I know I seem to say this with each new year in this category, but these are some heavy hitters. Big names that I expect big performances from in films that should be pretty great. That's the expectation so let's see if they deliver on it.
1965 Best Actor
Lee Marvin - Cat Ballou
I never knew anything about this film but was always interested that Lee Marvin had won an Oscar. I have always seen him as the macho tough guy in action films and the like but never really a serious Oscar contender. After finally watching this, I'm left scratching my head a bit. The film is about Jane Fonda, who is the eponymous Cat Ballou, who returns home to her father's farm in the west only to learn there is a price on his head and then he is quickly killed. She becomes kind of an outlaw. Sounds like a great Western drama, but this is a Western comedy and a pretty decent one at that. Marvin plays a dual role in this film which maybe contributes to his win. He plays a drunken sharpshooter who can only shoot well when drunk. He is hired by Fonda to help protect her father and then tags along as she (and he) gets revenge. His other role is the drunken sharpshooter's brother, who is the villain and has an admittedly pretty dope look with an iron nose and black attire. But that character isn't in the film very much and Marvin doesn't really show up until over a half hour into a film that is just only over an hour and a half. Now, Marvin is quite hilarious at times as the drunk. His comedic chops are there and his physical comedy is also pretty great, which it has to be for a drunken character to work. I also would hesitate to call Marvin the lead actor. I guess in the context of the film he is, although Fonda is the lead and there are other male characters who get just as much time as Marvin does. And the unsatisfying thing about the film is that we don't even see the fight between the best shooter in the West and the evil villain. It's done off screen, which most likely is because Marvin plays both parts, but come on! That should be the highlight of the film! So Marvin makes funny quips and stumbles around and is there when you need him in hilarious ways but that's about all the performance offers. A good comedy performance that is entertaining to watch, but for this to win an Oscar? I can't quite figure it out. Marvin was also in Ship of Fools that was heavily nominated, so maybe that is part of the reason. I don't want this to sound like I'm bashing Marvin because he and the film are wonderful, just not exactly award worthy in my eyes. It's got a great and catchy title song, though.
Richard Burton - The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Richard Fucking Burton. This man has become one of my absolute favorite actors of all time through this project as I have enjoyed all of his nominations. Luckily enough, I still have three more to watch after this one. As you can guess from the title, this is a cold war spy film. I won't call it a thriller because there isn't much action, but that is by design. This is not James Bond running around the world getting into all sorts of trouble. No, this is Burton as a spy who has come in from the cold from his Berlin station chief position to be unceremoniously dumped by the agency. Or so it seems. It's a cold war spy film so you can guess, like I did not too long into the film, that there is more to this being fired than we understand in the beginning. Spoiler of sorts but it really should be easy to guess that something is up. Anyway, Burton portrays his spy in a very straightforward and mundane sort of way. In the beginning he sees an agent of his get killed crossing Checkpoint Charlie and doesn't really react. Once out of the agency, he becomes a drunk who spends what little money he has on alcohol and food and is hired as a librarian assistant. He is the antithesis of Bond and is completely unsexy or charming. He's just going through the motions and eventually lands in jail after beating up a shopkeeper in a drunken rage. Recruited by East German agents to defect, Burton's spy does it simply to get paid. He essentially claims he's just another bureaucratic cog and joined for money and because it was a job. So we see the kind of man Burton is portraying his spy as is this boring, mundane guy whose motivation is money and not service to country. You might think that Burton isn't doing much in this performance, but there is so much subtlety and layers to this character that it only really becomes apparent once we see it to the end. I like that he is just a regular guy doing his job. By the end of the film, you can see he has lost a bit of faith in humanity as evidenced by his monologue about how spies aren't perfect people. It's just another strong performance from Burton that I thoroughly enjoy. I love that he can have so many different sides to his acting like I'm peeling away another layer of his acting onion. Can't wait to see what else he gives me in the coming years.
Laurence Olivier - Othello
You look at this name and think that this is going to be a really great performance to watch. It's Shakespeare and Olivier, how awesome will this be? But man, this is such a bad film. For many reasons, I think. From what I read, the budget wasn't much so that's why the production design is so sparse. The same few areas over and over with really drab brown colors and just walls and columns. It looks terrible. But then you get to witness Olivier in black face. Yeah. I understand that this play has been done like that for centuries I guess, because Olivier plays the black Moor character. But he looks so damn awful. Like really terrible in that get up. He comes across as looking dark gray or charcoal and not like an actual black person. He also has this weird baritone voice he decided for the character that he apparently worked on for months. He also created an accent and an affected walk. I do have to give Olivier some props for being so dedicated to the character and the play that he went all in with it. I don't actually begrudge him for any of that because it's evident he was just so into being a Shakespeare actor that he forgot how it would look. He got criticized even back in the 60s for these choices which actually makes me happy, although he was still nominated for an Oscar. It's just an absolutely ridiculous look that is legitimately hard to get past when watching. Not to mention Olivier hams it up the entire time. Yes, he may be fully committed to what he thinks is greatness and I like that quality, but it doesn't make it good. He really does dominate every scene and I truly admire people that can memorize whole damn plays and perform them start to finish. It always blows my mind. I like that Olivier really lives in the words Shakespeare wrote. He's looking all over the place, moving around, just really inhabiting the story and making it seem like this is the first time these words have ever been uttered. That's why I say I like the passion Olivier exudes but it just is a bit misguided, especially in 1965. It's not a very good adaptation, honestly, and I really like the Kenneth Branagh and Laurence Fishburne version the most. I'm glad that Olivier already had his Shakespeare Oscar because this wasn't it.
Rod Steiger - Pawnbroker
I feel I downplayed that Steiger had any other nominations when I reviewed his win in 1966. He had a couple including in my favorite film of all time which we will get to eventually. I had never seen or even heard of this nor knew it was nominated. But I learned a lot about it. It was the first film to feature boobs with a production code seal and one of the first, if not the actual first, to take on the Holocaust with a POV angle. The film is interesting and is about Steiger who runs a pawn shop in NYC and we see him deal with his clientele and the neighborhood shakedown. Steiger reminds me so much of a later Marlon Brando, which is ironic given my favorite film of theirs. But he has that quality to him. Shuffling around, all business going through the motions. Like I said in the next year's review, Steiger has this quiet distinctness to him. He says so much with just his actions and with his demeanor and his looks. I'm not gonna lie, I was blown away by this performance in the beginning. The film takes after some French directors with the flashbacks and the on the street style, but Steiger just dissolves into the role. Compare him to the racist cop or the mob brother and this is completely different than those performances. This is unique and so strong that I was thinking Steiger was my new favorite actor. The second half of the film brings him back down to earth a bit but Steiger still does some great work to consider him one of my favorites. The film itself may be out of the running but Steiger hits all of the fucking notes I want. Subtlety is key and Steiger never lets on to how this thing will end and I appreciate that. I enjoy the flashbacks, however brief, for what characterization they bring to the man. I want to know more about him and what happened during his camp time and why he turned out the way he did. I like how his life outside the Holocaust is a series of living in cages at his work and home and all that. Great directing by Sidney Lumet. This is a really interesting film with a performance that actually transcends the film. It's way better than the film and deserves someone not experimenting and who could make the serious Holocaust aspect stick. Great performance in an interesting film.
Oskar Werner - Ship of Fools
This is a film I enjoyed more than I thought I would because it's one of those ensemble casts. I would say that Werner does seem to be the most focused on actor in the film so his nomination here makes sense in that regard to me. He is the doctor of a ship that is sailing from Mexico to Germany. It seems like he's getting ready to end his time as the doctor of the ship and move on and we later learn he's got a heart condition. His story in the ensemble focuses on his interactions with Simone Signoret's countess character. She is being sent to a prison on Tenerife and if an opiate addict, so that's where we see them start to bond. We later realize these are two people hopelessly bound to their impending fates, as Werner's heart condition is more serious than we realized. The two even start to fall for each other and we see that hopelessness on their faces even as they persevere onward, together. The title does say Ship of Fools and I guess we see how these two are fools to find comfort in each other, yet it makes sense they would. The two characters have great chemistry just as the two actors do and that's why this story is the heart of the film. We see more of the doctor opening up when with the countess than in the other parts of the film. Werner is brooding and someone we see to be a good person in dealing with the Cubans on the deck and with being irritated by the Nazi sympathizer at the captain's table. Werner internalizes a lot of his character that we see only come out when with Signoret and this choice makes the connection and performance more tragic and endearing. Werner really is the heart of the film and it's such a well done performance. He is definitely a big part of why I enjoyed the film more than I thought I would.
A pretty huge group of names, this was a decent enough category. Not top tier by any means, but certainly an entertaining group. I don't agree at all with the win for Marvin. Maybe they are rewarding him for playing two characters in the same film or because he was in two big money films this year, I don't know. I don't think it's a strong enough performance to be a winner especially when there are three guys here who I think do a better job. Olivier is easily the last one in this group because of the whole black face thing and because he hammed it up hard. I'd rather watch Marvin play a funny drunk than Olivier do this again. Marvin is next followed by Werner who surprised me a bit. Ensemble film about people on a boat and he elevates his performance beyond just being some token cast member. He was also in Burton's film, so I'm sure being in two high profile films really helped him out. Steiger blew me away and I just wish that film had been a bit more cohesive because what Steiger was doing was so good. His trauma and loss of faith in humanity is heartbreaking to watch and in another year he would win. And he also had two big films with Doctor Zhivago. It's like a theme. But gonna give this one, again, to my guy Burton. I've probably given him like four Oscars so far, but he has deserved them for sure. Can't believe he never won and was beat out by shit like Lee Marvin's performance. Burton is a legend and this is my part in rectifying that. As always, looking forward to the next year.
Oscar Winner: Lee Marvin - Cat Ballou
My Winner: Richard Burton - The Spy Who Cam in from the Cold
Rod Steiger
Oscar Werner
Lee Marvin
Laurence Olivier
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