Bus Stop: How Awards Fail to Recognize True Talent

I believe that both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes have lost any real claim to being objective arbiters of acting talent. I speak in the first person because the case of Marilyn Monroe is simply too obvious to keep ignoring. That the most famous actress in film history was never nominated for an Oscar even once is, quite frankly, absurd, and using that fact to question her acting ability is a fallacy. Marilyn was recognized by critics, awarded outside the United States, and praised by major directors such as Billy Wilder and Joshua Logan. The problem is not Marilyn. The problem is the awards.

It is sometimes argued that, unlike the Oscars, the Golden Globes did a better job of recognizing her. But that claim does not withstand serious scrutiny either. It is true that Marilyn won a Golden Globe for Some Like It Hot, a thoroughly deserved award, but it is worth remembering that Marilyn is one of the greatest comedic actresses in the history of cinema, if not the greatest. And precisely for that reason, it is incomprehensible that she was not even nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Seven Year Itch, or The Prince and the Showgirl. Unlike the Oscars, the Golden Globes divide their acting categories into drama and comedy or musical, which makes this omission even more indefensible.

In Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Marilyn is superb in comedy, as is Jane Russell; both should have been nominated. Moreover, the award is for comedy or musical, and the film is not only a musical comedy but one of the most successful and iconic films of its era. It makes no sense whatsoever that neither actress was recognized. In The Seven Year Itch, Marilyn was again ignored, while Tom Ewell was nominated and even won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy. Anyone who has seen the film knows that, despite having less screen time, Marilyn is at least as good as Ewell, if not better. Ewell’s performance clearly reflects his theatrical background and feels more rigid, while Marilyn brings freshness, spontaneity, and a far more modern, cinematic sense of comedy. In The Prince and the Showgirl, arguably the finest comedic performance of her entire career, Marilyn won the David di Donatello, the César, and received a BAFTA nomination. That she was not even nominated for a Golden Globe for that performance is downright ridiculous. This is even more striking when one considers that in Some Like It Hot, extraordinary as she is, Marilyn blends comedy with drama, whereas in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Seven Year Itch, and The Prince and the Showgirl, her purely comedic work is equal or superior. And to all this we must add another glaring omission: Marilyn was also not nominated for The Misfits, a performance many today consider the best of her career.

Given this context, if there is one film that completely destroys the credibility of both the Oscars and the Golden Globes, it is Bus Stop. Not only is it one of Marilyn’s finest films, it also contains one of her most complex, courageous, and critically acclaimed performances. In Bus Stop, Marilyn plays Cherie, an essentially dramatic character: vulnerable, frightened, contradictory, and emotionally exposed. The role demands restraint, intensity, and a clear physical and psychological commitment. Contemporary critics highlighted Marilyn’s dramatic turn, Joshua Logan spoke openly about her dedication and artistic growth, and Don Murray himself acknowledged the quality of her performance. At the time of its release, Bus Stop was widely seen as confirmation that Marilyn Monroe was a serious dramatic actress.

And yet, the Academy chose to nominate Don Murray for Best Supporting Actor. This is, quite simply, incorrect. Murray is a co-lead alongside Marilyn; both carry the narrative weight of the film. Nominating him as a supporting actor is a textbook example of what is now known as category fraud: the common Oscar practice of placing lead performances in supporting categories for strategic convenience. This is not an isolated case. Al Pacino was nominated as a supporting actor for The Godfather even though Michael Corleone is the true protagonist of the saga; Robert De Niro won the Oscar as a supporting actor for The Godfather Part II despite his enormous dramatic weight; Andy García was nominated as supporting actor for The Godfather Part III even though he is a co-lead alongside Pacino. These maneuvers not only violate the Academy’s own rules but also deprive actors who truly delivered supporting performances of deserved recognition. When a system fails to respect its own categories, it automatically loses credibility.

The Golden Globes fare no better with Bus Stop. Marilyn was nominated as Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical for a role that is overwhelmingly dramatic. Classifying a performance like Cherie as comedy reveals the extent to which the label of “Marilyn the comedic actress” was imposed over the reality of her work. And again, this is not an isolated case. Audrey Hepburn won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama for Roman Holiday, a clearly comedic performance; Judy Garland won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical for A Star Is Born, despite the fact that her performance is fundamentally dramatic; Jim Carrey won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy for Man on the Moon, a performance that is essentially dramatic. When categories are used arbitrarily, awards stop measuring talent and start manufacturing narratives.

Most troubling of all, however, is the Academy’s systematic treatment of Marilyn Monroe. It is not that she failed to win; it is that she was never nominated. Not for Bus Stop, not for Some Like It Hot, not for The Prince and the Showgirl, not for The Seven Year Itch, and not for The Misfits. In the specific case of Bus Stop, the injustice is even more striking: Don Murray received an Oscar nomination, albeit absurdly as a supporting actor, while Marilyn was completely ignored, despite delivering a clearly superior performance. Murray himself openly acknowledged this, stating that he did not understand how Marilyn had failed to receive a nomination and emphasizing that her performance was the true emotional core of the film. Marilyn’s first fully method-based performance was greeted with strong critical praise at the time, and today Bus Stop is widely regarded as one of the greatest Oscar snubs in history. The case of The Misfits is even more revealing. Many consider it Clark Gable’s finest performance. Gable won an Oscar during his career and was nominated several times, though not for The Misfits. If this film is regarded by many as his best work, and Marilyn not only matches him but, in the view of many, surpasses him in emotional truth and intensity, then Marilyn did not merely deserve a nomination; she deserved to win the Oscar for that film. That she received no recognition while Gable continued to be celebrated as a legend speaks volumes about the prejudices and hierarchies operating within the Academy.

In conclusion, neither the Oscars nor the Golden Globes are reliable measures of acting talent. Their practices of nominating lead performances as supporting, classifying dramatic performances as comedy and comedic ones as drama, and systematically excluding performers who do not fit their preferred narratives strip them of objectivity and prestige. Bus Stop, starring Marilyn Monroe and Don Murray, stands as one of the clearest examples of this failure: an exceptional dramatic performance misclassified, a co-lead strategically placed in a supporting category, and an actress ignored despite critical consensus. These awards do not celebrate talent; they celebrate their own interests. And, as the saying goes, there is none so blind as those who refuse to see.

References

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