27th Academy Awards

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27th Academy Awards
Date 30 March 1955
Site RKO Pantages Theatre (Hollywood)
NBC Century Theater (New York City)
Host Bob Hope (Hollywood)
Thelma Ritter (New York City)
TV in the United States
Network NBC

The 27th Academy Awards honored the best films produced in 1954. The Best Picture winner, On the Waterfront, was produced by Sam Spiegel and directed by Elia Kazan. It was a semi-documentary, expose, and thriller film. It had twelve nominations and eight wins, matched two other films, Gone with the Wind (1939) and From Here to Eternity (1953), with eight wins, even though those two films each had thirteen nominations.

The low-budget, black and white On the Waterfront was filmed entirely on location in Hoboken and told the gritty story of New York dock workers, brutality, corruption, and embroilment with a gangster union boss. It provided an expose of union racketeering while showcasing the murder of an innocent longshoreman. Kazan and screenwriter Budd Schulberg justified their own naming of names (blacklisting-testimony against alleged Communists) as friendly witnesses before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the early 50s with the film's story of an heroic longshoreman informant Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) who stood alone and turned witness against the corrupt and intimidating union bosses and became a marked 'pigeon'. The film marked a comeback for Brando, who hadn't won a Best Actor award.

Contents

[edit] Winners

Category Winner Producers/Country/Films
Best motion picture of the year On the Waterfront Sam Spiegel
Best documentary feature The Vanishing Prairie Walt Disney
Best Short Subject (Cartoon) of the year When Magoo Flew Stephen Bosustow
Best foreign language film Gate of Hell Flag of Japan Japan
Achievement in directing Elia Kazan On the Waterfront
Best actor in a leading role Marlon Brando On the Waterfront
Best actress in a leading role Grace Kelly The Country Girl
Best actor in a supporting role Edmond O'Brien The Barefoot Contessa
Best actress in a supporting role Eva Marie Saint On the Waterfront
Original screenplay Budd Schulberg On the Waterfront
Adapted screenplay George Seaton The Country Girl
Best Motion Picture Story Philip Yordan Broken Lance

Note: The award for Best Foreign Language Film was presented as an honorary one rather than in a category.

[edit] Honorary Oscars

To compensate for the fact that screen legend Greta Garbo had never received a competitive Best Actress Oscar, she was belatedly presented with a special Honorary statue "for her unforgettable screen performances" - thirteen years after her retirement from her last film, Two-Faced Woman (1941). Garbo had four career nominations for exceptional definitive roles including Anna Christie (1929-30) and Romance (1929-30), Camille (1936) and Ninotchka (1939).

Another Honorary Award was presented to Danny Kaye, for "his unique talents, his service to the Academy, the motion picture industry, and the American people." He never even received a nomination throughout his entire film career, that was marked by such great films as Wonder Man (1945), The Kid From Brooklyn (1946), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), Hans Christian Andersen (1952), Knock on Wood (1954), and The Court Jester (1956).

[edit] Presenters

[edit] Performers