Golden Globe Awards

Guys and Dolls was the movie no one loved except the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, who gave it its best comedy or musical Golden Globe that year. At the time of its release, the film was deemed a huge disappointment considering its pedigree and all the talent legendary producer Sam Goldwyn had lavished on the production.

East of Eden, one of the first films to be shot in Color Cinemascope, was awarded Best Motion Picture - Drama at the 1956 Golden Globes. Sadly, the Golden Globe for Best Dramatic Actor had to be awarded to James Dean posthumously - the actor died in a car accident, at 25, just a few months before, on that infamous September 30, 1955 (in Cholame, California).

Who can forget Marlon Brando at his method-acting best? “I could have been a contender.

1955 - what a great year for musicals! In those days the Hollywood Foreign Press offered no nominations but they certainly had an impressive list choose from – Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, A Star Is Born, just to name two. And the surprising win? Otto Preminger’s groundbreaking Carmen Jones.

1953 was indeed a peculiar year. On the comedy or musical front, With a Song in My Heart took the Globe from Singin’ in the Rain, later to be celebrated as the best musical of all time and inspire generations of filmmakers (including Damien Chazelle, winner of the same award in 2017 with his La La Land).

Set in ancient Rome, The Robe preceded Ben-Hur and Spartacus as a big sword and sandal epic winning the Golden Globe for Best Picture – Drama in 1954. It was a time in which Hollywood adored Roman Empire Technicolor extravaganzas.

No award for Best Motion Picture Comedy or Musical was given in 1954.   And there were plenty of candidates: Otto Preminger’s.

The 1952 Singin’ in the Rain was Golden Globes-nominated as best musical or comedy, but With a Song in My Heart won. It was a popular choice for the voters, who also gave Susan Hayward the best actress in a comedy or musical and anointed her World Film Favorite.

1952 was the year the Hollywood Foreign Press decided to give a separate award for best musical or comedy, in addition to drama. The acting categories had already been separated a year before, so when the award went to An American in Paris.

The classic black and white A Place in the Sun was adapted from the 1925 novel An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, the second adaptation of the same novel (after the film titled An American Tragedy in 1931). Directed by George Stevens, the movie starred Montgomery Clift as a young religious man from Chicago who travels to California to work for his wealthy uncle and falls in love with two very different and seductive women (played by Elizabeth Taylor and Shelley Winters).