THE AWARDS EDITION 2011-2012

50 Years Ago: Oscar’s ® BestPictures of 1961 Live on:Will the Class of 2011 Havethe Same Longevity?By PeteHammondthe hustlerHollywood has been busy lately celebrating the Academy Award ® nominees for bestpicture. Of 1961. Of course there has been lots of attention paid toward the ninenominees for best picture of 2011 too but how many of them will we be talking aboutand still watching on big or little screens 50 years from now?44 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 07Will they manage to have the same staying power andinfluence that Oscar ® ’s crop of best picture nomineesfrom the Academy’s 34th year?Consider the nominees.West Side Story, Judgment at Nuremberg, The Hustler, The Gunsof Navarone, Fanny.And if there were nine nominees as there are this year,the list almost certainly would have included Breakfast atTiffany’s, Splendor in the Grass, El Cid and La Dolce Vita.In 2062 what will we be saying about this year’s choices?Will there be the 2062 equivalents of major restorations,elaborate boxed home entertainment sets, hand andfootprint ceremonies at Grauman’s Chinese, specialevenings at the Academy, new books devoted to theirdissection, Broadway adaptations? Because that’s how theOscar ® -laden class of ’61 is now being celebrated.West Side Story was the year’s big winner, earning 11nominations and winning 10 including best picture,a major sweep for the musical that recently enjoyed asuccessful Broadway revival and has been chronicled indetail in a recent book, Something’s Coming, Something Good:West Side Story and the American Imagination by Misha Berson.The film grossed an estimated $43 million (equivalentto $300 million today) and according to the book israted by the American Film Institute as one of the twogreatest musicals ever made, second only to Singin’ in theRain. MGM has released an elaborate four-disc 50thanniversary Blu-Ray package to celebrate the film. Andlast November, 50 years after the film’s opening, RussTamblyn (Riff), as well as supporting Oscar ® winnersGeorge Chakiris (Bernardo) and Rita Moreno (Anita), gottheir hand and footprints in the forecourt of Grauman’sChinese Theatre, where the film originally premiered.But the longevity of the class of ’61 doesn’t stop there.Consider Judgment at Nuremberg, Stanley Kramer’s powerfullook at the Holocaust as seen through the prism of thefamed Nuremberg Nazi trials. It too received 11 Oscar ®nominations, winning for Abby Mann’s adaptation of hisPlayhouse 90 TV play and best actor Maximilian Schell.The film co-starred Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster,Montgomery Clift, Judy Garland, Richard Widmark,Marlene Dietrich and others. In October, the Academy ofMotion Picture Arts & Sciences ® honored it with a special50th anniversary evening for which Schell flew in fromSwitzerland. At that screening Rabbi Marvin Heir calledthe movie “a trailblazer” and Schell told stories of itsmaking. Tom Brokaw, Alec Baldwin and co-star WilliamShatner contributed taped remembrance.Consider The Guns of Navarone. Ask any kid who grew upcirca '61 and this probably tops the list of favorite adventuremovies – ever. Gregory Peck, David Niven and AnthonyQuinn starred in the sensational World War II-set epic thathas been painstakingly digitally restored by Columbia andjust released on Blu-Ray in honor of its 50th. AmericanCinematheque hosted a world premiere screening ofthe restoration on Oct. 21 at the Egyptian Theatre inHollywood. It received seven Oscar ® nominations includingbest picture and won for special effects.Consider The Hustler. In her new autobiography, co-starPiper Laurie writes of her disappointment with the film.She is probably the only one. It remains a classic, earnednine nominations including best picture, Laurie for bestactress, Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason and George C.Scott (which he declined) and won for black & white artdirection and cinematography. It even sparked a sequel 25years later, The Color of Money that finally did win Newmanan Oscar ® . Fox released The Hustler recently in a pristineBlu-Ray edition and Warrior director Gavin O’Connorhas co-written a stage adaptation to take to Broadwaylater this year co-starring Renée Zellweger.The fifth nominee, Fanny (five nominations), was anattempt by director Joshua Logan to recapture the magicof 1958’s big Oscar ® winner, Gigi, by reteaming its starsLeslie Caron and Maurice Chevalier along with best actornominee Charles Boyer. It is the only one of the ’61 cropwest side storyto be largely neglected. A small distributor finally has putthe original Warner Bros. release out on DVD and Carontold me it remains a personal favorite but what film printsexist are not in good shape. It would be great to see 1961’sforgotten treasure restored.Ironically, perhaps the most beloved movie of 1961,Breakfast at Tiffany’s, was not a best picture nominee butdid manage five nominations, including a best actressnod for Audrey Hepburn and won for Henry Mancini’soriginal score and iconic song, "Moon River". The styleand fashions in the film have been endlessly copied,it’s constantly selling out revival house screenings andParamount just issued it on Blu-Ray and recentlypremiered a major restoration at the Academy and TCMClassic Film Festival. Several recent books have beenwritten recently on its making. It has even been the subjectof a ’90s rock hit, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” by the bandDeep Blue Something.Will any 2011’s lineup get this kind of tender loving careand attention a half-century from now? I will be writing afollow-up to this article in 2062. So stay tuned. •