OVP: Mister Roberts (1955)

Film: Mister Roberts (1955)

Stars: Henry Fonda, James Cagney, William Powell, Jack Lemmon, Betsy Palmer, Ward Bond

Director: John Ford & Mervyn LeRoy

Oscar History: 3 nominations/1 win (Best Picture, Supporting Actor-Jack Lemmon*, Sound Recording)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2022 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different Classical Hollywood star who made their name in the early days of television.  This month, our focus is on Ward Bond: click here to learn more about Mr. Bond (and why I picked him), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Ward Bond is unusual, as we've mentioned throughout this month, because he was a true character actor, and someone who, unlike say Thelma Ritter or Walter Brennan, he didn't get semi-lead roles and never was nominated for an Academy Award.  This makes him unusual because Ward Bond holds the distinction of starring in the most Best Picture nominees of any credited actor in the history of the Academy, more than even Jack Nicholson or Robert de Niro or Meryl Streep, with thirteen nominees ranging from Arrowsmith all the way back in 1931-32 to today's film, Mister Roberts, which was the final Best Picture nominee that Bond would appear in in his career.  Mister Roberts was famously a troubled shoot (John Ford fought with both James Cagney & Henry Fonda), one that involved not just two credited directors (Ford & Mervyn LeRoy), but Joshua Logan was uncredited, making Mister Roberts one of the only movies (outside Gone with the Wind) to be helmed by three different Oscar nominees.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie takes place in the waning days of World War II, with a bunch of sailors stuck aboard a cargo ship called the Reluctant, where they are under the tyrannical rule of Captain Morton (Cagney).  Morton is frequently at odds with Mr. Roberts (Fonda), a lieutenant on the ship who is desperate to get off this ship, which is safely in a harbor but is not going to see battle, and join the front.  Roberts is frequently fighting on behalf of the men, who are desperate to get shore leave after a year at sea, but Morton wants to keep Roberts under his thumb, primarily because he knows what a bad commanding officer he has been & he doesn't want him to leak that to the brass.  Joined by his pals Doc (Powell) & Pulver (Lemmon), Roberts continues to hatch plans to get under Morton's skin and specifically to get a letter requesting his transfer as well as to get the men shore leave.  He initially has to sacrifice the former to get the latter, but once the men hear about it, the men risk court martial to get Roberts transferred.  The film ends on a bitter note, with Roberts dying in action, and Pulver (until that point something of a coward) standing up to Morton and assuming the antagonistic role that Roberts had played in his life, defending the men.

The movie was an "ehh" for me.  I get what's happening here & I understand why this was a successful play given its mix of tone, but the stage is a different beast and you don't have to feed off of an audience's energy in the same way.  As a result, the mixture of slapstick farce alongside a very serious story feels very off, and the tenor of the picture doesn't quite work.  The cast is a mixed bag-Fonda is good as a revered rule-breaker, even if the script demands nothing from him, but Cagney is actively bad here, not knowing how to play his villain as anything but a hammy Mickey Rooney-level joke.  Jack Lemmon, of course, won an Oscar for this role (his first of eight nominations), and while I get it (seeing Lemmon's signature ability with comedy for the first time had to have been undeniable), it feels weird that he won for something so dismissible, as this is hardly what he'd end up being capable of as he moved to being a leading man.

Mister Roberts was a big film for most of the cast.  Henry Fonda hadn't made a movie in eight years before this (he'd been on stage), and was not favored by Warner Brothers.  This movie was a huge hit, though, and its success brought Fonda back to Hollywood, and two years later he'd be making one of the most important movies of his career, 12 Angry Men.  James Cagney would never make another movie for Warner after this (his home for almost three decades) and William Powell wouldn't make another movie, period, even though he'd live another thirty years.  Ward Bond, of course, would continue to make movies and we'll talk about the most important one of his as an actor next week, but this week I'll admit that I continue to strike out.  While Bond is in this movie, he has a very small part, and so it's hard to really assess his talents as an actor with such a small role.

OVP: That's Life! (1986)

Film: That's Life! (1986)

Stars: Jack Lemmon, Julie Andrews, Sally Kellerman, Robert Loggia

Director: Blake Edwards

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Original Song-"Life in a Looking Glass")

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Film is oftentimes a reflection of its creators; writers, actors, and especially directors infuse themselves into their movie.  This is the entire basis of auteur theory.  But there are limitations to that, particularly when it comes to the film being largely autobiographical.  Oftentimes when you encounter a film that is deeply personal, especially from a filmmaker you like, there's a pressure to give them the benefit of the doubt-they're sorting through feelings & experiences that they have been reluctant to put onto the big screen.  This is the case for Blake Edwards' That's Life!, a movie where Jack Lemmon takes on the surrogate for Blake Edwards, but Edwards literally casts both his real-life wife Julie Andrews and his real-life children in major roles within the film.  The problem here lies in that the movie, by looking too much at real-life, cannot live up to the zany & madcap adventures we normally expect from Edwards, and it feels a bit rundown as he turns the camera around.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about Harvey Fairchild (Lemmon), a wealthy architect who is a hypochondriac of sorts, about to celebrate his 60th birthday party.  Except, of course, Harvey doesn't want to celebrate his 60th birthday party & is instead going through a crisis, which is causing him to lash out at his wife, children, & pretty much everyone around him.  His wife Gillian (Andrews) is a famous singer who is going through a health crisis, as she has a lesion on her throat that might be cancerous.  As the film continues, the movie shows them both coming to terms with their health problems (one mental, one physical), and going to some dark places with it (Harvey even has an affair with Madame Carrie, a fortune teller played by Lemmon's real-life wife Felicia Farr), before coming out the other end better & cancer-free for both of them.

The movie is a bit slow-paced, even if it's well-constructed.  I thought that the biggest problem for the film, weirdly enough, was the plotting (considering that's not usually a problem in a Blake Edwards picture, this is a surprise).  The film is too repetitive, the kids too undifferentiated (it's a neat gimmick hiring Lemmon & Andrews' real life children, but they don't stand out in a significant way), and Lemmon's journey too odd.  We are meant to take his casual adultery with a cheeky bit of good humor, unable to understand if this is simply a midlife crisis or something that he's done for decades.  As a result, the interesting bits (like watching a clearly strained marriage where the two people still love each other), fall along the wayside, even if there's definitely something to offer here.

The film won one Oscar nomination, for Best Original Song for the Henry Mancini number "Life in a Looking Glass."  This is a strange nomination not just because it was the last in a long line of Mancini nominations (18 in all), but because it is one of only three songs to be nominated for both the Oscar and the (now discontinued) Razzie Award for best Original Song (the other two being from Con Air and Armageddon).  Usually these types of nominations land somewhere in the middle, but here I'm siding with the Razzies.  The song is arguably the worst part of a movie that toys with quality but can't get the seal-it's a treacly, maudlin number that even Tony Bennett can't get past the saccharine lyrics (plus, it's sung over the end credits...in a movie with Julie Andrews that could've used a musical number).  That arguably the worst part of a rather forgettable movie got an Oscar nomination is proof that occasionally AMPAS just does its own thing.

OVP: Pepe (1960)

Film: Pepe (1960)
Stars: Cantinflas, Dan Dailey, Shirley Jones (and a mountain of celebrity cameos we'll mention below)
Director: George Sidney
Oscar History: 7 nominations (Best Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design, Film Editing, Scoring, Sound, Original Song-"Faraway Part of Town")
Snap Judgment Ranking: 1/5 stars

A few months ago (which somehow feels like only a week ago and at the same time years ago...Covid is messing with my internal clock, y'all), we reviewed Around the World in 80 Days, a box office smash that won the Best Picture Oscar.  It featured the American debut of a Mexican comedian named Cantinflas, who won a Golden Globe for it and became a sensation, and inevitably was someone that would get another big movie.  However, as Hollywood struggles to cast actors-of-color, especially in the 1950's, Cantinflas would have to wait four years before getting his next break in another glossy, epic film where he did his shenanigans against the backdrop of a star-studded bonanza.  That film was Pepe, our Best Editing (amongst other things) installment today.

(Spoilers Ahead) For a movie that clocks in at three hours, the film doesn't have a lot of plot.  Essentially we have Pepe (Cantinflas), a horse trainer who thinks of his horse Don Juan as his son, and calls him that despite the confusion of everyone.  He cannot buy the horse in the opening scene, as it is instead purchased by Ted Holt (Dailey), a struggling movie director.  Pepe comes to take care of the horse, and after a successful night in Vegas, begins to bankroll Holt's next movie, under the condition that he cast Suzie Murphy (Jones), a dancer that Pepe is in love with, and soon, so is Ted.  As this is a movie from 1960, white, blonde Shirley Jones is going to end up with Ted as her winning love interest rather than Pepe, whom she thinks of as a friend, but Pepe still is able to win back Don Juan, and have him sire a number of foals, happily back in Mexico.

Pepe was a flop-a big one.  It's considered one of the largest money losers of the 1960's, and has never even been released on DVD (I caught it on TCM).  There's a reason for that-Pepe borders on awful.  Cantinflas' humor doesn't work without a proper straight man, and Dan Dailey is no David Niven (Dailey is, for my money, one of the worst actors to be nominated for an Oscar at some point in their career).  Cantinflas plays him as a racist cartoon-he's dismissed as "not really a man" by Shirley Jones at one point, and she sings about him like he's a puppet.  I don't begrudge Cantinflas too much here, even if he doesn't add to the character since his being a Mexican man who got to lead a movie was a big deal in 1960, but then-and-now this plays poorly, and is hard to get behind.

The saving grace of the movie is the star cameos, which I always love.  The film is DRIPPING with not just cameos, but in many cases the cameos are extended, and almost always involve actors playing themselves.  Edward G. Robinson is basically the fourth biggest part in the movie as himself, and we get a lot of appearances from everyone from Greer Garson to Jimmy Durante to the entire Rat Pack (one of only three movies to feature Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, & Joey Bishop).  These aren't always successful (Bing Crosby's is ludicrous, Cesar Romero's unfunny), while others are great, though none compare to Jack Lemmon, playing himself as if he's filming Some Like It Hot, so we get to see (in color!) him in his Daphne drag from the movie (Tony Curtis appears later in the film, and not as his character).

The movie's seven Oscar nominations are all a waste, to be honest.  The costume work (Edith Head) is maybe the best element, but they're mostly fun when they're on Kim Novak or Janet Leigh than on any of the actual characters, while the sets feel like vacant movie lots, even the ones that take place outdoors.  The movie features a number of songs, but they're all staged too long & while it's great to hear legends sing, this doesn't rise above what you'd hear on a record.  This is true even of the nominated song, sang by Judy Garland (who for some reason doesn't even cameo despite singing the nominated song), which doesn't fit the mood of the movie at all (it sings like a torch ballad).  The cinematography is flat, the sound work routine, and the editing...the movie is three hours long & will go on huge stretches of boredom, while glossing over Ted's mistreatment of Pepe.  All-in-all, while I wish this movie was more readily available (even as a flop, it's still nominated for seven Oscars and stars the most important Mexican comedian in Hollywood of the Golden Age), I'm glad to have it in the rearview mirror with the OVP.

OVP: Cowboy (1958)

Film: Cowboy (1958)
Stars: Glenn Ford, Jack Lemmon, Anna Kashfi, Dick York
Director: Delmer Daves
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Film Editing)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

It is a new week, but a week I'm really excited about (I get next week off from work!), and with each new week we get a theme for our weekday reviews, frequently with an Oscar tilt.  This week that is going to be Best Editing, a weird category for us to do a theme week on.  If you follow Best Editing at the Oscars, it's the category most likely to be the result of coattail nominations-indeed, three of our films this week are also Best Picture nominees.  However, to start out the week, we're going to focus on a film that pulled off a weird feat-it was only nominated for Best Editing.  I don't have the exact stats on this, but this is rare, and it made me curious about Cowboy, and why this largely forgotten Glenn Ford western got this one nomination of all things, when I caught it recently as it was leaving Criterion Streaming.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is short, way shorter than you'd expect (it comes in only at 92 minutes, which for a dramatic 50's Technicolor western, is brief).  It helps that we have only two really important characters: Frank Harris (Lemmon), a hotel employee who is desperately in love with Maria (Kashfi), the daughter of a Mexican cattle baron, and Tom Reece (Ford), a rough-talking cattle driver who wants to buy cattle in Mexico after his stint in the hotel from Maria's father.  However, when Tom loses his money in a poker game, Frank gives up his life savings to join the cowboy on his trip to Mexico, in hopes of impressing Maria's father.

This is all the basis of a pretty routine western-an unlikely bronco goes through the ropes of becoming a true cowboy, and thus earning the respect of his reluctant, seasoned partner.  That's not what Cowboy's going for though.  The reason that this got an editing nomination was because of the chase sequences (on train and on horseback) and the difficulty in filming with so many live cattle, and in that way it's fine & works (it's better than a lot of the 1958 nominees, TBH), but it's not revolutionary.  What's fascinating about Cowboy is how deceptively dark it gets in the way that we see Tom try to break sweet, lovable Frank.

We see this in a scene where, during a bit of rough-housing with a rattlesnake, one of the men on the trip die, and Frank is shocked that there isn't more anger for the death of someone on the crew, particularly from Tom.  I initially took this as being just hyper masculinity of the 1950's, but that's not what the writers are going for-Tom is meant to be too harsh, bordering on cruel, and we see that when Frank realizes that Maria has already been married by the time he gets to Mexico, and he becomes bitter, emulating Tom.  When Tom kills a number of cattle while trying to save Frank's life, Frank chastises him and tells him that the cattle are coming out of his share, and starts to treat the men cruelly.

This is really dark in the movie, much darker than you'd expect, and in half of this situation the casting department did an outstanding job.  Lemmon is such an awe shucks sweetheart that watching him become this monster is hard-to-watch, and a testament to the actor he was becoming.  Glenn Ford, though, isn't good at underlining this aspect of his performance, and I spent most of the time wishing we had a performer like Kirk Douglas or Henry Fonda who might have been better at playing the obvious angles of what the writers were attempting to do with the character.  The film isn't brave enough to punish Frank too harshly for his spiral (in the end, both men come away friends and jovial), but there's a really good movie lurking within Cowboy if the casting department and writers had been willing to indulge it.

OVP: Bell, Book, and Candle (1958)

Film: Bell, Book, and Candle (1958)
Stars: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs, Hermione Gingold, Elsa Lanchester
Director: Richard Quine
Oscar History: 2 nomination (Best Art Direction, Costume Design)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

It's hard to watch a film like Bell, Book, and Candle without thinking about the pop cultural landmarks that would bookend the film: Vertigo and Bewitched.  The film, which stars Kim Novak and Jimmy Stewart, has to elicit memories of the former simply by virtue of borrowing its two stars, while the film clearly was an inspiration to Bewitched creator Sol Saks, who borrowed this particular picture's witch marries a mortal and then has her trying to live a normal life while surrounded by a bevy of crazy relatives.  Unfortunately for all of us, Bell, Book, and Candle never really achieves the genius of Vertigo nor the constant laughs that came from Bewitched, and as a result we end up with a middling movie surrounded by clearly a great concept.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film follows Shep Henderson (Stewart), a hapless man who lives (unknowingly) next door to two witches, Gillian (Novak) and her Aunt Queenie (Lanchester).  Gillian finds out that Shep is dating her old college rival, and as a result she casts a love spell on Shep, but after a while Gillian herself falls in love with him, but after Shep learns of her trickery he wants nothing to do with her.  Meanwhile, we have Gillian's brother Nicky (Lemmon, back when he was still doing relatively minor roles at the beginning of his career) trying to make a buck with a mortal but self-proclaimed witch expert Sidney (Kovacs).  As the film progresses, considering it's a romantic comedy, Shep and Gillian eventually fall in love, even though this means that she loses all of her powers.

The film's faults are pretty numerous, but I will counter that the supporting cast tries their best.  It's easy to see why the likes of Aunt Clara, Endora, and Uncle Arthur from Bewitched all came about as a result of such a cast, as you can't really go wrong with Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs, and Hermione Gingold, who is at her loudest and most elaborate in the very broad role as Bianca de Pass, a powerful and groovy witch.  The film's best moments involve these supporting players, and you can see why Lemmon became a proper matinee idol soon after movies like Bell, Book, and Candle, as he was stealing the movies away from the likes of Jimmy Stewart.

The problem here, though, is that the script is too dry when it comes to the leads, and neither of them are particularly well-suited to saving it.  It was during this time that Stewart would start to be cast for roles that were unsuitable for his age (the wonderful Man Who Shot Liberty Valance would be another one, but there Stewart found a way to cope), and in fact he never would have the role of a solely romantic lead after this film as he felt he was too old for the part.  While I question this (I would have still bought him falling in love with someone like Greer Garson or Kate Hepburn), it does feel like him stepping once again into the cliche of a man who hasn't started life at fifty is a bit of a stretch.  It also hurts that Stewart has pretty much zilch chemistry with Novak, and they feel like such polar opposites it's impossible not to snicker at the idea that she'd fall for him.  This works in Vertigo because of the angles their characters are playing and the madness of Scottie Ferguson, but the reality is that under normal circumstances these two just don't match.

The film received a pair of Oscar nominations, and it's easy to see why one of them happened.  The movie's Art Direction citation seems appropriate as it relies heavily upon witches' decor and is meticulous in trying to call out the various personalities of the apartments.  I felt a bit like they were relying too heavily on cliches, especially in the apartments (Gillian's shop makes sense), but the movie at least has an attention to detail, even if the witch-y touches feel a tad uninspired.  The costume design is considerably better, in my opinion, though I'm shocked Oscar noticed it since it's relatively subtle.  Novak wears a series of black outfits, of course, giving into the witch-angle once more, but here it's such a glamorous variety of black dresses, hoods, and one particularly fetching backless gown (that would still feel fresh and jaw-dropping on a red carpet today) that you can see why Novak become such a star in terms of fashion after movies like this and Vertigo.

Those are my thoughts on this disappointing, but clearly intriguing movie.  What are yours?  Do you agree that the leads feel mismatched, or are you still pining for more pairings since it elicits memories of Vertigo?  Who is your favorite of the supporting cast members here?  And furthermore, who are your favorites on Bewitched?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

Oscar Trivia: Presenting the Oscars, Part 1

All right Oscar trivia nerds, it's time to step up to the plate as a project I came up with last month and have been scouring through books and websites since to figure out (okay, one book and one website, but I don't get to do a lot of research projects in my life so indulge me) has come to a close and now we'll have some articles as a result.  I recently was googling, and could not find a list of the most frequent presenters at the Oscars.  I found lots of lists of the most-common host (Bob Hope), but never regarding the presenters and I thought that was just silliness, so I took it upon myself to come up with the list.  As I was compiling, I realized there was a whole host of trivia to come out of such an idea, so I figured why not create a blog post or two on the matter.  Therefore, we'll be having a short three-part series called Presenting an Oscar over the next week.  Today, we'll go with a straight-up list of the Top 10 most frequent presenters, as well as a little trivia about them in regard to Oscars.  Shall we begin?

(Note: People count as Oscar presenters if they introduce an award, performance, clip reel, or nominated film.  I'm not counting hosting unless you also presented a specific award and I'm not counting performers of musical numbers for this list at least.)

8. Michael Douglas (tie)

Times He's Presented: 12
First Presented: 1984 (Best Documentary Short)
Latest Presented: 2012 (Best Director)
Has He Presented Best Picture?: Yes, twice in 2000 and 2002 (the latter with his father Kirk, for Chicago, a film starring his wife)
What's His Oscar History?: Douglas is weirdly two-for-two when it comes to Oscar, having won for both Best Picture (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) and Best Actor (Wall Street).  Those are his only two nominations.  It feels like the right number of wins, but I'm surprises Douglas, a movie star for over forty years, hasn't been able to score more nominations.

8. Goldie Hawn (tie)

Times She's Presented: 12
First Presented: 1970 (Best Actor, famously stating "oh my god" before announcing George C. Scott...it's vintage flower-child style Goldie if you've never seen the clip)
Latest Presented: 2013 (Best Picture segments for Captain Phillips, Philomena, and 12 Years a Slave)
Has She Presented Best Picture?: No, and considering how frequently it's levied at the Oscars that they are pretty repetitive and sexist when it comes to who gets to hand out the top honor, this seems like a pretty damn good choice.  Get on it AMPAS!
What's Her Oscar History?: Hawn won an Oscar for Cactus Flower in 1969 and was nominated eleven years later for Private Benjamin.  It's worth noting that Goldie, despite being a frequent attender and even a two-time host of the Oscars, wasn't there to pick up her only Oscar, instead having Raquel Welch pick up her trophy.

8. Audrey Hepburn (tie)

Times She's Presented: 12
First Presented: 1954 (Writing Awards)
Last Presented: 1991 (Honorary Award to Satyajit Ray)
Has She Presented Best Picture?: Yes, four times (second only to Jack Nicholson) in 1955, 1960, 1966, and 1975
What's Her Oscar History?: Audrey won Best Actress in 1953 for Roman Holiday, and was nominated in 1954 (Sabrina), 1959 (The Nun's Story), 1961 (Breakfast at Tiffany's), and 1967 (Wait Until Dark).  Her humanitarian work also won her the Jean Hersholt in 1993.

8. Nicole Kidman (tie)

Times She's Presented: 12
First Presented: 1991 (Presented by Best Song nominee "Everything I Do (I Do It For You)")
Latest Presented: 2014 (Best Foreign Language Film)
Has She Presented Best Picture?: Not yet, though there's time considering she's relatively young by such standards.  Her ex-husband Tom Cruise did, though, in 2011.
What's Her Oscar History?: Despite a truly impressive filmography in the past decade (one could argue this number should be double what it is), Kidman has three Oscar nominations from 2001 (Moulin Rouge!), 2002 (The Hours), and 2010 (Rabbit Hole), winning for The Hours.

8. Jack Nicholson (tie)

Times He's Presented: 12 (and yes, I figured this number would be greater too, but Jack took some long breaks in presenting)
First Presented: 1971 (Best Picture)
Latest Presented: 2012 (Best Picture)
Has He Presented Best Picture?  If you are actually asking this question, you need to start watching the Oscars.  Jack always presents Best Picture, having done it eight of his twelve times at presenting.  He did it in 1971, 1976, 1977, 1989, 1992, 2005, 2006, and 2012.  It's worth noting that with A Few Good Men competing in 1992 and The Departed in 2006, he's actually presented in years where he was in the eligible picture, which is rare.
What's His Oscar History?: Jack Nicholson is a twelve-time Oscar-nominated legend.  Cited for Easy Rider (1969), Five Easy Pieces (1970), The Last Detail (1973), Chinatown (1974), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Reds (1981), Terms of Endearment (1983), Prizzi's Honor (1985), Ironweed (1987), A Few Good Men (1992), As Good As It Gets (1997), and About Schmidt (2002), Nicholson is second only to Meryl Streep in terms of nominations and second only to Kate Hepburn in terms of wins (he won for Cuckoo, Terms, and As Good As It Gets).  He is also tied with Michael Caine for most consecutive decades with a nomination.

8. Steven Spielberg (tie)

Times He's Presented: 12 (again, I thought it would be more too)
First Presented: 1979 (Best Director, along with Goldie Hawn no less...wonder if Spielberg could convince her to make another movie?)
Latest Presented: 2010 (Best Picture)
Has He Presented Best Picture?: Yep, three times (2003, 2008, and 2010)
What's His Oscar History?: Steven Spielberg has a truly weird career with the Oscars.  While everyone today thinks of a Spielberg film as a gimme nomination, prior to his wins for Schindler's List, it was very hit-and-miss.  He wasn't nominated for directing Jaws, The Color Purple, or Empire of the Sun, and films like Close Encounters couldn't seal-the-deal in the Best Picture race with a nomination.  Still, he has 15 nominations with three wins amongst them (Best Picture/Director for Schindler's List and Best Director for Saving Private Ryan), plus he also has the Thalberg Award won in 1986), so it's not like they haven't amply rewarded the man.

7. Dustin Hoffman

Times He's Presented: 13
First Presented: 1967 (Best Cinematography)
Latest Presented: 2012 (the Writing Awards, with Charlize Theron)
Has He Presented Best Picture?: Twice, in 1986 and in 2004 (which he co-presented with his Meet the Fockers costar Barbra Streisand)
What's His Oscar History?: Hoffman has been nominated seven times for Best Actor, for The Graduate (1967), Midnight Cowboy (1969), Lenny (1974), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), Tootsie (1982), Rain Man (1988), and Wag the Dog (1997); he won for both Kramer and Rain Man.

5. Bob Hope (tie)

Times He's Presented: 14 (he also hosted the show eighteen times, a record that will likely stand forever considering the fickle nature of entertainment)
First Presented: 1938 (Short Subjects)
Last Presented: 1990 (Presented a montage called "My First Movie")
Has He Presented Best Picture?: No, likely because he was always too busy getting ready to close the show.
What's His Oscar History?: As Hope lamented many, many times through the years he was never able to get nominated for an acting award during his illustrious career (likely because he dabbled in comedy more than drama, and also because he was far better at playing Bob Hope than he was a fictional character).  The Academy didn't forget him, however, and gave him five honoraries in 1940, 1944, 1952, 1959 (the Jean Hersholt), and 1965.  One hopes they shell out at least one eventually for his modern-day equivalent Billy Crystal.

5. Jack Lemmon (tie)

Times He's Presented: 14 (he also hosted the Oscars four times)
First Presented: 1955 (Art Direction, which he handed out with singer Peggy Lee)
Last Presented: 1997 (the Writing Awards with his longtime costar Walter Matthau, who with eleven awards presented just missed this list)
Has He Presented Best Picture?: Yes, in 1965 to The Sound of Music
What's His Oscar History?: Lemmon was nominated for eight Oscars in 1955 (Mister Roberts), 1959 (Some Like It Hot), 1960 (The Apartment), 1962 (Days of Wine and Roses), 1973 (Save the Tiger), 1979 (The China Syndrome), 1980 (Tribute), and 1982 (Missing); he won for Mister Roberts and Save the Tiger.

4. Gregory Peck

Times He's Presented: 16 (in addition to being a major movie star, Peck also served as president of the Academy which helps in his count here)
First Presented: 1957 (Art Direction, with Eva Marie Saint who has presented ten times at the Oscars so far, nearly making this list)
Last Presented: 1994 (Presented the Quiz Show Best Picture segment)
Has He Presented Best Picture?: Once, in 1964 to My Fair Lady
What's His Oscar History?: Peck was nominated five times in 1945 (The Keys of the Kingdom), 1946 (The Yearling), 1947 (Gentleman's Agreement), 1949 (Twelve O'Clock High), and eventually winning in 1962 in To Kill a Mockingbird.

3. Tom Hanks

Times He's Presented: 17
First Presented: 1986 (Best Animated Short Film, with co-presenter Bugs Bunny)
Latest Presented: 2011 (Best Cinematography and Art Direction)
Has He Presented Best Picture?: Twice, in 2001 and 2009.
What's His Oscar History?: Everybody's favorite movie star of the 1990's has been nominated five times in his career, in 1988 (Big), 1993 (Philadelphia), 1994 (Forrest Gump), 1998 (Saving Private Ryan), and 2000 (Cast Away), winning for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump.

2. John Travolta

Times He's Presented: 18
First Presented: 1977 (Best Supporting Actress)
Latest Presented: 2014 (Best Original Song, with Idina Menzel, whose name he infamously butchered the year before...considering he'd presented 17 times at that point you'd think he could have better practiced).
Has He Presented Best Picture?: Nope, not yet, though I'm sure it will eventually happen-maybe when he eventually takes over number one?
What's His Oscar History?: Travolta is a two-time nominee, for 1977's Saturday Night Fever and 1994's Pulp Fiction.  While he's never won, I have to imagine that either an Honorary Award or an "old-age" style award is in his future as he seems genuinely popular in Hollywood and consistently makes movies, though lately not very many good ones.

1. Jack Valenti

Times He's Presented: 24
First Presented: 1966 (Honorary Award to Y. Frank Freeman)
Last Presented: 2002 (Best Documentary Short Subject)
Has He Ever Presented Best Picture?: Nope, Valenti's appearances at the Oscars almost always happened in the middle hour of the ceremony and he rarely got a marquee award.
What's His Oscar History?: For those of you saying "who?!?" in regard to Valenti topping movie stars like Travolta and Hanks on this list, Valenti was once one of the most powerful figures in Hollywood.  The head of the MPAA, he was imperative to creating the modern ratings system and spent years fighting the idea of home video (saying it would be the death of the movies).  Valenti was also in one of the most iconic photos in American history-he can be seen in the bottom left corner of the picture of President Lyndon Johnson, as he served as a media adviser for him.  Despite his repeated awards from the industry (he won an honorary trophy from both the PGA and DGA), he never won an Honorary Oscar.

And there you have it folks-we'll get into some other fun minutia of the presenters later this week, but in the meantime-who is a surprise on this list?  Who did you expect to top the list?  Do you have a favorite amongst these presenters?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

OVP: It Should Happen to You (1954)

Film: It Should Happen to You (1954)
Stars: Judy Holliday, Jack Lemmon, Peter Lawford, Michael O'Shea
Director: George Cukor
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Costume)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

I know what you're thinking.  You're looking at that title and thinking, "Wait, 1954?  Did he get this wrong?  Isn't this the name of that romantic comedy with Bridget Fonda from the 90's?" and you'd be close, cause that was what I initially thought, but there's a big difference between should and could in this case.  Instead, here we have what may be one of the most prescient films I've ever seen from the 1950's.  The film, about a woman who simply wants her names in lights and to be well-known, even if there's no actual reason for her new-found fame, is wildly predictive of the advent of reality television and "famous for the sake of being famous" in a way few films ever prove to be so prophetic.  While the film itself is pretty run-of-the-mill (though anchored by strong work from Judy Holliday, the film's plot is almost eerie in the way that it predicts our current Kardashian-obsessed present.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film takes place in Manhattan, circa the 1950's, when a young woman, down-on-her-luck Gladys Glover (Holliday) decides to impetuously buy a billboard for $630 with her name splashed across it over Columbus Circle.  Nothing more than just her name, but it starts to garnish some attention.  She's pursued by a perplexed documentary filmmaker named Pete (Lemmon) who is infatuated by her but cannot get over her utter fascination with publicity and fame, instead thinking that she should crave privacy and thinking she's a bit vain for all of this.  Gladys continues to stumble toward fame when a wealthy executive named Evan Adams III (Lawford) decides he wants her billboard, and as a result offers her six huge signs throughout New York City that state her name (and of course, being that this is a romantic comedy and we need a caddish foil, Lawford also starts to fall for Holliday).

This creates a swirl surrounding Gladys, and soon everyone in New York wants to know who the girl with the billboards is, and soon she becomes well-known, appearing on television, primarily as the object of ridicule, though initially she doesn't seem to know or care.  After a while she becomes a household name, appearing in advertisements as the "All-American Girl" but after Evan makes a pass at her, she decides that this life isn't quite for her, and that she would prefer life with Pete.  A couple of bits of chasing her fella (including an air-writer with a message "Pete Call Gladys Please") leaves Holliday in Lemmon's arms, and us with our happily ever after.

I have a few things to say about this film before we get to the costumes.  One, I'm in love with how much this mirrors the future careers of women like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian (minus the sex tapes).  There is absolutely no reason for Gladys's fame.  She's not a singer or a dancer or an actress-there's nothing interesting about her except that she's attractive and that she was clever enough to put her name on a billboard.  While the idea of "famous for the sake of famous" wasn't an alien concept in 1954 (women like Zsa Zsa Gabor and Brenda Frazier had managed to make names for themselves in this way), this mirrored the rise of the Kardashians far more than either of those two earlier women.

The second thing is that I have now watched three films (the others are here and here) where a woman is celebrated for giving up her career for the happiness of a man.  I'd say that celebrating this has changed, but this film is brand new and does the same thing.  This is something I hadn't noticed very often before, but with three films where it becomes a key plot point, I realize that this is a depressingly common trope across all of cinema (everything from Notting Hill to Titanic to Roman Holiday involves a woman trying to deplete herself to let a man enter her world).  Someone should really find a way to make a film where a man has to change for a woman and give up part of his happiness for hers pretty soon to start to balance a century's worth of cinema.

The movie's sole Oscar nomination was for Best Costume design, and it was probably due in part to the incredible reputation of the designer, Jean Louis, than for anything else.  Louis would create iconic looks for Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe, and his eventual wife Loretta Young, and here is working with the woman who got him his first Oscar nomination in Born Yesterday (Louis would win only one Oscar, also for working with Holliday in The Solid Gold Cadillac).  The looks of Holliday are immaculate if a little bit blase by the standards we usually hold Oscar too.  I love the way that she is always so fashionable, even in the opening scenes-a girl who wants her name on a billboard is going to be looking perfect to begin with, and everything seems to be a cavalcade of the chic and modern.   The men and basically all other characters in the film aren't what you'd consider interesting, but Holliday looks terrific.

Those are my thoughts on the charming if simple movie-what about you?  Do you ever watch movies from the 40's and 50's and think "how did they know?!?"?  Are you as equally disturbed by the "woman gives up her career" trope within nearly all of romantic cinema?  And what did you think of Jean Louis' costumes?  Share in the comments!

Golden Globe Nominations ≠ Oscar Nominations, Part 2

Earlier this week, we took a look at the actors that the Golden Globes have nominated the most without ever receiving a subsequent Oscar nomination.  Today, however, we look at the actors that the Globes simply favored over the Oscars, but both have spread some love toward.  The weird thing about this list is that, in many cases, the Oscars have been fairly generous to the nominees: no one is a one-time Oscar nominee, and 80% of those included below have won an Academy Award.  Let's take a look:

I used the same weighting system as before (favoring leads in dramas, supporting roles, and comedies in that order), so there are a number of contenders, such as Cary Grant, Julie Andrews, Sally Field, and Walter Matthau who just miss the cut.  Also, for the sake of uniformity, I'm only including the below actors' film acting nominations, though I am aware at least two of them have received nominations in other categories at the Globes or the Oscars.

10. Al Pacino

Nominated for Both Globes and Oscars: 8 (The Godfather, Serpico, The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon, ...And Justice for All, Dick Tracy, Glengarry Glen Ross, Scent of a Woman)
Nominated for Just Oscar: 0
Nominated for Just Globes: 5 (Bobby Deerfield, Author! Author!, Scarface, Sea of Love, The Godfather Part III)
Winner?: 1 Oscar (Scent of a Woman) and 2 Globes (Serpico, Scent of a Woman)
Closest He Got to Another: The Godfather Part III

Like de Niro, Duvall, Hoffman, and Nicholson, Pacino enjoyed a "do-no-wrong" sort of joyride for a while with awards bodies, from roughly 1972-92 (he is, to date, the only one of those five to not have been nominated in the past twenty years).  One of Oscars favorites, it's hard to imagine him receiving many more nominations (eight puts him fifth amongst all male actors), though one has to wonder how close he must have been for The Godfather Part III.  The film received seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and Pacino had to be close to taking out his longtime buddy Robert de Niro (who was probably just included over his costar Robin Williams) or Gerard Depardieu (who was likely close to cancelling himself out with the successful Green Card also in theaters that year).  One wonders if, in this alternate universe, pressure would have mounted to give Pacino one of the two Oscars that he was nominated for, and thus giving Denzel Washington his Malcolm X Oscar, which many feel he deserved.

9. Gene Hackman

Nominated for Both Globes and Oscars: 3 (The French Connection, Mississippi Burning, Unforgiven)
Nominated for Just Oscar: 2 (Bonnie and Clyde, I Never Sang for My Father)
Nominated for Just Globes: 5 (The Conversation, The French Connection II, Under Fire, Twice in a Lifetime, The Royal Tenenbaums)
Winner?: 2 Oscars (The French Connection, Unforgiven) and 3 Globes (The French Connection, Unforgiven, The Royal Tenenbaums)
Closest He Got to Another: The Royal Tenenbaums or The Conversation (see below)

Hackman actually has a pretty solid track record outside of the Globes-two nominations without a Globe nomination for either is a pretty solid position to be in, especially considering they both came before his first Globe nod.  However, the Globes were particularly fond of him in the sixteen years between The French Connection and Mississippi Burning, giving him a nomination even for the "really?" sequel to The French Connection.  I'd say that The Conversation was the most likely nominee, possibly taking out Albert Finney, but with Hoffman's Lenny, Pacino's Godfather 2, and Nicholson's Chinatown, they may have had enough of the new generation and it might have been a longshot for Hackman to make it too.  The Royal Tenenbaums likely would have gotten him a nomination had they been a little clearer on his campaign-he won the Globe for lead but they campaigned him in supporting, a smart move, but the confusion probably cost him and benefited surprise nominee Ethan Hawke.

8. Goldie Hawn

Nominated for Globes and Oscars: 2 (Cactus Flower, Private Benjamin)
Nominated for Just Oscar: 0
Nominated for Just Globes: 6 (Butterflies are Free, Shampoo, The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox, Foul Play, Best Friends, The Banger Sisters)
Winner?: 1 Oscar (Cactus Flower) and 1 Globe (Cactus Flower)
Closest She Got to Another: Shampoo or Butterflies are Free

Am I the only person who desperately misses Goldie Hawn?  I don't think it's fair that she retired on us so abruptly after 2002's The Banger Sisters and am always hoping someone finds a role suitable for her.  She might be the most surprising entry on this list-unlike Pacino and Hackman, she hasn't given so many critically-lauded performances to put her into a ubiquitous, "always-nominated" state.  Every single one of her "extra" nominations happened for comedies, which likely caused this big gap, though I suspect that she had a shot to take out Maggie Smith in Butterflies are Free (competing at the time with Carol Burnett for the fifth slot).  There's also a chance that she could have gotten in on the wild mess that was the 1975 Best Actress race, though Marilyn Hassett, Faye Dunaway, and Hawn's costar Julie Christie were all also trying to break into that wild category.  Considering her enormous influence on the Globes you would think she could get the DeMille at some point.

7. Nicole Kidman

Nominated for Globes and Oscars: 3 (Moulin Rouge!, The Hours, Rabbit Hole)
Nominated for Just Oscar: 0
Nominated for Just Globes: 6 (Billy Bathgate, To Die For, The Others, Cold Mountain, Birth, The Paperboy)
Winner? 1 Oscar (The Hours) and 3 Globes (To Die For, Moulin Rouge!, The Hours)
Closest She Got to Another: Cold Mountain or The Paperboy

With actresses that aren't named Meryl, Oscar frequently forgets that they exist once they've won their trophy.  Think of how many women have done interesting work that was looked over for years, perhaps forever, after they won their Oscars.  Kidman, at least up until Rabbit Hole (which, despite it being the best of the year, seems like a sort of fourth or fifth slot nomination rather than one the Academy actively pursued).  She was obviously in the running for Cold Mountain, though the 2003 Best Actress race is one that I think we all can agree was Oscar (thankfully) thinking outside of the box, so it's difficult to gage where the more standard nominations like Kidman would have fallen into place.  The Paperboy was definitely outside of the box, and Jacki Weaver clearly upset some frontrunner, though I partially think it was Maggie Smith for Best Exotic who was in sixth place rather than Kidman (who knows though-throw in Ann Dowd and those four women had to have been separated by single-digits).

6. Leonardo DiCaprio
Nominated for Globes and Oscars: 3 (What's Eating Gilbert Grape, The Aviator, The Departed)
Nominated for Just Oscar: 0
Nominated for Just Globes: 6 (Titanic, Catch Me If You Can, The Departed, Revolutionary Road, J. Edgar, Django Unchained)
Winner?: No Oscars, but he won the Globe for The Aviator
Closest He Got to Another: Django Unchained

Look at the spread of time that DiCaprio has wracked up nine nominations.  Over the course of fifteen years, he scored nine Globe nominations, and three led to Oscar.  That's a stunningly low conversion rate, particularly when you consider that he has never been nominated in a comedy.  Part of his problem is that the Oscars don't care for younger men-DiCaprio has not yet turned forty, whcih is when the Oscars really start paying attention for men, but some of these are just odd, particularly Django.  Considering that Waltz was a lead and Arkin was on autopilot (and Waltz, oddly enough, was not a sure thing at the Oscars), had DiCaprio been able to trounce him and get into the race, he likely would have won taking on four previous winners.  It seems deeply apparent that at some point DiCaprio is going to pull a Paul Newman and win the big trophy after his golden boy looks have faded, but clearly the Globes are going to rub their "we honored him first" at Oscar for the time being.


5. Johnny Depp
Nominated for Globes and Oscars: 3 (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Finding Neverland, Sweeney Todd)
Nominated for Just Oscar: 0
Nominated for Just Globes: 7 (Edward Scissorhands, Benny & Joon, Ed Wood, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, The Tourist, Alice in Wonderland)
Winner?  No Oscars, but one Globe for Sweeney Todd (though sadly he won during the Writer's Strike, so instead of Depp accepting we had to sit through Billy Bush prattling)
Closest He Got to Another: The Tourist...just kidding, probably Ed Wood (though admittedly none of these were super close)

Depp seems content to be without an Oscar indefinitely at this point, as his constant, garish cartoons that Tim Burton has dreamt up keep him from getting back to the comedic brilliance that he hit in Pirates.  It's worth noting that with the exception of Finding Neverland (which did gain him an Oscar nod), he's never been nominated in the drama category, which puts him in a situation where he's rarely going to be nominated for an Oscar based off of Globes love (the comedy category, especially for men, is usually a slate of broken dreams for those HFPA-nominees with Dolby-aspirations).  Of the ten on this list, he's the one I see moving up the most frequently in the future, as his star status is still huge, getting him Globe attention and the Globes, oftentimes a bit pressed for Comedy nominees, go with the big hits rather than the critical ones on a regular basis (can't you see him landing for the cringe-worthy Lone Ranger?).

4. Barbra Streisand
Nominated for Globes and Oscars: 2 (Funny Girl, The Way We Were)
Nominated for Just Oscar: 0
Nominated for Just Globes: 8 (Hello, Dolly!, The Owl and the Pussycat, Funny Lady, A Star is Born, Yentl, Nuts, The Mirror Has Two Faces)
Winner?: 1 Oscar (Funny Girl) and 2 Globes (Funny Girl, A Star is Born)
Closest She Got to Another: Babs usually gets closer behind the camera when she misses, but my best guess would be Yentl.

Yes, before anyone says anything I am aware that Streisand has been nominated for directing, producing, and song-writing in her long awards career with these two bodies, but this, as I mentioned above, is limited to acting nominations only.  Even then, Streisand, who is treasured by the Globes, comes ahead by eight.  She and Hawn are the only two people on this list to have only two acting nominations with the Oscars, and like Hawn, Streisand won these nominations predominantly for comedies or musicals.  Streisand has a long history with the Oscars, and has been fairly vocal about her inability to be nominated for directing for Yentl or The Prince of Tides, so it's actually quite overlooked how frequenty she's missed in the acting categories.  She was probably in sixth or seventh place for Yentl (but based on the strength of the eventual Oscar nominees, wasn't a major contender).  And of course, as she made a film in 1975 that was somewhat noteworthy, she was part of the conversation in that weirdest of Best Actress years, though probably not to the extent that Hawn was.

3. Meryl Streep
Nominated for Globes and Oscars:15 (The Deer Hunter, Kramer vs. Kramer, The French Lieutenant's Woman, Sophie's Choice, Silkwood, Out of Africa, A Cry in the Dark, Postcards from the Edge, The Bridges of Madison County, One True Thing, Music of the Heart, Adaptation, The Devil Wears Prada, Doubt, Julie and Julia, The Iron Lady)
Nominated for Just Oscar: 1 (Ironweed)
Nominated for Just Globes: 8 (She-Devil, Death Becomes Her, The River Wild, Marvin's Room, The Hours, The Manchurian Candidate, Mamma Mia!, It's Complicated, Hope Springs)
Winner?: 3 Oscars (Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie's Choice, The Iron Lady) and 7 Globes (Kramer vs. Kramer, The French Lieutenant's Woman, Sophie's Choice, Adaptation, The Devil Wears Prada, Julie and Julia, The Iron Lady)
Closest She Got to Another: Hmm...probably The River Wild or The Hours

Yes, Virginia, there is someone who loves Meryl more than the Oscars, and it is the HFPA.  Streep, despite seventeen Oscar nominations, has managed to pull off another eight Globe nominations that Oscar didn't cite.  It's worth noting that Mamma Mia and It's Complicated couldn't land her Oscar nominations, as she was already nominated (the Oscars limit their actors to one performance per category, the Globes do not).  Meryl gets the occasional Globes-loving-celebrities sorts of nomination where it seems more about the person having a film out than about the performance (She-Devil, anyone?), but I can see a few films here where she was clearly making a play with Oscar.  The Manchurian Candidate I distinctly remember as part of the conversation, though people were divided on the remake.  The Hours she was obviously in sixth place, but that Best Actress race was impenetrable (it's hard to say who was in sixth place, as they were all so obviously going to be nominated).  I think, therefore, the closest she got was for her surprise nomination for The River Wild.  Meryl kind of came out of nowhere to get the nomination, and then once she became part of the conversation and I have a feeling she almost landed her nomination (in the same way that she got her fifth place nod for Music of the Heart over Reese Witherspoon and Sigourney Weaver).

2. Jack Lemmon
Nominated for Globes and Oscars: 7 (Some Like it Hot, The Apartment, Days of Wine and Roses, Save the Tiger, The China Syndrome, Tribute, Missing)
Nominated for Just Oscar: 1 (Mister Roberts)
Nominated for Just Globes: 9 (Under the Yum Yum Tree, Irma la Douce, The Great Race, The Odd Couple, The Out of Towners, Avanti!, The Front Page, That's Life!, Dad)
Winner?: 2 Oscars (Mister Roberts, Save the Tiger) and 3 Golden Globes (Some Like it Hot, The Apartment, Avanti!)
Closest He Got to Another: Dad?

Lemmon for years held the title of the most-nominated actor at the Globes (until Meryl took the title, like she is wont to do).  Though he is one of the rare comedic actors to make a significant impression on Oscar, there was still plenty of room for him to score at the Globes for his many comedies of the 1960's and 1970's.  Looking at the nine films that he didn't get nominated for, none really scream out as odd that the Oscars didn't nominate him-The Odd Couple is a classic, but one where he shared the lead and likely split the vote with his longtime costar Walter Matthau.  I don't know enough about the 1989 acting race to make a guess, but based off most years, a nomination for Best Actor in a Drama (the only time he missed with Oscar but got in at the Globes in that category) is usually a tip of someone making a play for the Oscar, though with Al Pacino and Jack Nicholson also Globe-nominated for memorable roles, I can't be sure (I'd love some thoughts in the comments for those who remember that year's Oscars).

1. Shirley MacLaine
Nominated for Globes and Oscars: 4 (Some Came Running, The Apartment, Irma la Douce, Terms of Endearment)
Nominated for Just Oscar: 1 (The Turning Point)
Nominated for Just Globes: 10 (Ask Any Girl, The Children's Hour, Gambit, Woman Times Seven, Sweet Charity, Being There, Madame Sousatzka, Postcards from the Edge, Used People, Guarding Tess, In Her Shoes)
Winner?: 1 Oscar (Terms of Endearment) and 4 Globes (The Apartment, Irma la Douce, Terms of Endearment, Madame Sousatzka)
Closest She Got to Another: Postcards from the Edge, Being There, Madame Sousatzka...let's discuss.

Shirley MacLaine is one of the best actors who doesn't instantly come up on lists of the greatest actors.  Sure, you get to her eventually (as do most life achievement awards bodies, the Kennedy Center Honors being the strange and remaining holdout), but she's not Streep, Nicholson, de Niro instant.  She also has a weird history with the Oscars.  Despite five nominations (solid) in four different decades (damn impressive), you could make a very legitimate argument that the number should be considerably higher.  How many actors, especially high-name actors, miss out on performances like Being There (getting bumped for Marsha Mason in a fairly one-note role?) or Postcards from the Edge (again, I liked Diane Ladd in Wild at Heart, but MacLaine is much more in their wheelhouse)?  And MacLaine is one of only six actors to have won the Drama lead Globe and then not get nominated for an Oscar (oddly enough, our leader in the other Globes countdown, Jim Carrey, is one of the remaining six).  Is it perhaps MacLaine's politics that turns off the Academy (the Globes seem to court controversy a bit more)?  Whatever the reason, it's a weird circumstance and one worthy of discussion  (especially since this is one of the only film nomination awards lists where someone beats Meryl)!  Theorize in the comments, and also on which of these actors perhaps got the closest to either going up (Globe snubs-we know they happen) or down (Oscar snubs-the weirdest of the Top 10 for me is Pacino in Godfather III, but I'd love your thoughts!)

OVP: The Fortune Cookie (1966)

Film: The Fortune Cookie (1966)
Stars: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ron Rich, Judi West, Cliff Osmond
Director: Billy Wilder
Oscar History: 4 nominations/1 win (Best Supporting Actor-Walter Matthau*, Art Direction, Cinematography, Original Screenplay)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

Few comic pairs have lit up the screen quite like Lemmon and Matthau.  I mean, how can they be both the Odd Couple AND Grumpy Old Men, and still have room for a half dozen other films.  Truly legends, and legends have to begin somewhere, so here we have it-the first of their eleven pairings together onscreen, The Fortune Cookie.

It seems appropriate that they start in the world of Billy Wilder, and of course, in the world of comedy, and in this case, in a world where they don't particularly get along well.  Lemmon plays a down-on-his-luck schmo named Harry Hinkle (then again, when did Lemmon play anything other than an affable loser?) who gets pummeled at a Cleveland Browns football game and is rushed to the hospital.  Matthau, as a shady trial attorney named Willie (who also happens to be Harry's brother-in-law), smells money in the water and tries to extort a settlement from the NFL, despite Hinkle's lack of injuries.  At first Harry doesn't want to go along with it, but when he thinks that it'll bring back his ex-wife (West), he decides to play along with Willie's plan.

The film, though a comedy, has a moral message behind it (as most Wilder films do), but it's one you see a mile away and it deters a bit from an otherwise sharp script.  We know that eventually they will be found out and that Harry will do the right thing and confess, and dump his gold-digger ex-wife and befriend the football player who pummeled him (Rich), who is so racked with guilt that he develops a drinking problem (an oddly dark side story for a comedy, but what can you expect from Wilder-I mean, The Apartment's second half is about a suicide attempt).  But the delivery's the thing with Wilder's rather predictable scripts (the twists and turns of Sunset Blvd. being the obvious exception, and that's even with him telling us the main character is dead in the opening scenes), and we get a delicious delivery.  The chemistry between Lemmon and Matthau is magic-there's no cliched idea that they can't sell as if you're seeing it for the first time (think of all of the pratfalls and constant interactions with Hinkle's constantly ballistic mother in the hands of less skilled comedians).  It should be said that the balance between the two isn't quite right-even though he typically played the straight man and is therefore already at a disadvantage, it's hard to spend much time on Lemmon when Matthau is at his absolute best onscreen.

Though the designation of Matthau as supporting is quite questionable (he's not onscreen nearly as much as Lemmon, but this is very much a two-man show), that doesn't stop him from getting a very deserved Academy Award for his performance.  Matthau, in my opinion so far in their filmographies, has always been the more limited of the two actors (though this film is starting to improve my estimation of him).  Whereas Lemmon could be equally adept at comedy and drama, Matthau always seemed to be playing that same character-a curmudgeon of the highest order.  So it was lovely seeing him here-always on, a first-rate charmer and a believable con man.  Every single one of Wilder and Diamond's lines he crackles for all its worth.  He's helped by a first-rate pair of writers, sure, but this is more than just a fine script-this is someone who understands the timing of a joke, particularly when he always needs to be "on."  Lemmon received barely a mention in awards, whether Oscar or otherwise and while he would be the more beloved (and awards-friendly) of the two in the years to come, Matthau shines like few other comedic performers of the 1960's.  In a film about football, he scored the touchdown.

The other nominations weren't quite as sensational-though good, Wilder and Diamond had done better, and can't compete with the near perfection of the Blow-Up script.  The Cinematography and Art Direction are fine, but nothing to write home regarding.  They likely were nominated not so much due to their excellence, but because this was the last year that they split the categories between B&W and Color, and as this was 1966, B&W films were hardly in vogue.  Even so, the Academy got the one trophy they handed over to the film right.

And now, after our six-film weekend together-what are your thoughts on this final film before the work week begins?  Do you have a favorite Lemmon/Matthau outing?  And do you agree with me that Walter Matthau is the clear choice to win the trophy, or are you more of the camp of George Segal or James Mason?  Click the comments button and share!