Oscar Nominations: 3

 

Story and Screenplay (Original): Ernest Lehman

Art Direction-Set Decoration (color): William A. Horning, Robert Boyle, Merrill Pye; Henry Grace and Frank McKelvy

Film Editing: George Tomasini

 

Oscar Awards: None

 

Oscar Context

 

In 1959, “Ben-Hur” swept most of the Oscars, including Art Direction and Editing.  William Wyler's historical epic won over Otto Preminger's courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Murder,” which lost in each of its 7 categories; the Holocaust drama, “The Diary of Anne Frank,” which received 7 nominations and won 3; Fred Zinnemann's morality tale “The Nine's Story,” which also lost in each of its 7 nominations, and the superb British drama “Room at the Top,” which won 2 out of its 6 nominations.

 

The winner of the Original Story and Screenplay Oscar, as the category was then called, went to Russell Rouse, Clarence Green, Stanley Shapiro and Maurice Richlin for the comedy “Pillow Talk,” starring Rock Hudson and Doris Day.