I'm actually pretty surprised that I managed to watch as many Best Picture nominees as I did and this was primarily due to a lot of nefarious viewing earlier this year. In fact, of the 520 films that have been nominated for Best Picture over the years, there are only four that I failed to watch. These four films are:
1) The Patriot: Nominated for Best Picture at the 2nd ceremony; The Patriot stars Emil Jannings as a Russian Tsar. The Patriot is the only Best Picture nominee for which a full film reel no longer exists and its status as a lost film meant that I could cross it off of my list early on.
2) East Lynne: Frank Lloyd's 1931 film is an adaptation of Ellen Wood's novel of the same name and stars Ann Hardy and Conrad Nagel in the lead roles. Despite not being a lost film, only one print of the movie currently exists at the University of California's Media Lab. Maybe one day I'll be able to fly out there and make an appointment to view it but for now at least I'll have to chalk that one up as a film that I'm unable to see.
3) Flirtation Walk: Frank Borzage's musical film was nominated at the 1934 ceremony and starred Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler. Of the four films I'm unable to see, Flirtation Walk is the one that I'm a little mad about missing as there's no reason why there was no copy available to me. However, it's a film that I'm going to keep searching for and one day may be able to add it to this blog.
4) The White Parade: Nominated in the same year as Flirtation Walk, Irving Cummings' film focuses on trainee nurses and stars Loretta Young in the lead role. Like East Lynne, only one copy of The White Parade exists and once again its available to view at the same media lab. Maybe I should start a Kickstarter campaign to get myself over to L.A. but again I'm not too worried about not seeing this film.
So that's truly it for now, thanks everybody who's followed me on this wild journey and I'll attempt to write my list of all the Best Picture winners in due course.
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