Fred Zinnemann: Top Oscar Directors for Actors – 20 Nominations

Oscar nominees Deborah Kerr, Burt Lancaster, From Here to Eternity

Fred Zinnemann began his career during the studio era, but kept on going, however sporadically, long after most of his contemporaries had retired. Even so, today his name means little to most moviegoers and critics alike. Why?

Quite possibly because, like William Wyler's, Zinnemann's relatively small oeuvre (21 narrative feature films) covers just about every film genre there is: Western (High Noon), romance (From Here to Eternity), socially conscious drama (The Search), historical drama (A Man for All Seasons), adventure (Five Days One Summer), thriller (The Day of the Jackal), crime (Act of Violence), comedy (My Brother Talks to Horses), and musical (Oklahoma).

Most film critics and historians are no different than most simpletons. They tend to value work that can be easily categorized and labeled. And, as I've mentioned in my previous Top Oscar Directors for Actors posts, it always helps if the films in question revolve around tough guys and their issues.

Unlike, say, John Ford or Alfred Hitchcock, Fred Zinnemann never partnered with a male actor, while most of his films, though often centered on male characters, could hardly be called "tough." (Even High Noon is more about fear than fearlessness.) Additionally, in his character dramas Zinnemann was better at handling actresses than actors as evidenced by a number of outstanding female star turns in his films. (Nope, that really doesn't mean Zinnemann was gay.)

The ladylike Deborah Kerr, for instance, was transformed into a seductive adulteress in From Here to Eternity and a country woman roaming the Australian outback in The Sundowners. (The 1960 Best Actress Oscar should have had Kerr's name on it — if only Elizabeth Taylor hadn't been near death at the time.)

Also, Donna Reed (right) was never better than as the fibbing sex worker in From Here to Eternity, and the same goes for Audrey Hepburn, reaching a career high as the conflicted nun in The Nun's Story — one of the most effective films on a religious theme.

Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave excelled in the classy Julia, and so did Julie Harris and Ethel Waters in the psychological drama The Member of the Wedding. Eva Marie Saint, for her part, stole A Hatful of Rain from her showier male co-stars.

Despite all their award wins and nominations, in my view Zinnemann was less successful with his male actors. Whereas Gary Cooper is able to fully convey the inner turmoil of his solitary sheriff in High Noon and Robert Mitchum gives a pleasantly nuanced performance in The Sundowners, both Burt Lancaster and Frank Sinatra are just plain old Burt Lancaster and Frank Sinatra in From Here to Eternity, while stage-trained Paul Scofield needed to be considerably toned down so as to make his Sir Thomas More less theatrical in A Man for All Seasons. Scenery-chewing was the order of the day for Don Murray, Anthony Franciosa, and especially Lloyd Nolan in A Hatful of Rain.

Zinnemann's actors were shortlisted twenty times — including six wins — for the Oscars. Deborah Kerr and Montgomery Clift were both nominated twice under Zinnemann's direction: Kerr for From Here to Eternity (1953) and The Sundowners (1960); Clift for The Search (1948) and From Here to Eternity.

Zinnemann received seven Academy Award nominations for Best Direction: The Search, 1948; High Noon, 1952; From Here to Eternity, 1953; The Nun's Story, 1959; The Sundowners, 1960; A Man for All Seasons, 1966; and Julia, 1977.

He won for both From Here to Eternity and A Man for All Seasons. I'm no fan of either film, though they are both widely admired.

Note: A version of this Fred Zinnemann article was initially posted in January 2007.