1974 was a big year for Paramount. It had the early Oscar favorite, Roman Polanksi’s Chinatown which opened in June, and the year’s most anticipated film, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather Part II, which opened at year end. It also had some of the year’s other top films including Sidney Lumet’s all star cast version of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express; Robert Aldrich’s raucous football comedy, The Longest Yard and Coppola’s earlier psychological thriller, The Conversation.

Awards season began with The National Board of Review’s Best Picture nod to The Conversation. Its top ten list was, in fact, led by four Paramount films, with Murder on the Orient Express, Chinatown and The Last Detail following in order. The latter film was an Oscar contender in three categories the year before and therefore not eligible this year.

Both the New York Film Critics and the National Board of Review gave their awards to films that were also ineligible at the Oscars. The NYFC award went to Federico Fellini’s Amarcord which did not open in Los Angeles until 1975. The National Society’s award went to Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes From a Marriage, declared ineligible by the Academy due to a silly new rule that disallowed films shown on television prior to their theatrical release from being considered. The rule might have made sense if Scenes had been shown on American TV where most Academy members could have seen it, but the only place it was shown was in Sweden. The rule was later modified allowing Bergman’s Fanny & Alexander to compete in the 1983 awards.

The Golden Globes allowed both films to compete for its Best Foreign Film award, which Scenes won.

The Globes nominated three of Paramount’s big ones for its Best Picture – Drama category: Chinatown, The Conversation and The Godfather Part II, giving the award to Chinatown. They also nominated two Paramount films for Best Picture – Musical or Comedy, The Longest Yard and The Little Prince, giving the award to The Longest Yard.

Oscar continued the love affair with Paramount, nominating Chinatown, The Conversation and The Godfather Part II for Best Picture along with United Artists’ Lenny and the Fox-Warner Bros. co-production The Towering Inferno, co-directed by Irwin Allen and John Guillermin. Chinatown and The Godfather Part II led the race with eleven nominations each.

Oscar’s Best Director slate included both Roman Polanski for Chinatown and Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather Part II along with John Cassavetes for A Woman Under the Influence; Bob Fosse for Lenny and Francois Truffaut for Day for Night, which had won last year’s Best Foreign Film award but was ineligible for other categories as it had not yet opened in Los Angeles.

The Directors Guild had earlier nominated Polanski, Fosse and Coppola, the latter for both his films this year, with the fifth slot going to Sidney Lumet for Murder on the Orient Express.

I’m guessing a ten Best Picture slate would have included Murder on the Orient Express (six nominations, one win for Best Supporting Actress Ingrid Bergman); Day for Night (three nominations, no wins); A Woman Under the Influence (two nominations, no wins); Alice Doesn’t Live Here Aymore (three nominations, one win for Best Actress Ellen Burstyn) and Harry & Tonto (one nomination and win for Best Actor Art Carney).

And, yes, a Paramount film did win the big one. The Godfather Part II took home six awards which also included Best Director and Best Supporting Actor (Robert De Niro). Chinatown had to make do with just one win, for Best Original Screenplay.