Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Adapted Screenplay 1972

The Contenders:

Cabaret
The Emigrants
The Godfather (winner)
Pete ‘n’ Tillie
Sounder

I'm so Glad We Had this Time Together

Films: Pete ‘n’ Tillie
Format: Internet video on the new internet machine.

If you were a kid in the 1970s in the U.S., you probably watched The Carol Burnett Show. If you didn’t, you should have; Burnett was a genius comedienne and her show had some of the greatest comedy moments in television history. Google “Carol Burnett elephant” or “Went with the Wind” and enjoy. Seriously, there’s a moment in the elephant sketch where no one can speak for almost a minute because of what’s going on on the stage. The show had a top-notch cast and so much of it holds up today. Burnett is mostly known for her television work, so it was interesting to see Pete ‘n’ Tillie, a movie that is more than a comedy and in which she plays a romantic lead.

Pete ‘n’ Tillie, as you might well expect, is a story about a romantic couple named, well, Pete (Walter Matthau) and Tillie (Burnett). When the film starts, Tillie is a mid-30s virgin on the verge of becoming a spinster. She’s set up on a blind date with Pete by her friend Gertrude (Geraldine Page, who was nominated in a supporting role). The two clearly don’t hit it off, and despite this, they keep seeing each other. This is despite the fact that Pete is something of a misogynist and also a womanizer, evidenced by the fact that Tillie finds hairpins that she doesn’t use in his bed. Despite all of this and despite the fact that he’s very much a slimy creep, when he gets a promotion, the two of them are married.