Pacino should have won Best Actor for Serpico

Jack Nicholson in The Last Detail - perhaps his greatest performance - would be my pick. Marlon Brando in Last Tango in Paris would have a lot of advocates, too.

I remember it & watched it again just a few months ago. It's still a fine, heartbreaking film, too. Though I agree that it was a great year for fantastic performances; I wish they could have given out more than just one Best Actor award that year.

I agree. Lemmon did well, but I do feel Pacino gave a more timeless performance (which is still remembered today; whereas people have forgotten this movie)

The Academy ended up giving Pacino the award for "Scent of a Woman" decades later, to make-up for his failure to ever win an award. Serpico would have made a better win in his resume than Scent of a Woman

But at the same time --- I think the Academy felt that Lemmon was due; at the time, Lemmon had never won for Best Actor (only once for Supporting Actor). The Academy couldn't let him go winless, they felt

It's unjustly forgotten. Some fine films are, unfortunately.