Will the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences get it right this year and pick the best picture for Best Picture? Well … let’s just say they don’t have the greatest track record.
Just for fun, let’s try a little pop quiz to test your memory. Do any of you remember the movie How Green Was My Valley? It was the best picture winner for 1941. I guess I can’t blame you if your first reaction was, “Huh?”
It was a good film, but I’ll bet you might easily remember (or have at least heard of) The Maltese Falcon or Sergeant York or maybe a little pic called Citizen Kane—all of which came out that same year. (Not to mention Frank Capra’s Meet John Doe. That one wasn’t even given a nod.)
OK, that was a gazillion years ago. But there are quite a few film favorites that have been skipped over for films that were, shall we say, less than long-lived classics. Here’s another example, just for grins. In 1963, the year that Alfred Hitchcock made The Birds, Liz Taylor was Cleopatra and Peter Sellers was pratfalling through The Pink Panther, what film won the big prize? A pic called Tom Jones. You remember that one, right? (And I’m not talking about the big-voiced Welsh singer.)
And I’ve always been amazed at the list of incredibly talented actors who were snubbed or, in some cases, never even nominated for an award. Some of my favorites who never took home an Oscar include Harold Lloyd, Ida Lupino, Steve McQueen, Agnes Moorehead, Fred Astaire, Debbie Reynolds, Richard Burton, Glenn Close, Kirk Douglas and Orson Welles.
So which “also rans” would you have chosen? And what was left off the list this year?
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