Best Picture and Director 1959

1927/28 through 1997

Please select one Best Picture and one Best Director

Anatomy of a Murder
16
29%
Ben-Hur
6
11%
The Diary of Anne Frank
2
4%
The Nun's Story
2
4%
Room at the Top
2
4%
Jack Clayton - Room at the Top
2
4%
George Stevens - The Diary of Anne Frank
2
4%
Billy Wilder - Some Like It Hot
18
32%
William Wyler - Ben-Hur
6
11%
Fred Zinnemann - The Nun's Story
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 56

Big Magilla
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1959

Post by Big Magilla »

Mister Tee wrote:You started out ahead of me, but I jumped ahead at some point.
You sure did, but to clarify, the only roadshow I recall seeing prior to West Side Story which was still in its roadshow engagement when I saw it in early 1963, was Around the World in 80 Days in 1956. It was a group thing, but can't recall if it was with a class or with fellow newspaper carriers. I went on a lot of trips with both groups in those days.

I worked as an usher and later concession stand attendant and manager while in high school and two years of college from early-1960 to mid-1963 and saw just about everything that wasn't a roadshow whether at the theatre I worked or at another one. I did see two Oscar winners in their initial runs during this period - The Apartment and Tom Jones.

I spent 1966 and the first half of 1997 in Germany. I was the Operations Sergeant and Training NCO for a major supply company. I used to conduct training classes and show training films in the theatre a few feet from my barracks on Saturday mornings. It was the same theatre that I saw most of the films they showed on Friday and Saturday nights. They were about six months behind their U.S. commercial releases.

I may have seen The Sound of Music as soon as it opened in 1965, but I don't recall having seen it before that showing in Richmond later that year, which would have been before the Oscars. I'm fairly certain I saw Oliver! before the Oscars. I know I saw The Lion in Winter before. By that time, I knew how to get into reserved seat showings without having to buy a ticket in advance.
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1959

Post by Mister Tee »

Big Magilla wrote:
Reza wrote:Why was The Searchers snubbed? Was it not considered to be one of Ford's top tier at the time? For the Academy to totally snub the film it appears the film wasn't appreciated then and its status as one of Ford's best films came many decades later.
In a nutshell, westerns at the time, dominated TV broadcasting in the U.S. People still went to theatres to see 'em, but even good ones like The Searchers were a tough sell. Giant was a western, but it was a modern western and it had James Dean at the height of the Dean cult to draw in young people. Friendly Persuasion was a western, but it was a Quaker western.
Yes, but Reza's original question also deserves a yes. The Searchers was, along with other genre pieces like Singin' in the Rain and Vertigo, not viewed as exceptional during initial release, but substantially upgraded in reputation with the ascension of the Cahiers-ists and auteurists. I've always said I saw these movies (in the early/mid-60s) before they were masterpieces.
Big Magilla wrote:
I did not see mostly everything before the Oscars until the following year. I did not see the previous year's winner,Gigi, until New Year's 1961. Can't recall when I first saw either 1957's The Bridge on the River Kwai or 1959's Ben-Hur. It was likely early 1963 before I saw either 1961's West Side Story or 1962's Lawrence of Arabia. I saw 1964's My Fair Lady in early 1965. I saw 1965's The Sound of Music when it opened in Richmond, Virginia, having been stationed at Fort Lee at the time. I saw A Man for All Seasons when I left the service at the end of June 1967. It wasn't until 1968 that I was able to see all the contenders, most of them before they were nominated.
You started out ahead of me, but I jumped ahead at some point. I DID see Bridge on the River Kwai in a theatre, but it probably wasn't till sometime in 1958 or '59. Likewise, I saw both West Side Story and Lawrence of Arabia in theatres, in 1963 -- that's how long it took roadshow presentations to come to what we called "the neighborhoods". I saw The Sound of Music during its first month in NY -- it, too, was a Manhattan roadshow release, but it was a big deal for Catholic families, plus it had personal resonance as the first show I'd seen on Broadway, so we went as a family. I didn't see the previous year's winner, My Fair Lady, until summer '66, again when it finally hit neighborhood theatres. Every subsequent best picture winner I saw prior to the Oscars except for Oliver! -- it was one of the last roadshow films, and it came out during my senior year in high school, when my burgeoning social life took precedence over the Oscars. In fact, I didn't see most of the 1968 nominees/winners until a year or two later; way too many of them (Funny Girl, The Lion in Winter, Star!) went the reserved seats/two performances a day route.

I had started seeing the majority of nominees prior to the presentations with the 1966 group -- though one major contender, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, was off-limits to me because "No one under 18 admitted"; I didn't see it till college, and, honestly, I'm glad about that: it would have been emotionally incomprehensible to me at 14, but I got it fine at 18. After that (except, as I say, 1968), I usually saw at least the most likely contenders prior to Oscar night.
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1959

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Reza wrote:Why was The Searchers snubbed? Was it not considered to be one of Ford's top tier at the time? For the Academy to totally snub the film it appears the film wasn't appreciated then and its status as one of Ford's best films came many decades later.
In a nutshell, westerns at the time, dominated TV broadcasting in the U.S. People still went to theatres to see 'em, but even good ones like The Searchers were a tough sell. Giant was a western, but it was a modern western and it had James Dean at the height of the Dean cult to draw in young people. Friendly Persuasion was a western, but it was a Quaker western.
Reza wrote:
Mister Tee wrote:
Reza wrote:
Would love to hear from Big Magilla and Mister Tee on this as not only do they have greater insight on the older races but they are also the only ones very much around in the year 1959.
Well, I'm not quite as old as you think I am. I was alive in 1959, but young enough that the only nominated films I saw in theatres were Operation Petticoat, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and The Big Fisherman. I was in high school (mid-60s) or college before I saw most of these major category nominees.
I did not see mostly everything before the Oscars until the following year. I did not see the previous year's winner,Gigi, until New Year's 1961. Can't recall when I first saw either 1957's The Bridge on the River Kwai or 1959's Ben-Hur. It was likely early 1963 before I saw either 1961's West Side Story or 1962's Lawrence of Arabia. I saw 1964's My Fair Lady in early 1965. I saw 1965's The Sound of Music when it opened in Richmond, Virginia, having been stationed at Fort Lee at the time. I saw A Man for All Seasons when I left the service at the end of June 1967. It wasn't until 1968 that I was able to see all the contenders, most of them before they were nominated.
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1959

Post by Reza »

Big Magilla wrote:Not sure he would have won if John Ford had been nominated for The Searchers, long since considered the superior of the two western themed films.
Why was The Searchers snubbed? Was it not considered to be one of Ford's top tier at the time? For the Academy to totally snub the film it appears the film wasn't appreciated then and its status as one of Ford's best films came many decades later.
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1959

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Sabin wrote:If somehow Some Like It Hot gets pushed to ten nominations and Wilder ended up winning the following year, is it possible Some Like It Hot could win? If it couldn’t win screenplay over Pillow Talk, I doubt it.
It didn't. It lost to Room at the Top. Pillow Talk won over North by Northwest, Wild Strawberries, and The 400 Blows, a travesty.

As Mister Tee points out, farce is seldom appreciated by Oscar voters, so the chances of Some Like It Hot winning were not good, but without Ben-Hur, the Golden Globe winner for Comedy was probably a strongest contender for the fifth slot than Golden Globe Drama nominee On the Beach.

Hitchcock's films weren't taken seriously Oscar voters in their day, either, as exemplified by the low count of nominations for North by Northwest. For decades now, though, Some Like It Hot and North by Northwest have been considered the year's best films.
Sabin wrote:I have a question: George Stevens has won Best Director (plus DGA) twice this decade but his films have never won. Does this help or hurt the film’s chance at Best Picture?
It does neither. Stevens was well respected, but he was also lucky to have won the two Oscars he did. A Place in the Sun was in a dead heat with A Streetcar Named Desire - they split the difference by giving Streetcar three out of the four acting wins and Sun director, then snubbed them both for Best Picture. Nothing was going to beat the phenomenon that was Around the World in 80 Days five years later, but that was a producer's epic, not a director's. Stevens was the most serious contender for direction that year for Giant. Not sure he would have won if John Ford had been nominated for The Searchers, long since considered the superior of the two western themed films.
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1959

Post by Mister Tee »

Sabin wrote: I don't know if Billy Wilder was regarded as hitting his stride at the time in the late 1950s but he clearly was and it might not have been inconceivable that he could've won Best Picture one year earlier. That said, if Some Like It Hot couldn't beat Room at the Top, it likely wasn't going to win.
I love Some Like It Hot, but I think it would have fallen victim to (particularly in that era) Oscars voters' aversion to comedy. Between You Can't Take It With You and Annie Hall, there's no real flat-out comedy that won best picture -- precious few that you'd even describe as mostly comedic (All About Eve? The Sting?), and none that are as pure farce as Some Like It Hot. Even the few comedies that have won over the decades (It Happened One Night, Annie Hall, Shakespeare in Love) are more comedic love stories than pure comedies. Something as frivolous at heart as Some Like It Hot just doesn't seem to ring the bell for Academy folk, more's the pity.
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1959

Post by Sabin »

Big Magilla wrote
Scheduled to win? No won is scheduled to win a year in advance.

Just because Some Like It Hot gets ten nominations, doesn't mean it wins. I still say The Nun's Story and Zinnemann would have won then, though in retrospect it would have been Some Like It Hot and Wilder and it would win screenplay as well.
I misspoke and changed what I wrote.

I don't know if Billy Wilder was regarded as hitting his stride at the time in the late 1950s but he clearly was and it might not have been inconceivable that he could've won Best Picture one year earlier. That said, if Some Like It Hot couldn't beat Room at the Top, it likely wasn't going to win.
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1959

Post by Big Magilla »

Sabin wrote:
If somehow Some Like It Hot gets pushed to ten nominations and Wilder is scheduled to win the following year, is it possible Some Like It Hot could win? If it couldn’t win screenplay, I doubt it.
Scheduled to win? No won is scheduled to win a year in advance.

Just because Some Like It Hot gets ten nominations, doesn't mean it wins. I still say The Nun's Story and Zinnemann would have won then, though in retrospect it would have been Some Like It Hot and Wilder and it would win screenplay as well.
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1959

Post by Sabin »

Big Magilla wrote
Interesting question, and one that I don't think has been asked before in one of your "what if" scenarios.
Work in progress.

Go back and change your answers to include this!

If somehow Some Like It Hot gets pushed to ten nominations and Wilder ended up winning the following year, is it possible Some Like It Hot could win? If it couldn’t win screenplay over Pillow Talk, I doubt it.
Last edited by Sabin on Fri Jan 22, 2021 9:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1959

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Sabin wrote:Without Ben-Hur, what becomes the new nominations leader? Both The Nun’s Story and Diary of Anne Frank had 8. I see more room to grow with Diary of Anne Frank.
Interesting question, and one that I don't think has been asked before in one of your "what if" scenarios.

I don't think The Nun's Story benefits at all from the absence of Ben-Hur in terms of nominations. The Diary of Anne Frank could pick up nods for Adapted Screenplay and/or Film Editing, but it could just as easily continue to be overlooked in those categories.

Replacement Nominations:

Picture - Some Like It Hot - goes to 7 nominations
Director - Anatomy of a Murder - goes to 8 nominations
Actor North by Northwest - goes to 4 nominations
Supporting Actor - Some Like It Hot - goes to 8 nominations
Adapted Screenplay - On the Beach - goes to 3 nominations
Color Cinematography - North by Northwest- goes to 5 nominations
Color Art Direction - The Hanging Tree - goes to 2 nominations
Color Costume Design - North by Northwest - goes to 6 nominations
Film Editing - Some Like It Hot - goes to 9 nominations
Score - Anatomy of a Murder - goes to 9 nominations
Sound - Some Like It Hot - goes to 10 nominations
Special Effects - The Big Circus - goes to 1 nomination (although this more than likely will either be given as a special award to Journey to the Center of the Earth or eliminated altogether)

Some Like It Hot leads with 10 nominations, followed by Anatomy of a Murder with 9, and then The Diary of Anne Frank and The Nun's Story, still with 8 each.
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1959

Post by Sabin »

I have a question: George Stevens has won Best Director (plus DGA) twice this decade but his films have never won. Does this help or hurt the film’s chance at Best Picture?
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1959

Post by Mister Tee »

Reza wrote:
Would love to hear from Big Magilla and Mister Tee on this as not only do they have greater insight on the older races but they are also the only ones very much around in the year 1959.
Well, I'm not quite as old as you think I am. I was alive in 1959, but young enough that the only nominated films I saw in theatres were Operation Petticoat, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and The Big Fisherman. I was in high school (mid-60s) or college before I saw most of these major category nominees.

But, long as I'm here, a few thoughts:

It's hard to handicap what the absence of a behemoth will do to a race because you have to account for what film(s) will inherit the energy they attracted. In Ben-Hur's case, it's especially difficult, because this was a film that filled the wide-screen-bigness niche, the top-grossing blockbuster niche, and, to some degree, the critical-acclaim niche -- it won the NY Critics' Award, something few of the big boppers of the era did.

I see the argument for The Nun's Story, since it had an epic time-frame (despite being far more contemplative than traditional epics) and won both best director and best actress in NY, suggesting it might have won in big Ben's absence. But, looking at the voting history, I note that the film itself wasn't in contention there -- Room at the Top was number two in the end, and On the Beach/Anatomy of a Murder also placed ahead of Zinnemann's film in the early ballots. I also have difficulty imagining a film going from zero wins to taking the top prize.

Not that I can easily imagine any of the others winning, either. Room at the Top was a bit exotic for its Britishness. Anatomy of a Murder might have picked up the director nod with Wyler deleted, but the fact it missed the nod in actual balloting suggests it lacked strength. Diary of Anne Frank might have emerged as a compromise choice -- it was, after all, based on not only a legendary cultural artifact, but a Pulitzer/Tony-winning play.

In the acting categories, I think Jimmy Stewart would have been the easy winner -- it was 3 nominations and nearly 20 years past his first win, versus Lemmon only having won support 4 years prior, and NY's vote would have set him up. In support, I don't get the certainty for George C. Scott. He'd have the same problem he had in reality: Arthur O'Connell, with a much larger role (and years of industry affection), splitting Anatomy partisans. I think sentimental favorite Ed Wynn might have been the more likely winner. Though, interesting possibility: what if Joe E. Brown slipped into the vacated slot? Then, it would have been two long-popular comic actors competing, and voters may have had difficulty deciding between them.
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1959

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Without Ben-Hur, what becomes the new nominations leader? Both The Nun’s Story and Diary of Anne Frank had 8. I see more room to grow with Diary of Anne Frank.
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1959

Post by gunnar »

I saw Ben-Hur on a giant screen at the local Fox Theatre about 30 years ago. After the theatre was restored in the 1980s, they showed Lawrence of Arabia (which was great to see there). In the following years, they showed Ben-Hur, Spartacus, and other epics. I think that they can certainly be enjoyed on today's large tvs at home, but seeing them in the theater was a cool experience.

I know that Room at the Top has received a lot of acclaim, but I didn't like it very much.

There were certainly a lot of good movies to choose from that year. Three films stood out for me a bit above the rest - Anatomy of a Murder, North by Northwest, and Some Like it Hot.

Without Ben-Hur, my guesses for what the Academy would have chosen are:

Picture - The Nun's Story

Actor - Either James Stewart or Jack Lemmon

Art Direction - North by Northwest

Cinematography - The Nun's Story

Costume Design - The Big Fisherman

Director - Billy Wilder

Special Effects - Journey to the Center of the Earth

Film Editing - North by Northwest
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Re: Best Picture and Director 1959

Post by Reza »

Big Magilla wrote:I think that with The Nun's Story sweeping, a loss by Audrey Hepburn to Simone Signoret would have been more than a surprise, it would have been a shock and therefore probably not have occurred.
Yes, you are right. It was one of Audrey's most famous roles and the film was a hit. She could well have won if Nun swept the awards without Ben-Hur in the mix.

Your theory about actresses looking like they had been through the wringer failed the following year when Deborah Kerr lost to glam puss Liz. But then Liz had the tracheotomy on her side.
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