Does anybody remember that time the Oscars made all the nominees stand up in their seats during the nominations - then sit down when they lost?
Or how about the time the host got slapped in the face by a nominee, who then went on to win Best Actor and accepted like hadn't just didn't assault somebody?
The time two actresses won best actress? Then there was that naked stage invader.
It’s been seven years since Warren Beatty was given the wrong envelope and incorrectly read out La La Land as best picture. Two since Chris Rock got that slap. Ah, the Oscars! The more fate (or the producers) try to change it, the more it stays the same.
Hold on, naked stage invader, you said? Yes, it’s been fifty years since a man named Robert Opel ran across the stage sans clothing behind presenter, David Niven, flashing the peace sign, in what became in Oscar lore The Year Of The Streaker.
Niven's improvised comeback, it should be noted, was for the ages.
Though it was in fact the year of The Sting, which landed 7 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for George Roy Hill, it was really the year of The Exorcist, as the world-wide cultural impact of that film was so immense we are still talking about it half a century later.
While The Sting, albeit a giganticly entertaining Hollywood caper with a stellar cast, was, by definition, infinitely more upbeat and award-able, The Exorcist was a film that transcended its genre. A horror film so great (and successful) it couldn’t be ignored by mainstream Hollywood. Today it stands as a fantastic example of the art of filmmaking - but The Oscars was never too comfortable with horror. Still, outside of The Sting, the competition for Best Picture was pretty stiff, what with Ingmar Bergman’s Cries and Whispers (one of his best) and George Lucas’s American Graffiti.
Time is so strange: "Where were you in '62?" it said on the American Graffiti. poster. Shot in 1972, it’s a film about an era only ten years past upon its release. Yet, even then, that was a world long gone. Imagine releasing a film today nostalgic for 2014? How would that work? That would be pre-pandemic, pre-Trump, Bowie was still alive… actually, yep, that’s already another planet entirely.
Despite The Sting’s big haul, it didn’t win any of the acting Oscars. Jack Lemmon won best actor for Save The Tiger (I’ve never seen it, or remember it being on rotation on the TV when I was young.) He beat Jack Nicholson (The Last Detail), Robert Redford (The Sting), Al Pacino (Serpico) and Marlon Brando (Last Tango in Paris). Holy God. I had better track down a copy of Save The Tiger post-haste.
Glenda Jackson won for A Touch of Class (again, I haven’t seen it). She beat Ellen Burstyn (The Exorcist), Joanne Woodward (Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams), Marsha Mason (Cinderella Liberty) and Barbra flippin’ Streisand (The Way We Were). Dang. That’s another for the playlist. A Touch of Class is not available to stream, though. Hello, physical media...
Tatum O’Neill, at ten years old, became the youngest person ever to win an Oscar when she beat supporting actress nominees Linda Blair (The Exorcist), Candy Clark (American Graffiti), Sylvia Sidney (Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams - also not on streaming, by the way. Came out on DVD eons ago, expensive and out-of-print) and Madeline Khan (who would be nominated again the following year for Blazing Saddles, a very rare acting Oscar nomination for a comedy). Khan and O’Neill were both nominated for Paper Moon. Tatum deserved it all, she is such a firecracker in director Peter Bogdanovich's wonderful picture. Though, my teenage self would’ve voted for Madaline.
Speaking of age, Orson Welles’ old Mercury Theatre producer, nemesis and non-actor, John Houseman, managed to win the Best Supporting Actor prize for The Paper Chase, beginning a whole new career as a performer at age 70 in which he specialised in playing ‘John Houseman types' for the most part, in such films as Three Days of the Condor and The Fog. This enraged Welles to his death bed, as Houseman sapped up a lot of the acting gigs Orson was in the running for.
With winners there has to be losers, right? And I’m not talking about those that didn’t win. I’m talking about the non-nominated. 1973 was also the year of (deep breath) Don’t Look Now, Badlands, The Holy Mountain, The Wicker Man, Mean Streets, The Long Goodbye, Enter The Dragon, Theatre of Blood and Aramacord, for starters Stone cold, eminently rewatchable classics of cinema one and all. But bupkis when it came to Academy Awards love. Okay, Bruce Lee wasn’t going to get anywhere near the Oscars. He’d died the year before and wasn’t even featured in the ‘In Memoriam' section. To be fair, nobody was that year except old Hollywood mogul, Sam Goldwyn; the only time it was dedicated to a single person.
Don't Look Now they didn’t touch, I can only imagine because they couldn’t handle more than one horror film. It still managed a rake of BAFTA noms despite being released as a double feature with The Wicker Man, a film which, I suspect, Hollywood didn’t even know existed. Okay but, Scorsese? Malick? Jodorowsky? Altman? Fellini?
At least they got it right with that year's Honorary Oscar, given to a true screen icon.
Today, the Oscars has a somewhat better record at recognising genre films (Still, where is Harrison Ford for Dial of Destiny?) Though despite Barbie’s recent nods, its recognition of comedies remains spotty at best. John Candy deserved multiple nominations throughout his career, and a win for Planes,Trains and Automobiles. Plus Elf and There’s Something About Mary easily deserved best original screenplay noms. When The Academy does embrace horror, it tends not to touch the gory, only in the make-up category, perhaps. But where was Jeff Goldblum's acting nom for The Fly? The supernatural it can sometimes swallow, hence The Exorcist and The Sixth Sense winning a rake of nominations (though M. Night Shyamalan's film walked away with nothing).
Despite its dodgy record then and now, will I be up at 3am, tea and toast on tap, clutching my one Oscar (Best Son In A Supporting Role - thanks, Mum!)? Or will that be me streaking behind Cillian Murphy as he - fingers crossed - clutches his Academy Award?
Find out on March 10th...
