“Night of the Hunter” (1955)
The one and only directorial effort from Charles Laughton (mostly known as a fantastic actor, and Best Actor Oscar winner for “The Private Life of Henry VIII”) is today regarded as one of (if not the) greatest feature debuts of all time. With Stanley Cortez’s scintillating cinematography, Robert Mitchum’s instantly iconic performance, and James Agee’s sublime screenplay, “The Night of the Hunter” is surely one of the Academy’s biggest blunders.
“Once Upon a Time in the West” (1968)
Huh? One of the most lauded
Westerns of all time didn’t budge the voters’ needles, but “Oliver!”
walks away with Picture and Director? So wrong, it hurts. From its
scorching cinematography, to Sergio Leone’s perfect direction, Ennio
Morricone’s iconic soundtrack, and Henry Fonda’s subtly masterful
performance, “Once Upon a Time In the West” had a gamut of reasons for
nominations. Another case of voters hitting that snooze button one too many
times.
“Once Upon A Time in America” (1984)
Here’s that Sergio Leone-Ennio Morricone team-up again, totally neglected by the goons who make up the Academy. Much like ‘West,’ “Once Upon a Time in America” showed the Italian director digging deep into Western culture to come up with a jillion number of cinematic rubies, diamonds, and emeralds. A classic that defines the term “classic” with every frame, something went terribly, horribly, off-course with the votes in 1985 (though of course, it didn’t help that the film was initially released in a massively compromised form).
“The Palm Beach Story” (1942)
Another comedy great mostly overlooked by the Academy — spotting a trend, are we? — Preston Sturges only picked up three nods and one win, all for screenplays, for his work, and many of his films weren’t nominated for anything. One of the most notable is his great “The Palm Beach Story,” starring Joel McCrea and Claudette Colbert as two sets of twins embroiled in an unconventional marriage. The film’s a perfectly-engineered comedy machine, but like the previous year’s “Sullivan’s Travels,” was neglected by Oscar.
“The Parallax View” (1974)
One of the very best of the paranoid 1970s conspiracy thriller sub-genre, Alan J. Pakula’s “The Parallax View” is impeccably crafted, gripping, resonant, and features a great performance from one of Hollywood’s favorite stars: Warren Beatty. But unlike the two films in the unofficial trilogy that surround it, “Klute” and “All The President’s Men,” it was snubbed at awards time. Was it too much of a genre picture? Or did it hit a little close to home for the establishment?
“Paths of Glory” (1958)
This is just one of ten Stanley Kubrick bonafide masterpieces that he didn’t win a directing Oscar for. No biggie. How “Paths of Glory,” the epitome of the anti-war film, with themes, performances, and techniques forever etched in cinema history, failed to land a single nomination, while “Gigi” went on to win Best Picture and Director, will be one of the greatest AMPAS mysteries of all time.
“Pickpocket” (1959)
Austere, unglamorous, and soulful, it’s fairly predictable that Robert Bresson wasn’t really in the Oscar wheelhouse. But given that he was making films at a time when people like Bunuel and Bergman were picking up nominations not just in the Foreign Language Films category, but in mainstream ones too, it’s sort of shocking that not a single Bresson film, from breakout “Diary Of A Country Priest” onwards, was recognized by AMPAS in any way. It’s one of the more notable omissions on their world cinema track record, and you’d think even the more accessible “Pickpocket” would have snuck in somewhere.
“Rio Bravo” (1959)
Poor Howard Hawks again. He never found much luck with his screwball comedies (see above), and even when he made as rollicking and entertaining a Western as “Rio Bravo,” the Academy just stared at him blankly and failed to nominate the film, now seen as a classic, for anything. Perhaps it was a political gesture. The film was made as a response to four-time Oscar winner “High Noon,” which star John Wayne saw as “un-American,” but support for HUAC and the black list was starting to collapse, and the film may not have met the mood of the country.
“Rushmore” (1998)
After years of only picking up Screenplay nominations, “The Grand Budapest Hotel” marks Wes Anderson’s acceptance into the Academy’s tent in a big way this year, being, with “Birdman,” the film with the most nominations, with nine. That’s nine more than Anderson’s breakthrough, “Rushmore,” managed back at the 1999 ceremony. Despite critical plaudits, the film didn’t pick up a single nod (you’d have though Bill Murray would have been a Supporting Actor lock, but apparently not).
“The Searchers” (1956)
Frequently named as one of the greatest American movies ever made, “The Searchers” (it’s Sight & Sound’s number seven, Cahiers du Cinema’s number ten, and the AFI’s number twelve) was a hit at the time, but again fell victim to the Academy’s Western curse. John Ford won seven Oscars in total, including a record four Best Director trophies, but his greatest masterpiece had no nominations at all (and this in a year dominated by big-budget spectacle like “The Ten Commandments,” “The King And I,” and winner “Around The World In 80 Days.”)
