ICYMI: the four films nominated for Best Actor Oscars in 1958 were The Old Man and the Sea, Separate Tables, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and The Defiant Ones (which received nominations for both Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis). The links provide the trivia write-ups on those films while this post discusses what else was happening in the movies that year.
1958 Best Picture winner: Gigi. Directed by Vincente Minnelli, Gigi is based on a novella by Colette about a young girl (Gigi, played by Leslie Caron) being groomed to be a courtesan. Playboy Gaston (Louis Jourdan) develops a friendship with Gigi while she is still a child and they end up getting married and it’s totally normal for that to happen don’t even worry about it and also it wasn’t weird when Jerry Lee Lewis and Woody Allen and President Grover Cleveland did it why would you even bring that up.
Gigi is a musical; one of its best-known songs is (sigh) “Thank Heaven for Little Girls,” sung in the movie by Maurice Chevalier. The screenplay and songwriting came from Lerner and Loewe, a duo also known for the stage musicals “Brigadoon,” “My Fair Lady” and “Camelot.” We’ll cover Leslie Caron, the lead, in her 1961 film Fanny. Don’t confuse Gigi with Gigli (2003), because, somehow, Gigli is even worse.
Highest grossing film: South Pacific, a film adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical (itself based on a James Michener short story). Like Gigi, South Pacific is about a young woman falling in love with an older man, but at least this one can consent. The lead character is nurse Nellie Forbush; in the film, she’s played by Mitzi Gaynor, though the role was originated by Mary Martin. Some popular songs: “Bali Ha’i” (also the name of a mystical island in the play; the song is sung by the character Bloody Mary), “Some Enchanted Evening,” and “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair.”
Best Actress Oscar race: we caught two of the nominees, Liz Taylor and Deborah Kerr, in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Separate Tables, respectively. The other three:
Susan Hayward in I Want to Live! (the winner). That true-ish story is about Barbara Graham, a prostitute convicted of murder who was executed in California.
Shirley MacLaine in Some Came Running. That film, like From Here to Eternity, was based on a downer James Jones novel. Frank Sinatra got the lead and his buddy Dean Martin co-starred; it was their first film together.
Rosalind Russell as the titular Auntie Mame, an eccentric and vivacious woman who raises her nephew after his father’s death. A musical version from Lawrence and Lee, “Mame,” was adapted into a 1974 film with Lucille Ball. Besides Auntie Mame, Russell is known for the screwball comedy His Girl Friday (1940).
Relitigating the Best Actor race: David Niven took home the prize, but I’d put him squarely behind both Paul Newman and my #1, Spencer Tracy. Curtis and Poitier are great actors but the wooden dialogue of The Defiant Ones lets them both down.
Quick Hits
Ah, another classic musical: Damn Yankees, this one by the pairing of Adler and Ross. (Adler and Ross also did “The Pajama Game,” but they didn’t become a legendary pairing because Ross died at age 29.) A dejected baseball fan makes a deal with the devil to become a bopper for the Washington Senators to defeat the Yankees. Meanwhile, the devil enlists Lola (Gwen Verdon) to make sure the fan loses his soul. Honestly, we need more heroes willing to sell their souls to keep the Yankees bad.
More classic films from classic directors: Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil and Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Oof, Vertigo—we couldn’t spare a nomination for Jimmy Stewart? Kim Novak’s career-defining performance went unnoticed? Well, sometimes we need time to appreciate a film. Like Tenet (2020).
Three horror movies: The Fly, The Blob, and The Sheepman. Oh wait—The Sheepman is a Western, not some schlock about a terrifying half-man, half-sheep hybrid? Ah, okay.
A Night to Remember: a film adaptation of Walter Lord’s nonfiction work about the Titanic. It made two billion fewer dollars than Titanic (1997).
Houseboat: a Cary Grant - Sophia Loren vehicle (the movie, not the boat) about fictional detective Travis McGee. McGee, created by author John D. MacDonald, is a detective famous for, uh, living on a houseboat.
Trivia Questions
The quiz below serves as a refresher for some of the material covered in the four posts on 1958 films. The answers can be found in the footnotes.
This is the Brontë sister that wrote “Wuthering Heights.”1
Rita Hayworth starred in both Gilda (1946) and The Lady from Shanghai (1947) alongside this male star.2
Rita Hayworth married Prince Aly Khan. His father, the 48th Imam of the Ismaili sect of Islam, had what religious honorific?3
This Prussian general and military theorist wrote the treatise “On War” and coined the term “fog of war.”4
This Hemingway novel is about a love triangle between Jake Barnes, Lady Brett Ashley, and Robert Cohn.5
In a Hemingway story, this title character’s “Short Happy Life” is over when he’s shot by his wife during a safari.6
This longtime manager of the Philadelphia Athletics holds the record for most career wins—and losses—as a manager.7
Rigel and Betelgeuse are two of the brightest stars in this constellation.8
This longtime wife of Paul Newman won a Best Actress Oscar for The Three Faces of Eve.9
He originated the role of Big Daddy on Broadway and reprised the role in a 1958 film.10
This disease, also called “German measles,” gets its name comes from the Latin for “little red.”11
Two symptoms of this infant ailment also called laryngotracheobronchitis are stridor (a harsh sound made when breathing) and a barking, seal-like cough.12
Tony Curtis starred with her, his wife at the time, in Houdini (1953).13
This wide-brimmed, cream-colored hat is made from the straw of the jipijapa plant.14
The 1894 novel “Trilby” is remembered for this character who hypnotizes and controls the title singer.15
From the Latin for “porridge,” it’s a soft, warm mass placed on an aching or injured body part.16
On to 1959!
Emily. Oh, and do you want a mnemonic for remembering which Brontë did which novel? “Wuthering Heights”: take that W and turn it sideways, boom, E, Emily Brontë. “Jane Eyre”: turn that J sideways and boom, C, Charlotte Brontë. “Agnes Grey” and “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall”: no one ever talks about those, so Anne Brontë. “Shirley” and “Villette”? ……you’re on your own.
Glenn Ford.
Aga Khan.
Carl von Clausewitz.
“The Sun Also Rises.”
Francis Macomber.
Connie Mack.
Orion.
Joanne Woodward. (She was in The Long, Hot Summer with Paul Newman in 1958.)
Burl Ives. (In addition to this role, Ives won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Western The Big Country in 1958.)
Rubella.
Croup.
Janet Leigh.
Panama hat.
Svengali.
Poultice.