100 Days 'Til Oscar. A Short Clean Sweep
Friday, November 14, 2014 at 8:00AM We're all used to the Oscar ceremony drawing monotonous "it's too long!" complaints. Yours truly doesn't share that view. Hell, if they wanted to do 9-hour broadcasts and include all the honoraries again and give more attention to the craft categories, and never skimp on any of the four category clip reels for the actors, I'd gladly watch each additional minute. But the super long Oscar ceremony is actually not a historic consistency. The earliest Oscars were short banquets and once they started televising them in the 50s the lengths varied.
Gigi made a clean sweep with 9 Oscars but with no acting nominations. Burl Ives (The Big Country), Susan Hayward (I Want To Live!), and David Niven and Wendy Hiller (not pictured) from Separate Tables won the acting Oscars.
The shortest of all televised ceremonies was the 1958 Oscars, broadcast live on April 6th, '59. It was only 100 minutes long. Can you imagine it?
Of course if you're just going to hand all the statues to something as dull as Gigi, which made a clean sweep with 9 wins from 9 nominations PLUS an Honorary Oscar for Maurice Chevalier, you'd best do it quickly you know? Fun fact: If you started watching Gigi as its Oscar ceremony began you'd still have 15 minutes of the movie left when the Oscars wrapped.
Gigi gets a bad wrap but it wasn't a terribly competitive film year and at least it wasn't quite the worst of the nominees. The other nominees were Auntie Mame, The Defiant Ones, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and (ugh) Separate Tables. I suspect the dread sixth 'just-missed' slot belonged to Robert Wise's I Want to Live! which received 6 nominations and a long awaited win for Susan Hayward. Which would you have voted for?
And no write in votes for the actual best movie of 1958, Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo which got a measly two nominations and no gold. I suspect it was nowhere near a Best Pic nomination given the initial chilly response from audiences, critics, and the Academy.
Reader Comments (24)
As much fun as Auntie Mame is, and as great as Rosalind Russell is in it, I'm a Cat on a Hot Tin Roof man, myself. I love that film. It has such memorable performances and lines. I think of it every time I think about "mendacity!", bowl games, and people people tacking dogs' names onto their children.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Very much a default vote, though, as it's not a great translation of a great play. I'm fine with Minnelli's win - no one really deserved it, so a career tribute it is.
I would have voted for Separate Tables. I LOVE that movie. It feels like a flimsy soap opera but in many ways it's about the fall of high society in Britain after the Second World War.
No write ins? I am inclined to leave the Oscar with Gigi. Historically it stands as one of the last big musicals. It is a beautiful film that uses the large screen dimensions so well. Cat is almost a little too soft for me. A little too safe, though if it hadn't been it may not have gotten the nomination. I guess it was as daring as the times allowed. Funny, Butterfield 8 later attracted so much moral outrage. Did everyone just miss it?
If I was voting then, I probably would have voted for The Big Country because it is so well made and I am a sucker for Jean Simmons and a really BIG western. But, among the nominees, Auntie Mame is a classic. Any movie that makes me walk around the house randomly proclaiming "Paaatrick!" (arms extended, of course) is a winner.
Of the nominees, I've only seen Gigi and Separate Tables. I like them both - Gigi is, I think, a splendidly elegant film, with top-class performances from everyone and some indelible moments ("I Remember It Well" being a highlight); Separate Tables was much better than I'd been expecting, and, as a Brit, I think it does the atmosphere of the hotel very well.
Vertigo: yes - probably far from a BP nomination, alas.
By the way, and sorry to nitpick, but, contrary to the photo caption, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof didn't win anything, despite six nominations.
And I have a feeling that David Niven's Oscar-winning leading performance in Separate Tables rivals Anthony Hopkins' in The Silence of the Lambs for its brevity.
A meager 2 nominations for 'Vertigo', not a single one for 'Touch of Evil' - some poor choices by the academy make 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' easily the best of the Best Picture nominees.
On the plus side, though: The 1958 Best Foreign Language Film winner (Jacques Tati's 'Mon Oncle') is one of the very, very best winners in the history of that category.
I don't remember it well but I'd vote for «Gigi.»
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof is definitely the best of the five. Although I find Big Daddy totally abhorrent, which I suppose is a testament to Burl Ives acting, but I'd tell him where to stick his money! I always find it interesting that the first person to portray Maggie The Cat on stage was Barbara Bel Geddes, which when you watch her playing Midge in Vertigo seems slightly incongruous. It would be interesting to see Barbara playing her. All this leads me on to my second paragraph.
As much as David Niven is a fine actor, he is holding the Oscar that should belong to James Stewart for Vertigo, which is in my opinion the greatest male performance ever put on screen. I would also make a case for Kim Novak being the Best Actress of the year, but I can see why Susan Hayward won the Oscar, which was ironically presented to her by Miss Novak, along with James Cagney. As you can probably tell, Vertigo is my favourite film!
Gigi is a gorgeously directed, charming movie, and of the five nominees, I'd probably go with it.
Of the universe of 1958 films not nominated, I'm with CharlesG on The Big Country. An epic, gorgeously shot movie with near career best performances from Heston and Peck, excellent supporting turns from Jean Simmons, Burl Ives and Charles Bickford, one of the best scores of all time, AND an allegory for the Cold War that was a big box office hit - how this was not a runaway Oscar freight train in 1958 is beyond me, except that westerns, even prestige westerns like this one, don't seem to have been all that popular with the Academy in the 50s.
No write-ins? Then Best Picture goes to The Defiant Ones (he wrote defiantly). "Hindsight is 20/20, dear," to quote Gloria Mott.
Roark: Gorgeous, but really, really gross. It thinks it's set-up is cute, but it's actually just the intentional version of what, with Batman and Robin, were accidents. If there were a remake with lighting as dark as Taxi Driver and all the music made discordant heavy metal? I'd love that interpretation.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, but the only other nominee I have seen in GIGI and that is probably the worst best picture I have seen. Ugly, repulsive rubbish.
I know the play has been co-opted a bit, but I really do love the work done in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof from the whole cast.
Liz Taylor in Hours-level projection of her grief. She plays the desperation of Maggie the Cat so well, and Newman doesn't let her coast. He really, pushes her off her druthers just enough in so many scenes that she has to rise to his occasion.
Brooks is a good director of this material too. It has a strength and a boldness that I feel like many of the other great stage adaptations of the 50s lack. Of the 5, it gets my vote.
Gigi is....fine. It's the last gasp of the Freed Unit and it's so intricately detailed work I can't help but be involved on some level. Hermione Gingold and Maurice Chevalier....yes please ten fold. I just wish it was more involving and more original. Couldn't they have given Minnelli his Oscar in 44 for Meet Me In St. Louis instead?!
CharlieG-I'm right there with you loving Jean Simmons. So very under-appreciated!
The one I enjoy the most out of the five is Auntie Mame but those blackout at the end of scenes really make it best filmed play of 1958 rather than best picture. So I'd go with Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
I'm glad Susan Hayward finally won a much deserved Oscar but I would have preferred to see her win for what I think is a stronger performance in I'll Cry Tomorrow so Roz Russell could have won this year for Mame.
Glenn, Volvaga - Gross? Repulsive rubbish? I assume you're referring to the courtesan thing, the age difference, "Thank Heavens for Little Girls," etc. Not sure if either of you have read this piece, but I think it's a very well mounted defense of the film:
http://selfstyledsiren.blogspot.com/2014/02/gigi-1958-defense.html
Omg, The Big Country. Thank you for reminding me that movie. William Wyler is wonderful even foing a western! Peck is fantastic in it.
I don't think Gigi is a dull movie, but it isn't the best of the five either. 1958 isn't a great year and the Best Picture lineup shows that, except for The Defiant Ones, which I think is even better than the overrated Vertigo. I'd rank them like this:
1. The Defiant Ones
2. Gigi
3. Auntie Mame
4. Separate Tables
5. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
The Defiant Ones is great, the rest are good or pretty good. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof isn't a favorite of mine, but it's okay. I prefer Sweet Bird of Youth as far as Tennessee Williams goes. Richard Brooks did that one too. He's a writer/director who needs a career retrospective because he made some great movies with his own unique style.
I gave the major Oscars to:
Picture - The Defiant Ones (I love the premise and the characters in this movie. I'm a sucker for Stanley Kramer even if he isn't popular today)
Director - Mark Robson - The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (Robson is underrated, as is the film and Ingrid Bergman's strangely non-nominated performance)
Actor - David Niven - Separate Tables (I'm happy Niven won the Oscar. He's a favorite of mine. Sidney Poitier is my runner-up)
Actress - Rosalind Russell - Auntie Mame (Russell deserved at least one Oscar in her lifetime. To compensate Susan Hayward, let's give he 1949's Best Actress award for My Foolish Heart, because Olivia de Havilland already got one for To Each His Own)
Supporting Actor - Gig Young - Teacher's Pet (I love Young's voice and his whole persona in this Clark Gable/Doris Day rom-com is the epitome of cool)
Supporting Actress - Maureen Stapleton - Lonelyhearts (Stapleton is the most memorable part of this Montgomery Clift soaper. She's never given a dull performance)
Screenplays - The Defiant Ones and I Want to Live! (The latter is better than the other four Best Picture nominees. Robert Wise is awesome)
Charlie G -- I always thought it would be fun to date a Patrick just so you could do this.
Sean T -- Love Stapleton in that. good taste. Happy to see other Wise fans given that we spent a week on him. and i love that you went beyond in your voting.
Drew C -- in a perfect world, yes, since MEET ME IN ST LOUIS is a perfect movie.
edward L -- LOL. nitpick away. I saw Burl Ives and got confused. He obviously won for both perfomances but technically the name on the statue is The Big Country. One of those "actor having a great year" things.
Vertigo is my favorite movie but since I can only vote for the nominated ones, I pick Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Gigi is breezy and pleasant and I would say has the best performance by an entire cast (that chevailier/Gringold scene is heaven) But it simply isn't as good as Cat.
I have seen all five nominated movies, and also I Want To Live, and I would definitely give the Oscar to Gigi. But even I wouldn't give it 9 Oscars. But I'm sure most of them were for tech things like art direction and costumes, and you really can't argue with that stuff.
My second choice would be Cat On A Hot Tin Roof for all of the brilliant acting. I think all of them were at the top of their game.
Besides Gigi, maybe the movie I have seen the most of all the ones mentioned is Mon Oncle. That modern house is so ridiculous and so covetable at the same time. :-)
Roark: Thanks for linking us to that Gigi article. It's brilliant!
Yes the Big Country. I love when the wide screen is well used ......whether it is suitably crowded in Gigi or uses spaces well as in Big Country. I confess I missed the Cold War allegory. And up in the top five of all movie scores
Since apparently we're trying to redistribute Best Actress Oscars to reward the unrewarded...
1. Many of you have mentioned Rosalind Russell. I'd give her Loretta Young's award for 1947.
2. Much as I love Anna Magnani, I'd hand her Oscar to Susan Hayward for I'll Cry Tomorrow.
3. Then Hayward would leave room in 1958 for Liz Taylor as the Cat.
4. Finally, Liz would get nothing for the infamous Butterfiled 8 and that statuette would go to Deborah Kerr in The Sundowners.
If only...