Showbiz History: Warren Beatty's habitual Oscar fate, 1954's lame Best Picture lineup, and more...
Tuesday, March 30, 2021 at 8:00AM 4 random things that happened on this day, March 30th, in showbiz history
1946 The 3rd annual Golden Globes were held on this day honoring The Lost Weekend, 75 years ago. It was AFTER the Oscars. How bizarre right? But the Globes were more like the NBR at the start announcing winners (no nominees) in advance of a banquet.
1955 The 27th Academy Awards are held honoring the best of 1954 On the Waterfront leads the nominations and wins an incredible 8 Oscars. Though the Academy nominates all the wrong movies as its competition so it had an easy time of it. The Best Picture lineup went like so...
- Caine Mutiny (zzz)
- Country Girl (zzz)
- On the Waterfront (of course)
- Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (fun/problematic)
- Three Coins in the Fountain (pleasant)
But think what could have been since A Star is Born, Sabrina, Executive Suite, Gates of Hell, White Christmas, The Earrings of Madame de..., and Rear Window were all right there in 1954 and Oscar voters totally watched them since they received nods in other categories! Oscar could have had multiple masterpieces in their Best Picture lineup.
1987 The 59th Academy Awards are held honoring the Best of 1986. It's Platoon vs Hannah and Her Sisters vs A Room with a View with Platoon winning four Oscars and both of its main competitors winning three. The James Ivory masterpiece had to settle for Art Direction, Costume Design, and Adapted Screenplay. The Oscars just never did do right by the incredible filmography of Merchant & Ivory. Oscar has been kinder to Woody Allen over the years of course but only three for Hannah, one of his very best?
1992 The 64th Academy Awards are held honoring the Best of 1991. Bugsy led the nominations but horror classic Silence of the Lambs was the big winner with five prizes. Trivia note 1: Silence is the only horror film to ever win Best Picture; Trivia note 2: Bugsy's fate was a habitual thing. It was almost always this way with Warren Beatty films: Bonnie & Clyde (1967), Heaven Can Wait (1978) and Reds (1981) also led the nominations (or tied for the lead) in their years and all of them lost Best Picture.
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy 84th birthday to one of the great movie stars Warren Beatty.
This is about as naked as Warren ever got for cameras. Funny considering his offscreen reputation.
What a filmography! He was perpetually choosey and unprolific even from the start but what there is is (mostly) stellar: Splendor in the Grass, Bonnie & Clyde, McCabe & Mrs Miller, The Parallax View, Shampoo, Reds, Dick Tracy, Bugsy, and Bulworth among the highlights.
Other showbiz birthdays today: Juliet Landau (Buffy, Ed Wood), Oscar nominee John Astin (The Addams Family, The Frighteners), Gideon Adlon (Blockers, The Mustang), Paul Reiser (Mad About You), Lillo Brancato (A Bronx Tale, The Faction of a Hitman), Ian Ziering (Beverly Hills 90210, Swamp Thing), Director Michael Lehman (Heathers, 40 Days and 40 Nights), Donna D'Errico (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, 9-1-1), Joseph Calli (Saturday Night Fever, Suicide Kings), South Korea's Ji Soo (Seoul Mates, Sassy Go Go), musicians Eric Clapton, Céline Dion and Norah Jones, and Mr Kelly Ripa Mark Consuelos.
Reader Comments (25)
Bogart was brilliant in The Caine Mutiny, but yeah, justice for A Star is Born, White Christmas (the #1 box office hit of that year) and Rear Window, which should have gotten Hitch a Director win. Sigh.
1986’s Best Picture was hands down Hannah and Her Sisters. My favorite Allen film.. I think it tops Annie Hall. Has just a little bit more heart and love the way it comes full circle. Dianne Wiest is top 5 all-time winner in the category. Love the interior monologue when Sam Waterston decides to drop her off first (and lo and behold, they both ended up as district attorneys!)
I still think that 1986 was an horrible line up for Best Picture... my line up would include
Aliens
Blue Velvet
The Hitcher
Little Shop of Horrors (winner)
The Mission
... and Steve Martin was so ROBBED of a Supporting Actor Oscar for Little Shop of Horrors, and Lead Actress should have been a toss up between Eillen Greene (Little Shop) and Sigourney Weaver (Aliens)
in my opinion, of course.
Foreign film... loved The Assault!
Jesus -- sometimes I try and contemplate the mindset that denied ELLEN GREENE a nomination, even at the Globes in Comedy/Musical but then i just want to die.
Caine Mutiny features perhaps Bogart's best performance, very good movie, the rest if the nominees not so much. Would prefer White Christmas of the musicals but Seven Brides is bigger and has fun dancing.
Ellen Greene's snub was completely foreseeable. A group that thinks The Country Girl and Three Coins in the Fountain are better than Rear Window would absolutely have trouble voting for a weird little film like Little Shop of Horrors.
I'm not saying it's right; I'm saying it's predictable.
Cash -- i'm speaking more of the globes though. They have a whole category designed for performacnes like that and still skipped her!!!
Warren Beatty is such a great star and is so talented, but I wonder if his talents are underappreciated by actors branch. Yes, he does have four nominations, but I always thought he should have been nominated for Bulworth, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, and maybe even Spelndor in the Grass.
THE ROBBERY IN 87
The appeal of Warren Beatty eludes me.
You're so right about the 54 BP line up and the wrong Best Actress winner.
My impression of the 1986 race was that it was primarily between Platoon and Hannah and Her Sisters, with A Room with a View in respectable "third place". Hannah is one of Woody Allen's great films. Platoon is strong Oliver Stone. And A Room with a View is exquisite too. Tough choices!
I think Platoon is slightly overwrought and I would have given Hannah Best Picture, both its acting awards, Original Screenplay, Art Direction (for how it uses New York locations) and Film Editing (as it's as sharp as a razor.) I might have plumped for Stone for Best Directing, for the power of his vision, and I'd have given Platoon Best Sound and possibly Cinematography (though I have a very soft spot for Star Trek IV in that category - I just love its earthly colour scheme).
1954: I like The Caine Mutiny, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and possibly even Three Coins in the Fountain more than I like On the Waterfront, I'm afraid. I think that Rear Window deserved a Best Picture nomination. Such an odd year to have so many heavily-nominated films (Rear Window, A Star is Born, Sabrina and The High and the Mighty) in major categories but not up for Best Picture, while Three Coins managed it with just three nominations in total!
I like The Silence of the Lambs a lot but my Best Picture choice of 1991 would be Beauty and the Beast.
1954 was such a wasted opportunity. Three Coins in the Fountain will always rank as one of the most bizarre nominees, especially over A Star Is Born, Sabrina and Rear Window - and by the Oscars' own criteria! Now that I got that off my chest - my choices:
FILM: On the Waterfront
ACTOR: Brando
ACTRESS: A. Hepburn
S. ACTOR: Cobb
S. ACTRESS: Saint
DIRECTOR: Kazan
SCREENPLAY: Forbidden Games/Rear Window/On the Waterfront
I'd also like to give a special shout-out to Genevieve's harmonica-driven score. It's nice to see a very different kind of score get some kind of recognition.
1986 & 1991 are two of my least favorite years. In too many categories, my feeling is "none of the above" but here goes
1986: Film: Platoon
Actor: Hoskins
Actress: Fonda
S. Actor: Hopper
S. Actress: Wiest
Director: Stone
Screenplay: My Beautiful Launderette/Room with a View
Foreign Film: My Sweet Little Village
1991: Film: Beauty and the Beast
Actor: Beatty
Actress: G. Davis
S. Actor: Keitel
S. Actress: Ruehl
Director: Singleton
Screenplay: The Fisher King/Fried Green Tomatoes
Foreign Film: Raise the Red Lantern
Edward L & Parandoi. -- the race was definitely more Hannah vs Platoon but i just like to mention Merchant Ivory whenever i can haha which is why i made that text so Room with a View focused. i did adjust it slightly now because Hannah didn't deserve to go unmentioned at all. It's weird to me that it won Best Supporting Actor though. I LOOOOOVE that movie but Michael Caine is one of my least favourite things about it.
Edward -- the caine mutiny more than waterfront??????????? The caine mutiny is the one film from 1954 i had the most trouble getting through when i was working on a 1954 project some years ago.
@Nathaniel
I would do a blatant cheat on 1986 so I could reward my faves of the year...
Picture: Little Shop of Horrors
Director: Frank Oz, Little Shop of Horrors
Actress: Sigourney Weaver, Aliens
Actor: Rutger Hauer, The Hitcher
Supporting Actress: Eileen Greene, Little Shop of Horrors (blatant category fraud, sue me!)
Supporting Actor: Steve Martin, Little Shop of Horrors
Adapted Screenplay: Aliens
Original Screenplay: The Hitcher
Cinematography: Blue Velvet
Score: Aliens
Song: "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space", Little Shop of Horrors
Film Editing: Little Shop of Horrors
Production Design: Little Shop of Horrors
Costume: Little Shop of Horrors
Visual Effects: Little Shop of Horrors
Make Up: The Fly
Sound Mixing: Aliens
Sound Editing: Aliens
Little Shop of Horrors, Best Picture, 9 wins
Aliens 5 wins
The Hitcher 1 win
Blue Velvet 1 win
The Fly 1 win
Three Coins in a Fountain is evidence of my theory that a strong piece of music can become an earworm and prompt AMPAS voters to elevate a mediocre movie to a Best Picture nominee (Love is a Many Splendored Thing, Alfie, Chariots of Fire, Ghost).
Beatty is a star, not a great actor. Every film he is in, your attention is always drawn to someone else acting circles around him (Natalie in Splendor, Faye in Bonnie and Clyde, Lee and Goldie in Shampoo, Diane in Reds, even Halle in Bulworth).
@Jesus Alonso What a best Best Picture lineup! Along with Ellen and Steve in Little Shop, I would've nominated Rutger Hauer; 35 years later and that performance still haunts me.
Why Warren Beatty isn't labeled as a predator?
Oh Nathaniel,
I take exception to your facile dismissal of two of the 1955 contenders. The Caine Mutiny had some yummy sailor boys, and 7 Brides was full of wonderful dancing.
I will give you A Star Is Born, Sabrina and Rear Window. But am bored with the others. Except White Christmas which is THROWN OUT because that child beater Bing Crosby is a lead actor.
Please, oh please, tell me what makes 7 Brides "problematic"?
james -- i like your theory. i can totally see it. er.... hear it.
jesus -- drawing up papers now to sue you ;)
younger -- at the risk of this being an actual question rather than just an attempt to stir the pot. i think probably because he doesn't assault people? given how many people he's rumored to have slept with you would have heard allegations by now if his ridiculously storied romantic life weren't a consensual party.
newmoonson -- while i agree that beatty is more of a movie star than what people traditionally think of as a "great actor" I think movie movie stars are usually pretty great actors. It's just that what they excel at isn't necessarily 'becoming a character' but just being mesmerizing for the camera. think of all the great stars who didn't get oscar recognition because people thought "well, they're just good movie stars" ... Monroe & Grant are the most famous examples but there are more.
Nathaniel: Thanks for the wording about Hannah. I think that Caine is just right in it. Suitably lovelorn! A sympathetic philanderer.
Re: On the Waterfront and The Caine Mutiny: I really like the cast, above all Bogart, in the latter. Bogart is tragic in it. I haven't seen On the Waterfront in years but I remember it as a festering hotbed of Acting with a capital A. That might be unfair. Still, Caine, Seven Brides and Three Coins all make me feel good about the movies.
rrrich7 -- um...i can no longer tell when people are being serious in comments or merely wanting to argue. I am not one for cancelling movies because 1 person that worked on them is a bad person (if you do that you basically can't enjoy any collaborative artforms unless you want to background and future check 100s of people on every theatrical production, music video, concert, movie, tv series,etcetera. so i could care less about Bing Crosby's personal life and am not going to reject a wonderful musical because he was a shit father. (in related news: Joan Crawford is one of the great film stars. period. probably a truly terrible mother but i'm not watching the movies for her skills in that arena)
so i'm not sure if you're serious because i thought everyone understood that 7 BRIDES FOR 7 BROTHERS is based on the roman story of "The Rape of the Sabine Women" which has been depicted in the arts for centuries. Literally the entire plot is predicated on men preying on women, kidnapping them, forcing them into labor and the women falling in love with their captors (thanks stockholm syndrome!) I mean it's a very well made musical -- the dancing is insane /glorious etcetera. And i'm not going to throw out this musical either (cancel culture is dumb... especially with works of art from the past) but IF that's not problematic story, i've never met a plot that actually was.
@Nathaniel: yeah, what is it w/ the academy and Michael Caine and their desire to award him Oscars for his meh performances? I like him okay but I don't get him getting the industry's top prize. And twice, yet.
1954, sheesh, another lineup of BP nominees that makes me wonder why I care about the Oscars anyway. 1995, 2000 and 2011 are also years like that.
Dianne Wiest is everything.
That woman is a universal treasure.
I used to like Woody Allen movies as well, until i discovered he likes raping little children.
"Caine Mutinity" has aged very well- an exciting thought provoking film with an all star cast...what it the problem the woke have with "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" a whole some romantic MGM musical - the brides are kidnapped yes but they are not raped and by the end of the film they are obviously on love with the hunky brothers.