Program Details

“And the Loser Is . . .”  Best Picture Nominees Few People Remember, Part II

Instructor
Kurt F. Stone
F444B
Video Catch-up
Available

Course Description

Ask most film buffs what "All Quiet on the Western Front", "Gentleman's Agreement", and "Around the World in Eighty Days" have in common, and they will likely tell you that they each won the Oscar for Best Picture. But ask those same film buffs what "The Informer", "Separate Tables", and "The Sundowners" have in common, and they will likely be stumped. For the latter are films nominated for Best Picture Oscars, lost and have mostly been forgotten. Those films which received Best Picture nominations but lost (there have been nearly 470 losers) must have been good, very good. Otherwise, they never would have been nominated in the first place.

Lectures

  1. "Pygmalion" (1938): This is the original of 1964's "My Fair Lady".
  2. "The Long Voyage Home" (1940): A stunning film directed by John Ford, starring John Wayne and Thomas Mitchell, based on a play by Eugene O’Neill.
  3. "The Red Shoes" (1948): Most film historians rank this #1 when it comes to ballet movies. Starring Moira Shearer.
  4. "Moonstruck" (1987): Academy Award Winner Cher plays a Brooklyn bookkeeper who falls for the brother of the man she has agreed to marry.

About the Instructor

  • FAU's "Hollywood Brat," Dr. Kurt F. Stone is now in his 26th year with Lifelong Learning. A man who wears many, many hats (medical ethicist, best-selling author, essayist, historian, blogger and ordained rabbi), Kurt is the recent recipient of the "Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award" by "Who's Who in America." His intense love and knowledge of film is, as he has long said, "is the best part of my genetic make-up." ." In 2023, Dr. Stone was the recipient of the “Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award” presented by “Who’s Who in America.”

    Recipient of the 2004 Excellence in Teaching Award