Best Screenplay 1964

1927/28 through 1997

What were the best original and adapted screenplays of 1964?

Father Goose (S. H. Barnett, Peter Stone and Frank Tarloff)
0
No votes
A Hard Day's Night (Alun Owen)
3
10%
One Potato, Two Potato (Orville H. Hampton and Raphael Hayes)
1
3%
The Organizer (Agenore Incrocci, Furio Scarpelli and Mario Monicelli)
8
27%
That Man in Rio (Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Ariane Mnouchkine, Daniel Boulanger and Philippe de Broca)
0
No votes
Becket (Edward Anhalt)
2
7%
Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern and Peter George)
13
43%
Mary Poppins (Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi)
1
3%
My Fair Lady (Alan Jay Lerner)
0
No votes
Zorba the Greek (Michael Cacoyannis)
2
7%
 
Total votes: 30

ITALIANO
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Re: Best Screenplay 1964

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Mister Tee wrote: Can we at that point stagger the threads -- perhaps make it every ten days, rather than seven?
Yes please...
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Re: Best Screenplay 1964

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Mister Tee wrote:The Brave One was shown on TCM last February. I DVR-ed it, and actually started to watch it just a few weeks ago, but found it too cloying to get very far. I'll force myself through before we get to its year.

Since Italiano raised the issue, I'll say something I was planning to say soon: It's been difficult enough to keep this one-a-week schedule with ten films to talk about (including many films rarely discussed around here); when the number gets bumped to 15 from 1956 on down, it'll become impossible. Can we at that point stagger the threads -- perhaps make it every ten days, rather than seven?
We could, but it might make even more sense to strip out Original Story AKA Motion Picture Story and give it its own thread either when we finish the screenplay voting or on alternate weeks as we go along on the screenplays since Original Story AKA Motion Picture Story is not a screenplay category award even if it is a writing category award. As I said earlier I'm not even sure we should be voting in this category based on the films themselves but go back to the original stories, some of which have been published, some of which have not. In some instances during the three writing category era (1940-1957) films could be nominated for both Original Story and Screenplay. The word "adapted" didn't come into the picture until 1957, the last year of the three category concept. Prior to 1940 there were awards for Original Story and Screenplay. Original screenplays, though eligible for Screenplay, were usually, if not always, left in the dust, with adaptations hogging the category.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1964

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The Brave One was shown on TCM last February. I DVR-ed it, and actually started to watch it just a few weeks ago, but found it too cloying to get very far. I'll force myself through before we get to its year.

Since Italiano raised the issue, I'll say something I was planning to say soon: It's been difficult enough to keep this one-a-week schedule with ten films to talk about (including many films rarely discussed around here); when the number gets bumped to 15 from 1956 on down, it'll become impossible. Can we at that point stagger the threads -- perhaps make it every ten days, rather than seven?
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Re: Best Screenplay 1964

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If you have a region B friendly player France have a recently stunningly restored The Proud and the Beautiful on Blu Ray.

I have been able to catch up on some of the screenplay nominations in the last few years thanks to Loving the Classics, though the prints range from good to poor.

I recently found another sight http://www.moviedetective.net that has lots of foreign language films that are not available on DVD in the English speaking world. The guy who runs the site appears to purchase foreign language discs that don't are not English friendly and records them onto DVD-Rs with optional subtitles. I have seen 3 foreign language nominees in the last 2 days (The Pedestrian, Harry and the Butler & La Venganza). No art work is provided, just DVD-Rs but the quality tends to be very good. In some cases the copies are made from old video masters and they are of course not too good but the way I look at it if I still had a video player and I came across something that I couldn't see any other way I'd rent the video despite the sub standard quality we are so used to you thanks to DVD & Blu Ray.

Furthermore, we are now entering a period where less older titles are coming out on DVD or Blu Ray. The market is largely newer films. And whilst some older films are making their way to Blu Ray it tends to by stuff that is already been out on DVD and has been either remastered or upscaled for Blu Ray.

Whilst a number of older films are getting remastered in 4K (In Cold Blood, China is Near & Central High Massacre just to name 3 which are due in 2016) and the number of these are very small, particularly when you consider the huge number of films that have never even seen the light of day even on DVD.

And then there are those films like Red Sky in the Morning, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, The Keep, Porgy & Bess, Song of the South which would sell reasonably well but are either held up by music rights issues or other matters. So I say get what you can when you can because the opportunity may never come around again.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1964

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The Brave One is not only a great story, it has a great story behind it. It was written by blacklisted Dalton Trumbo, the subject of a major film being released this year. Michel Ray (real name Michel de Carvalho), the child actor who starred in the film and later played Peter O'Toole's Arab lover in Lawrence of Arabia is one of the rare child actors who became even more successful in later life. He quit acting, became a member of the British Olympic ski team in 1968, 1972 and 1976 then an investment banker on his way to becoming a multi-billionaire, and one of England's richest men. Not only did he make a fortune on his own, his father-in-law, the man behind Heineken, left his fortune to him. He can be seen as himself in the 2014 documentary, The Magic of Heineken.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1964

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I do have seen The Proud and the Beautiful, which isn't so difficult to find, at least in Europe (though it admittely isn't the most famous French movie ever and, even after seeing it, one feels it was nominated mostly because of the name of the writer), but I still have to see the winner, The Brave One, which luckily doesn't seem to be as obscure as I thought. Maybe these polls could slow down a bit..?
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Re: Best Screenplay 1964

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Mister Tee wrote:
Big Magilla wrote:The Sheep Has 5 Legs and The Proud and the Beautiful are both on DVD. They're not that hard to track down.
They don't exist on Netflix. You guys must have much more disposable income than I do, to be able to buy all these things.
Haven't seen The Sheep Has 5 Legs, but 1955 Best Motion Picture Story does have alternatives. 1956 is tougher because of the wrong High Society being nominated leaving the choices just between Umberto D., The Brave One, The Proud and the Beautiful and the by-the-numbers Eddy Duchin Story. The problem, though, is that Motion Picture Story is not the screenplay. The screenplay was written by Yves Allégret. The nomination went to Jean-Paul Satre who wrote the original story in 1944 and had nothing to do with the making of the film. What we really ought to do for this award is seek out the stories themselves.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1964

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Big Magilla wrote:The Sheep Has 5 Legs and The Proud and the Beautiful are both on DVD. They're not that hard to track down.
They don't exist on Netflix. You guys must have much more disposable income than I do, to be able to buy all these things.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1964

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The Sheep Has 5 Legs and The Proud and the Beautiful are both on DVD. They're not that hard to track down.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1964

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Precious Doll wrote: I have actually managed to see all the screenplay nominee's up until the 1920s, though it's taken me two decades and a lot of money to do it.
Really? The Sheep Has 5 Legs? The Proud and the Beautiful? Tall, Dark and Handsome? Salty O'Rourke? I'm truly impressed.

I've dug pretty deep and have managed to unearth a bunch (I just watched The Affairs of Susan on YouTube over the weekend), but I'm missing a fair number from the three-category years.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1964

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There is no rule that people can't vote without having seen all the nominees which is why we have the option of changing our vote in case someone manages to catch up with a film they haven't seen and then wants to vote for it.

All of the nominated films are available on DVD as is Casanova '70, all of which I own.

I haven't seen The Organizer and I haven't see That Man from Rio since I saw it in a theatre at the time of its release. I won't vote until after I watch The Organizer and re-watch That Man, probably Thursday. I will also give Casanova '70 another shot since its been ages since I've seen it though there's no chance in Hell that I'll change my 1965 vote.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1964

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Original: The Organizer with A Hard Days's Night a close second.
Adapted: Dr Strangelove

I have actually managed to see all the screenplay nominee's up until the 1920s, though it's taken me two decades and a lot of money to do it.

I my choices this year are not enthusiastic choices my they will do. Major omissions are Seance on a Wet Afternoon, Red Desert, Fail Safe, The World of Henry Orient, Topkapi & Lilith. For me all better choices than most of the Academy choices this year.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1964

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ITALIANO wrote:Can I be brutally honest? I haven't said anything for 1965, but this year I am sure that I am the only one who can vote in Original - except maybe Precious Doll and maybe Mister Tee. Nobody else here, at least till now, has seen ALL FIVE nominees. So don't make me angry - it's not like one has to vote at any cost.
Yeah, I can vote, as well, but I agree: chances are very slim that more than a few can do so honestly. While all of them are available somewhere (I saw only two in real time, but managed the three others over the intervening years), only A Hard Day's Night has had anything like widespread accessibility.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1964

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Can I be brutally honest? I haven't said anything for 1965, but this year I am sure that I am the only one who can vote in Original - except maybe Precious Doll and maybe Mister Tee. Nobody else here, at least till now, has seen ALL FIVE nominees. So don't make me angry - it's not like one has to vote at any cost.
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Best Screenplay 1964

Post by Kellens101 »

What were the best screenplays of 1964?
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