Movies Til Dawn

As we near this year's Academy Awards (this Sunday I think?) I will continue posting weird, uncomfortable and sometimes just shameful moments in Oscar history. (If you've missed this series, s scroll down and look at the last seven or eight entires. A great way to avoid work for half an hour or so). Here's todays: In 1977 Vanessa Redgrave funded and narrated a documentary film, 'The Palestinian' about the situation of Palestinians and the activities of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. In the film 'Julia' (also made in 1977) she starred in the title role as a woman murdered by the Nazi German regime in the years prior to World War Two for her anti-Fascist activism. When Redgrave was nominated for an Oscar in 1978 for her role in 'Julia', members of the Jewish Defense League, led by Rabbi Meir Kahane,  burned effigies of Redgrave and picketed the ceremony to protest against her involvement in 'The Palestinian.' Redgrave won the Osc...

In 1999, the Motion Picture Academy voted to give director/writer/novelist/ratfink Elia Kazan an honorary Oscar for his lifetime's work. Hell hath no fury like righteous Hollywood prigs, however, and mayhem ensued. Kazan's testimony for the HUAC in the early 1950s (in which he named names of his former Communist Party 'cellmates') was still fresh in the minds of much of the older Hollywood crowd (most notably screenwriter Abraham Polonsky) and protests began immediately, with many asking the Academy to rescind the honor. They didn't. Accompanied onstage by Robert De Niro and Martin Scorcese, the ninety-year old Kazan endured a combination of a standing ovation and overt snubs by members who refused to stand or even applaud. Most righteous among them are Ed Harris and Nick Nolte, neither of whom worked with him or were old enough at the time of the HUAC hearings to know what the fuss was about and both of whom would most likely not have become actors if not for B...

Meet Robert Opel, the most famous man ever on the Oscars telecast whose name you don't know. Opel was the streaker who ran naked ('streaked') behind emcee David Niven at the 1974 Oscars. Streaking was a fad at that time and the producer of the Oscars, Jack Haley Jr., clearly had this in mind when he arranged this little stunt. What makes me so sure it's a stunt? Well, look at how well timed his ignominious moment is and how excellent Niven's retort is. Nobody, not even a clever Englishman with a little moustache, could have ad-libbed that 'shortcomings' line. (I'll leave the entire quote out, thus forcing you to watch the two-minute clip). And how did Opel get backstage in the first place? And what did he do with his clothes? And why is Liz Taylor wearing that hideous yellow dress? Ah, don't try to fool me, Oscar. You'll get nowhere--but quick! Opel was a photographer and something of a renegade--c lick here for the obligatory Wikipedia bio- ...

"If there was a winner it was the people who voted for me." So said Glenda Jackson recently by way of explaining why she was a no-show for her two Oscar wins, for 'A Touch Of Class' and 'Women In Love'. It's an interesting comment. At first it might be mistaken for the customary 'I couldn't have done it without youse' show-biz bromide. But in fact what she seems to be saying is that good sense prevailed and the Academy voters were tasteful and correct in their assessment of her performance being 'better' than Marsha Masons or Barbara Streisand or the other nominees for Best Actress at the 1974 Oscars. No matter. She still blew off the ceremony. Good for her.  If you scroll down you'll see that I've been posting  Oscar blow-offs and this one's pretty good. The general air in the audience when it becomes known that Ms. Jackson is AWOL is an uneasy one at best; Streisand stares off away from camera (already divining defeat?...

George C. Scott won the 1969 Best Actor Oscar for portraying General George S. Patton in the still wildly entertaining and watchable (largely because of his performance) 'Patton.' But did this mean anything special to George C.? Apparently not. He was always hypercritical of awards, feeling that they did a disservice to actors by pitting them against each other. Good for him! I'm in total agreement and, having had the dubious distinction of having lost an Oscar for my first film, have always felt that the final five nominations (or ten, or whatever they do now) should be the award--you're in a group of elite achievers that a body of professionals have voted to honor. Enough already with picking the 'best' one. As a voting member of the Academy I can assure you that the final selection process is a dubious one at best. Unlike Brando (see yesterdays post), George C. didn't send anyone up on stage to make an announcement about why he was refusing the Oscar....

What does it say about me that, even though I function as a modern-day show-biz professional (what a dismal combination of words), I'd rather watch the Oscars from 1951 then the event that I assume will be airing sometime in the next few weeks. (I haven't watched a live Oscar telecast in years). Yesterday I posted the strange best director win of Joe Mankiewicz in 1951 for 'All About Eve.' I call it strange since he gave no speech, nor did it seem as if he were expected to. The speech is what the Oscars has become all about, hasn't it? What the hell? But things were different for actors, apparently. Even actors who didn't win an award themselves were gifted with the opportunity of delivering a speech. Above watch as Broderick Crawford presents Judy Holliday, who isn't there, with the Best Actress Oscar for 'Born Yesterday'. The award is accepted on her behalf by Ethel Barrymore, who promptly goes into a well rehearsed little speech, possibly usin...

As mentioned in yesterday's post, Joseph L. Mankiewicz was a premiere member of the 'writer-directors club', proving to the studio heads (and perhaps the critics as well) that writers could actually function outside of their cubicles (or out from under their table at Chasen's) and make excellent directors. But despite that surge in prestige, apparently writer-directors weren't allowed to speak at the Oscar ceremony. Dig the above one minute and thirty second clip of Mankiewicz winning the best director Oscar for 'All About Eve'. It begins with Fred Astaire--the MC of the event I imagine--introducing Leo McCarey, the director who will present the best director award. The orchestra brings McCarey onto the stage with a few bars of 'Swinging On A Star', the hit from McCarey's own best director Oscar-winning film 'Going My Way'. (Nice touch, don't you think?) McCarey, in a gently jocular way, announces the nominees: George Cukor for ...