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Monty of All Good Things is once again hosting his annual Favorite Classic Movie Actress Tournament this March. We here at the Monkey are proud to be handling the 1960s bracket.
To get into the mood, here's an idiosyncratic list of my favorite performances by an actress in the 1960s (in alphabetical order):
Julie Andrews (Mary Poppins). I could have also gone with The Americanization of Emily and The Sound of Music. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, indeed!
Doris Day (Lover Come Back). I prefer this pairing with Rock Hudson even over Pillow Talk.
Audrey Hepburn (Breakfast at Tiffany's). Charade is another personal favorite, but the scene where Holly Golightly crawls through the window into George Peppard's bed puts this over the top.
Sally Ann Howes (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang). A doll on a music box.
Carolyn Jones (Television's The Addams Family). Katie-Bar-The-Door and I have modeled our marriage on Carolyn Jones' Morticia and John Astin's Gomez. Without the seven-foot butler.
Shirley Jones (The Music Man). Serves me right for not being musical.
Angela Lansbury (The Manchurian Candidate). Boy, and you think you've got mother issues ...
Shirley MacLaine (The Apartment). Probably my favorite performance from the 1960s.
Misfit Dolly (voiced by Corinne Conley) (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer). Who among is so hard-hearted not to be moved by the tears of a doll? Especially a red-headed doll?
Julie Newmar (recurring role on TV's Batman). Julie Newmar's stoner Catwoman and Frank Gorshin's speed-freak Riddler are two of the greatest comedy villains of all-time.
Paula Prentiss (Man's Favorite Sport?) I'd go fishing with Paula Prentiss any day.
Diana Rigg (On Her Majesty's Secret Service). You should also check her out in Theatre of Blood, a Vincent Price masterpiece.
Tippy Walker (The World Of Henry Orient) One of the most poignant performances of the decade. Read about this great lost talent in The New Yorker (here).
More round two voting starts tonight and continues until Saturday evening. Let's get right to the match-ups:
"The British Invasion"
#1 Julie Andrews versus #4 Maggie Smith
#6 Angela Lansbury versus #7 Diana Rigg
"All-American Girls"
#1 Anne Bancroft versus #4 Patricia Neal
#6 Paula Prentiss versus #7 Tuesday Weld
And how about the results of the rest of round two here at the Monkey:
Natalie Wood beat Ann-Margret 31-17
Shirley Jones beat Liza Minneli 34-18
Catherine Deneuve beat Claudia Cardinale 27-20
Romy Schneider beat Liv Ullman 29-28
Monty of All Good Things is hosting the 1930s bracket (click here).
Desiree of Rosalind Russell: Dazzling Star is hosting the 1940s bracket (click here).
Kristen of Journey in Classic Film is hosting the 1950s bracket (click here).
Voting starts March 3rd.
Julie Christie
Birth Name: Julie Frances Christie
Tourney Bracket and Seeding: "British Invasion" #2
Birth Date: April 14, 1941
Birthplace: Chabua, Assam, India
Height: 5' 2"
Academy Awards: 4 nominations, 1 win (actress, Darling)
Signature Role: Lara (Doctor Zhivago)
versus
Diana Rigg
Birth Name: Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg
Tourney Bracket and Seeding: "British Invasion" #7
Birth Date: July 30, 1938
Birthplace: Doncaster, Yorkshire, England
Height: 5' 8½"
Academy Awards: none
Signature Role: Emma Peel ("The Avengers")
with the winner to take on the winner of
Jean Simmons
Birth Name: Jean Merilyn Simmons
Tourney Bracket and Seeding: "British Invasion" #3
Birth Date: January 31, 1929
Birthplace: Crouch Hill, London, England
Height: 5' 6"
Academy Awards: 2 nominations
Signature Role: Sister Sharon (Elmer Gantry)
versus
Angela Lansbury
Birth Name: Angela Brigid Lansbury
Tourney Bracket and Seeding: "British Invasion" #6
Birth Date: October 16, 1925
Birthplace: Poplar, London, England
Height: 5' 8"
Academy Awards: 3 nominations
Signature Role: Mrs. Eleanor Shaw Iselin (The Manchurian Candidate)
Notes: Christie versus Rigg—an actress born in India versus one who grew up there. And Simmons and Lansbury first hit it big in the 1940s.
"Oh, Mr. Buñuel! I had a nice idea for a movie for you."
"Yes?"
"Yeah. A group of people attend a very formal dinner party and at the end of dinner when they try to leave the room, they can't."
"Why not?"
"They just can't seem to exit the door."
"But why?"
"Well, momento. When they're forced to stay together, the veneer of civilization quickly fades away and what they're left with is who they really are—animals."
"But I don't get it. Why don't they just walk out of the room?"
"All I'm saying is just think about it. Who knows—maybe when you're shaving one day, it'll tickle your fancy."
—Gil Pender (Owen Wilson) to Luis Buñuel (Adrien de Van) in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris.
Maybe there was something in the water that year, but 1962 was a great one for movies. And not just any movies, but a group of movies that taken separately or together represent the most jaundiced view of humanity ever to sell a sackful of tickets. Lawrence of Arabia, The Manchurian Candidate, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?, To Kill a Mockingbird, Lolita, Ride the High Country and even The Music Man with its con-man hero, consistently showed human beings at their greedy, violent, lying worst with very little hope that as a species, we'll ever evolve into anything better.
The bleakest—and funniest—of the year's films was Luis Buñuel's black comedy The Exterminating Angel, about a group of aristocrats who attend a dinner party then for reasons straight out of the Twilight Zone find themselves unable to leave. Buñuel isn't just saying that civilization is a thin veneer easily cracked apart in stressful times, he's saying that civilization is an illusion we have faith in only because we're habituated to the inhuman behavior of ourselves and our fellow inmates in the asylum of life, a fact we only occasionally notice when circumstances are so out of the ordinary that they throw our actions into stark relief.
Or to put it another way, we're just big animals with clothes on.
Too harsh? Well, maybe, but then maybe you didn't read the day's headlines. Which day's? Any day's.
PICTURE (Drama)
winner: Lawrence Of Arabia (prod. Sam Spiegel)
nominees: To Kill A Mockingbird (prod. Alan J. Pakula); The Longest Day (prod. Darryl F. Zanuck); The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (prod. Willis Goldbeck and John Ford); The Manchurian Candidate (prod. George Axelrod and John Frankenheimer); Ride The High Country (prod. Richard E. Lyons); What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (prod. Robert Aldrich)
PICTURE (Comedy/Musical)
winner: The Music Man (prod. Morton DaCosta)
nominees: Gypsy (prod. Mervyn LeRoy); Lolita (prod. James B. Harris)
PICTURE (Foreign Language)
winner: El ángel exterminador (The Exterminating Angel) (prod. Gustavo Alatriste)
nominees: L'eclisse (prod. Raymond Hakim and Robert Hakim); Jules et Jim (prod. François Truffaut); Sanma no aji (An Autumn Afternoon) (prod. Shizuo Yamanouchi); Seppuku (Harakiri) (prod. Tatsuo Hosoya); Il sorpasso (The Easy Life) (prod. Mario Cecchi Gori); Tsubaki Sanjûrô (Sanjuro) (prod. Ryûzô Kikushima and Tomoyuki Tanaka); Vivre sa vie: Film en douze tableaux (Vivre Sa Vie) (prod. Pierre Braunberger)
ACTOR (Drama)
winner: Peter O'Toole (Lawrence Of Arabia)
nominees: Kirk Douglas (Lonely Are the Brave); Burt Lancaster (Birdman of Alcatraz); Jack Lemmon (Days of Wine and Roses); Joel McCrea (Ride the High Country); Robert Mitchum (Cape Fear); Tatsuya Nakadai (Seppuku a.k.a Harakiri); Gregory Peck (To Kill A Mockingbird); Randolph Scott (Ride the High Country); Frank Sinatra (The Manchurian Candidate)
ACTOR (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Robert Preston (The Music Man)
nominees: Dirk Bogarde (The Password Is Courage); James Mason (Lolita); Toshirô Mifune (Tsubaki Sanjûrô a.k.a. Sanjuro)
ACTRESS (Drama)
winner: Jeanne Moreau (Jules et Jim)
nominees: Anne Bancroft (The Miracle Worker); Bette Davis (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?); Katharine Hepburn (Long Day's Journey Into Night); Geraldine Page (Sweet Bird of Youth)
ACTRESS (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Shelley Winters (Lolita)
nominees: Shirley Jones (The Music Man); Corinne Marchand (Cléo de 5 à 7 a.k.a. Cleo From 5 To 7); Rosalind Russell (Gypsy); Natalie Wood (Gypsy)
DIRECTOR (Drama)
winner: David Lean (Lawrence Of Arabia)
nominees: Robert Aldrich (What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?); John Ford (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance); John Frankenheimer (Birdman of Alcatraz and The Manchurian Candidate); Masaki Kobayashi (Seppuku a.k.a Harakiri); Robert Mulligan (To Kill A Mockingbird); Yasujirô Ozu (Sanma no aji a.k.a. An Autumn Afternoon); Sam Peckinpah (Ride The High Country); François Truffaut (Jules et Jim)
DIRECTOR (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Luis Buñuel (El ángel exterminador a.k.a. The Exterminating Angel)
nominees: Morton DaCosta (The Music Man); Mervyn LeRoy (Gypsy); Stanley Kubrick (Lolita); Akira Kurosawa (Tsubaki Sanjûrô a.k.a. Sanjuro); Dino Risi (Il sorpasso a.k.a. The Easy Life)
SUPPORTING ACTOR
winner: Omar Sharif (Lawrence Of Arabia)
nominees: Ed Begley (Sweet Bird of Youth); Victor Buono (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?); Khigh Dhiegh (The Manchurian Candidate); Paul Ford (The Music Man); Laurence Harvey (The Manchurian Candidate); Lee Marvin (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance); Robert Ryan (Billy Budd); Peter Sellers (Lolita); Telly Savalas (Birdman of Alcatraz); John Wayne (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
winner: Angela Lansbury (The Manchurian Candidate)
nominees: Mary Badham (To Kill A Mockingbird); Patty Duke (The Miracle Worker); Hermione Gingold (The Music Man); Mariette Hartley (Ride The High Country); Janet Leigh (The Manchurian Candidate)
SCREENPLAY
winner: George Axelrod, from the novel by Richard Condon (The Manchurian Candidate)
nominees: Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson, from the writings of T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence Of Arabia); James Warner Bellah and Willis Goldbeck, from the story by Dorothy M. Johnson (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance); Horton Foote, from the novel by Harper Lee (To Kill A Mockingbird)
SPECIAL AWARDS
Anne V. Coates (Lawrence Of Arabia) (Film Editing); Freddie Young (Lawrence Of Arabia) (Cinematography); Maurice Jarre (Lawrence Of Arabia) (Score); La Jetée (Short)
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