Best Actor in the 80s: An Alternative Oscar History

by Cláudio Alves

Your eyes don't deceive you. At long last, AMPAs and I can find common ground and award the same performance. Well, two out of ten. It's something!

This November, we've been celebrating the 1980s with a series of throwback articles. To contribute and inspired by Nathaniel's top tens, I decided to share my alternative Oscar ballots, the idealized lineups that would have come to pass in a world where my taste prevailed over the Academy's. We've already looked at Best Actress, Supporting Actress, and Supporting Actor, so now it's time for the leading men. As always, I welcome all recommendations – it's been a great pleasure to read all your own ideal lineups and jot down films to watch in the future. To repeat some critical details, these lists include my personal Oscar lineup according to the eligibility established by the Academy. There are also honorable mentions, ineligible gems, and some notable titles I already have on my watchlist…

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Monty @ 100: Stardom's Peak in "From Here To Eternity"

by Nathaniel R

Calling your picture From Here To Eternity, even if that's the name of the book its based on, is a major flex and a tempting of fate. How to live up to the title? 1950s and 1960s movies did this frequently, of course, in their battle against the looming threat of television. Screens got bigger and wider and the studio system was, if already mortally wounded, still working hard at making their movie stars iconic. Titles like Giant, The Greatest Story Ever Told, The Greatest Show on Earth, frequently dared to proclaim their epic-ness, and if the titles weren't size-conscious, why not add an exclamation point a la Oliver!, Hello, Dolly!, Viva Zapata! or I Want To Live!  In this lust for enormous movies, From Here To Eternity stands out, not just for living up to its promise and being eminently swoon-worthy but for its relative modesty -- capturing something grandiose merely by inhabiting the sealed world and social lives of soldiers and their women on the brink of cataclysmic change. It might have been mere soap opera without the skillful direction of Fred Zinneman and the simple fact that the stars themselves were monumental.

Chief among them was Montgomery Clift, scoring his third Best Actor nomination with his eighth film...

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Showbiz History: Monsters Inc, American Gangster, and Burt Lancaster

7 random things that happened on this day (November 2nd) in showbiz history

1755  Marie Antoinette is born. She'll become infamous in life and a household name all around the world after her death at 37 by guillotine. She's been played in the movies by Diane Kruger, Kirsten Dunst, Michèle Morgan, Norma Shearer, Jane Seymour, and more. 

1921 Eugene O'Neill's "Anna Christie" premieres on Broadway. The classic play will become a movie 9 years later starring Greta Garbo...

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26 days til Oscar. (From Here to the 26th Annual Oscars Eternity)

by Nathaniel R

With but 26 days left until Hollywood's High Holy Night, it's time to get cracking on film year wrap-up everything so expect a few more Oscar chart revisions very soon plus the Film Bitch Awards and such. But until then, let your minds drift back to the dirty sexy 26th annual Oscars when Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, and Monty Clift all got filthy for From Here to Eternity (1953) which took Best Picture and seven other Oscars but none for the three leading actors.

The Best Picture nominees were...

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Judy by the Numbers: "Snowflakes"

What on odd year is 1963 in the history of Judy Garland. 1964 marks the last year of Judy Garland's film career, and the boom of Judy's television career. The first of Judy's final two movies reunited Judy Garland with producer Stanley Kramer and actor Burt Lancaster, with whom she'd worked only two years before in Judgment at Nuremburg. By the early 1960s, Kramer was establishing himself as the prestige producer of hard-hitting social issue cinema. A Child Is Waiting, about an institution for developmentally challenged children, was no different.

The Movie: A Child is Waiting (Universal, 1963)
The Songwriter: Marjorie D. Kurtz
The Players: Judy Garland, Burt Lancaster, Gena Rowlands, directed by John Cassavetes

The Story: While the majority of Judy Garland's career was dominated by Technicolor musical extravaganzas, the last few films of her career do signal an attempt at darker, "more serious" work. Surrounded by Method artists like Rowlands, Cassavetes, and (to some degree) Lancaster, Judy clearly embraced a more fluid, less "Studio" form of acting. Her improvisation with the students shows this transition. This scene, not a "musical number" in the conventional sense, sees Judy attempting to teach a song to her students through many tactics - banging on the piano, half-quiet mumbling, sing-shouting, etc - while playing a range of tensions in the scene, from timidity to irritation to joy when they start to get it right. It is a subtle musical performance.

Most of the drama in A Child Is Waiting happened behind the scenes between Kramer and Cassavetes, but ultimately no battles or cute children could save the film. It lost $2 million among mixed reviews, a frustrating end to an artistic leap on Judy's part.