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               ‘West Side Story’ is a 1961 American musical. It is a romantic tragedy directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. ‘West Side Story’ is still one of the best film adaptations of a musical ever created, and the finest musical film of the 60s.

               Veteran director Robert Wise was chosen to direct and produce this movie, because of his experience with urban New York dramas such as ‘Odds against Tomorrow’ (1959). Since he had no experience directing a musical, Wise agreed that Jerome Robbins, who had directed the stage version of ‘West Side Story’ would direct the musical and dance sequences. This movie arrived at a time when the silver screen was facing tremendous competition from TV, and other genres of cinematic entertainment.

               The film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won 10, including Best Picture, becoming the record holder for the most wins for a movie musical. The film has been deemed “culturally significant” by the United States Library of Congress.

 

 

               ‘The Apartment’, released in 1960, stars Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, and was directed, produced, and co-written by Billy Wilder,

                The film follows C.C. Bud Baxter, an insurance company clerk who permits his bosses to use his Upper West Side apartment for things which are against societal norms. The sophisticated, yet cynical film of the early 60s is a bleak assessment of corporate America, big business and capitalism, success, and work ethics.

               It won five major Academy Awards out of ten nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay (co-written by Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond), Best Art Direction and Set Decoration, and Best Film Editing. It was a triple win for Wilder as director, producer, and screenplay writer. Wilder’s previous ‘The Lost Weekend’ had also won Best Picture and Best Director.

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               Originally a novel by Lewis Lew Wallace, a Union general in the American Civil War, and the Governor of New Mexico, ‘Ben-Hur’ was published in 1880. It was later adapted for the stage, and there are at least three film versions: one classic silent film in 1925, another classic in 1959, and one remake in 2016.

               The 1959 film, directed by William Wyler, starring Charlton Heston, is by far the best known version. This colourful version was the most expensive film ever made up to its time, and the most expensive film of the 50s. It took six years to prepare for the film shoot, and had over six months of on location work in Italy, with thousands of extras.

               At the Academy Award ceremony in 1960, ‘Ben-Hur’ made a clean sweep. It was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and won 11, missing only Adapted Screenplay. The film won Best Picture, Wyler won Best Director, Heston won Best Actor, and Hugh Griffith took home Best Supporting Actor. The 11 Oscars set a record, since matched by ‘Titanic’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’ but still not beaten.

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               The 1958 MGM movie, based on the 1944 novella by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette of the same name, was directed by Vincente Minnelli. The screenplay was written by Alan Jay Lerner, and the music by Frederick Loewe, following their success with ‘My Fair Lady’. Starring Leslie Caron as the eponymous Gigi, and Maurice Chevalier as the narrator Honore, the film won all nine of its Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, breaking the record set by ‘Gone with the Wind’. The record was short-lived, however, as ‘Ben-Hur’ broke the record with eleven Oscars the following year.

               The movie tells the story of Gaston, a rich man, who wants to break from the absurd traditions of his family. He finds refuge in spending his time with Gigi, a young girl raised by her aunt and grandmother, to be a rich man’s courtesan.

               Louis Jourdan plays Gaston. The movie takes a Gaston falls in love with Gigi, and asks her to be his wife.

 

               ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’ won in the Best Picture category at the Academy Awards of 1958.

               It is a World War II film, directed by David Lean, about the construction of a bridge over the River Kwai, although it’s heavily fictionalised. It’s based on the French novel ‘Le Pont de la Riviere Kwai’ (1952) by Pierre Boulle. The movie stars William Holden, Jack Hawkins, and Alec Guinness, and also features Sessue Hayakawa. The movie worked basically on the theme of the futility and insanity of war.

               ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’ was shot in the colourful, dense tropical jungles of Sri Lanka. The film was the number one box-office success of the year, and it won critical acclaim as well - eight Academy Award nominations, and seven Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best music, scoring, and Best Film Editing.

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            ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ is a movie starring David Niven and Cantinflas. The epic picture was directed by Michael Anderson. The film won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It is also one of the few Best Picture winners not to be nominated in any acting category.

            The movie was based on the famous escapist adventure book by Jules Verne. It was created with Todd-AO, a special wide-screen format. David Niven played the role of an eccentric traveller, Phileas Fogg. The music score was composed by Victor Young.

            The film also used 140 sets, built at six studios, and was shot at locations in England, Hong Kong and Japan.

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               ‘Marty’, the film directed by Delbert Mann, and produced by Burt Lancaster and Harold Hecht, was based on a telefilm by Paddy Chayefsky, who also wrote the screenplay. The movie offered a star making role to Ernest Borg-nine, which earned him an Oscar for Best Actor.

               ‘Marty’ was nominated for eight Academy Awards - and was awarded four - Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. It was also the shortest Best Picture winner (91 minutes). The movie also won the coveted Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. It was the only film based on a TV drama to ever win Best Picture. And it was the second Best Picture Oscar winner to also win the Palme d’Or at Cannes – ‘The Lost Weekend’ (1945) was the first.

               The movie tells the story of Marty Pilletti who lives with his mother. At 35, he has resigned himself to a life-time of bachelorhood, while his siblings have families of their own. Everything changes when he meets Clara, a schoolteacher, who has also resigned herself to never finding love. Through each other, they find happiness.

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               ‘On the Waterfront’, directed by Elia Kazan, written by Budd Schulberg, and starring Marlon Brando in his first Academy Award winning-role, was the Oscar winner for Best Picture in 1954.

               The film is concerned with the problems of trade unionism, corruption, and racketeering. It is set on New York’s oppressive waterfront docks.

               In the film, Brando plays Terry Malloy, a former prize-fighter, now employed as a dockworker for the corrupt union boss, Johnny Friendly. One day, Malloy inadvertently participates in the murder of a dockworker who had planned to expose Mr. Friendly’s illegal activities. As he comforts the dead man’s sister Edie, Malloy meets a kindly priest. Malloy is urged to help expose Friendly’s crimes before someone else is murdered.

               ‘On the Waterfront’ won critical acclaim and commercial success, and received twelve Academy Award nominations. It won eight, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Brando, Best Supporting Actress for Saint, and Best Director for Kazan.

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            ‘From Here to Eternity’ is a 1952 novel by James Jones, based on his experiences serving in World War II. It was adapted into a film in 1953, a miniseries in 1979, a TV series in 1980, and a musical version in 2013.

             The film version, directed by Fred Zinnemann, won eight Academy Awards out of 13 nominations, including awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress. The film’s title originally comes from a quote from Rudyard Kipling’s 1892 poem ‘Gentlemen-Rankers’.

             The movie deals with the tribulations of three US Army soldiers. The movie’s story line begins in 1941, a few short months before the attack on Pearl Harbour. Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt is transferred to the Schofield Barracks in Honolulu. His CO, Captain Holmes, learns that Prewitt was a boxer, and tries to recruit him for the unit’s boxing club. When Prewitt refuses, Holmes decides to make the new recruit’s life a living hell.

               In 2002, ‘From Here to Eternity’ was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

 

 

             This was the first year that the Academy Awards ceremony was televised on March 19th, 1953, on black and white NBC-TV. It took place at the RKO Pantages Theatre, California.

               The movie that won the Best Picture award was ‘The greatest Show on Earth’. It is a film produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille, shot in technicolour, and released by Paramount Pictures.

               ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’ is a 1952 film focused on a dramatized depiction of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The plot deals with circus manager Brad Braden dealing with a number of issues facing the upcoming circus season, including dealing with the board of directors.

               The film won two Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Story, and was nominated for Best Costume Design, Best Director, and Rest Film Editing. It also won Golden Globe Awards for Best Cinematography, Best Director, and Best Motion Picture - Drama.

               ‘An American in Paris’ by Vincente Minnelli, was a 1951 movie that won the Best Picture category at the Academy Awards. It was the second colour film to win the Best Picture Oscar, after ‘Gone with the Wind’.

               The 1950s represented a transition period for major Hollywood films, with about half of the Academy Awards victors of the decade being in technicolour, and the other half in black and white.

               ‘An American in Paris’ is more about mood, dancing, and singing, than it is about plot and character. It was also the third musical to win Best Picture.

               The film was also the first to win a Golden Globe award for Best Motion Picture (comedy or musical) - a newly-created category - in the 1952 awards ceremony.

               ‘An American in Paris’ won six Academy Awards - Best Picture, Best Story and Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, and Best Costume Design. ‘An American in Paris’ was an enormous success.

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               ‘All About Eve’ won the Best Picture category in the Academy Awards of 1950. The 23rd Annual Academy Awards took place on March 29th, 1951 during a tense political climate.

               ‘All About Eve’ was the first most-nominated film with 14 bids in Oscar history. It won six Oscars - Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay, both for director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Best Supporting Actor, Best Costume Design and Best Sound Recording.

               While targeting New York theatre life, the film chronicled the intermingling lives of an aging Broadway stage actress, a cynical drama critic, a young director, a playwright, a pretty but untalented actress, portrayed by Marilyn Monroe, and an aspiring and talented young actress named Eve.

               ‘All About Eve’ is the only film in Oscar history to receive four female acting nominations. It was selected in 1990 for preservation in the US National Film Registry.

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                Robert Rossen’s 1949 movie ‘All the King’s Men’ was inspired by Robert Penn Warren’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the rise and fall of a rabble-rouser Southern governor, a home-grown fascist.

               The triple Oscar-winning production features Broderick Crawford in the role of the ambitious and sometimes ruthless politician, Willie Stark.

               The main difference between the novel and the film is the reversal of the major roles: the character of the narrating newspaper reporter takes precedence over the power-hungry governor in the novel. In the film, the secondary character is the reporter, while the central character is lawyer-turned-politician Willie Stark.

               Of the film’s seven Academy Awards nominations, it won three major honours: Crawford won the Best Actor statuette, Robert Rossen as producer won the Best Picture Oscar, and Best Supporting Actress went to Mercedes Mc Cambridge (in her screen debut). The movie remains a hallmark political film with excellent performances throughout. When the film was released, it received wide acclaim.

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               ‘Hamlet’ is a 1948 British film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play ‘Hamlet’. This movie was adapted, directed by, and starred Sir Laurence Olivier,

               ‘Hamlet’ was both the first British production and the first non-Hollywood film to be presented with the industry’s top honour - Best Picture Oscar. Olivier’s ‘Hamlet’ is the Shakespeare film that has received the most prestigious accolades, winning the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design.

               The 1948 ‘Hamlet’ was the only film in which the leading actor had directed himself to an Oscar-winning performance, until 1998, when Roberto Benigni directed himself to an Oscar in ‘Life Is Beautiful’.

               Sir Laurence Olivier is also the only actor to win an Oscar for a Shakespearean role. ‘Hamlet’ is the only film to have won both the Golden Lion, and the Academy Award for Best Picture.

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               ‘Gentleman’s Agreement’ was the film that won in the Best Picture category at the 20th Academy Awards in 1947.

                Darryl F. Zanuck’s production of Laura Z. Hobson’s bestselling novel of the same name, offers the anatomy of anti-Semitism, the discrimination against Jews in an entire social group.

               The movie is basically the story of a journalist who poses as a Jew to research an expose on anti-Semitism in New York City. It was nominated for eight Oscars, and won three: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress for Celeste Holm, and Best Director for Elia Kazan.

               A fine cast, and brilliant direction by Elia Kazan, gave the movie authenticity. The movie was controversial in its time, as was a similar film on the same subject, ‘Crossfire’, which was released the same year. For millions of people throughout the country, the movie brought an ugly issue to light.

               Twentieth Century-Fox, the producer, had done excellent promotions for the movie, to make it a sizzling one.

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