MovieChat Forums > Sweet Smell of Success (1957) Discussion > No Academy Awards nominations?

No Academy Awards nominations?

posted 16 years ago by platinumwindow7
5 replies | jump to latest

What gives? Not one - for Lancaster or Curtis, Mackendrick as director (imagine what that would've done for his career), or even screenwriting. What happened?

[–] SeanJoyce 16 years ago

It's dark, dour subject matter and the sight of Lancaster and Curtis as such vile, reprehensible characters turned a lot of people off...audiences simply weren't ready for this masterwork then. That, and of course the fact that the year it was released ('57) was loaded from top to bottom.

It's one of cinema's best kept secrets, however, and it's gradually won more acclaim with the passing of the time. In many quarters, it's regarded as one of the best films of the 50's...and rightfully so.

"...if that was off, I'd be whoopin' your ass up and down this street." ~ an irate Tarantino

[–] Shellsburg9 16 years ago

Yes, it boggles the mind, doesn't it?

[–] swanstep 16 years ago

Wow, that *is* amazing! I'd assumed that at least the Lehman Odets script would have been nom'd and probably Bernstein's score and Wong Howe's cinematography too, i.e., even if Mackendrick (too new/foreign) and Lancaster and Curtis (characters too scuzzy) were passed over.
There *were* quite a lot of good prestige-y films that year (and it was a staggering year for foreign film),... Still, the Acad. completely shutting out *both* Sweet Smell and Paths of Glory has to be one of its biggest screw-ups ever. Each is as good as movies get, and each is mandatory viewing for anyone learning how to make films. Sayonara and Peyton Place, not so much.

[–] Towelie_Towel 15 years ago

It's never that simple just to select the "best" movie. We have to consider the time it was released, how it was received by the audience and the critics, the other competitors and each category is important to the final Best Picture category. If a movie gets forgotten and shunned out of a few categories, chances are the voters will pass it.

[–] bradford-1 13 years ago

SSOS was ignored in its time like TOUCH OF EVIL, THE KILLING, THE SEARCHERS, ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW and SAPPHIRE.
"May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?"