Unseen Oscar Nominated Performances

Reza
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Post by Reza »

ITALIANO wrote:Another one that I have finally recently found is Mrs Parkington - dreadful movie, with probably Greer Garson's worst nominated performance, but Agnes Moorehead is truly great in it.

Actually Garson is not that bad...she was certainly on a roll with all those consecutive nominations which was probably a record. I would have chosen Tallulah Bankhead (Lifeboat) very easily over Garson in this category. And going one step further I would replace Colbert from the lineup with Judy Garland (Meet Me in St Louis). Yes Moorehead is funny as the bitchy friend though her french accent begins to grate after awhile.




Edited By Reza on 1229611332
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Post by Big Magilla »

rain Bard wrote:I disagree with the all-but-dismissal of Pigskin Parade. It's probably best not to have terribly high expectations going in, but I think there's some really interesting subsurface commentary going on in this picture. And isn't it on DVD?
Yes it is.
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Post by ITALIANO »

Reza wrote:1947
Thomas Gomez, Ride the Pink Horse
I finally got to see this one very recently and I was pleasently sorprised - an odd, unusual but brilliant, and brilliantly directed, film noir, with some very good performances, including, of course, Thomas Gomez's nominated turn (which Hemingway would have loved).

I stopped long ago trying to watch ANY movie ever nominated for an Oscar (I gave up after seeing a film called Madron with Leslie Caron as a fake nun in the West), but I still look for any movie nominated for a major Oscar, and sometimes - like Ride the Pink Horse - I must admit that I'm not disappointed at all.

Another one that I have finally recently found is Mrs Parkington - dreadful movie, with probably Greer Garson's worst nominated performance, but Agnes Moorehead is truly great in it.
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Post by criddic3 »

I kind of liked The Reivers, mostly due to Steve McQueen. We have it on DVD at our video store, and I'm sure you can get it on Blockbuster. com

Also, one on my list to see is Skippy, which needs to be transferred to DVD. TCM hasn't played it in years.
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Post by rain Bard »

I disagree with the all-but-dismissal of Pigskin Parade. It's probably best not to have terribly high expectations going in, but I think there's some really interesting subsurface commentary going on in this picture. And isn't it on DVD?



Edited By rain Bard on 1228794148
Reza
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Post by Reza »

Thank you Flipp, Magilla, Mister Tee and FilmFan for your detailed responses and suggestions.

And Flipp I will have to now check out Arthur Kennedy in Bright Victory....if only to take a peek at all those servicemen!!

Truth be told I do have dvds of all the post-1997 films on my list. Just haven't been in the mood to sit through them.....yet!




Edited By Reza on 1235739483
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Post by FilmFan720 »

Hester Street has been showing up quite a bit lately on one of the cable movie channels (Movieplex maybe?)
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Post by Mister Tee »

Post 1963, I saw all of these in theatres or video in real time.

Many of the others you cite are the ones none of us have been able to find in decades of searching. Of those I have seen...In addition to those flipp mentions, I believe you can find Of Human Hearts on TCM once in a while. They also own both Condemned and The Green Goddess, both of which I watched back in the early days of TNT (when it was TCM-sans-commercials rather than the NBA network).

The Moon is Blue I saw on network TV overnight sometime in the last 20 years, but it's hardly generally available (or generally good). Twilight of Honor I saw back in the 70s sometime; my memory is, it's pretty ghastly, and Adams is wholly unmemorable.

Susan Tyrell's performance was one people either thought brilliant or reacted against as nails-on-chalkboard. Count me in the latter group, but enough people felt the first to get her the nod in spite of the film's poor commercial performance.

I have alot of affection for both The Fixer and Harry Kellerman -- especially the nominated performers -- but I saw them a long time ago and wouldn't vouch for my opinions.

flipp is right, Erwin is a clear lead; he's also pretty much insufferable. He'd have deserved a nomination two years earlier, for Viva Villa. The only reason to watch Pigskin is for the now-inside joke of little Judy continually insisting she can sing and no one paying attention till the end of the movie -- when she does sing, and knocks 'em dead.

Bang the Drum Slowly is of course more famous for being the first place many of us saw Robert DeNiro.
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Post by Big Magilla »

I've seen A Ship Comes In listed as available from one of the private collector sites, though I have never seen it myself.

I believe The Noose and The Patent Leather Kid were Fox productions and are presumed "lost". All pre-1935 Fox negatives were destroyed in a warehouse fire in New Jersey in 1937. All pre-1935 extant Fox films are copies of prints found elsewhere.

The Way of All flesh, as Flipp points out, and The Patriot, as you know, are lost films. I've never seen either one, although I do have memories of seeing snippets of scenes from The Patriot but can't recall where or when.

I have very bad copies of The Valiant and Thunderbolt. George Bancroft's acting in the former is over the top. Paul Muni is good in the latter, but the film is rather blah.

I have never seen any of the films you mention from 1929/30 though I believe The Trespasser is available somewhere.

I've never seen the 1935 version of escape Me Never.

I have very poor copies of Skippy and Private Worlds, but the greatness of Joseph L. Mankiewicz' heart of the depression script and the performances of the cast shine through in the former and Claudette Colbert and Joan Bennett are wonderful in the latter even if you can't make out their features.

I haven't seen A Medal for Benny in decades and don't recall much or it but I do have vague memories of J. Carrol Naish doing his peasant schtick.

Of Human Hearts, The Pied Piper and The Green Years are avialble in decent copies from private collectors. All three are wonderful films. Dean Stockwell, Gladys Cooper and Hume Cronyn are at least as memorable as Charles Coburn in The Green Years. Beulah Bondi's performance in Of Human Hearts is at least the equal of her great performance in Make Way for Tomorrow, and, dare I say, in some respects even better.

Ride the Pink Horse, which I haven't seen in years, Bright Victory and The Blue Veil are available from private collectors. They all have the same awful source print of The Blue Veil taken from an ancient L.A. TV taping with a key scene missing in the transition from the Richard Beymer-Richard Carlson-Agnes Moorehead sequence to the scenes involving Natalie Wood and Joan Blondell but all the four-handkerchief scenes are there including the unforgettable ending.

Death of a Salesman is available commercially in the U.S., The Moon Is Blue is available commercially in Region 2.

I've never seen The Bold and teh Brave or Twilight of Honor.

All the post-1963 films are available commercially except for Give 'Em Hell Harry, which is available from private collectors.
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Post by flipp525 »

Reza wrote:Still looking to find these films and performances:

1927-28
Emil Jannings, The Way of All Flesh

This is a "lost" film. You won't find it in its entirety anywhere. There is apparently a two-second clip of it that is shown in a 1930's Oscar round-up that has turned up on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) in the past.

Skippy (1930), as I've reviewed elsewhere on this board, is one of my all-time favorites -- a Depression-era treatise on hope and charity that belies its comic strip origins. It has been shown on TCM as well as other random cable stations and is well worth watching.

Stuart Erwin is the lead in Pigskin Parade (1936) even though he was nominated in support. Watch out for a young Judy Garland. TCM plays this during their "31 Days of Oscar" celebration.

The Green Years (1946) and Ride the Pink Horse (1947) -- so sad! -- are both shown on TCM, the former during Charles Coburn marathons alongside The Devil and Miss Jones (1941), The More the Merrier (1943) and The Paradine Case (1947).

Arthur Kennedy is wonderful in Bright Victory (1951) (and there are several good-looking servicemen surrounding him). His performance has stayed with me a long time. This film also shows up intermittently on TCM.

Rupert Crosse is very "happy slapstick Negro" in The Reivers (1969). The performance and the film are only for hardcore Oscar-completists, in my opinion. I found it in a video warehouse in Tokyo.

Watching Who is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (1971) is like being on an acid trip. Harris is a hoot and Dustin Hoffman is at his neurotic best.

Susan Tyrell is like a screeching bar-hag with rosacea in Fat City (1972), which I suppose was the whole point of her character. She was the weakest of the five nominees in Best Supporting Actress that year. The film is hard to track down, but not impossible.

The Man in the Glass Booth (1975) is fabulous and shocking and features a haunting performance by Maximilian Schell. I rented a VHS version from a now-defunct video rental shop in Adams Morgan, Washington. If you can get a hold of this one, I highly recommend it.

Give 'Em Hell, Harry (1975) is basically a filmed stage monologue and hard to track down (and, if I recall correctly, boring, and I say this as someone whose great-grandfather served as Truman's Secretary of Interior).

Hester Street (1975), I tracked down on video in a small rental shop on Main Street in Montpelier, Vermont (Capitol Video). While much of it is subtitled (in Yiddish, I believe), the film manages to realistically capture the immigrant New York City of the late 19th century. Carol Kane is wonderful in it.

Inside Moves is Oscar-winner Harold Russell's other film and Scarwid is sweet, but unmemorable in it. The cover art is very 80's.

The post-1997 films on your list (Amistad, North Country, Sweeney Todd, etc) are all readily available on DVD.




Edited By flipp525 on 1228778613
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Reza
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Unseen Oscar Nominated Performances

Post by Reza »

Still looking to find these films and performances:

1927-28
Richard Barthelmess, The Noose
Emil Jannings, The Way of All Flesh

1928-29
Lewis Stone, The Patriot
Betty Compson, The Barker

1929-30
Lawrence Tibbett, The Rogue Song

1930-31
Jackie Cooper, Skippy

1951
Fredric March/Kevin McCarthy/Mildred Dunnock, Death of a Salesman (video copy received)

1971
Barbara Harris, Who is Harry Kellerman?

1975
James Whitmore, Give 'em Hell, Harry!
Carol Kane, Hester Street

1980
Diana Scarwid, Inside Moves

2005
Terence Howard, Hustle and Flow (got dvd)

2010
Javier Bardem, Biutiful (got dvd)

2011
Demian Bechir, A Better Life
Last edited by Reza on Fri Apr 28, 2023 3:09 pm, edited 46 times in total.
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