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Directors with the (Oscar) Golden Touch, and More Questions
Clint Eastwood courtesy Warner Bros.
What does Prison Break owe Sometime a Great Notion, and more questions.
Send your movie questions to FlickChick.
See Maitland McDonagh and Ken Fox review this week's new flicks in Movie Talk!
Question: I was wondering which director has "coached" the most actors to Oscar nominations and/or wins? I'm thinking it's Clint Eastwood. — Diane
FlickChick: Nowhere near. Five actors have earned best actor/actress Oscar recognition after appearing in Clint Eastwood movies: Hilary Swank won for Million Dollar Baby and Sean Penn and Tim Robbins for Mystic River, respectively. Marcia Gay Harden and Meryl Streep were nominated for Mystic River and The Bridges of Madison County. In addition, Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman won supporting Oscars for Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby.
That's a nice track record, but pales next to that of William Wyler, whose collaborators racked up a whopping total of 36 acting nominations, some of them — notably Bette Davis — for more than one film. The winners are bracketed by Walter Brennan in Come and Get It (1936) and Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl (1968). In between, these actors all walked away with Oscar statuettes for performances Wyler directed: Davis and Fay Bainter for Jezebel (1938), Brennan for The Westerner (1940), Greer Garson and Teresa Wright for Mrs. Miniver (1942), Fredric March and Harold Russell for The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Olivia de Havilland for The Heiress (1949), Audrey Hepburn for Roman Holiday(1953), Burl Ives for The Big Country (1958), and Charlton Heston and Hugh Griffith for Ben-Hur (1959).
The nominees were Walter Huston and Maria Ouspenskaya for Dodsworth (1936), Bonita Granville for These Three (1936), Claire Trevor for Dead End (1939), Laurence Olivier and Geraldine Fitzgerald for Wuthering Heights (1939), Davis and James Stephenson for The Letter (1940), Davis, Patricia Collinge and Wright for The Little Foxes (1941), Walter Pidgeon, Henry Travers and Dame May Whitty for Mrs. Miniver (1942), Ralph Richardson for The Heiress (1949), Eleanor Parker and Lee Grant for Detective Story (1951), Eddie Albert for Roman Holiday (1953), Anthony Perkins for Friendly Persuasion (1956), Bainter for The Children’s Hour (1961, a remake of These Three), Samantha Eggar in The Collector (1965) and Kay Medford for Funny Girl.
To be fair, Wyler was the product of another time: Filmmakers — in front of and behind the camera — worked constantly, sometimes making two or three films a year. They had a lot more shots at hitting the golden combination of great script, great cast and whatever that ineluctable something is that makes everything come together than even the most prolific members of today's Hollywood community, who can go years between realized projects. That said, the sheer variety of Wyler's work — his good work, films that got their stars noticed — is pretty astonishing. Actors won and were nominated for their work in Wyler Westerns, melodramas, thrillers, romantic comedies, crime pictures and historical epics.
Elia Kazan, who specialized in socially conscious dramas, guided his actors to 24 and one-third nominations and nine and one-third wins: James Dunn for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), Celeste Holm for Gentleman’s Agreement (1947), Vivien Leigh, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Anthony Quinn for Viva Zapata (1952), Marlon Brando and Eva Marie Saint for On the Waterfront (1954) and Jo Van Fleet for East of Eden (1955) — plus child actress Peggy Ann Garner's special juvenile Oscar (a half-sized statuette the Academy no longer gives out) for her work in three 1945 films, including A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
George Cukor, another golden-age generalist, directed actors to 21 nominations and five wins: James Stewart for The Philadelphia Story (1940), Ingrid Bergman for Gaslight (1944), Ronald Colman for A Double Life (1947), Judy Holliday for Born Yesterday (1950) and Rex Harrison for My Fair Lady (1964). Interestingly, Cukor was famous as a women's director, but the men in his films fared just as well when Oscar time rolled around.
Send your movie questions to FlickChick.
Question: I don't know if I'm making this up, but I have a movie in my head that came out in the 1980s/90s about a societal role reversal where African Americans were the majority. Was this a real movie, or am I delusional? — Lauren
FlickChick: Rest assured, Lauren, you're not delusional. The movie you're thinking of is writer-director Desmond Nakano's White Man's Burden (1995), a Twilight Zone-ish parable about racism starring John Travolta and Harry Belafonte.
Send your movie questions to FlickChick.
Question: I was watching Prison Break on DVD, and in the scene where Sucre gets trapped under a log in a river as the water rises around him reminded me of a movie I saw part of on TV when I was a kid. The only thing I remember is Paul Newman — I think, but not sure — is trapped the same way in a river or lake and is slowly going under the water. Does this sound familiar? — Karen
FlickChick: You're on the right track. The movie you saw was Sometimes a Great Notion (1971), a drama about a logging family in the Pacific Northwest. Paul Newman starred and also directed most of the film, taking over mid-production from Richard Colla. But it's actually Richard Jaeckel, who was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as Newman's brother, who gets trapped under a log in a rising river. Unlike Sucre, Jaeckel's character drowns despite his brother's desperate efforts to save him, and the scene is often referred to as one of the great deaths in movie history.
Send your movie questions to FlickChick.
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May 10, 2007 4:52 PM
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Thanks Maitland on another great column.
I just wanted to add a bit about Sometimes a Great Notion. This film was adapted from a novel written by Ken Kesey of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest fame and was filmed as was Cuckoo's in the state of Oregon very near each other. It truly is a great movie. Why it has not yet come out on DVD is beyond me!
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May 10, 2007 5:08 PM
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Ranger -- I can't imagine why Sometimes a Great Notion is unavailable, either. But here's a bit of good news on the "why can't I get..." front: Criterion is finally putting out Billy Wilder's extraordinary Ace in the Hole (1951) on DVD in July. It's a real eye opener for anyone who thinks media sensationalism is something new, and it's just about flawless on all fronts. Lacerating script, great performances all around, but especially from Kirk Douglas as an unscrupulous reporter, and an uncompromising take on how venal and self-interested people in general can be. I'll be feturing it in my DVD Tuesday column.
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May 11, 2007 10:52 AM
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Ace in the Hole has some really gorgeous interior cinemetography (some really lush stuff and that final shot is killer). I really loved this movie. Thanks for encouraging me to watch it, Maitland!
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May 11, 2007 11:51 AM
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I knew the answer to the John Travolta question!! I love him. He's by far my favorite actor.
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May 11, 2007 12:10 PM
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That is so freaky! JUST last night a friend was showing me this book, "501 Must See Movies" and the page featuring "Ace in the Hole" caught my eye.
As a media person myself, I was intriqued and wondered if it was available on VHS or DVD. And then today here you are extolling its virtues....
SOMEBODY up there must really want me to see this movie....
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May 11, 2007 4:32 PM
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Sometimes a Great Notion was also the first movie ever shown on HBO.
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May 11, 2007 7:36 PM
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