Awards presented April 8, 1963
The nominees were ...
... when they should have been ...
And the Oscar went to ...
Lawrence of Arabia. It has powerful admirers, including Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, who oversaw the restoration of the film for DVD release in 2000. Further restoration work was done for the Blu-ray edition and theatrical re-release in 2012. All of which was necessary because the film had stumbled at the box office on its initial release and had been trimmed by as much as half an hour on subsequent releases. Movies are cut for a variety of reasons, but one of them may be that
Lawrence of Arabia, despite a charismatic performance by Peter O'Toole, and Oscar-winning photography by Freddie Young and music by Maurice Jarre, is a bit of a chore to sit through. Spectacle tends to overwhelm story.
... when it should have gone to ...
Creepy, loopy, and sometimes very funny thriller about a fiendish right-wing political assassination plot. It was released during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a coincidence which seemed to heighten the atmosphere of political paranoia in the film. But unfortunately the assassination of John F. Kennedy a year later drew a different kind of attention to the film, and it was pulled from circulation, not to reappear until 1987. Time and political circumstance have only added to the film's potency, and the phrase "Manchurian candidate" -- coined by novelist Richard Condon for the book on which the screenplay by George Axelrod is based -- has become an epithet for any politician who seems to be controlled by sinister forces. Directed by John Frankenheimer, the fine cast includes Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, and James Gregory. Angela Lansbury, playing one of the movies' most memorable villains, drew the most attention, and a supporting actress nomination.
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