What's It All About, Oscar?

Walter Matthau:
Best Supporting Actor for
The Fortune Cookie

TUESDAYS WITH OSCAR: 1966

The 39th Academy Awards were poorly represented.  Represented in that three of the four acting winners failed to appear. 

Best Actor winner Paul Scofield had no interest in awards, so he didn't care about the Oscar.  Best Actress winner Elizabeth Taylor, alarmed that that her husband/costar Richard Burton, was going to lose to Scofield, making yet another loss for him, decided to skip the ceremony as well despite being almost a shoo-in to win for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.  Best Supporting Actress winner Sandy Dennis didn't show up either (though I cannot find the reason).  Her Best Supporting Actress competition Wendy Hiller was present...but more than likely there not for herself, but to accept for her costar Scofield.

The only one to did show up was Best Supporting Actor winner Walter Matthau, and that was no small feat.  He had been injured in a bicycle accident shortly before the ceremony and accepted the Oscar in an arm cast and visible facial scars. 

The whole ceremony itself came close to not appearing either.  A strike by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists put the broadcast of the Academy Awards in doubt.  The situation was so tense that the show almost didn't go on, though I figure the actual presentation would have gone on, but not on television.  The strike was settled three hours before broadcast, thus saving the Academy presentation.  This would not be the last time a strike came close to killing off the ritual of the Oscars.

Some other Oscar tidbits.  The Redgrave sisters, Vanessa and Lynn, became the second pair of sisters nominated for Best Actress (I don't think brothers have had to face off, and while it's too early to speculate, I doubt Chris and Luke Hemsworth will be facing off for The Huntsman: Winter's War and Independence Day: Resurgence this year...or any year really).  Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, with 13 nominations (one short of the record) was nominated for every category it was eligible for, something All About Eve, Ben-Hur, Titanic, or Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King aren't able to claim.

As always this is just for fun and should not be taken as my final decision. I should like to watch all the nominees and winners before making my final, FINAL choice. Now, on to cataloging the official winners (in bold) and my selections (in red). Also, my substitutions (in green).

THE 1966 ACADEMY AWARD WINNERS

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

Alfie: Alfie
A Time for Love: An American Dream
Born Free: Born Free
Georgy Girl: Georgy Girl
My Wishing Well: Hawaii 

I have no great objection to Born Free, though now I find it a trifle cheesy.   I give it credit in that it has stood the test of time.  However, my choice from this slate is another son that has stood the test of time.

From Georgy Girl, Georgy Girl, music by Tom Springfield, lyrics by Jim Dale.

I find Georgy Girl both more memorable and more in keeping with the Swinging Sixties than the square Born Free.  Again, I don't dislike Born Free, and unlike future horrors like Skyfall, Man or Muppet, and Writing's on the Wall, Born Free is actually a good song and one that people know today.  That being said, my heart still belongs to Georgy Girl.

No Substitutions

BEST DIRECTOR

Michelangelo Antonioni: Blowup
Richard Brooks: The Professionals
Claude Lelouch: A Man and a Woman
Mike Nichols: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Fred Zinnemann: A Man for All Seasons

Zinnemann was a great director, no doubt in my mind about that.  However, when it comes to actual directing, you look at Nichols' bold and daring debut with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, this harrowing journey into the darkness of love and anger, and you think he did an absolutely brilliant job. Each of his actors was nominated (with two winning), and the film is still daring and shocking, with a simply heartbreaking ending that still haunts the viewer.

Gillo Pontecorvo: The Battle of Algiers
John Frankenheimer: Seconds
Claude Lelouch: A Man and a Woman
Mike Nichols: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Fred Zinnemann: A Man for All Seasons

The Battle of Algiers plays almost like a documentary to where you wonder whether the story is taking place in real time versus having staged scenes.  Pontecorvo used non-actors in The Battle of Algiers save for Jean Martin, but you wouldn't know it thanks to Pontecorvo's direction.  Moreover, he made the various ideas in The Battle of Algiers (liberation vs. colonialism, Islamofascism, urban terrorism, the innocent and guilty alike being killed and tortured) work without being partisan.  There are no clear-cut villains and heroes, as both sides commit heinous acts against those not involved in the conflict.  To do all that takes remarkable skill, and Pontecorvo does something with The Battle of Algiers that few films do: make the audience think.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Sandy Dennis: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Wendy Hiller: A Man for All Season
Jocelyne La Garde: Hawaii
Vivien Merchant: Alfie
Geraldine Page: You're A Big Boy Now

I wasn't particularly impressed with Dennis as Honey, though to be fair she was suppose to be a bit of a dimwit.  I was more impressed with Hiller's Lady Alice More, illiterate but wise, loving but impatient, and thoroughly loyal to her husband regardless the consequences.  Her final farewell to Sir Thomas, who is locked in the Tower of London, is so, so terribly sad.

No Substitutions

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Mako: The Sand Pebbles
James Mason: Georgy Girl
Walter Matthau: The Fortune Cookie
George Segal: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Robert Shaw: A Man for All Seasons

Again, how rare to reward a comic performance.  I've seen Shaw and Segal, and wasn't too bowled over with either.  For right now, I'm holding to Matthau's opportunistic lawyer to win out.

Jean Martin: The Battle of Algiers
James Mason: Georgy Girl
Walter Matthau: The Fortune Cookie
George Segal: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Robert Shaw: A Man for All Seasons

Martin, as stated,  was the only professional actor in The Battle of Algiers.  His Colonel Mathieu is neither villain or hero.  He is what he is suppose to be: a military man given an assignment who may have an opinion about it, but who isn't going to let his private views get in the way of his mission.  He sees things as they are and works with what he has.  It is a really excellent performance.

BEST ACTRESS

Anouk Aimee: A Man and a Woman
Ida Kaminska: The Shop on Main Street
Lynn Redgrave: Georgy Girl
Vanessa Redgrave: Morgan!
Elizabeth Taylor: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

I think even Elizabeth Taylor doubted herself as an actress, having relied so much on her beauty to carry her through.  In Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, she put all doubters away.  It is one of the greatest performances by an actress in film.  In turns vulgar, monstrous, and ultimately tragic, Martha's rage and anger, inner and outer towards everyone and everything are shocking and heartbreaking.

Anouk Aimee: A Man and a Woman
Ida Kaminska: The Shop on Main Street
Guilietta Massima: Juliet of the Spirits
Lynn Redgrave: Georgy Girl
Elizabeth Taylor: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

I truly cannot find a better performance than Taylor's.  It is certainly the best of her career, and with such passion and fury that it leaves you gasping when you first see it.

BEST ACTOR

Alan Arkin: The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming
Richard Burton: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Michael Caine: Alfie
Steve McQueen: The Sand Pebbles
Paul Scofield: A Man for All Seasons

Pity you can't beat a saint.

Burton's loss (yet again) is not such a horrible injustice this time as it was last year.  After all, Paul Scofield was absolutely brilliant in A Man for All Seasons as the truly noble Sir Thomas More.  Still, Burton was more than Taylor's equal as the henpecked but still wrathful George, determined to beat his wife at her own game, even if it meant all but destroying what he loved and what loved him.   

Richard Burton: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Michael Caine: Alfie
Brahim Haggiag: The Battle of Algiers
Rock Hudson: Seconds
Paul Scofield: A Man for All Seasons

At the moment, I get the sense that Seconds is probably Rock Hudson's true stab at acting.  Perhaps he was using his looks to his advantage here, but given how he was suppose to be another man entirely, Hudson, at least in my sense, wanted to prove himself.  For that, I give him credit.

BEST PICTURE

Alfie
A Man for All Seasons
The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming
The Sand Pebbles
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

I figure A Man for All Seasons was a very safe, respectable choice for the Academy.  I certainly cannot find fault with the film itself.  It's a shame that it isn't well-remembered as it should be.  That being said, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? has not aged in these nearly 50 years.  It's dark tale of the poison within love still shocks, and when we get to the end, we see the tragedy of it all.

With that, I name Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? as the Best Picture of 1966.

The Battle of Algiers
Juliet of the Spirits
A Man for All Seasons
Seconds
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

You talk about revolutionary?  The Battle of Algiers is a film that is still resonant today, its tale of urban warfare, the last gasps of Empire and Islamic revolution still shocking and sadly accurate as to how the world is today.  The impact of The Battle of Algiers leaves the viewer almost willing to join the Revolution, and it shows how film can be a powerful force of propaganda.  The Birth of a Nation, Triumph of the Will, even the repulsive The Eternal Jew...cinema can alter how we see the world and ourselves.  The Battle of Algiers is capable of pushing even the most apolitical person into helping overthrow the French.  It's an astounding work that holds up all these decades later.

As a result, I name The Battle of Algiers as the Best Picture of 1966.

Next Time, the 1967 Academy Awards