My Oscar Picks, Part 2: 1945-1955

In this post I'm continuing the process I began last time of comparing my own Oscar picks from among the nominees with the real winners. As before, the opinions expressed in this post are strictly those of the author and are not intended to be taken as objective judgments.

1945

BEST PICTURE
The Winner: The Lost Weekend
My Pick: The Lost Weekend

BEST DIRECTOR
The Winner: Billy Wilder, The Lost Weekend
My Pick: Billy Wilder, The Lost Weekend

BEST ACTOR:
The Winner: Ray Milland, The Lost Weekend
My Pick: Ray Milland, The Lost Weekend

BEST ACTRESS
The Winner: Joan Crawford, Mildred Pierce
My Pick: Joan Crawford, Mildred Pierce

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
The Winner: James Dunn, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
My Pick: Robert Mitchum, The Story of G.I. Joe

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
The Winner: Anne Revere, National Velvet
My Pick: Eve Arden, Mildred Pierce

This wasn't a particularly strong year in American movies, so the best were pretty easy to identify. Both Milland and Crawford got the roles of their careers and made the most of them. Interestingly, neither was the first choice for the role. Milland got the part after Paramount rejected Wilder's first choice, Jose Ferrer. Crawford was cast only after Bette Davis, Rosalind Russell, and Ann Sheridan turned down the part. I departed from the Academy's choices only in the supporting actor and actress categories, awards that seemed to me based on the sentimental nature of the parts. This was the only nomination Robert Mitchum ever received, for what at the time was his most noticeable part in a major picture. (In the New York Film Critics Circle awards, Mitchum was the runner-up to Milland for best actor.) As well as Eve Arden, Ann Blyth was also nominated for Mildred Pierce, and at this time it was rare for a nominee to prevail when more than one actor was nominated for the same picture. Blyth's role was showy but her acting awfully unsubtle in comparison to Arden, one of the great supporting performers. This is for me her best work, a distillation of her screen essence. Biggest omission: John Ford, best director for They Were Expendable.

1946

BEST PICTURE
The Winner: The Best Years of Our Lives
My Pick: The Best Years of Our Lives

BEST DIRECTOR
The Winner, William Wyler, The Best Years of Our Lives
My Pick: Robert Siodmak, The Killers

BEST ACTOR
The Winner: Fredric March, The Best Years of Our Lives
My Pick: James Stewart, It's a Wonderful Life

BEST ACTRESS
The Winner: Olivia de Havilland, To Each His Own
My Pick: Celia Johnson, Brief Encounter

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
The Winner: Harold Russell, The Best Years of Our Lives
My Pick: Claude Rains, Notorious

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
The Winner: Anne Baxter, The Razor's Edge
My Pick: Anne Baxter, The Razor's Edge

The Best Years of Our Lives was not only timely but also an excellent movie. Wyler was such an impeccable craftsman that he was incapable of making a sloppy film. But The Killers, which wasn't nominated for best picture, is not only an essential film noir but also a real director's movie, so I went with Siodmak for best director. I'm a great fan of Fredric March, but I think Dana Andrews gave the better performance in The Best Years of Our Lives, the best of his career, and he wasn't even nominated. James Stewart in Capra's It's a Wonderful Life—one of the greatest, most moving screen performances of all time. It would be impossible for me even to consider any of the other nominees for best actor. Best actress was the weakest it had been in years. The two best performances of the year—Dorothy McGuire in The Spiral Staircase (directed by Siodmak) and Ingrid Bergman in Notorious—weren't even nominated. Olivia de Havilland took best actress for her performance in the soapish To Each His Own. (That Oscar might also have been a reward for her courage in standing up to Jack L. Warner even if it meant not working for a couple of years. A second good performance playing good and evil twins in The Dark Mirror, again directed by Siodmak, probably helped too.) For the first time I went with a British actress, Celia Johnson, in Brief Encounter. Teresa Wright wasn't nominated as best supporting actress for The Best Years of Our Lives, so I stuck with Anne Baxter, the best of those who were nominated. Harold Russell's win was plainly a sentimental one, especially in view of the special award he also received from the Academy for his brave and heartfelt performance. I chose instead Claude Rains, nominated several times before but always bested by someone else. Who else could have actually made you feel sorry for such an unrepentant villain? Biggest omission: Notorious—for picture, director, actor, or actress.

1947

BEST PICTURE
The Winner: Gentleman's Agreement
My Pick: Great Expectations

BEST DIRECTOR
The Winner: Elia Kazan, Gentleman's Agreement
My Pick: David Lean, Great Expectations

BEST ACTOR
The Winner: Ronald Colman, A Double Life
My Pick: John Garfield, Body and Soul

BEST ACTRESS
The Winner: Loretta Young, The Farmer's Daughter
My Pick: Susan Hayward, Smash-Up

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
The Winner: Edmund Gwenn, Miracle on 34th Street
My Choice: Edmund Gwenn, Miracle on 34th Street

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
The Winner: Celeste Holm, Gentleman's Agreement
My Choice: Celeste Holm, Gentleman's Agreement

I disagreed with most of the Academy's selections this year. Gentleman's Agreement is another of those noble but dull pictures chosen to show Hollywood's endorsement of Right Thinking. Who today would seriously consider it a significant film? Great Expectations, on the other hand, is to my mind the best movie version of a Dickens novel ever, and also one of the best movies of any kind ever made. Oscar went with sentiment over merit and adhered to the Career Achievement concept with its award of the best acting prizes to Colman for his flashy performance and Young for her earnest one, two respected veterans who finally got a role that justified honoring their entire body of work. I went instead for two younger actors who both gave bold, intense, and exciting performances. I did agree, though, with the Academy's choices in the supporting categories. The supporting actor field was especially strong this year—any of the five nominated performances would have been a worthy choice—but I stuck with Edmund Gwenn's Kris Kringle. Biggest omission: Robert Mitchum, Out of the Past.

1948

BEST PICTURE
The Winner: Hamlet
My Pick: The Red Shoes

BEST DIRECTOR
The Winner: John Huston, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
My Pick: John Huston, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

BEST ACTOR
The Winner: Laurence Olivier, Hamlet
My Pick: Laurence Olivier, Hamlet

BEST ACTRESS
The Winner: Jane Wyman, Johnny Belinda
My Pick: Olivia de Havilland, The Snake Pit

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
The Winner: Walter Huston, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
My Pick: Walter Huston, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
The Winner: Claire Trevor, Key Largo
My Pick: Claire Trevor, Key Largo

For the second year in a row, I went with a British film for best picture. Michael Powell, who was never nominated for best director, is in my directors' pantheon, and The Red Shoes is my favorite of his many fine movies. (Anthony Lane recently wrote a loving review of this film in the New Yorker, well worth checking out.) This was a great year for John Huston, who directed The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, the finest American film of the year and arguably the first revisionist Western—although the location was transplanted to Mexico—in which he grafted his noir sensibility onto that most American of genres. In addition, he was responsible for my picks for the two best supporting performances of the year as well as two notable performances—Humphrey Bogart in Sierra Madre and Edward G. Robinson in Key Largo—either of which would have been worthy of a best actor nomination. I concurred with the Academy's award to Olivier for best actor for his Hamlet, but I don't see how they failed to give the best actress award to Olivia de Havilland. Jane Wyman's award would have been understandable in another year but not in this one, in which de Havilland gave the best performance of her career and one of the very best of the decade by any American actress. The reason de Havilland lost was likely that just two years earlier the Academy had given her a premature Career Achievement Oscar for To Each His Own. Oscar doesn't tend to repeat itself that soon if it can be avoided. Biggest omission: John Wayne, Red River.

1949

BEST PICTURE
The Winner: All the King's Men
My Pick: The Heiress

BEST DIRECTOR
The Winner: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, A Letter to Three Wives
My Pick: Carol Reed, The Fallen Idol

BEST ACTOR
The Winner: Broderick Crawford, All the King's Men
My Pick: Gregory Peck, Twelve O'Clock High

BEST ACTRESS
The Winner: Olivia de Havilland, The Heiress
My Pick: Olivia de Havilland, The Heiress

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
The Winner: Dean Jagger, Twelve O'Clock High
My Pick: Ralph Richardson, The Heiress

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
The Winner: Mercedes McCambridge, All the King's Men
My Pick: Mercedes McCambridge, All the King's Men

All the King's Men strikes me as an uneven picture that plays like a superficial condensation of the 464-page long Pulitzer Prize-winning novel it's based on, carried largely by the strength of the performances. The movie's deficiencies in both narrative and character development are all the more surprising given the screenwriting experience and proven ability of its writer-director, Robert Rossen. A much better movie about the contemporary South—Clarence Brown's Intruder in the Dust, based on the novel by William Faulkner—didn't receive a single nomination. I went instead with yet another literary adaptation directed by William Wyler. While Mankiewicz's winning picture is quite enjoyable, it has nowhere near the gravity and artistry of Carol Reed's The Fallen Idol, the reason I chose Reed for best director. Gregory Peck did what to my mind is the best work of his career in Twelve O'Clock High, and I chose his rounded and subtle performance as the best of the year by an actor. The Academy's choice, Broderick Crawford, was certainly striking as Willie Stark, but I found his performance compromised by the opacity of the character, whose transformation from idealist to corrupt demagogue (the gruff Crawford is much more convincing as the latter) is presented as a fait accompli rather than explained. De Havilland gave another brilliant performance in The Heiress, easily outacting any of the other nominees. For supporting actor, I went with Ralph Richardson as de Havilland's cold father in The Heiress. Biggest omission: James Cagney's unforgettable Cody Jarrett in White Heat.

1950

BEST PICTURE
The Winner: All About Eve
My Pick: All About Eve

BEST DIRECTOR
The Winner: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, All About Eve
My Pick: Carol Reed, The Third Man

BEST ACTOR
The Winner: Jose Ferrer, Cyrano de Bergerac
My Pick: William Holden, Sunset Blvd.

BEST ACTRESS
The Winner: Judy Holliday, Born Yesterday
My Pick: Bette Davis, All About Eve

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
The Winner: George Sanders, All About Eve
My Pick: George Sanders, All About Eve

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
The Winner: Josephine Hull, Harvey
My Pick: Thelma Ritter, All About Eve

Another historical year for the number of high-quality pictures released. Best picture was a close call between All About Eve and Sunset Blvd. A tie would have been justified, but I went with Eve by a nose. For best director I chose Carol Reed for The Third Man (not nominated for best picture), the movie that the British Film Institute named the best British film of the 20th century. I divided the acting awards between Eve and Sunset Blvd. Davis's incredible failure to win best actress for her Margo Channing is probably down to the fact that costar Anne Baxter was also nominated, thus splitting the vote. Draining more votes away from Davis was Gloria Swanson in her comeback performance as the demented has-been Norma Desmond. Another factor at play was that at the time nobody had won three times for best lead performance, and perhaps the Academy voters were reluctant to break that precedent for Davis, who had recently left Warner Bros. after a string of flops. As for Holden, nothing in his ten-year-long career had suggested he was capable of this level of acting, and perhaps Academy voters were simply caught off-guard. Maybe they were too mesmerized by Swanson's flamboyance in the same picture to recognize the subtlety of Holden's introspective performance. Or maybe his opportunistic Joe Gillis simply hit too close to home for comfort. In the supporting categories, I went with George Sanders as the acidulous Addison de Witt and Thelma Ritter as the wise and loyal Birdie in All About Eve. (Maybe Mankiewizc should have gotten a special award for creating the most amusing character names.) Biggest omission: Humphrey Bogart's Dixon Steele in In a Lonely Place.

1951

BEST PICTURE
The Winner: An American in Paris
My Pick: A Streetcar Named Desire

BEST DIRECTOR
The Winner: George Stevens, A Place in the Sun
My Pick: Elia Kazan, A Streetcar Named Desire

BEST ACTOR
The Winner: Humphrey Bogart, The African Queen
My Pick: Marlon Brando, A Streetcar Named Desire

BEST ACTRESS
The Winner: Vivien Leigh, A Streetcar Named Desire
My Pick: Vivien Leigh, A Streetcar Named Desire

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
The Winner: Karl Malden, A Streetcar Named Desire
My Pick: Karl Malden, A Streetcar Named Desire

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
The Winner: Kim Hunter, A Streetcar Named Desire
My Pick: Thelma Ritter, The Mating Season

The most astounding year for misguided awards since 1941. I can only infer that even though its preoccupation with sex had been toned down from the stage version, A Streetcar Named Desire was just too shocking and unconventional for the Academy. Instead, they went for the charming but innocuous An American in Paris (far from the best Hollywood musical) for best picture and gave a Career Achievement Award to George Stevens for his tasteful direction of A Place in the Sun. It is incomprehensible that Marlon Brando was denied an Oscar for the most innovative and influential performance by an actor of the decade. That Humphrey Bogart got a Career Achievement Oscar for his emasculated character performance in The African Queen is simply a travesty, a repudiation of the forceful screen persona he had worked so hard to establish during the previous ten years. At least the Academy realized that Vivien Leigh, playing a delusional middle-aged version of Scarlett O'Hara, was as in 1939 the only reasonable choice for best actress. For best supporting actress I chose Thelma Ritter for the second year in a row for this, her best comedy performance, over Kim Hunter, who I thought was overshadowed by her costars. Biggest omission: Robert Walker, Strangers on a Train.

1952

BEST PICTURE
The Winner: The Greatest Show on Earth
My Pick: High Noon

BEST DIRECTOR
The Winner: John Ford, The Quiet Man
My Pick: Fred Zinneman, High Noon

BEST ACTOR
The Winner: Gary Cooper, High Noon
My Pick: Gary Cooper, High Noon

BEST ACTRESS
The Winner: Shirley Booth, Come Back, Little Sheba
My Pick: Julie Harris, The Member of the Wedding

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
The Winner: Anthony Quinn, Viva Zapata!
My Pick: Jack Palance, Sudden Fear

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
The Winner: Gloria Grahame, The Bad and the Beautiful
My Pick: Jean Hagen, Singin' in the Rain

In this year's best picture race a bloated, lavish entertainment once again prevailed over a smaller, more intimate picture. Maybe Westerns weren't taken seriously; a Western hadn't won since Cimarron in 1931 and wouldn't again for several more decades. Or maybe the possibility that High Noon could be interpreted as a condemnation of McCarthyism (this during the height of the Cold War and the Hollywood blacklists) scared off the Academy. (I've never particularly seen the movie in this light myself, always focusing more on the universality of its depiction of collective cowardice.) High Noon's director was snubbed too, in favor of veteran John Ford for the ultimate expression of his Irish fetish in the cornball (but in its way amusing) blarney of The Quiet Man. At least Gary Cooper, perfectly cast as the laconic sheriff under pressure, was justly rewarded for his performance in High Noon. Shirley Booth took best actress for her turn as a pathetic frump in Come Back, Little Sheba, but I have to admit that this is a performance I find wearing and that after a while begins to irritate. I can understand how living with her would drive Burt Lancaster to drink! Instead I went for Julie Harris as Carson McCullers's Frankie in another Zinneman film, the underappreciated The Member of the Wedding. She's not wholly convincing as a 12-year old but might pass for a mature 14-year old. Still, it's a mighty impressive performance, a unique character played with amazing concentration and conviction. I have a weakness for psycho characters, even if the Academy doesn't, and for supporting actor went with Jack Palance's psycho in the Joan Crawford damsel-in-distress melodrama Sudden Fear. I like Gloria Grahame a lot, but apparently the Academy didn't like the bad girls she played to a tee (including the one in Sudden Fear) and rewarded her instead for this rather bland, minuscule part. For supporting actress I picked Jean Hagen's broadly comical Lina Lamont in Singin' in the Rain. Biggest omission: Singin' in the Rain for best picture.

1953

BEST PICTURE
The Winner: From Here to Eternity
My Pick: From Here to Eternity

BEST DIRECTOR
The Winner: Fred Zinneman, From Here to Eternity
My Pick: Fred Zinneman, From Here to Eternity

BEST ACTOR
The Winner: William Holden, Stalag 17
My Pick: Montgomery Clift, From Here to Eternity

BEST ACTRESS
The Winner: Audrey Hepburn, Roman Holiday
My Pick: Audrey Hepburn, Roman Holiday

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
The Winner: Frank Sinatra, From Here to Eternity
My Pick: Frank Sinatra, From Here to Eternity

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
The Winner: Donna Reed, From Here to Eternity
My Pick: Thelma Ritter, Pickup on South Street

The Academy made up for its mistakes of the year before by giving Oscars to Zinneman and his follow-up picture. This is a movie that still impresses me today. Its narrative strategy of relating two connected but parallel stories that barely intersect seems years ahead of its time. William Holden got his Oscar for playing a softened version of essentially the same character as in Sunset Blvd. but in a different environment and with a more acceptable outcome, thus removing any implicit criticism of the Hollywood establishment. He was probably helped by the dual nominations for best actor for From Here to Eternity. Burt Lancaster's performance in the movie seemed to attract more attention than Montgomery Clift's, but I went with Clift as the tortured Private Prewitt. Audrey Hepburn hit the big time with an irresistible performance, and there was no way anyone else was going to get the Oscar for best actress this year, a sentiment with which I completely concur. Donna Reed was impressive in the Zinneman picture, but the great Thelma Ritter, who for me can do no wrong, gave her best performance ever in a rare dramatic role in Samuel Fuller's Cold War film noir Pickup on South Street, and I went with her for best supporting actress for the third time in four years. Biggest omission: The Naked Spur—for picture, director, actor, supporting actor (Robert Ryan), or supporting actress (Janet Leigh).


1954

BEST PICTURE
The Winner: On the Waterfront
My Pick: On the Waterfront

BEST DIRECTOR
The Winner: Elia Kazan, On the Waterfront
My Pick: Alfred Hitchcock, Rear Window

BEST ACTOR
The Winner: Marlon Brando, On the Waterfront
My Pick: Marlon Brando, On the Waterfront

BEST ACTRESS
The Winner: Grace Kelly, The Country Girl
My Pick: Judy Garland, A Star Is Born

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
The Winner: Edmond O'Brien, The Barefoot Contessa
My Pick: Edmond O'Brien, The Barefoot Contessa

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
The Winner: Eva Marie Saint, On the Waterfront
My Pick: Eva Marie Saint, On the Waterfront

For once the Academy's concept of best largely conformed to mine. I departed from their choice in only two categories, but those departures were significant ones. Alfred Hitchcock, like Cary Grant and Greta Garbo, is one of those classic film artists whose lack of an Oscar is frequently cited as proof of the Academy's disconnect with quality and consequent irrelevance. Rear Window (not nominated for best picture) is without a doubt Hitchcock's most loved film, by cinephiles and ordinary moviegoers alike. It satisfies and entertains in an exhilarating way that no other American movie of the year does, and those qualities are clearly down to Hitchcock's expertise in the manipulation of material, actors, visual realization, and above all audience reaction to achieve precisely calculated effects. Grace Kelly, who appeared in no less than five films released this year, was a lovely and enchanting actress, especially when directed by Alfred Hitchcock. But her Oscar for her dowdy performance in The Country Girl has always mystified me. Perhaps it was a reward for deglamorizing herself and playing against type, hardly the last time this would happen. Judy Garland, on the other hand, gave a big, flavorful, and variegated performance in A Star Is Born. (She is said to have lost to Kelly by just six votes, one of the closest races in Oscar history.) Garland, who hadn't appeared on the screen in four years, was probably hurt by the feeling that she was past her prime (while Kelly's star was on the rise) and by her reputation for neurotic, unprofessional behavior. Also unhelpful was the fact that the movie was butchered after previews. The film's director, George Cukor, certainly attributed her loss to pre-release tampering with the picture by Warner Bros. and has stated that neither he nor Garland could bear to watch the release version of the movie, knowing what had been removed. Garland's brilliance shines through even in the truncated version that remained after re-editing, but it wasn't until the restored version of 1983 that the full genius of her performance (or of costar and fellow nominee James Mason's) could be appreciated. Biggest omission: James Stewart, Rear Window.

1955

BEST PICTURE
The Winner: Marty
My Pick: Marty

BEST DIRECTOR
The Winner: Delbert Mann, Marty
My Pick: Delbert Mann, Marty

BEST ACTOR
The Winner: Ernest Borgnine, Marty
My Pick: James Dean, East of Eden

BEST ACTRESS
The Winner: Anna Magnani, The Rose Tatoo
My Pick: Katharine Hepburn, Summertime

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
The Winner: Jack Lemmon, Mr. Roberts
My Pick: Jack Lemmon, Mr. Roberts

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
The Winner: Jo Van Fleet, East of Eden
My Pick: Betsy Blair, Marty

Many people find Marty overly sentimental, but I've liked this movie since I first saw it many years ago. I find its sentiment honest and, by Hollywood standards, pretty restrained, and for once Paddy Chayevsky's writing isn't saddled with a heavy-handed Message. If East of Eden, The Night of the Hunter, or Rebel Without a Cause had been nominated for best picture, making a choice would have been much more difficult. I was tempted to diverge from the Academy's choice of best director because Elia Kazan was nominated (Nicholas Ray, who would have been my first choice, wasn't), but in the end I didn't really see any reason to split the picture and director awards. Ernest Borgnine got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with the lead in Marty. However, I went with James Dean. Admittedly, his equally fine performance in Rebel Without a Cause the same year influenced me in this choice. Dean was probably too young and too radical in his acting style to prevail over Borgnine, and the Academy voters might have been thinking that if he turned out not to be a flash-in-the-pan, he would have more chances to compete for the award. I like Magnani very much, but subtlety was not part of her acting style, and nowhere is this more apparent than in her English language movies. I adore Hepburn's finely calibrated acting in Summertime and for best actress went with her graceful performance instead. I didn't find Jo Van Fleet in East of Eden that impressive, most of her costars giving stronger performances—including Julie Harris and Raymond Massey, neither one nominated. For best supporting actress I preferred Betsy Blair's touching performance as the repressed, parent-dominated teacher in Marty. Perhaps all those other wins for the picture hurt her chances, and the Academy felt compelled to recognize East of Eden with some award. Biggest omission: The Night of the Hunter—best picture, director, actor, or supporting actress (Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish).

THE SUMMING UP 1934-1955

BEST PICTURE
Agreed: 9
Disagreed: 13

BEST DIRECTOR
Agreed: 11
Disagreed: 11

BEST ACTOR
Agreed: 6
Disagreed: 16

BEST ACTRESS
Agreed: 7
Disagreed: 15

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Agreed: 12
Disagreed: 8

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Agreed: 11
Disagreed: 9

During these years, I disagreed with the Academy most often in the lead acting awards. The reason is likely that these are the awards most influenced by personal popularity with peers, by box office success, and by sentimental appeal. But I must say that even though the Academy didn't duplicate my pick all that often, the choices they did make were generally acceptable ones—good performances that I can live with. The majority might not have been my own preference, and it's shocking how many memorable performances weren't even nominated, but looking back over the list of winners, I can't think of any winning performances that were downright mediocre. Although I disagreed with the best picture awards less often, I would say that those were, in comparison, far more serious disagreements. The Great Ziegfeld over Dodsworth, The Life of Emile Zola over The Awful Truth, How Green Was My Valley over Citizen Kane, Gentlemen's Agreement over Great Expectations, An American in Paris over A Streetcar Named Desire, The Greatest Show on Earth over High Noon—to my mind these are all horribly misguided awards. I think that this pattern of making forgivable mistakes over the acting awards and horrendously glaring mistakes over the best picture award is one that has continued to plague the Academy even beyond the years under consideration in these last two posts, and I expect this pattern to persist for as long as the Oscars continue.

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My Oscar Picks, Part 1: 1934-1944

With the Academy Awards coming up soon, I thought it would be fun over the next two weeks to compare past winners in the major categories with my own picks from among the nominees, from 1934, the first year awards were given for the calendar year, through 1955. I tended to divide the best picture and best director awards more often than the Academy for the simple reason that the nominations in these categories don't always coincide. (The entire Academy chooses the best picture nominees; only members of the directors' branch choose best director nominees.) With two exceptions (I'll explain why) I chose only from among the actual nominees, so there were times when my own favorite wasn't in the running, although this really didn't happen all that often. In truth, I haven't seen every single picture and performance that was nominated in every single year, but then I imagine the same applies to quite a few real voters. Here, then, are my picks preceded by the winners. I also included what I thought was the gravest oversight in the nominations for each year. (For the other nominees, click on the link to the Official Academy Awards Database in the sidebar and search by category and year.)

NOTE: The opinions expressed in this post are strictly those of the author and are not intended to be taken as objective judgments!


1934

BEST PICTURE
The Winner: It Happened One Night
My Pick: It Happened One Night

BEST DIRECTOR
The Winner: Frank Capra, It Happened One Night
My Pick: Frank Capra, It Happened One Night

BEST ACTOR:
The Winner: Clark Gable, It Happened One Night
My Pick: William Powell, The Thin Man

BEST ACTRESS:
The Winner: Claudette Colbert, It Happened One Night
My Pick: Greta Garbo, Queen Christina


This year there were twelve nominees for best picture and three nominees in most other categories. Write-in votes were allowed on the final ballot, and Bette Davis, not nominated for her breakthrough performance in Of Human Bondage, was expected to win best actress as a write-in candidate. She actually came in 3rd (the Academy announced the order of the top three vote-getters in 1932/33, 1934, and 1935), after Norma Shearer for The Barretts of Wimpole Street. I'm a huge fan of Davis—she's my favorite movie actress of all time—and also of Colbert. But I still went with my own write-in candidate, Greta Garbo for Queen Christina. With only three nominations in all categories but best picture, the other choices were pretty easy. I differed from the Academy only in my choice for best actor—William Powell as Nick Charles in The Thin Man, who surprisingly came in 3rd after Frank Morgan for a supporting performance in The Affairs of Cellini. Biggest omission (besides Davis and Garbo): Twentieth Century—for picture, director, actor, or actress.


1935

BEST PICTURE
The Winner: Mutiny on the Bounty
My Pick: The Informer

BEST DIRECTOR
The Winner: John Ford, The Informer
My Pick: John Ford, The Informer

BEST ACTOR
The Winner: Victor McLaglen, The Informer
My Pick: Fredric March, Les Misérables

BEST ACTRESS
The Winner: Bette Davis, Dangerous
My Pick: Katharine Hepburn, Alice Adams

There were twelve nominees again for best picture and five nominees in most other categories this year, although still only three for best director. Curiously, there were six nominations for best actress and four for best actor. Three of the latter were for Mutiny on the Bounty, a surefire vote-splitter that guaranteed McLaglen would win. Of the three nominees from Bounty, Charles Laughton got the most votes, coming in 3rd after write-in candidate Paul Muni for Black Fury. (Has anyone ever seen this?) Since this was the last year write-in votes were permitted, I exercised that prerogative and for best actor chose Fredric March as Jean Valjean in Les Misérables. Even Davis acknowledged that her win for best actress was a consolation prize for being overlooked the year before and that she had expected the Oscar to go to Hepburn, who came in 2nd. Although all four major awards had gone to a comedy the year before, this year the Academy initiated a trend of favoring heavy emoting over comedy, a trend that continues to this day. Biggest omission: George Cukor, best director for David Copperfield.

1936

BEST PICTURE
The Winner: The Great Ziegfeld
My Pick: Dodsworth

BEST DIRECTOR
The Winner: Frank Capra, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
My Pick: William Wyler, Dodsworth

BEST ACTOR
The Winner: Paul Muni, The Story of Louis Pasteur
My Pick: Walter Huston, Dodsworth

BEST ACTRESS
The Winner: Luise Rainer, The Great Ziegfeld
My Pick: Carole Lombard, My Man Godfrey

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
The Winner: Walter Brennan, Come and Get It
My Pick: Walter Brennan, Come and Get It

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
The Winner: Gale Sondergaard, Anthony Adverse
My Pick: Gale Sondergaard, Anthony Adverse

Ten movies were nominated for best picture, a practice that lasted through 1943 and which has been revived again this year. For the first time, awards were given for best supporting actor and actress, in part because of negotiations between the studios and the recently formed Screen Actors Guild. Walter Brennan won the first of three awards in five years in this category, and until 1968, when Katharine Hepburn won her third Oscar, was the only person to have won three times for acting. (Maybe that early, record-setting winning streak accounts for not being nominated for his great later performances like those in To Have and Have Not, Red River, Bad Day at Black Rock, and Rio Bravo.) It's clear that I'm a big admirer of Dodsworth, choosing it in three major categories. The Academy chose The Great Ziegfeld for best picture, continuing a trend begun earlier (and repeated more than once since) of choosing slick, large-scale spectacles over smaller, more thoughtful films. For best actress I went with Lombard's ditzy but sweet heiress, the only time she was ever nominated. I've always thought the Academy chose Rainer in a much smaller (really, a supporting) role largely for her emotional telephone scene, not the first time voters were swayed by one big, showy scene that stuck in the memory. Biggest omission: Modern Times—for picture, director, or actor.

1937

BEST PICTURE
The Winner: The Life of Emile Zola
My Pick: The Awful Truth

BEST DIRECTOR
The Winner: Leo McCarey, The Awful Truth
My Pick: Leo McCarey, The Awful Truth

BEST ACTOR
The Winner: Spencer Tracy, Captains Courageous
My Pick: Fredric March, A Star Is Born

BEST ACTRESS
The Winner: Luise Rainer, The Good Earth
My Pick: Greta Garbo, Camille

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
The Winner: Joseph Schildkraut, The Life of Emile Zola
My Pick: Roland Young, Topper

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
The Winner: Alice Brady, In Old Chicago
My Pick: Dame May Whitty, Night Must Fall

This was one of Hollywood's strongest years, perhaps the strongest until the landmark year of 1939. With so many worthy choices, it's not surprising that I was at odds with the Academy in all but one category. With its award for best picture, the Academy began a trend of choosing a noble but rather dull movie that projects a good image for Hollywood, a self-important message picture that shows the world Hollywood has The Right Attitude. My pick was The Awful Truth, the movie I've called the definitive screwball comedy and which for me typifies the perfect balance of entertainment and sophistication that was Hollywood's forte. Spencer Tracy was a wonderful, unfussy actor, but in the years he gave his best performances, he seemed to be bested by someone else, like Fredric March's unforgettable Norman Maine. The best actress category often has the weakest field of nominees, something that still continues. But that certainly wasn't the case this year. All the nominees gave strong performances, and several equally worthy performances weren't nominated at all: Jean Arthur, Easy Living; Carole Lombard, Nothing Sacred; Katharine Hepburn, Stage Door; Sylvia Sydney, Dead End. I was torn between Garbo and Irene Dunne for The Awful Truth but in the end went with Garbo because of her performance's gravity and range. Biggest omission (aside from the actresses mentioned above): Cary Grant, The Awful Truth.

1938

BEST PICTURE
The Winner: You Can't Take It with You
My Pick: Pygmalion

BEST DIRECTOR
The Winner: Frank Capra, You Can't Take It with You
My Pick: Frank Capra, You Can't Take It with You

BEST ACTOR
The Winner: Spencer Tracy, Boys Town
My Pick: Leslie Howard, Pygmalion

BEST ACTRESS
The Winner: Bette Davis, Jezebel
My Pick: Bette Davis, Jezebel

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
The Winner: Walter Brennan, Kentucky
My Pick: John Garfield, Four Daughters

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
The Winner: Fay Bainter, Jezebel
My Pick: Fay Bainter, Jezebel

The best film nominated this year was actually Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion; another foreign language picture wouldn't be nominated until Z in 1969. But since I consider the Oscars at this point awards for English language movies, I went with Pygmalion, the first time I chose a British film. I would have chosen its directors (Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard) also, but they weren't nominated. Best actress was a fairly easy choice; best actor wasn't. Again, a good performance by Spencer Tracy in the rather sentimental Boys Town was overshadowed by the work of others. James Cagney's turn in the trite Angels with Dirty Faces was powerful but seemed to me pretty old hat by this time, distinguished from his other performances in this vein largely by the supercharged drama of the final scene. I went with Leslie Howard as Prof. Henry Higgins in Pygmalion, one of the great roles of drama that Howard, who co-directed the movie version, does full justice to. The biggest oversight was Brennan's win over Garfield, hardly the last time a reliable veteran playing a likable character would be chosen over a newcomer saddled with The Curse of the Unsympathetic Character. Biggest omission: Bringing Up Baby—for picture, director, actor, actress, or supporting actor (Charles Ruggles).

1939

BEST PICTURE
The Winner: Gone with the Wind
My Pick: Gone with the Wind

BEST DIRECTOR
The Winner: Victor Fleming, Gone with the Wind
My Pick: John Ford, Stagecoach

BEST ACTOR
The Winner: Robert Donat, Goodbye, Mr. Chips
My Pick: James Stewart, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

BEST ACTRESS
The Winner: Vivien Leigh, Gone with the Wind
My Pick: Vivien Leigh, Gone with the Wind

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
The Winner: Thomas Mitchell, Stagecoach
My Pick: Thomas Mitchell, Stagecoach

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
The Winner: Hattie McDaniel, Gone with the Wind
My Pick: Hattie McDaniel, Gone with the Wind

I had very little disagreement with the awards this year. Despite its skewed version of American history, Gone with the Wind is simply great popular entertainment, whereas Stagecoach is great popular art, my own favorite Western ever. I'm not sure that GWTW can really be said to have been directed by Fleming, even though he received sole credit for it. At least two other directors worked on the picture, not counting the contributions of its autocratic producer, David O. Selznick, or of William Cameron Menzies, whose sketches for production design were essentially storyboards. Donat's surprising win is probably attributable to the emotional appeal of his role and to Clark Gable and James Stewart splitting the vote, with voters reluctant either to award all four major awards to one picture (especially as Gable had already won in these circumstances) or to recognize a young and relatively unproven actor like Stewart. Stewart's snub strikes me as one of the all-time biggest Oscar mistakes, one that would have unfortunate repercussions the next year. As in 1937, all the best actress nominees were strong, as were several non-nominees: Jean Arthur (again), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; Claudette Colbert, Midnight; Norma Shearer, The Women; Judy Garland, The Wizard of Oz (although she did receive special recognition for outstanding juvenile performance of the year). Still, best actress was owned by Viven Leigh from the start, and it is inconceivable that anyone else would have won. Biggest omission (besides those actresses): Lon Chaney, Jr., best supporting actor for Of Mice and Men.

1940

BEST PICTURE
The Winner: Rebecca
My Pick: The Philadelphia Story

BEST DIRECTOR
The Winner: John Ford, The Grapes of Wrath
My Pick: John Ford, The Grapes of Wrath

BEST ACTOR
The Winner: James Stewart, The Philadelphia Story
My Pick: Henry Fonda, The Grapes of Wrath

BEST ACTRESS
The Winner: Ginger Rogers, Kitty Foyle
My Pick: Katharine Hepburn, The Philadelphia Story

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
The Winner: Walter Brennan, The Westerner
My Pick: Walter Brennan, The Westerner

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
The Winner: Jane Darwell, The Grapes of Wrath
My Pick: Judith Anderson, Rebecca

Another impressive year for Hollywood, a worthy follow-up to 1939. Of the ten best picture nominees, I would rank five as masterpieces. Two other movies I consider masterpieces, His Girl Friday and The Shop Around the Corner, weren't among the ten nominees and in fact didn't receive a single nomination. In the end I went for the picture I like the best. The lead acting categories exemplified two trends that I find lamentable. Stewart's win was another example of the Oops, We Made a Mistake Syndrome like Bette Davis's win in 1935, in which a superior performance is ignored in the rush to atone for a previous oversight. Henry Fonda would have to wait forty years for his Oscar. Rogers's win was an example of what is referred to as a Career Achievement Award, in which a popular actor giving a good performance in a good part is rewarded for years of hard work as a tireless trouper. There's nothing wrong with that except that it vitiates the notion of recognizing the year's best performance. This year the competition for best actress was fierce, and the nominees didn't even include Rosalind Russell for His Girl Friday or Margaret Sullavan for The Shop Around the Corner. For best actress I went with Kate Hepburn for her best and most typical performance. Darwell's award is attributable to a combination of the Career Achievement Award and the One Big Scene Syndrome (that speech at the end about the indominability of The People). I went instead for Judith Anderson's deliciously malevolent Mrs. Danvers. Biggest omission: Cary Grant for either The Philadelphia Story or His Girl Friday.

1941

BEST PICTURE
The Winner: How Green Was My Valley
My Pick: Citizen Kane

BEST DIRECTOR
The Winner: John Ford, How Green Was My Valley
My Pick: Orson Welles, Citizen Kane

BEST ACTOR
The Winner: Gary Cooper, Sergeant York
My Pick: Walter Huston, All That Money Can Buy (The Devil and Daniel Webster)

BEST ACTRESS
The Winner: Joan Fontaine, Suspicion
My Pick: Bette Davis, The Little Foxes

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
The Winner: Donald Crisp, How Green Was My Valley
My Pick: Sydney Greenstreet, The Maltese Falcon

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
The Winner: Mary Astor, The Great Lie
My Pick: Mary Astor, The Great Lie

What can I say about the best picture and directing awards for this year? The incomprehensible wrongness of these awards speaks for itself. How Green Was My Valley presents in sharp contrast John Ford's strengths and shortcomings: sequences of great emotional and visual pull alternate with sequences of mawkish sentimentality and awkward staginess. There is no way that this movie is in the same league as the rightfully legendary Citizen Kane. My contrariness continued with all but one of the remaining awards. The Maltese Falcon was at least nominated for best picture and supporting actor, but evidently John Huston and Humphrey Bogart didn't then enjoy the respect they would later have. Mary Astor, so memorable in Falcon as Brigid O'Shaughnessy, was nominated for best supporting actress and won for a more flamboyant (arguably, actually a lead) performance in a different picture altogether. Barbara Stanwyck was nominated for Ball of Fire, not The Lady Eve, as I would have expected. If she had been, she might well have gotten my vote. Under the direction of Alfred Hitchcock, Joan Fontaine gave the second of the two best performances of her career and took home the Oscar, but I preferred Bette Davis's controlled monster Regina, for me her best performance of the 30s and 40s. Biggest omission: Sullivan's Travels—for picture, director, or actor.

1942

BEST PICTURE
The Winner: Mrs. Miniver
My Pick: The Magnificent Ambersons

BEST DIRECTOR
The Winner: William Wyler, Mrs. Miniver
My Pick: William Wyler, Mrs. Miniver

BEST ACTOR
The Winner: James Cagney, Yankee Doodle Dandy
My Pick: James Cagney, Yankee Doodle Dandy

BEST ACTRESS
The Winner: Greer Garson, Mrs. Miniver
My Pick: Katharine Hepburn, Woman of the Year

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
The Winner: Van Heflin, Johnny Eager
My Pick: Van Heflin, Johnny Eager

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
The Winner: Teresa Wright, Mrs. Miniver
My Pick: Agnes Moorehead, The Magnificent Ambersons

For best picture I chose Orson Welles's melancholy contemplation of loss and change—even in its truncated form, a masterpiece—over the meretricious Mrs. Miniver. Lillian Hellman tells the following anecdote about Mrs. Miniver: Seeing her in tears after a screening of the film, William Wyler asked if she was really that moved by the experience. "I'm crying," she answered, "because it's such a piece of shit." I can see her point: it might have been what those involved thought America needed to spur it to join the war (although by the time the picture was released this was a moot issue, since the US was already in the war), but today it feels awfully sanctimonious and manipulative. Still, I went with Wyler for best director because Welles wasn't nominated, because Wyler did his usual professional job, and because the other nominees were so weak in comparison. James Cagney trounced the competition for best actor with his energetic impersonation of George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy. For best actress I again chose the divine Kate in her first teaming with Spencer Tracy, as a self-centered, independent woman whom the gruff but patient and down-to-earth Tracy humanizes by teaching her to control her ego (and enjoy baseball too). Biggest omission: Orson Welles, best director for The Magnificent Ambersons.

1943

BEST PICTURE
The Winner: Casablanca
My Pick: Casablanca

BEST DIRECTOR
The Winner: Michael Curtiz, Casablanca
My Pick: Michael Curtiz, Casablanca

BEST ACTOR
The Winner: Paul Lukas, Watch on the Rhine
My Pick: Humphrey Bogart, Casablanca

BEST ACTRESS
The Winner: Jennifer Jones, The Song of Bernadette
My Pick: Jean Arthur, The More the Merrier

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
The Winner: Charles Coburn, The More the Merrier
My Pick: Charles Coburn, The More the Merrier

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
The Winner: Katina Paxinou, For Whom the Bell Tolls
My Pick: Katina Paxinou, For Whom the Bell Tolls

Every time I watch Casablanca, I grow more fond of it and am more impressed by Curtiz's masterful direction. Why, then, did the Academy not see that Bogart's Rick was a performance that would last, whereas in time Paul Lukas's Nazi-fighter would fade? Lukas's award is an example of the recurring practice of rewarding a sincere performance more for the nobility of the character being played than for the actual best performance of the year, something that seems to happen especially during times of national stress, particularly when the alternative is someone playing a morally ambiguous or outright monstrous character. (Adrien Brody's win over Daniel Day-Lewis in 2002 is a recent example.) Although the Academy has traditionally been chary of recognizing relatively unknown young actors for breakthrough performances, it has seldom shown this same reluctance toward actresses, and this year gave the award to 24-year old Jennifer Jones for her first major picture, The Song of Bernadette. I think Jones was a better actress than she is generally given credit for (especially considering her troubled personal life and her Trilby-Svengali relationship to David O. Selznick), but I see her Oscar as a duplication of Lukas's for best actor, an award that put the nobility of the character before the quality of the performance. For best actress I went with the shamefully ignored Jean Arthur, who received her only nomination for this, her best and most charming performance. Biggest omission: Henry Fonda, The Ox-Bow Incident.

1944

BEST PICTURE
The Winner: Going My Way
My Pick: Double Indemnity

BEST DIRECTOR
The Winner: Leo McCarey, Going My Way
My Pick: Billy Wilder, Double Indemnity

BEST ACTOR
The Winner: Bing Crosby, Going My Way
My Pick: Bing Crosby, Going My Way

BEST ACTRESS
The Winner: Ingrid Bergman, Gaslight
My Pick: Barbara Stanwyck, Double Indemnity

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
The Winner: Barry Fitzgerald, Going My Way
My Pick: Clifton Webb, Laura

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
The Winner: Ethel Barrymore, None But the Lonely Heart
My Pick: Ethel Barrymore, None But the Lonely Heart

I like Going My Way; it's an enjoyable, lightweight sentimental heart-warmer. But I have no doubt that Wilder's pitch-black Double Indemnity is the best picture of the year. I also like Bing Crosby as the easygoing Father O'Malley in Going My Way and chose him over Barry Fitzgerald (who was simultaneously nominated for best supporting actor for the same role and won). I think Fitzgerald is a great character actor, but I have a low tolerance for this kind of cornball blarney and believe he gave better performances than this one. For best supporting actor I went instead for Clifton Webb's delightfully campy Waldo Lydecker. I like Ingrid Bergman too and think she was very affecting in George Cukor's florid take on Gaslight (which contrary to much critical opinion I prefer to its rather enervated 1939 British version). But in Wilder's nasty Double Indemnity Stanwyck gives the best performance of her impressive career, the definitive film noir femme fatale. Biggest omission: Meet Me in St. Louis—best picture, director, or actress (Judy Garland).

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Right Movie, Wrong Nominee

It's that time of year again. Nominations for the 2008 Oscars were announced last week, and as usual a lot has been written and said about performers who were unexpectedly nominated or who were overlooked. The Academy Awards seem to be full of anomalies, especially in the acting awards: great performers who never won (Cary Grant, Peter O'Toole, Greta Garbo, Deborah Kerr) or were never even nominated (Joel McCrea, Marilyn Monroe), seemingly sure-fire winners who lost to long shots (Bette Davis for All About Eve to Judy Holliday for Born Yesterday, Rod Steiger for The Pawnbroker to Lee Marvin for The Ballad of Cat Ballou), lead performances nominated in the supporting category (Al Pacino for The Godfather, Jake Gyllenhall for Brokeback Mountain, Cate Blanchett for Notes on a Scandal) and supporting performances nominated in the lead category (Patricia Neal for Hud, Meryl Streep for The Devil Wears Prada), performers overlooked for a signature performance who then later won for a lesser performance (Bette Davis for Dangerous, not Of Human Bondage; James Stewart for The Philadelphia Story, not Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; Elizabeth Taylor for Butterfield 8, not Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), performers who won not for one of their greatest performances but as a sort of career achievement award (John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Paul Newman, Al Pacino). Tom Dirks's Filmsite.org contains a whole section of "mistakes and omissions" in the acting awards.

In looking over the nominations over the years, I was struck by a particular pattern in the supporting actor and actress categories: one person nominated when another performance in the same movie should have been. Indeed, this pattern began in 1936, the very first year that the Best Supporting Actor and Actress awards were given. My Man Godfrey received nominations in all four acting categories, but one nomination struck me as clearly misguided. William Powell was nominated for Best Actor, Carole Lombard for Best Actress, Alice Brady for Best Supporting Actress; all of these nominations were well-deserved.

But who in this movie was nominated as Best Supporting Actor? To me the obvious choice was the great character actor Eugene Pallette as the irascible head of the eccentric Bullock family. Instead it was Mischa Auer in an admittedly entertaining but much smaller and more one-note performance. That same year Maria Ouspeskaya was nominated for a tiny role in William Wylers's great Dodsworth that frankly didn't make much of an impression on me, whereas Mary Astor, whose role was much more significant and who gave one of the best and most sympathetic performances of her long career, was not. Over the years, this same thing has happened numerous times:

MISGUIDED NOMINATIONS FOR BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
•1936, My Man Godfrey
Was nominated: Mischa Auer
Should have been nominated: Eugene Pallette
• 1940, Foreign Correspondent
Was nominated: Albert Basserman
Should have been nominated: Herbert Marshall
• 1952, The Quiet Man
Was nominated: Victor McLaglen
Should have been nominated: Barry Fitzgerald
• 1958, Some Came Running
Was nominated: Arthur Kennedy (one of his rare bad performances)
Should have been nominated: Dean Martin
• 1960, The Apartment
Was nominated: Jack Kruschen
Should have been nominated: Fred MacMurray
• 1964, Becket
Was nominated: John Gielgud
Should have been nominated: Donald Wolfit
• 1965, Flight of the Phoenix
Was nominated: Ian Bannen
Should have been nominated: Richard Attenborough
• 1976, Network
Was nominated: Ned Beatty
Should have been nominated: Robert Duvall
• 1986, A Room with a View
Was nominated: Denholm Elliott
Should have been nominated: Daniel Day-Lewis
• 1991, Barton Fink
Was nominated: Michael Lerner
Should have been nominated: John Goodman
• 1994, Quiz Show
Was Nominated: Paul Scofield
Should have been nominated: John Turturro
• 1996, Fargo
Was nominated: William H. Macy
Should have been nominated: Steve Buscemi
• 2006, The Departed
Was nominated: Mark Wahlberg
Should have been nominated: Jack Nicholson

MISGUIDED NOMINATIONS FOR BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
• 1936, Dodsworth
Was nominated: Maria Ouspenskaya
Should have been nominated: Mary Astor
• 1958, Some Came Running
Was nominated: Martha Hyer
Should have been nominated: Connie Gilchrist
• 1960, Sons and Lovers
Was nominated: Mary Ure
Should have been nominated: Wendy Hiller
• 1969, Midnight Cowboy
Was nominated: Sylvia Miles
Should have been nominated: Brenda Vaccaro
• 1978, Interiors
Was nominated: Maureen Stapleton
Should have been nominated: Mary Beth Hurt
• 1979, Starting Over
Was nominated: Candace Bergen
Should have been nominated: Mary Kay Place
• 1993, The Age of Innocence
Was nominated: Winona Ryder
Should have been nominated: Miriam Margolyes

The truth is that most of these nominations were not inappropriate. In reality both the nominee and the non-nominee could justifiably have been cited, and in many years more than one supporting performer from the same film has received a nomination. Several times three supporting performers from the same movie have been nominated: in 1954 for On the Waterfront, in 1963 for Tom Jones, in 1972 for The Godfather, and in 1974 for The Godfather, Part II. My point is that if only one person was to be nominated, to me it should have been the one overlooked.

It is possible that in some years the person nominated diverted enough votes from the other performer in the same movie to knock that person out of the running. This seems especially true when one performer was much better known or of greater repute than the other. Maureen Stapleton, John Gielgud, and Paul Scofield were stage actors who were more highly regarded professionally than the less well-known alternatives I suggested. Yet those alternatives were the ones who made the greater impression on me.

I'm sure that in some cases publicity campaigns by the actors and their agents were largely responsible for the nomination. After all, in Hollywood a lot has to do with publicity. In some cases it's likely that the overlooked person I suggested had a role that was considered either too major (Fred MacMurray, Wendy Hiller, or Jack Nicholson) or too minor (Mary Kay Place or Miriam Margolyes). In other cases the overlooked performer was just too obscure (Donald Wolfit or Connie Gilchrist) or not taken seriously enough in the profession (Dean Martin). In still other cases, the curse of the unsympathetic role was almost certainly responsible for the failure to get a nomination (Herbert Marshall, John Turturro, Steve Buscemi).

Whatever the reason, the wrong supporting performance from the right picture being nominated has happened often enough, and recently enough, that I am prepared to call it a regular occurrence.
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