5 Days Until The Supercalifragilistic Big Night
Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 4:00PM Has this film year overstayed its welcome? Let's take a flashback then, way back to April 1965 when Sidney Poitier read out Julie Andrews as the winner of Best Actress. Julie was her typically gracious self repeating her ambiguously directed gratitude (she only really thanked Walt Disney) so much in her short speech she had to stop herself. "...but then I've already said that!"
Sidney Poitier escorts Best Actress Julie Andrews off the stage
I don't think we've ever talked about this particular win (strange that) at The Film Experience but it's quite atypical. "Mary Poppins" isn't a particularly baity role, however iconic. She's also "practically perfect in every way" which leaves virtually no room for a character arc. Can you think of a Best Actress win that's correlative?
Julie's speech was much cheekier at the Globes. Do you know who she thanked in her speech? The answer is after the jump.
Yep, she thanked the producer Jack Warner. Why is that cheeky? Because he didn't produce her film. He produced My Fair Lady. He had nixed Julie's chances to transfer from Broadway with the film presuming her unbankable or too green or whatnot and if he hadn't done so we would never have had Mary Poppins. And least not in the form we currently know it.
While Oscar fanatics tend to remember the competition in famous duels, 1964 is an odd year because what most people remember is who she was not competing with: Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, who was snubbed despite the Academy's obsession with all things My Fair Lady.
The Golden Globe Best Actress Nominees That Year
Drama
- Anne Bancroft, The Pumpkin Eater [WINNER]
- Geraldine Page, Dear Heart
- Ava Gardner, The Night of the Iguana
- Rita Hayworth, Circus World
- Jean Seberg, Lilith
Interestingly, only one of the Drama nominees went on to an Oscar nod. That would be the winner.
Comedy / Musical
- Julie Andrews, Mary Poppins [WINNER]
- Sophia Loren, Marriage Italian Style
- Debbie Reynolds, The Unsinkable Molly Brown
- Melina Mercouri, Topkapi
- Audrey Hepburn, My Fair Lady
Three of them went on to Oscar nods.
Julie on Oscar night, April 1965
The Oscar Nominees
- Julie Andrews, Mary Poppins [WINNER]
- Anne Bancroft, The Pumpkin Eater
- Sophia Loren, Marriage Italian Style
- Debbie Reynolds, The Unsinkable Molly Brown
- Kim Stanley, Seance on a Wet Afternoon
My Fair Lady and Mary Poppins hogged virtually all the Oscars that year winning 8 and 5 respectively. Which would you have voted for? Or maybe you're all up in Becket, Dr Strangelove or Zorba the Greek?
Reader Comments (19)
I don't think that Louise Fletcher had an 'arc' particularly - I guess she'd be my first thought.
Mary Poppins and Nurse Ratched - peas in a pod!?
Debbie Reynolds was Oscar-nominated for that monstrosity? Holy moley.
Sophia Loren is so bad in this movie! The best movie of that year, clearly, was The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, but it FUCKING LOST best forign language movie to another crappy Loren vehicle, Ieri Oggi Domani. Shit! (Too bad it was only eleigible for other Oscars the following year).
Do you know which would be my actress?
Constance Towers in The Naked Kiss!
If I'm not mistaken, the only three Oscar winning Best Actresses in Musicals are arguably the biggest musical stars ever: Julie Andrews, Barbra Streisand, and Liza Minnelli. Sometimes talent really does get rewarded.
I think Julie won the award because she was in the most nominated movie that year and a very financially successful movie, plus she was a huge star on Broadway and a welcome star on TV.
I really do think she won because she lost out on My Fair Lady and kind of single handedly made Mary Poppins work. Also, was The Sound of Music out yet? I sort of think it was. If Julie hadn't won for Mary Poppins I'm 100% certain she would have won the following year for The Sound of Music.
Ironically, Julie's big days in the movies were already numbered. There were only a few more years that the audience really appreciated these grand overblown musical extravaganzas.
I don't think that Louise Fletcher had an 'arc' particularly - I guess she'd be my first thought.
She doesn't need one when Jack Nicholson is her co-star and the men of the Academy plan to award him that night but never without his leading lady.
While I love Julie and Mary Poppins it really isn't an Oscar winning part or performance, she gave a more textured performance in The Sound of Music but between the success of the film and her being cheated out of My Fair Lady she was a shoo-in. My vote would have gone to the amazing work turned in by Anne Bancroft in The Pumpkin Eater.
Interesting to see such a varied mix in the Globe noms back then and so different from nowadays that 3 comedy/musical performers got Oscar noms and only one drama. Sorry my beloved Geraldine Page got snubbed for Dear Heart, a performance I particularly love, but I'd still stick with Anne as my winner regardless, that performance is right up there with the Miracle Worker as some of the best work not only of her career but one of the greatest performances by anyone.
As far as best film, My Fair Lady is quite the pageant but Becket is a better film. Many people have told me Dr. Strangelove was robbed but I hated it.
Beautiful, fascinating performances by Anne Bancroft and Kim Stanley. Naturally, the Oscar was won by a singing nanny (to her credit, Andrews admitted in her autobiography that she thought Bancroft was most deserving).
Well, of the nominated ladies, I would go with Kim Stanley's frightening, tragic, pathetic seer in Seance on a Wet Afternoon. That final scene is absolutely skin-crawling. After that, I'd go with (in order) Julie Andrews, Sophia Loren (grounds her film in some reality without losing the comedy), Debbie Reynolds (screechy in Act One, suddenly subtle throughout the rest), and Anne Bancroft (bland performance, dull film).
Meanwhile, I'm glad cal roth mentions The Naked Kiss, a chilling Sam Fuller film with a knock-out Constance Towers performance. One of a kind, really, though she'd place sixth on my personal ballot: Geraldine Page in Dear Heart (WIN), Kim Stanley, Tippy Walker in The World of Henry Orient, Julie Andrews, Audrey Hepburn.
As for the individual films, I am all about My Fair Lady. Not the most creatively-directed, maybe, but the music and costumes and performances draw me in every time. Odd to say for an Oscar-winning performance, but I don't think Rex Harrison's Henry Higgins gets as much love as it should. It's so funny, so snotty, and surprisingly warm. However, the *BEST* film of 64 was The World of Henry Orient, which wasn't even nominated, except for Picture - Musical/Comedy at the Globes. A sweet, funny coming-of-age story about two girls in NYC. Love it.
Poor Audrey Hepburn took a huge hit for getting My Fair Lady, and I kind of love her awful accent (though I was raised on it). Thrilled Cukor got his win, thrilled Andrews became an Oscar winner (though she wins for me in '65), and I personally have never loved Dr. Strangelove, but understand plenty of folks see this year's wins as a tragedy. I love the Mary Poppins performance - she's uppity, on top, a little bit bitchy and refreshingly odd. Andrews is a remarkable actress and even with those great turns from Streisand and Minnelli, she is the queen of musicals and probably always will be.
Strange that both the Best Actor and Best Actress winners that year were from musicals, and two different musicals at that. Although I should say right off the bat that Rex Harrison was my least favorite of the five nominees in that category. Peter Sellers or Anthony Quinn all the way (preferably Sellers, since Quinn had already won twice by then). If Julie Andrews was going to win an award, I would have preferred it to have been for The Sound of Music, even though I personally like Mary Poppins more overall.
OMG, Ava Gardner should've been there for Iguana...great performance. She was so wild.
Sophia Loren was great in this movie and she is a LEGEND and a great actress....u should write a post on her Nathaniel...do u know she is the most awarded actress behind Streep.
If one watches Zorba the Greek in the proper frame of mind - not missing a word let alone a glance - you would never need therapy.
Mary Poppins gives you permission to be a child again - oh go fly a kite.
Dr. Strangelove scared people made then want to bunker down in their fallout shelter.
Becket finally spectacle to rival Lawrence of Arabia with a brilliant screenplay and music.
My Fair Lady not a far move from its theater roots, but music so in bedded in the American conscious it was fated to win
Dave: "If I'm not mistaken, the only three Oscar winning Best Actresses in Musicals are arguably the biggest musical stars ever: Julie Andrews, Barbra Streisand, and Liza Minnelli. Sometimes talent really does get rewarded."
I get your celebratory point, but Judy Garland.
The great, talented and forever beautiful Julie Andrews did deserve her Oscar for her superb performance in Mary Poppins. It is a difficult part that requires so much from her beautiful face in addition to controlled gestures, wonderful voice - which she naturally has - and posture, graceful movements as a dancer, attitude, and fine acting, including opposite cartoon characters. It is Andrews' amazing talent that makes Mary Poppins a relatively non-Oscar bait, but believe it, nobody, nobody could have done it definite, remarkable, iconic and a favorite through decades. This is the proof of Andrews amazing performance: unlike many other Oscar winners, her work as Mary Poppins is remembered and cherished through generations, and that love comprises that of her peers - see how everyone, from Nicole Kidman to Martin Scorcese stand to give her a much deserved ovation at the 2003 Oscars (youtube). She is practically perfect in every way, she is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
I think it's great that Julie won.
I also love Ava in The Night of the Iguana. Such a great character and those guys playing maracas... That movie gets better at every viewing.
Dave in Alamitos Beach: The Sound of Music was released almost a month before the Oscars. So voters must have been influenced by it when awarding Andrews her Oscar for Mary Poppins. Music was released on March 10, and the Oscars were held on April 5.
It's not only Julie Andrews that Jack Warner did NOT want in the film version. He was not thrilled at the idea of casting Rex Harrison. As a matter of fact, the part was offered to Cary Grant. But Grant reponded that if Harrison was not in the movie he would not even go see it! Eventually, Warner relented. The same thing happened with Stanley Holloway. Warner wanted to cast James Cagney!
Come Oscar time Hepburn was not even nominated, while Andrews was nominated for Mary Poppins. A very surpised nominee--Debbie Reynolds for The Unsinkable Molly Brown--said something like "I don't understand this. Audrey was so lovely in MFL!" During the ceremony, Harrison was presented his Oscar by none other than Hepburn. Hepburn who was game enough to make an appearance in spite of having been snubbed. And when Harrison won, he said "I share this award with... well.. two Fair Ladies," or words to that effect.
Another interesting fact is that Marni Nixon played one of the nuns in The Sound of Music, and Sound of Music was made before Nixon started dubbing Hepburn's singing in MFL. That means she was on the Sound of Music set, sharing scenes with Julie Andrews, who had created the role on Broadway. However, Andrews was most graceful about it and quickly broke the ice, to the point of sharing tips with Nixon.
This is a hard one.
Although I do think Julie should have won the following year for The Sound of Music, I wouldn't consider not giving her the Oscar for her performance in Mary Poppins, regardless of the beautiful mess that Jack Warner created by not casting her as Eliza Doolittle on the movie adaptation of My Fair Lady.
I first watched both movies when I was eighteen - TSOM first, and it was musical love at first sight. And then, some six months later, I watched Mary Poppins. Between the former and the later, I'd choose TSOM anytime. However, it was her performance in Poppins that pushed me into becoming a fan. It was enthralling and hypnotizing. I don't think they could have casted anyone else other than Julie for that role - no one could have played it better. I remember feeling somewhat shocked (not to mention, idiotic) when I found out she had portrayed both characters.
Whether that enchantment was part of her acting or not, I cannot tell. Perhaps the voters couldn't set it apart as well.
Julie made a spectacular film debut in MARY POPPINS and fully deserved the Oscar for her work in it. No character arc? She's alternately warm, funny, gracious, eccentric, demanding, a bit mad, loving, starchy, radiant, insubordinate to her employer, and cool as a cucumber--until the final scene when her true emotions momentarily get the best of her. She's sheer genius in the part. And that GLORIOUS voice!!! Jack Warner be damned. Let's not forget she also had given a terrific dramatic performance in the peerless THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY that same year--so, the combination of those two films, along with the fortuitous timing of the release of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, made her a star of the first magnitude and guaranteed Hollywood would welcome her into the family by making her an Oscar-winning actress. And, for the record, I'd have given her the Best Actress award again in 1965 for her towering performance in that year's Best Picture. My runners up for 1964 Best Actress would be Anne Bancroft, Deborah Kerr in NIGHT OF THE IGUANA, Debbie Reynolds and Paula Prentiss in MAN'S FAVORITE SPORT. I'm afraid I don't esteem the false fussiness of Kim Stanley in SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON--she's bettered in her own film by Richard Attenborough. Loren was excellent, but she just misses for me. Ditto Ava Gardner. Thanks for creating the thread and inviting us to respond. Cheers!