1956 — Year in Review
Fritz Golden Superlatives
Bigger Than Life (dir: Nicolas Ray)
Tea and Sympathy (dir: Vincente Minnelli)
Crazed Fruit (dir: Kô Nakahira)
Seven Samurai (dir: Akira Kurosawa; US Release Date)
Written on the Wind (dir: Douglas Sirk)
La Strada (dir: Federico Fellini; US Release Date)
The Killing (dir: Stanley Kubrick)
Lola Montes (dir: Max Ophuls; International Date of Two Versions)
The Court Jester (dir: Melvin Frank and Norman Panama)
Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order): ...And God Created Woman (dir: Roger Vadim), Attack! (dir: Robert Aldrich), Baby Doll (dir: Elia Kazan), Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (dir: Fritz Lang), Bob le Flambeur (dir: Jean-Pierre Melville), Early Spring (dir: Yasujiro Ozu), Giant (dir: George Stevens), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (dir: Don Siegel), Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island (dir: Hiroshi Inagaki), The Searchers (dir: John Ford), Seven Men from Now (dir: Budd Boetticher)While the City Sleeps (dir: Fritz Lang) and The Wrong Man (dir: Alfred Hitchcock)
James Mason, Christopher Olsen and Barbara Rush in Nicolas Ray's Bigger Than Life
Best Picture: Bigger Than Life
Director: Nicholas Ray Producer: James Mason
US Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Nicholas Ray in the 1950s
Best Director:
Nicholas Ray, Bigger Than Life
2. Douglas Sirk, Written on the Wind
3. Akira Kurosawa, Seven Samurai
4. Frank Tashlin, The Girl Can’t Help It
5. Kô Nakahira, Crazed Fruit
Danny Kaye (center) with Mildred Natwick (left) and Glynis Johns (right)
Best Actor:
Danny Kaye, The Court Jester
2. James Mason, Bigger Than Life
3. Eli Wallach, Baby Doll
4. Toshiro Mifune, Seven Samurai
5. John Wayne, The Searchers
Deborah Kerr and John Kerr in Vincente Minnelli’s Tea and Sympathy
Best Actress:
Deborah Kerr, Tea and Sympathy
2. Carroll Baker, Baby Doll
3. Giulietta Masina, La Strada
4. Elizabeth Taylor, Giant
5. Marilyn Monroe, Bus Stop
Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone in Douglas Sirk’s Written on the Wind
Best Supporting Actor:
Robert Stack, Written on the Wind
2. James Dean, Giant
3. Elisha Cook Jr., The Killing
4. Anthony Quinn, La Strada
5. Darryl Hickman, Tea and Sympathy
Dorothy Malone in Douglas Sirk’s Written on the Wind
Best Supporting Actress:
Dorothy Malone, Written on the Wind
2. Marie Windsor, The Killing
3. Patty McCormack, The Bad Seed
4. Eileen Heckart, The Bad Seed
5. Mercedes McCambridge, Giant
Glynnis Johns and Danny Kaye in Melvin Frank and Norman Panama‘s Court Jester
Best Original Screenplay:
The Court Jester — Melvin Frank and Norman Panama
2. Seven Samurai — Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, and Hideo Oguni
3. Crazed Fruit — Shintaro Ishihara
4. The Girl Can't Help It — Frank Tashlin and Herbert Baker
5. Bob le Flambuer — Jean-Pierre Melville and Auguste Le Bretton
Best Adapted Screenplay:
Tea and Sympathy — Robert Anderson
2. Giant — Fred Guiol and Ivan Moffat
3. Bigger Than Life — Cyril Hume and Richard Maibaum
4. The Killing — Stanley Kubrick and Jim Thompson
5. Invasion of the Body Snatchers — Daniel Mainwaring
John Wayne in John Ford’s The Searchers
Best Cinematography:
The Searchers — Winton C. Hoch
2. Written on the Wind — Russell Metty
3. Bigger Than Life — Joe MacDonald
4. Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island — Kazuo Yamada
5. Tea and Sympathy — John Alton
Elisha Cook, Jr in Stanley Kubrick’s Killing
Best Film Editing:
The Killing — Betty Steinberg
2. Written on the Wind — Russell F. Schoengarth
3. Bigger Than Life — Louis Loeffler
4. Seven Samurai — Akira Kurosawa
5. Crazed Fruit — Masanori Tsujii
Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean in George Stevens’ Giant
Best Original Score:
Giant — Dimitri Tiomkin
2. Written on the Wind — Frank Skinner
3. The Bad Seed — Alex North
4. Around the World in 80 Days – Victor Young
5. The Ten Commandments — Elmer Bernstein
Martine Carol in Max Öphuls’ Lola Montes
Best Production Design:
Lola Montes — Jean d'Eaubonne and Robert Christides
2. Giant — Boris Leven and Ralph Hurst
3. Seven Samurai – Takashi Matsuyama and Sô Matsuyama
4. The King & I — John De Cuir, Lyle Wheeler, Paul S. Fox, Walter M. Scott
5. Baby Doll – Richard Sylbert and Gene Callahan
Martine Carol and Peter Ustinov in Max Öphuls’ Lola Montes
Best Costume Design:
Lola Montes — Georges Annekov
2. The King & I — Irene Sharoff
3. Seven Samurai — Kôhei Ezaki and Mieko Yamaguchi
4. The Girl Can’t Help It — Charles Le Maire
5. The Court Jester — Edith Head and Yvonne Wood
Best Visual Effects:
The Ten Commandments
Best Sound:
The Ten Commandments
Best Ensemble Cast:
Seven Samurai
Orson Welles’ Best First Feature:
Kô Nakahira, Crazed Fruit
Best Ensemble Cast:
Seven Samurai (dir: Akira Kurosawa, US Release Date; in alphabetical order): Minoru Chiaki, Kamatari Fujiwara, Bokuzen Hidari, Yoshio Inaba, Daisuke Kato, Isao Kimura, Yoshio Kosugi, Seiji Miyaguchi, Toshiro Mifune (pictured), Yukiko Sjimazaki, Takashi Shimura (pictured), Yoshio Tsuchiya, and Keiko Tsushima
Orson Welles' Best First Feature Award:
Best First Feature: Kô Nakahira, Crazed Fruit
RECAP
W I N S:
Bigger Than Life — 2, The Court Jester — 2, Lola Montes — 2, Tea and Sympathy — 2, The Ten Commandments — 2, Written on the Wind — 2, Crazed Fruit — 1, Giant — 1, The Killing — 1, The Searchers — 1, Seven Samurai — 1
M U L T I P L E
N O M I N A T I O N S:
Written on the Wind — 8,
Seven Samurai — 7, Bigger than Life — 6, The Killing — 6, Crazed Fruit — 5, Giant — 5, Tea and Sympathy — 5, The Court Jester — 4, The Girl Can’t Help It — 4, Baby Doll — 3, The Bad Seed — 3, La Strada — 3, Lola Montes — 3, The King & I — 2, The Searchers — 2, The Ten Commandments
the year-end project:
2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988, 1987, 1986, 1985, 1984, 1983, 1982, 1981, 1980, 1979, 1978, 1977, 1976, 1975, 1974, 1973, 1972, 1971, 1970, 1969, 1968, 1967, 1966, 1965, 1964, 1963, 1962, 1961, 1960, 1959, 1958, 1957, 1956, 1955, 1954, 1953, 1952, 1951, 1950, 1940 - 1949, 1930 - 1939, 1920 - 1929 + Superlatives Index