Peter Falk

"If your mind is at work, we're in danger of reproducing another cliche. If we can keep our minds out of it and our thoughts out of it, maybe we'll come up with something original."
- Peter Falk

Best Supporting Actor 1960: Results

5. Chill Wills in The Alamo- Wills may be everyone's cousin, and the cast be praying harder for him to win this than actual people who were praying for their lives, but that does not stop his performance from being completely forgettable.

4. Jack Kruschen in The Apartment- Kruschen gives a good humorous performance which is a nice little part of a great film.

3. Peter Ustinov in Spartacus- Ustinov role is small, but I feel he gives an incredibly enjoyable performance anyways. He always adds a nice humorous charming presence to his film despite his performance being quite small. 

2. Sal Mineo in Exodus- Mineo manages to stand out when he can in his role, and shows all the right passion and anger into his role that is unfortunately pushed into the background much of the time. He also has an absolutely terrific scene that shows a little more to his character, unfortunately I feel the film underused Mineo preventing this from being a great performance.

1. Peter Falk in Murder, Inc.- Falk performance is in an almost terrible film. Falk unlike the rest of the film gives an interesting realistic and effective portrait of a violent gangster who quietly gets what he wants most of the time, but uses brief intense violence when he faces too much resistance.

Deserving Performances:
Charles Laughton in Spartacus
Laurence Olivier in Spartacus
Eli Wallach in The Magnificent Seven
Fred MacMurray in The Apartment

Best Supporting Actor 1960: Peter Falk in Murder, Inc.

Peter Falk received his first Oscar nomination for portraying Abe "Kid Twist" Reles in Murder, Inc.

Murder, Inc. is a wildly uneven crime film, which I am not sure if it knew what type of story or film it was going for either way. It is interesting at first, but its ends up being basically nothing at the end.

Peter Falk portrays a hit man Abe Reles in this film who gains more prominence through a slick assassin organization known as Murder, Inc. Murder, Inc. is an odd film, in that early on the film it seems like Falk's Reles is going to be the lead character, and the film is going to be a interesting character study. Falk is very proper in the role. His movement and method of his performance just simply reminded me of the way a Wiseguy acts and should act.

Falk's performance is quietly intense and very effective because of that. He acts very calmly to people in a quietly charismatic way, but can quickly go from being relaxed to the person to becoming very violent, or murdering them. Falk handles Reles' method of killing very well, as he does it very casually although still with the right amount of violent intensity. Falk shows that Reles' violent nature is kept mostly controlled and organized most of the time, but he rather lets it comes out when necessary.

Reles disappears for a long time unfortunately for the film, since Reles is the only interesting character and Falk's performance is the only good performance. Falk returns though in a few scenes where he is interrogated by the police. Falk again is very good, as Reles shows off his ability to manipulate others carefully and quietly. He is especially strong when he tries to manipulate the police to give him what he wants. Later he also shows Reles' restrained fear well when faced with likely demise. This may sound disjointed but that is the nature of the film. Reles is not given enough time, but Falk still gives a strong effective performance.

Best Supporting Actor 1960

And the Nominees Were:

Sal Mineo in Exodus

Chill Wills in The Alamo

Peter Ustinov in Spartacus

Jack Kruschen in The Apartment

Peter Falk in Murder, Inc.

I think I will have to give this one to Chill Wills because I do believe I am his cousin.

Best Supporting Actor 1961: Results

5. George Chakiris in West Side Story- He dances well, and sings okay, but he certainly acts very poorly.

4. Peter Falk in A Pocketful of Miracles- Falk is the only good thing about the movie, and he tries his best to be funny but his performance just is pushed too much in the background to over come the terrible film he is in.

3. George C. Scott in The Hustler- Scott is brilliant as Burt showing his manipulations in a brilliantly, realistically, and as cruelly effective as possible. He never ever false as Burt and that is what makes his performance all the more effective.

2. Montgomery Clift in Judgment At Nuremberg- Clift has one scene and makes more than the most of it. He creates a true victim in his characterization of this man who was severely mistreated by the Nazis. His powerful performance, is emotionally true and the strongest scene in the film.

1. Jackie Gleason in The Hustler- This one was actually rather difficultly for me. It really could have gone to any of the top three brilliant actor, anyone of them would have been incredibly deserving, and it is a real shame that they decided to give the award to a dancer rather than one of these three brilliant actors. Gleason though took the prize for me because how much he did with Minnesota Fats despite Fats not really being that complicated of a character by what is only said, but Gleason makes Fats legendary though and a fascinating character. Every movement he makes is perfect, he controls the screen with his presence, but also shows more to Fats, so much more in short shots of only his face in the end of the film. Now for me, both Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton (Art Carney) are my winners, showing that comedians can also be truly great dramatic actors. (Good prediction again Dinasztie)

Best Supporting Actor 1961: Peter Falk in Pocketful of Miracles

Peter Falk received his second and final consecutive nomination for portraying Joy Boy in A Pocketful of Miracles. 

I like Frank Capra films but this one might be his worst. It is boring, schmaltzy and not really enjoyable at all.

Peter Falk apparently was the only thing that got Frank Capra through the filming of this movie, and it was the only thing that got me through watching the movie. Peter Falk plays Joy Boy who is the right hand man to Dave the Dude (Glen Ford). Joy Boy is the guy who tries to do what Dave needs him to do, and plainly get the job done. Falk role here is pretty limited acting frustrated at what he has to do and what the other people are doing in the film. Perhaps he was there symbolize the audience's reaction to the film. I must say Falk does what he does in this film well almost acting in another movie, as a man who sees all the schmaltz and sort of makes fun of it.

His rough delivery works very well, and shows how lame the rest of the film is really. I liked his performance and his constant reactions which reflected my reactions to the film. Unfortunately the film was not about him at all and especially in the second half where his reactions are very much in the background. When you do see him his performance remains the bright spots in the film, but unfortunately the boring main characters are given more importance. If Joy Boy was given his own film perhaps that could have been something because I do like Falk here, but Falk here is limited by the film, making it so his performance can't quite be separated from the mess it is in.

Best Supporting Actor 1961

And the Nominees Were:

Montgomery Clift in Judgment At Nuremberg

Peter Falk in Pocketful of Miracles 

George Chakiris in West Side Story

Jackie Gleason in The Hustler

George C. Scott in The Hustler

Who do you pick? What do predict my ranking will be?