Best Supporting Actor 1972

[koook160]

I find the amount of love for Joel Grey rather disheartening. In my opinion, he's one of the the worst winners in this category. He's no Martin Landau or Heath Ledger, when it comes to deserving performances winning.

[The Original BJ]

NOTE: Edited in 2016 to reject category fraud.

A very strong lineup, in my opinion.

I think Eddie Albert's overly-protective father in The Heartbreak Kid is really funny -- both a man who cares deeply for his daughter and is tough enough to really put Charles Grodin's character through the ringer. That scene between Albert and Grodin in the former's study certainly clinched the nomination for the vet. But, he's up against performers in two of the great movies in the American cinema, and despite really liking Albert's work and his film, the other nominees are far more iconic.

There are more exciting opportunities to vote for Robert Duvall in the years ahead, so I don't feel like Tom Hagen is the best place to enshrine him, but he is very strong in The Godfather. Tom is sort of the flip side of Michael -- in with the Corleones professionally, but still an outsider due to the fact that he isn't a biological member of the family. I think Duvall brings this tension -- that he'll never really be a Corleone son -- to life with steadfast determination, and creates a very memorable character in the process.

It's a shame that James Caan never really found a role as exciting as his part in The Godfather, but I think his Sonny Corleone is an electric creation. While watching Part II, I realized how much I missed his tempestuous hothead -- it's a testament to Caan's performance that his work lingers throughout the rest of the series. Career-wise, though, he definitely wouldn't be the most deserving of these men, but I love his contribution here.

For me, and probably for many, this choice comes down to whether or not one should vote for the year's Best Supporting Actor or the year's Best Actor. Joel Grey is absolutely magnetic in Cabaret. It's probably not what you'd call "deep" acting, but he completely commands the screen with impish glee, and makes every one of his musical numbers a dazzler. I've seen Grey a number of times on stage recently, and haven't been very impressed (obviously, I'm too young to have seen his Master of Ceremonies live), but in this movie he turns in a wonderful, old-fashioned show-stopping performance with the bite this cynical story requires.

And then there's Pacino, who has the largest role in The Godfather (couldn't you argue that he's ALSO the title character?) His transformation -- from an outsider who wants nothing to do with his father's business to the man who ultimately takes control of it -- is subtle, poignant, and disturbing. I think it's the actor's finest screen performance, and would have been an even worthier Best Actor winner than Brando. It's a shame the actor had to wait so long to win an Oscar, and really unfair voters were forced to choose between him and Grey.

But we're faced with the same choice here. It's probably more fair to pick Joel Grey, given that his work is legitimately supporting. So I'll acknowledge that Pacino gives the better performance, but that Grey is actually the year's best supporting actor.

[Mister Tee]

I had no expectation Al Pacino would turn up in this spot -- he'd been correctly listed under lead at the Globes, and won with that designation at the National Society.

I'd had some hope/sense that Ned Beatty might take the additional spot for his vulnerable work in Deliverance. Deliverance had been a wildly unexpected hit, critically and commercially, but it had a very strange Oscar profile: best picture, director and editing, but nothing else. How it missed on cinematography is beyond me (I viewed Vilmos Zsigmond's later Close encounters win as at least partially make-up). Actually, the 1972 cinematography nominees are pretty close to disgraceful once you get past Cabaret.

Though he had little chance of competing, I'd also cite Ron Leibman's Slaughterhouse-Five work as worthy.

Eddie Albert was quite funny in what was then a pretty atypical role for him. But he's not up to the level of the competition.

The threesome aspect of the Godfather nominees is, in a sense, unfair to two of them. James Caan and Robert Duvall are obviously strong, in roles that would have been nominated in any year. But they clearly don't have the heft of Pacino's central performance, so they disappear without much consideration.

Then you have to deal with the blatant fraudulence of Pacino's placement. Much as with the best supporting actress category a year on, one is forced to choose between a dominant lead performance and the actual best supporting performance of the year. I'd spent an entire year (Cabaret opened in February '72) presuming Joel Grey would win the supporting trophy. When the nominations were announced, my reaction was, Whoa: no fair! Evidently a good number of Academy members felt the same (or they just preferred Cabaret), and Grey got his due. Of course, this led to decades' worth of injustice for Pacino (including his eventual win), but that's on the nominators, not the final voters.

It's still a ridiculously difficult choice: Pacino gives surely the more full, rounded performance. But Grey was the year's best in the honest definition of this category. In '73, I opted to punish the fraud and vote for Madeline Kahn. I'll stick to that principle here, and cast a vote for Grey.

[Precious Doll]

Impressive line up but I have never 'gotten' the acclaim for Joel Grey in the film. I re-watched Cabaret last year for the first time since first seeing the film in a reparatory cinema in the late 1980s. I found the film had not dated and nor had my enjoyment and admiration for the film has a whole. Just like the first time I saw the film I felt that Grey is fine for what he has to do but I prefer everyone else in the cast over him.

My choices:

1. Al Pacino for The Godfather
2. Lou Jacobi for Every Thing You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* But Were Afraid To Ask
3. Gene Wilder for Every Thing You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* But Were Afraid to Ask
4. Robert Duvall for The Godfather
5. Helmut Griem for Cabaret

[Reza]

I think Pacino is the actual lead in The Godfather and should have been nominated in that category and won. In fact Pacino and Brando should have exchanged categories but this was not to be as Brando was the sole actor billed above the title.

Joel Grey's Oscar win was one of the most deserving in this category.

My picks for 1972:

1. Joel Grey, Cabaret
2. Robert Duvall, The Godfather
3. James Caan, The Godfather
4. Eddie Albert, The Heartbreak Kid
5. Clive Revill, Avanti

The 6th Spot: Richard Pryor, Lady Sings the Blues

[mlrg]

Al Pacino - The Godfather

[Big Magilla]

I have no problem with any of the nominees or the winner. The only question is if Pacino had been nominated in the lead for The Godfather who would have gotten his slot? I supsect it would have gone to another Godfather star, Richard Castellano.

Before someone suggests it, I will say that this was no triumph of vote-splitting. Even if there had been only one Godfather nominee, or none at all, Joel Grey would have won for his legendary performance in Cabaret, Although his screen career has been limited, he was a show biz legend both before and after his Broadway triumph in Cabaret. I remember as a kid seeing him in the titel role in a TV musical vesion of Jack and the Beanstalk. He's still getting roles on Broadway and is currently playing Moon-Face Martin in the revival of Anything Goes.

[Big Magilla]

Truly one of the deserving winners of the category and one of only, I want to say, nine performers to win the Tony and Oscar for the same role (Shirley Booth, José Ferrer, Yul Brynner, Anne Bancroft, Lila Kedrova, Rex Harrison, Paul Scofield, Jack Albertson being the others).

Not sure Kedrova counts as she won her Tony for recreating the character in the musical version of Zorba twenty years after winning her Oscar. The others all won for recreating roles for the screen they had first played on the stage, a traditon that goes back to George Arliss who had also done Disraeli as a silent film eight years before the talkie version which won him his 1929 Oscar.

[MovieFan]

Outstanding year for this category, though I think Duvall gave the weakest supporting performance, I thought Caan's simmering intensity yet loyal compassion to his brother was the more impressive acting feat. Pacino would get my win in lead, however I think they were right to award Joel Grey here.

[ksrymy]

This is a pretty accurate list of nominees except I would replace Eddie Albert with The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie's Fernando Rey.

James Caan gives the least impressive nomination of the Godfather cast but a nomination should suffice as this may be his best work.

I never really cared for Pacino in this film. The whole lead vs. supporting bit doesn't bother me any but sometimes I can't tell if he's being nuanced or vacant. A nomination is good enough though.

Robert Duvall gives the best supporting performance in the film although most don't even remember him.

None of that matter anyway because Joel Grey gave the best supporting performance of 1972. His Master of Ceremonies retains the perfect amount of camp for the seedy nightclub performances. He is the unsung hero of the film as he narrates the film essentially. He launches us into "Money" when Sally meets the rich baron, he sings "If You Could See Her Through My Eyes" in regards to the wedding, etc. Truly one of the deserving winners of the category and one of only, I want to say, nine performers to win the Tony and Oscar for the same role (Shirley Booth, José Ferrer, Yul Brynner, Anne Bancroft, Lila Kedrova, Rex Harrison, Paul Scofield, Jack Albertson being the others).