Best Music- 1960

Official Nominations: Exodus: This features a vast and epic soundscape of brass and strings to evoke images of wide empty spaces filled with battle and despair. The oft covered main theme is still hard hitting today.

The Alamo: A typical Western soundtrack with Southern influences and more than a hint of tragedy. Dimitri Tiomkin was by this stage the most well known Western composer and he raises the bar once again here.

Elmer Gantry: The main themes are packed with church bells and ominous crashes of percussion, while the backing strings race and twitch almost maniacally. Andre Previn receives yet another nomination in the Drama category, and doubles his joy in the musical category below.

Magnificent Seven: A stonking main theme which is as joyous and energetic as anything you will hear today, the entire soundtrack is filled with poignancy and bitter notes. Elmer Bernstein was no stranger to the Academy at this point, earning his second well deserved nomination.

Spartacus: Suitably military sounding, we can imagine endless marches, flag waving, and the glory of Rome while the more tender moments are a bit too light and fluffy and not nearly tragic enough for my tear-filled ears. Alex North would receive 15 nominations but never pick up the win.

Song Without End: This was the official winner in the Best Musical score category and while most of the music is piano led and not overly memorable, the importance is that the soundtrack was recorded before the film was made. Everything is frantic and played at a million miles an hour which adds a certain charm for metallers like me. Morris Stoloff and Harry Sukman grabbed the gold.

Bells Are Ringing: A typical musical soundtrack full of tuneless brass which sounded badly dated the second it was released meant Previn picked up another nomination but it is not one to remember.

Can Can: See above for Nelson Riddle’s effort.

Let’s Make Love: See above, though slightly less dated for Lionel Newman and Earle H Hagen’s work.

Pepe: This has some inspired Spanish guitar, though more often than not Johnny Green’s piece gives way to old school Hollywood cheese.

My Winner: The Magnificent Seven

The Magnificent Seven

My Nominations:

I’m only adding a single new nomination to the list, a soundtrack which still reverberates in the public conscienc today and whose influence can be seen many a movie palying at your local now- Psycho: Hermann single handedly invents the music of horror cinema here with his racing rhythms, jagged and jarring string section. Spartacus. Magnificent Seven. The Alamo. Exodus.

My Winner: Magnificent Seven

Elmer Bernstein

Best Song- 1960

Never On Sunday

Official Nominations:

Never on Sunday – Never on Sunday • Music and lyrics: Manos Hadjidakis- A typical belter starting with a bunch of La la las. It’s all very twee apart from the innapropriate blasting of the vocals. They should have let a Greek singer perform. Nevertheless, this was the official winner.

The Facts of Life – The Facts of Life • Music and lyrics: Johnny Mercer. A terrible duet, complete with silly sound effects, theatrical performances, and just about everything that is wrong with music.

Faraway Part of Town – Pepe • Music: Andre Previn • Lyrics: Dory Langdon. Judt Garland sings this one, and at least it is a song in comparison to the Ad Jingles which make up the rest of the nominations. Still, it has that Jazz vibratto I can’t abide.

The Green Leaves of Summer – The Alamo • Music: Dimitri Tiomkin • Lyrics: Paul Francis Webster. Finally, a song we can listen to without our ears melting into a toxic disaster on the floor. A haunting melody with an eerie cathedral feel.

The Second Time Around – High Time • Music: James Van Heusen • Lyrics: Sammy Cahn. A rather typical love song which, in 1960 already sounded 2 decades out of date. Plus it reminds me of Tom and Jerry. Which should be a good sign. But Isn’t.

My Winner: A typically poor year for songs with mostly annoying, jangly jingles making up the bulk. My win goes to The Alamo.

My Nominations:  Unfortunately I can’t find anything of worth this year so my single nominee and winner is The Alamo.

The Alamo

Best Animated Film- 1960

I can only find one release this year, and therefore it is a winner by default. It is a typical animated adventure where the character faces a number of moral trials before coming out the other end stronger having learned vital lessons. There are monkey dances, fights, and possible racial and class issues- the main character assumes he is better than people just because he has been given a crown, and can treat anyone as he pleases. It has a Disney charm to it, though isn’t quite as cutesy. It is however an early anime and pretty messed up for the uninitiated. My winner is: Alakazam The Great

Alakazam The Great

Best Costume Design: 1960

Again this was split into 2 for BW and colour.

Offical Nominations: The Facts Of Life. Never On Sunday. The Rise And Fall Of Legs Diamond. Seven Thieves. The Virgin Spring. Spartacus- my winner. Can Can. Midnight Lace. Pepe. Sunrise At Campobello.

Spartacus

My nominations:

Spartacus.

The Lost World.

The Magnificent Seven.

My Winner: Spartacus.

Arlington (fred) Valles and Bill Thomas created a wide array of costumes for Kubrick’s epic, and with a director like Kubrick, you’d better believe he was watching for any inconsistencies or flaws. Spartacus was Valles’ last film and he deservedly picks up the win thanks to attention to detail and sheer scale of the job.

Best Cinematography- 1960

For the 33rd Academy Awards this was split into BW and colour nominations.

Spartacus

Official winners: Sons And Lovers. Spartacus. Spartacus is my choice.

My nominations:

Spartacus: For it’s epic look and feel both Russell Metty and Kubrick must be applauded and rewarded here and it is a well known fact that Kubrick and his DP clashed on the film with Kubrick believing his vision superseded that of the official DP. Regardless, the film looks stunning today.

The Alamo: Known primarily for his work on Westerns, The Alamo is probably William H. Clothier’s best film. His experience on Westerns mean that he is on familiar ground here but thanks to the fame of the story he is able to let loose and capture the viewer’s imagination while simultaneously cementing well known images, people, and monuments in the audience’s mind.

Breathless: As unique as Godard’s film is in terms of story telling, it is most often the look of the film which people recall. Raoul Coutard hit his stride in the early 60s, starting with Breathless. Paris has never looked so appealing even with the criminal elements of the plot.

The Brides Of Dracula: Jack Asher gives Hammer’s classic vampire tale a haunting old world feel, with demonic castles and villages perpetually shrouded in night and fog giving the viewer some genuine chills. Having worked on Hammer Horror movies for a few years already, he was a primary force in nailing the atmosphere of each film and making the film company notorious for their tone and feel. The striking contrast between The Castle and the world outside is striking and almost tempts the viewer/characters to escape the grim nature of the world into the beauty and inevitable doom of the Vampire’s Lair.

The Last Voyage: Although the film is known for it’s effects, the cinematography by Hal Mohr is controlled and keeps the audience from becoming sea-sick amongst all the splashing and crashing.

The Magnificent Seven: Charles Lang narrowly misses out on a win here proving that he was equally as strong working with colour as he was with BW. Nominated 18 times, the man is a legend of the craft, and with The Magnificent Seven he gives the impression of a sweeping Western America making an island out of one abandoned, besieged village.

Swiss Family Robinson: Harry Waxman ensures that being shipwrecked on a lost Island has never looked like so much fun. Beautiful shots of the island, the beach, and of course the tree house give the film a lost in time feel and will charm children or years to come.

My Winner: Spartacus

Spartacus

Best Art Direction- 1960

I’m not going to list all the names of those involved as we’ll be here forever. In the 60s this award was still split into BW and Colour, but I can overlook that because I’m better than the past.

Official Nominations: BW: The Apartment. The Facts Of Life. Psycho. Sons And Lovers. Visit To A Small Planet. Cimarron. It Started In Naples. Pepe. Colour:  Spartacus. Sunrise At Campobello.

My Winner: Psycho. Spartacus

Spartacuddly

My Nominations: The Apartment. Psycho. Spartacus. The Brides Of Dracula. House Of Usher. The Lost World. Jigoku.

I’ve added a few films which were missed this year. The Brides Of Dracula has that terrific gothic feel which Hammer Productions did so well- although it may look cheap and cheesy now, it retains an atmosphere today which must have been much greater decades ago. The same can be said for House Of Usher, which goes one step further by letting the Art Direction dictate the claustrophobic mood. The Lost World may also look cheap and cheerful now but it was one of the pioneering adventure films ofthe decade and many directors took their cue from this for the look and feel of their film in terms of set and costume. However, my winner is a film with a singular look- one which is as pwerful today as it was then, although I would have loved to have seen the minds of a 1960 audience contort in horror at what they were presented with. Jigoku is all about looks and atmosphere, and few films deliveer so well. Wonderful design from cast such as Haruyasu Kurosawa ensure that Jigoku, once seen, will never be forgotten.

My Winner: Jigoku.

Jigoku

Best Writing- Adapted: 1960

Ofiicial Nominations: Elmer Gantry. Inherit the Wind. Sons and Lovers.The Sundowners. Tunes of Glory

Richard Brookes won the award this year for his screenplay based off the novel by Sinclair Lewis, an award due in part to Lancaster’s ability to effectively deliver the fast paced dialogue. James Kenneway adapted his own novel into the screenplay for the dark Tunes Of Glory while Lambert and Clarke turned DH Lawrence’s coming of age tale into a risque flick. Inherit The Wind sees  Young and Smith capturing the spirit and themes of the McCarthy era parable while Isobel Lennart ably twists Jon Cleary’s novel.

My Winner: Sons And Lovers

Sons And Lovers

My Nominations: Sons And Lovers. House Of Usher. The Magnificent Seven. The Lost World. Swiss Family Robinson. Spartacus. Village Of The Damned.

Only Sons And Lovers makes it over to my list of nominations with a handful of both classic and underrated films making up the pack. Horror God Richard Matheson turns Poe’s short into a more pallatable story with plenty of atmosphere while Irwin Allen and Charles Bennett tackle Doyle’s tale of exploration and adventure. Lowell S Hawley version of Swiss Family Robinson maybe more watered down than the original text but is updated with a more family oriented feel while the trio penned screenplay for Village Of The Damned focuses more on the terror rather than the sci-fi elements. Screenwriting genius Dalton Trumbo was blacklisted at the time Spartacus was released, but it was the success of the film, due in part to the writing, which helped end this era. However, my win goes to Walter Newman’s adaptation of the Seven Samurai script. Newman largely wrote the film we know today but after being unavailable during filming, William Roberts was brought on site to make small updates- Newman asked for his name to be taken off the production. 52 years later, thanks to the awful power of The Spac Hole, he gets his Oscar win.

My Winner: The Magnificent Seven

The Magnificent Seven

Best Writing- Original: 1960

Official Nominations: The Apartment. The Angry Silence. The Facts of Life. Hiroshima Mon Amour. Never on Sunday

From the official nominations this year there was really only going to be one winner, with Billy Wilder’s witty screenplay backed by I.A.L Diamond’s notorious flair for comedy ensuring plenty of laughs. More than a simple comedy it touches upon controversial themes such as adultery and was generally ahead of its peers in terms of cultural relevance. Bryan Forbes’s screenplay for The Angry Silence touched on similarly relevant themes, but without the comedy and although the story from Richard Gregson and Michael Craig is interesting, there is none of the brilliance of Wilder. The Facts Of Life is a generally silly, cliche ridden film and story where that typical-for-Hollywood-but-entirely-unnatural event of placing two people in an unusual situation only for them to inevitably fall in love is the central event. In contrast, Hiroshima Mon Amour is startlingly fresh and innovative with Marguerite Duras’s screenplay abandoning linear plotting and traditional form. Jules Dassin’s Never On Sunday rounds up the nominations with a fine story written to the point of vanity.

My Winner: The Apartment

Wilde Lemon

My Nominations: The Apartment. Peeping Tom. Hiroshima Mon Amour.

I’ve added one major missing to my nominations, a film which explores the more seedy, dangerous, unexplored side of life. Leo Marks penned the script for Powell’s Peeping Tom and gives his experience of cryptography to create a puzzling story which surprises at every turn.

My Winner: The Apartment

Diamond And Wilder

Best Foreign Film – 1960

The Virgin Spring

Official Nominations: Kapo. La Verite. The Virgin Spring. Macario. The 9th Circle.

I’m afeard that for this category I can only mention the movies I have seen. Time in the Spac Hole is… different; on one path I built I world where 26 hours a day I could spend watching movies, reading books, listening to music, and playing games but the gateway to that place has been severed and so my watching and reviewing time is now limited. Out of the official nominations The Virgin Spring is the only one these eyes have seen, and it is a deserved winner.

My Winner: The Virgin Spring

My Nominations: However, mine eyes have seen many which were not nominated:

Peeping Tom: A classic British thriller, this ranks alongside The Wicker Man and 28 Days Later as one of the most evil British exports.

The Bad Sleep Well: This lesser known Kurosawa film abandons many of his trademarks and instead is a condensed look at family, revenge, and corporate corruption. Mifune ditches the Samural guard, but is no less fearsome as the young man plotting the downfall of the men responsible for his father’s death. This is Japanese noir at it’s finest, and while American counterparts always have some biting humour and a fiendish vixen, Kurosawa’s is a raw, bitter sword slash against massive corporations whose collapse will inevitably bring down everyone involved, and whose continuing existence relies upon that very fear.

Breathless: See Best Picture Nominations

Jigoku: In a stellar year for Japanese cinema, Jigoku is surely the oddest release. While Asian horrors of the time focused on typical Noh inspired visions of spirits and the afterlife, Jigoku is much more visceral and violent in its depictions of death and what comes after. Nakagawa was a master of J-Horror long before it became known as such, the groundbreaking and terrifying visions of hell above and below are startling, innovative, and inspiring for film makers. This alone would not make a great film, but the sometimes incomprehensible plot sees parallels in later works by the likes of Lynch in which sights and sounds and what is felt rather than spoken of become the primary in the story. This is bleak, brilliant, and just as true today as it was in 1960.

Late Autumn: This quiet film from Yasujiro Ozu has more bubbling under than at first seems apparent; The male dominated world of Japan in an age when women were struggling for power in the West is depicted as cold and loveless, especially when dealing with issues of love, relationships, and marriage. In the end it is the women who make the choices and the men who cause trouble even when they may have had the best intentions.

Night And Fog In Japan: Oshima’s political film deals with the bridge between fiery youth and leaving that age behind but more importantly is his commentary on the student uprising in the 1950s and the struggles with Stalin, Communism, and political defeat in the aftermath of World War II.

The Young One: Bunuel’s forgotten film was another controversial piece, dealing with rape and racism. The US was not ready for such themes and such clear depictions- Europe (and South America) was years ahead.

The Virgin Spring: See Above

The Virgin Spring

My Winner: The Virgin Spring. One of the more accessible of Bergman’s film yet one which still covers his favoured themes of religion, faith, solitude, family, redemption, sex. Von Sydow commands the screen as the father to a murdered daughter who seeks and finds revenge, while assorted family mambers and friends have their own struggles to work through. For all the darkness in the plot this one is light at times and ends with a glimmer of hope.

Best Supporting Actress- 1960

Shirley Knight was nominated for The Dark At The Top Of The Stairs, but lost out to another Shirley- Jones, for Elmer Gantry. Both are fine performances, but my choice goes to Knight for her coy, shy capering. Jones has the much bigger role and deserved her win in a character full of controversy, but just to be different I’ll say Knight.
Janet Leigh gets the nomination for Psycho in a fine performance, but due to the length of time she is on screen I don’t believe she warrants a win, whilst Mary Ure in Sons And Lovers doesn’t really deserve a nomination.
Glynis Johns gives a decent performance in a forgettable film and hardly deserves to have been nominated too.

Shirley Knight

My nominations:
Shirley Knight: As above
Shirley Jones: As above
Janet Leigh: As above
Audrey Hepburn: Though technically not a supporting role, things work differently in The Spac Hole, and our dear Hepburn, full of native American blood steals the show in The Unforgiven– a messy film which all involved would rather forget.

Audrey Hepburn