Best Cast – 1974

My Nominations: Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. And Then There Were None. Blazing Saddles. Chinatown. The Conversation. Earthquake. The Godfather Part II. The Great Gatsby. Murder On The Orient Express. The Towering Inferno. Young Frankenstein.

As usual we have a mixture of smaller character pieces and larger scale epics, and this year the disaster epic saw studios throwing as many star names as possible into casts to make as eye-catching a spectacle as possible. Martin Scorsese doesn’t get credit for helping to craft memorable characters as he should, and he doesn’t get enough credit for his non-mafia pieces. With Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore he shows why he should get more credit in both respects, the film being both moving and funny and striking a chord for me which Romantic Comedies almost never do – Ellen Burstyn doing some of her finest work as a widow travelling across the US with her son and meeting interesting characters played by Kris Kristofferson, Diane Ladd, Valerie Curtin, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, and many others.

We got two Agatha Christie adaptations this year of a similar quality and international cast – And Then There Were None with Oliver Reed, Richard Attenborough, Charles Aznavour, Stephane Audran, Elke Sommer, Gert Frobe, and Orson Welles in a cameo, while Murder On The Orient Express features Albert Finney, John Gielgud, Vanessa Redgrave, Sean Connery, Lauren Bacall, Martin Balsam, Ingrid Bergman, Anthony Perkins, and many more. Moving over to comedy, and another double – this time by Mel Brooks – Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein both featuring Madeline Kahn and Gene Wilder doing some of their most iconic work, and the former giving Cleavon Little a chance to shine with the latter allowing Peter Boyle and Marty Feldman to tear it up. Chinatown is one of the best examples of acting masterclasses in the 70s, with Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway leading the way.

On to the disaster epics, there isn’t a lot to choose between them and will depend on your personal preference. Earthquake gives you Charlton Heston, George Kennedy, Ava Gardner, Richard Roundtree, Walter Matthau, Lorne Greene, Genevieve Bujold while The Towering Inferno has Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, OJ Simpson, Robert Wagner, Robert Vaughn, William Holden. Flicking back to literary sources, and The Great Gatsby brings us a Coppola penned version starring Robert Redford in the title role, backed up by Mia Farrow, Bruce Dern, Karen Black, Sam Waterson and others, but it is Coppola’s other two little known films of the year which I’ll choose my winner from. The Conversation is almost a Gene Hackman one-man show but smaller side performances from John Cazale, Cindy Williams, Harrison Ford, and Robert Duvall raise the bar for these types of supporting roles. My winner, even though I’d be happy with a number of the other choices, has to be The Godfather Part II. Cementing and further morphing performances from Part I while bringing in a host of new cast members each providing defining work, it’s what the word masterpiece was created for – Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Gastone Moschin, Diane Keaton, John Cazale, Talia Shire, John Megna, Lee Strasberg, Bruno Kirby, Joe Spinell, Danny Aiello, Robert Duvall, Harry Dean Stanton, and why the hell not – Richard Matheson, Roger Corman, James Caan, Sofia Coppola, Gary Kurtz – you get the idea.

My Winner: The Godfather Part II

Let us know your winner in the comments – next time we dive into the deepest depths of 1975…

Best Stunt Work – 1974

My Nominations:Earthquake. The Towering Inferno. Gone In 60 Seconds. The Man With The Golden Gun. McQ.

We’re well and truly into the golden age of car stunts now, and in many ways this is the second age of movie stunts – the first being all those westerns of previous decades. The Eighties would bring in a new age of more spectacular work, but this is truly when the stunt profession hit its stride and maybe its peak of fame. Earthquake as the name would suggest contains a variety of stunts thanks to the massive quake which rocks LA and due to its epic scale set a new precedent for the number of stunt performers involved. Any time there’s a scene of carnage, the stunt guys are there making everything as thrilling as possible – the film has everything from falling and dodging gags to the higher drops and elevator crash. Similarly, The Towering Inferno has disaster oriented stunts – the elevator makes an appearance again, this time on the outside of the building – as well as lots of fire and height related fare, from crane work, dodging flames, and more water.

Gone In 60 Seconds is our first car-related stunt extravaganza, a film with a monumental chase sequence and famous for wrecking over a hundred vehicles. The film has many incredibly dangerous stunts and scenes, with several real accidents being incorporated – the carnage includes cars, trucks, flipping, cars jumping, skidding, crashing, and a final lengthy jump which remains incredibly impressive. The Man With The Golden Gun has a number of car gags too, its most memorable being that amazing corkscrew flip across a river – a stunt you never really see replicated anywhere. On top of this the film adopts martial arts thanks to the popularity of Bruce Lee with a number of basic fight scenes. McQ continues the theme of flipping cars and chases, while Stone does the same but with motorcycles replacing cars.

My Winner: Gone In Sixty Seconds

Let us know in the comments what your winner is!

Best Visual Effects – 1974

My Nominations: Earthquake. The Towering Inferno. The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad. The Man With The Golden Gun.

Although the team of Glen Robinson, Albert Whitlock, and Fred Brendel won a special achievement award for Earthquake, we still had no official category this year. That’s a shame, as we have some interesting films which deserved a nomination. Earthquake obviously gets a vote along with The Towering Inferno – two of the major disaster movies of the era. The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad is another Harryhausen treasure-trove, featuring a griffin, a dwarf, a wooden siren coming to life, a wizard who gains invisibility, a centaur, and a six armed, sword wielding Kali. The Man With The Golden Gun is the requisite Bond nomination, but it’s not overly effects heavy. If you wanted, you could add Zardoz here too….

My Winner: The Golden Voyage of Sinbad

Let us know your winner in the comments!

Best Costume Design – 1974

Official Nominations: The Great Gatsby. Chinatown. Daisy Miller. The Godfather Part II. Murder On The Orient Express.

It wasn’t my intention to have The Godfather Part II win everything, but when you compare it to everything else here, remembering it features styles from at least two entirely different eras spread between US and Sicily, it’s the clear winner. The Great Gatsby got the official win, as period pieces generally do, and while it is authentic it’s at least an equal to Daisy Miller. Chinatown and Murder On The Orient Express are on fairly level footing too.

My Winner: The Godfather Part II

My Nominations: The Great Gatsby. Chinatown. Daisy Miller. The Godfather Part II. Murder On The Orient Express. Blazing Saddles. The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad. Zardoz.

All the regulars make it over, and I add a few more period pieces. Zardoz…. has to be seen to be believed, and if you see Sean Connery’s costume you know all you need to know. About anything. Blazing Saddles speaks for itself, while The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad earns my alternative pick thanks to plenty of fine detail fleshing out many of its exuberant characters.

My Winner: The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad

Let us know in the comments which film you pick as winner!

Best Art Direction – 1974

Official Nominations: The Godfather Part 2. Chinatown. Earthquake. The Island At The Top of The World. The Towering Inferno.

No reason to disagree with any of these, or with The Godfather Part 2 picking up the win – again in another year it would have been Chinatown.

My Winner: The Godfather Part 2

My Nominations: The Godfather Part 2. Chinatown. Earthquake. The Island At The Top of The World. The Towering Inferno. Murder On The Orient Express. And Then There Were None. The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad. Young Frankenstein.

I take all the nominees and add a couple of Agatha Christie adaptations, both notable, and of course I also take The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad. Young Frankenstein gets on too – a film which you forget looks so great, and The Man With The Golden Gun closes the list with numerous interesting sets which highlight the crazed aura of the title character.

My Winner: The Godfather Part 2

Which film of 1974 do you pick as winner?

Best Make-up – 1974

My Nominations: Young Frankenstein. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Flesh For Frankenstein. The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad.

Once again there was no official award this year, so you’ll have to take my word on what was good. As would continue to be the case, the nominees mainly fall into the horror and fantasy genres – not genres which The Academy pays much heed to – but which nevertheless have created some of the finest examples of the craft. Young Frankenstein does subtle work to Peter Boyle to turn him into The Monster, but not so much that Boyle’s features and abilities are blocked. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre screams blood and guts, but there are only a few very minor scenes of such in the movie – it’s the make-up on Grampa and lighter touches on the rest of the family which transform them into something gruesomely human. Flesh For Frankenstein on the other hand goes all in on the gore effects, with viscera spilling all over the place. Finally, The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad is mainly notable for its stop motion and assorted effects, but the Make-up also gives a convincing sense of time and place.

My Winner: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Let us know your winner in the comments!

Best Writing (Adapted) – 1974

Official Nominations: The Godfather Part II. The Apprenticeship Of Duddy Kravtiz. Lenny. Murder On The Orient Express. Young Frankenstein.

The Godfather Part II wins this one easily enough, though I would love to have seen Young Frankenstein getting it too. Lenny is an interesting one – the need to balance the on stage material with the off stage reality is handled well, while Murder On The Orient Express is always told well in any adaptation. The Apprenticeship Of Duddy Kravtiz is the offbeat choice this year, a film with an unfortunate name which I imagine would turn away most potential viewers nowadays. It’s a fun coming of age story though, with a great lead from Richard Dreyfuss, and it has its share of funny moments.

My Winner: The Godfather Part II

My Nominations: The Godfather Part II. Young Frankenstein.

There’s absolutely nothing I want to add this year – there are a number of possibilities but nothing as strong as my two picks above, so what’s the point?

My Winner: The Godfather Part II

Which film gets your vote – let us know in the comments!

Best Music (Scoring) – 1974

Official Nominations: The Godfather Part II. Chinatown. Murder On The Orient Express. Shanks. The Towering Inferno. The Great Gatsby. The Little Prince. Phantom Of Paradise.

The category continues to be divided into two, with the official winners being The Godfather Part II and The Great Gatsby. After the mess surrounding the score and snub for The Godfather, there was only one winner here. In truth the score isn’t all that different from Part I but it’s still strong enough to be the choice. Jerry Goldsmith’s Chinatown is the only other potential, a woozy score with plenty of wistful moments, a score which on its own evokes Marlowe imagery, lonely PIs and boozed up dames, and maybe the odd footchase through a dark alley.

The Murder On The Orient Express soundtrack always reminded me of a score from decades earlier, albeit done with better production values – it’s classy, has sudden dramatic outbursts, and the necessary touches of glamour and romance. Shanks isn’t about a series of prison stabbings – it’s somehow worse. It’s amusing that a movie about a killer doll gets nominated for an Oscar. Well, not quite, but it is about a puppeteer played by Marcel Marceau who, with the help of an evil doctor, can control the dead. How William Castle got Alex North to work on this I don’t know, possibly via the use of an evil doctor and puppeteer, but it’s an Oscar Nomination for a horror movie so I can’t complain. It actually isn’t that bad a film – lent authenticity by Marceau’s performance and North’s wispy stop-start score – you can imagine the notes being pulled up and down by the invisible hands of a puppeteer.

The Towering Inferno is, I always forget, another score by John Williams. Even before he made all the soundtracks you love he was knocking it out of the park. If anything, this one actually reminds me of Star Trek – there’s that sense of ambition and exploration and scope in the music. Not a lot of memorable cues though. The Great Gatsby… not a book or an adaptation or a period of time and place I’ve ever really enjoyed so I’m usually biased against such things. Thankfully the score doesn’t go too far down the sound of the period that I don’t like, but still… The Little Prince is a strange one – an unsuccessful musical with a good cast. In theory it sounds like a musical version of the story could work, and that’s coming from someone who hates musicals, but this one doesn’t work. Most of the songs are annoying and the music is forgettable – it’s not a patch on the 2015 version. Finally, Phantom Of Paradise is the weirdest one of the lot – another musical, or maybe more accurately a Rock Opera with horror elements, directed by Brian De Palma. The rock opera movie would have a more successful release the following year, but this one has its moments, possibly let down by the lack of known performers. It’s a film about a disfigured rock star who seeks revenge against an evil producer who steals all his work and gets rich. A number of the songs are good, the overall score is consistent, though none of it became a hit and the film wasn’t a huge success.

My Winner: Chinatown

My Nominations: Chinatown. The Godfather Part II. The Phantom of Paradise. Black Christmas. Foxy Brown. Earthquake. The Taking Of Pelham 123. Blazing Saddles. Dark Star. The Sugarland Express. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Young Frankenstein.

Three of the official choices make it to my list – you should know by now my choices tend to be somewhat more eclectic.

Black Christmas has a pretty unnerving and chilling soundtrack, filled with moans and creaking and wind howls along with twist on Christmas classics. Foxy Brown on the other hand is just good, solid, sexy fun by the great Willie Hutch. John Williams was just starting to hit his stride in the early-mid 70s, as you’ll see from this list and pretty much every subsequent year. Both Earthquake and The Towering Inferno have decent central themes and much to love and quite a few similarities. Elsewhere, he also collaborated with the little known Senor Spielbergo on The Sugarland Express – a weird one which has too much wailing harmonica and not enough of the good stuff – strings, building brass, hooks, yet is great when it works.

David Shire’s The Taking Of Pelham 123 feels like a disaster score, which I suppose is apt. It’s suitably chaotic, the lead ba-dum-da-dum brass pulsating and pounding. Finally, we’ve got to have The Texas Chainsaw Massacre soundtrack (Wayne Bell and Tobe Hooper) – perhaps more than any other main theme this year does it catch in your memory. Those screeching, ‘whatever they ares’ in the intro remain horrifying now, setting up a truly unique and nightmarish film – you watch and hear the opening, and you know you’re in trouble. Aside from that there is booming distortion, clashing cymbals, and other anti-music just off-putting enough to create an unequaled atmosphere.

Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Dark Star. I was going to pick The Godfather Part 2, but lets not.

My Winner: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Let us know which score gets your vote!

Best Writing (Original) – 1974

Official Nominations: Chinatown. Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Day For Night. Harry And Tonto. The Conversation.

Coppola was a busy boy this year, with The Conversation and The Godfather Part II. He also wrote the screenplay for The Great Gatsby. While his entry here could have won another year, it’s up against Chinatown – one of the greatest screenplays ever written. Day For Night gets the vote for trying, successfully, something different, while Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore is one of the great examples of the new feminist movement. Harry And Tonto is charming enough, but not on par with the others.

My Winner: Chinatown

My Nominations: Chinatown. Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Day For Night. The Conversation. Blazing Saddles. Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia. Dark Star. A Woman Under The Influence. Thunderbolt And Lightfoot.

We only drop Harry And Tonto and add Blazing Saddles in its place for planting 1970 US speak into the Old West and being filled with the lewd, the satirical, the juvenile, and more. Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia is a violent and often confused mystery peppered with a variety of grim characters while Dark Star makes a mockery of 2001. A Woman Under The Influence is a gritt, almost overwhelming character study, while Thunderbolt And Lightfoot is a shining example of a genre which would quickly be lampooned as the decade drew to a close and beyond.

My Winner: Chinatown

Let us know which film you pick as winner!

Best Cinematography – 1974

Official Nominations: The Towering Inferno. Earthquake. Chinatown. Lenny. Murder On The Orient Express

Three period pieces and two disaster movies make up the list this year, with Joseph Biroc and Fred J Koenekamp picking up a deserved win for The Towering Inferno. Earthquake is a fun, effects filled movie but pales to the winner in most aspects, while Lenny is the least interesting looking of the period films. Murder On The Orient Express uses all of the landscape and sets inherent in the story well, while Chinatown has an almost sepia touch throughout giving a subtle sense of age.

My Winner: The Towering Inferno

My Nominations: The Towering Inferno. Chinatown. Murder On The Orient Express. The Godfather II. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Blazing Saddles.

Three make it to my list, and joining them is The Godfather Part 2 – lets face it, it’s probably going to be nominated for every applicable category. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is another unsurprising inclusion by me, a film with a look which has been mimicked countless times, but never matched – not even when Daniel Pearl returned for the remake decades later. Blazing Saddles gets on because it’s always nice to nominate when a comedy has a more or less unique look, while The Conversation has a moody, claustrophobic feel glimpsed through the narrowed lens of long distance shots. Finally, The Sugarland Express sees Spielberg make his first outing with the renowned Vilmos Zsigmond – a partnership which would eventually lead to an official win.

My Winner: The Godfather Part II

Let us know in the comments which film you pick as winner!