Best Supporting Actress 1956

[Big Magilla]

Marie Wilson, The Killing

You mean Marie Windsor.

[Reza]

Voted for Malone.

My top 5:

Helen Hayes, Anastasia
Dorothy Malone, Written on the Wind
Marie Wilson, The Killing
Eileen Heckart, The Bad Seed
Patty McCormack, The Bad Seed

[Damien]

I haven't seen very many movies from 1975; but, with the pickings of American actors apparently so slim, was anybody at the time predicting a nomination for Bruno Zanin in Amacord?

No.

Over the course of 35 years, this is honestly the first time I've ever heard Bruno Zanin's name mentioned in connection with the Oscars.

Fellini himself was a sleeper Best Director nominee, famously to Steven Spielberg's chagrin.

[Big Magilla]

I haven't seen very many movies from 1975; but, with the pickings of American actors apparently so slim, was anybody at the time predicting a nomination for Bruno Zanin in Amacord?

No.

[Greg]

I haven't seen very many movies from 1975; but, with the pickings of American actors apparently so slim, was anybody at the time predicting a nomination for Bruno Zanin in Amacord?

[Big Magilla]

The Man in the Glass Booth has been out on DVD in the U.S. for some time.

As for 1975's best actor contenders, my picks were Nicholson, Pacino, Beatty, Hackman in Night Moves and Robert Mitchum in Farewell, My Lovely. I would also have chosen Sean Connery and Michael Caine in The Man Who Would Be King over both Schell and Whitmore and certainly over Matthau.



Edited By Big Magilla on 1276808470

[ITALIANO]

Give 'em Hell, Harry I also saw on HBO, in Fall '75. It made no bones about being stage recreation -- they had some made-up name for the process in which it was filmed, but it amounted to "put a camera fifth row center" -- and it played only a two-week or so engagement in theatres before being shunted to HBO. In America, it tied into a massive revisionist love-in for Truman that came from 1) his death in December '72, 2) the publication of Merle Miller's oral biograhy of him, Plain Speaking, and 3) in Hunter Thompson's take, the utter disgarce of Nixon, which made even awful former presidents look good in comparison. I found it an amusing way to learn about a president with whom I was not at the time familiar, but it's certainly not much of a film, and I presume it would be far less engaging to a non-American audience.

I did expect the film version of a play - of a monologue, even. What I didn't expect was that it's just the film of a stage show, shot in a theatre, in front of a live audience - you can hear the laughs, the coughs...

I'm sure that Whitmore gives a good, expert performance, but a nomination for this was a real act of desperation from the Academy.

And watching the whole thing is honestly very, very tough for someone like me who's not American and knows next to nothing about Wilson. But I will make it one day.

[Mister Tee]

A performance I've been looking for for years now is Maximilian Schell's in The Man in the Glass Booth. From the same year (1975) I've finally found Give 'em Hell Harry, one of the strangest movies ever to get an acting nomination (for James Whitmore). So far I've only resisted fifteen minutes into it - but I haven't given up yet.

The Man in the Glass Booth was a product of the American Film Theatre, a short-lived project in the early/mid-70s that put together seasons of, I believe, 8 film each year, based on prominent plays, of the time or earlier, which would have no had commercial prospects without the block-buying system implemented. Oddly, the first season had some films viewed as successful -- The Homecoming, Butley and The Iceman Cometh -- but, despite strenuous campaigns, none got any nominations. The Man in the Glass Booth -- which I saw on HBO in 1976, after the Oscars -- came along after the project had basically gone belly-up, and got this surprise nod. It's an intelligent enough play, but unimaginatively filmed, and Schell indulges the ham a bit.

Give 'em Hell, Harry I also saw on HBO, in Fall '75. It made no bones about being stage recreation -- they had some made-up name for the process in which it was filmed, but it amounted to "put a camera fifth row center" -- and it played only a two-week or so engagement in theatres before being shunted to HBO. In America, it tied into a massive revisionist love-in for Truman that came from 1) his death in December '72, 2) the publication of Merle Miller's oral biograhy of him, Plain Speaking, and 3) in Hunter Thompson's take, the utter disgarce of Nixon, which made even awful former presidents look good in comparison. I found it an amusing way to learn about a president with whom I was not at the time familiar, but it's certainly not much of a film, and I presume it would be far less engaging to a non-American audience.

The fact that both these men got nominations was testimony to the fact that, beyond Nicholson and Pacino, and then at a distance Matthau, there just were no strong candidates. I believe I'd predicted Beatty for Shampoo, even though his half-there work wasn't his best, and maybe Gene Hackman for French Connection II, which was really scraping the bottom of the barrel.

[Damien]

I saw A Medal For Benny in the 70s on Channel 5 in New York, which consistently showed Paramount pictires from the 30s and 40s. J. Carrol Naish did a typical simple Latino portrayal but he is fairly affecting. (There was a TV adaptation in the mid-50s, with Naish recreating his role and Anne Bancroft taking over for Dorothy Lamour.

[ITALIANO]

Never seen The Bold and the Brave or A Medal for Benny.

A performance I've been looking for for years now is Maximilian Schell's in The Man in the Glass Booth. From the same year (1975) I've finally found Give 'em Hell Harry, one of the strangest movies ever to get an acting nomination (for James Whitmore). So far I've only resisted fifteen minutes into it - but I haven't given up yet.

[Big Magilla]

The only one of those I'm not familiar with is A Medal for Benny, which I may have seen eons ago but don't recall.

The Bold and the Brave has just been released on DVD in the U.K.

[Mister Tee]

I've seen all the supporting actress nominees and am only missing one supporting actor nominee (Mickey Rooney in The Bold and the Brave)

Has anyone post-1956 seen The Bold and the Brave? It seems the ultimate mystery-Oscar-nominee.

Among supporting candidate, I'm also missing not just Blue Veil and Death of A Salesman among women, but also They Knew What They Wanted (which I kick myself for missing a NY TV run back around 1980) and A Medal for Benny on the male side.

[Damien]

Malone is wonderful in Tarnished Angels, although I would think she's a lead there (great performance by Jack Carson, as well).

And who can forget Malone in the book store in The Big Sleep. That scene alone earned her screen immortality.

[Precious Doll]

I've seen all the supporting actress nominees and am only missing one supporting actor nominee (Mickey Rooney in The Bold and the Brave) which I except to finally see early next month.

I don't tend to post anywhere near as much as I would like to due to time constraints.

Needles to say I voted for Dorothy Malone in Written on the Wind, and would give her another supporting actress in the following year for The Tarnished Angels.

[rudeboy]

I also tend to feel uncomfortable casting a vote in year when I haven't seen all of the contenders - which, frankly, means scant pickings for me prior to around the mid-80s. I did vote this year, having seen all but Dunnock - and it seems a vote for her wouldn't have impacted the race too much, so no loss there. I voted for Malone. While I feel Robert Stack gave the one truly great performance in Written on the Wind, Malone gives such an iconic, sexy and memorably stylised performance that I have no problem in backing up her Oscar win. And, as Damien said earlier, the only acting win for a Sirk movie - not the kind of film that usually picks up acting Oscars - is something to support.