who falls for a prostitute.  They have an off again on again romance and when he wants to marry a younger girl she pretends that she is dying to trick him into marriage.  They get married and she tells him that the illness was fake and that one of her 3 children is actually his.  It's a pretty enjoyable film.

4. Debbie Reynolds - The Unsinkable Molly Brown - I'm probably looking at this movie all wrong.  I was expecting a movie about the unsinkable Molly Brown to take place on the Titanic, you know the reason she was called unsinkable.  Instead this is a musical that takes place before any of that interesting stuff happened to her.  The first half of this movie is like Oklahoma!, you have Molly Brown in the country singing and dancing.  Then it turns into My Fair Lady after her and her husband strike it rich.  Then in the last 10 minutes she board the Titanic, the iceberg hits and she is one of the few that survives.  Weird that the movie went in that direction.  I probably would have at least framed it on the Titanic so you start there, get a flashback and then the iceberg hits.  Anyway as for Debbie Reynolds, she's so damn good.  If you're looking for a fun musical starring one of the greatest musical stars of all time then this is a good one to watch.  It's just not a performance that wins an Oscar.  If this was the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a musical or comedy then I would absolutely include her.

3. Anne Bancroft - The Pumpkin Eater - This is a case where I loved the performance but was cold on the film.  This is a Harold Pinter adaptation about a woman married to a philandering husband.  Bancroft plays a woman who is on her 3rd marriage, she has a large amount of children and she finds out that her husband is unfaithful.  Bancroft is great here, as she almost always is, but I don't need to consider her for a vote as she just won 2 years ago.

2. Kim Stanley - Seance On A Wet Afternoon - This is a messed up movie, but it's also really good.  Kim Stanley stars as a psychic medium, her husband is unemployed so they make their money by holding seances in their living room.  Stanley gets an idea one day to gain notoriety.  She gets her husband to kidnap the daughter of a wealthy family and she is going to "psychically" tell the police where she is.  That way everyone will know that she's a great psychic and the money will roll in.  Of course, things don't go according to plan.  It's a really great movie and Stanley is terrific in the central role.

1. Julie Andrews - Mary Poppins - You can't get more delightful than Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins.  She is simply perfect as the chipper and magical nanny.  She loves her job, has fun with her job but also takes it very seriously.  Her voice is also gorgeous and there was something about her performance and that of Dick Van Dyke where they made me believe the world where they were living.  The movie is half animated and requires both of them to interact with cartoon characters that aren't really there.  I'm a 35 year old man watching this movie and I kept catching myself believing that Andrews was really kissing cartoon penguins.

So we can take out Loren and Bancroft because they've won before and we can also take out Debbie Reynolds, she's lovely but the role is not quite Oscar caliber.  That leaves only Kim Stanley and Julie Andrews and between the two of them the clear winner is Andrews.  The only reason I am hesitant to vote for her is because I know The Sound Of Music is coming next year and that I'm gonna vote for her there too.  That's only a slight hesitation though as Julie Andrews is worthy of two wins, even if they would be back to back.  I also love that she won this year because I'm sure we was laughing hysterically in her head due to the cosmic irony.  She played Eliza Dolittle on stage in My Fair Lady but when it came time to make the film the studio thought she wasn't a big enough name.  They cast Audrey Hepburn, dub all her singing, Julie does Mary Poppins instead, wins an Oscar and Hepburn doesn't even get nominated.  If I was Julie I would hold the Oscar up with one hand and a middle finger up with the other.  Something tells me that Julie Andrews is a bit classier than me though.

Oscar Winner: Julie Andrews

My Vote: Julie Andrews

GABBY Winner: Julie Andrews

Best Supporting Actor

 

5. John Gielgud - Becket - This movie didn't hold my interest that much and I got about half way through it and thought, OK, I think I have enough to write my review, oh wait, John Gielgud got nominated too, I haven't seem him yet.  He shows up about an hour and 40 minutes into a 2 and a half hour film as King Louis VII.  Becket upsets King Henry enough that he has to flee the country so he goes to France where Louis hides him for a time because he basically just hates England.  Gielgud is good, his voice made him perfect for Shakespeare and historical dramas.  He just has that cadence that you enjoy listening to in movies like this.  He's not in the movie nearly enough to warrant consideration though.

4. Edmond O'Brien - Seven Days In May - This is a cold war political thriller and a pretty damn good one.  The president of the United States has just negotiated nuclear disarmament with the Russians and Kirk Douglas uncovers a plot by the military to overthrow the government.  Douglas alerts the president and he enlists the help of some advisers to do some digging.  That's where Edmond O'Brien comes in.  He plays a sweaty, alcoholic senator.  We know he's a drunk because he literally always has a drink in his hand.  He's good in the film but not really in it that much and there were better options from this film to include in this category.  Fredric March as the president or Burt Lancaster as the military man behind the coup would have been better nominees.  Also, O'Brien already had an Oscar so I don't need to consider him.

3. Stanley Holloway - My Fair Lady - Holloway plays Eliza Dolittle's drunk and filthy father.  He's a pretty horrible person but he knows it.  He knows his daughter is poor and fending for herself but rather than do anything about it, he drinks more.  When he sees his daughter with the professor his first instinct is to try and con him out of money.  Holloway doesn't play the character like a bad man at all because this is a musical and nobody's truly terrible in a musical.  Holloway is very fun in the role and has a few standout moments but the movie was really long and I felt like most of his stuff just got in the way of the story.

2. Peter Ustinov - Topkapi - Ustinov is introduced as a historian, guide and schmoe.  Topkapi is a really cool heist film.  A group of thieves are trying to steal some diamonds and they want to use amateurs to pull of the caper.  Ustinov plays Arthur Simon Simpson and he is a hapless schlub who thinks he's a great con man but in reality he's just a schlub.  This is probably my favorite performance in the category but he's kind of a lead role and he already won.  He won for Spartacus 4 years ago so I don't really want him to win here but the performance is so good and this category is kinda weak so I'm not bent out of shape that he ended up winning a 2nd Oscar for a good performance.

1. Lee Tracy - The Best Man - The Best Man is about a bunch of candidates vying for the presidential nomination of their party.  The two front runners are Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson, Fonda is trying to run an honest campaign while Robertson is all about personal attacks.  Each of them is banking on getting the current president's endorsement, played by Lee Tracy.  At first he decides not to give his endorsement to anyone but then realizes that Fonda is the more decent man so works for him.  He's also dying of cancer.  Ironically, this turned out to be Tracy's final film as he himself died from cancer 4 years later.  Tracy gives a joyful performance as a man still in politics but just outside enough that he can now see the absurdity of it all.

This category kinda stinks.  It's not terrible but there isn't a clear winner which means it's time to vote based on process of elimination.  First off is John Gielgud just because he's not in his film enough.  Then we can take off Edmond O'Brien and Peter Ustinov because they've won before.  That leaves Lee Tracy and Stanley Holloway.  Now since I'm not voting for Rex Harrison it doesn't feel right voting for Holloway.  Also, while the role is fun and Holloway performs admirably I kept wanting to see a more fun character actor in the part.  That leaves Lee Tracy and after watching The Best Man and all the other nominees, his performance was the one that stuck with me the most.  He's very insightful and endearing in the part and has a touching end.  I also liked his film the most and this was the only category where it got a nomination so this is my only opportunity to vote for it.  The only thing holding me back from voting for him is that this is the only Lee Tracy performance I've seen so I don't know if he was a good enough actor to win an Oscar over great actors like John Gielgud and Peter Ustinov but seeing as how those guys won Oscars anyway, the only person I can see voting for here is Lee Tracy.

Oscar Winner: Peter Ustinov

My Vote: Lee Tracy

GABBY Winner: George C. Scott for Dr. Strangelove, Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb

Best Supporting Actress

 

5. Gladys Cooper - My Fair Lady - Man, they must have really liked My Fair Lady.  Gladys Cooper plays Henry Higgins's mother and she does absolutely nothing in this movie.  She's in like 2 scenes of the film and I can't remember anything she did, and I just watched the movie.  This is a nomination for an old lady and a nomination to add to My Fair Lady's tally, nothing more.

4. Edith Evans - The Chalk Garden - Edith Evans was appropriately old in The Chalk Garden.  Sometimes the Oscars just give a nomination to a really old lady, regardless as to whether the performance warrants a nomination or not.  This movie stars Hayley Mills as a young girl under the care of Evans.  They hire a governess (played by Deobrah Kerr) to look after her.  They uncover something in the governess's past and complications ensue.  The movie isn't the bad, I didn't hate watching it but it was one of those movies I come across during these blogs where I'm watching a movie for a specific performance and I can only think that the performance didn't really earn a nomination so I'm just watching the movie for no real reason.

3. Lila Kedrova - Zorba The Greek - Zorba The Greek is about an English writer who strikes up a friendship with a Greek peasant.  When Zorba takes the Englishman to his village he introduces him to Madame Hortense who is an old French prostitute who runs a hotel.  Zorba and Hortense have a relationship together.  Kedrova plays Madame Hortense and she's really good in the role.  The part is small but memorable and she is a scene stealer.

2. Grayson Hall - The Night Of The Iguana - This movie is a Tennessee Williams adaptation directed by John Huston so it doesn't feel like a Tennessee Williams movie.  That might be why it's my favorite Tennessee Williams movie.  Richard Burton (much better here than he was in Becket) plays a defrocked priest.  He was caught having an affair with a Sunday school teacher.  He know drinks a lot and works driving a tour bus.  One day he takes a group out and meets a very young girl who tries to tempt him sexually (played by Sue Lyon from Lolita seeming to revel in her type casting).  The girl's aunt sees this potentially inappropriate relationship and threatens to call Burton's boss.  He panics and drives the tour to a remote hotel, dismantles the bus and strands them while he tries to figure out his course of action.  Grayson Hall plays the aunt and she's really good in the film.  She makes a great adversary for Burton.  Every time he gets marginally tempted there's Hall judging him with a perfect evil look.

1. Agnes Moorehead - Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte - Remember What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?, well that movie made money so they did it again.  This is an intentionally campy murder mystery starring Bette Davis.  Her suitor is murdered by an axe when she is younger and now she is an old, lonely spinster who lives by herself in her mansion with her housekeeper, played by Agnes Moorehead.  Bette's Baby Jane co-star Joan Crawford had her own axe murderer movie this year called Strait-Jacket, which is also unintentionally hilarious.  Moorehead plays Davis's housekeeper and she is absolutely hilarious.  She plays the part just over-the-top enough to make it fun but not too over-the-top to seem hammy.  Her character is almost as crazy as Bette and when she gets too close to the truth she has a great final scene.

Well, first off the list are Cooper and Evans, they were nominated because they were old ladies and I'm only gonna vote for an old lady if she gives a good performance.  That leaves Hall, Kedrova and Moorehead and my vote goes to Moorehead for two reasons.  I liked her performance the best, I suppose that could be enough but also, she's Agnes Moorehead.  Nobody in this category delivers a performance that unquestionably wins so all things equal, who deserves an Oscar more?  Remember in 1942 when Agnes Moorehead lost the Oscar for her incredible performance in The Magnificent Ambersons?  Well, you can make up for it here.

Oscar Winner: Lila Kedrova

My Vote: Agnes Moorehead

GABBY Winner: Agnes Moorehead

Best Director
This is one of the rare years where the Best Picture and Best Director categories lineup the same.  I felt that My Fair Lady was one of the weaker films in the category but that didn't stop the academy from honoring George Cukor.  This win is worse than the Best Picture win as I don't find anything interesting about Cukor's direction.  The whole movie is shot on obvious sets.  If you told me they just brought in cameras to the Broadway theater I would believe you.  Obviously I would have voted for Stanley Kubrick but really any of the 4 would be a better choice.

Best Original Screenplay/Adapted Screenplay
With all 5 of the Best Picture nominees falling in the Adapted Screenplay category the Original Screenplay category was pretty slim pickings.  Father Goose, a Cary Grant comedy, wins with A Hard Day's Night being the only movie close to 2nd place.  All the Best Picture nominees vied for the Adapted Screenplay Oscar with Becket coming out on top.  Seeing as how Stanley Kubrick and his writing partners turned a dry cold war novel into a riotous comedy I am more inclined to vote for them.

Best Original Score/Original Song/Adaptation Or Treatment Score
Mary Poppins wins Best Score over the iconic Pink Panther theme.  It also wins Best Song for Chim Chim Cher-ee.  I like that song but I'm not sure why that was the one tune singled out from the film.  I also don't know why no songs from A Hard Day's Night scored a nod.  My Fair Lady wins the now defunct Adaptation or Treatment Score category which goes to the movie the academy liked the best that was based on a Broadway show, although this year A Hard Day's Night and Robin And The Seven Hoods got nominations.

Best Sound/Sound Effects
My Fair Lady wins Best Sound because, as we've established in many other Oscar Watch blogs, musicals always win this category.  Mary Poppins and The Unsinkable Molly Brown also got nominated.  I feel that Mary Poppins got robbed here.  Goldfinger becomes the first James Bond movie to win and get nominated for an Oscar as it wins for its sound effects.

Best Art Direction (Black And White)/Art Direction (Color)
Zorba The Greek wins in the black and white category, a fair decision even though I would probably pick The Night Of The Iguana.  My Fair Lady wins in the color category, also fair even though I would have picked Mary Poppins.

Best Cinematography (Black And White)/Cinematography (Black And White)
Zorba The Greek wins in the black and white category and again I would have picked The Night Of The Iguana.  My Fair Lady wins in the color category.  Now the movie is very colorful and looks pretty but the camera barely moves in this film.  I got bored at many points specifically because of the cinematography.  This is another category where Mary Poppins should have won.

Best Costume Design (Black And White)/Costume Design (Color)
Not sure why the costume design category needs to be split up like this.  They do realize that all the costumes were in color, right?  They were just filmed in black and white.  In any case, The Night Of The Iguana wins in the black and white category.  I'm glad it won something but the costumes aren't the most impressive part of that movie.  For the first time, I can't complain with a win for My Fair Lady as it completely deserved its Oscar win for Best Costumes.

Best Film Editing
Mary Poppins finally beats My Fair Lady at something.  It is impressive how they seamlessly blended live action and animation.  Not sure why Father Goose, Becket and My Fair Lady even got nominated here.  The 5th nominee was Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte which isn't impressively edited but is a fun movie and the editing helps that a lot.

Best Visual Effects
Mary Poppins rightfully wins over 7 Faces Of Dr. Lao.

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