From Here to Eternity: 1953 Best Picture

Isn’t it strange when a film gets a huge number of nominations but the leads in it don’t win Best Actor or Best Actress? At the 26th Academy Awards, “From Here to Eternity” matched “Gone with the Wind” for nominations (13) and also for wins (8). It won Best Picture, Best Director (Fred Zinnemann), Best Supporting Actor (Frank Sinatra), Best Supporting Actress (Donna Reed), Best Screenplay (Daniel Taradash), Best Cinematography (Burnett Guffey), Best Sound, and Best Film Editing. Both Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift were nominated for Best Actor and Deborah Kerr was nominated for Best Actress.

But William Holden won Best Actor for his performance as J.J. Sefton in “Stalag 17”; and Audrey Hepburn won Best Actress for her portrayal of a runaway princess in “Roman Holiday.”

Here are a few Jeopardy! clues for 1953’s Best Picture:
TV GUIDE MOVIE SYNOPSES $1,000 (Daily Double): 1953: “Life on a Honolulu Army post just before the Pearl Harbor attack”
A KISS IS STILL A KISS $400: The kiss between Deborah Kerr & Burt Lancaster in this 1953 movie seemed to go on forever
FRANK SINATRA $300: Frank was paid $8,000 to play Maggio in this 1953 film that helped revive his career

And a whole bunch on the book, including several about the origin of the title:
T.C.L.T. $600: “F.H.T.E.” by James Jones
TITLE CHANGES $800: James Jones: “From Here to Montezuma”
WHERE’D YA GET THAT TITLE? $1600: This James Jones novel set before Pearl Harbor gets its title from Kipling: “Gentlemen rankers out on the spree, damned…”
#5586, aired 2008-12-15 ALLITERATIVE AUTHORS $1600: His “From Here to Eternity” was the top-selling novel of 1951
#5287, aired 2007-09-11 BOOK TITLES $2000: James Jones considered “Old Soldiers Never Die” as a title for his WWII novel but settled on this, from a Kipling line
FROM BOOK TO TV $400: In 1979 this James Jones novel was a miniseries with Steve Railsback in Montgomery Clift’s movie role
BOOKS OF THE MONTHS $600: After “From Here to Eternity”, he wrote about riots in Paris in “The Merry Month of May”
LITERATURE $600: As James Jones could tell you, this completes Kipling’s line from “Gentlemen-Rankers”, “Damned from…”
MODERN LITERATURE $800: His experiences as an enlisted man shaped his 1951 novel “From Here to Eternity”

More 1953 film clues:
1950s SCI-FI FILMS $1200: Martians attack Southern California, not England, in the 1953 film version of this H.G. Wells novel
GINGHAM STYLE $1000: In a 1953 film Doris Day delivered “Gingham Fer The Girls” as this lover of Wild Bill Hickok
MOVIE PREMIERES $600: On Sept. 16, 1953 “The Robe” & this w i d e s c r e e n process debuted at NYC’s Roxy theatre
JACKSON 5 $200: The 1953 Alan Ladd film “Shane” is among the many Westerns filmed in this valley east of the Tetons
GETTING BIBLICAL $600: In the 1953 film version of this Biblical dancer’s life, Rita Hayworth tries to save John the Baptist’s life, not take it
CAN I GET YOUR NUMBER? $600: Beware! In a 1953 film classic there are this many “Fingers of Dr. T”!
ROME-ANTIC MOVIES $1200: (Jimmy of the Clue Crew in Rome) The Spanish Steps never looked more romantic than when Audrey Hepburn & Gregory Peck visited them in this 1953 film
CENTRAL PARK $800: In the 1953 film “The Band Wagon” Fred Astaire & this leggy partner were “Dancing In The Dark” through Central Park
“OR” $500: Ed Wood starred in this 1953 schlockfest, his debut as a feature film director
MOVIES IN BLACK & WHITE $800: Peter Graves spies on William Holden & the other G.I.s in this 1953 P.O.W. film
THE MOVIES $400: Hans Conried provided the voices of Mr. Darling & Captain Hook for this 1953 film
BLACK & WHITE CLASSICS $800: In 1953 Audrey Hepburn won hearts as the runaway princess in this film
BEGINS & ENDS WITH “M” $300: According to the title of a 1953 film, it’s what Ethel Merman wanted to be called
DAY $100: It was no “Calamity” when Doris Day played this Wild West woman in a 1953 film
NEVERMORE $400: Jean Arthur’s last feature film was this 1953 Alan Ladd classic; she never made a “Come Back”
SHAKESPEARE $600: Louis Calhern spoke the famous line “Et tu Brute!” in the 1953 film version of this tragedy
FILMS & AUTHORS: “The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T” in 1953 was the 1st live-action feature film from this author’s works; a 2nd was released in 2000
HALLOWEEN ON FILM: (Happy Halloween, I’m Janet Leigh.) In a 1953 film my then husband played this man, who died on Halloween in 1926; I played his wife Bess
THE MOVIES: This musical drama was made in 1927 & remade in 1953 and 1980
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT GOES TO THE THEATRE $1600: Eleanor had not expected this movie star’s 1953 performance in “John Brown’s Body” to satisfy her as it did
THE MOVIES $1000: Jane Russell & Marilyn Monroe sang about being “Two Little Girls from Little Rock” in this 1953 movie musical
FRANK SINATRA $600: Frank won an Oscar for playing the role of Maggio in this 1953 war movie
OPTICAL INSTRUMENTS $400: To view the 1953 John Wayne movie “Hondo” the way it was meant to be seen you needed a pair of these