Best Supporting Actress 1974

[Mister Tee]

The Right Stuff should have yielded more supporting actor nominees other then Sam Shepard. Scott Glenn, Ed Harris, Dennis Quaid & Fred Ward were all worthy of serious consideration.

Absolutely. I was in fact surprised Shepard got the nod ahead of Quaid, who I viewed as, if anyone, the film's standout. Shepard was in the news more often, however.

Looking at all Mike's examples, and the others we've come up with as possible three-ers, I think we might conclude that, so far, the secret ingredient for getting this rare triple placement is to be not just a best picture nominee but a best picture winner.

In fact -- this is sliding way off-topic -- back in early '75, I thought Chinatown had the edge in the best film race because it had all the tech nominations Godfather II missed (including that all-important editing nod). In retrospect, though, the surprise extra slot for Gazzo (and Shire as well) should have been a tip-off that the dominant actors' branch was going all in for Coppola's film.

[Precious Doll]

The Right Stuff should have yielded more supporting actor nominees other then Sam Shepard. Scott Glenn, Ed Harris, Dennis Quaid & Fred Ward were all worthy of serious consideration.

[The Original BJ]

And I think we might find ourselves on this topic tomorrow.

I'd go quite a bit further with Supporting Actress '75 -- I think EVERY slot in that category could have been filled with a Nashville girl and you'd have wound up with a sensational field.

[Reza]

Have never understood why Baxter is always being relegated to support for Eve. She has more screen time than Bette Davis.

[Mister Tee]

There are also some tempting spots under supporting actress -- people mentioned Eileen Brennan (or even Cybill Shepherd) in Last Picture Show, and PJ Johnson in Paper Moon. And I think we might find ourselves on this topic tomorrow.

It's almost always a fluke when the three-way split happens. Maybe the most completely legitimate instance was the first (excluding the pre-support era Bounty): On the Waterfront had three genuinely supporting actors, each giving a highly acclaimed performances. The Godfather II group comes closest to matching it -- and would have come even closer if it had been Cazale rather than Gazzo.

But the first Godfather instance was created by category fraud: NY winner Duvall and Globe nominee Caan were expected contenders, but Pacino obviously rated the lead nomination (and should have won, by me). (Had All About Eve finagled Baxter's performance in a similar way, we'd have had another three-way there) And the Tom Jones trio got their nods because their film was one of the few popular items in a moribund year. Redman and Cilento made fairly minor contributions, and, in a competitive year, Evans might have been the only one to score.

[Big Magilla]

All good ones. I would actually bump Tamblyn for Kennedy and Scott for Welch.

[Mike Kelly]

While we are on this sidebar, here are the films with 2 supporting actor nominations that had the most potential for a third, in my estimation. I didn't really look at who would get bumped and in truth, three nominations in any performing category from the same film is an extreme rarity.

1939: Add Edward Arnold to already nominated Claude Rains and Harry Carey in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

1952: Add Van Heflin to already nominated Brandon de Wilde and Jack Palance in Shane

1957: Add Lloyd Nolan to already nominated Arthur Kennedy and Russ Tamblyn in Peyton Place

1959: Add Joseph N. Welch to already nominated Arthur O'Connell and George C. Scott in Anatomy of a Murder

1961: Add Myron McCormick to already nominated Jackie Gleason and George C. Scott in The Hustler

[Big Magilla]

I was going to save my two cents for the Supporting Actor polls, but since you guys have broached the subject I'll give it here.

Gazzo's nomination was a surprise. My thought at the time that it was the acting community's way of giving the finger to Richard Castellano whose salary demands prompted Paramount to dump him and order Coppola to rewrite his character so that another actor could play it. Gazzzo, at the time, was better known as a playwright (A Hatful of Rain) than he was as an actor. Maybe the fact that he did as well as he did as an actor when he wasn't thought of one was what impressed them.

The other big surprise was Jeff Bridges in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. For what, wearing a dress? The glaring omissions were Huston and Holger Lowenadler in Lacombe, Lucien.

Cazale's problem that was while he was certainly impressive in those three films, he was overshadowed by other actors, DeNiro and Strasberg in Godfather II, Chris Sarandon and for some, Charles Durning, in Dog Day Afternoon and Chris Walken and John Savage in The Deer Hunter.

[Mister Tee]

I very much agree on Cazale. DeNiro, who'd finished second at the NY critics, and Strasberg, who was making a highly-publicized emergence from teaching legend, were the sure shots, but I had Cazale among the potential add-ons. Gazzo (who was quite good in the picture) came as a complete surprise.

Cazale of course has the extraordinary feat of significant roles in only five movies, all of which were best picture-nominated (there was one much-earlier minor role in a film of which I've never heard). But he never managed an acting nod, at least three of which (Godfather II, Dog Day Afternoon, the Deer Hunter) seemed within the realm of possibility.

Deer Hunter is actually an example of why I view the two Godfather's triple-nods as so striking. Surely Cazale and John Savage could also have been slated there, yet the subject never seemed to come up. The '74 supporting actor field was leaner, apart from Coppola's film, but John Huston had received a Globe nod for a film nominated in almost every other category, and, though his film was disdained, Globe nominee Sam Waterston had received wide praise as the saving grace of The Great Gatsby. You'd think there'd have been enough of a Chinatown bloc to get Huston in before the Godather gang managed a third entry. No, not "conspiracy", but it's always struck me as spectacularly unlikely for two entries in the same series to rack up the same statistically rare achievement. (Of course, fewer than a dozen directors have been their film's sole nomination, and David Lynch is two of them, so statistical anomalies are possible)

[Eric]

Yeah, I get how De Niro and Strasberg got nominated (merit and reputation, respectively). But I'll never really get how Gazzo ended up on the ballot over Cazale.

[Damien]

Almost off-topic: does anyone else find it suspicious that both Godfather films yielded three supporting actor nominations? It's such a rarity -- I'm sure we could find cases of other films where there were three potential nominees but it didn't happen. What are the odds of it actually occurring in these two episodes of the same franchise?

The irony is that Godfather 2 contains a great performance -- and it wasn't even nominated: John Cazale's.

[Damien]

I have no idea what Liv Ullmann and Gena Rowlands have to do with the supporting actress race.

You didn't specify that you were talking about the Supporting Actress "performance of the moment" -- which made it sound as if you were talking about performances in general. And sometimes a supporting actor/actress is responsible for a "performance of the moment." Such as Christoph Walz late last summer and early fall last year.



Edited By Damien on 1282201694

[Reza]

Almost off-topic: does anyone else find it suspicious that both Godfather films yielded three supporting actor nominations? It's such a rarity -- I'm sure we could find cases of other films where there were three potential nominees but it didn't happen. What are the odds of it actually occurring in these two episodes of the same franchise?

I love this........are we talking here about a conspiracy theory? Lol.

[Mister Tee]

What was interesting about this year's races was that the year's sentimental favorite was thought to be Fred Astaire nominated for best supporting actor in The Towering Inferno over three actors from The Godfather: Part II who were expected to cancel one another out. Instead, De Niro won that race

Just to show we can agree somewhere...while my youthful self naively predicted Cortese to win, even I didn't think there was any Astaire could lose that year. The triple-split ballot had been historically fatal for On the Waterfront, Tom Jones and the first Godfather; combined with Astaire's lifetime of affection, it seemed like he'd (totally undeservedly) win the trophy.

Almost off-topic: does anyone else find it suspicious that both Godfather films yielded three supporting actor nominations? It's such a rarity -- I'm sure we could find cases of other films where there were three potential nominees but it didn't happen. What are the odds of it actually occurring in these two episodes of the same franchise?

[Big Magilla]

I don't know... I mean, I was too young back then, but I find it difficult to think that that cameo role could have been considered "the performance of the moment"

I would say that the "performance of the mont" at the time was Liv Ullman's in Scenes From A Marriage, followed by Gena Rowlands in A Woman Under The Influence. I honestly can't recall anyone actually talking about Bergman, except in general discussions about Murder On The Orient Express (eg, " . . . oh, and Ingrid Bergman was sweet." )

Yeah, I was resisting getting into yet another dispute with Magilla, but...

Bergman got zero mention from the critics, couldn't even score a Globe nomination against such fierce competition as Jennifer Jones in Towering Inferno. She indisputably won the Oscar, and I'm glad for you it made you happy. But I see no evidence her victory came from any groundswell of support. It was more like Don Ameche's -- won because the competition was (except for the French-speaking lady)so lackluster.

I have no idea what Liv Ullmann and Gena Rowlands have to do with the supporting actress race.

Oscar speculation which ran in newspapers and magazines as early as late December singled out both Bergman and Lauren Bacall as strong candidates in this category. They tried in vain to get a feud going between Bogart's widow and his most famous co-star aside from Bacall, but neither of the women was buying into it.

Madeline Kahn was touted early on for her work in Young Frankenstein, not Blazing Saddles, by the N.Y. Film Critics who also named Bibi Andersson (Scenes From a Marriage) and Ellen Burstyn (Harry and Tonto] as runners-up to Valerie Perrine. Kahn was nominated for a Golden Globe for Young Frankenstein as well.

Jennifer Jones was a surprise nominee over Bergman and Bacall when the Golden Globe nominations were announced on January 9th but not as big a surprise as Beatrice Arthur in the wretched film version of Mame or Karen Black, who would go on to win for the flop remake of The Great Gatsby. The fifth nominee was Diane Ladd in Alice Doesn't Live Here Aymore, still an unknown in N.Y. where the film had yet to open.

When Bergman, who had been my early prediction as well as my choice, was nominated and Bacall and Jones weren't, I thought she had clear sailing. Variety's prediction, however, was that neither she nor Cortese had much of a chance - the Oscar would go to the one of the three fresher faces - Kahn, Ladd or Shire.

What was interesting about this year's races was that the year's sentimental favorite was thought to be Fred Astaire nominated for best supporting actor in The Towering Inferno over three actors from The Godfather: Part II who were expected to cancel one another out. Instead, De Niro won that race while Bergman and Art Carney (Harry and Tonto) turned out to be the sentimental favorites that actually won their categoreis, Carney over both Jack Nicholson (Chinatown) and Al Pacino (Godfather II).