Showbiz History: The biggest Oscar nomination shock ever + the "Before" trilogy begins
Wednesday, January 27, 2021 at 8:00AM 5 random things that happened on this day, January 27th, in showbiz history
1939 Idiots Delight starring Norma Shearer and Clark Gable opens in theaters. It was their final picture together but Mr Gable had in fact become a star IN a Norma Shearer picture: A Free Soul (1931). Jesse James starring Tyrone Power was also released on this day during "Hollywood's Greatest Year"...
1960 Cash McCall, a romantic comedy starring James Garner and Natalie Wood opens. It with a very annoying rhyming tagline on the poster.
This fellow - he's a zillionaire...
But this girl - she keeps giving him the air!
Why should it be?
People, you gotta see!
It's the new year's big bright
romantic delight
Or, on a different poster...
That fabulous billion dollar whirl
Cash McCall - The guy who'd buy the ball park
to get to first base with this girl!
1984 Woody Allen's Broadway Danny Rose and Steve Martin's The Lonely Guy both open in movie theaters. A year later the film would receive two Oscar nominations: Best Director and Best Screenplay... but sadly Mia Farrow was passed over for one of her very best performances.
1995 Before Sunrise opens becoming beloved by those who discovered it... but nobody knew it would become a trilogy of enormous depth and endurance; It was truly a gift that kept on giving. The romantic comedy Miami Rhapsody starring Sarah Jessica Parker in what was surely her most gargantuan hair phase also opened (Sex & The City was right around the corner but we didn't know it then but maybe SJP did)
2004 Oscar nominations were announced for the films of 2003 providing us with the single biggest shock we've ever experienced on Oscar nomination: City of God, a critical darling from very early in the 2003 release year, that had been past over for a foreign-language film nomination at the previous Oscars was suddenly up for four Oscars including Best Director. Nobody saw it coming. Don't believe anyone who says otherwise because the internet is very fond of revisionist histories!
Today's Birthday Suit
HAPPY DONNA REED CENTENNIAL
The Oscar and Globe winning star of The Donna Reed Show, From Here to Eternity, and It's a Wonderful Life was born one-hundred years ago today in Iowa.
Bonus Birthday Suit: Alan CummingOther showbiz birthdays today:
Tony winner Alan Cumming star of stage and screen and fabulous queer icon (Cabaret, Anniversary Party, X2, Burlesque), Oscar nominee Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl, An Education), Oscar nominee and dancing icon Mikhail Baryshnikov (The Turning Point, Sex & The City), Sabu (The Thief of Bagdad, Black Narcissus, The Jungle Book), Bergman regular Ingrid Thulin (Cries and Whispers, Wild Strawberries), moviebuff/comedian Patton Oswalt (Young Adult, Ratatouille), Tamlyn Tomita (The Karate Kid Pt II, Teen Wolf), James Cromwell (Babe, Succession), MIA Bridget Fonda (A Simple Plan, Scandal), Mimi Rogers (The Rapture, Door in the Floor), Susanna Thompson (Once and Again, Dragonfly), John Witherspoon (Friday, The Boondocks), Director Todd Louiso (Hello I Must Be Going, Love Liza), Troy Donahue (A Summer Place, Cry Baby), Devin Druid (Louder than Bombs, 13 Reasons Why), and comic book legend Frank Miller.
Reader Comments (10)
Idiot's Delight - what a wonderful name! - is a film(from a Pulitzer-Prize-winning play of the same name) that requires some effort even for Gable & Shearer fans - like me and Nathaniel and some others. Norma, (who plays one role within the other, one of them being a parody of Greta Garbo admitted by Norma years later - the one in the picture of this article), was currently on a downward curve with her career. The big moment is Gable singing and dancing "Puttin' on the Ritz" by the perennial Irving Berlin(White Christmas, anyone?) which would be revived in the following years by other artists, including as a hit in the 1980s with the indonesian-born dutch singer who started his career in German, Taco. The movie was one of the three in Clark Gable's long contract with MGM to lose money, being the others Parnell(1937) and Too Hot to Handle(1938).
I like to think that Linklater, Delpy, and Hawke are working on the fourth installment as we speak. It's been nearly 9 years.
Will there be some sort of retrospective for Donna Reed's centennial? I know she didn't have the biggest screen career but had a respectable one with many good films and two stone cold classics on her resume.
Idiot's Delight is a ridiculous trifle but both Shearer and Gable gave game performances. Gable's "Puttin on the Ritz" is a charmer because of his brash confidence overcoming any shortcomings he might have had as a hoofer.
Cash McCall is a standard slick studio product slanted much more Jim Garner's way than Natalie's, though she looks great, that she agreed to do to get Splendor in the Grass. Still and all it's a decent and painless watch.
Speaking of Natalie Wood, today is also the 92nd birthday of Brit 50's & 60's leading man Michael Craig who was also the older brother of Natalie's second husband Richard Gregson. He wasn't too well-known in the States but some of his better films include-The Silent Enemy, Sapphire, Sea of Sand, Campbell's Kingdom and House of Secrets.
Gosh I wish we get more of those Oscar surprises again! I remember the day where they fully embrace films like Talk to her, City of Gods more than just Best Foreign film category.
Can we all just admit how terribly overlooked Mia Farrow has been even in 84 when she went outside her usual type nobody but the Globes were interested and then she was even better the next year and then again in 90 and 92.
Why have I never seen Gable's "Puttin' on the Ritz"? (Oh yeah, Norma Shearer...)
Just watched it TWICE (thanks YouTube) and I don't think I'm done yet. Unfamiliar lyrics in this version as well. Gable is sooo adorable as a hoofer.
I’m Brazilian and I’ve been following this site and other Oscar bloggers since 2001 and can confirm that absolutely NO ONE predicted any nominations for City of God.
Those nominations are a downright miracle but I have some theories on how those nominations happened.
1. The quality of the movie and the passion it inspired in its supporters certainly helped, but as we seen time and time again that’s not enough.
2. The preferential ballot system, where number 1 votes counts a lot are probably the biggest responsible for the nominations. It would not have happened on a non-ranked system.
3. The small size of the branches it got its nominations (recently expanded by a lot in the equality initiatives by the Academy) which meant that you could get a nomination with a small but passionate vote. The directors branch was famously small prior to the expansion
4. Having a juggernaut like The Return is the King getting lots and lots of number 1 vote also lowered the bar of how many votes you needed to get a nomination. I know that doesn’t apply to cinematography where Return of the King was inexplicably snubbed, but I think having a movie that sucked 90% of the air helped a lot.
The City of God nominations were a tiny miracle caused by a perfect storm of factors that probably can’t be replicated or will take a long time to be replicated, but It undoubtably gives hope to any Oscar follower that anything can happen
Golden: Well, they gave best picture Oscar to a foreign language film. I think that's quite an embracement...
Mia Farrow should have been nominated for both Broadway Danny Rose and Purple Rose of Cairo, and probably won for both. Truly spectacular performances.
I haven't seen all of Mia Farrow's performances so I can't speak on all, but I don't know how she was passed over for Rosemary's Baby.