What a terrible choice Oscar voters had to make between those Best Original Score nominees in 1963: How the West Was Won, Cleopatra, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, 55 Days at Peking, and (eventual winner) Tom Jones. And that doesn't even include the brilliant Henry Mancini score for Charade which I probably would have included in place of Peking.
Another score that could have been nominated that year was The Great Escape by Elmer Bernstein. It was pretty much a Who's Who of composers that year.
They thought she was too much of a pain in the asp
.
IMO, it's the most known score from that year.
Not to mention the score by Richard Burton.
TOM JONES was a massive hit that year. Probably made more money than any of the other films that you listed.
en.wikipedia.org
CLEOPATRA was a 'massive' financial flop. It never made a cent.It did not make a ton of money like you said. It was the biggest financial flop ever at the time of it's release. It almost sent a studio broke. It had a very disappointing run in TODD-AO where I worked. HTWWW and BROTHERS GRIMM were financial flops if you combined the costs to make them both as against box office takings. HTWWW was a huge success but WWOTBG wasn't. TOM JONES was a huge financial success. It was the film that most people were talking about that year and the one to see. Such a huge success .Not surprised that it won the best film Oscar. Some of the 1963 films may have taken a lot of money at the box office but that meant nothing when you take into account the costs to make them. TOM JONES wasn't an expensive film to make so the profits were huge.
Maybe AMPAS ought not to nominate 5 candidates towards a singular winner but, rather, simply give out awards in recognition of the Top 5 works from each of the categories. I have certain creative issues over turning the peak and excellence of ones work into an all-of-a-sudden overnight loser. Concerning ceremonies such as these, I’m with George C. Scott.
