'transitive verb + among the most ...noun'

[hwpc48]

Are the expressions like (a) or (b) acceptable?
(a)
Over a two-year period (1971-2), Fuest released among the most original pair
of horror pictures ever made, both starring the legendary Vincent Price as
Anton.
(b)
The Eastman has gained among the highest ratings both for research and teaching
in recent UK Government assessments.
Below are some comments.
(1)
I haven't come across this `among' construction before, but your
examples sound OK. My immediate reaction is to say that `among' is
head of a PP functioning as direct object. In CGEL, p 646-7, exx
[35]-[37], we allow for a narrow range of PPs functioning in
positions usually filled by DPs or NPs, and I think these `among'
PPs are a further case of the latter. I can't see why the
construction should be restricted to occurrence as complement of
`have': have you looked for other examples?
(2)
In these sentences, "among the" and "one of the" are used to soften
the superlative"most." Such constructions are used when people want to
avoid such absolutes as "John is the most talented artist around."...　　
Thank you for your correspondence. I hope that this response has adequately
addressed your questions about the use of the phrase "have among the most."
(3)
I take your point, but I assume that 'among the most...' is itself in its
entirety the object noun phrase; as it would be in the case of 'one of the
most...'. The　whole thing is the object. Maybe that's why it struck me
as inelegant, because it's odd for a noun phrase to start with 'among'.
Looking at your examples, I would prefer the construction 'one of' or
'some of'; I think they work well in both of them. Maybe 'among' is meant
to sound less definite - as I said, I don't think it's very elegant, but
I don't think it's grammatically objectionable.

[Tdol]

They're acceptable to me, though the first doesn't trip off the tongue. With among and most and pair, there are too many elements for it to work very well. I can see what the writier means, but you could argue that he is referring only to films that came as pairs, so rephrasing it would iron the bumps out.

[hwpc48]

Tdol, Thank you for your comment.