Uri wrote:Big Magilla wrote:... and Maggie Smith's portrayal of Richard Burton's loyal secretary ...
I totally agree with you about Smith – it's a very sincere, poignant performance which is rather at odds with the trashy aiming at being flashy fakeness which surrounds it, but it was Rod Taylor's character who was her boss, not Burton's, although her scene with the latter is the best one.
It comes back! Yes, she was indeed and yes, her scene with Burton was the best dramatic scene in the film though Rutherford's "I shall arrive in America in an advanced state of drug addiction" was the best line.
It should also be remembered that Oscar voters don't vote for these things in a vacuum, which is what I try to show in my ramblings. Rutherford's V.I.P.s performance was strong enough to win on its own but the enormous success of the Miss Marple films is what made her such an overwhelming favorite at the time.
Actually to correct my earlier comment, Murder, She Said was 1961 in the U.K., 1962 in the U.S. and the even more successful Murder at the Gallop opened in June, 1963 in the U.S. and unlike the first film was not relegated to art houses but opened wide to great fanfare three months before The V.I.P.s which had a prestige opening at Radio City Music Hall.
Lilia Skala's back story probably made her Rutherford's strongest competition. The first female architect in Austria, as well as a successful stage star, she was forced to flee the Nazis with her Jewish husband and children, working at minimal wage office jobs amid occasional acting jobs until Lilies of the Field. She was working as a clerk for the New York Port Authority and couldn't afford to go to the Oscars. It was only when United Airlines stepped in and gave her a free flight that she was able to go.
As for Peggy Wood, wait, just wait!
Edited By Big Magilla on 1278769494