The Academy awards: A pictorial history

I picked up this book when it came out. It was the 50th Anniversary edition and now the 75th Anniversary issue is out. I guess it's time to get a new edition but this one was a very useful guide to what movies to look at on the Late Show. I took for granted back then that a movie that won a major Academy Award was a movie worth watching. It generally was a good indicator and still is to a certain extent. The Academy Award is a generally a prize for "middle of the road" movies. There are many exceptions such as "Midnight Cowboy" winning the Best Picture Oscar in 1969. As a matter of fact, the Best Foreign Language Film Award Oscar is probably the best place to find that outstanding movie that you want to "discover". Still, there are many great movies that won Best Movie Oscars, many great actors that won Best Actor Oscar and many great actresses that won Best Actress Oscars. That's because there are a lot of "general audience" movies that are Great Movies. Thank goodness for that. Why not make great movies the whole family can enjoy. Still, knowing that "Mary Poppins" beat out "Dr. Strangelove" in 1964 indicates the reluctance of the Academy to stick its' neck out too often. I have to admit that the 1970's were a great decade for great movies and the Academy Awards reflect that. What I found most helpful was using this book as a guide to "discover" those movie of the 1920's, 1930's and the 1940's. There is a page with all of the winners for each year followed by 6-8 pages of pictures from the winning pictures. There is also a page describing the different movies and players. There is an appendix that lists all the other nominees for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Actress. Interestingly, the book does not cite the also-rans for Best Direction, Best Supporting Actor, or Best Supporting Actress.