Charles Boyer: Fanny
Paul Newman: The Hustler
Maximilian Schell: Judgment at Nuremberg (winner)
Spencer Tracy: Judgment at Nuremberg
Stuart Whitman: The Mark
What’s Missing
This is one of those rare cases where I think Oscar did a pretty good job in terms of the nominations. I don’t really have snubs so much as I have a few suggestions. I think it could be argued that The Guns of Navarone was so much an ensemble cast that there wasn’t really a lead actor. Warren Beatty might have deserved some consideration for Splendor in the Grass, except that Natalie Wood was so overwhelming in that, he was a little hard to see. Marcello Mastroianni was brilliant in Divorce, Italian Style, but he was nominated in 1962. I could make a case for Vittorio De Sica in General Della Rovere. Really, the one I’d like to add here is Toshiro Mifune for Yojimbo.
Weeding through the Nominees
5. If I could add Mifune, he’d be replacing Charles Boyer in Fanny without question. I think Boyer was a fine actor, and he’s not bad in Fanny. The issue is that he’s also not memorable in the role and the film itself is pretty forgettable. This is a good example of just how the Academy has changed over time. There’s no way that a film like Fanny would earn a bunch of nominations today. Honestly, this feels like a case where everybody just liked Boyer as an actor and felt like nominating him for a role in which he was good.
4. I also tend to like Spencer Tracy, and while he won a few Oscars, he was also probably nominated a few times more than he needed to be. He’s very good in Judgment at Nuremberg and I like him in the movie. It’s a hard movie to judge in terms of individual performances, though. The cast is so big and so good that it’s hard to suss out a specific person in many of the roles. I understand his nomination and don’t entirely disagree with it. I simply find it difficult to judge.
3. The Mark, about the rehabilitation of a pedophile, a pretty upsetting topic for any year, but almost entirely out of place in 1961. Stuart Whitman is excellent in a difficult role, and for that, I really like the fact that he was nominated. The problems with The Mark aren’t specifically Whitman, but they do involve him. The psychology of the film is terrible, and it’s Whitman who is forced to deal with that. It’s not a movie I want to watch again, but if I do, Whitman would be the reason. He’s just not the best of his year.
2. I’ve complained about separating performances in Judgment at Nuremberg, but that’s less a case with Maximilian Schell. Schell had the unenviable task in the movie of being the defense attorney of Nazi judges. It’s a hard line for anyone to walk, and I would imagine desperately difficult for an actor who everyone simply considers German by default (he was Austrian, raised in Switzerland) to attempt that role and do it so well. I get why he won. He’s brilliant in the role. He’s not my choice, though.
My Choice
1. I don’t think I’ll get a huge amount of disagreement on this one—Paul Newman should have won for The Hustler. It’s not that the other performances aren’t good and aren’t worthy of some acclaim. It’s simply that Newman is so damn good that no one else really deserves a great deal of real consideration. Perhaps things were different in 1961, and as I’ve said above, I understand why Schell won. But this should have been Newman’s statue to lose, and there really aren’t any good justifications for someone else to win. This should have been Newman's Oscar, and I think most people know that.
Final Analysis
I feel the injustice and ululate with you.
ReplyDeleteIt's things like this that made Newman win for The Color of Money.
DeleteOf these five choices I'd agree with your ultimate winner. It absolutely should have been Newman but Schell was new and exciting and Nuremberg was surely considered more Important than The Hustler so they made him wait and wait until the middling Color of Money.
ReplyDeleteMy placement of the others would be close to yours though I'd move Tracy up a couple of notches. His solid imperturbability as the audience surrogate keeps the long, grueling Nuremberg, which is full of nomination worthy work, on track-he'd be my runner-up.
Now as to who is missing unfortunately I can't comment on Yojimbo that's still a blind spot for me but there are several I'd rather see in than Boyer, Whitman and Schell-though theirs are very good performances. I think Clark Gable saved some of his best for last, his performance in The Misfits is among his finest. I'd also say the incredibly facile whirling dervish of a performance Jimmy Cagney gives in One, Two, Three is worth consideration. But my vote would have gone to Dirk Bogarde's richly textured work in Victim had he been nominated.
Well, Newman certainly could have won for Cool Hand Luke, and should have, in my opinion. No need for him to wait until the mid-'80s.
DeleteTruthfully, I think Schell had the harder job in Judgment at Nuremberg, essentially being tasked with defending the indefensible. Tracy is certainly the audience surrogate, but it's Schell who carries the heaviest burden in a lot of ways. Your other three are blindspots for me, so I can't really comment on them, although I do tend to like both Cagney and Bogarde.
Newman really was robbed and against some pretty weak competition. I'd probably pick him over even my beloved Toshiro Mifune for this particular role.
ReplyDelete(Admittedly, I have not seen The Mark, but Whitman has not impressed me in any of the several films I have seen him.
Whitman is the best thing in The Mark. It's one of those movies that isn't bad, but isn't really essential viewing.
DeleteI have not seen the other nominees, but Paul Newman would with this performance be a contender in any year.
ReplyDeleteToshiro Mifune is great, but I think it is the movie as a whole that makes Yojimbo an excellent movie, not just Mifune.
Oh, I agree on Yojimbo, but it's Mifune who carries it, and who is the focus.
DeleteOf the nominees that I've seen, Newman is definitely the best choice. Of course, I've only seen The Hustler from the choices. Regardless, Newman owns that movie, and that's saying a lot when you consider the other actors involved in it. I'm actually surprised to realize that he didn't win.
ReplyDeleteNewman is one of those actors (like John Wayne and Al Pacino) who got a lifetime achievement Oscar in the guise of a competitive one. He deserved several before he finally won. This one, Cool Hand Luke, and I ranked him as a good winner but not my choice for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
DeleteJudgment at Nuremberg is must-see. The others, not so much.
As much as I love Mifune, I don't think that he was even the best Japanese actor that year. I would have given it to Mothra. It could be that it was one of the first films I can remember seeing as a child, and it was also before the advent of heavy computer cgi. As for Newman, for some reason I have always had a problem with his movies that he acted in for the first decade after James Dean died, as I can't help but think of Dean in these roles that Newman and others got as a result of Dean's death and then the unfortunate Montgomery Clift accident right after Dean's death.
ReplyDeleteNewman definitely has some Dean in him, but I don't have a problem in that respect. I think you could probably say the same about Steve McQueen, who likely got some James Dean roles. Had Dean lived, I could certainly see him in McQueen's role in The Magnificent Seven, for instance.
DeleteFortunately for your 10-year problem, Cool Hand Luke is 1967, so it makes that cutoff.
Yeah, "Cool Hand Luke" definitely makes the grade, but I think it's because Newman had aged far enough away from the works of Dean by then. However, I can't deny that Newman was perfectly cast as Hud. He was so good, that can't see anyone else in that role. Not even Dean or Steve McQueen.
ReplyDeleteAs much as I like The Hustler and Newman in the role (obviously, since I'd give him the statue), Hud might be his first really great "Newman" role, one that, as you say, you can't see anyone else playing.
DeleteMifune in Yojimbo is a great pick to be included. But of the nominees, yeah, Newman wins, no question.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see Mifune in the mix, but my pick is probably still Newman.
Delete