AWARDS 1963 and 1964

1963
*Tom Jones, Albert Finney, nominated, Dame Edith Evans and Joyce Redman, nominated. Hugh Griffith, nominated. Tom Jones, the adopted son of a British country squire, is a love-'em-and-leave-'em lady charmer who goes blithely from bed to bed, while managing to get into enough other mischief to come within moments of being hanged.


Cleopatra, Rex Harrison, nominated. Stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The story of Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt who wants to stabilize her power by using the tensions in the Roman Empire. Caesar visits Egypt, has an affair with her, and returns to Rome. She bears his child and visits Rome to claim her place at Caesar's side. He is murdered before this can happen. She returns to Egypt leaving Rome in turmoil. Mark Antony follows her to Egypt and they fall in love. However, Octavian defeats Anthony in battle


How the West Was Won, The fifty years of American westward expansion between the 1830s and 1880s are viewed through the experiences of the Prescott and Rawlings families, as they migrate by the Erie Canal, continue over the prairies from St. Louis during the California gold rush, suffer through the Civil War, and finally help build the railroads on the plains and bring law and justice to the frontier. Along the way they meet mountain men, journey by wagon train, deal with Native Americans, and face outlaws in the southwest. Numerous stars play roles. Remade in 1979.
Hud, Patricia Neal, best actress. Paul Newman, nominated. Hud Bannon is a ruthless young man who tarnishes everything and everyone he touches.



Hud represents the perfect embodiment of alienated youth, out for kicks with no regard for the consequences. There is bitter conflict between the callous Hud and his stern and highly principled father, Homer.
Lilies of the Field, Sidney Poiter, Best Actor. An unemployed construction worker (Homer Smith) heading out west stops at a remote farm in the desert to get water when his car overheats. The farm is being worked by a group of East European Catholic nuns, headed by the strict mother superior (Mother Maria), who believes that Homer has been sent by God to build a much needed church in the desert...


Captain Newman, MD, Bobby Darin, nominated. Dr. Josiah Newman (Gregory Peck) runs the psychiatric unit of a U.S. Military Hospital during WWII. Short of help, Newman coerces newly arrived neurotic orderly Jackson Leibowitz (Tony Curtis) to work in his ward. Leibowitz's scheming & humor quickly turns life inside the ward upside down. Newman, while amused, tries to maintain a semblance of order. Newman's other recruit to the ward is nurse Lt. Francie Corum (Angie Dickinson).
Irma La Douce, Shirley MacLaine, nominated, also stars Jack Lemmon. Comedy about a Parisian policeman who becomes the lover (and unwilling pimp) of a carefree street-walker. After falling in love with her, the officer conspires to limit her occupation by taking on an alter-ego, "Lord X", to serve as her sole client.


Additional movies include: Courtship of Eddie's Father, The Nutty Professor with Jerry Lewis, (Jekyll and Hyde), It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World, and beach movies included it the release of 351 movies for the year.




1964
* My Fair Lady,Rex Harrison wins, Stanley Holloway, nominated. One of the all-time great movie musicals follows the unlikely love that blooms between languages expert Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle, the Cockney flower girl he transforms into a proper English lady.




Dr. Strangelove or How I learned to Stop Worrying About the Bomb,

U.S. Air Force General Jack Ripper goes completely and utterly mad, and sends his bomber wing to destroy the U.S.S.R. He suspects that the communists are conspiring to pollute the "precious bodily fluids" of the American people. The U.S. president meets with his advisors, where the Soviet ambassador tells him that if the U.S.S.R. is hit by nuclear weapons, it will trigger a "Doomsday Machine" which will destroy all plant and animal life on Earth. Peter Sellers portrays the three men who might avert this tragedy. Tom loves this movie.But then, I don't get dark humor.




Mary Poppins, Julie Andrews wins, The movie combines a diverting story, songs, color and sequences of live action blended with the movements of animated figures. Mary Poppins is a kind of Super-nanny who flies in with her umbrella in response to the request of the Banks children and proceeds to put things right with the aid of her rather extraordinary magical powers before flying off again. How can anyone not love this movie!!




Zorba the Greek, Anthony Quinn, nominated. An aimless Englishman finds he has a small inheritance on a Greek island. His joyless existence is disturbed when he meets Zorba, a middle aged Greek with a real lust for life. As he discovers the earthy pleasures of Greece, the Englishman finds his view on life changing.




Becket, Richard Burton nominated, Peter O'Toole, nominated. King Henry II of England has trouble with the Church. When the Archbishop of Canterbury dies, he has a brilliant idea. Rather than appoint another pious cleric loyal to Rome and the Church, he will appoint his old drinking and wrenching buddy, Thomas Becket.


Unsinkable Molly Brown, Debbie Reynolds, nominated. The woman who later became known as the Unsinkable Molly Brown was born Margaret Tobin in 1867. Her birthplace is at Denkler Alley and Butler Street in Hannibal, Missouri, U.S.A.. As a young girl, Molly learned to steer a boat on the Mississippi River and, for a while, she worked as a waitress at the Park Hotel. She then moved west to Denver, Colorado after one of her customers, Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) told her about the riches of the Rocky Mountains. She married and, in 1890, her husband struck it rich in the mines of Leadville. They bought a sixteen-room house on 1340 Pennsylvania Street which is now a museum of Victoriana.
During the sinking of the Titanic off the coast of Newfoundland on April 14, 1912, Molly Brown was reputed to have rowed for seven and a half hours and delivered herself and her passengers to safety on Lifeboat No.6. She became known as the only woman to have done so and thus earned her nickname "Unsinkable". Later, she liked to entertain the society leaders with her picturesque descriptions of the event. Many historians, however, consider Molly Brown's story to be only a legend.


Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte. Agnes Moorhead, nominated. Bette Davis stars as an aging recluse deluded into a state of dementia by horrible memories and hallucinations, lives in a secluded house where, thirty-seven years before, John Mayhew her married lover, was beheaded and mutilated by an unknown assailant. Considered to be the modern day Lizzie Borden

What about the 007 movies? What about the Pink Panther movies?
What about the Americanization of Emily? How about the Beatle films?
How come Audrey Hepburn wasn't even nominated for best actress in My Fair Lady? Of the 389 movies released my favorite is Audrey Hepburn....oh er, I mean My Fair Lady.