Two other attempts to kill Superman with flaming gas jets of fire and an artificial blizzard of ice also failed, but Luthor had successfully lured Superman to his underground lair, his primary goal.She then sliced off his infected arm (at the elbow) with John""s machete, and they applied a tourniquet to the bleeding, amputated stump after cauterizing it with a makeshift flaming torch.Ironically, Julie Andrews was awarded a Best Actress Academy Award for her role in Disney""s competing filmMary Poppins, and Hepburn failed to receive a nomination for her part.Sternwood: I used to like mine with champagne.Champagne cold as Valley Forge and with about three ponies of brandy under it...I like o see people drink...You may take off your coat, sir...Too hot in here for any man who has any blood in his veins.You may smoke, too.I can still enjoy the smell of it.Nice state of affairs when a man has to indulge his vices by proxy.The emaciated Sternwood describes the dreariness of his existence.The humid hothouse is necessary for his survival and he is waiting for death - the "big sleep" of the title - in the temperature-controlled greenhouse:Sternwood: You are looking, sir, at a very dull survival of a very gaudy life - crippled, paralyzed in both legs, very little I can eat, and my sleep is so near waking that it""s hardly worth he name.The film lost both the Best Director and Best Picture awards to Robert Redford""sOrdinary People (1980).