1974's Oscar Nominees

Polanski's in Chinatown roughly 37 seconds, so yeah, Straight's part is longer.

Huston, that is

xpost

Huston, otoh, I def would've nominated and I guess likely awarded.

John P. Ryan, It's Alive
Gena Rowlands, A Woman Under the Influence
Gerrit Graham, Phantom of the Paradise
Edith Massey, Female Trouble

Er, I guess I meant to type him in but my fingers wouldn't obey.

I realize you can't realistically nominate someone for a brief cameo (even less likely when it's someone who's not primarily an actor). Straight's performance ran five minutes and 40 seconds according to Wikipedia. I've seen Network two or three times and don't remember much beyond the fact she's upset and arguing with Holden. Polanski's scene is arguably the best 37 seconds in a phenomenal film. Anyway, no room at the inn that particular year.

I'll grant the context of Network makes it sort of hard to see women at all, but damn, you have to be actively not looking at them to think that Straight, Marlene Warfield and (in a limited role that gets quoted here every other week) Conchata Ferrell don't make a huge impression.

(in a limited role that gets quoted here every other week) Conchata Ferrell

this has sailed by me.

That's because you're crusty but benign.

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.