27th Academy Awards

Infobox Academy Awards
name = 27th
date = 30 March 1955
site = RKO Pantages Theatre (Hollywood)
NBC Century Theater (New York City)
host = Bob Hope (Hollywood)
Thelma Ritter (New York City)
network = NBC
last = 26th
next = 28th

The 27th Academy Awards honored the best films produced in 1954. The Best Picture winner, "On the Waterfront", was produced by Sam Spiegel and directed by Elia Kazan. It was a semi-documentary, expose, and thriller film. It had twelve nominations and eight wins, matched two other films, "Gone with the Wind" (1939) and "From Here to Eternity" (1953), with eight wins, even though those two films each had thirteen nominations.

The low-budget, black and white "On the Waterfront" was filmed entirely on location in Hoboken and told the gritty story of New York dock workers, brutality, corruption, and embroilment with a gangster union boss. It provided an expose of union racketeering while showcasing the murder of an innocent longshoreman. Kazan and screenwriter Budd Schulberg justified their own naming of names (blacklisting-testimony against alleged Communists) as friendly witnesses before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the early 50s with the film's story of an heroic longshoreman informant Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) who stood alone and turned witness against the corrupt and intimidating union bosses and became a marked 'pigeon'. The film marked a comeback for Brando, who hadn't won a Best Actor award.

Grace Kelly won for Best Actress for The Country Girl. Judy Garland who was heavily tipped to win Best Actress for the movie A Star Is Born could not attend the ceremony as she had only recently given birth to her third child. So instead cameras were set up in her room so she could express her thanks in the likely case of her winning. It was rumored that cameras packed up in her room before Grace Kelly even reached the stage. Groucho Marx sent her a telegram expressing it was the biggest robbery since Brinx.

Winners

Note: The award for Best Foreign Language Film was presented as an honorary one rather than in a category.

Honorary Oscars

To compensate for the fact that screen legend Greta Garbo had never received a competitive Best Actress Oscar, she was belatedly presented with a special Honorary statue "for her unforgettable screen performances" - thirteen years after her retirement from her last film, "Two-Faced Woman" (1941). Garbo had four career nominations for exceptional definitive roles including "Anna Christie" (1929-30) and "Romance" (1929-30), "Camille" (1936) and "Ninotchka" (1939).

Another Honorary Award was presented to Danny Kaye, for "his unique talents, his service to the Academy, the motion picture industry, and the American people." He never even received a nomination throughout his entire film career, that was marked by such great films as "Wonder Man" (1945), "The Kid from Brooklyn" (1946), "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (1947), "Hans Christian Andersen" (1952), "Knock on Wood" (1954), and "The Court Jester" (1956).

Presenters

*Buddy Adler (Presenter: Best Picture)
*Lauren Bacall (Presenter: Scientific & Technical Awards)
*Humphrey Bogart (Presenter: Best Cinematography, Black-and-White)
*Charles Brackett (Presenter: Honorary Awards)
*Marlon Brando (Presenter: Best Director)
*Lee J. Cobb (Presenter: Best Special Effects)
*Bing Crosby (Presenter: Music Awards)
*Dorothy Dandridge (Presenter: Best Film Editing)
*Bette Davis (Presenter: Best Actor)
*Nina Foch & Jane Wyman (Presenters: Costume Design Awards)
*Audrey Hepburn, Karl Malden, & Claire Trevor (Presenters: Writing Awards)
*William Holden (Presenter: Best Actress)
*Jean Marie Ingels (Presenter: Best Foreign Language Film)
*Katy Jurado (Presenter: Best Cinematography)
*Grace Kelly (Presenter: Documentary Awards)
*Merle Oberon (Presenter: Honorary Awards - Juvenile Performances)
*Edmond O'Brien, Eva Marie Saint, & Rod Steiger (Presenters: Short Subject Awards)
*Dan O'Herlihy and Jan Sterling (Presenters: Art Direction-Set Decoration Awards)
*Donna Reed (Presenter: Best Supporting Actor)
*Frank Sinatra (Presenter: Best Supporting Actress)
*Tom Tully (Presenter: Best Sound)

Performers

*Rosemary Clooney ("The Man That Got Away" from "A Star Is Born")
*Johnny Desmond & Muzzy Marcellino ("The High and the Mighty" from "The High and the Mighty")
*Peggy King ("Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)" from "White Christmas")
*Dean Martin ("Three Coins in the Fountain" from "Three Coins in the Fountain")
*Tony Martin ("Hold My Hand" from "Susan Slept Here")