by Nathaniel R
Fifty years ago today the 43rd Annual Academy Awards were held honoring the films of 1970. It was coronation for Patton which took home 7 Oscars including Best Picture and Best Screenplay (pictured above). One of those Oscars (Best Actor) was rejected by the recipient, George C Scott. The acclaimed actor called the annual event a "meat parade"; this wasn't the last time someone would refuse an Oscar but it was the very first time in 43 years of the beloved... um... meat parade. There was no host that year, but a team of 34 celebrities rotating throughout the night (much like we've seen on zoom awards shows this season). The Best Picture nominees were...
- AIRPORT (10 nominations / 1 win previously discussed)
- FIVE EASY PIECES (4 nominations)
- LOVE STORY (7 nominations / 1 win. Also won the Globe, Drama)
- M*A*S*H (5 nominations / 1 win. Also won the Globe, Comedy)
- PATTON (10 nominations / 7 wins)
That list holds a welcome variety (disaster epic, gritty indie, soap opera blockbuster, risque comedy, and war biography) and the movies were all major box office sucesses but there's still something unsatisfying about it.
My personal "Best Picture" winner of 1970, THE LANDLORD with Pearl Bailey and Lee Grant
Perhaps its our general indifference to Patton or maybe it's a note of "what could have been?" We'd argue that 1970 wasn't the greatest film year , but still. Hal Ashby's The Landlord was decades ahead of its time which accounts for its measly one nomination that year (Best Supporting Actress for the sensational Lee Grant, though you can easily make a case that Pearl Bailey and especially Diana Sands should have been nominated right alongside her in Supporting Actress).
What just missed the list? We think it might have been Ken Rusell's confrontational Best Actress winning Women in Love in the dread sixth spot given its 4 nominations in key categories but can't help wondering if was Woodstock [gasp] which still holds the record of the most Oscar nominations for a Documentary Feature ever with three (editing, sound, and doc feature).
On a more important note for our actressexual purposes, here's a semi-shocking piece of trivia about that year. As hard as it is to believe (you'd think this would be at least slightly more common) this was the last year in Oscar history wherein all five Best Actress nominees were first-time nominees! Despite a half a century passing since then, it hasn't happened since!
Clockwise from top left: Best Actor nominee Jack Nicholson, Best Actress nominee Sarah Miles, Best Actress nominee Ali MacGraw with her then-husband legendary producer Robert Evans, and Best Supporting Actress nominee Lee Grant.
A totally random but fun piece of trivia for that night which makes you wonder why they don't do this more often. All of the performers of the Best Original Song contenders also presented: Oscar-winner Shirley Jones sang "Whistling Away the Dark" from Darling Lili and presented Best Sound; Petula Clarke sang "For All We Know" from Lovers and Other Strangers and presented Best Art Direction; Lola Falana sang "Till Love Touches Your Life" from Madron and presented Visual Effects; Glen Campbell performed the titular song from Pieces of Dreams and presented Original Score; and finally a group including the aforementioned Petula Clark plus Burt Lancaster, Sally Kellerman and Ricardo Montalban sang "Thank You Very Much" from Scrooge... Lancaster presented the Thalberg Award, Kellerman presented Animated and Live Action Short, and Montalban presented Best Foreign-Language Film.
Here were the non-Best Picture multiple nominees that year, listed by nomination count just for the helluva it.
5 nominations
Tora! Tora! Tora! - Pearl Harbor war drama. Craft nods only
4 nominations
Ryan's Daughter - David Lean romantic period drama
Scrooge -Musical based on the oft-told Christmas tale
Women in Love - Ken Russell's bold DH Lawrence adaptation
3 nominations
Darling Lili -Julie Andrews comedy riffing on the Mata Hari legend
I Never Sang For My Father -familial drama
Lovers and Other Strangers - wedding comedy
Woodstock - music doc
2 nominations
Cromwell -historical biopic
The Great White Hope - interracial romance / boxing drama
What are your "top five" Best Picture nominees from 1970? Some other famous movies released in the US that year: The Aristocats, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (Italy), Bloody Mama, Boys in the Band, Catch-22, El Condor, Dorian Gray (Italy), Eugenie (Spain), Fellini Satyricon (Italy), Investigation of a Citizen About Suspicion (Italy), Joe, Kelly's Heroes, Kes (UK), Let It Be (UK), A Man Called Horse, Mississippi Mermaid (France), The Molly Maguires, Multiple Maniacs, My Night at Maud's (France), Myra Breckenridge, On a Clear Day You Can see Forever, The Out of Towners, Owl and the Pussycat, The Passion of Anna (Sweden), Performance (UK), Rio Lobo, Soldier Blue, Swimming Pool (France), They Call Me Mister Tibbs, There's a Girl in My Soup, Tristana (Spain), Trog, Two Mules for Sister Sara , and Zabriskie Point