And the Loser is: A History of Oscar Oversights
2nd Edition
by Aubrey Malone
Purchase this book
(click here to change currency)
"An entertaining and revealing addition to the variety of books already written about the bizarre institution of the Oscars."
Doug Brode, Prizewinning Novelist, Screenwriter, Biographer and Journalist
"Aubrey Malone, the superb Irish critic of American popular culture, probes profundities, ironies and contradictions that elude his Yankee counterparts."
Jim MacKillop, University of Syracuse Press
“John Ford never won an Oscar for directing a Western, Alfred Hitchcock never won an Oscar at all. Midnight Cowboy lost to an old cowboy and Crash froze out yet more cowboys for very different reasons. Did Judy Davis really win over Marisa Tomei? And what was the deal with Moonlight? Yes, the Oscars have thrown up a lot of ‘almost rans’, ‘not quite’s, and more than one ‘really?’. Aubrey Malone takes a look at the ‘who wasn’t who’ of the Oscars since their inception right up to the present, and the result is a very entertaining read. Dive in and enjoy the astonishment.”
Dr. Harvey O’Brien,
Professor of Film Studies, UCD School of English, Drama and Film, Ireland
"[This is] a history of the Oscars in twelve chapters [delivered] with cool detachment. Aubrey Malone unravels the meltdown of Hollywood Oscar Nights. [There are] copious quotes from legions of Oscar winners that trash the process. No Oscar for Best Picture for Duck Soup, The Great Dictator or City Lights. Citizen Kane lost Best Picture to the now unwatchable How Green is My Valley. Bogart got his Oscar for his worst movie African Queen. Cagney got zilch for White Heat. Yoink. Malone [has written a] fast-paced comedy thriller, unravelling how the good, the bad and the awful line up. His knowledge of cinema is vast. His conclusions give the Oscar plot away."
Kevin Kiely, author of "UCD Belfield Metaphysical: A Retrospective"
“Give Aubrey Malone a gold statuette for ingenuity. And the Loser Is... a clever history of Oscar’s biggest winners and losers, with a particular emphasis on the latter. It’s all here: money, mishaps, mistakes and maladies that shape who gets snazzy hardware and who doesn’t. Or what one major star calls “a silly bingo game.” Exhaustively researched and thoroughly engaging, this book lifts the curtain on Hollywood’s most coveted prize.”
Marshall Terrill
Author of "Steve McQueen: The Life and Legend of a Hollywood Icon"
In this updated edition of Aubrey Malone’s ground-breaking study of the unsung heroes and heroines of the Oscar ceremonies, he delves further into the circumstances surrounding many of the films either ignored or undervalued by the Academy from the 1920s up to the embarrassing gaffe of 2017 which saw La La Land wrongly announced as Best Picture instead of Moonlight.
In a book which doubles as an unofficial history of Hollywood, he writes about all the great stars who never won an Oscar and, more poignantly, the tragedies that often befell winners as the law of diminishing returns set in. People like Susan Hayward, Rod Steiger, Vivien Leigh and many others never recaptured the magic after winning the golden statue.
Instead of a foretaste of better things, for many of them it was the beginning of the end. In the case of some winners, like Gig Young, the decline resulted in a horrific murder/suicide some years down the road.
The book also studies concepts like sympathy Oscars, consolation Oscars, Life Achievement Awards that are often AMPAS apologies for Oscar bypasses, and the number of relationships and marriages that broke down after Oscar wins. It also looks at those near-perennial bridesmaids at the Oscar wedding who were repeatedly passed over, often on spurious grounds.
This intricate, highly detailed book also looks at the effect of the blacklist on the awarding of Oscars, and the various prejudices that saw many people excluded from the winner’s enclosure when they richly deserved to be there.
Acknowledgements
Preface
Prologue
Introduction (by Daniel Kimmel)
Cosy Cartels
Omissions Impossible
The Worst Years of Their Lives
A Peak You Reach
Oscar Wild
They Shoot Wives, Don’t They
Snubbing the Snubbers
And Injustice for All
Endearing Accolades
The Nonsensical Nineties
New Millennium
Ebony and Ivory
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Aubrey Malone is an M.A. graduate in English from University College Dublin. He has been reviewing films professionally since 1972 when he wrote for “TCD Miscellany.” In 1977 he became the resident film critic for “Image” magazine and held that position until 1989. That year he became the resident film critic for “Modern Woman”, a supplement of “The Meath Chronicle” and held that position until 2002. In 2002 he became the resident film critic for “The Irish Catholic” and has held that position until the present day. His reviews can be seen posted online on this website. Also, he has been a book author since 1996 and has written numerous books on the cinema: “Hollyweird” (Michael O’Mara Books, ( “I Was a Fugitive from a Hollywood Trivia Factory” (Prion/Carlton), “The Rise and Fall and Rise of Elvis Presley” (Leopold books), “Sacred Profanity” (ABC-CLIO), “Censoring Hollywood” (McFarland), “Maureen O’Hara: The Biography” (University of Kentucky Press), “The Defiant One: A Biography of Tony Curtis” (McFarland) “Hollywood’s Second Sex: The Treatment of Women in Films from 1900-1999” (McFarland). Forthcoming is a biography of Marlon Brando from Propertius Press. He also reviews books on the cinema for various publications and writes film features and profiles for journals and magazines.
Injustice, deserve, sexism, racism, AMPAS, HUAC, communism, Lifetime Achievement, curse, fix, snub, oversight, ignore, nominee, victory, loss, category, performance, denied
