Altman aced this luxuriant yet moving comedy of manners set above and below stairs at an English country estate in 1932, which pivots around a just-discovered murder. The film was nominated for seven Oscars including Best Picture, and won for Best Original Screenplay (Julian Fellowes, future creator of Downton Abbey). The crème de la crème of British thespians gloriously converging includes Bates as butler Jennings, whose meticulous façade only barely conceals insecurities beneath.