1960 Oscar Watch

My favorite film of 1959 was Some Like It Hot which did not get a nomination for Best Picture in favor of mediocre films like Room At The Top.  This year they made it up to Billy Wilder by giving The Apartment the big prize.  They still nominated the mediocre stuff but they had the good sense to give the win to the best film.  The acting winners are pretty good this year too.  You got Burt Lancaster, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Ustinov and Shirley Jones.  They're all solid winners even if I would go a different direction with most of them.
You can see my GABBY winners and nominees HERE

Best Picture

 

5. The Alamo - This is John Wayne's directorial debut and his passion project.  It's a historically inaccurate depiction of the battle of the Alamo with Wayne starring as Davy Crockett.  My problem with this film is not that it's historically inaccurate, if a historian hadn't have complained I wouldn't know and I don't feel that movies need to be completely historically accurate.  If they were, they would probably be very dull.  This movie is both historically inaccurate and dull.  It's not a terrible film but it is needlessly long and shouldn't be in the Best Picture race.  I also disapprove of this nomination because John Wayne waged an aggressive campaign to get it.  This was his baby and he wanted it recognized.  It got mixed reviews and just average box office but Wayne had so many friends in the academy that he was able to get multiple nominations for a movie that's just okay.

4. Sons And Lovers - This is a movie based on a D.H. Lawrence novel from 1913 and the highest praise I can give it is that I didn’t hate it.  It’s only an hour and a half, it flows nicely and the story held my interest.  I’ll never watch it again, I wouldn’t recommend it but my immediate thought after watching it was, ‘that wasn’t too bad’.  I don’t know what the hell is up with Dean Stockwell’s accent though.  It’s like he’s trying to do British but it comes off as some alien tongue never heard on this planet.  It would be a horrible choice for Best Picture, it doesn’t belong in this lineup but it’s not a terrible film.

3. The Sundowners - This film is about a family in Australia who move around from town to town trying to find work.  They’re called sundowners because they work from sun up and then at night they pitch a tent wherever they are.  It’s a very enjoyable film because it stars Robert Mitchum, Deborah Kerr and Peter Ustinov, three incredible performers.  It’s got really nice cinematography and a sweeping score.  I wouldn’t put it anywhere near my top 100 movies but it’s damn fine entertainment.

2. Elmer Gantry - This is a case where an incredible performance boosts a movie’s greatness.  Burt Lancaster stars as Elmer Gantry a con man and salesman who happens upon a traveling religious group and becomes a fire and brimstone preacher.  He screams at everyone that they’re sinners and then Jean Simmons offers salvation if they repent.  He also makes a pretty penny while doing so.  Lancaster chews every piece of scenery he can sink his teeth into and deservedly won a Best Actor Oscar for his efforts.

1. The Apartment - This is a perfect film.  I don’t like to throw that term around loosely.  Most movies are bad, some are just OK, a few of them are good but a small handful are perfect.  There is not a single moment in this film that doesn’t work.  The film makes you laugh, cry and feel good about life.  Jack Lemmon stars as an office drone who lends out the key to his apartment to his bosses so they can have a place to cheat on their wives.  One day one of his boss’s mistresses is left in his house and he falls in love resulting in a love triangle.  With Billy Wilder at the helm this is one of the best romances, best comedies and best movies of all time.

The Apartment would be my vote in most years but this is an extremely weak category where it has no competition.  The Alamo is one of the worst nominees ever, Sons And Lovers shouldn’t be here at all, The Sundowners and Elmer Gantry are good movies but missing that special something that pushes you into Best Picture contention.  Also, The Apartment is one of my favorite films of all time and Billy Wilder got snubbed last year for Some Like It Hot so I didn’t have to think about this decision at all.

Oscar Winner: The Apartment

My Vote: The Apartment

GABBY Winner: The Apartment

Best Actor

5. Trevor Howard - Sons And Lovers - Calling Trevor Howard the lead of Sons And Lovers is extremely generous.  The movie is about Dean Stockwell chasing after two loves while he also deals with an oppressive mother.  Howard plays his drunk, coal mining father.  He has a few nice moments in the film but doesn’t do enough to belong in this category.

4. Laurence Olivier - The Entertainer - I didn't like this film much at all and thought Olivier was just okay.  He plays a Vaudeville style performer who tries to keep his career afloat even while his family life is crumbling.  Olivier doesn't have much charisma when he's on stage which makes me realize why his career is in a slump.  He's better in the moments when he's not "performing" but he already won before for Hamlet and this isn't Hamlet.  He does earn points for being in Spartacus this year.

3. Spencer Tracy - Inherit The Wind - The unfortunate aspect of Tracy’s career and Oscar history is that he won 2 Best Actor awards in his early 30s and didn’t really start delivering great performances until later in life.  Now he’s cranking out performance worthy of an Oscar but there’s no way I can vote for a guy who already won 2 over the next two guys on this list.  Tracy plays the lawyer defending the teaching of evolution in the courtroom and he’s the perfect choice for the part.  He commands the screen but also seems humble enough to appear like a real man in events bigger then just his world.

2. Jack Lemmon - The Apartment - Lemmon is also perfect as C.C. Baxter, the low level office worker who lets his superiors use his apartment as a brothel.  He’s meek enough to seem like a guy who would easily be taken advantage of but strong enough to be believable in his later scenes when he finally stands up for himself.

1. Burt Lancaster - Elmer Gantry - This performance elevates the film.  The movie would be nothing without Burt Lancaster preaching the gospel as if he believes God is going to strike him down.  Best thing about the performance is that he doesn’t believe a word he’s saying but he’s so good that we as the audience believe him just as much as the rubes he’s conning.

Howard is out of the running because he’s a supporting part in the wrong category.  Then we can take out Olivier and Tracy because they’ve won before.  So this category comes down to Lemmon and Lancaster.  It’s a real Sophie’s choice as they are both terrific but it becomes a little easier when you take in to account that Lemmon just won 5 years ago and would get a 2nd in 1973.  This was Burt’s only Oscar in a career that most certainly earned one so Burt is an easy winner.

Oscar Winner: Burt Lancaster

My Vote: Burt Lancaster
GABBY Winner: Anthony Perkins for Psycho

Best Actress

5. Melina Mercouri - Never On Sunday - This is a Greek romantic comedy/drama about a prostitute and a prude.  Mercouri plays the prostitute who doesn't work on the Lord's day, hence the title.  It's an enjoyable little film, I enjoyed it but foreign films always land in the 5th spot.

4. Greer Garson - Sunrise At Campobello - This was Garson's last nomination.  She plays Eleanor Roosevelt who is married to Franklin as he loses the use of his legs.  I wasn't a fan of this film at all.  It feels like a play and drags.  Garson's performance was serviceable but she got this nomination because she was a respected actress and less for the performance itself.

3. Elizabeth Taylor - BUtterfield 8 - Man, Elizabeth Taylor was gorgeous.  She was also a pretty great actress too.  Unfortunately, this movie isn’t very good and she’s just okay in it.  She plays a high priced call girl who doesn’t accept money, she just likes to live like a fancy lady.  Some might call her a dirty whore but Taylor doesn’t play the character like that at all.  She’s good but not great.

2. Deborah Kerr - The Sundowners - Kerr earned 6 nominations in her career but never won.  This would be her last so I’m tempted to throw her a vote.  But her never winning is the Academy’s fault, not mine.  In The Sundowners she plays the wife of a sheep herder.  He likes the vagabond life but she wishes for more stability.  It’s a nice performance but it’s missing a great scene that makes it an Academy Award winning performance.  If I voted for her I would be doing just that, voting for her instead of the role.

1. Shirley MacLaine - The Apartment - MacLaine is perfect here.  She’s frail but strong and breaks your heart as she chases after a love she knows is bad for her only to find true love right under her nose the whole time.  I can’t put into words how much I adore her in this film.

Taylor ended up winning another one, MacLaine ended up winning one, Kerr never got an Oscar so I kinda want to vote for her here but there's nobody in this category other than Shirley.  If she wins here Taylor still wins for Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? and then Debra Winger can win for Terms Of Endearment.  Also, she was clearly the best.  Taylor is beautiful in her film but so is Shirley and she just makes you fall in love with her character.  A bit of Oscar history, Taylor got pneumonia right after nominations and it wasn’t clear whether she would survive or not so she won this award due to a big sympathy vote.  She received an emergency tracheotomy that saved her life.  It’s understandable but knowing that she pulled through and won another Oscar I have to vote for Shirley MacLaine.

Oscar Winner: Elizabeth Taylor

My Vote: Shirley MacLaine

GABBY Winner: Shirley MacLaine

Best Supporting Actor

5. Chill Wills - The Alamo - You can't talk about this nomination without talking about the controversy.  Chill Wills was so excited to get nominated that he took out an ad in Variety saying that the cast was praying harder for Wills to win an Oscar than the defenders of the Alamo prayed for their lives.  Some saw this as sacrilegious including producer/director/star John Wayne who took out his own ad denouncing Chill's ad.  Then Chill took out another ad listing the members of the academy, calling them all his cousins.  Groucho Marx took out an ad saying, "Dear Mr. Wills, I am delighted to be your cousin, but I voted for Sal Mineo.".  So with that out of the way, how was the performance?  He's barely in the freaking movie!  He doesn't do anything to deserve to be here in the first place!  He's The Beekeeper, a guy who runs a saloon and sings a song.  He's supposed to be the comic relief of the film, I think, but he's not funny or entertaining.  He should have just accepted the nomination, expecting a win for this is ludicrous thinking.

4. Jack Kruschen - The Apartment - If I was going to pick a person from The Apartment to nominate in this category it would be Fred MacMurray as the boss who openly cheats on his wife and takes advantage of his mistress’s feelings.  Then I may put Ray Walton here next before going with Jack Kruschen.  It’s not that his performance is bad, he’s sweet and funny as Jack Lemmon’s neighbor who sees all the comings and goings and assumes that Jack is a sex fiend.  He’s just not the best supporting actor in his film.

3. Sal Mineo - Exodus - Slight confession, I didn't finish this film.  I got about 30 minutes into this movie, wasn't really sure what was going on and realized I had another 3 hours.  I thought to myself, I'm not getting paid to write these blogs, I don't have to watch this.  So I have no idea what Exodus is about, from the Wikipedia article it's about the founding of Israel.  It's a 3 hour movie that didn't grab me in the first half hour so I turned it off.  I like Sal Mineo though, he was good in Rebel Without A Cause and he was mysteriously murdered so that's worthy of an Oscar nomination.

2. Peter Ustinov - Spartacus - I love Peter Ustinov and he definitely stands out from the ensemble in Spartacus as a slave trader.  The film has a huge ensemble that includes Ustinov, Laurence Olivier, Woody Strode and Charles Laughton and if you were gonna single out one, Ustinov is a good choice. He’s powerful but also weak and a huge schemer.  Ustinov specialized in these weasel like characters.  He was also great in The Sundowners this year so he’s a good vote for the “Best Supporting Actor Of The Year”.

1. Peter Falk - Murder, Inc. - This is a gritty film noir about a criminal syndicate in New York.  Some small time hoods team up with some big time hoods and they start a huge enforcer club.  The reason to watch the film is Peter Falk who made his big screen debut in this movie.  Falk is so good as a menacing goon.  He commands power and respect and chews up the scenery.

Ustinov is a good winner but knowing he's gonna win again in 4 years makes me want to vote for Peter Falk here.  I said I wasn't going to look into the future when I make my decisions but sometimes it's inevitable.  There’s no way I can vote for Chill Wills and Jack Kruschen gets out shined in his film.  That leaves Mineo, Ustinov and Falk.  I couldn't get through Mineo’s movie so knowing that Ustinov has another Oscar coming, I’m casting my vote for Columbo.  This was his film debut though so it's not a shame that he didn't win.  If I was casting my vote in 1960 I would have most assuredly voted for Ustinov.

Oscar Winner: Peter Ustinov

My Vote: Peter Falk
GABBY Winner: Fred MacMurray for The Apartment

Best Supporting Actress

5. Mary Ure - Sons And Lovers - When I sat down to watch Sons And Lovers I had no idea what to expect.  The movie starts and I see a Wendy Hiller as the mother so my first thought was, ‘why didn’t she get nominated?’.  Then a young girl is introduced and I assume that this is the lady who got nominated.  Turns out that is Heather Sears, who I liked.  Then about an hour into the film another lover is introduced played by Mary Ure.  She’s a divorced woman who starts a romantic relationship with Dean Stockwell.  She’s fine but I liked two other performances from the same film better.

4. Shirley Knight - The Dark At The Top Of The Stairs - Robert Preston is one of those actors I can just watch in anything.  I just love the sound of his voice.  Good thing he stars in this film because otherwise it would be exceptionally dull.  He plays a traveling salesman who loses his job.  Knight plays his daughter who does teenage girl stuff.  She falls in love with a guy who is Jewish and that causes tension.  It’s a fine role but I didn’t see anything special about it that warranted a nomination.

3. Glynis Johns - The Sundowners - I really enjoyed The Sundowners and almost all of the performances.  Half way through the movie they stop at an inn run by Glynis Johns.  She takes an instant liking to Peter Ustinov and they have a romance.  She’s a feisty and fun character but she’s not in the film enough to warrant a win.  I’m glad she got the nomination but if I’m not voting for Deborah Kerr I can’t vote for her.

2. Shirley Jones - Elmer Gantry - Burt Lancaster stars as a con man who becomes a preacher.  Shirley Jones is a prostitute who has a history with him.  She comes in during the middle of the film and tries to blackmail him.  If you only know Jones as the mother in The Partridge Family or the farm girl in Oklahoma!, this ain’t your daddy’s Shirley Jones.  She’s incredibly sexy in the film but has that hidden hard edge where you can tell that she’s lived a rough life.

1. Janet Leigh - Psycho - If you haven’t seen Psycho, I have no idea how you have avoided this spoiler your whole life but Janet Leigh is brutally murdered about 30 minutes into the film.  She starts off as the main character, she’s just stolen a large sum of money and is running away and trying to skirt authorities when she stops for the night at the Bates Motel.  There she meets Norman Bates, has dinner with him and is stabbed to death in the shower.  She’s really great in the film but after her character is gone you kind of forget about her.

The only two in consideration here are Jones and Leigh and I’m perfectly fine with a Shirley Jones victory.  I’m voting for Janet Leigh because it’s my only chance to vote for Psycho which should have been in the Best Picture race and Anthony Perkins should have grabbed that Best Actor slot taken by Trevor Howard.

Oscar Winner: Shirley Jones

My Vote: Janet Leigh

GABBY Winner: Joanne Woodward for The Fugitive Kind

Best Director
Billy Wilder rightfully wins for The Apartment.  It would have been cool if Alfred Hitchcock won for Psycho but I gotta vote for Wilder even if he has one already.  Wilder could have won every Oscar and I would have no problem with that.

Best Original Screenplay/Adapted Screenplay
The Apartment would be the best choice in most years but this year it had no competition.  The second best choice would have been Never On Sunday, which would have been a horrible decision.  Things are a little more exciting in the Adapted Screenplay category as Elmer Gantry beats out worthy scripts from Inherit The Wind, Tunes Of Glory and The Sundowners.  Sons And Lovers was required to be nominated as it’s based on a famous book.

Best Score (Comedy or Drama)/Score (Musical)/Song
Elmer Bernstein’s music in The Magnificent Seven is one of my favorite scores of all time but it gets beaten by Exodus.  In the musical category the Frank List biopic Song Without End beats out a collection of forgettable musicals including Bells Are Ringing, Can-Can, Pepe and Let’s Make Love. The theme song from Never On Sunday is pretty annoying but also incredibly catchy.  It’s been stuck in my head since I’ve seen the film and it was also quite popular at the time.

Best Sound
Surprisingly, the only musical nominated, Pepe, doesn’t win in favor of John Wayne’s bloated The Alamo.

Best Art Direction - Black And White/Color
I love that The Apartment wins this category.  It’s not your typical winner for this category but the way that office looks so soul crushing is one of the reasons the movie works so well.  In the color category, Spartacus wins against some pretty weak nominees.

Best Cinematography - Black And White/Color
The Apartment, Psycho and Inherit The Wind, heck even The Facts Of Life would be better winners than the fairly boring cinematography of Sons And Lovers.  I guess it had to win something.  Spartacus wins the color category over a pretty weak lot that included The Alamo, BUtterfield 8, Pepe and Exodus.

Best Costume Design - Black And White/Color
If there was ever a year that showcased how these categories should be merged it’s this year.  The Facts Of Life a Bob Hope/Lucille Ball romantic comedy wins the black and white category and is arguably the best choice.  In the color category, put another notch in the belt of Spartacus.

Best Film Editing
One more win for The Apartment.  I would have gone with Psycho but that didn’t get a nomination. Instead they included the overlong The Alamo which could have benefited from a better editor and the Cantinflas cameo filled musical Pepe.

Best Special Effects
The Time Machine beats The Last Voyage.  Absolutely no complaints here.

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