Throwback Muriels: 1955

Saturday, August 13, 2011

1955

Picture:
Sansho the Bailiff
Night of the Hunter
The Wages of Fear
Umberto D.
Rebel Without a Cause
Les Diaboliques
All That Heaven Allows
Othello
Kiss Me Deadly
Killer’s Kiss

Director:
Kenji Mizoguchi, Sansho the Bailiff
Charles Laughton, Night of the Hunter
Henri-Georges Clouzot, The Wages of Fear
Vittorio De Sica, Umberto D.
Nicholas Ray, Rebel Without a Cause

Male Lead:
Robert Mitchum, Night of the Hunter
Carlo Battisti, Umberto D.
Yves Montand, The Wages of Fear
Spencer Tracy, Bad Day at Black Rock
Yoshiaki Hanayagi, Sansho the Bailiff

Female Lead:
Jane Wyman, All That Heaven Allows
Vera Clouzot, Les Diaboliques
Simone Signoret, Les Diaboliques
Kyoko Kagawa, Sansho the Bailiff
Natalie Wood, Rebel Without a Cause

Male Supporting:
Micheal MacLiammoir, Othello
Sal Mineo, Rebel Without a Cause
Charles Vanel, The Wages of Fear
Paul Meurisse, Les Diaboliques
Robert Ryan, Bad Day at Black Rock

Female Supporting:
Lillian Gish, Night of the Hunter
Shelley Winters, Night of the Hunter
Kinuyo Tanaka, Sansho the Bailiff
Betsy Blair, Marty
Suzanne Cloutier, Othello

Screenplay:
Night of the Hunter
Sansho the Bailiff
Les Diaboliques
All That Heaven Allows
Umberto D.

Ensemble:
The Wages of Fear
Sansho the Bailiff
All That Heaven Allows
Night of the Hunter
Rebel Without a Cause

Cinematography:
Night of the Hunter (Cortez)
Sansho the Bailiff (Miyagawa)
All That Heaven Allows (Metty)
Rebel Without a Cause (Haller)
Les Diaboliques (Thirard)

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Administrative Stuff

In keeping with the spirit of the project I started this past winter, I’ve decided to continue formulating lists of retrospective nominees by year. Of course, as we move backwards in time I’d estimate that some years will be pretty lean. Therefore, I fear I will have to stop when I feel I can’t fill out a satisfactory ballot, although this probably won’t happen for a while yet.

As with the present-day Muriels, I based these old-school awards on the film’s NYC commercial release date. Since Mike D’Angelo’s eligibility lists don’t go back past 1998, I used the listed release dates in IMDb for this purpose. And much like the contemporary Muriels, if a movie remains unreleased in Gotham within five years of its international release date, it is ineligible for nominations. Sadly, that means I couldn’t throw any nominations at, say, Play Time, Satantango, the films of Yasujiro Ozu, or (sniff) Jeanne Dielman. So it goes.

Additionally, I reserve the right to allow ties here, especially in the case of movies featuring same-sex co-leads who are equally awesome. Several Bergman films spring to mind here, but there will no doubt be other occurrences as well.

Finally, I’ve decided to limit these lists to a “big nine” (picture, director, 4 acting categories, screenplay, ensemble, and cinematography). Much as I would have loved to include Best Cinematic Moment- probably my favorite Muriels category- here as well, I have a feeling that I’d forget some embarrassingly obvious choices and would prefer to save myself the bother.

As before, I’ll post one of these here per day as long as I’m able. I’ll try to remember to update these as needed, but I make no promises.

By the way, here’s a link to the 1995-2009 throwback Muriels I posted this winter. In time, I’ll probably move them over here, but until then this’ll have to do.