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The Hitchcock Psycho Who Won An Award

posted 7 years ago by ecarle (14979)
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Famously, Anthony Perkins was not even nominated for Best Actor for Psycho for the 1960 Oscars. This was embarrassing given that Perkins had predicted he WOULD be ("I think I'll be nominated; Janet, too.")

Janet Leigh was nominated for Psycho at the Oscars. And she won for Psycho at the Golden Globes -- where Tony Perkins was ALSO snubbed. No nomination there.

I decided to go looking for a Perkins acting nomination of any sort for Psycho. I looked on imdb and found nothing . I recall some book saying that Perkins won the Best Actor award at some European film festival in 1960..but had to share it with Richard Attenborough.

Curiosity then got ahold of me. On an "imdb awards skim" I went to see if any of these Hitchcock psychos got any nominations: Joseph Cotton, Robert Walker, Barry Foster.

The answer: yes. One of them...Barry Foster for Frenzy(1972.)

This was as part of the voting of the National Society of Film Critics 1972 awards. And Foster wasn't simply nominated: he was listed as a WINNER...everybody was a winner. But they were ranked:

Best Supporting Actor of 1972:

Joel Grey in Cabaret and Eddie Albert in The Heartbreak Kid(a tie)

Third place: Robert Duvall in The Godfather.

Fourth place: Barry Foster in Frenzy.

As it turned out at the Oscars, with five slots available, everybody but Foster above made the list: Winner Joel Grey, plus Duvall and Albert. PLUS: Al Pacino and James Caan from The Godfather.

With this National Association of Film Critics award, Pacino was moved up to the Best Actor category(with Brando, and beating Brando as Number One winner.) James Caan was shut out in both categories, Actor and Supporting.

And here's a surprise: fourth place for Best Actor by the National Society of Film Critics was...ta da...ALEC McCOWEN. But not for Frenzy. For his lead role in Travels with My Aunt. (1972 was Alec McCowen's year.)

Meanwhile, back at Barry Foster. I find it meaningful that while everybody else on the Best Supporting Actor list of the NSFC made it to the Oscars...only Foster did not.

But at least he seems to have been "next in line."

I've always felt that both Barry Foster and Barbara Leigh-Hunt should have been legitimate Oscar contenders in the supporting categories of 1972. Frenzy WAS a Top Ten film of the year, and what Foster and and Leigh-Hunt did in the rape-murder scene was so utterly believable and disturbing that it could only reflect top-level acting. I could see substituting Barry Foster for either Duvall or Caan on the Oscar list(hell, I could see him supplanting Joel Grey.)

But not Al Pacino or Eddie Albert.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

A bit more on Barry Foster's actual performance in Frenzy:

He was a little-known British actor hired by Hitchcock most likely because he looked and sounded like Hitchcock's first choice for Bob Rusk: Michael Caine. Foster was "making do" on the West End stage, on television, and in small parts in "Robbery," "Inspector Clouseau" and "Ryan's Daughter" when Hitchcock hired him for Frenzy and seems to have made him "cult film famous" for decades. (Hitchcock fans know Rusk very well.)

As with Tony Perkins' performance in Psycho, much of the time Barry Foster doesn't "play insane" as Rusk. Indeed, Rusk is carefully conceived as cheery, funny, back-slapping, "everybody's pal." Its an enormously ingratiating performance in Foster's first two scenes(where we don't know he's "The Necktie Strangler.")

But UNLIKE Perkins, Foster DOES get to play one great big scene where the madness emerges and reveals itself. There's no more detailed look at madness in Hitchcock than watching Rusk's long, slow descent into murderous madness in Brenda Blaney's office.

What's striking is how the cheery Bob Rusk of earlier scenes is there only for the first few minutes of his scene with Brenda. THIS Bob Rusk is at first more agitated(stomping angrily around the office, opening and slamming file drawers of dating service clients.) On the angry phrase, "If you can fix up a bunch of idiots, why not me..HMM?" Rusk's eyes positively bulge out of his head. Its too much, the intensity of his anger, his self-loathing. And Rusk changes gears, becomes brooding, references his "fake self": " People like me. (Pause) I have things to give."
A true Mr. Lonelyhearts.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

The veer between rage and self-pity is scary in itself:

Rusk: (Angry) I get on with all SORTS of people.
Brenda: Then go elsewhere.
Rusk: (Angry) I've BEEN elsewhere. (Suddenly softening) But this place is the best. Because....I like you.

These emotional shifts -- which Brenda starts picking up on as not quite controlled enough on Rusk's part -- are key to the fine acting by Barry Foster here which, IMHO, did merit an Oscar nomination(if that's how we salute these things) and give us, in Rusk, a look at what we never got to really see in Norman Bates: the "coming on" of homicidal rage. We never saw Norman's face when Marion or Arbogast were being killed, never saw Norman "building up to the change and changing"(though maybe, a little, we saw that after Norman looked through the peephole and march up to the house with grim determination.)

We see the madness in Rusk, and we see something else that I find hideous: a creeped-out "goony" tone to his voice and look in his eyes when the SEXUAL mania comes on. He's kind of daft and slobby with his lusts aroused. This is not a man of healthy sexual appetites, and somehow Foster ACTS the fact that he is not sexually normal.

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After the rape murder, Rusk disappears from the movie for about 20 minutes(scenes with Blaney, Babs...and the Oxfords)...and when he comes back, it is a shock: he's his old back-slapping, friendly cheery self in a Covent Garden pub("Bob's your Uncle"), but now we know the REAL man, and he is deeply disturbing now IN his friendliness. Its how he lures Babs to her doom and frame Blaney for arrest.

I'd say that Foster earned his Oscar keep in the rape-murder scene, but he also centers the potato truck scene and there, perhaps the pressure lessens a bit. Foster's performance in the potato truck scene is almost a comedy performance, its hard to remember that he is a mad killer ...except for the presence of his nude female victim's corpse nearby and his willingness to do things like stick his head in the sack where the body is.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

And so, I take note that a major national organization of critics in 1972 took note of the performance of an actor playing a Hitchcock psycho -- and didn't just pile the praise solely on the director of Frenzy and its "Hitchcock touches."

I DO find Barry Foster's portrayal of a homicidal sexual maniac to be one of the great such performances in film history. Its not in the realm, perhaps, of Norman Bates, or Hannibal Lecter, or even Annie Wilkes(two out of three of those, Oscar winners.) But it IS a memorable performance, within the solid structure of a Hitchcock film and a very good script. Hitchcock and Anthony Shaffer make sure that Rusk is funny and charming and stylish...when he's not raping and kiling.

I'm glad Foster won fourth place. And -- surprise - of the three who came in ahead of him on that critics' list, I think only Eddie Albert in The Heartbreak Kid was better.

[–] swanstep (2715) 7 years ago

I'm glad Foster won fourth place. And -- surprise - of the three who came in ahead of him on that critics' list, I think only Eddie Albert in The Heartbreak Kid was better.

Hmm, I don't really remember Albert in The Heartbreak Kid, rather my memory of it is dominated by Grodin, Shepherd, and Jeannie Berlin (playing Grodin's wife). *Nobody*, however, forgets Rusk in Frenzy.

I'd take Foster head of Joel Grey in Cabaret too (possibly because I don't rate Cabaret that highly overall - I much prefer Frenzy let alone The Godfather). As for Duval - he's good of course but so is everyone else in the Godfather so he doesn't really stand out there...still maybe he should get in as a representative of one of the great ensemble casts of all time. Thinking back over 1972 I reckon both Deliverance and King of Marvin Gardens should have got some supporting actor love from critics. It feels like Foster's Bob Rusk should be duking it out with Ned Beatty and Reynolds and Voight and Dern as well as Duval.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

Hmm, I don't really remember Albert in The Heartbreak Kid, rather my memory of it is dominated by Grodin, Shepherd, and Jeannie Berlin (playing Grodin's wife).

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It was perfectly cast "across the board," but I believe that Albert was the comic sun around which the universe swirled:

The "mean funny"(and thus perfectly 1972; see Frenzy) set-up is that NYC Jewish newlywed Charles Grodin is on honeymoon in Miami Beach with NYC Jewish wife Jeannie Berlin -- and decides, pretty much in a day, to dump Berlin on the spot and pursue rich blonde Minnesota Shiksa hottie Cybill Shepard.

And Eddie Albert is Shepard's formidable, block-like, bigoted, rich, Daddy's Girl protector papa -- who will under NO circumstances allow a schmuck who has just dumped his NEW WIFE...to marry Daddy's girl.

There's a famous scene in The Heartbreak Kid in which four actors sit at a booth in a Miami restaurant: Albert(screen left), his "nice" Minnesota wealthy wife(some sitcom gal), daughter Shepard, and (screen right) Grodin.

Director Elaine May seems to have directed each of the four to the millimeter of facial expression as Grodin slowly explains to Albert that he has dumped his newlywed wife -- yesterday("But I'm giving her all of the presents!") and intends to marry Cybill Shepard...ASAP.

"May I have your permission to marry your daughter?"

The explosive laugh in the theater had to be heard...because we had seen Albert slowly steam up, up, up, in incredulity, astonishment, anger...RAGE. And then his seething answer:

"Not if wild horses....were tied and dragging me down the street by my TONGUE to make me give her up!"

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

Well, you had to be there. Had Barry Foster been nominated, I"da rooted for him. I rooted for Albert. Pacino was supposedly stiffed(and , some said, should have been up for Best ACTOR, with Brando in Supporting)...and Joel Grey won for a buncha whiteface creepy make-up. He didn't really play a thinking, feeling character at all -- he was symbolic, an "affliction novelty win."

As to the Godfather nominations in general: Brando was properly nominated -- and properly won -- for a characterization that was ALREADY getting imitated everywhere (as Patton had been) in 1972 and which was really, quite the surprise versus Don Vito in the book. Yes, Brando has fewer scenes than Pacino but he dominates EVERYBODY in the cast and when he's gone...you miss him.

Pacino, Caan, Duvall for Supporting in The Godfather was exactly like Cobb, Malden, Steiger in On the Waterfront. They cancelled each other out and an outsider won(Joel Grey, Edmond O'Brien.)

But this: they still missed some terrific supporters: John Cazalle(Fredo), Richard Castellano(Fat Clemenza), Abe "Fish" Vigoda(Tessio -- "Tell Mike I always liked him, it was just business...can you let me off the hook, for old time's sake?")

Perhaps the right way to go was as LA Confidential went: it had about 11 great male performances. None were nominated -- just "the girl"(Kim Basinger) and SHE won.

With the "Godfather Three" dominating the supporting category, the film year was rather skewed in representation. Take them all out(ala LA Confidential) and I'm sure that Barry Foster would have made the cut(to make up for Anthony Perkins) and likely Ned Beatty, too (for a scene similar to Foster's, but "from the other side." 1972, man. Adults only!)

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

Meanwhile, back at Eddie Albert:

Determined ultra-Jew Charles Grodin has chased his lovely, vapid Cybill("I'm really flattered," she says, as to all the guys) to ultra-WASP snowy Minnesota. He greets Eddie Albert at the man's mansion door. Albert replies: "Get out of my house. Get out of my city. Get out of my state."

But...undeterred, Grodin manages to cadge a "family dinner" with the Albert family. Albert remains silent, drawing soup into his mouth, as the ladies get chatted up by the fatuous Grodin. Finally, Albert takes Grodin into the study for a "man to man."

Albert: You know, I'm in banking. And I've learned that you can learn a lot about a man just by listening to his dinner conversation. Just listening. And I listened in there, and I have to tell you I was very impressed.
Grodin: Thank you, sir.
Albert: I can honestly say...I've never heard a bigger crock of S in my life.

AGAIN, with the explosion of laughter. What and how Eddie Albert does with these key scenes is something I'll always remember. Even if I got the lines wrong up there.

The Heartbreak Kid, in its own mean and cynical way, seemed to be turning "Rocky" on its head. Never give up, just keep trying, and you'll get the girl of your dreams. But...is she? And was it worth destroying a marriage on your honeymoon(in several other classic comedy scenes.)

Ah. 1972. I miss it almost as much as I miss 1973. No, wait...they're on my DVD shelf!

[–] swanstep (2715) 7 years ago

@ecarle. Thanks for the recap on Albert's contributions to Haertbreak Kid. I need to rewatch it: it's definitely a quirky, classic comedy from the late '60s/early '70s golden age, up there with The Graduate and Little Big Man and Little Murders and Cold Turkey and Where's Poppa? and Harold and Maude, and Heartbreak Kid is cringe-comedy that arguably feels more contemporary than those others. Bruce Friedman is the writer of the underlying story, right? Obviously May deserves a lot of the credit but Friedman is to her as Buck Henry was for Nichols on The Graduate - simpatico comic genius that leads to an alchemical explosion.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

Thanks for the recap on Albert's contributions to Haertbreak Kid. I need to rewatch it: it's definitely a quirky, classic comedy from the late '60s/early '70s golden age, up there with The Graduate and Little Big Man and Little Murders and Cold Turkey and Where's Poppa? and Harold and Maude, and Heartbreak Kid is cringe-comedy that arguably feels more contemporary than those others.

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Well, I think they remade it a few years back, with Ben Stiller in the lead and a bit too pretty of a "wife to be dumped." I couldn't bring myself to see it, the reviews said the story didn't play this time.

I saw The Heartbreak Kid on the big screen about a decade ago and chuckled at the opening theme song and music, which screamed "1972" and had a Mary Tyler Moore show lilt to it. And yet, as the film goes on, its "sitcom sweetness" ever so slowly deconstructs in the pure self-centered awfulness of Grodin's character.

---

Bruce Friedman is the writer of the underlying story, right? Obviously May deserves a lot of the credit but Friedman is to her as Buck Henry was for Nichols on The Graduate - simpatico comic genius that leads to an alchemical explosion.

---

The ads said: "Bruce Friedman imagined it. Neil Simon wrote it. Elaine May directed it." Quite a power play -- though I think Simon was "captured" by Friedman in this one. Its so MEAN.

Since Mike Nichols had directed The Graduate, attempts were made to posit this as his ex-partner May's Graduate. It was but it wasn't. The mean thing again. (Charles Grodin -- who had tested for The Graduate -- was just so much snarkier than Hoffman.)

BTW, this movie may have the best Cybill Shepard perf. She had played mean in The Last Picture Show, in this one, she showed more nuance: she likes toying with men, she's knows she's pretty, she's got that Killer Protector Daddy -- but Grodin smashes through all of her defenses until she determines: THIS guy IS worthy of me. Its almost a little bit sweet.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

We see the madness in Rusk, and we see something else that I find hideous: a creeped-out "goony" tone to his voice and look in his eyes when the SEXUAL mania comes on. He's kind of daft and slobby with his lusts aroused. This is not a man of healthy sexual appetites, and somehow Foster ACTS the fact that he is not sexually normal.

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Seeing as I'm "taking a risk with Rusk"(discussing this most taboo of Hitchcock villains), I'll note that after Foster moves through his "sexual phase" and turns into a strangler...the performance changes right along with the role. Gone is the goony, reassuring sexual liar ("Don't worry, I won't hurt you...") Now, behold, the raging woman-hater("Women! You're all alike.") The cold staring killer who makes sure that his victim knows exactly who he is ("My God, the tie!")

Barry Foster was given precious little in the way of dialogue in this infamous scene, he had to enact Rusk's ever-changing psychotic personality almost "shifting with the the edit." It seems like Oscar acting to me. And though Rusk isn't in a lot of Frenzy(like Norman in Psycho) , he dominates it(like Norman in Psycho.) And he is indeed a more potent and unforgettable player than team players like Caan and Duvall (and Grey for that matter.)

BTW, I can see Barry Foster getting nominated for Frenzy, but not winning. Grey would likely still win if in the field. But wait a few decades: Hannibal Lecter, Annie Wilkes, the guy in No Country for Old Men...

...eventually, Psychos meant Oscars.

[–] swanstep (2715) 7 years ago

But wait a few decades: Hannibal Lecter, Annie Wilkes, the guy in No Country for Old Men...

Yep, also Ledger's Joker gets the Oscar that Andy Robinson's Scorpio never had a prayer of getting.