Elia Kazan’s compelling film about union racketeering on the New Jersey docks, On the Waterfront won everything in sight in late 1954, early 1955, including eight of the twelve Oscars it was nominated for.

The film’s soiled reputation as an apologia for Kazan and screenwriter Budd Schulberg’s informing at the 1952 HUAC hearings did not kick in until years later. At least Kazan and Schulberg didn’t stoop to substituting red-baiters for the gangsters as suggested by Columbia head Sam Cohn. Taken on its own merits, the film is an exciting, if somewhat incredulous tale of a young hooligan (Marlon Brando) who reforms for the love of a good woman (Eva Marie Saint), the sister of a man he had killed.

The acting by Brando, Saint, Lee J. Cobb as the mob boss, Karl Malden as the waterfront priest and Rod Steiger as Brando’s mob connected brother is quite intense. It’s small wonder they were all nominated, with Brando and Saint winning. The real star of the film, though, is Boris Kaufman’s stunning black-and-white cinematography which also won in its category.

Much admired at the time despite an unnecessary inserted romance between co-stars Robert Francis and May Wynn, Edward Dmytyrk’s film of the Broadway smash hit, The Caine Mutiny hasn’t quite held its reputation mainly due to those sequences, but at its core remains an absorbing character study of madness.

Humphrey Bogart, in one of his best roles, is the mad Captain Queeg whose loose grip on reality is pushed beyond the breaking point by his senior officers, Van Johnson and Fred MacMurray. Jose Ferrer also gives a fine account of himself as the attorney defending the officers in their court-martial, but its’ Bogart whose performance you will never forget.

Nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Director and Actor (Bogart), The Caine Mutiny went home empty-handed.

Yet a third film whose reputation has somewhat diminished over the years, George Seaton’s film of another Broadway smash hit, The Country Girl featured brilliant star turns by Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and William Holden. Crosby was nominated for his portrayal of the alcoholic actor attempting to make a comeback with the help of director Holden, and Kelly won for her portrayal of Crosby’s gruff, dowdy, misunderstood wife.

Kelly’s performance was widely hailed at the time and she won all the year’s acting honors, though it has long been the fashion to ridicule the performance as nothing more than a pretty girl camouflaging herself behind glasses and an old sweater. The performance is much more than that with Kelly displaying reservoirs of feeling one cannot find in any of her other performances, but it’s difficult to convince anyone of that who thinks Judy Garland (A Star Is Born) was robbed. In hindsight had the voters known that Kelly would soon become the Princess of Monaco and live a storied life of even more privilege while Garland would go on to a series of career ups and downs and several more broken marriages, the outcome may have been different. Personally I think Garland’s performance is the slightly better one, but that in no way takes away from my admiration of Kelly’s work, which is certainly of award caliber.

Seaton’s screenplay accounted for The Country Girl’s second Oscar out of the seven it was nominated for.

A huge hit in its day, and still capable of charming new generations, Stanley Donen’s Seven Brides for Seven Brothers brings a smile to the lips just thinking about it. The story when you think about it, though, makes little sense – the six brothers of a newly happily married rancher kidnap six women from the local town and cause an avalanche to keep their families from recapturing them through the winter. When the locals finally arrive and hear a baby cry, all the women claim the baby is theirs and there is an immediate shotgun wedding for all six.

The film was nominated for five Oscars and won one for its score, which features some lovely songs put over with verve and style by Jane Powell, Howard Keel and others. Michael Kidd’s choreography, particularly in the barn raising sequence, is outstanding.

These four films were worthy nominees, but why in the world would they nominate Three Coins in the Fountain over Rear Window and A Star Is Born?

One can understand that Jean Negulesco’s trite tale of three women looking for love in Rome was a huge box office success, propelled by the hit title song and the public’s desire to see films made on location after decades of studio sets, but a Best Picture nomination? The film’s other two nominations, for Color Cinematography and Song, both of which it won, are certainly more understandable.

The story of Three Coins in the Fountain, such as it is, features Dorothy McGuire, Jean Peters and Maggie McNamara as the women and Clifton Webb, Rossano Brazzi and Louis Jourdan as the men in their lives.

Nominated for four Oscars including Best Director, Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window retains its reputation as one of the suspense master’s greatest films. James Stewart as the wheelchair bound voyeur, Grace Kelly as his elegant girlfriend and Thelma Ritter as his wise-cracking nurse are at the top of their game. Why Stewart and especially Ritter weren’t nominated for their performances remains one of Oscar’s greatest mysteries.

George Cukor directed 1932’s What Price Hollywood? with Constance Bennett and Lowell Sherman about a rising star whose director husband’s career is in decline. Oscar nominated for its screenplay, William A. Wellman’s 1937 film, A Star Is Born covered the same territory. That film was nominated for seven Oscars including Best Picture, Actor (Fredric March), Actress (Janet Gayor) and Director (Wellman), winning for its “original” screenplay. The film was also given an honorary Oscar for its color cinematography.

In Cukor’s 1954 remake, Judy Garland is the actress whose career is in the ascendant and James Mason, now an actor instead of a director, is the star whose career in decline.

Both Garland and Mason are terrific, with Garland’s singing at its peak. The film was nominated for six Oscars including Best Actor and Actress, and Best Song, the iconic “The Man That Got Away”, but won none.

Nominated for six Oscars, including Best Actress (Audrey Hepburn) and Best Director (Billy Wilder), the romantic comedy Sabrina won only for Black-and-White Costume Design.

Hepburn’s follow-up to her Oscar winning Roman Holiday of the previous year, Sabrina featured Hepburn as a chauffer’s daughter wooed by brothers Humphrey Bogart and William Holden. Never mind that Hepburn at her most glamorous doesn’t look anything like a chauffer’s daughter and Bogart and Holden don’t resemble each other in the least, the film was a huge hit.

Holden, the previous year’s Best Actor winner, was in a third major Oscar contender this year. Nominated for four Oscars, Robert Wise’s Executive Suite is an exciting film about a seemingly unexciting subject, the selection of a new company president after its CEO dies suddenly. It failed to win anything but is nevertheless remembered for its great ensemble cast that in addition to Holden included June Allyson, Fredric March, Barbara Stanwyck, Walter Pidgeon, Dean Jagger, Paul Douglas, Louis Calhern, Shelley Winters and Best Supporting Actress nominee Nina Foch.

Bogart also had a third film that figured in the Oscar race this year, Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s The Barefoot Contessa, in which he played a has-been director who gets a new lease on life when he promotes the career of a dancer turned actress played by Ava Gardner. The film was nominated for Mankiewicz’s screenplay and Edmond O’Brien portrayal of a fast-talking press agent, which won. It’s all talk, talk, talk and not very interesting. O’Brien’s Oscar can only be explained by the presumed split in the vote between the three nominees form On the Waterfront. The firth nominee, Tom Tully, is hardly even in The Caine Mutiny, for which he was nominated, appearing briefly at the beginning and even more briefly at the end.

Time hasn’t been all that kind to William A. Wellman’s The High and the Mighty, kept out of the public eye for decades by the John Wayne estate, it was finally released to home video after the death of Wayne’s eldest son. Wayne is fine as the pilot of a plane in trouble, as is Robert Stack as his co-pilot, but the outcome is never in question, making it less suspenseful than it originally seemed. The best performances are those of Laraine Day, Jan Sterling and Claire Trevor as passengers, the latter two accounting for two of the film’s six nominations. It won for Dimitri Tiomkin’s score.

Douglas Sirk’s remake of Magnificent Obession was a huge success at the box-office, propelling Rock Hudson to major stardom and Jane Wyman to her fourth Oscar nomination as the woman Hudson accidentally blinds. Its reputation has increased with that of its director who was generally taken for granted at the time. Sirk’s visual styling is in evidence throughout the film which is even better than John M. Stahl’s 1935 original with Irene Dunne and Robert Taylor. That film did the same thing for Taylor’s career that the remake did for Hudson’s.

One of the most bizarre films of all time, no one can quite explain Nicholas Ray’s Johnny Guitar, but once seen, no one can forget it either. Joan Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge are the gunslingers in this, with the title character played by Sterling Hayden the object of lust the women fight over. The use of the color red highlights the feverish pitch of the film throughout. It wasn’t nominated for any Oscars but is one of the year’s films most highly regarded today.

Other 1954 films of note include Richard Flesicher’s film of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea with Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Paul Lukas and Peter Lorre (three nominations, two wins); Walter Lang’s film of Irving Berlin’s There’s No Business Like Show Business with Ethel Merman, Dan Dailey, Donald O’Connor, Marilyn Monroe, Johnnie Ray and Mitzi Gaynor (three nominations, no wins); Michael Curtiz’s film of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen (one nomination, no win); Anthony Mann’s The Glenn Miller Story with James Stewart and June Allyson (three nominations, one win) and Edward Dmytyk’s Broken Lance with Spencer Tracy, Richard Widmark, Robert Wagner, Jean Peters and Katy Jurado (two nominations, one win).

All films discussed have been released on DVD in the U.S. except What Price Hollywood? and Johnny Guitar.

New to DVD this week are Solitary Man with Michael Douglas and That Evening Sun with Hal Holbrook.