Matt's Movie Reviews are Moving

While I'm continuing to Blog I've set up two separate blogs dealing with film which I suggest people I either follow on bloglovin' or follow the links from this blog that I'll post to the Oscar Challenge.

The Big Oscar Challenge has now got its own blog with trailers instead of posters and a fancier look find it here - http://bigoscarchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

While modern movie reviews will now be posted at - filmsof2012.blogspot.co.uk

Hope to see you there as I say I will come back on here from time to time to remind you where to go back for now I'm moving out.

Matt's Oscar Challenge Day 166-168: More Musical Melodies

I know I've been laying low for a while in terms of the Oscar hunt but that's because I've had other things on soon these posts will have their own exclusive blog dedicated to them but for the moment I present a quadruple bill of 1960s musicals. However the characters in the musicals aren't the most savoury of characters - child thieves, gang members, murderers and conmen who can all hold a tune, isn't it just lovely.

Starting off with the film that triumphed at the 1962 ceremony - an update of Romeo and Juliet starring too warring, gun-toting, all-singing, all-dancing gangs. I'm talking of course of West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein and Steven Sondheim's classic musical, which was transplanted to the screen in 1961 to rave reviews. As always with films that I know quite well it's hard for me to know how much plot detail to put in but I will say that the film deals with the rival gangs the Latino-only gang The Sharks and The Jets which are made up of mainly Polish immigrants. Russ Tamblyn plays Jet leader Riff whose lieutenant Tony has essentially quit the gang preferring to work at the local drugstore however he is convinced to come to the dance where both gangs will arrange a rumble. That's where Tony meets Natalie Wood's Maria the sister of Bernardo the leader of the Sharks, played by George Charkiris, with Tony and Maria obviously being the equivalent of Romeo and Juliet. As we all know the story the two warring factions end up getting in the way of the love story with both Biff and Bernardo biting the dust before the final scenes. The only change-up is that Tony is killed but Maria survives telling the gangs to stop what they are doing before there is even more bloodshed. For me the opening fifteen minutes of West Side Story builds it up perfectly with the opening conflict between the two gangs played out to minimal beats building up to a large climax which provides the impetus for the rest of the film. Though I do have a bit of a problem finding gangs that are that in time when dancing together particularly threatening everything else about this film is great. While I found Wood and Richard Beymer a little flat as Maria and Tony there was support elsewhere in two Oscar winning turns from Chakiris and Rita Moreno the latter playing Bernardo's girl and Maria's confident. Actually out of all the performances I feel that Moreno's is the best especially towards the end when The Jets are circling around her following Bernardo's death. The songs are spectacular from America to Maria to Someday and the staging is perfect especially the playground with wire around it a perfect place to start and end the film. So all in all a perfect Oscar Best Picture winner then.

Moving on to the next year a less racy and more traditional musical with The Music Man although it does still feature an unsavoury lead character in conman Professor Harold Hill who comes to the sleepy Iowa town of River City to flog band uniforms and instruments to the unsuspecting townsfolk. Hill is played by Robert Preston, who played the role on stage, however both Frank Sinatra and Cary Grant were offered the role with the latter turning it down saying nobody could play it as well as the man who did on Broadway. Hill is aided in his con by associate Marcellus who is the only one who knows him by his real name Gregory. As he is a showman he convinces the majority of the town to steer away the young folk from the pool tables and instead get them to take part in a band. His pomp and circumstance is infectious as the older women of the town form a dance group while the four men on the school board form a Barbershop Quartet, in actuality they are played by real life quartet The Buffalo Bills. Hill's main opposition comes from the town's mayor who wants his credentials and the local librarian Marian who teaches piano. I was a big fan of The Music Man before revisiting agan and what I like about it so much is in the little details from the opening number set on a train that has all the men in suits and hats complaining about Hill to the final reprise of '76 Trombones' with the whole town now kitted out in their band uniforms. The other songs are just as brilliant with the most famous being 'Till There Was You' however my favourite has to be the famous 'Trouble in River City' in which Hill convinces the people that the pool table is bad news. Both Preston and Shirley Jones are a great couple with support coming from the brilliant Buddy Hackett and a young Ron Howard. While this isn't going to win any points for originality it is still a fine old-fashioned musical and one of the last of its kind.

Possibly the least impressive of the four films in this blog is the only one I hadn't seen before that being the original 1967 version of Doctor Dolittle. For me the film is most famous for two things Rex Harrison and the song 'If Could Talk to the Animals' however after reading around the production it seems it has an infamous backstory. Originally projected to cost only $6 million dollars the end budget almost tripled that and the film was known as the picture that almost bought Warner Brothers to its knees. The only reason I'm watching it is due to the studio launching a rather aggressive campaign in which it wined and dined Academy members in order to get seven nominations. It won two deservedly for the ahead-of-their-time special effects, which included a two headed llama and a giant snail, as well as for the aforementioned song. Rex Harrison, who wasn't nominated, was brilliant as the former people doctor who'd turned to animals and learnt to communicate with them but had angered several people around him because of this. The first half of the film deals with his past while the second half sees him take off to find the elusive Great Pink Sea Snail eventually ending up on the floating Sea-Star Island. Personally I'm not quite sure what audience this film is aimed at as many of the songs would be too much for the kids while the romance between Dolittle's assistant played by Anthony Newley and the snotty-nosed Emma is really uninvolving. Bar Harrison, a couple of the songs and the effects this is could be described as a white elephant of a film, incidentally not one of the animals that Dolittle deals with, as large set-pieces on the island plus one at a circus fail to provide any interest. In a year in which more interesting films should've taken the Best Picture slot that Dolittle ended up getting it proves just how easily-influenced the Oscar panel were back in the 1960s and depending on who you listen to not a lot has changed in term of the way things work today.

Ending on a positive note with the film that won the Best Picture at the final 1960s Oscar ceremony that being Oliver! Unlike a lot of these films, which were basically screen musicals adapted almost note-for-note, the film version of Oliver! changed some roles, got rid of some songs and made the whole thing seem more like a film. For example the second half of the film version has a lot less songs than the stage version does which makes it seem rightly a lot more dramatic and less light-hearted than the first half. Not that you can say most of the plot of Oliver! is generally light-hearted dealing as it does with an orphan who runs away from the workhouse to end up working for a gang of young thieves led by a cunning Jew and a woman-beating Neanderthal. Obviously I'm referring there to Oscar nominee Ron Moody's Fagin and Oliver Reed's Bill Sikes who was a character that had a minimal role in the musical but appears more for the film audience to realise that he's no good. Like Mary Poppins, Oliver is one of the films on this list that I have watched many times before however I approached it this time thinking does this feel like a Best Picture winner? My answer would probably be yes but from an earlier decade as by this time the Academy was awarding more alternative films for example the prior winner to Oliver! was In the Heat of the Night and the one after was Midnight Cowboy. What Oliver! is is a brilliant musical with fine turns from Moody, Reed, Shani Wallis as Nancy, Harry Secombe as Mr Bumble and Jack Wild as The Artful Dodger who was the only other cast member to get an Oscar nomination. There are some great set pieces namely in the 'Consider Yourself' and 'Who Will Buy' numbers the latter of which is one of my favourite moments. However as I am one for darker stuff I love the last twenty minutes most notably Fagin and Dodger's reprise of Reviewing the Situation as well as the eventual capture of Bill, hell even Bullseye the dog is brilliant. In 1969 film was changing however if you'd watched Oliver! as a representation of what movies were like at the time then you wouldn't know it although it is an excellent musical I feel that something grittier could've possibly won in its place but then again I haven't watched its competitors yet so only time will tell.

OK  more Oscar blogging to come soon with an Audrey Hepburn double coming up next.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 166: Simply Sidney

For those of you who have been following the Oscar challenge you will now that when I can I group a number of films together by actor or genre. This is true of this latest trio of films all starring Sidney Poitier who historically was the first African-American actor to become a big star and in terms of this was also the first black male to win an Oscar outside of the honorary categories. We first met him at the tail end of the 1950s in The Defiant Ones for which he was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar and his golden touch continues with all the three films in this list winning at least one award. As you can imagine with a black actor in the 1960s a lot of these films deal with racial prejudice with Poitier often playing against how people of his colour were often portrayed here playing doctors and detectives. But we'll start off with a film in which he neither plays a professional nor is race the main issue.

The film I am referring to is Lilies of the Field the film that won Poitier his Best Actor Oscar and sees him play Homer Smith a drifter and jack-of-all trades who has no fixed abode. When his car runs out of water one day he stops to fill it up at a convent run by Eastern European nuns with the mother superior of the outfit hiring Homer to do some work around their property for the day. However after a while he discovers the mother superior won't let him leave until he has built them a chapel and he soon learns from others the exploitative nature of these nuns. At the same time he sympathises with their struggle to leave their native Germany, they had to climb over the Berlin Wall, and as he had always wanted to be an architect he sets about trying to build the chapel. As word spreads people from the community, mainly Hispanics, come to lend support and materials however Homer refuses their help wanting this to be a single-handed project. He eventually gets the help and the chapel is finished however Mother Maria is too proud to let him stay and so he slips away while the other sisters are singing one of the Baptist hymns he taught them. Lilies of the Field is such a simple film but at the same time is lovingly produced and well put together by director Ralph Nelson. The main theme of the film here is outsiders coming together in this case an African-American drifter, a group of East German nuns and poor Hispanic families as they work to construct something that the community can be proud of. Poitier's performance is larger-than-life with his laughter being infectious and his general aura radiating from the screen he is tasked with leading the film for the most-part and does an excellent job. The desolate locations are well-filmed by Ernest Haller and there is also an excellent supporting performance from Lilia Skala as Mother Maria which earned her an Oscar nod also. This was just a lovely simple tale about family and taking the gifts that are offered to us when they are given.

Four years later, at the 1968 ceremony, Sidney starred in two of the five films nominated for Best Picture including the movie that went onto to win Best Picture that year - In the Heat of the Night. In this film the plot is centred around Poitier's Virgil Tibbs' race as he hauled to the police station in Sparta, Mississippi as he believed to have killed a man he had never met. The racist police Chief Bill Gillespie, played by Rod Steiger who won a Best Actor Oscar for this film, is embarrassed to learn that Tibbs is actually a homicide detective and devices ways to keep him around in order to have his help on the murder case. As Tibbs' targets the wealthiest man in Sparta he soon his confronted by a mob who threaten his life and he is advised by Gillespie to leave the town however a defiant Tibbs refuses until he's solved the murder. Tibbs is able to link the crime to the pregnancy of a local teenager who police officer Sam Wood had taken a liking to and after a conversation with the local backstreet abortionist he is able to track down his man. However will it be too late for Tibbs who has angered even more of Sparta's residents during his snooping. In the Heat of the Night is an excellent film showing racial prejudice at its most extreme with the scenes in which Tibbs his hunted down by a mob being very shocking indeed however the film is also keen to point out that Tibbs is also prejudice against many of the Sparta police department seeing them as stupid. Though Poitier does lend almost a moral backbone to the film it is Rod Steiger who is the star here as Gillespie learns some tolerance and some respect towards Virgil towards the end of the film. There were some points when I watched In The Heat of the Night where I wondered if it should've won the Best Picture award but this film had a good central mystery as well as having a good message about not judging anyone on where they live or the colour of their skin.

The colour of skin also has a massive impact in Poitier's last film here the outstanding Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Here Poitier plays widower doctor John Prentice who while on holiday in Hawaii meets Christina Drayton and falls in love planning to marry her but first wanting to get the consent of her parents who he thinks will worry that a black man is with their white daughter. Christina's parents, played by the brilliant Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracey the latter in his final film role, have always preached her tolerance but her father Matt is concerned now that he may have a black man as a son-in-law. Things get more complicated when John's parents decide to fly in for dinner despite the fact he has yet to tell them that he wishes to marry a white girl. The film is essentially based around people's opinions of a mixed-race couple for example if love is more important than the colour of someone's skin. I just found it hard to fault Guess Who's Coming to Dinner apart from the fact that I think Poitier should've shown up in the acting categories alongside Hepburn and Tracy both of whom shine throughout this wonderful film. Possibly it's not as cinematic as it could been but the performances and script are flawless throughout so by the time Tracy delivers his final monologue you'll be entrnaced. For me this was the better of the two Poitier films released this year due to its themes, acting, music and script. Though out of the three films this is the one in which Poitier has the least to do yet his presence is still felt which is the mark of a great actor as is the fact that everyone of the roles in these three films he plays very differently.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 165: Just Julie

The second of the bank holiday weekend treats was yet another viewing of the classic that is Mary Poppins which for me was the start of a Julie Andrews double bill as I decided to watch an online copy of The Sound of Music. Like with Streisand in the previous post, Mary Poppins was Andrews' debut film and also earned her a Best Actress Oscar in addition this is to date the Disney film that has been nominated for the most Oscars with a staggering thirteen nods. I don't know how much of a plot summary I have to do for either of these films but essentially Mary Poppins concerns Jane and Michael children of banker George Banks who are constantly unruly and don't really do with nannies. After an incident with some wind and a ripped up note Andrews' Poppins comes into their life and lets them live with free abandon having tea parties on the ceiling and entering an animated world via a painting. However there are life lessons learnt along the way and some darn fine songs with Dick Van Dyke being an added bonus however his cock-er-ney accent leaves a lot to be desired. There's no denying that Mary Poppins is one of the best films that Disney has ever produced and it still looks as good as it ever did. I watched the majority of the film with my mum who seemingly knows every word to every song and it is definitely a film that sticks with you and for me there isn't a bad song among the bunch my favourite meanwhile is an obscure part of the film in which Van Dyke and David Tomlinson duet just before George Banks gets fired. I have to say that the film was revolutionary at the time with its combination of animation and live action which today seems fairly commonplace but these sequences are so expertly put together that the visual effects Oscar that the film won was more than deserved. Overall I challenge anyone to watch Mary Poppins and not enjoy it it is a masterpiece but oddly it wasn't the Julie Andrews film that won Best Picture.

That in fact went to the film she made directly after Poppins that being The Sound of Music again playing a nanny only this time to a group of petulant Austrian children just before the Nazi occupation of the country. Once again I'm sure not a lot of plot detail is needed but just in case Andrews plays Maria an unruly novice nun who is tasked to look after the seven Von Trapp children who are treated like an army by their widower Captain father. The children briefly try to trick her but they soon warm to her niceties as does the Captain when he realises that she has turned his children into a choir. After the briefest of courtships Maria and The Captain marry but pressure on him to join the Nazi movement mounts so the family use a concert performance as the moment to flee to neutral Switzerland. There are a lot of things to like about the Sound of Music the majority of the songs, the costume design and the Austrian scenery all count in its favour but for me even though it has the Nazis in it is still a little bit twee. I feel that Mary Poppins has more of an edge to it as it deals with the class system in London while the Nazi movement in the Sound of Music is essentially presented as a minor hindrance to the singing career of seven children and a nun. That's not to say The Sound of Music is a bad film it does what it does well and still looks great but if we're judging films in which Julie Andrews plays a nanny its always going to be Poppins over Maria for me everytime.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 164: It's a Little Bit Funny

So this bank holiday has yielded two films that are on my 1960s list for this Oscar Project with the first being Funny Girl the biographical musical of theatre star Fanny Brice which incidentally was briefly covered in 1930s Best Picture winner The Great Ziegfeld with Brice playing herself. Here Brice is played by Barbara Streisand in her debut film performance, for which she won the Best Actress Oscar, as we see her journey from awkward teenager to star of the Ziegfeld Follies. The story starts with Brice trying to get a part in the chorus but realising that instead she should be a headliner due to her comedy timing and great voice. When she finally makes it she falls in love with Omar Sharrif's Nicky Arnestein with whom she runs off abandoning the Follies. Once he has won lots of money playing cards they return to a big mansion and she returns to the Follies however things take a turn for the worst with Nick's business ventures falling through. After the pair move into an apartment Nick feels that he has to be the man despite Fanny earning more than him so agrees to go through with a shady deal and gets arrested for embezzlement. Fanny and Nick reunite briefly but at the end of the day separate mainly so she can go off and make the sequel.

One of about eight musicals that I have to watch during the next fifty films Funny Girl at least had some bite to it and some very familiar songs. I already knew that Don't Rain on My Parade featured prominently and indeed in the scene in which Fanny decides to abandon the Follies to be with Nick her performance is great as it is on People and all of the other songs featured. The star of the show though is undoubtedly Streisand who is on the ball with all her timing and really convinces as the girl who has a great stage presence but lacks maturity when it comes to her personal life. Omar Sharif is always good as the dashing love interest/caddish villain and in this he plays a version of the two a man who feels like his other half is the one wearing the trousers. The Follies productions are also greatly reconstructed although they don't feel as genuine as in the story of Ziegfeld himself here played by veteran actor Walter Pidgeon. While not everything works and I did find myself a trifle board during some of Nick's card games this was an entertaining musical biopic with a stunning debut performance from its lead actress that was more than worthy of the Oscar she won for it.

Mat's Big Oscar Challenge Day 163: A Place to Stay in the New Decade

So I was thinking I wouldn't try and start on the 1960s as I've so many other things going on at the moment that it would be a mistake but then I never really listen to myself do I? As I ended the last decade with a winner I decided to start the sixties with one also and it's one that has been sitting on my shelf for ages now that being The Apartment. The first five minutes or so of the film establishes the plot as Jack Lemmon's CC Baxter introduces us to his life in which he rents out his apartment to various bosses from the office in which he works so they can be with their mistresses. In return Baxter hopes to get some sort of promotion so he can impress Shirley MacLaine's kindly elevator operator Fran Kubelik. When his boss Sheldrake offers a promotion it is under the condition that he too get a key to Baxter's apartment which he agrees to but later discovers that his mistress is in fact Fran. When Fran realises that Sheldrake will never leave his wife she overdoses on Baxter's sleeping pills however he finds her just in time and helps her recover growing closer to her in the meantime. So the love triangle then develops between Sheldrake, Fran and Baxter in the final third of the movie and it is essentially rooting for the underdog over the more powerful yet cowardly man.

There are no words to describe how much I love The Apartment and it more than deserved to win the Best Picture award. Once again I think it's the academy giving Billy Wilder an award just because they forgot to even nominate Some Like It Hot for Best Picture the previous year. However from the writing, to the performances and to the lovely majestic score from Adolph Deutsch everything is right about this film. For a starters there's Jack Lemmon a man that can go from slapstick comedy to full on drama in a matter of moments and this role more than suits him as he frantically tries to arrange a schedule to fit all of his philandering superiors into his abode at different times. Shirley MacLaine is equally as brilliant as the beautiful, fragile Fran who does a great job making us sympathise for the other woman who is sleeping with a married man and makes us understand that sometimes you can't help who you fall in love with even if they are already attached. There's such a great chemistry between Lemmon and MacLaine the scenes between them in the apartment are just breath-taking as he gently tries to help her get over her suicide attempt. Billy Wilder demonstrates why he is perhaps the greatest director of all time as every frame tells a story from the humdrum world of the office cubicle to the single man trying to escape his life of drudgery through watching the TV. There's nothing bad about a film that is simply about two lost souls trying to find each other which features lots of laughs, a few tears but plenty of enjoyment. I'm so glad that this is the first film that I watched from this decade and I would recommend all of you go out and watch it immediately.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Ceremonies 22-31 (1950-1959)

So here we are at the end of another decade and time for me to look through the ten ceremonies that took place in the 1950s and if any of the nominees deserved to win more than the film that actually took home the prize. However first of all I wanted to have a look at the films that weren't nominated from the 1949-1958 period classics such as Singin' in the Rain, Guys and Dolls and a lot of Hitchcock's output including Vertigo and Rear Window were cut out not to mention the films that Kurosawa and Bergman were making overseas. It just seems a bit of a shame that the stunning but shallow Biblical epics and the dreary war films were passed in favour of some of these films which have stood the test of time more than the final nominees. With that rant over let's get on with the review.

Ceremony 22: 1950 
Winner: All the King's Men
Nominees: Battleground, The Heiress, A Letter to Three Wives, Twelve o'clock High
Did the Right Film Win?: Yes
It seems that Broderick Crawford's political corruption drama was definitely the best of the bunch from the 1949 selection. Of the others The Heiress was a dreary melodrama and the two war films Battleground and Twelve O'Clock High had their moments but were ultimately unmemorable. Only A Letter to Three Wives stood out as a possible contender hence director Joseph L Mankiewicz winner the prize for Best Director and winning the Best Picture prize the year after.

Ceremony 23: 1951 
Winner: All About Eve
Nominees: Born Yesterday, Father of the Bride, King Solomon's Mines, Sunset Boulevard
Did the Right Film Win?: Yes
Not a lot of discussion here either All About Eve garnered a lot of nominations and they were all richly deserved in one of the best films of all time. If we're splitting hairs then Sunset Boulevard would be the only other real contender but Eve wins it for me every time.

Ceremony 24: 1952
Winner: An American in Paris
Nominees: Decision Before Dawn, A Place in the Sun, Quo Vadis, A Streetcar Named Desire
Did the Right Film Win?: No
Though a charming musical film I don't feel that An American in Paris has the lasting effect that some of the other nominees do. While it's probably better than espionage yarn Decision Before Dawn or biblical epic Quo Vadis it is a toss-up between the other two films for Best Picture. A Place in the Sun did have a great star-making turn from Liz Taylor but A Streetcar Named Desire just edges it for me as it grabs you from beginning to end and had three of the four acting categories sown up only a certain Mr Brando was left out in the cold.

Ceremony 25: 1953 
Winner: The Greatest Show on Earth
Nominees: High Noon, Ivanhoe, Moulin Rouge, The Quiet Man
Did the Right Film Win?: No
Possibly the first case of the Academy giving a 'last chance' Oscar to someone who won't have another chance to win one was the fact that Cecil B Demille's film won Best Picture this year. It's true that its live circus atmosphere stays with you but apart from that I'm struggling to remember many details about it. Of the other nominees it is a bit more of a dead cert this year as I would've probably chosen High Noon if I'd been picking as it is the best of a mediocre bunch has a clear storyline and some great performances.

Ceremony 26: 1954
Winner: From Here to Eternity
Nominees: Julius Caesar, The Robe, Roman Holiday, Shane
Did the Right Film Win?: Yes
Sort of a mixed bag this year with another big epic, a Shakespeare adaptation, a romantic comedy and a Western as the contenders however it is this Hawaiian war film that is still the iconic piece thanks in no small part to that beach kiss.

Ceremony 27: 1955
Winner: On the Waterfront
Nominees: The Caine Mutiny, The Country Girl, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Three Coins in the Fountain
Did the Right Film Win?: Yes
There's no going against Elia Kazan's brilliant tale of union corruption and lost dreams with Marlon Brando not a contender but an actual winner. Of the others both The Caine Mutiny and The Country girl showed promise but there was no matching this brilliant film on the night.

Ceremony 28: 1956
Winner: Marty
Nominees: Love is a Many Splendored Thing, Mister Roberts, Picnic, The Rose Tattoo
Did the Right Film Win?: Maybe
It honestly depends on your taste in films but for me Marty was the best of this bunch thanks to Ernest Borgnine's performance as the unlucky in love butcher. Mister Roberts and Picnic were also good films with one being a great war film and the other featuring possibly William Holden's greatest turn. But for me the fact that Marty was set over only 24 hours and the great ensemble cast means that it was my favourite from those on offer.

Ceremony 29: 1957
Winner: Around the World in Eighty Days
Nominees I've Watched: Giant, The King and I, The Ten Commandments
Nominees Not Available To Me: Friendly Persuasion
Did the Right Film Win?: No
Personally another poor year with this overlong mess stunning Academy members with its exotic locations, slapstick comedy and numerous cameos. Of the other three that I have seen it is Giant that I would pick for a strong turn from Liz Taylor and also from James Dean although for a musical The King and I is also captivating. For me though I'd go for Giant as an alternative winner to this overblown epic.

Ceremony 30: 1958 
Winner: The Bridge on the River Kwai
Nominees: Peyton Place, Sayonara, Twelve Angry Men, Witness for the Prosecution  
Did the Right Film Win?: Not for Me
So my reasons for saying that the River Kwai wasn't the right winner is because my favourite film of all time 12 Angry Men was up against it. It didn't really stand a chance as it was shot in black-and-white and predominantly stayed in the same set but ultimately people have remembered it more fondly than Kwai. Witness for the Prosecution is also worth a mention for Charles Laughton's great turn as the lawyer and Marlene Dietrich for playing the sultry femme fatale so well.

Ceremony 31: 1959
Winner: Gigi
Nominees I've Seen: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Defiant Ones, Separate Tables
Nominees Not Available: Auntie Mame
Did the Right Film Win?: No
Another musical set in France starring Leslie Caron wins again however the other three nominees in this category were deserved winners. I think for me I would pick Separate Tables due to the ensemble nature of the piece and the fact that it got two of the four acting awards that year. Paul Newman and Liz Taylor sparkle together in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof while Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis have a great chemistry in The Defiant Ones. For me though it's all about the British hotel drama and some great turns from Niven, Kerr, Lancaster and Hayworth.

So those are my picks for the 1950s sees you in the 1960s probably next year some time.