Generally regarded as one of the greatest films ever made, if not the single greatest film of all time, Yasujiro Ozu’s 1953 masterpiece, Tokyo Story, about an elderly Japanese couple making an exhausting railroad journey to visit their faraway children for the last time, met the fate of all of Ozu’s other films in the U.S.  It did not receive a theatrical showing until 1972, nineteen years after it was made and nine years after Ozu’s death.   For all U.S. filmgoers of the early 1950s knew, Japanese movies were limited to the sword and sandal epics of Kurosawa and Mizoguchi.

Ozu was both the most Japanese of directors and the director most influenced by the works of the great American directors he admired, most particularly Oscar favorite John Ford, yet American audiences of the day had no idea who he was.

For Hollywood, it was business as usual with Oscar’s best picture nominations going to works by directors who had all been there before:  From Here to Etenrity, Fred Zinnemann’s complex military drama leading up to the attack on Peal Harbor; Shane, George Stevens’ ode to the quiet western hero; Roman Holiday, William Wyler’s delightful travelogue about a runaway princess and a reporter; Julius Caesar, Joseph L. Mankiewicz’ star-studded film of Shakespeare’s tragedy and The Robe, Henry Koster’s biblical epic, the film that introduced audiences to the widescreen wonders of Cinemascope.

Zinnemann, Stevens and Wyler were all nominated for Best Director, while former winner Mankiewicz and former nominee Koster were supplanted by former winner Billy Wilder for Sabrina and veteran Charles Walters for Lili.

Zinnemann’s film from James Jones’ best seller was the favorite, but its win was by no means guaranteed.  Of the three extant pre-cursors, it had won only the New York Film Critics Award, losing the National Board of Review award to Julius Caesar and the Golden Globe to the year’s box office champion, The Robe.   Still, with the directors of those two films out of the running, it seemed to be in for an easy victory and indeed won eight of its thirteen nominations.

The year’s second most honored film at the Oscars was Roman Holiday, which won three of its ten nominations.  Shane won one of its six, The Robe two of its five and Julius Caesar one of its five.

What then, would have been the other nominees had the 1953 Oscars been a ten picture slate?  Certainly the other two films with Best Director nods would have been there.  Lili had been nominated for six and won one while Stalag 17 had been nominated for three and won one.

Beyond those obvious choices, things aren’t as clear, though it’s likely that Vincente Minnelli’s marvelous musical, The Band Wagon, which had reaped three nominations, would have been there.  So, possibly, might have the delightful Calamity Jane (three nominations, one win), the hilarious How to Marry a Millionaire (one nomination, no win) and the delightful and hilarious Call Me Madam (two nominations, one win) but a such light fare doesn’t usually dominate Oscar’s Best Picture slate. It seems more likely that they would have gone in the direction of the absorbing maritime epic, The Cruel Sea, the savage film noir, Pickup on South Street and rugged western, The Naked Spur, all of which won one nomination apiece.

I’ll go out on a climb and say the last two nominations would have gone to Pickup on South Street, Sam Fuller’s best shot at a Best Picture nod and the much admired at the time, maritime epic, The Cruel Sea.