Throwback Muriels: 1956

Friday, August 12, 2011

1956

Picture:
The Seven Samurai
Rififi
Ikiru
Written on the Wind
Bigger Than Life
La Strada
The Court Jester
The Killing
The Girl Can’t Help It
The Wrong Man

Director:
Akira Kurosawa, The Seven Samurai
Jules Dassin, Rififi
Akira Kurosawa, Ikiru
Douglas Sirk, Written on the Wind
Nicholas Ray, Bigger Than Life

Male Lead:
Takashi Shimura, Ikiru
James Mason, Bigger Than Life
Danny Kaye, The Court Jester
Anthony Quinn, La Strada
Sterling Hayden, The Killing

Female Lead:
Carroll Baker, Baby Doll
Giulietta Masina, La Strada
Barbara Rush, Bigger Than Life
Lauren Bacall, Written on the Wind
Doris Day, The Man Who Knew Too Much

Male Supporting:
Elisha Cook, Jr., The Killing
Takashi Shimura, The Seven Samurai
Robert Stack, Written on the Wind
Eli Wallach, Baby Doll
Toshiro Mifune, The Seven Samurai

Female Supporting:
Dorothy Malone, Written on the Wind
Marie Windsor, The Killing
Miki Odagiri, Ikiru
Natalie Wood, The Searchers
Glynis Johns, The Court Jester

Screenplay:
Rififi
The Killing
The Seven Samurai
Ikiru
La Strada

Ensemble:
Rififi
The Seven Samurai
The Killing
The Court Jester
Bigger Than Life

Cinematography:
Bigger Than Life (MacDonald)
Written on the Wind (Metty)
The Seven Samurai (Nakai)
The Killing (Ballard)
Sawdust and Tinsel (Fischer)

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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.