Alternate Best Actor 1966: Results

5. Oskar Werner in Fahrenheit 451- Werner gives a fairly effective performance as a man who goes to a cog in the machine to a free thinker but the power of his work is somewhat muted when the director basically takes over for him at the end of the film.

Best Scene: Montag confronts his wife and her friends.

4. David Hemmings in Blow-Up- Hemmings gives a good performance as a photographer in a haze who is forced to drift out of it when he discovers something unusual in a photograph.

Best Scene: Thomas tries to tell his agent about the murder. 

3. James Mason in The Deadly Affair- James Mason gives a great and surprisingly emotionally charged performance as a government agent who lives through too many double crosses in both his professional and private life.

Best Scene: Dobbs figures out who his wife's most current affair is with.

2. Tatsuya Nakadai in The Sword of Doom- See Wallach's summary.

Best Scene: Ryunosuke "confronts" his past.

1. Eli Wallach in The Good, The Bad and the Ugly- Good Prediction Psifonian. Well this was not an easy choice to make as this year came down to Eli Wallach's and Tatsuya Nakadai's performances for me. Both are brilliant very physical performances that both excel in leading films even though they technically play reprehensible characters, in Nakadai's case extremely reprehensible. They are both outstanding in very different ways with Wallach giving a hilarious and very entertaining performance, and Nakdai is absolutely magnetic while being uncompromising in his depiction of the evil nature of his character. To try to decide between the two I re-watched my favorite scenes of each of their performances well that did not help either only reassuring the fact that I love both of their performances. I have to choose one though therefore I choose Wallach... I guess for the moment right now at this second.

Best Scene: Tuco meets with his brother.

Overall Rank:

1. Eli Wallach in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
2. Tatsuya Nakadai in The Sword of Doom
3. Richard Burton in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
4. Michael Caine in Alfie
5. Paul Scofield in A Man For All Seasons
6. James Mason in The Deadly Affair
7. Clint Eastwood in The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
8. Tatsuya Nakadai in The Face of Another
9. Peter O'Toole in How To Steal a Million
10. David Hemmings in Blow-Up
11. Lee Marvin in The Professionals
12. Burt Lancaster in The Professionals
13. Adam West in Batman
14. Jack Lemmon in The Fortune Cookie
15. Jean-Louis Trintignant in A Man and a Woman
16. Oskar Werner in Fahrenheit 451 
17. Steve McQueen in The Sand Pebbles
18. Alan Arkin in The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming
19. Charlton Heston in Khartoum
20. Zero Mostel in A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum
21. Franco Nero in Django
22. Carl Reiner in The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming

Next Year: 1966 Supporting

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Alternate Best Actor 1966: David Hemmings in Blow-Up

David Hemmings did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Thomas in Blow-Up.

Blow-Up is an interesting time capsule of sorts about a photographer in London who finds something strange in a few random photographs he has taken in a secluded park.

The photographer Thomas as played by David Hemmings is a bit of a constant for about 2/3rds of the film. The constant that he is is vividly portrayed by Hemmings as a hot shot photographer. Thomas is an insufferable sort of person and Hemmings is very good at being the insufferable sort. Hemmings has the right assured quiet pompousness whenever Thomas does much of anything as he is a man who is a popular photographer who gets pretty much anything he wants and he knows it. Hemmings has the air of self entitlement down well in that Thomas's self indulgent behavior is just very much how he deals with things in a day to day life. Hemmings though thankfully doesn't overplay this in Thomas making him very believable character at all times.

Another factor is made a constant in Thomas other then his confidence though which is a certain dissatisfaction and aloofness he feels toward his life. Hemmings is very good in playing it as something that has just become part of Thomas and even though he seems to be on top of the world he doesn't really find all that much in it. Again Hemmings doesn't overplay this but makes it an intricate part of Thomas's personality. When there is something he does that he does take some joy in it Hemmings still portrays it with still just certain unpleasantness making even the pleasures he does have only fleeting ones which Thomas knows will be gone soon enough. Hemmings does well in keeping Thomas in this state as he goes through his life although something does change when he discovers an unusual photograph.

Thomas discovers he has taken a photograph of an apparent murder and Thomas is knocked out of his funk as he tries to figure out what exactly is going on. Hemmings is very good as loses that consistency and Thomas finally seems to care about something more than just what little pleasure he might be able to gain. The film doesn't really have a scene to let Thomas really release his feelings out about what he has found because we just stay with him as he goes forward in an attempted investigation. Within the investigation Hemmings is very good as he shows that Thomas finally seems to honestly feel something different something he becomes invested in. These scenes are very effective because Hemmings portrayal of the breaking of Thomas's haze is absolutely earned as Hemmings shows the murder isn't something that Thomas can't simply overlook.

The ending of this film does not end like a murder mystery therefore we really don't get Hemmings to have a final statement on Thomas's character instead he is merely left confused and almost just as he was before when it appears the murder has completely been covered up despite Thomas's best efforts to find something. Hemmings is good in his last scene as even though Thomas is back in a haze Hemmings carefully notes in his performance that Thomas is not exactly as he was before as in this new haze he has lost the confidence and self-assurance he had in the beginning of the film. This is a solid performance by David Hemmings although it doesn't quite stand out as a great performance in that Hemmings's work never breaks out standing entirely on its own. It is a performance that works within his film quite well acting as an unusual guide through a rather unusual life.

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Alternate Best Actor 1966

And the Nominees Were Not:

James Mason in The Deadly Affair

Eli Wallach in The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Tatsuya Nakadai in The Sword of Doom

David Hemmings in Blow-Up

Oskar Werner in Fahrenheit 451

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