I started to write something about the casting of Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady (instead of the play's Broadway star, Julie Andrews), the subsequent hiring of Marni Nixon to dub Hepburn's singing, and the resulting crisis of authenticity in Hollywood that eventually led to Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin "singing" in Paint Your Wagon, but it all got too convoluted for a short introduction to the 1964 alternate Oscars. I mean, when you tie the Beatles, Vietnam and the civil rights movement to the demise of the Hollywood musical, you've really wandered into the weeds.
Instead, let me just say 1964 was a great year for movies, and any one of about twelve films from that year would have been a better choice for best picture than anything that came out in 1965. But that's the luck of the draw.
My choices are noted with a ★. A tie is indicated with a ✪. Historical Oscar winners are noted with a ✔. Best foreign-language picture winners are noted with an ƒ. A historical winner who won in a different category is noted with a ✱.
My choices are noted with a ★. Historical Oscar winners are noted with a ✔.
In case you're interested, my top five movies of 1964 are, in order, Dr. Strangelove, A Hard Day's Night, Mary Poppins, Goldfinger and the Academy's choice for best picture, My Fair Lady — which is a little like ranking your top five Picasso's or your top five snowflakes. Each is a unique treasure.
As a lifelong Lennon man, it pains me a bit to choose a McCartney tune, "Can't Buy Me Love" from A Hard Day's Night, as the best song of 1964, even if Sir Paul is his generation's Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and Hoagy Carmichael all rolled into one. I mean, the guy has already collected every accolade ever invented by man—does he really need one more from me? Still, you've got to give the devil his due: "Can't Buy Me Love" is the best use of an original song in a movie in 1964. This is what Roger Ebert wrote about it—with a straight face—in his review of A Hard Day's Night for his Great Movies series:
The most powerful quality evoked by A Hard Day's Night is liberation. ... When the boys are freed from their "job," they run like children in an open field, and it is possible that scene (during "Can't Buy Me Love") snowballed into all the love-ins, be-ins and happenings in the park of the later '60s. The notion of doing your own thing lurks within every scene.
He might be overstating his case—then again, he might not—but that he can make such a statement and not sound like an idiot doing it is a testament to the influence of the Beatles. I only wish I could pile up even more Katies in their honor.
PICTURE (Drama) winner:Goldfinger (prod. Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman) nominees:Fail-Safe (prod. Max E. Youngstein); A Fistful Of Dollars a.k.a. Per un pugno di dollari (prod. Arrigo Colombo and Giorgio Papi); Marnie (prod. Alfred Hitchcock); The Night of the Iguana (prod. Ray Stark); Nothing But A Man (Michael Roemer, Robert Rubin and Robert M. Young); Seance On A Wet Afternoon (prod. Richard Attenborough); Seven Days In May (prod. Edward Lewis)
PICTURE (Comedy/Musical) winner:Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb (prod. Stanley Kubrick) nominees:The Americanization of Emily (prod. Martin Ransohoff); A Hard Day's Night (prod. Walter Shenson); Mary Poppins (prod. Walt Disney); My Fair Lady (prod. Jack L. Warner)
PICTURE (Foreign Language) winner:Les parapluies de Cherbourg (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) (prod. Mag Bodard) nominees:Bande à part (Band of Outsiders) (prod. Anouchka Films and Orsay Films); Kaidan (Kwaidan) (prod. Shigeru Wakatsuki); Onibaba (prod. Hisao Itoya, Tamotsu Minato and Setsuo Noto); Suna no onna (Woman In The Dunes) (prod. Kiichi Ichikawa and Tadashi Ôno); Il vangelo secondo Matteo (The Gospel According To St. Matthew) (prod. Alfredo Bini)
ACTOR (Drama) winner: Anthony Quinn (Alexis Zorbas a.k.a. Zorba the Greek) nominees: Richard Attenborough (Seance on a Wet Afternoon); Richard Burton (Becket and The Night of the Iguana); Sean Connery (Goldfinger); Ivan Dixon (Nothing But A Man); Henry Fonda (The Best Man and Fail-Safe); Burt Lancaster (Seven Days In May); Lee Marvin (The Killers)
ACTOR (Comedy/Musical) winner: Peter Sellers (Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb) nominees: The Beatles (A Hard Day's Night); James Garner (The Americanization of Emily); Cary Grant (Father Goose); Rex Harrison (My Fair Lady); Rock Hudson (Man's Favorite Sport?)
ACTRESS (Drama) winner: Ava Gardner (The Night of the Iguana) nominees: Anne Bancroft (The Pumpkin Eater); Bette Davis (Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte); Tippi Hedren (Marnie); Anna Karina (Bande à part a.k.a. Band of Outsiders); Deborah Kerr (The Night of the Iguana); Kyôko Kishida (Suna no onna a.k.a. Woman of the Dunes); Nobuko Otowa (Onibaba); Nina Pens Rode (Gertrud); Kim Stanley (Seance On A Wet Afternoon)
ACTRESS (Comedy/Musical) winner: Paula Prentiss (Man's Favorite Sport?) nominees: Julie Andrews (The Americanization of Emily); Catherine Deneuve (Les parapluies de Cherbourg a.k.a. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg); Audrey Hepburn (My Fair Lady); Ann-Margret (Viva Las Vegas); Geraldine Page (Dear Heart); Debbie Reynolds (The Unsinkable Molly Brown); Margaret Rutherford (Murder Most Foul and Murder Ahoy); Tippy Walker (The World Of Henry Orient)
DIRECTOR (Drama) winner: Hiroshi Teshigahara (Suna no onna a.k.a. Woman In The Dunes) nominees: Bryan Forbes (Seance on a Wet Afternoon); Guy Hamilton (Goldfinger); John Huston (The Night of the Iguana); Masaki Kobayashi (Kaidan a.k.a. Kwaidan); Sergio Leone (A Fistful of Dollars a.k.a. Per un pugno di dollari); Pier Paolo Pasolini (Il vangelo secondo Matteo a.k.a. The Gospel According To St. Matthew); Michael Roemer (Nothing But A Man)
DIRECTOR (Comedy/Musical) winner: Stanley Kubrick (Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb) nominees: George Cukor (My Fair Lady); Jacques Demy (Les parapluies de Cherbourg a.k.a. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg); Arthur Hiller (The Americanization of Emily); Richard Lester (A Hard Day's Night); Robert Stevenson (Mary Poppins)
SUPPORTING ACTOR winner: George C. Scott (Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb) nominees: Wilfrid Brambell (A Hard Day's Night); Gert Fröbe (Goldfinger); Sterling Hayden (Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb); Stanley Holloway (My Fair Lady); Slim Pickens (Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb); Ronald Reagan (The Killers); Harold Sakata (Goldfinger); Victor Spinetti (A Hard Day's Night); David Tomlinson (Mary Poppins); Peter Ustinov (Topkapi); Dick Van Dyke (Mary Poppins)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS winner: Julie Andrews (Mary Poppins) nominees: Gladys Cooper (My Fair Lady); Grayson Hall (The Night of the Iguana); Lila Kedrova (Alexis Zorbas a.k.a. Zorba the Greek); Abbey Lincoln (Nothing But A Man); Agnes Moorehead (Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte)
SCREENPLAY winner: Stanley Kubrick, Peter George and Terry Southern, from the novel Red Alert by Peter George (as "Peter Bryant") (Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb) nominees: Paddy Chayefsky, from the novel by William Bradford Huie (The Americanization of Emily); Alun Owen (A Hard Day's Night); Richard Maibaum and Paul Dehn, from the novel by Ian Fleming (Goldfinger); Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, from the novel by P.L. Travers (Mary Poppins); Anthony Veiller and John Huston, from the play by Tennessee Williams (The Night of the Iguana)
SPECIAL AWARDS "Can't Buy Me Love" (A Hard Day's Night) music and lyrics by John Lennon and Paul McCartney (Song); Gilbert Taylor (A Hard Day's Night) (Cinematography); Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman (Mary Poppins) (Original Song Score); Norman Wanstall (Goldfinger) (Sound Effects); Cecil Beaton (My Fair Lady) (Costume)
Named for Katie-Bar-The-Door, the Katies are "alternate Oscars"—who should have been nominated, who should have won—but really they're just an excuse to write a history of the movies from the Silent Era to the present day.
To see a list of nominees and winners by decade, as well as links to my essays about them, click the highlighted links:
Remember: There are no wrong answers, only movies you haven't seen yet.
The Silent Oscars
And don't forget to check out the Silent Oscars—my year-by-year choices for best picture, director and all four acting categories for the pre-Oscar years, 1902-1927.
Look at me—Joe College, with a touch of arthritis. Are my eyes really brown? Uh, no, they're green. Would we have the nerve to dive into the icy water and save a person from drowning? That's a key question. I, of course, can't swim, so I never have to face it. Say, haven't you anything better to do than to keep popping in here early every morning and asking a lot of fool questions?
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