by Allan Fish
Off we go…
Best Picture Wild Strawberries, Sweden (7 votes)
Best Director Ingmar Bergman, Wild Strawberries (8 votes)
Best Short What’s Opera Doc?, US, Chuck Jones (13 votes)
Best Actor Victor Sjöstrom, Wild Strawberries (12 votes)
Best Actress Giulietta Masina, Nights of Cabiria (10 votes)
Best Supp Actor Sessue Hayakawa, The Bridge on the River Kwai (4 votes)
Best Supp Actress Ineko Arima, Tokyo Twilight (3 votes)
Best Cinematography Gunnar Fischer, The Seventh Seal (7 votes)
Best Score Elmer Bernstein, Sweet Smell of Success (8 votes)
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and my own choices…
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Best Picture TOKYO TWILIGHT, Japan
Best Short WHAT’S OPERA DOC?, US, Chuck Jones
Best Director Ingmar Bergman, The Seventh Seal
Best Actor Mickey Rooney, The Comedian TV
Best Actress Setsuko Hara, Tokyo Twilight
Best Supporting Actor Niall McGinnis, Night of the Demon
Best Supporting Actress Ineko Arema, Tokyo Twilight
Best Cinematography Gunnar Fischer, The Seventh Seal
Best Musical Score Elmer Bernstein, Sweet Smell of Success
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so to…
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1958
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Best Picture/Director
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Ajaantrik (India…Ritwik Ghatak)
Les Amants (France…Louis Malle)
Anticipation of the Night (US…Stan Brakhage)
Araya (Venezuela…Margot Benacerraf)
Ashes and Diamonds (Poland…Andrzej Wajda)
Assault in Broad Daylight (Switzerland…Ladislao Vajda)
Auntie Mame (US…Morton da Costa)
The Ballad of Narayama (Japan…Keisuke Kinoshita)
Le Beau Serge (France…Claude Chabrol)
The Big Country (US…William Wyler)
Bonjour Tristesse (US/UK…Otto Preminger)
Cairo Station (Egypt…Youssef Chahine)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (US…Richard Brooks)
China Doll (US…Frank Borzage)
Damn Yankees (US…Stanley Donen, George Abbott)
Day Shall Dawn (Pakistan…Aaejay Kardar)
The Defiant Ones (US…Stanley Kramer)
Dracula (UK…Terence Fisher)
En Cas de Malheur (France…Claude Autant-Lara)
Endless Desire (Japan…Shohei Imamura)
Enjo (Japan…Kon Ichikawa)
Equinox Flower (Japan…Yasujiro Ozu)
The Eternal Rainbow (Japan…Keisuke Kinoshita)
The Fall (Argentina…Leopoldo Torre-Nilsson)
The Flower in Hell (South Korea…Shin Sang-ok)
Giants and Toys (Japan…Yasuzo Masumura)
Gigi (US…Vincente Minnelli)
Harikumi (Japan…Yoshitaro Nomura)
The Hidden Fortress (Japan…Akira Kurosawa)
The Horse’s Mouth (UK…Ronald Neame)
I Want to Live! (US…Robert Wise)
Ice Cold in Alex (UK…J.Lee Thompson)
The Lady Vampire (Japan…Nobuo Nakagawa)
Lake of the Dead (Norway…Kare Bergström)
The Last Hurrah (US…John Ford)
Let Me Borrow Your Wife (Norway…Edith Carlmar)
The Lineup (US…Don Siegel)
Little Peach (Japan…Mikio Naruse)
The Long Hot Summer (US…Martin Ritt)
Lovers in Yurakucho (Japan…Koji Shima)
The Loyal 47 Ronin (Japan…Kunio Watanabe)
Das Mädchen Rosemarie (West Germany…Rolf Thiele)
Madhumati (India…Bamal Roy)
The Magician (Sweden…Ingmar Bergman)
Maigret Sets a Trap (France…Jean Delannoy)
Man of the West (US…Anthony Mann)
Mon Oncle (France…Jacques Tati)
Montparnasse 19 (France…Jacques Becker)
Murder by Contract (US…Irving Lerner)
The Music Room (India…Satyajit Ray)
No Time for Sergeants (US…Mervyn le Roy)
A Night to Remember (UK…Roy Ward Baker)
Party Girl (US…Nicholas Ray)
Persons Unknown (Italy…Mario Monicelli)
The Quiet American (UK…Joseph L.Mankiewicz)
Rendezvous du Diable (France…Haroun Tazieff)
Rickshaw Man (Japan…Hiroshi Inagaki)
The Road a Year Long (Yugoslavia…Giuseppe de Santis)
Sabaleros (Argentina…Armando Bo)
Separate Tables (US/UK…Delbert Mann)
The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (US…Nathan Juran)
So Close to Life (Sweden…Ingmar Bergman)
Some Came Running (US…Vincente Minnelli)
South Pacific (US…Joshua Logan)
Summer Clouds (Japan…Mikio Naruse)
Terror in a Texas Town (US…Joseph H.Lewis)
The Tiger of Eschnapur (West Germany…Fritz Lang)
A Time to Love and a Time to Die (US…Douglas Sirk)
Touch of Evil: Special Edition (US (1998)…Orson Welles)
Les Tricheurs (France…Marcel Carné)
Underworld Beauty (Japan…Seijun Suzuki)
Vertigo (US…Alfred Hitchcock)
The Very Eye of Night (US…Maya Deren)
Une Vie (France…Alexandre Astruc)
The Vikings (US/UK…Richard Fleischer)
The White Heron (Japan…Teinosuke Kinugasa)
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Best Short
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Le chant du styrène (France…Alain Resnais)
Fanfare (Netherlands…Bert Haanstra)
Free Radicals (UK…Lenny Lye)
Glass (Netherlands…Bert Haanstra)
Hook, Line & Stinker (US…Chuck Jones)
A Movie (US…Bruce Conner)
Schwechater (Austria…Peter Kubelka)
Two Men and a Wardrobe (Poland…Roman Polanski)
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Best Actor
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Richard Attenborough The Man Upstairs
Chabhi Biswas The Music Room
Dirk Bogarde A Tale of Two Cities
Marlon Brando The Young Lions
Gary Cooper Man of the West
Tony Curtis The Defiant Ones
Zbigniew Cybulski Ashes and Diamonds
José Ferrer The High Cost of Loving
Jean Gabin En Cas de Malheur
Jean Gabin Maigret Sets a Trap
Vittorio Gassman Persons Unknown
John Gregson The Captain’s Table
Alec Guinness The Horse’s Mouth
Charlton Heston Touch of Evil
Raizo Ichikawa Enjo
Louis Jourdan Gigi
Hiroshi Kawaguchi Giants and Toys
Christopher Lee Dracula
Christian Marquand Une Vie
Toshiro Mifune The Hidden Fortress
Paul Newman Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Paul Newman The Long Hot Summer
David Niven Separate Tables
Sidney Poitier The Defiant Ones
Michael Redgrave The Quiet American
Frank Sinatra Some Came Running
James Stewart Vertigo
Spencer Tracy The Last Hurrah
Max Von Sydow The Magician
Orson Welles Touch of Evil
So Yamamura Little Peach
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Best Actress
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Leslie Caron Gigi
Eva Dahlbeck So Close to Life
Elsa Daniel The Fall
Diana Dors Tread Softly Stranger
Susan Hayward I Want to Live
Kyoko Kagawa Little Peach
Kay Kendall The Reluctant Debutante
Deborah Kerr Separate Tables
Shirley MacLaine Some Came Running
Jeanne Moreau Les Amants
Kim Novak Vertigo
Hitomi Nozoe Giants and Toys
Lilli Palmer Montparnasse 19
Gena Rowlands The High Cost of Loving
Rosalind Russell Auntie Mame
Maria Schell Une Vie
Jean Seberg Bonjour Tristesse
Kinuyo Tanaka The Ballad of Narayama
Kinuyo Tanaka The Eternal Rainbow
Elizabeth Taylor Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Ingrid Thulin So Close to Life
Nadja Tiller Das Madchen Rosemarie
Yoko Tsukasa Summer Clouds
Joanne Woodward The Long Hot Summer
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Best Supp Actor
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Gunnar Björnstrand The Magician
Ernest Borgnine The Vikings
Joseph Calleia Touch of Evil
Youssef Chahine Cairo Station
Maurice Chevalier Gigi
Minoru Chiaki The Hidden Fortress
Lee J.Cobb Man of the West
Lee J.Cobb Party Girl
Peter Cushing Dracula
Claude Dauphin The Quiet American
Errol Flynn Too Much Too Soon
Anthony Franciosa The Long Hot Summer
Kamatari Fujiwara The Hidden Fortress
Leslie French Orders to Kill
Trevor Howard The Key
Burl Ives The Big Country
Arthur Kennedy Some Came Running
Dean Martin Some Came Running
Anthony Quayle Ice Cold in Alex
John Robinson The Doctor’s Dilemma
Donald Sinden The Captain’s Table
Akim Tamiroff Touch of Evil
Toto Persons Unknown
Dennis Weaver Touch of Evil
Orson Welles The Long Hot Summer
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Best Supp Actress
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Judith Anderson Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Bibi Andersson So Close to Life
Ineko Arima Equinox Flower
Brigitte Bardot En Cas de Malheur
Coral Browne Auntie Mame
Gladys Cooper Separate Tables
Rosalie Crutchley A Tale of Two Cities
Edwige Feuillère En Cas de Malheur
Hermione Gingold Bell Book and Candle
Hermione Gingold Gigi
Joan Greenwood Stage Struck
Wendy Hiller Separate Tables
Barbro Hiort af Ornas So Close to Life
Martha Hyer Some Came Running
Deborah Kerr Bonjour Tristesse
Angela Lansbury The Long Hot Summer
Pascale Petit Une Vie
Hind Rostom Cairo Station
Madeleine Sherwood Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Maureen Stapleton Lonelyhearts
Kinuyo Tanaka Equinox Flower
Ingrid Thulin The Magician
Cora Williams The Defiant Ones
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Best Cinematography
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Richard Angst The Tiger of Eschnapur/The Indian Tomb
Jack Asher Dracula
Robert Burks Vertigo
Jack Cardiff The Vikings
William H.Daniels Some Came Running
Henri Decaë Les Amants
Gunnar Fischer The Magician
Ernest Haller Man of the West
Hiroyuki Kusuda The Ballad of Narayama
Russell Metty Touch of Evil
Subrata Mitra The Music Room
Georges Périnal Bonjour Tristesse
Franz Planer The Big Country
Claude Renoir Une Vie
Joseph Ruttenberg Gigi
Leon Shamroy South Pacific
Ragnar Sorensen Lake of the Dead
Geoffrey Unsworth A Night to Remember
Jerzy Wojcik Ashes and Diamonds
Ichio Yamazaki The Hidden Fortress
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Best Score
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Georges Auric Bonjour Tristesse
James Bernard Dracula
Elmer Bernstein Some Came Running
Bernard Herrmann The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad
Bernard Herrmann Vertigo
Vilayat Khan The Music Room
Henry Mancini Touch of Evil
Jerome Moross The Big Country
Mario Nascimbene The Vikings
Roman Vlad Une Vie
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Best Picture: Vertigo
Best Director: Alfred Hitchcock (Vertigo)
Best Actor: Christopher Lee (Dracula)
Best Actress: Maria Schell (Une Vie)
Best Supporting Actor: Youssef Chahine (Cairo Station)
Best Supporting Actress: Kinuyo Tanaka (Equinox Flower)
Best Short: Free Radicals
Best Cinematography: Subreta Mitra (The Music Room)
Best Score: Bernard Herrmann (Vertigo)
Georges Perinal pushes close in cinematography for BONJOUR TRISTESSE.
The Best Picture category is fiercely contested. Though VERTIGO wins, these others are all masterful: THE MUSIC ROOM, BONJOUR TRISTESSE, UNE VIE, MON ONCLE, CAIRO STATION, THE MAGICIAN, A NIGHT TO REMEMBER, LES AMANTS, BALLAD OF NARAYAMA, DRACULA, MAN OF THE WEST, ASHES AND DIAMONDS.
I am not the biggest fan of TOUCH OF EVIL, a film that will surely gain some major support.
Wow Sam I’m surprised your so down on Touch Of Evil. His only other major studio film to be mostly intact (The Stranger and Macbeth were both low budget and it shows) and coming closest to the splendor of Kane. While I’m a fan of both Ambersons and Shanghai, the butchery committed on both those pictures is very noticeable. So many what if’s in Orson’s career. Kane and Evil are his only Hollywood efforts that feel complete these days and fully afforded his unique vision. Luckily he had the drive to direct two later independents that also feel unabridged and realized in The Trial and Chimes At Midnight (my next 2 favorites of his).
I’m with you Maurizio….however somehow I’ve already had this discussion with Sam before and was well aware of this fact of his. I thought everyone knew about how Sam and Touch of Evil don’t quite mix.
I’m speechless at the TOUCH OF EVIL comment. What holds you back from being a fan, Sam?
Dean, I’ve taken a lot of heat over the years on this position, but I’ve dismissed my indifference as my own problem. I admire it technically but have always found the narrative as tedious and unworthy of the vaunted interpretation it has often received. I feel about this film much of the way you feel about RULES OF THE GAME, and it’s a struggle of engagement. Lord knows I have tried a number of times to forcibly come around. In any case even with my position understandably inexplicable, I never saw it to be spoken of in the same breath as KANE. It is beautiful to look at no doubt. And Maurizio speaks a lot of sense there for sure.
Don’t apologize, Sam. Dissent is healthy, especially when many cinema circles are dominated by the herd mentality. Over the years I’ve lost several friends over disputed films. Conformity in film taste is deadly, and I’ve actually had people say to me, “Well, if you don’t like ‘The Birds’ or ‘Dressed To Kill’ or ‘ABC’ we can no longer be friends.” They become furious over differences of opinion, and, yes, these people are out there — in droves. Of course, I know Dean Treadway has too much class to be one of these bullies.
PS, Sam. It may comfort you to know that your film critic hero Stanley Kauffmann has no use for ‘Touch of Evil’, either. He’s wrong, of course, but there you are.
Mark, thanks for that! Can’t deny a word you say here. As much as I have closely monitored and revered Kauffmann through the years (I first started reading him in college in 1973) I did not until today know he didn’t care for it!!! Thanks for broaching that, and yes it does make me feel I am hardly alone what with the great Stanley feeling the same way!
Well, I actually LIKE it (these days…I didn’t used to) when someone I respect pipes up and says they DON’T like something that every other film buff out there considers to be canonical. So I can certainly understand when someone just simply says “It’s not my cup of tea” or whatever. In fact, I wish more critics would just say “I know the new Brad Pitt movies (or whoever) is probably great, but I just can’t stand looking at that guy’s mug.” I mean, there are a great number of films I know I’m supposed to like, but just do not. So you won’t catch me giving anyone TOO much crap on here for liking or not liking something.
Yay for “Wild Strawberries” winning best film, best director and best actor in 1957!
I vote “Vertigo” for best film in 1958.
I vote Alfred Hitchcock for best director (“Vertigo”) in 1958.
I vote “Free Radicals” for best short in 1958.
I vote James Stewart for best actor in “Vertigo” in 1958.
I vote Elizabeth Taylor for best actress in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” in 1958.
I vote Peter Cushing for best supporting actor in “Dracula” in 1958.
I vote Yumeji Tsutsioka for best supporting actress in “The Temptress and the Monk” in 1958.
I vote “Vertigo” for best cinematography in 1958.
I vote “Vertigo” for best score in 1958.
Will the new champ win its own year, or will Welles have his revenge? Here are my votes:
Best Picture: Vertigo (Runner-up: Touch of Evil)
Best Director: Welles, Touch of Evil (Runner-up: Hitchcock)
Best Actor: Stewart, Vertigo (Runner-up: von Sydow)
Best Actress: Nozoe, Giants and Toys (Runner up: Novak)
Supporting Actor: Chahine, Cairo Station (Runner up: Cushing)
Supporting Actress: Rostom, Cairo Station (Runner up: Thulin)
Cinematography: Metty, Touch of Evil
Score: Out of an awesome field, 1. Moross, Big Country 2. Herrmann, Vertigo 3. Nascimbene, The Vikings 4. Herrmann, Seventh Voyage 5, Bernard, Dracula.
Picture: Vertigo
Director: Alfred Hitchcock, Vertigo
Actor: James Stewart, Vertigo
Actress: Jeanne Moreau, Les Amants
Sup. Actor: Burl Ives, The Big Country (also Cat on a Hot Tin Roof)
Sup Actress: Wendy Hiller, Separate Tables
Cinematgraphy: Robert Burks, Vertigo
Film: Vertigo
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Actor: James Stewart
Actress: Kinuyo Tanaka
Sup. Actor: Lee J Cobb
Sup Actress: Kinuyo Tanaka
Cinematography: Ashes and Diamonds
Score: Herrmann
Best Short: Haven’t seen much. But like “Boy and Bicycle” (Ridley Scott, BFI EFF) starring kid brother Tony (Btw not saying it, to be in line with the hit-hunting mainstream fascination in ‘re-discovery’ of Tony Scott ‘the great auteur’. Actually this is really a non-acting performance.. naturally rendered by young Tony)
The best thing about the short, apart from it working as a standalone piece, is how it informs the bleak tone, mood & atmospherics, in short Ridley’s formal concerns.. And Ridley’s voice hasn’t changed.
This year seems the calm before the storm to me. Lot of nominees I haven’t seen which became especially noticeable in the supporting section (where, incidentally, neither of my picks were on your list – and both might more rightly be called secondary leads but I’m making it my prerogative since they were MIA – tbh, you left a lot of actors out this year; where are Akim Tamaroff, Jean-Claude Brialy, Barbara bel Geddes, and Bernadette Lafont, among others?).
Feature: Vertigo
Short: Free Radicals
Director: Alfred Hitchcock (Vertigo)
Actor: James Stewart (Vertigo)
Actress: Shirley MacLaine (Some Came Running)
Supp. Actor: Dean Martin (Some Came Running)
Supp. Actress: Misa Uehara (The Hidden Fortress)
Cinematography: Ashes and Diamonds
Score: Vertigo
Screenplay: Giants and Toys
Editing: Vertigo
I thought I’d seen Free Radicals before, but I hadn’t – WOW! Everyone should watch (and vote for) it here:
Thanks for putting it up. That was cool and it definitely didn’t wear out its welcome.
Indeed Joel and Samuel. I am changing my vote right now!
Oh and runner-up: Mon Oncle
Oh and Allan if you’re serious about not collecting short titles after 1960, let me know. Perhaps I’ll attempt to compile a list myself and email you it for each year. Could be a chore, but a worthy one.
Would appreciate that, though I myself will cease voting on them after 1970.
I think this would be a worthwhile effort, MovieMan, There are scads of great shorts after 1970.
And final note of the night: nice to see Arema made the cut! The Bergman ladies must have cancelled each other out.
*Arima (though I blame you for spelling it both ways…)
The one year where the victor in the BEST PICTURE category was not only a given for me but so far ahead of the other 10 or 15 pictures of merit that they couldn’t see daylight. My choice is not only what I think is the best of the year but also one of my ten personal favorites. It’s a film that I have analyzed and studied since I first saw it as a kid and always knew there was something much deeper behind its mysterious outer shell. As I grow older, I find that it not only holds up as one of the supreme masterpieces of American cimena, but see it as a spector that haunts me and changes every time it appears before me. It’s thrilling, deeply romantic, psychotically nasty and so emotional that it brings me to tears every time I can sit down and lose myself in it.
So, here goes…
PICTURE: VERTIGO
SHORT: LE CHANT DU STYRENE
DIRECTOR: Alfred HITCHCOCK (VERTIGO):
Some would call on Welles with his brilliant opening one shot that explodes to the audiences attention with his TOUCH OF EVIL and many would be right to cite his hand in the noir genre as one of the greatest that crime films has ever hosted. But, it’s the tenderness violated by Hitchcock’s firm hand with VERTIGO that strangleholds the audience into submission and puts their hand to the flame till they pull away. It wouldn’t be until the visual raping he does on us with 1960′s PSYCHO that would give this, his most expertly manipulative and visually gorgeous movie, a run for the money. Never more naked to his audience, Hitchcock bore his deepest emotional embarassments and showed himself as deeply conflicted and wounded soul desparate to air his pent up longings. His is a master class on directing. One of the most perfect the medium of film has ever seen.
LEAD ACTOR: James STEWART (VERTIGO):
One would think this is could have gone, easily, to any of a number of worthy actors in the category (Welles maniacal Frank Quinlan in TOUCH OF EVIL, Christopher Lee’s violently repulsive vampire in DRACULA would also vie for my personal attention). However, the soul of one of the most emotionally complex and heartrending of mystery/thrillers is the best in the field. Without Stewart as the kind of good-hearted soul that reluctantly takes on the emotionally unknown, the film would not only lose it’s connection with the people that were viewing the film, but would see the structure of Hitchcock’s romantic dance with death fall completely. No other actor would have been right to play Scotty Ferguson and no part was more perfectly suited to James Stewarts natural likeablility and decency. The fact that he’s such a good, lovable guy makes it all the more shocking and painful to see him gradually slide into and out of insanity and, finally, into psychotic obsession. Along with IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON and WINCHESTER 73, VERTIGO provided, probably, the greatest American screen actor of all with one of his signature performances.
I’ll go out on a limb and say, for me personally, it’s Stewarts finest moment on screen.
LEAD ACTRESS: Kim NOVAK (VERTIGO)-Ah, the rub! You can name this one or that one. You can scream that there were equals and those that bested Novak by a mile. I’ll say BULL-SHIT. The high stakes card of the best film of the year, Hitchcocks secret weapon, is Novak. Yeah, Stewart has the meatier role and far more time on screen, but it’s Novak, so perfect in her icy disquise for the first half of the film and so desperate for recognition in the final half that becomes the glue holding the whole film together. If she’s off by a hair, the believability of the entire movie, the film itself, falls like a crumbling house of cards. She’s sensual, sexually arresting and completely believable as both Madeline AND Judy.
It also doesn’t hurt that she’s the very definition of the Hitchcock femme-fatale, the greatest of the many populating the films by the “Master of Suspense”.
In my mind, there was no other choice in this category.
SUPP. ACTOR: Yussef CHAHINE (CAIRO STATION)
SUPP. ACTRESS: Wendy HILLER (SEPARATE TABLES):
I liked alot of the others in this category. My deciding factor on this one was both critical and personal. Hiller, once again, delivers a performance of skillful emotional handling. She’s also one of my personal favorite actresses ever and I can watch her just sit quietly while I quiver from the beauty she exudes.
PHOTO: Robert BURKS (VERTIGO):
Yes, I would have to say TOUCH OF EVIL and a few others would definately be in the consideration pool for me. However, Burks work on VERTIGO brilliantly fuses the dream state with reality in such an effortless way the audience is hard pressed to tell when the dream becomes a nightmare and they all plop into our field of vision as the true moments in the protagonists life. The green filtered softness that covers Judy as she exits the bathroom into the living quarters of the hotel room as “Madeline” is one of the most perfectly composed shots in all of cinematography and cinema.
MUSIC: Bernard HERRMANN (VERTIGO):
THE LANDSLIDE. No question in my mind, at all, that you have one of the 10 or 15 greatest scores in all of cinema history here and, arguably, the single best of the composer that wrote it and a million other classics. In many ways I think Herrmanns VERTIGO tops even his own score for PSYCHO in its lush sweeps and damning crescendos. The leitmotif from Wagners TRISTAN UND ISOLDE inspiring the swelling burst of emotion in the hotel room “reveal” becomes one of the most romanitc yet hauntingly draining musical “builds” in the history of screen music and, combined with Burks photography and the tears pouring out of James Stewarts eyes, creates a moment of such romantic longing and emotional fulfillment the likes of which have never been duplicated.
How Herrmann wasn’t nominated for the Oscar for this, his greatest work (sorry, Sam, I have to go with this one), is beyond baffling. Musicologists have this one on a short list of the ten greatest scores ever written. EVER!
This is a year where my opinions have changed since I did my yearly countdown, and away from the common wisdom (which says Vertigo will run away with it, with some support for Touch of Evil). In my countdown I went with ASHES AND DIAMONDS, which I still love. I also adore VERTIGO and TOUCH OF EVIL, as well as MON ONCLE and MAN OF THE WEST. But my choice for 1958 is pretty firm, and is one of the films that I think ranks among the finest American pictures of the era, but is not always mentioned when making such lists.
Best Picture: Some Came Running (Vincente Minnelli)
Best Director: Vincente Minnelli (Some Came Running)
Best Actor: James Stewart (Vertigo)
Best Actress: Shirley MacLaine (Some Came Running)
Best Supporting Actor: Dean Martin (Some Came Running) – Allan, I normally don’t put names here that aren’t included in your lists of nominees, but you missed on this one. Martin’s is far more deserving of inclusion on the list than Arthur Kennedy in the same movie. In fact, Martin’s is probably my favorite performance for this whole year. No big deal in the long run, but just explaining why I had to go with a “write-in” on this one.
Best Supporting Actress: Deborah Kerr (Bonjour Tristesse)
Best Cinematography: Russell Metty (Touch of Evil)
Best Score: Bernard Herrmann (Vertigo)
Best Picture: Vertigo
Top Five: 1. Vertigo 2. Touch Of Evil 3. Mon Oncle 4. Man Of The West 5. Ashes And Diamonds
Only four or five real masterpieces this year, but lots of great genre entertainment. I love the Hitchcock movie, of course, but I had to admit that the Welles film was more entertaining and visually original, by a tiny margin. I felt compelled to give previously unmentioned shoutouts to Ray Walston and Gwen Verdon of DAMN YANKEES, Andy Griffith and Myron McCormick in NO TIME FOR SERGEANTS, Akim Tamiroff of TOUCH OF EVIL, and the joys of such b-movies as HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL, I BURY THE LIVING, and BUCHANAN RIDES ALONE, plus the horribly forgotten THE FABULOUS WORLD OF JULES VERNE, by Karel Zeman).
PICTURE: Touch of Evil (followed by Vertigo, Ashes and Diamonds, Mon Oncle, Auntie Mame, The Hidden Fortress, A Time to Love and A Time to Die, Man of the West, The Ballad of Narayama, Some Came Running, I Bury the Living, The Fabulous World of Jules Verne, A Night to Remember, I Want to Live!, Damn Yankees, The Horse’s Mouth, The Defiant Ones, No Time for Sergeants, The Left-Handed Gun, The Horror of Dracula, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Old Man and the Sea, High School Confidential, Buchanan Rides Alone, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad)
DIRECTOR: Orson Welles, Touch of Evil (2nd: Alfred Hitchcock, Vertigo)
ACTOR: Zbigniew Cybulski, Ashes and Diamonds (2nd: James Stewart, Vertigo followed by Orson Welles, Touch of Evil; Alec Guinness, The Horse’s Mouth; Andy Griffith, No Time for Sergeants; Richard Boone, I Bury the Living)
ACTRESS: Rosalind Russell, Auntie Mame (2nd: Susan Hayward, I Want to Live!, followed by Shirley MacLaine, Some Came Running; Kim Novak, Vertigo, Elizabeth Taylor, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Joseph Calleia, Touch of Evil (2nd: Akim Tamiroff, Touch of Evil, followed by Ray Walston, Damn Yankees; Arthur Kennedy, Some Came Running; Myron McCormick, No Time for Sergeants)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Wendy Hiller, Separate Tables (2nd: Gwen Verdon, Damn Yankees, followed by Coral Browne, Auntie Mame, Martha Hyer, Some Came Running; Maureen Stapleton, Lonelyhearts)
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Russell Metty, Touch of Evil (2nd (B&W): Jerzy Wojcik, Ashes and Diamonds)
ORIGINAL SCORE: Bernard Herrmann, Vertigo (2nd: Henry Mancini, Touch of Evil)
SHORT: Two Men and a Wardrobe (Roman Polanski) (2nd: A Movie (Bruce Connor))
FURTHER::
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Jacques Tati, Jean L’Hote, and Jacques Lagrange, Mon Oncle (2nd: Nedrick Young and Harold Jacob Smith, The Defiant Ones
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Alec Coppel and Samuel A. Taylor, Vertigo (2nd: Jerzy Andrzejewski and Andrzej Wajda, Ashes and Diamonds)
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: NO AWARD
COLOR CINEMATOGRAPHY: Robert Burks, Vertigo (2nd: Harry Stradling Sr., Auntie Mame)
B&W ART DIRECTION: The Fabulous World of Jules Verne
COLOR ART DIRECTION: Vertigo
B&W COSTUME DESIGN: The Hidden Fortress
COLOR COSTUME DESIGN: Auntie Mame
FILM EDITING: Touch of Evil
SOUND: Damn Yankees
SCORING OF A MUSICAL: Ray Heindorf, Damn Yankees
ORIGINAL SONG: “High School Confidential” from High School Confidential, Music and lyrics by Jerry Lee Lewis (2nd: “King Creole” from King Creole, Music and Lyrics by Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber)
VISUAL EFFECTS: The Fabulous World of Jules Verne
MAKEUP: The Fly
Great to see someone else who loves I BURY THE LIVING! Dean I actually tackled this four years ago with amodest piece. I don’t normally like linking to my own work, but this one is so rarely talked about.
http://wondersinthedark.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/hair-raising-horror-in-b-classic-of-the-1950s-i-bury-the-living/
Well, cats and kittycats, cinephiles and sinners, I’ve decided to abstain from voting this week on the grounds that too many worthy candidates in the acting categories have been left off the ballot — Kay Kendall and Rex Harrison (‘The Reluctante Debutante’); Alec Guinness (‘The Horse’s Mouth’); Judith Anderson (‘Cat On A Hot Tin Roof’); Akim Tamiroff (‘Touch of Evil’)……….and too many mediocrities included — Dean Martin (‘Some Came Running’); Kim Novak (‘Vertigo’); Hermione Gingold (‘Gigi’). Besides everyone at Wonders knows how suspicious I am of ‘Vertigo’s stature, and since it looks like Hitch’s pic will be the runaway winner……until 1959.
BTW: Kay Kendall died in 1959 at the age of 31 (I think) just after completing her final film, ‘Once More, With Feeling’ opposite Yul Brynner. Does anyone know where I can find a copy? It would be much appreciated since I’ve never seen this film and adore Kendall.
Well, I have updated them all, to give Mark a chance to pick his toys up and put them back in his pram. Seriously, for what you say is mediocre and what’s worthy, a lot of em seem the wrong way round.
If you would kindly bend over, Mr. Fish, my friend, I shall put my toys elsewhere.
Now, really, Allan, you didn’t have to include them to accommodate me, for Chrissake (though Guinness’ contribution to ‘The Horse’s Mouth’ may have something to do with the film’s inclusion in the Best Picture category).
It’s just that 1958 seems the year of the auteurist to this non-auteurist (Hitchcock, Preminger, Minnelli are all darlings) and therefore a mediocre film year to me. Hairdresser Hazel Keats should be the big winner here for creating Novak’s nautilus coiffure which so obsesses Hitch. OK, Allan, your taunt has revived me, here goes –
Film: ‘Touch of Evil’ — it ain’t ‘Kane’ but it’ll have to do
Director: Welles
Actor: Alec Guinness (‘The Horse’s Mouth’)
Actress: Kay Kendall (‘The Reluctant Debutante’)
S. Actor: Akim Tamiroff (‘Touch of Evil’)
S. Actress: Judith Anderson (‘Cat On A Hot Tin Roof’) Big Mamma, she happy now.
Photography: Henri Decae (‘Les Amants’)
And a big XXXOOO to you, Allan
Allan, can you imagine Novak or Martin doing Shakespeare? I can’t.
Cheers
No, but can anyone imagine Gielgud singing ‘Settle Down’ in Rio Bravo. Or even being in Rio Bravo.
Sir John from his ‘A Life in Letters’:
Re: the movie “Arthur”. “I have a death scene in hospital wearing a cowboy hat. Keep your derision for when you see the film”. No, I cannot envision Gielgud as Dean Martin, but then I can’t envision Martin as an actor, either, only as an amusing drunk.
And speaking of ‘Rio Bravo’, Angie Dickinson might have made a better Judy/ Madeleine (ah, Proust!) than Novak. Too bad Hitch never used Dickinson in any of his films, the requisite blonde and better acting chops. In ‘The Birds’ Angie would have just pulled out a Sgt. Pepper Anderson gun and shot the damn gulls.
Besides Mark you don’t have to vote for only the selections shown on the list. Plenty of voters have gone outside the posted rundown in the past.
Yup, they’re only a guideline comprising my personal choices and a few that got nominated that people would only complain about if I left out.
At this point I count 14 Vertigos and 7 Dean Martins.
PICTURE: Vertigo
DIRECTOR: Hitchcock
LEAD ACTOR: Stewart
LEAD ACTRESS: Novak
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Joseph Calleia, Touch of Evil
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Kinuyo Tanaka, Equinox Flower (this is one where she actually gets to be happy! it’s a gift.)
SHORT: A Movie, Bruce Conner
SCORE: Herrmann, Vertigo, obviously
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Robert Burks, Vertigo (though Shinsaku Himeda tempts me – he’ll win most of the 60s, I suspect, whatever the competition – that fish ain’t on top of my blog for nothing.)
Plus bonus pick:
Script: Giants and Toys. This is not an easy year for scripts – the films at the top seem to me to be there more because of their direction, photography, set designs, and acting than usual – whether those things are elevating less deserving scripts or obscuring the virtues of the scripts, I don’t know. I just know I don’t quite know what to make of Vertigo or Touch of Evil, or even Some Came Running, how to think about them apart from their execution as films… So – Giants and Toys is some kind of masterpiece, and since Masumura is a filmmaker I really like, but I doubt he’ll be in the running for any top spots – I’ll put in a plug for him here.
I might be the biggest Touch of Evil fan out there, preferring it to Kane in my own crazy mind….but not even I can vote for it over Vertigo.
Picture- Vertigo
Dir- Hitchcock
Actor- Stewart – Vertigo
Actress- Novak- Vertigo
Supp. Actor – Martin – Some Came Running
Supp. Actress- Wendy Hiller – Separate Tables
Score- Herrmann – Vertigo
Cinematography – Metty – Touch of Evil
Best Picture: Vertigo
Best Director: Alfred Hitchcock (Vertigo)
Best Actor: James Stewart (Vertigo)
Best Actress: Shirley MacLaine (Some Came Running)
Best Supporting Actor: Dean Martin (Some Came Running)
Best Supporting Actress: Deborah Kerr (Bonjour Tristesse)
Best Score: Bernard Herrmann (Vertigo)
Best Cinematography: Robert Burks (Vertigo)
Best Short: Free Radicals
Wow, surprisingly I never knew this ,thanks for the the information.
Vertigo and Touch of Evil sit at the top of my list for 1958 followed by Bonjour Tristesse, Ashes and Diamonds, Some Came Running, The Music Room, and Les Amants. To avoid a tie, I shall go with Vertigo, in light of it’s recent notoriety as the “greatest movie of all time”.
Best Picture: Vertigo
Best Director: Orson Welles (Touch of Evil)
Best Actor: Orson Welles (Touch of Evil)
Best Actress: Kim Novak (Vertigo)
Best Supporting Actor: Dean Martin (Some Came Running)
Best Supporting Actress: Barbara Bel Geddes (Vertigo)
Best Cinematography: Russell Metty (Touch of Evil)
Best Score: Bernard Herrmann (Vertigo)
My choices for 1958:
Best Picture: Ajantrik
Best Director: Ritwik Ghatak (Ajantrik)
Best Actor: Chhabi Biswas (Jalsaghar) [James Stewart for Vertigo, unfortunately, just misses out]
Best Actress: Jeanne Moreau (Les Amants)
Best Supporting Actor: Gunnar Björnstrand (The Magician)
Best Supporting Actress: Barbara Bel Geddes (The Vertigo)
Best Cinematography: Russell Metty (Touch of Evil)
Best Score: Vilayat Khan (Jalsaghar)
I don’t quite agree with Orson Welles’ name being there in the Best Actor category for Touch of Evil – in my opinion his name ought to have been there in the Supporting category (Charlton Heston was quite clearly the lead actor of the film).
Top 8:
1. Ajantrik
2. Mon Oncle
3. Jalsaghar (The Music Room)
4. Vertigo
5. The Magician
6. Les Amants
7. Touch of Evil
8. Ashes & Diamonds
Regarding the actors in Touch of Evil, I would suggest that Charlton Heston and Orson Welles are co-leads and everyone else including Janet Leigh are supporting.
Best Picture: Vertigo
Best Director: Alfred Hitchcock, Vertigo
Best Actor: James Stewart, Vertigo
Best Actress: Deborah Kerr, Separate Tables
Best Supporting Actor: Dean Martin, Some Came Running
Best Supporting Actress: Wendy Hiller, Separate Tables
Best Cinematography: Jack Cardiff, The Vikings
Best Score: Bernard Herrmann, Vertigo
Best Film: Vertigo
Best Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Best Actor: Max Von Sydow (The Magician)
Best Actress: Jeanne Moreau (Les Amants)
Best Supporting Actor: Dean Martin (Some Came Running)
Best Supporting Actress: Deborah Kerr (Bonjour Tristesse)
Best Score: Bernard Herrmann (Vertigo)
Best Cinematography: Robert Burks (Vertigo)
Best Short: Free Radicals………nice, I just watched it!
Touch of Evil would be my #2.
Best Picture: Vertigo
Best Director: Alfred Hitchcock (Vertigo)
Best Actor: James Stewart (Vertigo)
Best Actress: Kim Novak (Vertigo)
Best Supporting Actor: Dean Martin (Some Came Running)
Best Supporting Actress: Barbara Bel Geddes (The Vertigo)
Best Cinematography: Russell Metty (Touch of Evil)
Best Score: Bernard Herrmann (Vertigo)
Pic: Vertigo (US…Alfred Hitchcock)
Director: Vertigo (US…Alfred Hitchcock)
Actor: Paul Newman Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Actress: Elizabeth Taylor Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Sup Actor: Dennis Weaver Touch of Evil
Sup Actress: Judith Anderson Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Score: Bernard Herrmann Vertigo