Has there ever been such a tightly seperated race between just two pictures as with 1950's battle between broadway and cinema. Yes the two films I'm talking about are All About Eve and Sunset Boulevard. The former eventually won the top prizes and the later won it's fair share of prizes. Both are all time great films however when it comes down to it I go for the latter. Maybe it's my love of broadway that makes this film hit close to me or maybe it's the amount of complex and different female characters featured that both fight and work together is such different and great ways that I find the film endlessly watchable. The academy chose All About Eve for the prize as I'd mentioned and Sunset was also nominated alongside George Cukor's Born Yesterday, Father of the Bride and King Soloman's Mines. The first of these three other nominees Born Yesterday is good but really shines in the oscar wining turn by Judy Holliday who while brilliant would not be my choice for the best actress prize. The other two have their moments but just don't do it for me and feel rather of their time.
1950 was truly a great year and while this was reflected in the top two pictures of the race there are some more great films that where overlooked. However firstly I need to talk about the two worthy picture nominations in more detail. First is All About Eve which like the academy is my choice for best picture. Joseph L. Mankiewicz follows his 1949 feature A Letter to Three Wives with this great classic. Bette Davis is in the starring role that due to it sort of being a comeback role for Miss Davis this has arguably become her most iconic role. The role of Margo Channing filled with such divanishness confidence while at the same time being insecure of aging and being replaced is so set to Davis talent that her casting was an ingenious choice that thankfully happened because no one couldn't played this role like Davis. The film itself is also brilliant due to Mankiewicz screenplay full of witty dialogue and a bountiful of catchy lines that I myself try to repeat anytime I can as the dialogue is so quotable. Truly a great feature which stands up even in today's cinematic climat. Sunset Boulevard is my runner up but a close one. Billy Wilder had already conquered every genre before this film but yet again by watching a Wilder film in Sunset I'm yet again blown away because no one could create a character as mysterious and as real as Norma Desmond was and is. Gloria Swanson easily the great female performance of the year had been long due for a role this varied when talkies came about which adds to the marvel that is her performance. Not only is she making a stand on her own career till this point but also a stand on many of the silent actresses who just lost so much due to the inovation of talking which caused actresses without the proper speaking voices to be replaced by up and comers. Wilder creates a great film noir that all comes together in breathing taking finale where Norma finally has her closeup but Wilder the master he is forgoes this closeup and fades out which is the final nail in Norma's coffin. Akira Kurosawa with Rashoman showed why film makers since have been so inspired by his ingenious. The film is a multi perspective of one murder that each time the one scene is told it gets more gripping. Kurosawa and his editors have crafted some great foreign cinema that unlike any movie before or any movie after that tries to recreate this type of storytelling is timeless and forever great. The Third Man was first seen in 1949 but arrived in the states in 1950 which is why I place it in this year. Carol Reed follows The Fallen Idol which is greatest film achievement. Only Reed and the production team of the film where able to make this suspecful noir that is just so innovative and different from it's genre that I find it great every time I sit down to watch it. Whether it's Orson Welles in one of his best works or the score which unlike many at the time was different for it's instrument use. The final film of the personal picture race is Nicholas Ray's In a Lonely Place. This picture starring Bogart and Grahame is about both the love between these two characters but also about the falls and highs of fame and celebrity in Hollywood. Ray was one of the unequaled directors of the 50's and this picture started him on his great list of films from this decade.
29 is the number of films released in 1950 that I was able to search out and see. As I said before what a fantastic year for cinema of all genres. Below is the list of nominees and winners I would've choosen.
OUTSTANDING PICTURE:
1. All About Eve (Produced by Darryl F. Zanuck)
2. Sunset Boulevard (Produced by Charles Brackett)
3. Rashomon (Produced by Minoru Jingo)
4. The Third Man (Produced by Carol Reed)
5. In a Lonely Place (Produced by Robert Lord)
6. The Asphalt Jungle
7. The Rules of the Game
8. Kind Hearts and Coronets
9. Caged
10. Orphée
OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR:
Akira Kurosawa for Rashomon
Joseph L. Mankiewicz for All About Eve
Nicholas Ray for In a Lonely Place
Carol Reed for The Third Man
Billy Wilder for Sunset Boulevard
OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTOR:
Humphrey Bogart as Dixon Steele in "IN A LONELY PLACE"
Alec Guinness as eight members of the D'Ascoyne family in "KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS"
William Holden as Joseph C. "Joe" Gillis in "SUNSET BOULEVARD"
Toshiro Mifune as Tajomaru, the bandit in "RASHOMON"
James Stewart as Elwood P. Dowd in "HARVEY"
OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTRESS:
Bette Davis as Margo Channing in "ALL ABOUT EVE"
Gloria Grahame as Laurel Gray in "IN A LONELY PLACE"
Judy Holliday as Emma "Billie" Dawn in "BORN YESTERDAY"
Eleanor Parker as Marie Allen in "CAGED"
Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in "SUNSET BOULEVARD"
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Sam Jaffe as "Doc" Erwin Riedenschneider in "THE ASPHALT JUNGLE"
Mashayuki Mori as Samurai, the husband in "RASHOMON"
George Sanders as Addison DeWitt in "ALL ABOUT EVE"
Eric von Stroheim as Maximillian "Max" von Mayerling in "SUNSET BOULEVARD"
Orson Welles as Harry Lime in "THE THIRD MAN"
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Hope Emerson as Evelyn Harper in "CAGED"
Betty Garde as Kitty Stark in "CAGED"
Machiko Kyo as Samurai’s wife in "RASHOMON"
Agnes Moorehead as Ruth Benton in "CAGED"
Thelma Ritter as Birdie in "ALL ABOUT EVE"
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
William Bowers & William Sellers for The Gunfighter
Carl Foreman for The Men
Richard Murphy, Daniel Fuchs, Edna Anhalt & Edward Anhalt for Panic in the Streets
Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder & D. M. Marshman, Jr. for Sunset Boulevard
Graham Greene for The Third Man
OUTSTANDING ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
Screenplay by Joseph L. Mankiewicz; Based on "The Wisdom of Eve" by Mary Orr, All About Eve
Screenplay by Ben Maddow & John Huston; Based on The Asphalt Jungle by W. R. Burnett, The Asphalt Jungle
Screenplay by Albert Mannheimer; Based on Born Yesterday by Garson Kanin, Born Yesterday
Screenplay by Edmund H. North & Andrew Solt; Based on In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes, In a Lonely Place
Screenplay by Akira Kurosawa & Shinobu Hashimoto; Based on "Rashomon" and "In a Grove" by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Rashomon
OUTSTANDING ART DIRECTION:
Art Direction by George W. Davis & Lyle Wheeler; Set Design by Thomas Little & Walter M. Scott for All About Eve
Art Direction by Randall Duell & Cedric Gibbons; Set Design by Edwin B. Willis for The Asphalt Jungle
Production Design by Harry Horner; Set Design by William Kiernan for Born Yesterday
Art Direction by Bernard Herzbrun & Nathan Juran; Set Design by Russell A. Gausman & Julia Heron for Harvey
Art Direction by Hans Dreier & John Meehan; Set Design by Sam Comer & Ray Moyer for Sunset Boulevard
OUTSTANDING BREAKTHROUGH/DEBUT:
Marlon Brando (The Men)
Machiko Kyo (Rashomon)
Marilyn Monroe (All About Eve)
Nancy Olson (Sunset Boulevard)
Sidney Poitier (No Way Out)
OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Milton Krasner for All About Eve
Harold Rosson for The Asphalt Jungle
Kazuo Miyagawa for Rashomon
John F. Seitz for Sunset Boulevard
Robert Krasker for The Third Man
OUTSTANDING COSTUME DESIGN:
Edith Head & Charles LeMaire for All About Eve
Jean Louis for Born Yesterday
Muraki Sinobu for Rashomon
Edith Head for Sunset Boulevard
Ivy Baker for The Third Man
OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE OF THE YEAR:
All About Eve (Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Gary Merrill, Hugh Marlowe, Thelma Ritter, Gregory Ratoff, Marilyn Monroe, Barbara Bates)
The Asphalt Jungle (Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen, James Whitmore, Sam Jaffe, John McIntire, Marc Lawrence, Barry Kelley, Anthony Caruso, Teresa Celli, Marilyn Monroe, William "Wee Willie" Davis, Dorothy Tree, Brad Dexter, Helene Stanley, John Maxwell)
Caged (Eleanor Parker, Agnes Moorehead, Ellen Corby, Hope Emerson, Betty Garde, Sheila MacRae, Jan Sterling, Lee Patrick, Jane Darwell, Gertrude W. Hoffmann, Olive Deering, Gertrude Michael)
Father of the Bride (Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, Elizabeth Taylor, Don Taylor, Billie Burke, Moroni Olsen, Marietta Canty, Russ Tamblyn, Tom Irish, Paul Harvey)
Harvey (James Stewart, Josephine Hull, Peggy Dow, Charles Drake, Cecil Kellaway, Victoria Horne, Jesse White, William H. Lynn, Wallace Ford, Nana Bryant, Grayce Mills, Clem Bevans, Dick Wessel, Harry Hines, Norman Leavitt, Sam Wolfe)
OUTSTANDING FILM EDITING:
Barbara McLean for All About Eve
George Boemier for The Asphalt Jungle
Akira Kurosawa for Rashomon
Arthur Schmidt for Sunset Boulevard
Oswald Hafenrichter for The Third Man
OUTSTANDING FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
Orphée (Directed by Jean Cocteau)
Rashomon (Directed by Akira Kurosawa)
The Rules of the Game (Directed by Jean Renoir)
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL/MUSICAL SCORE:
Alfred Newman for All About Eve
Paul J. Smith & Oliver Wallace for Cinderella
Fumio Kayasaka for Rashomon
Franz Waxman for Sunset Boulevard
Anton Karas for The Third Man
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SONG:
Cinderella, "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" (Music and Lyrics by Mack David, Jerry Livingston, and Al Hoffman)
Cinderella, "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes" (Music and Lyrics by Mack David, Jerry Livingston, and Al Hoffman)
Cinderella, "Sing, Sweet Nightingale" (Music and Lyrics by Mack David, Jerry Livingston, and Al Hoffman)
OUTSTANDING PERFORMER OF THE YEAR:
William Holden (Born Yesterday, Sunset Boulevard)
James Stewart (Broken Arrow, Harvey, Winchester '73)
OUTSTANDING SOUND RECORDING:
Stanley Jones for Caged
Robert O. Cook, C.O. Slyfield & Harold J. Steck for Cinderella
Rashomon
John Cope & Harry Lindgren for Sunset Boulevard
John Cox, Jack Drake, Red Law & Bert Ross for The Third Man
Now having gone to the 50's again I will go to the 70's. The year in question is 1978 which is the year the recently departed Michael Cimono won the big prizes with his vietnam drama The Deer Hunter. In close competition with the similarly theme Vietnam drama Coming Home this was a much debated close call between two similar films in 1978. Will either be my choice for the year's best.
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