80 Years of Oscar Losers I Love
by Jaden
One time I had a dream that I won an Oscar, but no one was in the audience.
That was probably a premonition; by the time I win an Oscar, I will be such an old bag, I won’t be able to see the audience.
Winning awards can be a bonus that makes your sales skyrocket, but that is not the ultimate prize. You win by enjoying life and loving what you do.
To see some of the best screenplay Oscar winners of all time, read Oscar’s Best Screenplay Awards by Molly Duke.
For suckers like me who love the losers, here are some of my favorites.
1933, She Done Him Wrong
With a title like She Done Him Wrong and starring the notorious brazen sexpot actress Mae West, the Best Picture loser from the 1934 Oscars has got to be good! Lady Lou is a singer / nightclub owner in New York whose ex-con lover has come back for his unfaithful lover. Mae West wrote the theatrical play Diamond Lil; Harvey F. Thew and John Bright adapted it for the screen.
1948, The Snake Pit
Psychoanalysis was a popular movie theme during the World War II era. To make sane people go crazy, they put them in a snake pit. It was believed that a snake pit could shock a crazy person into being sane.
Magnificently shot in black and white, The Snake Pit is about a woman in an insane asylum. Olivia de Havilland, the actress, is phenomenal; she was also in Gone with the Wind. Mary Jane Ward wrote the autobiographical best-selling novel that stirred up talk about treatment in mental institutions. Frank Partos and Millen Brand adapted the novel to screen.
England added a script to the beginning of the film that stated their institutions were not anything like those depicted in the film. Why so defensive England, hmmmm?
The biggest loser of the 1949 Oscars and by far the best film was The Snake Pit. Nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Screenplay, and Best Music, it lost in all categories. Having a bunch of crazy broads screaming, it won the Oscar for Best Sound.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet won Best Picture in 1949 — yawn. How many times can a 444-year old guy win the Oscars? Geeze. Give the little people a chance. On IMDB Shakespeare is listed as the writer on 696 projects. There is something to aspire to my fellow screenwriters.
1956, Flesh Merchant: The Wild and Wicked
Flesh Merchant is the kind of low budget film that would never see the golden glimmer of an Oscar, but that doesn’t mean it is not good. Two sisters go to Hollywood to be big movie stars, only to end up enslaved in a remote country club prostitution ring. For the retro cars, hairdos, fashions and lingo, this film is smokin’ hot, innocent and naughty. Jay M. Kude and Peter Perry Jr. wrote the screenplay.
1966, Seconds
Starring Rock Hudson, directed by the great John Frankenheimer, with lots of unforeseen twists, Seconds is a psychological thriller about the heavy costs of taking on a new identity. David Ely wrote the novel that Lewis John Carlino adapted to screen. Not nominated for its superb acting or clever screenplay, it was nominated for Best Cinematography and lost. Seconds is a stunning loser not to be missed.
1970, Myra Breckinridge
If you are a stoner or any kind of freak, you have to get the Myra Breckinridge DVD and watch the extra footage on this movie written by David Giler and Michael Sarne who adapted the novel by Gore Vidal. Basically, the filmmakers were so high, they were lost in a purple haze of flower-painted buses and rainbow snakes. Whatever they were tokin’ on, this film is out there! Its bizarre scenes are referenced in many other modern films. Raquel Welch (just the most beautiful woman ever!) stars as a man. Need I say more?
1983, Valley Girl
Epitomizing the 80s, Valley Girl is, like, a totally awesome script written by Wayne Crawford and Andrew Lane. Save yourself the pain of looking at their writing credits; I mean, where can you go from Valley Girl? Other titles for this movie that luckily didn’t stick were: Bad Boyz (gag me with a pitchfork), College Lovers (borrrrring), and Rebel Dreams (puuuhleeezzz).
The Valley Girl: Music From The Soundtrack
In more recent years, Valley Girl director Martha Coolidge directed episodes of Weeds, Sex and the City, CSI and Material Girls. Way to go woman!
The Directors’ Guild had a Valley Girl reunion, screened the film, and had a Q&A with the cast who were all holding up pretty good after 20 some-odd years, each with their own interesting life stories. Nicolas Cage was the only actor not present, hopefully due to a schedule conflict and not conceit.
Nick Cage, who plays a punk rocker, was my teenage heart-throb until a pigeon pooped Fire Birds on his head — a pro-army anti-drugs gawd-awful helicopter movie on the heels of the fighter plane hit Top Gun. Prior to that turd-bomb, Nick chose exciting unorthodox movies like: Wild at Heart, Moonstruck, Raising Arizona, Rumble Fish, and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Cage, love him as I do, left his radness in the 80s and went into the 90s trying to be the tough guy with The Rock, ConAir, Face Off, and Snake Eyes.
Cage — an action hero? Give it up already!
Quirky, funny, charming? Yes, Cage, yes! Awkward is sexy; don’t you know, Nick? Nerd is the new punk rocker. Think Napoleon Dynamite and the chair sex boy in Juno. Being a dork is cool. Adaptation is the only film I have loved from Cage in the last couple decades; Charlie Kaufman wrote it, so of course it’s a winner.
How did I get stuck in the 80s on a Nicolas Cage tangent? Shoot. Is my hair sprayed into a doughnut shape on my forehead? Are those purple leg-warmers over my Wrangler blue cords?
1992, Twin Peaks – Fire Walk with Me
Winning awards from everybody (Saturn, Brit, and Independent Spirit) except for the Academy of Motion Pictures, written by David Lynch, Robert Engels, and Mark Frost, Twin Peaks is one of David Lynch’s most famous psychedelic cult masterpieces. If you are the type of person who enjoys deciphering nightmares, you should get into David Lynch’s work. His characters are off the beaten path and yet more real to me than the bland stereotypes of common films. Lynch is the ultimate winner of losers. “Damn good coffee… And hot!”
2006, Borat – Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
This Oscar loser was nominated for Best Writing (Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Peter Baynham, Dan Mazer, and Todd Phillips). Was it just too funny? Too controversial? Tell me why comedy is not award winning? What is harder than getting people to laugh? Sacha Baron Cohen did not even get nominated for acting when he had to embody his character night and day for months, getting real people on the street to believe his performance, so much so that they played right into their lines of bigotry.
What losers do you love?
(And don’t say me.)
For more information or reviews on any of the mentioned movies, click on the colored title heading or go to IMDB.
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32 Responses to “80 Years of Oscar Losers I Love”
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fun post. I enjoyed reading that one. thank you.
This is probably one of your most fun article! Simply love it!
I LOVE Twin Peaks, Fire Walk With Me.
As for other losers, I still can’t believe that Shawshank Redemption didn’t get one and neither did Fight Club. I think I’m right with those two…but don’t hold me to that! :)
I just love the names of some of the 1930s movies that were made before the screen codes. I haven’t seen “She Done Him Wrong,” but I’ll have to now.
I would say the most notable Oscar “nonwinner” would be Alfred Hitchcock.. Six times! Just insert any of the six movies he was nominated for.
The greatest Oscar loser of all time, in my opinion, is George Lucas. I mean come on, he wrote Star Wars for crying out loud, and Woody Allen beat him out for best screenplay in 1977. Nothing against Woody Allen but that’s just plain wrong. Also, I love Twin Peaks, but I prefer the series to the movie. TP has a great soundtrack too, by the way.
Zoe, VintageGent, & Melissa -
Those are definitely shocking losers!
Fight Club is a fantastic movie, the kind you don’t forget that really stands out in your mind and was so well made and clever.
Hitchcock is the most amazing filmmaker of all time, so I could not even begin to put him in with great losers. He’s like the Shakespeare of movies. I just assumed he must have won tons of awards. I could dedicate a month to Hitchcock alone because I have a lot to say about him.
Star Wars? Yes, another shocking loser that has been proven by time as a major winner.
WHEN YOUR CONTEMPORARIES DON’T RECOGNIZE YOUR GREATNESS, TIME SURE WILL.
Thanks for your additions.
When I saw Nicolas Cage on the cover of Valley Girl, I laughed! Most of these movies I’ve never heard of except for Borat.
I too haven’t heard of some of these movies, since I’m not so much into the classics. Great post Jaden! I too was a Twin Peaks fanatic, but the TV series. I’m a newbie here to your site, you have a really informative site.
I would like to add my personal Oscar loser I loved, that didn’t win….Brokeback Mountain. I also personally felt that Into The Wild should have been nominated at this years Oscars for something–especially for Emile Hirsch’s acting.
Fun article. LOVE, love, love Valley Girl. One of my top 5 favs. And the Soundtrack. To die for. So few people I know are familiar with the movie. I am gald someone else recognizes it, too. :)
Jean, Jed & Jan – Thanks for visiting; appreciate it considering the great movie sites you all have twirling out there. (Lots of J’s between the 4 of us.)
Lisa – Boy, was I won over by Nick when he was puking in the gutter all love-lorn for his snobby bitch valley girl… “Juuuuulie!” It marked me so much that it became my life. How I love punk rock boys puking in the gutter! And I’ve had my days at the mall. Yikes.
I loved Valley Girls too. Like oh my god. lol
Living under a rock, I’ve never heard of most of these either. I can see why the 1956 Flesh Merchant wasn’t a go… they must have been shocked out of their seats at the title (for that era). Fun post!
Hey Jaden, thanks for visiting us as well. As you can tell, we too enjoy your site very much. Let me also finish by saying, “woo hoo for ” J ” power! LOL
On Hitchcock, agreed. He should have won many, many awards.
Zodiac should have been nominated for something. As a matter of fact, anything David Fincher has done should have been nominated and sadly nothing has been.
So many things that Jack Nicholson has been in should have been winners at the Best Picture depot. Films such as Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces and Chinatown are all enthralling movies.
Dr. Stranglove lost to My Fair Lady. That’s pretty pathetic.
Taxi Driver AND Network both lost to Rocky.
And let us not forget that Raging Bull, quite possibly the best movie to come out of the 80’s, was denied the golden statue so that Ordinary People could reign supreme in all its glory.
It appears the Academy should become a bit more existential in their judgement. I mean hell, they wouldn’t even give Ryan Gosling an Oscar.
But that’s just my opinion, I could be Dennis Miller.
SHANE aka DENNIS MILLER — Your comments are great and could not agree with you more! The big shocker you mention is Taxi Driver losing to Rocky! Is that possible? Laughing here.
I will admit, when I was a little kid, we used to sneak into the Rocky movies, my little friends and I, and we would fill up these pint size small town theaters, a bunch of hick kids, screaming our heads off and cheering like mad Roman gladiator fans. It was crazy. I will never forget Rocky V with that big hot Russian! Ivan Drago, aaaaaaaaaah. After seeing that, I was like, come on gov, the Russians can’t be that bad, look at that hunk! Point is, Rocky had some redeeming qualities… at least one anyway: Drago zee Russian!
All I can say about the Academy is that those old buggers better give me an award some day! Hmmf! I figure, I just have to write something super cheezy and vanilla. The by-the-book screenplays always win — the hero journey type stories. My stories will probably always be too twisted or campy to ever win.
Thanks for your great comment.
It totally boggles my mind how Hollywood choses who wins.
The 1964 Best Song was “Chim Chim Cherrie” from Mary Poppins.
Nothing from the Beatles’ a “Hard Day’s Night” was even nominated.
(WTF….?)
FRIAR — That is a funny observation. I have to admit, that Chim Chim Cherrie song was lolling off my lips for many years in my childhood. It sure was catchy. They need to bring that one back. I haven’t even thought about it in eons, much less heard it. Think i have that record somewhere. Didn’t Paul McCartney pick up a trophy for some less than fabulous song along the way to make up for it?
I did like Mary Poppins as a kid. But I’m a big Beatles fan so my opinion is a bit biased. 1964 was at the height of Beatlemania…their movie was immensely popular. Yet the Academy chose to ignore them.
Oh well.
The Beatles did get an an Oscar in 1970 for their “Let it Be” soundtrack.
PS. I really like your blog. You’re not out to Change the World. You just like to discuss movies and entertainment, which everyone can relate to. It’s light-hearted, fun, and entertaining. Keep up the good work.
FRIAR — Yes, certain great artists get snubbed. It happens a lot. “Let it Be” is a great song… I am thinking of something more recently.
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