1971 continued the Oscar trend of nominating two bold, innovative films (A Clockwork Orange; The Last Picture Show), two decidedly old-fashioned entertainments (Fiddler on the Roof; Nicholas and Alexandra) and one somewhere in-between (The French Connection).

The New York Film Critics led off awards season with a Best Picture nod to Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, a superb adaptation of Anthony Burgess’ novel set in the not too distant future. The National Society of Film Critics and The National Board Board of Review followed, respectively, with Eric Rohmer’s Claire’s Knee and Roman Polanski’s Macbeth, two films that had little chance of major Oscar consideration.

The Golden Globes were the first to honor two of Oscar’s eventual Best Picture nominees, Norman Jewison’s faithful, if somewhat bland, adaptation of the Broadway musical, Fiddler on the Roof (Best Musical or Comedy) and William Friedkin’s exciting cops and robbers drama, The French Connection.

Though filled with violence, rapid fire profanity and an ambiguous ending, The French Connection had enough old-fashioned crowd-pleasing elements to muster widespread middle-of-the-road support. It wasn’t too violent or too sexy on the one hand and not too bland on the other. It went into the Oscar race as the perceived front-runner.

The Last Picture Show, Peter Bogdanovich’s sex-filled trip down memory lane, became the first film to win double nominations in both supporting categories (Jeff Bridges and Ben Johnson for Supporting Actor; Ellen Burstyn and Cloris Leachman for Supporting Actress), accounting for half of its eight nominations. It tied with The French Connection and Fiddler on the Roof for the most nominations. Nicholas and Alexandra, Franklin J. Schaffner’s take on the Russian Revolution from the perspective of the assassinated czar and his family, garnered six and A Clockwork Orange, four.

A look at the Directors Guild and Oscar nominations for Best Director gives us a good indication of what else might have been nominated had Oscar got to a ten nominee slate for Best Picture.

Both groups agreed on A Clockwork Orange’s Kubrick; The Last Picture Show’s Bogdanovich and The French Connection’s Friedkin who won both awards. They also both agreed on Sunday Bloody Sunday’s John Schlesinger but split on the fifth nominee with The DGA picking Summer of ‘42’s Robert Mulligan and Oscar choosing Fiddler’s Jewison.

Clearly Sunday Bloody Sunday with its four key Oscar nods for Director, Actor (Peter Finch), Actress (Glenda Jackson) and Screenplay would have been the sixth nominee. Summer of ’42 would likely have been the seventh.

Vying for the other three slots were Vittorio De Sica’s The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (nominated for two, winner of one for Best Foreign Film); Alan J. Pakula’s Klute (nominated for two, winner of one for Best Actress Jane Fonda) and four films nominated for one each: Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist; Joseph Losey’s The Go-Between; Mike Nichols’ Carnal Knowledge and Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller.

I give a slight edge to The Garden of the Finzi-Continis; The Conformist and The Go-Between if only because I personally like them the best of the also-rans.