OVP: The Towering Inferno (1974)

Film: The Towering Inferno (1974)

Stars: Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Susan Blakely, Richard Chamberlain, Jennifer Jones, OJ Simpson, Robert Vaughn, Robert Wagner, Susan Flannery, Jack Collins

Director: John Guillermin

Oscar History: 7 nominations/3 wins (Best Picture, Supporting Actor-Fred Astaire, Art Direction, Cinematography*, Film Editing*, Score, Song, Sound)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2026 Saturdays with the Stars series, we are looking at the men & women who created the Boom!-Pow!-Bang! action films that would come to dominate the Blockbuster Era of cinema.  This month, our focus is on Steve McQueen: click here to learn more about Mr. McQueen (and why I picked him), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Steve McQueen's career hit its financial peak in 1974, when he starred with Paul Newman in today's film The Towering Inferno.  At this point, Newman & McQueen were two of the biggest names in movies, and there were quite a few arguments over who would get top billing in the picture (ultimately it was a draw, with McQueen's name first but Newman's name higher), but after this both would suffer career lulls.  Newman would rebound eventually in the 1980's with films like The Verdict and The Color of Money, the latter winning him his only competitive Oscar, but McQueen would never regain this position.  He'd make an ill-fated Ibsen film in 1978 (one that would basically disappear from public consciousness), and then a pair of pictures in 1980 (Tom Horn and The Hunter), both decent-sized hits that might have hallmarked a comeback, but that wasn't to be.  Just over three months after the release of The Hunter, Steve McQueen would be dead.

(Spoilers Ahead) But before we get into that, let's get into the height of his career, at least commercially.  The Towering Inferno was a landmark movie in terms of its box office in 1974.  In the previous years, films like Airport and The Poseidon Adventure had found a formula for success-put a bunch of famous stars, including at least a few studio system legends that can scoop up a supporting acting Oscar nomination, and place them in an insane disaster situation, one that will have at least a few of them die, but the audience can look on in horror as we wonder who from this insanely-stacked call sheet might be safe.  This film is no less than these, and arguably has the starriest cast  of the bunch, but is much more in the vein of Airport (which I did not enjoy) than The Poseidon Adventure (which I did enjoy, in large part due to Shelley Winters' solid work).  The film has the tallest building in the world on fire, and all of our characters, including architect Newman and firefighter McQueen, fighting to stay alive as more-and-more paths to the ground floor are forfeited.  Along the way, some live (including, surprisingly, conman Fred Astaire), and some die, most shockingly Jennifer Jones, who in a morbid twist would be flung from the top of a giant building in the movie two years before her daughter would commit suicide in exactly the same way.

If only the movie was any good.  Technically, this is impressive-the set design, effects, and especially the stunt work are out-of-this-world, but the film spends no time trying to develop the characters, giving us two-dimensional feats from genuinely talented actors.  It's not like someone like Faye Dunaway or Paul Newman can't add a bit of three-dimensionality to their work, but there's no call for it.  Our star of the month, Steve McQueen, feels almost ancillary to the plot of the picture even as he's supposed to be the hero.  Fred Astaire would receive his only competitive acting Oscar nomination for this movie, and man is it unnecessary-he barely has anything to do, other than shout for a dead Jennifer Jones toward the end of the picture.  It feels weird to live in a world where Fred Astaire (whom I love) never got a competitive acting nomination, but, like...over John Cazale in The Godfather, Part II or John Huston in Chinatown...let's not be ridiculous here.

As I said above, Steve McQueen would disappear from movies after this, having a bit of a nomad period where he just went out into the country in a motor home, in the process turning down parts in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Apocalypse Now that might've dramatically changed his legacy.  But his health by the late 1970's was in terrible shape, and he developed mesothelioma (likely due to asbestos exposure from his time in the Marines).  The National Enquirer, at that point most famous for its ongoing coverage of the death of Elvis Presley rather than the right-wing attack ads that it would become known for to modern supermarket shoppers, broke the story that McQueen was dying shortly before his death (he'd been trying to keep it a secret), and McQueen attempted a number of experimental procedures, including a surgery to remove a tumor from his liver in Mexico, a procedure he couldn't have performed in the United States because no doctor would do it (since it would kill him).  12 hours into the surgery, the American doctors were proven correct, and Steve McQueen died at the age of only 50 from a heart attack.

Next month, we're going to talk about a man who was good friends with McQueen, even if they also had something of a professional rivalry during McQueen's early stardom.  Like McQueen, he also would die young, but unlike McQueen, that death would cement his legacy in a way that would in many ways outlast any films he made in life...and would become the source of near constant conspiracy theory in the decades to come, in ways that would haunt his family for generations.

OVP: The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)

Film: The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)

Stars: Steve McQueen, Faye Dunaway, Paul Burke, Jack Weston

Director: Norman Jewison

Oscar History: 2 nominations/1 win (Best Original Song-"The Windmills of Your Mind," Score)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2026 Saturdays with the Stars series, we are looking at the men & women who created the Boom!-Pow!-Bang! action films that would come to dominate the Blockbuster Era of cinema.  This month, our focus is on Steve McQueen: click here to learn more about Mr. McQueen (and why I picked him), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Coming off of the success of The Cincinnati Kid, for the rest of the 1960's, you'd be hard-pressed to find a film actor who was more consistently bankable and electric than Steve McQueen.  In 1966, he won his first (and only) Academy Award nomination for The Sand Pebbles, a commercial triumph which got 8 nominations in total (McQueen would lose to Paul Scofield for A Man for All Seasons).  But it was in 1968 that he arguably hit his peak.  The most famous film of his career came out that year, the action flick Bullitt, which would be considered by many to be the greatest action film ever made (I liked it, but am not going to be quite that superfluous).  But I'd already seen that film, and with the Saturdays with the Stars, we stick entirely with movies I haven't seen of these actors, so we're going to focus on the other Oscar-winning film that McQueen made in 1968, a movie that was more polarizing with critics but nonetheless continued his trend of printing money: The Thomas Crown Affair.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is odd, and I'm going to start that right out because the plot is a bit thin.  It essentially follows Thomas Crown (McQueen), a bored millionaire who recruits a bunch of men (who know neither him nor their conspirators) to rob a bank, which they do successfully (and somewhat amusingly) in the film's opening moments.  It then shifts gears, with us meeting Vicki Anderson (Dunaway), a breathtaking blonde who is also clever, and who quickly figures out that Crown surely robbed the bank.  But there's a problem-there's no evidence other than common sense (and intuition), and both Crown & Vicki are mad horny for each other.  So Vicki is torn into a game of cat-and-mouse, with her seemingly closing in on him...all the while not realizing that she's getting played.  The film ends with Crown attempting another robbery, one that works perfectly and that he's confessed to Vicki already, implying to her that she loves him too much to stop him.  When she does, by showing up in the cemetery, she realizes that he did not, in fact, trust her, giving her the money from the second bank robbery for sport (along with his spectacular navy blue Rolls Royce), while he jets off to anonymity with the money from the first robbery.

Like I said, the plot doesn't resonate in a big way.  As I explained it above, it's quite straightforward, but doesn't read that way when you're watching the movie.  This is in part because it's severely underwritten-we don't get a lot of sense of who these characters are out of context with each other.  McQueen's Crown is essentially a thrill-seeker, a playboy, but we don't get much more.  Meanwhile, the only thing we learn about Dunaway's Vicki is that she doesn't play by the rules, which of course means that to all of the men around her, she's portrayed as a bitch (even though most of her best traits are lauded in Crown).  It's frustrating, and it feels stretched, like we're trying to make an excuse for this movie to exist.

But you see a 4-star review for a reason, and that's because it looks incredible.  The cars, the beaches, the costumes, the grand camerawork, it's all sublime.  There is a scene where Dunaway & McQueen, both just impossibly sexy, play the randiest game of chess you can ever imagine, us darting from his icy blue eyes to her pillow lips, each of them thumbing the pieces as if they're taking off each other's clothes.  Combined with a grand score, and the classic "Windmills of Your Mind" (one of the best movie songs of all time), it all adds up to film being a visual medium: who cares if none of it makes all that much sense when you are just looking for a cigarette to light afterward.

OVP: Norma Rae (1979)

Film: Norma Rae (1979)

Stars: Sally Field, Ron Leibman, Beau Bridges, Pat Hingle, Barbara Baxley

Director: Martin Ritt

Oscar History: 4 nominations/2 wins (Best Picture, Actress-Sally Field*, Adapted Screenplay, Original Song-"It Goes Like It Goes"*)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2024 Saturdays with the Stars series, we are looking at the women who were once crowned as "America's Sweethearts" and the careers that inspired that title (and what happened when they eventually lost it to a new generation).  This month, our focus is on Sally Field: click here to learn more about Ms. Field (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Sally Field's career began in television, and was inspired by another America's Sweetheart we profiled this year, Sandra Dee.  Field was the titular girl-next door in the television version of Gidget, but the show only lasted one season due to poor ratings (it would do better in syndication).  Field then took on what would end up being the biggest early success of her career and a setback for Field in the long run, playing Sister Bertrille in The Flying Nun, a hit for ABC that lasted three seasons.  Field couldn't escape the role, though, and was cast in a series of cutesy parts and girl-next-door roles.  It's possible that this is where Field would've stayed, but under the mentorship of Lee Strasberg (and thanks to the insistence of Joanne Woodward, her costar), she was able to land the lead role in Sybil, a TV movie that won her acclaim and an Emmy Award (beating not just Woodward, but other "reputable" actresses like Jane Alexander & Julie Harris).  Field alternated in the late 1970's between commercial fare like the box office smash Smokey and the Bandit and serious-minded cinema, including today's film, which won her her first Oscar, Norma Rae.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie takes place in a southern community (it's never confirmed, but you get an Alabama/Mississippi vibe from the surroundings), where Norma Rae Wilson (Field) works at a cotton mill and is frequently speaking out to management about the treatment of the workers, particularly her parents, who also work at the mill.  She meets a union organizer named Reuben (Leibman), who is pushy but well-informed, and trying to get the textile mill to unionize to fight back against the low wages & unfair treatment.  During this time, she meets and marries Sonny (Bridges), a sweet-but-simple (think himbo energy) coworker of hers, and they combine their families.  Norma Rae eventually joins Reuben's crusade, fighting for union rights for the textile workers, even though it's putting her life and reputation at risk.  Despite pitfalls, including a lot of pain to her marriage and her father dying from exhaustion, she is able to create the union, and hopefully in the process make her town better.

There aren't a lot of Best Actress-winning performances that I've never seen (I checked-I've caught 88% of the winners at this point), and this is one of the most-heralded that I have left.  I was curious how it would abide, and I was pleasantly surprised.  Field is excellent as Norma Rae.  I figured she'd play against type, trying still to shed the Flying Nun veneer, but she also grounds this work.  Her Norma Rae is not everything you'd expect.  She's defiant, but also quite charming and gregarious...it makes sense that a union organizer would be someone people genuinely like (otherwise why would they join her...JD Vance aside, politicians tend to be likable), but that doesn't usually happen in movies like this.  She grounds her work, making her feel like someone who gets things wrong, but isn't ashamed of being a sinner.  I think she takes this in different ways that other actresses would've and indeed Field wasn't the first choice here.  Jane Fonda, Jill Clayburgh, and Marsha Mason all turned down the role...and all famously lost at the Oscars to Field when she beat them (something that had to particularly sting for Clayburgh & Mason, who would never win an Academy Award).

The movie's most famous scene is the one where Field stands up in the factory, and holds up a placard saying "UNION" in big bold letters.  I have seen this still picture so frequently, and yet the actual scene itself played fresh.  Again, this is a testament to the filmmakers who understand subtlety, but the way that it slowly, steadily, uses the sound design of each machine turning off, the workers taking a stand next to her as they understand she's giving up everything to give them a better life, and it's time for them to stand with her, is incredibly moving.  The film is very much a product of the 1970's (the lovely song theme, the way the camera wants to show realism, the sexual politics at play), but that scene with the "UNION" is for all-time, a reminder that we never can give up the fight to ensure that the dignity of work is protected and respected.

OVP: Original Song (1999)

OVP: Best Original Song (1999)

The Nominees Were...

"Blame Canada" Music & Lyric by Trey Parker & Marc Shaiman (South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut)

"Music of My Heart," Music & Lyric by Diane Warren (Music of the Heart)

"Save Me," Music & Lyric by Aimee Mann (Magnolia)

"When She Loved Me," Music & Lyric by Randy Newman (Toy Story 2)

"You'll Be in My Heart," Music & Lyric by Phil Collins (Tarzan)

My Thoughts: 1999 represented a convergence of the old and the new when it came to the movies.  After a decade of movie star-driven projects (really the last great decade of the movie star, as Denzel, Julia, both Tom's, Sandra, Jim, & Will were basically deities during this era), we were given a new stage in filmmaking.  New franchises that would dominate the global landscape for the next few decades (The Matrix and its clones, Star Wars, Toy Story) were added, while inventive films ranging in style from Run Lola Run to The Blair Witch Project were gaining pages in trade publications.  This is best encapsulated in the much-discussed Best Original Song category of the year, a mix of Academy traditionalism and new-style, more relevant music.

Trey Parker spent years mocking Phil Collins for this race, basically talking about how bad it was that he had to lose to him (specifically) in this contest, so let's start with those two since anyone who was alive for this ceremony knows that was where the press was focused.  Collins' music in Tarzan is, by my estimate, quite good, even if it is sentimental, and is more of an attempt to modernize Alan Menken's Disney approach with a sound that was at least a decade old in 1999.  Part of the problem with this nomination is that it's the least of the four songs that Collins sings in the movie; "Two Worlds," "Son of Man" and especially "Strangers Like Me" are all better than "You'll Be In My Heart," a song that is more incorporated into the picture (it's one of only two songs in the score actually sung by a character, which is normally the approach in a musical), but is more schmaltzy and a bit drippy.  It's not bad music, but it's certainly pretty square.

It doesn't help Collins that Parker was correct-his score was better.  "Blame Canada" (sung with much glee by Robin Williams at the ceremony) is one of many really good songs from South Park, including "La Resistance" and "Uncle Fucker" (can you imagine if they had nominated that instead?!?).  It's funny, very much in the tradition of a grand Hollywood musical number (save for the profanity), and a clever piece of music.  I frequently criticize the modern push to nominate joke songs in these categories (a recent example of this was "I'm Just Ken," a fun scene but a middling tune), but this isn't the case for "Blame Canada"-it just works, and stands apart as a hummable ditty.

Parker didn't bogart all of the cool points in this race, though.  In 1999, Aimee Mann was also getting a lot of heat for her score to the Magnolia soundtrack.  "Save Me" is, along with "Wise Up" (which was ineligible) a really marvelous bit of music, capturing the mood of Paul Thomas Anderson's film (why doesn't he use songs in more movies?), and while it doesn't get the central showpiece moment that "Wise Up" does in terms of the plot, it works really well within the picture's message of lost souls.  This is a case where Mann was never going to win in 1999 (it was absolutely going to one of the Disney films), but the song has been so revered in the years since it sometimes gets talked about as a serious contender for the win...which it should've been.

Randy Newman's frequently one-note songs have been nominated for countless Oscars, with Newman rivaling Diane Warren (also nominated this year, one of 4 times they have been in the same category against each other) in terms of Oscar going for the bland along with the great.  This is a case of the great, though.  Newman doesn't sing it (instead, handing it to chanteuse-of-the-moment Sarah MacLachlan), and that makes all of the difference.  "When She Loved Me" works perfectly (establishing a new, sad chapter in another lost toy, one that would be borrowed from in the two sequels), and giving us all of the feels with only a modicum of the schmaltz.  Really well done; had Newman won for this, it would've aged much better than his actual victories.

Despite two iconic Disney songs, a beloved indie hit, and the anthem of a TV juggernaut, if you went solely by the Billboard charts, the biggest song on this list was in fact our final one, "Music of My Heart" which was a #2 Billboard smash, and proof that at one point, Diane Warren's name on a song didn't just mean Oscar trivia, but big radio play.  The song, sung by N Sync, is dreadful.  I like Diane Warren in some capacities (we've only covered 2000-23 for our My Ballot awards, and I've already given her a Silver Medal. so calm down if you're a fan), but this isn't it.  This is schmaltzy, and takes the biggest boy band in the world at the time, and slows it down into something interchangeable with a performance you'd see at a high school talent show.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Golden Globes went with "You'll Be in My Heart" against Oscar-blessed "Save Me" and "When She Loved Me," as well as "Beautiful Stranger" from Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (sung by Madonna, yet another Madonna song that the Globes loved but Oscar ignored) and "How Can I Not Love You" from Anna and the King (sung by Joy Enriquez).  The Grammys have different eligibility windows than the Oscars, and so in the 2000 ceremony they nominated "Beautiful Stranger" (it won) as well as "Music of My Heart," and "You'll Be in My Heart" while at the 2001 ceremony Randy Newman won for "When She Loved Me" against two other 1999 songs-"Save Me" and "The Great Beyond" (an REM song from Man on the Moon).  In sixth place...I think this is maybe the closest that Madonna ever got.  There are other tunes to consider (the ubiquitous Smash Mouth Top 10 hit "All Star" was eligible this year from Mystery Men, as was Garbage's soulful "The World is Not Enough" from the identically-titled James Bond film), but Madonna circa 1999 was in the middle of a renaissance, and toward the end of her pop dominance...if she was going to make it with Oscar, this was probably the time.

Songs I Would Have Nominated: Save for N Sync, this is a really good lineup, and part of the reason it invites so much debate is that there is more than one answer to who should've won.  But if I was going to make my own list, I would've kept Garbage's tune in the conversation.  A really dark song, elegantly crooned by Shirley Manson, it's one of the better Pierce Brosnan Bond themes.

Oscar’s Choice: Like I said, this was a battle between the two Disney animated films, and Phil Collins came out on top (Newman would win just two years later, ending his long-standing losing streak with the Oscars rather humorously with the opening lines "I don't want your pity").

My Choice: Like I said, a great lineup, but it's impossible for me to deny "Save Me" as the winner.  It's one of my favorite songs, and has been since I saw the movie-it works too well in the movie for me to deny it.  Behind it, I think "When She Loved Me" might have more of a challenge against other South Park songs (still putting the finishing touches on my lineup there for the My Ballots), but against "Blame Canada" I think it comes out on top.  Behind these two, we'll go Tarzan next and finish with Music of the Heart.

Those are my thoughts-how about yours?  Do you want to sit and feel your feelings with Magnolia, or would you rather tap your toes with Tarzan?  Is this the best song that Randy Newman was ever nominated for, and would he have gotten a South Park mocking him if he'd won?  And was this the closest that Madonna ever got to an Oscar nomination?  Share your thoughts below!

Also in 1999: Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously, in 1999

Past Best Original Song Contests: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

OVP: Tammy and the Bachelor (1957)

Film: Tammy and the Bachelor (1957)

Stars: Debbie Reynolds, Leslie Nielsen, Walter Brennan, Mildred Natwick, Fay Wray

Director: Joseph Pevney

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Original Song-"Tammy")

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2024 Saturdays with the Stars series, we are looking at the women who were once crowned as "America's Sweethearts" and the careers that inspired that title (and what happened when they eventually lost it to a new generation).  This month, our focus is on Debbie Reynolds: click here to learn more about Ms. Reynolds (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Debbie Reynolds was a household name for pretty much the entire run of the 1950's & 60's after her time in Singin in the Rain, but similar to last month's star Doris Day, she didn't get to that point solely through the movies.  Today's film is Tammy and the Bachelor, a film series that didn't actually feature Reynolds in the subsequent films (she would get replaced in the sequels by Sandra Dee), but did spawn a career as a recording star for Reynolds.  Anyone who watched Singin in the Rain knew that Reynolds could sing, but the title song from Tammy and the Bachelor, "Tammy," would become a massive hit song in 1957, getting her both a gold record and a Billboard #1.  While Reynolds had done live shows since the 1940's, "Tammy" opened the doors to what would end up being her longest show business legacy.  Similar to actresses as divergent as Mitzi Gaynor, Ann-Margret, Mamie van Doren, & Joey Heatherton, Reynolds would spend decades doing shows in Las Vegas & Los Angeles, frequently trotting out "Tammy" as the centerpiece of her act.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about Tammy (Reynolds), a girl who lives in the delta of Mississippi with her grandfather (Brennan).  One day a handsome man named Peter (Nielsen) crashes his plane near their houseboat, and the two of them nurse him back to health.  Tammy quickly becomes smitten with Peter, but he dismisses her, and we soon learn why-he's the young heir to a proper family fortune, and his parents want him to marry a more suitable girl.  When Tammy is forced to live with this family after her grandfather is arrested for bootlegging, this comes into crystal clear view.  Tammy starts to show not only Peter, but his parents and his aunt (played by Mildred Natwick) that living a moral, but straight-forward life is the best, and in the process Peter falls in love back with her just in the same way she has with him.

The movie plays poorly today, and I suspect wasn't that good to begin with.  A pretty young white girl lecturing about Christian morality and how people around her aren't living up to the ideals in the Bible (the way she is) would 100% be the villain today (that isn't meant to be a political statement, but it definitely is real...conservatives have a point there).  She's kind of obnoxious throughout the movie, allowing for a lot of kindness but very little grace.  The film needs more humor, or it needs a bit more sex, to make it appealing (Leslie Nielsen is definitely trying in the latter part-if you're only used to him from the Naked Gun movies, you're going to be surprised he's a total snack).

But the song is wonderful, and totally earns its Oscar nomination.  The song is sung at the beginning of the opening credits, but it most takes off when Reynolds sings it about halfway through the film, with Natwick overhearing her.  It's romantic, and is honestly part of a better movie.  I get why, in a year of Elvis Presley and Buddy Knox getting kids to dance until they dropped, this was a song that literally knocked Elvis off of the #1 position on the Billboard charts.  Though Reynolds would continue singing for the remainder of her career, this was the only #1 she'd ever achieve.

OVP: Original Song (2023)

OVP: Best Original Song (2023)

The Nominees Were...

"The Fire Inside," Music & Lyric by Diane Warren (Flamin' Hot)

"I'm Just Ken," Music & Lyric by Mark Ronson & Andrew Wyatt (Barbie)

"It Never Went Away," Music & Lyric by Jon Batiste & Dan Wilson (American Symphony)

"Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)," Music & Lyric by Scott George (Killers of the Flower Moon)

"What Was I Made For?" Music & Lyric by Billie Eilish & Finneas O'Connell (Barbie)

My Thoughts: If you asked me to magically get rid of a current Academy rule, it would undoubtedly be to wipe out the "only two songs per film" eligibility for the Best Original Song category.  This likely wouldn't change things too much.  It's possible that Encanto submits "We Don't Talk About Bruno" if they could get more nominations (and then Lin-Manuel Miranda wins his inevitable Oscar), and it's probable that La La Land breaks the all-time nominations record with "A Lovely Night" sneaking in for a third citation.  But we can be certain that Barbie gets a third nod given both the cultural impact of "Dance the Night" and the dearth of strong contenders competing with it, the category that practically could've been announced with a pink envelope it was so certain it would go to Mattel.

"What Was I Made For?", after all, not only won the Oscar and the Golden Globe, it also won Song of the Year at the Grammys, the first time since Titanic that a song from a movie won that prize.  The song is moving, and it's not an end credits song, which is impressive even if it's also not a musical number that's danced to in Barbie.  I love the way that it reads as a really serious piece of music in the film, trying to underscore Gerwig's message about feminism and the changing face of womanhood, with Eilish's wonderful vocals played for maximum effect.  Is it a little bit cheesy, particularly given that this is a pretty basic feminist message in the confines of the film?  Yes, but that doesn't mean it doesn't work.

"I'm Just Ken" opens up a different can of worms.  I am not someone who generally approves of joke songs being nominated here.  I think if you're going to get an Oscar nomination, you need to be a great piece of music AND work within your movie really well, and this only does the latter-this isn't even "Everything is Awesome" where it's so hilariously ingrained into the picture that you can't help but approve.  But Ryan Gosling's performance at the Oscars does confirm the point that it's a very effective comic framework (honestly, it worked even better at the Oscars than the film...had that performance been an option to see before the ceremony this might've won in an upset), and it's quite memorably used in the picture, especially the juxtaposition of the Ken silliness against this 80's-style rock ballad.

The rest of the nominees will not have the same cultural cache, but that doesn't mean they aren't worthy music.  "Wahzhazhe" is a really moving and encapsulating way to end Killers of the Flower Moon, showing that despite the atrocities of the film, they Osage people endured.  The music is lovely (I'm always a sucker for a good drum background, being a former percussionist), and I think Scorsese smartly situated this as sort of the anthem of the film late in the picture, giving it to the audience as something to accompany their thoughts about the movie as they left the screening.

"It Never Went Away" is another "leave the theater" sort of movie (though, unlike Killers, this is a movie that most people, including yours truly, watched on streaming).  The movie is an end credits tune (unless there's extenuating circumstances, I take away a point there), and it doesn't feel connected to the movie we've just seen.  I really didn't like American Symphony (I thought it was a disjointed picture, one without any cohesion), and while this is a good song, it's also a song that doesn't feel entwined with the movie itself.  I think ultimately what the filmmakers are trying to get at is a "triumph of the human spirit" sort of tale of love & music, but that's not what happened, and honestly I'm just glad this didn't also get into Best Documentary, because it totally would've won.

The last nomination...at this point what is there to say about the one-note songs of Diane Warren, a once-gifted pop lyricist who has now just become a punchline to Oscar fans trying to get through the truly terrible films that get her another filler nomination?  The song is another case where she find ten-thousand ways to say the title, and while some Oscar observers have pointed out (correctly) that she's gotten nominated for a lot worse, that doesn't mean this is good.  It's a dreadful, one-season sitcom-style musical number that deserved to be relegated to the forgotten annals of moviedom, not given its perch of immortality as an Oscar nominee.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Golden Globes went with "What Was I Made For?" as their victor, beating Barbie tunes "I'm Just Ken" and "Dance the Night" along with "Addicted to Romance" (She Came to Me, and yes for the Globes to nominate such an obscure movie you know the tune is by someone famous, in this case Bruce Springsteen), "Road to Freedom" (Rustin & Lenny Kravitz), and "Peaches" (The Super Mario Bros, written by many including Jack Black).  The Grammys split their eligibility over two years, and because we're doing this so early we don't know what might show up in the back-half of the year next year, but from 2023 films that were cited in the first round of the Grammy eligibility, we have the victorious "What Was I Made For?" atop "Dance the Night," "I'm Just Ken," and "Barbie World," all from the Barbie soundtrack ("Barbie World" wasn't an original song, and wouldn't have been eligible for the Oscars).  The sixth place (and honestly, it could've been as high as third place) nominee was "Dance the Night," which would've gotten a nomination from any other film, but in terms of movies that might've actually made it, you're probably looking at Kravitz's "Road to Freedom" which is the sort of mid-level ballad from a biopic that is catnip in this category.

Songs I Would Have Nominated: First, even with only two eligible slots, "Dance the Night" deserved a citation here.  What really pisses me off, though, is that we didn't see anything from Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, which was a deeply effective musical with a pantheon of great tunes, including "You Can't Catch Me Now" which was shortlisted and song by Olivia Rodrigo.  I'm confident that the Oscar producers would've happily traded the reigning pop princess and kicked out Diane Warren if they could, if only for the commercial promotions.

Oscar’s Choice: Billie Eilish and her beautiful brother Finneas become the first composers to beat Diane Warren twice at the Oscars, which means if she ever dons a Kill Bill-style jump suit, they should flee the country immediately.

My Choice: Billie & Finneas deserved the win.  Usually when a song is this dominant, there's a reason for it, and in this case it's because it's the best of the nominees.  I debated on the second place, but ultimately Killers of the Flower Moon is more effective in its picture than Ken's lament, and so I'll give it the silver.  American Symphony and then Flamin' Hot round out the category.

Those are my thoughts-how about yours?  Is everyone kind of in agreement that, even with the fun of Ken's silliness, this belonged to Billie?  Are we all completely sick of the Diane Warren nonsense, or does someone still at least appreciate it ironically?  And do you think (as I do) that "'Dance the Night" was probably in not just sixth place, but likely third in this lineup?  Share your thoughts below!

Also in 2023: Production Design, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup & Hairstyling, Previously in 2023

Past Best Original Song Contests: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022

OVP: Original Song (2000)

OVP: Best Original Song (2000)

The Nominees Were...

"A Fool in Love," Music & Lyric by Randy Newman (Meet the Parents)

"I've Seen It All," Music & Lyric by Bjork, Lars von Trier, & Sjon Sigurdsson (Dancer in the Dark)

"A Love Before Time," Music & Lyric by Jorge Calandrelli, Tan Dun, & James Schamus (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)

"My Funny Fried and Me," Music & Lyric by Sting & David Hartley (The Emperor's New Groove)

"Things Have Changed," Music & Lyric by Bob Dylan (Wonder Boys)

My Thoughts: 2000 stands out to me as a weird precipice year for Best Original Song, and I'm not entirely sure why.  I think part of it is that we have officially closed the Disney Renaissance (which would get five statues in this category in the preceding decade), and we aren't yet to the musical-dominated nominations that would overrun the 2000's.  This category does include, though, both a Disney film AND a nomination for a movie musical.  It's also a surprisingly good category, particularly given it doesn't feature any songs that have really lasted in the time since.

I sometimes feel a little bit like a pretender judging the Original Song category because I am not one of those people who knows a lot about music.  I certainly listen to music, but it's not part of my personality (I "stan" no pop stars, and the closest I'd come would be someone like Edith Piaf, which I'm aware puts me in a whole different class of homosexual).  So judging someone like Bjork, whose discography is celebrated continually by certain music fans, feels like something I should defer.  What I will say is that while I found the film good-but-depressing, the music is solid, and "I've Seen It All" is a strong scene in the picture.  In a film where it smartly leans into its musical roots by casting icons of the genre like Catherine Deneuve & Joel Grey, this one doesn't need anyone but Bjork to make it work, and set up the rest of the film.

The Emperor's New Groove is a movie that has grown on me a lot in the years that followed.  Probably my favorite of the post-Renaissance Disney pictures until...Frozen?  The music is good, and this Sting ballad is a lovely piece of music, but there are two problems with it.  First, it doesn't go with the film.  Just because it's a good song, there is too much romance & sentimentality in it for a film that has been pretty silly & filled with sarcasm (David Spade as your lead...you aren't going to get a Luca-style ending).  But the bigger problem is this isn't the best song in the movie; that would be the cheeky Tom Jones number "Perfect World," which opens the film, and is much more in the mood of the picture.  This is a common issue for Disney (Encanto had the same problem, where going for the Academy's tastes led to missing the best song in the picture), but it's hard not to feel like a missed opportunity looking at "Perfect World" compared to the actual nominee.

"Things Have Changed" is the best song in Wonder Boys, and was something of a moment for Bob Dylan at the Oscars, getting us the great trivia question of Dylan being one of only two people to have both an Oscar & a Nobel Prize (the other being George Bernard Shaw).  The film is an end credits song, so it loses a point for that, but otherwise this is great.  I love Dylan, and think even in some of his later years he's capable of pulling off great music (even if it doesn't break the barriers the way it did in the 1960's & 70's).  "Things Have Changed" is one of those songs, totally rocking hard and making you think Wonder Boys is a better movie than it is.

"Love Before Time" was also part of a trend in Chinese films that followed (like House of Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower) where the love theme of the movie was translated into a lush end credits song.  This feels like something I shouldn't take points off for, because it's sampled throughout the movie (the Lord of the Rings songs do this as well), and because it really ties well into the film's central romance.  It's melodic, and has a touch of the bitterness that the melancholy ending to the movie will give you.  It's also, it has to be said, just a fine piece of music overall, standing apart from the film as well as it incorporates into the picture.

Our final nomination is one of the many throwaway songs that Randy Newman has been nominated for through the years, especially leading up to his win the next year (he & his cousin Thomas have gotten tons of disposable nominations through the years with the Music Branch begging the larger Academy to give them a statue, the latter still being on that quest).  This isn't a good piece of music (maybe Newman's worst nomination, which is saying something?), but perhaps more damning-it's a really forgettable one.  I doubt anyone, even Newman, could sing this song from start-to-finish, and it doesn't feel all that crucial to Meet the Parents.  In a field that has a lot of strong attributes, this is the one true miss.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Golden Globes went with "Things Have Changed" over "I've Seen It All," "My Funny Friend and Me," "One in a Million" (Miss Congeniality), and "When You Come Back to Me Again" (Frequency...and yes, given you've never heard of this song or movie, this is a case of the Globes needing to invite stars to their ceremony, in this case Garth Brooks).  The Grammys have different eligibility windows, so they had the opportunity to nominate 2000 movies in two different years.  The first year, they went with nominations for "Things Have Changed" and "Independent Women Part 1" (Charlie's Angels), but neither won (Toy Story 2 took it), while the second eligibility year got "My Funny Friend and Me," "A Love Before Time," and "Win" (Men of Honor) included, but they lost to the theme song to Malcolm in the Middle.  So 2000 becomes the extremely rare year to have five nominations at the Grammys, and not get a single win.  In terms of sixth place...I'm going to assume it was none of these films, and in fact "Where Are You Christmas" from The Grinch.  The song was written by Oscar favorites James Horner & Will Jennings, as well as pop superstar Mariah Carey, and it makes its lack of nominations for any major award that much more perplexing (especially the Globes), but I think the film's strength with Oscar probably has it beating the ignored Charlie's Angels and Miss Congeniality.  Other than Destiny's Child's empowerment ballad, Faith Hill's song (played constantly on Christmas radio stations) had the longest staying power of all of these songs, at least.

Songs I Would Have Nominated: Beyonce Knowles finally received an Oscar nomination for 2021's King Richard after 15 years of desperately wanting one, but the Academy could've stopped that quest before it started had they cited her correctly for "Independent Women Part 1" from Charlie's Angels, a total smash hit that Oscar should've noticed even from a silly film.

Oscar’s Choice: Bob Dylan, almost thirty years after he was snubbed for "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," found redemption at the Oscars and won in a likely landslide for Wonder Boys.

My Choice: With one exception, a decent list, but I'm going to go with "Love Before Time" atop "Things Have Changed," the former gaining points for feeling better connected to the movie (proving the absurdity of awards shows, these songs could not be more different).  Behind them would be "I've Seen It All," "My Funny Friend and Me," and then "A Fool in Love,"

Those are my thoughts-how about yours?  Do you want to side with the comeback that Bob Dylan staged in 2000, or do you want to join me in the rapturous romance of Crouching Tiger?  How many nominations did Randy Newman actually deserve?  And do you think if it'd been Mariah Carey singing (as originally intended) and not Faith Hill that the Grinch might've made it here?  Share your thoughts below!

Also in 2000: Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2000

Past Best Original Song Contests: 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022

OVP: A Star is Born (1976)

Film: A Star is Born (1976)

Stars: Barbra Streisand, Kris Kristofferson, Gary Busey

Director: Frank Pierson

Oscar History: 4 nominations/1 win (Best Original Song-"Evergreen," Cinematography, Scoring, Sound)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 1/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2023 Saturdays with the Stars series, we are looking at the Golden Age western, and the stars who made it one of the most enduring legacies of Classical Hollywood.  This month, our focus is on Kris Kristofferson: click here to learn more about Mr. Kristofferson (and why I picked him), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Few films live in such storied annals as A Star is Born, a film that has been told 4-5 times depending on how you handle What Price Hollywood?.  It is the quintessential Hollywood story, the public name-check when we talk about the entertainment industry.  But specific to our film today, few productions have the kinds of legendary tale as that which comes from the 1976 A Star is Born, one of the most infamous film shoots in movie history.  Written by the journalist It Couple of the 1970's (John Gregory Dunne & Joan Didion), the shoot involved pretty much everyone hating each other.  Kris Kristofferson, then a huge star, hadn't been the first choice for the film (Streisand wanted Elvis Presley, who honestly would've been an interesting choice had that come about even though Kristofferson is the better actor of the two), and by the end of the production loathed both his leading lady and director Frank Pierson.  You've got Barbra Streisand having an affair with colorful 1970's mega-producer Jon Peters (who had just gotten a divorce from Lesley Ann Warren), and using her position as the most powerful person on the set to run roughshod over director Pierson, including getting final cut which may explain how the ending ends with a seven-minute long shot of Streisand.  A production where all of the cast isn't speaking (except the ones who are fucking each other), by the end of it can sometimes become a grand situation if the movie is good (look at Hell's Angels, now considered Howard Hughes' finest movie), but if it sucks, it becomes a Don't Worry Darling-style fiasco.  And A Star is Born sucks.

(Spoilers Ahead) This story is as engrained in Hollywood lore as you can get, so I don't know that I need a spoiler alert, but for those of you somehow unfamiliar, this is the story of John Norman Howard (Kristofferson), a washed-up rock star, who is more familiar with the bottle than the Billboard charts by the time the movie opens.  He meets, at a bar, a young singer named Esther Hoffman (Streisand), who is clearly a talent, and becomes smitten with her.  Eventually, he's producing one of her albums, and she's clearly headed to the top of the charts, and they even get married.  But there's a problem-John's demons are not only still there, but they're exacerbated by his jealousy over his wife's success, and she wants him to join in on it, rather than letting him slip into the background or not fight for what he's got.  In the end, this is the marriage (and John's) undoing, as he dies in a drunk driving accident, though unlike some of the other movies, it's not entirely clear that this is intentional or not.  Esther is now alone, but a fully-transcendent star, one who understands that she'll forever be linked with the man who fell before her.

This has been told very well (Judy Garland, Constance Bennett), solidly (Janet Gaynor), and poorly (Lady Gaga) before.  But this is the worst of the versions, because even with the others, specifically 2018's (I don't think Lady Gaga has proven capable of being a dramatic actress, and I think she's bad in the movie when she's not singing, but she gets coverage because Bradley Cooper is good and also because Gaga is a strong singer who gets one truly fantastic scene with "Shallow") there was something crackling between the two lead actors.  Gaga & Cooper, March & Gaynor, and especially Mason & Garland...there's heat.  But this film has zilch sexual chemistry between Streisand & Kristofferson, to the point where you genuinely don't understand why he fell for her.  This makes the film over-long, boring, and honestly...the leads give bad performances, particularly Streisand, who plays Esther less as an organic character onscreen and more as Barbra Streisand as herself.  Nothing about this works; honestly, I read a comment about how this feels an hour longer than the Garland version even though it's much shorter, and that summarizes my feelings exactly.

The film won four Oscar nominations, but it only earned one of them.  The sound is fine, but not spectacular (the concert scenes in Nashville a year earlier did a much better job of giving you a sense of talking at a performance, and of framing the musical numbers), and the cinematography is a similar situation, needlessly glossy & framed in a way that stops it from being romantic or creative.  The nomination for Best Scoring makes sense given the sales on the soundtrack were insane (I'm surprised it didn't win), but with one exception, none of the songs are either any good or performed organically-unlike Gaga's A Star is Born (where Gaga as a songwriter wrote plausible hits), it's not clear why the public latched onto either John or Esther as performers...save for "Evergreen."  One of the most iconic numbers of Streisand's discography, the song becomes the love theme for the movie, and while the movie's romantic overtones are never believable, lost in a song "as soft as an easy chair" you'd be forgiven for assuming this is a classic (because "Evergreen" is).

OVP: The Horse Whisperer (1998)

Film: The Horse Whisperer (1998)

Stars: Robert Redford, Kristin Scott Thomas, Sam Neill, Dianne Wiest, Scarlett Johnasson, Chris Cooper

Director: Robert Redford

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Original Song-"A Soft Place to Fall")

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2023 Saturdays with the Stars series, we are looking at the Golden Age western, and the stars who made it one of the most enduring legacies of Classical Hollywood.  This month, our focus is on Robert Redford: click here to learn more about Mr. Redford (and why I picked him), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Last week we talked a little bit about how Robert Redford was getting beyond his pretty boy roots, and beyond acting all-together by founding the Sundance Film Festival, today the most important film festival in the United States.  But Redford quickly went from highlighting the films of others to making his own in 1980, with the premiere of Ordinary People, his landmark debut which won the Best Picture & Director actors, making Redford one of the only directors to win for his film debut.  Redford would continue acting in the decades that followed, but many of his most remembered films from this time period were movies he directed like A River Runs Through It (which I love) and Quiz Show.  Because he didn't star in these movies, this is not my opportunity to watch Ordinary People for the first time (somehow, it is one of the only Best Picture winners I've never seen, and the most critically-acclaimed gap in my viewings), but instead we will talk today about the first time that Redford directed himself, in 1998's romantic western The Horse Whisperer.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie starts with tragedy, as Grace MacLean (Johansson), the teenager daughter of a posh Manhattan couple Annie (Thomas) & Robert (Neill), is in a shocking accident with her horse, where she loses her leg, and her best friend & her horse are killed.  Annie, though an Anna Wintour-style magazine editor at the beginning of the film, starts to believe that saving Grace's horse Pilgrim is somehow connected with her daughter finding a zeal for life again, and so she goes to Montana to meet with a "horse whisperer" named Tom Booker (Redford), who runs a ranch and while initially hesitant, also sees that Pilgrim & Grace are connected.  He begins to train Pilgrim, but in the process he starts to win over not just a recuperating Grace, but also a smitten Annie, with whom he begins to have an affair.  Their love from two worlds is pretty clearly not going to last, but it is a moment where Annie begins to ponder her responsibilities to herself, her identity, and her family...and the man she is falling in love with.

In 1998, romantic dramas like The Horse Whisperer were not uncommon (see also Hope Floats, Meet Joe Black, and City of Angels), and so it isn't noted as a success in the way it would be today (a straight drama grossing almost $200 million in 2023 would be a guaranteed Best Picture nomination).  But looking back on it, it's so refreshing to watch the film from a modern lens, knowing this type of film would go out-of-fashion just a few years later as studios lost their minds over the X-Men and Spider-Man box office receipts.  The movie doesn't apologize for being complicated, giving us a woman who shouldn't be falling in love (she's married), but she is, and it doesn't give us easy answers.  In the end, it's not clear Redford-the-director knows if Redford-the-actor should end up with Annie or not, and that's kind of the point.  Love doesn't always have right answers, and to see that in a movie without any winking, comedic relief, or need to infantilize adults by pretending this is the first time either has fallen in love would read as bold today, and it's expertly handled by Redford as a director.

I will say that I don't think the movie succeeds in terms of chemistry between the two leads.  This is a weird situation as I think both Redford & Thomas give strong performances (both are very good actors) in their own lanes.  Redford's Tom is played as a romantic who clearly was too burned to end up with another woman after he lost his last wife, and Thomas gives Annie a three-dimensional look at motherhood, and being willing to sign up for more adventures as you age.  But the two don't have romantic inclinations to each other.  This isn't the age gap (though it's hard not to think about that since it's the only thing Gen Z audiences are capable of talking about in romances), but more so their acting styles.  Redford is such a naturalistic, California boy against Thomas stage-trained British beauty, and they don't really jive even as an opposites-attract pairing.  Good movie, good performances...weirdly not a compelling romance (though the Oscar-nominated song definitely tries on that front, giving us a lovely, lonely country ballad that they dance to at a critical moment in the picture).

With that, we're going to retire Robert Redford, who at 87 is still acting semi-regularly acts.  After the combined star wattage of Redford & Clint Eastwood, two of the great living movie stars of the 1970's, we're going to move next month into the work of a man who got his career start doing some of the independent westerns of the 1970's, before eventually moving into character actor roles in Hollywood films starting in the 1980's, including a turn in one of the most noted westerns of the 1990's. 

OVP: The Omen (1976)

Film: The Omen (1976)

Stars: Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, Billie Whitelaw, Harvey Stephens

Director: Richard Donner

Oscar History: 2 nominations/1 win (Best Score*, Original Song-"Ave Satini")

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

All October long, The Many Rantings of John is running a marathon dedicated to the Horror classics of the 1960's-90's that I'm seeing for the first time this month.  If you want to take a look at past titles from previous horror marathons (both this and other seasons) check out the links at the bottom of this article.

We've talked about this a lot through the years on this blog, but horror & Oscar rarely mix.  Only a handful (The Exorcist, The Silence of the Lambs, The Sixth Sense) have competed for Best Picture, and only a couple of actors (Kathy Bates, Ruth Gordon, Anthony Hopkins & Jodie Foster) have won Oscars for acting in horror films.  This is despite the genre boasting a number of truly great performances, scripts, and especially scores.  It is insane that films like Halloween and Scream, whose scores are synonymous with the genre (and movies in general) didn't even get nominated for Oscars.  It also means that when one wins, it's a big deal.  The Omen is one of those wins, and in an even more bizarre twist, it was the only win that Jerry Goldsmith ever got.  Yes, Jerry Goldsmith, the maestro behind Planet of the Apes, Chinatown, and Alien won his only Oscar for a movie about a middle-aged couple who thinks they might be raising the antichrist.  All-of-this-is-to-say The Omen was a must-pick gap when I was selecting the movies for this year's horror lineup.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about a wealthy couple Robert (Peck) and Katherine Thorn (Remick).  In the opening scenes, Katherine has just given birth to a son, one who has died during childbirth, and Robert is trying to figure out the best way to tell his wife.  He soon learns he doesn't have to-a priest offers up an abandoned baby for him to raise, and so instead of telling his wife he tells her the baby is in fact their own biological child.  But the child, Damien (Stephens), it turns out, is unusual.  Animals react oddly to him, and strange things happen when he's around, including someone killing themselves in the opening scenes of the movie.  The film progresses with Katherine finding herself tortured and injured by Damien, and Robert getting strange warnings about the child, eventually going on an investigation of sorts where he discovers that Damien is not just any kid-he is the son of the devil, and has come to destroy the world as foretold in the Book of Revelation.  Before the end of the film, Katherine & Robert are both dead, and Damien is living with the President of the United States...where he can easily take over power and control of the world.

I had never seen The Omen, at least not fully through, but it's one of those movies that is so enmeshed in pop culture it's hard to not know where it's going.  It's been parodied repeatedly (off-the-top of my head I can think of American Dad!, but I know there are others), and the name Damien is shorthand for "evil" even more than Hannibal, Freddie, & Chucky are at this point.  The film weirdly functions as a mystery more than a horror, one that surely played better when you didn't know what was about to happen.  Peck, in the twilight of his stardom, is oblivious to what's obvious to the audience, but he is a good stooge, and the ending (where he dies rather than Damien, which wasn't the original choice of the director who wanted them both to perish) makes the film considerably better.

The Oscar nominations are unusual.  Goldsmith's score is great.  This isn't his best score (that would be Chinatown) but it would've been a crime had he never won one, and I love that he got it for quality work (it's eerie), and that a horror film managed to pull off this victory.  The song nomination, though, is so strange.  The song itself is fine, but it's the subject matter that is crazier.  In 1976, while tunes by Barbra Streisand & Tom Jones were up for AMPAS approval, somehow these two pop icons were up against a song that was literally an ode to Satan.  The 1970's, man...I wish we could get back to the days that Oscar was willing to go out there with his nominations.

Past Horror Month Reviews

1920's: The Golem, The Phantom of the Opera

1930's: The Black Cat, The Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, Dracula's Daughter, Frankenstein, Freaks, The Invisible Man, Mad Love, The Mummy, The Old Dark House, The Raven, Son of Frankenstein, Werewolf of London

1940's: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Cat People, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Dracula, The House of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man Returns, The Invisible Man's Revenge, The Invisible Woman, The Ghost of Frankenstein, Invisible Agent, The Mummy's Curse, The Mummy's Ghost, The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb, Phantom of the Opera, She-Wolf of London, Son of Dracula, The Uninvited, The Wolf Man

1950's: Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy, Attack of the 50-Foot Woman, The Blob, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Creature Walks Among Us, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, It Came from Outer Space, Revenge of the Creature

1960's: The Devil Rides Out, The Innocents, The Masque of the Red Death, Night of the Living Dead,Village of the Damned

1970's: The Amityville Horror, Black Christmas, Carrie, Dawn of the Dead, Don't Look Now, Halloween, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, When a Stranger Calls, The Wicker Man

1980's: Child's Play, The Evil Dead, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Poltergeist

1990's-Present: The Blair Witch Project, Scream