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Nothing particularly wrong with the 1953 actress vote the first time around. But since then, the Argentine classic El Vampiro Negro has been rescued and restored and has recently made its TCM debut on Eddie Muller's Noir Alley. And if you can't change your mind in light of new information, well then, you're like a lot of people these days ...
A loose remake of Fritz Lang's classic M, El Vampiro Negro (The Black Vampire to you English-speakers) stars Olga Zubarry as a nightclub singer who is the only person to have seen the face of a serial killer preying on local children. It's a very good movie and Zubarry is very good in it. Thus, her nomination here for best actress.
Four of the other nominees remain the same. For those of you scoring at home, three of them — Audrey Hepburn, Deborah Kerr and Marilyn Monroe — have won alternate Oscars for other movies.
Which is not why I'm voting for Jane Russell, but it doesn't hurt. She's terrific in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes — if you know the movie and the behind-the-scenes story, you know she's the reason this is such a great film — and I happen to think it's the best performance by a lead actress in 1953. That she had a career worth a little recognition is just icing on the cake.
Not that I'm trying to influence you, but if you can't twist a friend's arm, then what are arms for?
Have at it.
Best Actress of 1953
My choices are noted with a ★. Historical Oscar winners are noted with a ✔.
Best Picture of 1953
Best Actor of 1953
Best Actress of 1953
Best Director of 1953
Best Supporting Actor of 1953
Best Supporting Actress of 1953
Special Award
My choices are noted with a ★. Historical Oscar winners are noted with a ✔.
The tenth spot on the best picture list was a real logjam — Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The War of the Worlds, Anthony Mann's Western classic The Naked Spur, Hondo, Pickup on South Street, Luis Buñuel's El, the sublime British comedy Genevieve, and a couple of movies I don't much like, The Band Wagon and The Big Heat. Of those, The Big Heat consistently ranks highest on everybody else's list, so I reluctantly went with that.
Don't say I never did anything for you.
My pick for best picture is Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story. If you have or have had or will have aging parents or, for that matter, if you plan on being an aging parent at some point, I highly recommend you see this one. It's Ozu's best, in my opinion, and he's Japan's most highly-regarded director, even more so than Akira Kurosawa if you can believe that.
"Sooner or later," the late great Roger Ebert once wrote, "everyone who loves movies comes to Ozu. He is the quietest and gentlest of directors, the most humanistic, the most serene. But the emotions that flow through his films are strong and deep, because they reflect the things we care about the most: Parents and children, marriage or a life lived alone, illness and death, and taking care of one another."
Of the Hollywood movies, I'd probably go with From Here To Eternity. Yeah, sure, it's a thoroughly bowdlerized adaptation of the novel — what do you expect of a studio movie made under the strictures of the Production Code — but it still packs quite a punch and the scene of Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr rolling around in the surf is one of the most iconic in movie history. Considering all the way it could have gone wrong, From Here To Eternity is something of a modern miracle.
The final choice is yours.
I've seen The War of the Worlds many times since I was a kid, and I think what I like most about it, aside from the sound effects, is that everybody seems knocked out that Gene Barry is a "scientist." Like "scientist" was a handy jack-of-all-trades profession that made him an expert in astronomy, biology, geology, fishing and forest fires.
That, and the only woman on the entire west coast is a scientist freak—did her thesis on scientists! Not science, mind you, scientists. Is that even a subject?
Anyway, every time I see The War of the Worlds, I think, "Why didn't I become a scientist?"
PICTURE (Drama)
winner: From Here To Eternity (prod. Buddy Adler)
nominees: The Big Heat (prod. Robert Arthur); The Naked Spur (prod. William H. Wright); Pickup on South Street (prod. Jules Schermer); Shane (prod. George Stevens); Stalag 17 (prod. Billy Wilder); The War of the Worlds (prod. George Pal)
PICTURE (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Roman Holiday (prod. William Wyler)
nominees: The Band Wagon (prod. Arthur Freed); Genevieve (prod. Henry Cornelius); Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (prod. Sol C. Siegel)
PICTURE (Foreign Language)
winner: Tôkyô monogatari (Tokyo Story) (prod. Takeshi Yamamoto)
nominees: El (prod. Óscar Dancigers); I Vitelloni (prod. Jacques Bar, Mario De Vecchi and Lorenzo Pegoraro); Madame de... (The Earrings Of Madame de...) (prod. Ralph Baum); Le salaire de la peur (The Wages of Fear) (prod. Raymond Borderie and Henri-Georges Clouzot); Ugetso Monogatari (prod. Masaichi Nagata); Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot (Mr. Hulot's Holiday) (prod. Fred Orain and Jacques Tati)
ACTOR (Drama)
winner: Montgomery Clift (From Here To Eternity)
nominees: Charles Boyer (Madame de... a.k.a. The Earrings of Madame de...); William Holden (Stalag 17); Alan Ladd (Shane); Burt Lancaster (From Here To Eternity); Yves Montand (Le salaire de la peur a.k.a. The Wages of Fear); Vincent Price (House of Wax); Chisu Ryu (Tôkyô monogatari a.k.a. Tokyo Story); James Stewart (The Naked Spur); Richard Widmark (Pickup on South Street)
ACTOR (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Jacques Tati (Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot a.k.a. Mr. Hulot's Holiday)
nominees: Fred Astaire (The Band Wagon); Howard Keel (Kiss Me Kate); Gregory Peck (Roman Holiday)
ACTRESS (Drama)
winner: Gloria Grahame (The Big Heat)
nominees: Danielle Darrieux (Madame de... a.k.a. The Earrings of Madame de...); Chieko Higashiyama (Tôkyô monogatari a.k.a. Tokyo Story); Deborah Kerr (From Here To Eternity); Evelyn Keyes (99 River Street); Jean Peters (Pickup on South Street)
ACTRESS (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Jane Russell (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes)
nominees: Leslie Caron (Lili); Kathryn Grayson (Kiss Me Kate); Audrey Hepburn (Roman Holiday); Marilyn Monroe (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes)
DIRECTOR (Drama)
winner: Yasujirô Ozu (Tôkyô monogatari a.k.a. Tokyo Story)
nominees: Luis Buñuel (El); Henri-Georges Clouzot (Le salaire de la peur a.k.a.The Wages of Fear); Federico Fellini (I Vitelloni); Samuel Fuller (Pickup on South Street); Anthony Mann (The Naked Spur); Kenji Mizoguchi (Ugetso Monogatari); Max Ophüls (Madame de... a.k.a. The Earrings of Madame de...); George Stevens (Shane); Billy Wilder (Stalag 17); Fred Zinnemann (From Here To Eternity)
DIRECTOR (Comedy/Musical)
winner: William Wyler (Roman Holiday)
nominees: Henry Cornelius (Genevieve); Howard Hawks (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes); Vincente Minnelli (The Band Wagon); Jacques Tati (Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot a.k.a. Mr. Hulot's Holiday)
SUPPORTING ACTOR
winner: Frank Sinatra (From Here To Eternity)
nominees: Eddie Albert (Roman Holiday); Charles Coburn (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes); Van Heflin (Shane); Lee Marvin (The Big Heat); Robert Ryan (The Naked Spur); Jack Palance (Shane); Robert Strauss (Stalag 17); Brandon de Wilde (Shane)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
winner: Thelma Ritter (Pickup On South Street)
nominees: Jean Arthur (Shane); Nanette Fabray (The Band Wagon); Setsuko Hara (Tôkyô monogatari a.k.a. Tokyo Story); Kay Kendall (Genevieve); Geraldine Page (Hondo); Donna Reed (From Here To Eternity)
SCREENPLAY
winner: Daniel Taradash, from the novel by James Jones (From Here To Eternity)
nominees: Marcel Achard, Max Ophüls and Annette Wademant, from the novel by Louise de Vilmorin (Madame de... a.k.a. The Earrings of Madame de...); Dalton Trumbo, Ian McLellan Hunter and John Dighton, from a story by Dalton Trumbo (Roman Holiday); A.B. Guthrie, Jr, additional dialogue by Jack Sher, from the novel by Jack Shaefer (Shane); Billy Wilder and Edwin Blum, from the play by Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski (Stalag 17); Kôgo Noda and Yasujirô Ozu (Tôkyô monogatari a.k.a. Tokyo Story)
SPECIAL AWARDS
Gordon Jennings (The War of the Worlds) (Special Effects); Loren L. Ryder (The War of the Worlds) (Sound); Duck Amuck (Animated Short)
