Previously to revisiting 1962 the film year I had only seen two films which were The Miracle Worker and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?. Both are great films featuring stellar work by their leads but little did I know the brilliance I was in store with all the other films from this historic year in my opinion. As I mentioned in the title just about everything went to David Lean's epic Lawrence of Arabia. The best picture choice going to Lawrence was for the second year in a row the academy picking the years best in my critical opinion. Lawrence of Arabia is first off a beautiful film and as epic as it's running time would suggest. There is never a dull moment as we follow the journey through the performance of Peter O'Toole, he is heartfelt and grounded that while not my choice for the year's best male performance his work still looms large. David Lean is able to make this vast, sprawling tale thrilling to follow composing such beautiful shots as the Omar Sharif entrance, the blowing out of the match and the multiple shots of this almost never ending desert. Enough can't be said about Lawrence but there were other nominees for best picture in 1962 and they were The Longest Day, The Music Man, Mutiny on the Bounty and To Kill a Mockingbird. Of the other four Mockingbird still holds up for it's handle of subject matter and Gregory Peck's academy award winning turn that is such a strong and stoic turn from him. The other three are good if not a bit dated which is why I would personally note nominate any of them.
1962 was an incredible year for film both in the states and abroad in Europe. My runner up for best picture of 1962 is Blake Edwards partially underrated Days of Wine and Roses. The film is mainly praised for it's two leading performances deservedly so but the film itself is just as good as the work done by Reemick and Lemmon. Jack Lemmon in fact would've been my choice for best actor in a close call category with 5 extraordinary leading male performances. The other 3 films that would've filled out my best picture lineup are Sidney Lumet's Long Day's Journey Into Night, Luis Buñuel's Viridiana and Ingmar Bergman's Through a Glass Darkly. Similar to Days of Wine Long Day's is praised for it's powerhouse quartet of performances but itself is a greatly emotional roller coaster of a film. Katharine Hepburn who in her career won 4 oscars should've received one for her work as Mary Tyrone the drug addicted matriarch of the Tyrone house. Viridiana and Through a Glass Darkly are examples of the great foreign cinema of the 1960's The former Luis Buñuel's greatest film and the latter one of the many great films from Ingmar Bergman who for me is clearly one of the greatest film makers ever to create films. Katharine Hepburn and Jack Lemmon as I mentioned would've been my choices for the leading wins and while the academy chose Ed Begley and Patty Duke for supporting wins Begley is a rather overrated turn and Duke deserved her win. Instead of Begley I would've picked Dean Stockwell who was overlooked for his magnificent work in Long Day's Journey Into Night.
29 films amounts to what films I've seen released in the untied states in 1962. This is the first year of the ones I've revisited that I consider one of the great film years. Whether it was the great american films or ones from Europe I can't help but beg for more film years like this when I see the wonderful films that came out this year. Below is the list of winners and nominees from very stiff competition.
OUTSTANDING PICTURE:
1. Lawrence of Arabia (Produced by Sam Spiegel)
2. Days of Wine and Roses (Produced by Martin Manulis)
3. Long Day's Journey Into Night (Produced by Ely Landau, Joseph E. Levine & Jack J. Dreyfus, Jr.)
4. Viridiana (Produced by Gustavo Alatriste)
5. Through a Glass Darkly (Produced by Allan Ekelund)
6. To Kill a Mockingbird
7. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
8. Last Year at Marienbad
9. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
10. Jules et Jim
OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR:
Blake Edwards for Days of Wine and Roses
John Ford for The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
David Lean for Lawrence of Arabia
Sidney Lumet for Long Day's Journey Into Night
Robert Mulligan for To Kill a Mockingbird
OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTOR:
Jack Lemmon as Joe Clay in "DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES"
Paul Newman as Chance Wayne in "SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH"
Peter O'Toole as T.E. Lawrence in "LAWRENCE OF ARABIA"
Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in "TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD"
Ralph Richardson as James Tyrone in "LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT"
OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTRESS:
Harriet Andersson as Karin in "THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY"
Bette Davis as Baby Jane Hudson in "WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?"
Katherine Hepburn as Mary Tyrone in "LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT"
Jeanne Moreau as Catherine in "JULES ET JIM"
Lee Remick as Kirsten Arnesen/Clay in "DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES"
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Lee Marvin as Liberty Valance in "THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE"
Jason Robards Jr. as Jamie Tyrone in "LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT"
Peter Sellers as Clare Quinty in "LOLITA"
Omar Sharif as Sherif Ali in "LAWRENCE OF ARABAIA"
Dean Stockwell as Edmund Tyrone in "LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT"
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Patty Duke as Helen Keller in "THE MIRACLE WORKER"
Angela Lansbury as Mr. Eleanor Shawn Iselin in "THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE"
Barbara Stanwyck as Jo Courtney in "WALK ON THE WILD SIDE"
Monica Vitti as Valentina Gherardini in "LA NOTTE"
Shelley Winters as Charlotte Haze in "LOLITA"
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Agnès Varda for Cléo from 5 to 7
JP Miller for Days of Wine and Roses
Michelangelo Antonioni, Ennio Flaiano & Tonino Guerra for La Notte
Alain Robbe-Grillet for Last Year at Marienbad
Ingmar Bergman for Through a Glass Darkly
OUTSTANDING ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
Screenplay by Robert Bolt & Michael Wilson; Based on the writings of T. E. Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia
Screenplay by Eugene O'Neill; Based on Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill, Long Day's Journey Into Night
Screenplay by James Warner Bellah & Willis Goldbeck; Based on A 1953 short story by Dorothy M. Johnson, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Screenplay by George Axelrod; Based on The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon, The Manchurian Candidate
Screenplay Horton Footel Based on To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
Screenplay by Julio Alejandro
OUTSTANDING ART DIRECTION:
Production Design by John Box; Art Direction by John Stoll; Set Decoration by Dario Simoni for Lawrence of Arabia
Art Direction by William C. Andrews for Lolita
Production Design by Richard Sylbert; Set Decoration by Gene Callahan for Long Day's Journey Into Night
Art Direction by Henry Burnstead; Set Decoration by Oliver Ernest for To Kill a Mockingbird
Art Direction by William Glasgow; Set Decoration by George Sawley for What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
OUTSTANDING BREAKTHROUGH/DEBUT:
Mary Badham (To Kill a Mockingbird)
Patty Duke (The Miracle Worker)
Jane Fonda (Walk on the Wild Side)
Peter O'Toole (Lawrence of Arabia)
Omar Sharif (Lawrence of Arabia)
OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Philip H. Lathrop for Days of Wine and Roses
Freddie Young for Lawrence of Arabia
Oswald Morris for Lolita
Russell Harlan for To Kill a Mockingbird
Ernest Haller for What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
OUTSTANDING COSTUME DESIGN:
Phyllis Dalton for Lawrence of Arabia
Judianna Makovsky for Lolita
Sophie Devin for Long Day's Journey Into Night
Dorothy Jeakins for The Music Man
Norma Koch for What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE:
Lawrence of Arabia (Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins, Omar Sharif, José Ferrer, Anthony Quayle, Claude Rains, Arthur Kennedy, Donald Wolfit, Michel Ray, I. S. Johar, Zia Mohyeddin, Gamil Ratib, Ian MacNaughton, John Dimech, Hugh Miller, Fernando Sancho, Stuart Saunders, Jack Gwillim, Kenneth Fortescue, Harry Fowler, Howard Marion-Crawford, John Ruddock, Norman Rossington, Jack Hedley, Henry Oscar, Peter Burton)
Long Day's Journey Into Night (Katharine Hepburn, Ralph Richardson, Jason Robards, Jr., Dean Stockwell, Jeanne Barr)
The Manchurian Candidate (Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury, Henry Silva as Chunjin, James Gregory, Leslie Parrish, John McGiver, Khigh Dheigh, James Edwards, Douglas Henderson, Albert Paulsen, Barry Kelley, Lloyd Corrigan, Madame Spivy)
Sweet Bird of Youth (Paul Newman, Geraldine Page, Shirley Knight, Ed Begley, Rip Torn, Mildred Dunnock, Madeleine Sherwood, Philip Abbott, Corey Allen, Barry Cahill, Dub Taylor, James Douglas, Barry Atwater, Charles Arnt, Dorothy Konrad, James Chandler, Mike Steen, Kelly Thordsen, Edith Atwater, Robert Burton, William Forrest, Roy Glenn, Sydney Guilaroff, Regis Parton, Davis Roberts, Eddy Samuels)
To Kill a Mockingbird (Gregory Peck, John Megna, Frank Overton, Rosemary Murphy, Ruth White, Brock Peters, Estelle Evans, Paul Fix, Collin Wilcox, James Anderson, Alice Ghostley, Robert Duvall, William Windom, Crahan Denton, Richard Hale, Mary Badham, Phillip Alford)
OUTSTANDING FILM EDITING:
Patrick McCormack for Days of Wine and Roses
Anne V. Coates for Lawrence of Arabia
Ralph Rosenblum for Long Day's Journey Into Night
Ferris Webster for The Manchurian Candidate
Aaron Stell for To Kill a Mockingbird
OUTSTANDING FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
La Notte (Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni)
Last Year at Marienbad (Directed by Alain Resnais)
Sundays and Cybele (Directed by Serge Bourguignon)
Through a Glass Darkly (Directed by Ingmar Bergman)
Viridiana (Directed by Luis Buñuel)
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL/ADAPTATION SCORE:
Bernard Herrmann for Cape Fear
Henry Mancini for Days of Wine and Roses
Maurice Jarre for Lawrence of Arabia
Andre Previn for Long Day's Journey Into Night
Elmer Bernstein for To Kill a Mockingbird
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SONG:
Days of Wine and Roses, "Days of Wine and Roses" (Music by Henry Mancini; Lyrics by Johnny Mercer)
Walk on the Wild Side, "Walk on the Wild Side" (Music by Elmer Bernstein; Lyrics by Mack David)
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, "I've Written a Letter to Daddy" (Music by Frank De Vol; Lyrics by Bob Merrill)
OUTSTANDING PERFORMER OF THE YEAR:
Karl Malden (All Fall Down, Birdman of Alcatraz, Gypsy)
Robert Mitchum (Cape Fear, The Longest Day, Two for the Seesaw)
Gregory Peck (Cape Fear, To Kill a Mockingbird)
Telly Savalas (Biardman of Alcatraz, Cape Fear, The Interns)
OUTSTANDING SOUND RECORDING:
Corson Joweet & Waldon O. Watson for Cape Fear
John Cox for Lawrence of Arabia
George Groves for The Music Man
Franklin Milton for Sweet Bird of Youth
Harold E. McGhan & Jack Solomon for What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
OUSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS:
Robert MacDonald & Jacques Maumont for The Longest Day
Next I will revisit 1936. This year marks the first year supporting throphies were awarded and when The Great Ziegfeld won best picture. This this large scale epic still stand up or do the films such as Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times which was overlooked at the time make a case for being better then what the academy chose in it's 9th year of existence.
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