Neil Simon’s “The Goodbye Girl” (1977) was a classic comedy that earned Richard Dreyfuss a much-deserved Oscar for Best Actor. It came against a tremendous challenger in Woody Allen in the lead role in his own “Annie Hall” which won the Best Picture Oscar over The Goodbye Girl. It also earned Diane Keaton the Best Actress award over the Goodbye Girl herself who was wonderful, Marha Mason. The little girl Quinn Cummings was nominated for best supporting actress in a brilliant performance that nearly stole the show. Woody Allen won the Best Director and screenplay awards (Over Neil Simon). It was the best year ever for comedies at the Oscars.
Annie Hall was the last true comedy to win the Best Picture Oscar. There have been some Best Picture winners that had comedic moments such as “Forrest Gump” and “Shakespeare in Love” but they were not traditional comedies. For some reason, the Academy has always had something against Comedies. It’s a shame too because some of the best films in history have been comedies.
As a side note, for what it’s worth, The Goodbye Girl did defeat Annie Hall for Best Comedy at the Golden Globes that year. Marsha Mason also co-won Best actress with Diane Keaton.
Here are some scenes from the classic comedy. The song at the end credits by David Gates is also a wonderful experience.
Here’s the theme song “Goodbye Girl”
Richard Dreyfus winning the Oscar for best actor
The opening sequence
