Your Favourite Performances from 1929 to present are...

[Dommy]

Madeline Kahn should have gotten the Oscar for her sensational performance as Trixie Delight in Paper Moon.  The scene on the hill will show you what I mean.

 

[skimpole]

Here are my choices of the 111 films I've seen from 1974 for…

 

9.  LAUREN BACALL (Harriet Belinda Grunwald Hubbard/"Linda Harden"), Murder on the Orient Express

 

 

I believe it's "Linda Arden"

[Jlewis]

This was one of the great years of the decade. If I had to choose 5 from each gender...

 

• Bruno S. in a performance that everybody remembers even if he is long forgotten - Jeder Für Sich Und Gott Gegen Alle (Every Man for Himself and God Against All / Mystery Of Kaspar Hauser)
• Lee Strasberg, one of many "little" performances that ape leads Al Pacino and Robert De Niro - The Godfather Part II
• El Hedi ben Salem... or, rather, director Rainer Fassbinder's obsession with him clothed and unclothed, on screen and off screen - Angst Essen Seele Auf (Fear Eats The Soul)
• John Huston as delightfully repulsive - Chinatown
• Gene Wilder as delightfully bonkers - Young Frankenstein

 

• Brigitte Mira, who surprises us all by attracting a man half her age without a bikini body - Angst Essen Seele Auf (Fear Eats The Soul)
• Ellen Burstyn behaving her typical loony - Alice Doesn't live Here Anymore
• Gene Rowlands behaving even loonier - A Woman Under The Influence
• Ava Gardner... Don't ask me why. I feel sorry for her. - Earthquake.
• Gloria Swanson and her handbag, who technically should have been at the controls instead - Airport 1975

[kingrat]

Lawrence, thank you for letting us know about the life of G.D. Spradlin, an actor I've always loved. He'll get a great role as the Tom Landry character in North Dallas Forty and will probably give the best supporting performance of 1979.

 

Thanks to everyone who mentioned a film I should make a point of watching, Celine and Julie Go Boating.

[Swithin]

Thanks to everyone who mentioned a film I should make a point of watching, Celine and Julie Go Boating.

 

Guaranteed to put a smile on your face, for all of its 192 minutes!

[LawrenceA]

 

Thanks to everyone who mentioned a film I should make a point of watching, Celine and Julie Go Boating.

 

I'd like to see it, too, although it seems to be difficult to find on any home format. I know every year it's among the most requested titles for Criterion to release, but so far, no go.

[JamesStewartFan95]

Best Actor

Charles Bronson, Death Wish

James Caan, The Gambler

Gene Hackman, The Conversation

Dustin Hoffman, Lenny

Cleavon Little, Blazing Saddles

Al Pacino, The Godfather Part II

Gene Wilder, Young Frankenstein

 

Best Actress

Ellen Burstyn, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Mia Farrow, The Great Gatsby

Goldie Hawn, The Sugarland Express

Lauren Hutton, The Gambler

Valerie Perrine, Lenny

 

Best Supporting Actor

Eddie Albert, The Longest Yard

John Cazale, The Godfather Part II

Robert DeNiro, The Godfather Part II

Robert Duvall, The Godfather Part II

Marty Feldman, Young Frankenstein

Frederic Forrest, The Conversation

Harvey Korman, Blazing Saddles

Slim Pickens, Blazing Saddles

Gene Wilder, Blazing Saddles

 

Best Supporting Actress

Valerie Curtin, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Jodie Foster, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Teri Garr, Young Frankenstein

Madeleine Kahn, Blazing Saddles

Diane Ladd, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Cloris Leachman, Young Frankenstein

[Bogie56]

 

Supporting Actor: 

 

John Cazale, The Godfather Part II, The Conversation

 

 

Skimpole, for the purposes of our decade review of winners I am going to chose Cazale's performance in The Godfather Part II here if that is all right.  It was the meatier of the two.  I can only use clear winners in each category for that tally so no ties for its purposes.

Thanks for the character name correction in Murder not he Orient Express.  Part of my hobby has been trying to make note of any aliases the characters use in a film.

[Bogie56]

The New York Film Critics Circle Awards for 1974 were …

 

Best Actor

Jack Nicholson, Chinatown and The Last Detail (73)*

Gene Hackman, The Conversation

Richard Dreyfuss, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

Dustin Hoffman, Lenny

 

Best Actress

Liv Ullmann, Scenes From a Marriage* (73)

Gena Rowlands, A Woman Under the Influence

Mariangela Melato, Love and Anarchy (73)

Valerie Perrine, Lenny

 

Best Supporting Actor

Charles Boyer, Stavisky*

Robert De Niro, The Godfather Part II

Lee Strasberg, The Godfather Part II

 

Best Supporting Actress

Valerie Perrine, Lenny*

Bibi Andersson, Scenes From a Marriage (73)

Madeline Kahn, Young Frankenstein

[CoraSmith]

ACTOR:

1. Jack Nicholson - Chinatown

2. Gene Hackman - The Conversation

3. El Hedi ben Salem - Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

4. Paul Newman - The Towering Inferno
5. Al Pacino - The Godfather Part II

6. Gérard Depardieu - Going Places

7. Jan Decleir - The Conscript

8. Roger Moore - The Man with the Golden Gun

9. Cleavon Little - Blazing Saddles
10. Vittorio Gassman - Scent of a Woman

ACTRESS:

1. Pam Grier - Foxy Brown

2. Brigitte Mira - Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

3. Goldie Hawn - The Sugarland Express
4. Gena Rowlands - A Woman Under the Influence

5. Ansje Beentjes - The Conscript

6. Faye Dunaway - Chinatown

7. Hanna Schygulla - Effi Briest

8. Miou-Miou - Going Places

9. Mia Farrow - The Great Gatsby

10. Jane Birkin - Lucky Pierre

SUPPORTING ACTOR

1. Robert De Niro - The Godfather Part II

2. John Huston - Chinatown

3. Hervé Villechaise - The Man with the Golden Gun

4. Sean Connery - Murder on the Orient Express

5. Fred Astaire - The Towering Inferno
6. Antonio Fargas - Foxy Brown

7. Harrison Ford - The Conversation

8. John Hillerman - Blazing Saddles

 

SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

1. Britt Ekland - The Man with the Golden Gun

2. Kathryn Loder - Foxy Brown

3. Jacqueline Bisset - Murder on the Orient Express

4. Teri Garr - The Conversation

5. Barbara Valentin - Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

6. Lois Chiles - The Great Gatsby

7. Susan Sarandon - The Front Page

8. Ines Pellegrini - Arabian Nights

BEST JUVENILE PERFORMANCE: Matthew Labyorteaux - A Woman Under the Influence

BEST ANIMAL PERFORMANCE: Sheriff's horse - Blazing Saddles

BEST EXTRA: Sofia Coppola as child on ship in The Godfather Part II

BEST UNCREDITED PERFORMANCE: Robert Duvall - The Conversation

BEST MULTI-STAR CAST: Murder on the Orient Express

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: Jerry Goldsmith - Chinatown

BEST ORIGINAL SONG: The Man with the Golden Gun (Lulu in The Man with the Golden Gun)

BEST NON-ORIGINAL SONG: We Need a Little Christmas (Lucille Ball in Mame)

BEST QUOTE: "How do you like them apples?" (Chinatown)

[Bogie56]

Here are my choices of the 111 films I've seen from 1974 for…

 

Best Actress of 1974

 

1.  ELLEN BURSTYN (Alice Graham Hyatt), Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

2.  VALERIE PERRINE (Honey Harlowe Bruce), Lenny 

3.  FAYE DUNAWAY (Evelyn Cross Mulwray), Chinatown

4.  GINA ROWLANDS (Mabel Longhetti), A Woman Under the Influence

5.  FAYE DUNAWAY (Milady DeWinter/”the Countess de la Fere”), The Four Musketeers

 

6.  DIAHANN CARROLL (Claudine Price), Claudine

7.  MARIANGELA MELATO (Mrs. Raffaella Pavone Lanzetti), Swept Away

8.  GOLDIE HAWN (Lou Jean Theros Sparrow Poplin), The Sugarland Express

9.  LAURA ANTONELLI (Laura), Lovers and Other Relatives

10. SHELLEY DUVALL (Keechie Mobley), Thieves Like Us

 

nnd ...

 

YELLA ROTTLANDER (Alice van Damm), Alice In the Cities

[Bogie56]

Here are my choices of the 111 films I've seen from 1974 for…

 

Best Actor of 1974

 

1.  NINO MANFREDI (Giovanni ‘Nino’ Garofalo), Bread and Chocolate

2.  JACK NICHOLSON (J.J. "Jake" Gittes/”Russ Yelburton”), Chinatown

3.  AL PACINO (Michael Corleone), The Godfather Part II

4.  GENE HACKMAN (Harry Caul), The Conversation

5.  ART CARNEY (Harry Coombs), Harry and Tonto

 

6.  RICHARD DREYFUSS (“David” Duddy Kravitz/"Dudley Kane"/"Doodle"), The Apprenticeship of Duddy              Kravitz

7.  ALBERT FINNEY (Hercule Poirot), Murder on the Orient Express

8.  PETER FALK (Nick Longhetti), A Woman Under the Influence

9.  DUSTIN HOFFMAN (‘Lenny Bruce’/Leonard Schneider), Lenny

10. JAMES EARL JONES (Rupert "Roop" Marshall/"Simpson X"), Claudine

 

and...

 

MAX VON SYDOW (Harry Haller), Steppenwolf

GEORGE SEGAL (Bill Denny), California Split

JON VOIGHT (Pat Conroy/”Mr. Patroy”/”Conrack”), Conrack

ZERO MOSTEL (Don Carlos Del Refuccio), Once Upon a Scoundrel

WARREN OATES (Bennie), Bring Me the Head of Alfonso Garcia

JEAN-PAUL BELMONDO (Serge Stavisky/”Serge Alexandre”/”Alex”/”Sasha”), Stavisky

STEVE MCQUEEN (Michael ‘Mike’ O’Hallorhan, SFFD 5th Battalion Chief), The Towering Inferno

GIANCARLO GIANNINI (Gennarino Carunchio/”Gennaruzzo”), Swept Away

[Bogie56]

The National Board of Review Awards for 1974 were…

 

Best Actors

Gene Hackman, The Conversation*

 

Best Actress

Gena Rowlands, A Woman Under the Influence*

 

Best Supporting Actor

Holger Lowenadler, Lacombe, Lucien*

 

Best Supporting Actress

Valerie Perrine, Lenny* 

 

—————————————————————————————

 

The National Society of Film Critics Awards for 1974 were …

 

Best Actor

Jack Nicholson, Chinatown and The Last Detail (73)

 

Best Actress

Liv Ullmann, Scenes From a Marriage* (73)

 

Best Supporting Actor

Holger Lowenadler, Lacombe, Lucien*

 

Best Supporting Actresses

Bibi Andersson, Scenes From a Marriage* (73)

[Bogie56]

The BAFTA winners for 1974 were ….

 

Best Actor

Jack Nicholson, The Last Detail (73) and Chinatown*

Gene Hackman, The Conversation

Albert Finney, Murder on the Orient Express

Al Pacino, Serpico (73)

 

Best Actress

Joanne Woodward, Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (73)*

Cicely Tyson, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (TVM)

Faye Dunaway, Chinatown

Barbra Streisand, The Way We Were (73)

 

Best Supporting Actor

John Gielgud, Murder on the Orient Express* 

John Huston, Chinatown

Randy Quaid, The Last Detail (73)

Adam Faith, Stardust

 

Best Supporting Actress

Ingrid Bergman, Murder on the Orient Express* 

Cindy Williams, American Graffiti (73)

Sylvia Sidney, Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (73)

Sylvia Sims, The Tamarind Seed

[Bogie56]

He's been stepped over.

 

Best Supporting Actor of 1974

 

1.  JOHN CAZALE (Frederico “Fredo” Corleone), The Godfather Part II

 

 

John Cazale's (1935-1978) Fredo was the screen performance of the year, for me.  His 'stepped over' scene in The Gdofather Part II is quite remarkable.  If memory serves I once saw an interview that explained it was Cazale's idea to play that scene in the low chair that rocks.  Right away it gives off all sorts of connotations.  Fredo is like a rocking baby.   Fredo is like a submissive dog who prostrates itself.  Fredo has one foot in his own coffin.  His lifetime of resentment pours out of him in this scene.

"I'm Smart!"

Al Pacino in an Actors Studio interview recalled how Cazale's partner, Meryl Streep took care of him when he was dying of lung cancer.  He was just 42 years old.

[Bogie56]

Here are Danny Peary’s Alternate Oscar choices for 1974.  Winners in bold.  

 

Best Actor

Gene Hackman, The Conversation*

Warren Beatty, The Parallax View

Art Carney, Harry and Tonto

Keith Carradine, Thieves Like Us

Divine, Female Trouble

Richard Dreyfuss, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

Jack Nicholson, Chinatown

Gene Wilder, Young Frankenstein

 

Best Actress

Ellen Burstyn, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore*

Diahann Carroll, Claudine

Shelley Duvall, Thieves Like Us

Goldie Hawn, The Sugarland Express

 

 

And here are Michael Gerbert’s Golden Armchair choices for 1974:

 

Best Actor

John Cazale, The Godfather Part II*

 

Best Actress

Ellen Burstyn, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore*

[Bogie56]

The Golden Globe Awards for 1974 were …

 

Best Actor in a Drama

Jack Nicholson, Chinatown*

James Caan, The Gambler

Gene Hackman, The Conversation

Dustin Hoffman, Lenny

Al Pacino, The Godfather Part II

 

Best Actress in a Drama

Gena Rowlands, A Woman Under the Influence* 

Ellen Burstyn, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore

Faye Dunaway, Chinatown

Valerie Perrine, Lenny

Liv Ullmann, Scenes From a Marriage (73)

 

Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical

Art Carney, Harry and Tonto*

James Earl Jones, Claudine

Jack Lemmon, The Front Page

Walter Matthau, The Front Page

Burt Reynolds, The Longest Yard

 

Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical

Raquel Welch, The Three Musketeers*

Lucille Ball, Mame

Diahann Carroll, Claudine

Helen Hayes, Herbie Rides Again

Cloris Leachman, Young Frankenstein

 

Best Supporting Actor

Fred Astaire, The Towering Inferno*

Eddie Albert, The Longest Yard

Bruce Dern, The Great Gatsby

John Huston, Chinatown

Sam Waterston, The Great Gatsby

 

Best Supporting Actresses

Karen Black, The Great Gatsby*

Bea Arthur, Mame

Jennifer Jones, The Towering Inferno

Madeline Kahn, Young Frankenstein

Diane Ladd, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore

[skimpole]

 

1974

 

BEST PICTURE

 

Benji

Blazing Saddles

The Front Page

That's Entertainment 

Young Frankenstein

 

Just out of curiosity Speedracer, did you not actually see the movies nominated for best picture that year, or do you really not like them?

[Bogie56]

There were no acting awards given at the 1974 Berlin International Film Festival.

 

——————————————————————————————

 

The 1974 Cannes Film Festival winners were…

 

Best Actor

Jack Nicholson, The Last Detail (73)

 

Best Actress

Marie-Jose Nat, Violins at the Ball

 

Special Mention

Charles Boyer, Stavisky

 

[speedracer5]

Just out of curiosity Speedracer, did you not actually see the movies nominated for best picture that year, or do you really not like them?

I only note movies that I've actually seen and liked. I haven't seen Chinatown or Godfather II or whatever else was listed. I have a feeling Young Frankenstein would still be my winner though.

[Bogie56]

The 1974 San Sebastian Film Festival winners were…

 

Best Actor

Martin Sheen, Badlands* (73)

 

Best Actress

Sophia Loren, The Voyage*

[Bogie56]

Here are some performances from 1974 that will be recognized in subsequent years …

 

Al Pacino will win the BAFTA Best Actor Award in 1975 for Dog Day Afternoon (1975) and The Godfather Part II (1974).

 

Dustin Hoffman will be nominated the BAFTA Best Actor Award in 1975 for Lenny (1974).

 

Ellen Burstyn will win the BAFTA Best Actress Award in 1975 for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974).

 

Valerie Perrine will be nominated the BAFTA Best Actress Award and win the Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award in 1975 for Lenny (1974).

 

Fred Astaire will win the BAFTA Best Supporting Actor Award in 1975 for The Towering Inferno (1974).

 

Martin Balsam will be nominated the BAFTA Best Supporting Actor Award in 1975 for The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974).

 

Diane Ladd will win the BAFTA Best Supporting Actress Award in 1975 for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974).

 

Leila Goldini will be nominated for the BAFTA Best Supporting Actress Award in 1975 for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974).

 

Kinyu Tanaka will win the Berlin Film Festival Best Actress Award in 1975 for Brothel No. 8 (1974).

 

Vittorio Gassman will win the Cannes Film Festival Best Actor Award in 1975 for Scent of a Woman (1974).

 

Gena Rowlands will win the San Sebastian Festival Best Actress Award in 1975 for A Woman Under the Influence (1974).

 

Nino Manfredi won the David di Donatello Best Actor Award in 73/74 for Bread and Chocolate (1974).

 

Sophia Loren won the David di Donatello Best Actor Award in 73/74 for The Voyage (1974).

 

Robert McDarra won the Australian Film Institute’s Best Actor Award in 1973 for 27A (1974).

 

Yoshio Harada will win Japan’s Blue Ribbon Best Supporting Actor Award in 1975 for To Die In the Country (1974).

[skimpole]

I want to comment a little more on Jack Nicholson in Chinatown, which in my view is his greatest performance.  It's striking how intelligent J.J. Gittes is (there's no time that the audience is ahead of him), but how ultimately unsuccessful he is.  His problem is that he can not conceive, until it is too late, the complexity and malevolence of the evil he is facing.  It's certainly worth noting the many subtleties of the performance, considering the element of self-parody that would be shown in later performances.  I'm particularly reminded of when he is at the nursing home and is trying to get information, and the slight note of distress when one of his ploys is blocked.

 

 

And out of many lines from one of Hollywood's most famous and admired screenplays, the key line is clearly this:

 

"I don't blame myself. You see, Mr. Gits, most people never have to face the fact that at the right time, the right place, they're capable of anything."

[LawrenceA]

1974

 

Pam Grier  Foxy Brown

 

I just read that one of my nominated roles will be rebooted for television next year, with Meagan Good taking the title role of Foxy Brown. Methinks the TV version will be considerably tamer.

[LawrenceA]

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

 

Jim Siedow  The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

 

I want to spotlight one of my choices for 1974, Jim Siedow as "Drayton Sawyer, the Cook", in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He was a local Texas theater actor and director when Tobe Hooper cast him as the at-first seemingly-benevolent gas station owner Drayton Sawyer, who ends up being a member of a family of cannibalistic psychopaths. In a film with performances pitched to the back row, he manages to be over-the-top yet believable at the same time. He also manages to balance the role between comical and terrifying. He returned for the sequel 12 years later, although that was about it for his onscreen career. He passed away at age 83 in 2003.