Oscar Revisionism: 1959

For 1959, biblical epic Ben-Hur would take home most of the Oscars.  Also nominated was the historic drama The Diary of Anne Frank starring Millie Perkins and sexually-charged British new wave Room at the Top, both of which did well with the Academy.  Audrey Hepburn drove the mid 20-century European war story about an independent lady who becomes a woman of the cloth and then a nurse in The Nun's Story.  And rounding out the five was Otto Preminger's critically and commercially well-received courtroom mystery Anatomy of a Murder.  But, what if the Best Picture field had been expanded to ten nominees?  What would have made it in?

Billy Wilder's famous screwball comedy Some Like It Hot starred Marilyn Monroe, as well as Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in drag. Made on a budget of $2.9M, it grossed $25M.  Lemmon received a lead nod, as well as Wilder for directing and writing.  It got nominated for cinematography and art direction, and won for those costumes that made everyone concerned look so hot.  It also took the Comedy Golden Globe over Pillow Talk and Operation Petticoat.  NBR, DGA, GG winner, WGA (Comedy) winner.  [IMDb 8.4; RT 98%]

Pillow Talk was the first of three films starring Rock Hudson, Doris Day, and Tony Randall.  Winner of Original Screenplay, Day and Thelma Ritter received acting nods; art direction and score were singled out as well.  The rom-com made a whopping $18.8M.  Would the AMPAS have made room with Some Like It Hot already in the mix?  WGA (Comedy).  [IMDb 7.3; RT 92%]

One of Alfred Hitchcock's classics, North by Northwest starred Cary Grant in the caper thriller that had him dodging biplanes in farm fields and getting chased on top of Mt. Rushmore.  Made on a budget of $3.1M, the film was a huge hit with $13.3M, and got nods for Original Screenplay, Film Editing, and Art Direction.  NBR, DGA, WGA (Comedy).  [IMDb 8.6; RT 100%]

Powerhouses Katharine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor both scored Best Actress nominations for their battle of wills over a family member's mysterious death (it was also nominated for Art Direction).  Joseph Makiewicz's melodramatic Suddenly, Last Summer, based on Gore Vidal's adaptation of Tennessee William's play, was made on a $3M budget, grossing $6.4M at the box-office.  Some of the harshest responses came from the talent involved, many of whom either distanced themselves from the project and/or expressed frustrations with how poorly the unmanageable Montgomery Clift was treated.  Rumor has it that after her final scene was filmed, Hepburn not only spit in the director's face, but also the producer's.  Oh, Sebastian!  NBR.  [IMDb 7.6; 69%]

Nominated for Film Editing and Score, On the Beach, starred Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, and Fred Astaire as survivors in Stanley Kramer's version of a post-apocalyptic world.  It also got nominated for Director and the Drama Golden Globe along with four other films that would go on to Best Picture.  NBR, GG (Drama).  [IMDb 7.3; RT 74%]

Nominated for three technical categories (for Black & White), blacklist drama Career starred Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine, grossing $3M.  [IMDb 6.8]

The Young Philadelphians is romance drama between two people on the opposite sides of the tracks.  Paul Newman starred as the bastard child who aspires to be an attorney. The film grossed $2.8M and got nominated for an acting category, cinematography, and costume design.  [IMDb 7.1]

Made on a budge of $7M, Otto Preminger adaptation of George Gershwin's musical Porgy and Bess depicts romance between two of society's throwaways in a small fishing community.  Nominated for four Oscars, naturally, it won for Musical score.  It won the Musical Golden Globe over The Five Pennies and Li'l Abner, but lost the WGA.  [IMDb 7.1; RT 83%]

Douglas Sirk melodrama Imitation of Life starring Lana Turner dealt with dreams, race relations and picked up two supporting acting nominations.  Made on a budget of $2M, it grossed $6.4M.  However, many critics at the time wrote it off as a soap opera.  DGA.  [IMDb 7.7; RT 83%]

Based on the bestselling Gerald Green novel, Daniel Mann directed The Last Angry Man which followed a television producer who catalogs the life of a physician.  It was nominated for Best Actor and (the more competitive of the two) Art Direction, grossing $1.7M.  [IMDb 6.8]

The Big Fisherman details the life of Peter, one of Jesus Christ's disciples, grossing $3M.  Nominated
for Art Direction, Cinematography, and Costume Design.  [IMDb 6.4]

Blake Edwards military comedy Operation Petticoat, nominated for Original Screenplay, starred Cary Grant and Tony Curtis and grossed $9.5M in North America.  WGA (Comedy).  [IMDb 7.2; RT 82%]

One of the penultimate representations of the French New Wave movement, France's François Truffaut's The 400 Blows detailed troubled youth and was nominated for Original Screenplay.  [IMDb 8.1; RT 100%]

Enroute to collect an award, a physician looks upon his past in Sweden's Ingmar Bergmann's Wild Strawberries, nominated for Original Screenplay.  [IMDb 8.3; RT 94%]

The Five Pennies was a musical starring Danny Kaye as a coronet player and grossed $3M.  WGA (Musical) winner.  [IMDb 7.0]

Libel was a British drama about a POW who begins to suspect that someone is impersonating his former inmate to take advantage of the man's lush lifestyle.  [IMDb 6.8]

The romance drama The Best of Everything has editor Amanda Farrow played by Joan Crawford who presides over three bat-shit crazy women who are unlucky in love.  [IMDb 6.5]

Journey to the Center of the Earth Budget. $3.4M; Box Office: $5M [IMDb 7.0; RT 81%]

Also Nominated for an Oscar:
The Gazebo.  Budget: $1.2M; Box Office: $3.3M [IMDb 6.9]
The Hanging Tree.  Box Office: $2.2M [IMDb 7.2]
The Young Land.  [IMDb 5.5]
Li'l Abner.  Box Office: $3.2M [IMDb 6.6]
Say One For Me.  Box Office: $3.9M [IMDb 5.6]

UnOscared DGA Shortlisters:
Rio Bravo.  DGA.  Box Office: $5.2M [IMDb 8.0, 100% RT]
Compulsion.  WGA (Drama).  Budget: $1.4M; Box Office: $1.8 [IMDb 7.4, 100%]
The Horse Soldiers.  Box Office: $4M [IMDb 7.0, 100%]
The Shaggy Dog.  Box Office: $8.1M [IMDb 6.3, 67%]
A Hole in the Head. Box Office: $5.2M [IMDb 6.1, 67%]
Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! Budget: $1.8M; Box Office: $3.4M [IMDb 5.9, 25%]

UnOscared NBR Shortlisters:
Middle of the Night.  Box Office: $1.5M [IMDb 7.1]
The Man Who Understood Women.  Budget: $1.8M [IMDb 4.8]