1974's Oscar Nominees

Polynesian Town was the best of those parodies, too.

That silly Towering Inferno spot could have taken up by any of the following: The Sugarland Express (my first pick), Thieves Like Us, California Split, Harry and Tonto, The Parallax View, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, or Young Frankenstein. Those are just the obvious ones, and sticking to American films.

I can't describe how happy Inferno's nomination makes me.

My BP lineup from that year would've been (no idea on "eligibility"):

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
Female Trouble
The Parallax View
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
A Woman Under the Influence

Ali and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia would've been on mine.

And then three empty slots?

wkiw

http://www.libertasfilmmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/towering2.jpg

Forgot A Woman Under the Influence--that was another obvious possibility. I was going to add Chainsaw, with an "in another universe" asterisk. My five would be the first three, plus The Sugarland Express, plus California Split; I'd put Chainsaw next in line.

I'm also a big fan of The Gambler, though it is kind of heavy-handed.

I miiiiiiight put Towering over Lenny

i mean it's got newman AND mcqueen, and richard chamberlain def should have had an acting nom

OJ saving a cat is pretty memorable.

ok i didn't know astaire had a nom for Inferno over Chamberlain that is bullshit

I found Lenny tedious when I watched it again last year, so its absence wouldn't bother me a bit. I've never seen it myself, but in terms of disaster films, Kael liked Richard Lester's Juggernaut from '74.

xp Jennifer Jones would've been the really logical choice

Not that anyone in the movie has a patch on Shelly Winters.

Kael liked Earthquake best iirc. Rightfully so.

of what i've seen of the 1974 films mentioned (including all five actual noms) i guess my top 5 would be Conversation, Godfather Part II, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Harry & Tonto, and one of the two movies about a dude with a busted nose in California.

Thought you would have had The Phantom of Liberty on your list, Eric. I looked at an expanded list of films, and here are some others I like: Alice in the Cities and The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (been a while since I saw either), The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (a new print just about to be released here), Hearts and Minds (actually won documentary), and Cockfighter. For pure entertainment, I'd rank The Taking of Pelham One, Two, Three with almost anything from that year.

What an astounding year. Probably more movies I love from '74 than there are from the past five (ten?) years.

Excellent Academy Awards show, too. That was the year Bert Schneider read his telegram from Saigon, to the utter horror of Carson or Sinatra or John Wayne (I forget).

Telegram from the Viet Cong, I should say.

I think it was Bob Hope who got super pissed off. Or maybe he just read the disclaimer.

my family went to see Inferno during orig run, too.

croup, he's Fred fucking Astaire, stfu

'wizard' winning for 39 isn't that weird, it's better than anything else in that poll ('regle du jeu' obv not eligible). 'lenny' is OK but it's kind of a cleaned-up, nicey-nicey version of bruce. 'chinatown' all the way here.

1974 was also the year of Airport '75, so probably the best year for disaster movies ever. The idea of an Airport movie getting a Best Picture nomination may seem crazy, but as some may remember, the original one of 1970 did just that. And Helen Hayes won Best Supporting Actress for her role in it.

but the '70 Airport is really a Grand Hotel melo riff, w/ the disaster saved for what, the last 30 mins?

Burt Lancaster: "I don`t know why Airport (1970) was nominated for any Oscars - it`s the biggest piece of junk ever."

Been wanting to watch The Conversation again, it's been well over a decade since I have seen it. The Sugarland Express and California Split I saw a few years ago along with Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry. But Cockfighter is probably my all time favorite film from 1974 with Warren Oates (love). I think I need to purchase that one if it is available. I watched some bootleg copy of it for years.

but the '70 Airport is really a Grand Hotel melo riff, w/ the disaster saved for what, the last 30 mins?

True. And consequently, Airport '75 is the more entertaining movie. In 1970 Helen Hayes beat out Karen Black (Five Easy Pieces) for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, but Karen Black got her revenge by flying the motherfucking plane in Airport '75.

I was able to get a VHS copy of Cockfighter when Toronto's Sam the Record Man went under. Thought it was quite good the one time I watched it, with Oates very restrained. If there's a good print somewhere, Criterion or Olive should look into releasing it.

Never would have guessed: very available right now.

Cockfighter is still banned in the UK on the grounds of animal cruelty

the documentary on that dvd is really excellent, btw

if i remember correctly the law on cruelty to animals in films pre-dates any other UK censorship legislation

My grandfather's two favorite movies in the world were Patton and Cockfighter; the former because he served under him in WWII, the latter because he grew up in West Virginia and, well into my teenage years, raised roosters for cockfighting.

Am I really the only one who thinks the Conversation is the best movie on this list by a pretty wide margin?

not by a wide margin, but it's got my vote

The Conversation is the most overrated

Agreed tbh

It drags a bit.

Just looked at the wiki for the awards that year..how the fuck did Ingrid Bergman win for Murder On The Orient Express?

sentiment

Was she considered a surprise winner? I know that prognostication wasn't anywhere near the same insidious level it's been over the last couple decades, but I'm wondering what the buzzline was on that race and I don't have my copy of Inside Oscar handy.

It's a terrible part and she's terrible at it although she's partly supposed to be I guess. I'm just baffled that it would even garner a nomination tbh.

I've never seen Anastasia, so it was either a first or second "apology Oscar" for how shittily they treated her during her Rossellini period.

I think in her speech she apologized to Valentina Cortesa for beating her.

LOL that between her and Astaire, they used up their sentimental vote on her.

Well, and Art Carney.

yeah I thought Cortese was the frontrunner.

Lots of actors competing for worst-ever work in Murder.

Carney is real good in H&T, it wasnt his fault that Jack and Al split the youth vote.

Murder is kinda campy fun, as I recall... a real great MAD parody tho.

nearly hairless and malignant

Straight gets the most overwrought abandoned-wife speech in history, far worse than what I heard from my upstairs neighbor two weeks ago.

		LOUISE
		(stands)
	Then say it!  Don't keep telling me
	you're obsessed, you're infatuated
	-- say you're in love with her!
		MAX
	I'm in love with her.
		LOUISE
		(erupts)
	Then get out, go to a hotel, go
	anywhere you want, go live with
	her, but don't come back!  Because
	after twenty-five years of building
	a home and raising a family and all
	the senseless pain we've inflicted
	on each other, I'll be damned if I'll
	just stand here and let you tell me
	you love somebody else!
	Because this isn't just some con-
	vention weekend with your secretary,
	is it? Or some broad you picked up
	after three belts of booze.  This
	is your great winter romance, isn't
	it?, your last roar of passion be-
	fore you sink into your emeritus
	years.  Is that what's left for me?
	Is that my share?  She gets the great
	winter passion, and I get the dotage?
	Am I supposed to sit at home knitting
	and purling till you slink back like
	a penitent drunk?  I'm your wife,
	damn it!  If you can't work up a
	winter passion for me, then the
	least I require is respect and
	allegiance!  I'm hurt!  Don't you
	understand that?  I'm hurt badly!

vs.

	You're a very nosy fellow, kitty cat. Huh?
	You know what happens to nosy fellows?
	Huh? No? Wanna guess? Huh? No? Okay.
	They lose their noses.

Sorry about your neighbor, Alfred.

ok, i found the Ferrell quote. why would one remember that?

also, calling Roman's wicked cameo the best scene in Chinatown is ridiculous.

It sums up the vapidity of TV better than basically the entire rest of the movie?

sort of a cross between Zorba The Greek and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

You needn't bother to read this thread's posts, Alfred. I'll tell them to you.

dog bites man xp

i like Network, but Kael had a point about Chayefsky's own vapidities.

back to '74, i do like Cockfighter more than at least 2 of these.

Chinatown is filled with amazing scenes. I don't see how picking one of them and calling it arguably the best is even unreasonable, much less ridiculous.

How about when a scene is your sister AND your daughter?

It's all good! Arguably, arguably..."Where'd you get the midget, Claude?" and "You're a nosy fellow, kitty-kat" are just as brilliant for me.

True: my first alcoholic drink upon turning 21 was a Tom Collins, with lime not lemon.

Friend told me that Chinatown clip shown at '75 Oscars was "SISTER!/DAUGHTER!" Bad spoiler, was reminded of it when they showed the climax of Flight the other night.

best scene in chinatown is i hope you don't mind i believe they should be served with the head on

either that or when he's looking at the photographs on the walls whistling the way you look tonight

Yelburton: After you've worked with a man a certain length of time, you come to know his habits, his values - you come to know him - and either he's the kind who chases after women or he isn't.

Jake Gittes: Mulwray isn't?

Yelburton: He never even kids about it.

Jake Gittes: Well, maybe he takes it very seriousl

heh heh heh. only when you breathe. heh-heh-heh.

delivery on "well maybe he takes it very seriously" is peak of jack btw

which is why the exclamation point in the screenplay is vulgar

"Do you have a ruler? I forgot my glasses, and i like to read across."

and of course the joke at the barber's when Evelyn walks in.

Whistling and looking at photos, that's when he's tormenting Yelburton's secretary, right? Love that scene. Also:

Retirement Home Guy: "We don't accept people of the Jewish faith."
Gittes: "That's okay, neither does dad."

Another guy who could have been nominated: G.D. Spradlin in GF II. "Mr...Cor-lee-one."

"I take a long lunch."

Yeh. Sure. Bad for the glass.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I voted for The Conversation. The first two Godfathers go together for me--one without the other feels incomplete. I'm guessing Chinatown will win this handily; The Conversation picked a bad year to be a brilliant movie.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

The Godfather Part II, Francis Ford Coppola, Gray Frederickson, Fred Roos (Paramount)	6
The Towering Inferno, Irwin Allen (20th Century Fox/Warner Bros.)	5

I <3 you ILX.