As a live long fan of musical theater and anything musical theater related I had seen West Side Story a long time ago and obviously the brilliance of the film made such an impression on me early on. Other that and maybe a couple others I wasn't really educated in what films were released in 1961. Rarely do I feel the academy makes the right decision when it comes to best picture but by picking West Side Story in my opinion the greatest musical adaptation filmed for the big screen. The screen is full of magic from the story which is easily the greatest adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, then there is the quite historic choreography which does so much into telling this story of war, romance and family. Rita Moreno who won the academy award for supporting actress is arguably one of the greatest choices in the category because while other main actors in the film might fall back Moreno embraces just about every aspect of the film and when on screen is the one who steals your attention. In terms of the competition there didn't seem to be a clear other film to reward. The other nominees were Fanny a film I still haven't seen but all reports doesn't seem like something I should seek out, The Guns of Navarone your typical male epic-war drama from the 60's, The Hustler one of Paul Newman's many male anti-hero classics and Judgement at Nuremberg a historical account of one of the darkest times in history that just feels like a average filmed stage adaptation. Of the others The Hustler is the only other film I consider great with it even still making my top 5 list of the years best.
In terms of my personal top five for best picture aside from West Side Story & The Hustler the other three I would've included were La Dolce Vita, Breathless and Breakfast at Tiffany's. La Dolce Vita easily one of the greatest films ever filmed which is no surprise from the pure talent that Fellini is. He captures in his many chapters the story of a many who is surrounded by beauty in many forms and like the beauty of life the camera captures what beauty can really look like. Breathless then is one of the most inspirational films of the 60's French New Wave. It's just such a masterclass film that Jean Luc-Godard while he has filmed great films that followed has never topped what he created with Breathless. The final choice Breakfast at Tiffany's for me is the greatest turn from Audrey Hepburn as the delightful Holly Golightly. While the film is looked upon for her greatness Blake Edwards just creates such a charasmatic romance story around her that each time I watch I fall for the film again and again. While in 1961 the acting prizes were rewarded to Maximilian Schell, Sophia Loren, George Chakiris and Rita Moreno outside of Moreno none of these would've been my choices. As I mentioned before Hepburn is easily the strongest leading actress performance given in 1961. The male acting prizes for me would've gone to Paul Newman and George C. Scott for their dueling turns in The Hustler.
22 is the amount of films I've seen from 1961. While the films at the top of my list are great there are some right clunkers towards the bottom of the list in terms of ranking from what I've seen from the year. While the academy was able to make the right choice with the winner below is how overall the list should've looked like with winners and nominees from the year.
OUTSTANDING PICTURE:
1. West Side Story (Produced by Robert Wise)
2. La Dolce Vita (Produced by Giuseppe Amato & Angelo Rizzoli)
3. Breathless (Produced by Georges de Beauregard)
4. The Hustler (Produced by Robert Rossen)
5. Breakfast at Tiffany's (Produced by Martin Jurow & Richard Shepherd)
6. Splendor in the Grass
7. Yojimbo
8. Throne of Blood
9. A Raisin in the Sun
10. The Misfits
OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR:
Blake Edwards for Breakfast at Tiffany's
Federico Fellini for La Dolce Vita
Jean-Luc Godard for Breathless
Robert Rossen for The Hustler
Robert Wise & Jermone Robbins for West Side Story
OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTOR:
Jean-Paul Belmondo as Michel Poiccard / Laszlo Kovacs in "BREATHLESS"
Clark Gable as Gay Langland in "THE MISFITS"
Marcello Mastroianni as Marcello Rubini in "LA DOLCE VITA"
Paul Newman as Eddie Felson in "THE HUSTLER"
Sidney Poitier as Walter Lee Younger in "A RAISIN IN THE SUN"
OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTRESS:
Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly / Lula Mae Barnes in "BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S"
Deborah Kerr as Miss Giddens in "THE INNOCENTS"
Claudia McNeil as Lena Younger in "A RAISIN IN THE SUN"
Marilyn Monroe as Roslyn Tabor in "THE MISFITS"
Natalie Wood as Wilma Dean "Deanie" Loomis in "SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS"
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Montgomery Clift as Rudolph Peterson in "JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG"
Tatsuya Nakadi as Unosuke in "YOJIMBO"
Annibale Ninchi as Marcello's father in "LA DOLCE VITA"
George C. Scott as Bert Gordon in "THE HUSTLER"
Eli Wallach as Guido in "THE MISFITS"
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Ruby Dee as Ruth Younger in "A RAISIN IN THE SUN"
Anita Ekberg as Sylvia in "LA DOLCE VITA"
Piper Laurie as Sarah Packard in "THE HUSTLER"
Rita Moreno as Anita in "WEST SIDE STORY"
Diana Sands as Beneatha Younger in "A RAISIN IN THE SUN"
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Jean-Luc Godard for Breathless
Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli, Brunello Rondi & Pier Paolo Pasolini for La Dolce Vita
Arthur Miller for The Misfits
William Inge for Splendour in the Grass
Akira Kurosawa & Ryûzô Kikushima for Yojimbo
OUTSTANDING ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
Screenplay by George Axelrod; Based on Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's
Screenplay by Sidney Carroll & Robert Rossen; Based on The Hustler by Walter Tevis, The Hustler
Screenplay by William Archibald & Truman Capote; Based on The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, The Innocents
Screenplay by Lorraine Hansberry; Based on A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun
Screenplay by Ernest Lehman; Based on West Side Story by Jerome Robbins & Arthur Laurents, West Side Story
OUTSTANDING ART DIRECTION:
Set Design by Sam Comer & Ray Moyer for Breakfast at Tiffany's
Production Design by Harry Horner; Set Design by Gene Callahan for The Hustler
Production Design by Piero Gherardi for La Dolce Vita
Production Design by Boris Leven; Set Decoration by Victor A. Gangelin for West Side Story
Production Design by Yoshirô Muraki for Yojimbo
OUTSTANDING BREAKTHROUGH/DEBUT:
Warren Beatty (Splendor in the Grass)
Elenora Brown (Two Women)
Veronica Cartwright (The Children's Hour)
Claudia McNeil (A Raisin in the Sun)
Diana Sands (A Raisin in the Sun)
OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Eugen Schüfftan for The Hustler
Freddie Francis for The Innocents
Otello Martelli for La Dolce Vita
Daniel L. Fapp for West Side Story
Kazuo Miyagawa for Yojimbo
OUTSTANDING COSTUME DESIGN:
Hubert de Givenchy for Breakfast at Tiffany's
Motley for The Innocents
Piero Gherandi for La Dolce Vita
Irene Sharaff for West Side Story
Yoshirô Muraki for Yojimbo
OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE:
The Hustler (Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie, George C. Scott, Myron McCormick, Murray Hamilton, Michael Constantine, Stefan Gierasch, Clifford Pellow, Jake LaMotta, Gordon B. Clarke, Alexander Rose, Carolyn Coates, Carl York Young, Vincent Gardenia, Gloria Curtis, Charles Dierkop)
Judgement at Nuremberg (Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Maximilian Schell, Werner Klemperer, Marlene Dietrich, Montgomery Clift, Judy Garland, Howard Caine, William Shatner, John Wengraf, Karl Swenson, Ben Wright, Ed Binns, Torben Meyer, Martin Brandt, Kenneth MacKenna, Alan Baxter, Ray Teal, Virginia Christine, Joseph Bernard, Olga Fabian)
La Dolce Vita (Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimée, Yvonne Furneaux, Lex Barker, Magali Noël, Alain Cuny, Nadia Gray, Annibale Ninchi, Walter Santesso, Valeria Ciangottini, Riccardo Garron, Ida Galli, Audrey McDonald, Gloria Jones, Alain Dijon, Enzo Cerusico, Nico)
A Raisin in the Sun (Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, Stephen Perry, John Fiedler, Ivan Dixon, Louis Gossett, Joel Fluellen, Roy Glenn, Louis Terrel)
West Side Story (Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno , George Chakiris, Simon Oakland, Ned Glass, William Bramley, John Astin, Penny Santon, Tucker Smith, Tony Mordente, David Winters, Eliot Feld, Bert Michaels, David Bean, Robert Banas, Anthony 'Scooter' Teague, Harvey Evans, Tommy Abbott, Susan Oakes, Gina Trikonis, Carole D'Andrea, Rita Hyde d'Amico, Pat Tribble, Francesca Bellini, Elaine Joyce, Jose DeVega, Jay Norman, Gus Trikonis, Eddie Verso, Jamie Rogers, Larry Roquemore, Robert E. Thompson, Nick Covacevich, Rudy Del Campo, Andre Tayir, Yvonne Othon, Suzie Kaye, Joanne Miya, Maria Jimenez Henley, Yvonne Wilder, Luci Stone, Olivia Perez)
OUTSTANDING FILM EDITING:
Howard A. Smith for Breakfast at Tiffany's
Leo Cattozzo for La Dolce Vita
Gene Milford for Splendour in the Grass
Thomas Stanford for West Side Story
Akira Kurosawa for Yojimbo
OUTSTANDING FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
Breathless (Directed by Jean-Luc Godard)
La Dolce Vita (Directed by Federico Fellini)
Throne of Blood (Directed by Akira Kurosaw)
Two Women (Directed by Vittorio De Sica)
Yojimbo (Directed by Akira Kurosawa)
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL/MUSICAL SCORE:
Henry Mancini for Breakfast at Tiffany's
Georges Auric for The Innocents
Nino Rota for La Dolce Vita
David Amram for Splendour in the Grass
Saul Chaplin, Johnny Green, Sid Ramin & Irwin Kostal for West Side Story
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SONG:
Breakfast at Tiffany's, "Moon River" (Music by Henry Mancini; Lyric by Johnny Mercer)
The Innocents, "O Willow Waly" (Music by Georges Auric; Lyrics by Paul Dehn)
Lover Come Back, "Lover Come Back" (Music and Lyrics by Frank De Vol and Alan Spilton)
Lover Come Back, "Should I Surrender" (Music by Adam Ross; Lyrics by William Landan)
One Hundred and One Dalmatians, "Cruella Da Vill" (Music and Lyrics by Mel Leven)
OUTSTANDING PERFORMER:
Warren Beatty (The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, Splendor in the Grass)
Montgomery Clift (Judgement at Nuremberg, The Misfits)
Audrey Hepburn (Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Children's Hour)
Rita Moreno (Summer and Smoke, West Side Story)
Natalie Wood (Splendour in the Grass, West Side Story)
OUTSTANDING SOUND RECORDING:
John Cox for The Guns of Navarone
Edward Beyer, Jim Shields, Dick Vorisek & Jack Fitzstephens for The Hustler
Oscar Di Santo & Agostino Moretti for La Dolce Vita
Charles Grenzbach, Philip Mitchell & R.D. Cook for The Misfits
Fred Hynes & Gordon E. Sawyer for West Side Story
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS:
Bill Warrington & Vivian C. Greenham for The Guns of Navarone
Unlike how I've gone from what it seems decade to decade the next year I'll be going to is the following year 1962 where David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia similar to West Side Story dominated the conversation winning just about everything but surprisingly not able to win either of it's acting nominations. We will see if i agree with it's dominance at the academy awards next time I post on Sunday.
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