All evening, the Oscar ceremony looked on course for a Scarface reunion of Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer to introduce the final award for Best Picture.
Instead, Pacino walked out by himself to present the category, with the announcer portraying this as a tribute to the 50th anniversary of one of Pacino’s signature movies, The Godfather. (The first Godfather film was released 52 years ago, in 1972.)
While the Scarface reunion was never announced, it was fully expected, and Pacino and Pfeiffer were both confirmed as presenters, so Pacino going solo was a surprise.
According to sources, Pfeiffer was not able to attend the ceremony for personal family reasons and was on the East Coast Sunday night.
In Brian De Palma’s 1983 gangster movie Scarface, Pacino played rags-to-riches Cuba refugee Tony Montana, who becomes a drug kingpin in early-1980s Miami. The film tracks his spectacular rise and eventual cocaine- and machine-gunfire fall that occurs in large part because Montana fall for the trophy wife (Pfeiffer as Elvira) of his boss (Robert Loggia).
De Palma’s Scarface eventually became a cult classic but took a while to get there; it didn’t receive any Oscar nominations though it did score a Razzie for De Palma for directing.
Pacino, however, has had better luck with the Oscars, with nine nominations in his career and the Best Actor win in 1993 for Scent of a Woman. Pfeiffer has been nominated for three Oscars, most recently the same year as Pacino won his in fact, a Best Actress nom for Love Field.
