Anyone who ever tried to put together a list of films that that should have been nominated for Academy Awards but weren’t, can tell you that it is an almost impossible task to sort out eligibility dates for the years 1927/28-1981 for to a number of reasons.

The first awards were supposed to be for films that opened in Los Angeles between August 1, 1927 and July 31, 1928, but films being considered included some that opened as early as 1926 but were still running on August 1, 1927. The following year when selections were made by a blue ribbon committee, things were no less confusing. Street Angel, awarded Best Actress in the first year, was nominated for two other awards in the second. In Old Chicago, which wasn’t shown anywhere until January, 1938 was nominated for the 1937 awards because the cutoff date was for nominations was January 12, 1938, the day it opened in Los Angeles.

The biggest problem was that films that opened in New York and reviewed by major publications in one year might not open in Los Angeles until the following year. With the sole exception of 1942’s Casablanca, no film that opened in New York one year and Los Angeles the following year has ever won Best Picture. Anne Revere in 1944’s National Velvet is the sole winner of an acting award in a film with the same delay. Conversely, films that opened in Los Angeles in one year and New York the following year were rarely awarded by critics’ groups that year. Exceptions include awards given by the New York Film Critics to Gregory Peck in 1949’s Twelve O’Clock High in 1950 and Glenda Jackson in 1978’s Stevie in 1981.

Here is a baker’s dozen of acclaimed performances – five actors and eight actresses, in films that did not open in Los Angeles until the year after they opened in New York and were shut out by Oscar, possibly because the delay was so long their fellow actors simply forgot about them.

PERFORMANCES IN FILMS THAT OPENED IN LOS ANDGLES THE YEAR AFTER THEY PREMIERED IN NEW YORK THAT WERE SHUT OUT OF THE OSCAR RACE

GRETA GARBO in QUEEN CHRISTINA (1933), directed by Rouben Mamoulian

Garbo gave what many consider to be her greatest performance as the Swedish queen in this literate and savvy historical gender bender opposite frequent co-stars John Gilbert and Lewis Stone. Had MGM released it in Los Angeles in 1933 as it did in New York, Garbo would have had an easier path to a nomination than in the more crowded field of 1934. She would almost certainly have been nominated for Best Actress over Diana Wynyard and her stiff British upper lip in Cavalcade.

RONALD COLMAN in A TALE OF TWO CITIES (1935), directed by Jack Conway

Colman had one of his signature roles as Sydney Carton, the hero of Charles Dickens’ classic novel of the French revolution. Colman, Basil Rathbone, Edna May Olvier and Blanche Yurka all deliver stunning performances but none were nominated for Oscars despite the film’s nomination for Best Picture in 1936. Colman was up against a strong field that year, but would likely have sailed to a nomination in 1935 when Mutiny on the Bounty’s featured actor Franchot Tone was elevated to a Best Actor slot in a much weaker field.

DAME MAY WHITTY in THE LADY VANISHES (1938), directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Hitchcock won his only New York Film Critics Award for Best Director of 1938 for this knuckle-biter, the year of the film’s New York release, but neither he nor anyone else connected with his classic film was nominated for an Oscar when it was released in Los Angeles the following year. Although the film has many pleasurable moments, none are more memorable than Whitty’s establishing scenes as the title character and none are more satisfying than her triumphant return at the film’s end.

SPENCER TRACY and KATHARINE HEPBURN in ADAM’S RIB (1949), directed by George Cukor

Tracy and Hepburn earned a combined 21 Oscar nominations between them but except for Hepburn’s nomination for their first, 1942’s Woman of the Year, neither would be nominated for their films together again until their ninth and last, 1967’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, released after Tracy’s death. Their best film together was unquestionably this Christmas 1949 release in New York held back until the following year in Los Angeles when Tracy was nominated for Father of the Bride instead.

IRENE DUNNE in THE MUDLARK (1950), directed by Jean Negulesco

Thirty-seven years before Judi Dench, Anthony Sher and Billy Connolly inhabited the roles of Victoria the Great, Benjamin Disraeli and John Brown, Dunne, Alastair Sim and Finlay Currie brought them to life in this charming biographical film. Although the film was nominated for an Oscar for Costume Design the following year, Dunne’s fine performance was ignored. She might well have had an easier time of it the previous year when the Best Actress nominees included Anne Baxter’s supporting performance in All About Eve.

CHARLES CHAPLIN in LIMELIGHT (1952), directed by Charles Chaplin

Next to Garbo, Chaplin is perhaps the most criminally overlooked performer in Oscar history. The film, which had its New York premiere in 1952, did not open in Los Angeles twenty years later when it won an Oscar for its score which went to Chaplin, Ray Rasch and Larry Russell. He was not, however, nominated for his acclaimed performance. He had previously won honorary Oscars at the 1927/28 and 1971 awards, but his only nominated performance was for 1940’s The Great dictator.

DAME EDITH EVANS in THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST (1952), directed by Anthony Asquith

Evans’ portrayal of Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde’s immortal stage-play was already legendary in London theatre history when she recreated the role for Asquith’s definitive screen version. The entire cast, including, Michael Redgrave, Michael Denison, Joan Greenwood, Dorothy Tutin and Margaret Rutherford was superb, but the film belonged to Evans. No one has ever uttered “a hat box!” more effectively. She would surely have been nominated in 1952, but the L.A. delay put her in somewhat stronger company in 1953.

GIULIETTA MASINA in THE NIGHTS OF CABIRIA (1957), directed by Federico Fellini

Mrs. Fellini first charmed audiences as the circus waif in 1954’s La Strada which was released in 1956 in the U.S. Failing to receive an Oscar nomination for that, she had a second chance with her Rome prostitute in 1957’s The Nights of Cabiria. Alas, the film which won the New York Film Critics Award as the Best Foreign Film of that year would not be released in Los Angeles until 1958 when she failed to be nominated once again. She also missed out on 1965’s Juliet of the Spirits, a 1966 release in Los Angeles.

TOM COURTENAY in THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER (1962), directed by Tony Richardson

Courtneay made an auspicious big screen debut as the rebellious youth who after being sentenced to a reformatory for robbing a bakery finds a kind of redemption in long distance running for the reformatory. One of the best of the angry young men British films of the era, it set Courntenay on the path to a long-running film career that is still flourishing. Chances are he wouldn’t have been nominated for an Oscar against the strong field of 1962 any more than he was in 1963 but that’s where he more properly fit.

HARDY KRUGER in SUNDAYS AND CYBELE (1962), directed by Serge Bourguignon

German born Kruger became an overnight sensation in the 1957 British film, The One That Got Away and was a hit earlier in 1962 in Howard Hawks’ Hatari! in support of John Wayne, but his greatest success was as the emotionally scarred former French soldier in this French-Austrian co-production which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film. This was another great 1962 performance that was denied a Los Angeles release until the following year when it was more or less treated as old news.

JEAN SIMMONS in ALL THE WAY HOME (1963), directed by Alex Segal

Simmons had one of her great roles as the sudden widow with an impressionable young son and another child on the way. Based on James Agee’s novel and Tad Mosel’s Broadway play, the film was given a New York opening in October, 1963 but denied a Los Angeles opening until April, 1964 probably because Paramount already had Patricia Neal in Hud and Natalie Wood in Love With the Proper Stranger in the race for Best Actress and didn’t want to split their chances any further.

LIV ULLMANN in CRIES AND WHISPERS (1972), directed by Ingmar Bergman

Ullmann won the New York Film critics Award for this and The Emigrants in 1972. She was nominated for an Oscar for The Emigrants that year but could have been nominated for Cries and Whispers as well as it wasn’t released in Los Angeles until 1973. She not only failed to receive a 1973 nomination for that or The New Land, the continuation of The Emigrants, but her 1974 entry, Scenes From a Marriage was declared ineligible as it had debuted on Swedish TV.
TEMPLATE FAYE DUNAWAY