I Just Watched...

[CinemaInternational]

also, I hate to speculate, but FANTASTIC AS SHE IS, I get the sense the role came very naturally to LANSBURY and she had A BLAST doing it- the 1970s were kind of the beginning of the whole "you need to suffer and be miserable and lose or gain 60 pounds in order to get a nomination" trend

Yes, probably true. I'm not sure who else was up that year. I was surprised at the time she didn't get one (nomination). Yes, it's broad and over the top, but just what the role called for.

The Academy Award lineup for Supporting Actress in 1978 (and I will loop in wins and nominations from precursors as well) was:

Maggie Smith/California Suite*** (Golden Globe win [in leading actress in a Comedy {in a tie}], National Society of Film Critics 2nd runner-up, New York Film Critics 1st runner-up, BAFTA nominated for Nile)
Dyan Cannon/Heaven Can Wait (Golden Globe win [supporting])
Maureen Stapleton/Interiors (LA Film Critics Winner [in a tie], New York Film Critics Winner, National Society of Film Critics 1st runner-up, Golden Globe nominee)
Meryl Streep/The Deer Hunter (National Society of Film Critics Winner, New York Film Critics 2nd runner-up, Golden Globe nominee)
Penelope Milford/Coming Home (zippo!)

The most nominated actress in precursors not to get a nod that year was Mona Washbourne in the Glenda Jackson vehicle Stevie (LA Film Critics winner [in a tie], BAFTA nominee, Golden Globe nominee), but that film was poorly released, playing only the LA area in 1978. It wasn't even released in New York until 3 years later in 1981 (upon which Ms. Washbourne picked up another trophy from the NY Film Critics). I don't know why the ball was dropped, but Stevie had been backed by the soon-to-be-defunct First Artists during its 1978 run, but strangely Warners, who almost always distributed their films, wanted nothing to do with releasing it (I'll assume it was because of the scene where Jackson's character said blasphemous things about God, Jesus and the Virgin Mary, which would have rankled audience members then and now). In any case, the botched release kept Washbourne out of the Oscar race.


Lansbury was likely 7th. She got good reviews, the film was a moderate hit, and she was likely on firmer footing that the other Golden Globe nominee who failed to make the Oscars [Carol Burnett in the Robert Altman film A Wedding, which didn't meet with a warm reception in 1978].

The real curiosity is that Oscar nod for Penelope Milford, who got in with no precursor attention at all and who has flown under the radar ever since (after that, she had small roles in Endless Love, Heathers, and the infamous TV movie The Burning Bed, but little else that has name recognition value) I'm going to chalk that up as being a coattail nomination for a film the Oscars really liked (winner of both leading acting prizes and a script award, and quite obviously the Best Picture runner-up that year). As I recall, Milford was good in her supporting part as Jane Fonda's best friend, but it wasn't the largest part, and was on the quiet side outside of a drunken striptease scene. Lansbury made the much bigger impression in her film, and should have been nominated.

[Hibi]

Yes, I had a great-aunt named Gertrude, an aunt named Ethel. My parents were introduced by a woman named Edna. When I was looking up Max Showalter, his parents were Ira and Elma Showalter. We have to remember that Gertrude and Ethel were the Taylor and Madison of their day. Or that Taylor and Madison will once seem as absurdly old-fashioned as Gertrude and Ethel do now.

Yech. Madison. I'd change my name if I was named that. Faced with those options, Gertrude doesn't sound half bad!

[Hibi]

also, I hate to speculate, but FANTASTIC AS SHE IS, I get the sense the role came very naturally to LANSBURY and she had A BLAST doing it- the 1970s were kind of the beginning of the whole "you need to suffer and be miserable and lose or gain 60 pounds in order to get a nomination" trend

Yes, probably true. I'm not sure who else was up that year. I was surprised at the time she didn't get one (nomination). Yes, it's broad and over the top, but just what the role called for.

The Academy Award lineup for Supporting Actress in 1978 (and I will loop in wins and nominations from precursors as well) was:

Maggie Smith/California Suite*** (Golden Globe win [in leading actress in a Comedy {in a tie}], National Society of Film Critics 2nd runner-up, New York Film Critics 1st runner-up, BAFTA nominated for Nile)
Dyan Cannon/Heaven Can Wait (Golden Globe win [supporting])
Maureen Stapleton/Interiors (LA Film Critics Winner [in a tie], New York Film Critics Winner, National Society of Film Critics 1st runner-up, Golden Globe nominee)
Meryl Streep/The Deer Hunter (National Society of Film Critics Winner, New York Film Critics 2nd runner-up, Golden Globe nominee)
Penelope Milford/Coming Home (zippo!)

The most nominated actress in precursors not to get a nod that year was Mona Washbourne in the Glenda Jackson vehicle Stevie (LA Film Critics winner [in a tie], BAFTA nominee, Golden Globe nominee), but that film was poorly released, playing only the LA area in 1978. It wasn't even released in New York until 3 years later in 1981 (upon which Ms. Washbourne picked up another trophy from the NY Film Critics). I don't know why the ball was dropped, but Stevie had been backed by the soon-to-be-defunct First Artists during its 1978 run, but strangely Warners, who almost always distributed their films, wanted nothing to do with releasing it (I'll assume it was because of the scene where Jackson's character said blasphemous things about God, Jesus and the Virgin Mary, which would have rankled audience members then and now). In any case, the botched release kept Washbourne out of the Oscar race.


Lansbury was likely 7th. She got good reviews, the film was a moderate hit, and she was likely on firmer footing that the other Golden Globe nominee who failed to make the Oscars [Carol Burnett in the Robert Altman film A Wedding, which didn't meet with a warm reception in 1978].

The real curiosity is that Oscar nod for Penelope Milford, who got in with no precursor attention at all and who has flown under the radar ever since (after that, she had small roles in Endless Love, Heathers, and the infamous TV movie The Burning Bed, but little else that has name recognition value) I'm going to chalk that up as being a coattail nomination for a film the Oscars really liked (winner of both leading acting prizes and a script award, and quite obviously the Best Picture runner-up that year). As I recall, Milford was good in her supporting part as Jane Fonda's best friend, but it wasn't the largest part, and was on the quiet side outside of a drunken striptease scene. Lansbury made the much bigger impression in her film, and should have been nominated.

THANK YOU. Milford DEFINITELY DID NOT deserve a nomination for Coming Home! I couldn't believe at the time she got a nomination (having seen the film). I imagine it was a sweep gift since Coming Home got a lot of nominations.

[Detective Jim McLeod]

The Fisher King (1991) TCM On Demand-8/10

A radio shock jock (Jeff Bridges) tries to help a homeless man (Robin Williams) who believes he is a knight searching for the Holy Grail.

A first time viewing for me and I thought it was excellent. Terry Gilliam is the director and while he still gives it his usual surreal images, the story remains grounded. So even non fans of Gilliam will like this. Willaims and Bridges both give top performances. Mercedes Ruehl plays Bridges sharp tongued girl friend and won an Oscar. Amanda Plummer is touching as the shy woman Williams falls for.
It has some tragedy in it but also some hysterically funny moments as well. I also was struck by the fact that Gilliam co-directed another Holy Grail story Monty Python And The Holy Grail (1975).
I would recommend this to fans of both Williams and Bridges and those who look for something different.
I liked the New York location work, there are many scenes in front of the office building that I worked in years ago.

[Lorna]

The Academy Award lineup for Supporting Actress in 1978 (and I will loop in wins and nominations from precursors as well) was:

Maggie Smith/California Suite*** (Golden Globe win [in leading actress in a Comedy {in a tie}], National Society of Film Critics 2nd runner-up, New York Film Critics 1st runner-up, BAFTA nominated for Nile)
Dyan Cannon/Heaven Can Wait (Golden Globe win [supporting])
Maureen Stapleton/Interiors (LA Film Critics Winner [in a tie], New York Film Critics Winner, National Society of Film Critics 1st runner-up, Golden Globe nominee)
Meryl Streep/The Deer Hunter (National Society of Film Critics Winner, New York Film Critics 2nd runner-up, Golden Globe nominee)
Penelope Milford/Coming Home (zippo!)

THANK YOU. Milford DEFINITELY DID NOT deserve a nomination for Coming Home! I couldn't believe at the time she got a nomination (having seen the film). I imagine it was a sweep gift since Coming Home got a lot of nominations.

[sorry if the juxtaposition of quotes is confusing]

but

yes, I heartily second that THANK YOU to CINEMAINTERNATIONAL...it's gotten to where I gladly leave OSCAR QUESTIONS OPEN ENDED HERE because I know at some point he will provide us with a full list of the nominees as well as MATH, DATA and BACKSTORIES i have forgotten or outright did not know.

He's kind of gotten to be THE BUNNY WATSON** of our little site here, and his efforts are appreciated.

(**DESK SET reference)

[Lorna]

so, I watched DAUGHTER OF THE DRAGON (1931) on that certain cable network because I am fascinated by ASIAN CULTURE, MISTILY-LENSED PARAMOUNT "EXOTICS" OF THE 30'S, and OUTLANDISH HORROR AND SCI FI of the 1930s- the last of which this film kindasorta is for about 15 minutes, because DR FU MANCHU appears briefly before dying (not a spoiler, JUST WEIRD.)

After that, this film becomes very very VERY much like DRACULA'S DAUGHTER, but even stupider and more dull- which is a real feat in and of itself.

Good on SESSUE HAYAKAWA for going on to appear in movies that didn't SUCK.

I admit I watched in part for FRANCES DADE (LUCY from DRACULA- who wears a scarf around her neck that she keeps touching noticably- coincidence?) and HOLMES HERBERT of MARK OF THE VAMPIRE....and then I just kept watching because I wanted to see how they were going to have the audacity to end it.

I did not like this movie.

[Hibi]

Yes, I too, have become lazy looking things up knowing CI will probably provide the answer!

[kingrat]

I love the term "coattail nomination" and will use it regularly from now on. There are even coattail winners, like Charlton Heston and Hugh Griffith in Ben-Hur. It's easier to nominate a Penelope Milford in a top film than a superior performance in a less-seen film.

Uh-oh: not a fan of Angela in Death on the Nile. Not a big fan of Maureen Stapleton in Interiors, either--okay performance, but a very easy part to play.

For me, the best performance in this category, by far, is Meryl Streep in The Deer Hunter. This is before Meryl had a farm in Africa. She isn't a star yet and the film isn't about her. I like some of those star turns, but here she's believable, as she might not have been in later years, as a girl who works in a dime store in a podunk town in Pennsylvania. She gets to work with Christopher Walken, and they have the best-written scenes in a very uneven film. Walken's character has a sensitivity and perhaps creative potential that don't connect with the only life choices he has been presented with. Streep has a sense of what he feels, yet she isn't unhappy with the life available in her town.

[Hibi]

Yes, Meryl was very good in that.

[HoldenIsHere]

I love the term "coattail nomination" and will use it regularly from now on. There are even coattail winners, like Charlton Heston and Hugh Griffith in Ben-Hur. It's easier to nominate a Penelope Milford in a top film than a superior performance in a less-seen film.

Uh-oh: not a fan of Angela in Death on the Nile. Not a big fan of Maureen Stapleton in Interiors, either--okay performance, but a very easy part to play.

For me, the best performance in this category, by far, is Meryl Streep in The Deer Hunter. This is before Meryl had a farm in Africa. She isn't a star yet and the film isn't about her. I like some of those star turns, but here she's believable, as she might not have been in later years, as a girl who works in a dime store in a podunk town in Pennsylvania. She gets to work with Christopher Walken, and they have the best-written scenes in a very uneven film. Walken's character has a sensitivity and perhaps creative potential that don't connect with the only life choices he has been presented with. Streep has a sense of what he feels, yet she isn't unhappy with the life available in her town.

I think my favorite Meryl Streep performances are her roles in SILKWOOD and A CRY IN THE DARK, where she plays very "ordinary" working class or middle class people.

[kingrat]

Jeanette Basinger, for one, has discussed how difficult it is for actresses in their later careers to play ordinary women. Instead, they play Exaggerated Women. She notes that even Ginger Rogers and Lana Turner, less exaggerated than, say, the later Bette Davis performances, tend to be cast as actresses.

This concept makes sense if you think of Elizabeth Taylor, still connected to ordinary, if unusually beautiful, characters in A PLACE IN THE SUN and GIANT, less so as more melodramatic characters in SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER and BUTTERFIELD 8, and on to WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, which sets the template for her later roles.

Meryl Streep's later career also has some Exaggerated Women, as in THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA and JULIE AND JULIA, as enjoyable as these films are.

[Lorna]

Jeanette Basinger, for one, has discussed how difficult it is for actresses in their later careers to play ordinary women. Instead, they play Exaggerated Women.


Meryl Streep's later career also has some Exaggerated Women, as in THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA and JULIE AND JULIA, as enjoyable as these films are.

thank you for that, i see it and I hear it...

and yet...

God help me, something primordial happens within me when I see a BOOZY OLD BROAD IN A TURBAN, it's like A TRANCE. I remember being GLUED TO THE TV ONE NIGHT IN THE 1980S when "MADAM" was on the screen.

On that note, Honest to GOD, my two FAVORITE MERYL STREEP performances are in DEATH BECOMES HER and (SERIOUSLY) SHE-DEVIL; the first is actually a really good film, albeit one with a complicated production that saw A LOT of footage hit the floor that resulted in a somewhat not-fully developed story- the second is a terrible movie where she has to act opposite some BAD ACTORS (except for SYLVIA MILES) and she turns her VISIBLE PANIC over the obviously sinking production into something hilarious and truly unique on the screen.

"WoUlD sOMebODY pleeeeease get the GOD D*MNED DOOR??????????!!!!!!"

[Lorna]

I actually rewatched DEATH BECOMES HER for the first time in YEARS a couple weeks ago and didn't post a review because I didn't want to open a rabbit hole (it's a film i can talk about A LOT), but really- for any of you fans of the movie, go to YOUTUBE and type in DEATH BECOMES HER DELETED SCENES or DEATH BECOMES HER TRAILERS because they cut SO MUCH stuff out of that movie and a lot of it is good- including some of GOLDIE and BRUCE WILLIS'S best scenes.

all three really do nomination-worthy work and i mean that. i know the SPECIAL EFFECTS won an OSCAR, but THE SCORE should been nominated too, it is BRILLIANT.

Of course, MUCH of the deleted footage also includes TRACY ULLMAN as a love interest for BRUCE, and I am 100% fine with her being exorcised from the film entirely.

(sue me: not a fan.)

[TikiSoo]

Jeanette Basinger, for one, has discussed how difficult it is for actresses in their later careers to play ordinary women. Instead, they play Exaggerated Women.

That’s an interesting observation…


… realizing I’ve become an Exaggerated Woman in my later years…

[Lorna]

ALSO JUST THROWING THIS OUT THERE, BUT I was born in 1978 and- I don't know if it's a coincidence or not- but I have not seen HARDLY ANY FILMS FROM THAT YEAR- and the ones I have seen (JAWS 2, GREASE- numerous times and not by choice, SUPERMAN and HALLOWEEN) are almost outliers.

i don't think there's any other year in 20th century talking motion picture history that I am less versed in (even 1963)

I've never seen MIDNIGHT EXPRESS or AUTUMN SONATA or AN UNMARRIED WOMAN or THE WIZ or HEAVEN CAN WAIT or ANIMAL HOUSE or THE DEER HUNTER or COMING HOME (and I'm certainly not going to now that JON VOIGHT has lost his damn mind completely) and I tried to watch INTERIORS but it bored the **** out of me, and I quit watching CALIFORNIA SUITE during the really offensive RICHARD PRYOR/ BILL COSBY vignette not even because of either's presence but because it's really pretty racist.

it just doesn't seem like a "fun" year for films, and honestly- there's not a one I WANT to see.

(i've made up for it by watching DEATH ON THE NILE a lot)