This Oscar race is a similar situation to the Holliday, Davis, Swanson Best Actress debate of 1950. In this case, Art Carney won for Harry and Tonto with a touching but understated performance. It is who he beat that ruffles some feathers. Also nominated in 1974 were Al Pacino, who played Michael Corleone in The Godfather: Part II, which won Best Picture, and Jack Nicholson, who played Jake Gittes in Roman Polanskis film noir mystery Chinatown. The magnitude of those two films and the actors who performed in them is staggering in retrospect. Again, Im sure that vote-splitting played a part here. Those two epic performances, along with Dustin Hoffman in Lenny, allowed Art Carney to swoop in for a remarkable surprise victory.
