1967 Oscar Watch

I did it.  I've watched every film nominated for a major Oscar from 1936 to present.  Hooray for me!
This is the last year to cover in my Oscar Watch Blogs and I saved one of my favorite years for last.  This is the year that the Oscars grew up.  Look at the winners before this year and then after this year and you will notice a drastic change.  Gone are the winners like Gigi and Around The World In 80 Days and here come winners like Midnight Cowboy and The French Connection, movies for adults.  Sure, Oliver! wins next year but everything takes a little time to cement itself.
You can see my GABBY winners and nominees HERE

Best Picture

5. Doctor Dolittle is not a good film and looks like an even worse film when you compare it to the 4 other films on this list.  Rex Harrison plays a doctor who can talk to animals.  This is also a musical and as we learned from My Fair Lady, Harrison can’t sing.  He talks all of his songs which worked as Henry Higgins, slightly, but just comes off as bad here.  I kept thinking that these songs would be pretty if someone who could carry a tune sang them.  The special effects are really cheap here too.  You’d think this would be a middle ground between Mr. Ed and Babe when it comes to making animals look like they’re talking but it’s worse than anything.  I could cut it some slack if it were quaint and enjoyable but it’s not even fun and it’s a long movie.  So it sucks and it takes forever to sit through.

4. Bonnie And Clyde is a movie that I respect more than I like.  It's exceptionally well made but since it's basically a historical biopic that we know the ending to it loses something on rewatches.  Still, Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty are great, it has a great supporting cast who were all Oscar nominated, Michael J. Pollard, Gene Hackman and Estelle Parsons and, in my favorite scene of the film, a young Gene Wilder.  It was a game changer when it came to violence on screen, the gun shots blow out your eardrums and the blood is redder than anything that's ever been on screen.

3. In The Heat Of The Night won the Oscar this year, which was probably more of a political decision than a judgement of quality.  It's a very good movie but if you strip away the racial component it's a well made police procedural that feels like a really good episode of Law & Order.  Sidney Poiter is a black detective from Philadelphia called in to investigate a murder in a racist southern town.  He is constantly at odds with law enforcement who doesn't respect him and a town that hates him.  It's a very good film and a good Best Picture choice (as is this whole category, save for one) but I liked the other film about race a little better.

2. The Graduate is the seminal coming of age film.  It's about a college graduate who has no idea what to do with his life and he wanders aimlessly looking for direction.  It's a beautiful mood piece directed masterfully by Mike Nichols with an impressive cast and an incredible soundtrack.  Dustin Hoffman plays Benjamin who begins to have an affair with an older woman who is a friend of his parents.  Things get complicated when his parents set him up on a date with his lover's daughter.  He tries to blow her off but falls in love with her instead.  Then it rushes to a terrific climax and an ending that leaves you wondering if there ever could be an ending to a story.

1. Guess Who's Coming To Dinner is a movie that hits close to home for me as half of my family is a different race than me because I was lucky enough to be born in a time where I could fall in love with whoever I wanted to regardless of race or class.  It's incredibly humbling to know that had I been born just a few decades earlier I wouldn't be afforded that luxury.  Sidney Poitier stars as a man who fell in love with a white woman in Hawaii and plans to marry her.  Before they get married he wants permission from her parents first, played by Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in their final onscreen pairing.  While they are a liberal couple they realize their casual racism when it is in front of their faces.  Then there's a dinner party where Poitier's parents come and they are equally as bigoted.  It's not a perfect film, it feels a bit stagey at times, but it is an important film and an enjoyable film that sadly still holds relevance.

I could blame a vote split and vote for Doctor Dolittle.  All the good movies cancel each other out so I gotta pick it.  Seriously, take one more look at that lineup.  It is so close to perfect.  You have classic, classic, classic, classic, Doctor fucking Dolittle.  Since all these films would make perfect winners and are all equally great I gotta pick this winner March Madness style.  I'll go alphabetically and start with Bonnie And Clyde vs. The Graduate.  Bonnie And Clyde is ahead of its time as is The Graduate but I gotta pick The Graduate based on pure enjoyment.  It effects me emotionally while Bonnie And Clyde effects me more viscerally.  Then we pit the two Poitier movies against each other and I gotta pick Guess Who's Coming To Dinner over In The Heat Of The Night.  That final monologue that Spencer Tracy delivers is one of the greatest speeches ever put to film.  So now the choice is between The Graduate and Guess Who's Coming To Dinner and while The Graduate will probably stand the test of time more favorably, this was 1967 and Guess Who's Coming To Dinner had the capability to change hearts and minds.  This movie came out at a time when interracial marriage was still banned in some states.  I want to hope that a few people saw this movie and took a second look at their beliefs and I want to hope that people today are still capable of change.

Oscar Winner: In The Heat Of The Night

My Vote: Guess Who's Coming To Dinner

GABBY Winner: Cool Hand Luke 

Best Actor

5. Warren Beatty plays Clyde Barrow, a skilled marksman who starts a crime spree with his girlfriend and family in Bonnie And Clyde.  Beatty delivers a good performance that would be more interesting if I bought into his charisma.  I've never found him that captivating an actor and I feel that everyone else in this movie is more interesting than he is.  This is also one of the best Best Actor lineups of all time so he is overshadowed by his competition.

4. Dustin Hoffman perfectly encapsulates teenage confusion, angst and isolation as Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate.  This is his first nomination so it's best that he doesn't win here but it's a great welcome to the club.  In 1967, we didn't know that Hoffman would amass a resume that would rival any of his contemporaries so his career could have ended up going the way of Jason Biggs.  Knowing he's got Ratso Rizzo and Dorothy Michaels ahead of him makes his performance here more impressive.

3. Rod Steiger won the Oscar for playing a racist southern sheriff in In The Heat Of The Night.  He's a deplorable character.  He's good at his job but his views are completely wrong.  What's great about how his character is handled is that you can see he's capable of change but he never really does.  He comes to respect Sidney Poitier as a good detective and an equal but you can tell his views don't change.  That's because real change is hard.  You don't decide one day not to be a racist but maybe and hopefully over time you can change just enough that the next generation is a little less evil.

2. Spencer Tracy earned his final Oscar nomination from his final film.  He died shortly after completing filming on Guess Who's Coming To Dinner and his death makes his final speech all the more powerful.  You can see it in the reactions from all the other actors.  They know that this is probably Tracy's final scene and when he's finished saying what he has to say, he's also finished with an impressive career in film.  He plays the father of a girl who wants to marry a black man.  He considers himself a liberal but when he is confronted with his all white world becoming more colorful he realizes how bigoted he may be.  It's hard to watch this movie and not weep at his performance.

1. Paul Newman delivers what is quite possibly the coolest performance ever on film in Cool Hand Luke.  He plays Luke, who gets arrested chopping the heads of parking meters and goes to prison.  While in prison he goes from new fish to leader due to pure charisma and cool.  Newman was overdue for a win at this point and this is my favorite film of the year so this is a tough decision.

Everyone here either had Oscars or would eventually win, except for Steiger.  So him winning here is kind of just.  His is not my favorite performance though and I can't see how Sidney Poitier didn't get a nomination unless he cancelled himself out by starring in In The Heat Of The Night, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner and To Sir, With Love.  Hoffman's got 2 ahead of him, Beatty will get awarded for directing, Tracy had 2 and Newman won his consolation Oscar in 1986.  If Tracy hadn't won twice before he would be my winner based on performance, since he had two I gotta pick Newman.  This was his 4th nomination and he should have won for The Hustler so that makes this decision easier.

Oscar Winner: Rod Steiger

My Vote: Paul Newman

GABBY Winner: Spencer Tracy

Best Actress

5. Audrey Hepburn was nominated this year for playing a blind woman fighting home invaders in Wait Until Dark but probably would have ranked higher if she was nominated for Two For The Road instead.  Still, you know it's a strong category when Audrey Hepburn lands in the 5th spot.  She's really great in Wait Until Dark and I believed her as a blind woman but she's already won and this performance doesn't top the one she won for nor does it top other nominated performances like Sabrina or Breakfast At Tiffany's.

4. Edith Evans got her 3rd and final Oscar nomination for playing an old lady who hears voices and finds a sum of money in her apartment in The Whisperers.  Before I watched this film I thought this was going to be a veteran nomination for an old lady.  Oscar history is full of these type of old lady is in a movie, she gets an automatic Oscar nomination.  This is half the case.  She is an old lady, but the performance is pretty good too.  She's a lonely old lady living on welfare.  Her son committed a robbery and hides the money in her house.  She finds the money and thinks it's a gift but then another criminal befriends her and tries to steal it.  All while this is happening she's also talking to the walls because she hears voices.  Even though she's the only person in this category who never had a win, her performance and stature don't measure up to her competition.

3. Faye Dunaway plays Bonnie Parker, bank robber on a crime spree with her partner in Bonnie And Clyde.  There's not much I can add to what's already been said about this performance but Dunaway is pretty fantastic here.  She's sexy but also innocent and blind to the power she wields.  This is all the more impressive considering that this is her film debut.  That's also the reason why I can't vote for her.  I usually tend not to vote for people in their first movie because it could have been perfect casting or a lucky break.  She got hers for Network which is a better performance anyway so everything worked out.

2. Anne Bancroft plays Mrs. Robinson, the alcoholic wife of Benjamin's father's partner in The Graduate.  She hates her life and is perfectly willing to have a meaningless affair with a younger man.  Her decision comes back to her when the boy she is sleeping with falls for her daughter.  Bancroft is truly incredible in this film.  She is so strong, powerful and intimidating without having to do much of anything.  She makes the whole thing look effortless.  She's so good that you don't realize that she's really kind of a supporting part.

1. Katharine Hepburn won her 2nd of 4 Oscars for playing the mother of a white girl who wants to marry a black man in Guess Who's Coming To Dinner.  Part of the reason Hepburn is so good in this role is because of her chemistry with Spencer Tracy which had been perfected over 9 films.  They seem so natural together, like they have been living together as long as the characters they are playing and her reactions to Tracy's final speech are hard not to get emotional over.

Edith Evans is the only one here who never ended up winning so I could vote for her but when you look at all the performances there is no way you can say she's superior, even though she is quite good.  I can eliminate Dunaway because this is her first movie and I can also eliminate Audrey Hepburn because her work here isn't superior to the film she won for already.  That leaves Katharine Hepburn and Anne Bancroft.  Both have wins already and both are as good or better than what they already won for.  Seeing as how Katharine's got 2 more coming to her after this makes me want to vote for Bancroft but I don't like to look into the future when making my choices.  Anne won 5 years ago and Katharine won 33 years ago so that's what I'm using as a tie breaker.

Oscar Winner: Katharine Hepburn

My Vote: Katharine Hepburn

GABBY Winner: Anne Bancroft

Best Supporting Actor

5. John Cassavettes is probably best known as a writer and director but got his first Oscar nomination for playing Victor Franko in The Dirty Dozen.  He later scored nominations in both the writing and directing categories.  This is one of my all time favorite sick day movies.  If I'm not feeling too well and I don't have the energy to do anything I can pop in The Dirty Dozen and it will make me feel better.  Lee Marvin is assigned a group of convicts to train to be soldiers to fight the Nazis.  It's an awesome "guys" flick.  You get the motliest crew together, whip them into shape and then they go on their mission.  Franko is probably the most hard headed of the group.  He's been sentenced to death but has a chance of release if he follows orders.  He's not too keen on following orders though so he butts heads with his superiors a lot.  I'm glad somebody from the ensemble got noticed, I would have picked Telly Savalas as the unstable Maggot but Cassavettes definitely stands out.

4. Cecil Kellaway plays a priest who is open to the concept of interracial marriage in Guess Who's Coming To Dinner.  This feels like a "along for the ride" nomination.  Voters were probably checking the film off in multiple boxes and Kellaway got thrown in too.  He doesn't do a whole lot in the film.  He's not bad but you don't really remember him after the movie's over.  He was a fine character actor so I don't disapprove of the nomination but there's really no way he should have won.

3. Gene Hackman got his first Oscar nomination for playing Buck Barrow, Clyde's brother and part of the gang in Bonnie And Clyde.  It's a performance that is full of life and he commands attention every time he's on screen.  You can tell that this guy is gonna be a star just by how much fun he's having and how natural he is on screen.  That being said, it's his first nomination, he's gonna win two in his career and he kind of blends into the ensemble for most of the movie.  It's a great first nomination but not really something that wins an Oscar.

2. Michael J. Pollard plays C.W. Moss, part of the Barrow gang in Bonnie And Clyde.  He's a shy mechanic who joins the crew on their bank robbing adventures.  Pollard has a natural screen presence that gives him such a likable quality and he's probably the most relatable character in the film.  He's almost our way into the film.  He's a guy who doesn't have a whole lot going on so when something exciting comes along he's all on board for an adventure.  He eventually leads to them getting caught because he has them hide out at his dad's house who calls the cops on them but the look on his face when he thinks they have gotten away with it is priceless.

1. George Kennedy plays Dragline in Cool Hand Luke, my favorite movie of the year.  When Luke gets thrown in jail he is an outsider and Dragline is the big man that everyone looks up to and respects.  He has the most interesting arc in the film as he starts out so intimidating but when he has a fist fight with Luke and Luke is able to stand toe to toe with him he changes into a sidekick.  He goes from being intimidating to subservient so quickly but also so naturally.  He's a follower who was in a leadership position and once he recognizes the real leader he becomes enamored with him.  I love Kennedy so much in this part, this is probably my favorite performance of the year.

George Kennedy is my vote just based on performance and the fact that he's in the movie I liked the most.  He also stands out among his competition.  Hackman and Pollard are good but cancel each other out, Kellaway doesn't have much of a part and Cassavettes is fun but gets lost in a great ensemble.  Kennedy is a no-brainer decision this year.

Oscar Winner: George Kennedy

My Vote: George Kennedy

GABBY Winner: George Kennedy

Best Supporting Actress

5. Beah Richards plays Sidney Poitier's mother in Guess Who's Coming To Dinner.  Not really sure why she got nominated as she doesn't do much of anything in the film.  She's not bad, she's just barely present.  If they wanted to nominate someone from the movie in this category they could have gone with Katharine Houghton who plays the daughter or better yet Isabel Sanford who plays the comic relief maid to the white family who is not only very funny but has a more fully realized character.

4. Katharine Ross plays Mrs. Robinson's daughter in The Graduate.  This is a nomination that makes perfect sense but when it comes time to vote for a winner she doesn't really contend.  She doesn't do a whole lot in the film even though her character is incredible important.  She's Elaine, the daughter or Mrs. Robinson who is having an affair with Benjamin.  His parents try to set him up with Elaine much to the chagrin of Mrs. Robinson who tells him to stay away from her.  He ends up falling in love with her and an awkward love triangle starts.  It's a fine performance but gets overshadowed by others in the film.

3. Carol Channing plays Muzzy, an eccentric, prank loving, widow in the very enjoyable musical Thoroughly Modern Millie.  I have a Mandela Effect relationship with this movie.  I had never seen it but knew that Carol Channing was Oscar nominated for it.  One day I saw it was playing on TCM but was halfway over, I tuned in and saw Carol Channing getting shot out of a cannon yelling, "Raspberries!".  Without context, this made absolutely no sense.  Years passed and it got to a point where I thought maybe I dreamed this.  Surely there is not a movie where Carol Channing gets shot out of a cannon.  Sure enough, I queue this up get about halfway through and there it is.  Channing is a hoot in this movie she's a crazy lady who loves to play pranks and after she does she says, "Raspberries".  That's about all there is to the role but she's such a delight.  She has a showstopping musical number where she plays a low note on a saxophone and then sings the same note.  It's a hilarious performance that is a bright spot in an already entertaining movie.

2. Mildred Natwick plays Jane Fonda's uptight mother in Barefoot In The Park.  It's a very funny role, she's the typical overbearing mother who is always encroaching on her daughter's life.  Upstairs from Fonda and her husband, Robert Redford, is an eccentric carefree man played by Charles Boyer.  They set up a date between the two of them, Natwick gets drunk, loosens up and falls in love.  The movie is not one of Neil Simon's best, it lacks the hilarity and great performances of The Sunshine Boys or The Odd Couple but both Boyer and Natwick are scene stealers.

1. Estelle Parsons won her Oscar for playing Blanche Barrow, sister-in-law to Clyde, who joins the Barrow gang with her husband Buck in Bonnie And Clyde.  This is the role that deserved the Oscar from the film.  The entire ensemble is great but if you were gonna single out one to award it would be Parsons, and they did.  She is fantastic as a woman who doesn't want to live a life of violence but gets drawn into it and enjoys it once involved.  Then she has probably the best scene in the movie near the end when she is being questioned by police.  Fantastic work.

This is a case where one person is far and away in front of their competition.  Parsons is really the only person to vote for.  Carol Channing would have been a fun winner but Parsons is so obviously the best performance that anyone else winning wouldn't make much sense.

Oscar Winner: Estelle Parsons

My Vote: Estelle Parsons

GABBY Winner: Estelle Parsons

Best Director
Mike Nichols rightfully wins for The Graduate.  The way he uses the camera to tell this story makes it a classic.  This was a tough category too including Arthur Penn for Bonnie And Clyde, Stanley Kramer for Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, Richard Brooks for In Cold Blood and Norman Jewison for In The Heat Of The Night.  Nichols did the best job in my opinion but seeing as how he won last year they could have spread the wealth.  Anyone in this category would be a good winner.

Best Original Screenplay/Adapted Screenplay
Guess Who's Coming To Dinner wins Best Original, and is the best choice in the category.  Bonnie And Clyde is a close second but the dialogue in Guess Who is superior where Bonnie's visuals are greater.  In The Heat Of The Night wins a tough category for Adapted.  I would have picked Cool Hand Luke, The Graduate or In Cold Blood but In The Heat Of The Night is a good winner too.  I'll say again that this was a really great year.

Best Original Music Score/Song Score or Adaptation Score
For some reason Doctor Dolittle gets nominated in original score and adaptation score but loses both.  Thoroughly Modern Millie wins Best Original Music Score over the incredible music is both Cool Hand Luke and In Cold Blood.  I understand the decision, it's easier to recognize a musical's music over beautiful underscoring.  Camelot wins Best Original Song Score of Adaptation Score, which is fine seeing as its closest competition was Mille (which won the other score award) and Doctor Dolittle (which is a shitty film).

Best Original Song
I have less of a problem with Doctor Dolittle getting nominated for Best Picture than I do with Talk To The Animals winning Best Song over The Bare Necessities from The Jungle Book and The Look Of Love from Casino Royale.  The Doctor Dolittle song is terrible and made all the worse because Rex Harrison can't sing.

Best Costume Design
Camelot wins.  It's a fine choice until you see the competition includes Bonnie And Clyde, The Taming Of The Shrew and Thoroughly Modern Millie.  All would be better choices.

Best Art Direction - Set Decoration
Camelot wins this one too but is probably the best decision in the category.  Runner-up for me would probably be Doctor Dolittle, but I don't want that to win anything.

Best Cinematography
Bonnie And Clyde wins a weird category that for some reason includes Doctor Dolittle.  Remember the beautiful shot composition in Doctor Dolittle?  Cool Hand Luke doesn't get nominated but Doctor Dolittle does.  The Graduate and In Cold Blood would have been good winners too.

Best Sound
Hard to believe Bonnie And Clyde didn't get a nomination, the gunshots in this film are loud and memorable.  In its absence, In The Heat Of The Night wins even though it was up against 3 musicals, Doctor Dolittle, Camelot and Thoroughly Modern Millie, which as I've previously established almost always win this category.

Best Sound Effects
The Dirty Dozen rightfully wins over the only other nominee, In The Heat Of The Night.

Best Film Editing
Another weird category where instead of nominating the incredible editing of Bonnie And Clyde, Cool Hand Luke, In Cold Blood or Point Blank they picked Doctor Dolittle and Guess Who's Coming To Dinner.  Guess Who's Coming To Dinner is a great film but, what editing?  It's filmed primarily in one location and looks like a play.  In The Heat Of The Night wins which is the second best choice in the category behind The Dirty Dozen.

Best Special Visual Effects
Doctor Dolittle wins.  What the fuck ever,

Up Next

Nothing until my 2018 Oscar watch.  Don't know what's going to get nominated yet.  This was a long project.