Tom Jones: 1963 Best Picture

1963 is one of those years in film where movies that were not nominated for Best Picture have fared better with the passage of time than those that were. “Tom Jones” won the Best Picture Oscar at the 36th Academy Awards, over “America, America”, “Cleopatra”, “How the West Was Won” and “Lilies of the Field”, which was truly a charming film.

None of them, however, have met the criteria on Rotten Tomatoes to get included in their list of Top 100 Movies of 1963. That list only consists of 4 films: “The Leopard” (Il Gattopardo), “8-1/2”, “The Birds” and “The Great Escape.”

Other films that got the Academy’s notice were “Papa’s Delicate Condition”, “The Cardinal”, “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World”, “Love with the Proper Stranger”, “Captain Newman, M.D.”, “Irma la Douce”, “55 Days at Peking” and “Bye Bye Birdie”.

Disney offered up “The Sword and the Stone” and “Son of Flubber” while the teen idols of the day cavorted on the beach in a few forgettable movies and Elvis had “Fun in Alcapulco” and the World’s Fair. This was also the year that Jerry Lewis starred as “The Nutty Professor.”

Jeopardy! clues on “Tom Jones”, the film:
MOVIE DEBUTS $600: Lynn Redgrave debuted in this bawdy Albert Finney romp that won the 1963 Best Picture Oscar
ROLE PLAYING $2000: “Tom Jones” (1963)

Clues on the novel itself or its author:
READ”ING” $10,000 (Daily Double): Squire Allworthy is a character in a 1749 novel by this man
QUICK LIT $400: Henry Fielding’s title foundling
NOVEL VOCABULARY $600: This author wasn’t charitable to readers when he used “eleemosynary” in the first line of “Tom Jones”
LITERATURE $400: Henry Fielding called a 1749 novel “The History of” him, “a Foundling”

More 1963 film clues:
FOREIGN CINEMA $2000: This 1963 Fellini film was the basis for the 1982 Broadway musical “Nine”
SIDEKICKS $200: John Ales was Eddie Murphy’s dutiful assistant in 2 movie remakes of this 1963 Jerry Lewis film
ON LOCATION $800: The shoot of the 1963 epic “Cleopatra” was in this city where the film is partly set
ELIZABETH TAYLOR $600: Elizabeth Taylor was the first star to earn a million dollars for a film, for this 1963 title role
BOOK TO MOVIE $1600: Larry McMurtry’s “Horseman, Pass By” inspired this 1963 Paul Newman film
EL GRECO $1600: In 1963 he was El Greco on film & Audrey Hepburn’s husband in real life
VIVA ANN-MARGRET! $100: This 1963 film features Ann-Margret’s unforgettable rendition of the following “I’ll miss the way you smile / As though it’s just for me / And each and every night / I’ll write you faithfully…”
COLOR FILMS $100: Peter Ustinov was originally to play Inspector Clouseau in this 1963 film, but he backed out
HOLLYWOOD $200: Her last film was the 1963 musical “I Could Go On Singing”
’60s FASHION $400: 1963 Elizabeth Taylor film that inspired the fashionable, at the time, eye makeup seen here
THE TITLE ESCAPES ME $600: Steve McQueen did his own motorcycle stunts in this 1963 film set in a Nazi P.O.W. camp
DIRECTORS $800: He directed his good friend John Wayne in many films; the last was “Donovan’s Reef”, in 1963
TOUGH MOVIE TRIVIA $200: Kurt Russell, who later played Elvis, was in the 1963 Elvis film “It Happened” here
AUTHORS & THEIR SLEUTHS $100: He created Mike Hammer & played the part in the 1963 film “The Girl Hunters”
ACTING PRESIDENTS $200: Then-president John F. Kennedy chose this actor to play him in the 1963 film “PT 109”
“FIELD” $800: 1963 film in which Sidney Poitier played a handyman who builds a chapel for 5 German-speaking nuns
TV STARS ON FILM $100: He was playing Opie on TV when he played Eddie in the 1963 film “The Courtship Of Eddie’s Father”
TV & MOVIE TOURISM $400: Fans of this 1963 Hitchcock classic “flock” to Bodega Bay, California, where it was filmed
NOVEL FILMS $1000: Anthony Perkins played Josef K. in the 1963 film version of this unfinished Kafka novel
BIBLICAL GARDEN $300: 1963 Sidney Poitier film whose title comes from the flowers Jesus referred to in Matthew 6:28
THE MOVIES: The title of this award-winning 1963 film refers to the number of films its director felt he had made to that point