I consider the 50's the greatest decade for film so every time I revisited a year from this decade I knew I was in for an exceptional year of cinema. I had previously seen 5 movies (Rebel, Eden, Tramp, Rose, Seven Year) and it was already an impressive amount of movies. Then when I researched into films around the 28th academy awards I was knew to many of them. These new visits included Marty the big winner of the year. Sure Marty has it's moments of greatness when we follow Borgnine and and Blair and see them act strongly againist one another. Then the film is rather flat and silted at other moments that I can't support the win in retrospective. The other nominees go further not to represent what I consider the best films of the year. The others where Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, Mister Roberts, Picnic and The Rose Tattoo. They all are rather dated and included Marty the winner is my choice of the nominees but the fact Marty ranks #17 on my list of the years best goes to show how weak these nominees were.
The fact that these picture nominees upset me greatly due to the lackluster quality is making me move quickly from them because there are all time great films from 1955 that the academy embraced in the smallest amounts. However while some of my favourites where embraced with minimal nominations the biggest oversight of the year and what many including myself consider the greatest film achievement of the year Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter. The film a debut feature and only directed film by the actor Charles Laughton is something so singular and special that when I saw it on this revisit I was easily blown away. The film is first and foremost a direction achievement as Laughton experiments with just about every frame of the film never apologizing for his clear influences from early silent pictures mixing it in tune with sound pictures of the day. Robert Mitchum shines in the leading role as the villianess preacher and Lilian Gish the greatest silent actress both are beyond words amazing. I could talk about Night of Hunter all the time now that it's in my life after having watched it. My runner up is Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause. One of the two James Dean led pictures from 1955. It's one of the truest films to capture the teenage experience in America which is why Dean became so known for this type of anti-adult role due to his iconic performance in Rebel. The film is a deep diving drama on growing up and all the trauma that comes with that. Next would be Douglas Sirk's All that Heaven Allows. Sirk is one of the many directors associated with the 50s is the master of melodrama and his 55 feature is the beginning for me of his dive into melodrama at it's highest. Everything about the film is perfectly pitched and some Sirk would achieve in nearly all his 50's films. It's a gorgeous film to behold and because it's so well itched the time of the film flies by. Night and Fog the famous 30 minute photo documentary about the death and tradegy of the nazi war. The film is one of the most haunting and personally effecting film related events I've seen. Nothing will ever be like this achievement as nothing will ever approach the war in this way again. The final film to fill out my top 5 is Journey to Italy. The film is a trip shared by Bergman and Sanders in Italy. It's one of Rossellini's films from this time and just perfectly captures what it's like to go to a different land you are so unasociated from. Seeing all these films for the most part be overlooked by the academy makes me so down hearted.
39 is the amount of films I saw from this year and while the ones of the top of my list are lasting and all time greats many of the films are dated and just didn't make a lasting impression on me.
OUTSTANDING PICTURE:
1. The Night of the Hunter (Produced by Paul Gregory)
2. Rebel Without a Cause (Produced by David Weisbart)
3. All That Heaven Allows (Produced by Ross Hunter)
4. Night and Fog (Produced by Anatole Dauman)
5. Journey to Italy (Produced by Adolfo Fossataro, Alfredo Guarini & Roberto Rossellini)
6. East of Eden
7. To Catch a Thief
8. The Wages of Fear
9. Les diaboliques
10. I'll Cry Tomorrow
OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR:
Alfred Hitchcock for To Catch a Thief
Elia Kazan for East of Eden
Charles Laughton for The Night of the Hunter
Nicholas Ray for Rebel Without a Cause
Douglas Sirk for All That Heaven Allows
OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTOR:
James Dean as Jim Stark in "REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE"
Robert Mitchum as Reverend Harry Powell in "THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER"
George Sanders as Alexander 'Alex' Joyce in "JOURNEY TO ITALY"
Spencer Tracy as John J. Macreedy in "BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK"
Charles Vanel as Jo in "THE WAGES OF FEAR"
OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTRESS:
Ingrid Bergman as Katherine Joyce in "JOURNEY TO ITALY"
Véra Clouzot as Christina Delassalle in "LES DIABOLIQUES"
Julie Harris as Abra Bacon in "EAST OF EDEN"
Susan Hayward as Lillian Roth in "I'LL CRY TOMORROW"
Anna Magnani as Serafina Delle Rose in "THE ROSE TATTOO"
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Jack Lemmon as Ensign Frank Thurlowe Pulver in "MISTER ROBERTS"
Sal Mineo as John "Plato" Crawford in "REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE"
Sidney Poitier as Gregory Miller in "BLACKBOARD JUNGLE"
Robert Ryan as Reno Smith in "BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK"
Charles Vanel as Alfred Fichet in "LES DIABOLIQUES"
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Lillian Gish as Rachel Cooper in "THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER"
Agnes Moorehead as Sara Warren in "ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS"
Jo Van Fleet as Katie Silverman Roth in "I'LL CRY TOMORROW"
Shelley Winters as Willa Harper in "THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER"
Natalie Wood as Judy in "REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE"
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Milton Sperling & Emmet Lavery for The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell
Howard Sackler & Stanley Kubrick for Killer's Kiss
William Rose for The Ladykillers
Stewart Stern, Irving Shulman & Nicholas Ray for Rebel Without a Cause
Cesare Zavattini for Umberto D.
OUTSTANDING ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
Screenplay by Peg Fenwick Based upon a story by Edna L. Lee and Harry Lee, All That Heaven Allows
Screenplay by Paul Osborn; Based on East of Eden by John Steinbeck, East of Eden
Screenplay by Vitaliano Brancati & Roberto Rossellini; Based on Duo by Colette, Journey to Italy
Screenplay by James Agee & Charles Laughton; Based on The Night of the Hunter by Davis Grubb, The Night of the Hunter
Screenplay by Henri-Georges Clouzot & Jérome Geronimi; Based on Le Salaire de la Peur by Georges Arnaud, The Wages of Fear
OUTSTANDING ART DIRECTION:
Art Direction by Alexander Golitzen & Eric Orbom; Set Design by Russell A. Gausman & Julia Heron for All That Heaven Allows
Art Direction by James Basevi; Set Design by George James Hopkins for East of Eden
Production Design by Jo Mielziner; Art Direction by William Flannery; Set Design by Robert Priestley for Picnic
Production Design by Malcolm C. Bert; Art Direction by Malcolm Bert; Set Design by William Wallace for Rebel Without a Cause
Art Direction by Joseph MacMillan Johnson & Hal Pereira; Set Decoration by Sam Comer & Arthur Krams for To Catch a Thief
OUTSTANDING BREAKTHROUGH/DEBUT:
Betsy Blair (Marty)
James Dean (East of Eden/Rebel Without a Cause)
Jo Van Fleet (East of Eden)
Shirley MacLaine (The Trouble with Harry)
Sal Mineo (Rebel Without a Cause)
OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Russell Metty for All That Heaven Allows
Ted McCord for East of Eden
Ernest Haller for Rebel Without a Cause
Stanley Cortez for The Night of the Hunter
Robert Burks for To Catch a Thief
OUTSTANDING COSTUME DESIGN:
Bill Thomas for All That Heaven Allows
Helen Rose for I'll Cry Tomorrow
Moss Mabry for Rebel Without a Cause
Edith Head for To Catch a Thief
Charles LeMaire & Mary Wills for The Virgin Queen
OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE OF THE YEAR:
All That Heaven Allows (Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Agnes Moorehead, Conrad Nagel, Virginia Grey, Gloria Talbott, William Reynolds, Jacqueline De Wit, Charles Drake, Leigh Snowden, Merry Anders, Donald Curtis, Nestor Paiva, Hayden Rorke, Gia Scala)
Bad Day at Black Rock (Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger, Walter Brennan, John Ericson, Ernest Borgnine, Lee Marvin, Russell Collins, Walter Sande)
East of Eden (Julie Harris, James Dean, Raymond Massey, Richard Davalos, Burl Ives, Jo Van Fleet, Albert Dekker, Lois Smith, Timothy Carey, Harold Gordon, Barbara Baxley, Lonny Chapman)
The Night of the Hunter (Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, Billy Chapin, Sally Jane Bruce, James Gleason, Evelyn Varden, Don Beddoe, Peter Graves, Gloria Castillo, Paul Bryar)
Rebel Without a Cause (James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus, Ann Doran, Corey Allen, William Hopper, Rochelle Hudson, Edward Platt, Frank Mazzola, Dennis Hopper, Jack Grinnage, Virginia Brissac, Marietta Canty, Ian Wolfe, Beverly Long, Nick Adams, Steffi Sidney, Jack Simmons, John Righetti)
OUTSTANDING FILM EDITING:
Frank Gross for All That Heaven Allows
Owen Marks for East of Eden
Robert Golden for The Night of the Hunter
William Ziegler for Rebel Without a Cause
George Tomasini for To Catch a Thief
OUTSTANDING FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
Les diaboliques (Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot)
Night and Fog (Directed by Alain Resnais)
Summer With Monika (Directed by Ingmar Bergman)
Umberto D. (Directed by Vittorio De Sica)
The Wages of Fear (Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot)
OUTSTANDING MAKEUP:
Bud Westmore for All That Heaven Allows
Ben Nye for Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing
Clay Campbell for Picnic
Ben Nye & Perc Westmore for The Virgin Queen
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL/MUSICAL SCORE:
Frank Skinner for All That Heaven Allows
Alex North for I'll Cry Tomorrow
Elmer Bernstein for The Man With the Golden Arm
Leonard Rosenman for Rebel Without a Cause
Lyn Murray for To Catch a Thief
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SONG:
Lady and the Tramp, "He's a Tramp" (Music and Lyrics by Sonny Burke & Peggy Lee)
Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" (Music by Sammy Fain; Lyrics by Paul Francis Webster)
Love Me of Leave Me, "I'll Never Stop Loving You" (Music by Nicholas Brodszky; Lyrics by Sammy Cahn)
The Night of the Hunter, "Once Upon a Time There Was a Pretty Fly" (Music by Walter Schumann; Lyrics by Davis Grubb)
Pete Kelly's Blues, "Pete Kelly's Blues" (Music by Ray Heindorf; Lyrics by Sammy Cahn)
OUTSTANDING PERFORMER OF THE YEAR:
James Dean (East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause)
Arthur Kennedy (The Man From Laramie, Trial)
Eleanor Parker (Interrupted Melody, The Man with the Golden Arm, Many Rivers to Cross)
Jo Van Fleet (East of Eden, I'll Cry Tomorrow, The Rose Tattoo)
Charles Vanel (Les Diaboliques, To Catch a Thief, The Wages of Fear)
OUTSTANDING SOUND RECORDING:
Dr. Wesley C. Miller for I'll Cry Tomorrow
William A. Mueller, Warner Bros. Studio Sound Department for Mister Roberts
Stanford Naughton for The Night of the Hunter
Fred Hynes, Todd-AO Sound Department for Oklahoma!
John Cope & Harold Lewis for To Catch a Thief
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS:
Rebel Without a Cause
Farciot Edouart & John P. Fulton for To Catch a Thief
Now having gone to my favourite decade I will next revisit the film year that changed it all 1967. The year was won by In the Heat of the Night but there is so much to the year that it will take some time to talk about.
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