Sylvia Miles (1924-2019)

by Nathaniel R

Two time Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee and party fixture Sylvia Miles died yesterday, three months shy of her 95th birthday. The NYC native rose to fame as a cult figure, a pioneer of Off Broadway plays, part of the Studio 54 scene, and a rather daring actress. She was often seen with Andy Warhol (eventually starring for him in Heat, his randy 1972 picture, with Joe Dallesandro) never quite going mainstream. Both of her Oscar nominations, for example, came from very brief gritty performances, at least in Oscar terms...

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Posterized: Liza Minnelli

by Nathaniel R

Some people's talents are so supersized that they're destined for fame. Others are born right into it. In the delicious nutty case of Liza Minnelli it was both. She was famous at birth, being the first child of a superstar couple (Movie star Judy Garland and celebrated director Vincente Minnelli) but later her talents proved that she would have become LIZA even if she'd been born to a phone operator and a brick-layer.

Liza is currently back in select movie theaters as herself in the documentary Halston (2019). But we're here to look back today. You can actually catch baby Liza (uncredited) at the end of the Judy Garland musical In the Good Old Summertime (1949) but her film debut proper came in 1968 in the Albert Finney comedy Charlie Bubbles. 

How many of her movies have you seen? Every poster is after the jump but since she's an all platform star we included notes about other major work where it applied... 

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Podcast: Smackdown '72 Conversation

Part Two of the Smackdown of 1972. (Part One ICYMI)

 

You've read our blurbs about Oscar's Supporting Actress Nominees of 1972, a fascinating bunch. Now hear the in-depth conversation that goes along with it. Nathaniel welcomes actresses Donna Lynne Champlin (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) and Kathy Deitch (American Horror Story: Freakshow) as well as writer/directors Arun Welandawe-Prematilleke and Eric Blume to discuss these talented women and their time capsule movies. Come with us to 1972! Find out which movie is accurately described as "hot garbage," which inspired a musical spoof, and marvel that the Smackdown winners were somehow the performances we were actually most divided on.

You can listen to the podcast right here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. 

Supporting Actresses of 1972

Smackdown '72: Jeannie vs Eileen vs Susan ...with Geraldine Page and Shelley Winters

An overprotective mother, a vain social butterfly, a swimming grandmother, a newlywed, and a barfly walk into an Oscar ceremony...

Geraldine Page did not attend the ceremony but the rest were there.

The 1972 supporting actress Oscar lineup is quite literally a singular group. It's the only one in all of Best Supporting Actress history to feature not a single Best Picture nominated film. There's always at least one Best Picture represented. Not so in 1972. Even The Poseidon Adventure missed that top category despite 8 nominations in total.

The panelists and part one of the Smackdown after the jump...

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1972 Revisit: Awards Darlings

by Nathaniel R

Before the '72 Smackdown THIS SUNDAY (have you voted yet?) we thought it might be fun to look back at how the awards race played out across the big six categories by comparing the Globes, Oscars, and various other awards organizations of the time to see what the hottest commodities were. 

Where the Globes and Oscar lined up, I've lined them up on the chart belows (obviously the Globes have two wins for Best Picture and Leading Actors do to how they split the categories.) You'll notice that except for Best Actress no categories were closer than a 3/5 match. We wish awards season were that excitingly differentiated now! It's unfortunate that opinions have become so homogenized. As we've said many times, you don't need dozens of groups if they all feel exactly the same way about art. The "other" column is for key wins and nominations that season (if it's a different year for Oscar eligibility we've noted that) that add broader context to what excited people in 1972. 

Ready? Let's time travel...

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