The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 1951

1951

So the much anticipated ranking is:

5. Eleanor Parker in Detective Story

I just don't want to bash Eleanor's work here. I found her approach to the part totally wrong and I thought that she wasted a lot of important opportunities in her character that would have made a lot of difference in the movie and her performance. However, I was still intrigued by her and her magnetic presence kept me interested in her character whose storyline was the most interesting one in the movie. I'm confused.

4. Katharine Hepburn in The African Queen

Katharine Hepburn gives a wonderful, enjoyable performance that really makes her movie an exciting, interesting and memorable experience. She uses all her charm and talent to create a character, which she makes twice as intriguing as you would expect. She fills the role of the spinster with real spirit, which makes her a welcome presence everytime you see her. And her her chemistry with Humphrey Bogart is indeed perfect.

3. Shelley Winters in A Place in the Sun

Shelley Winters gives a wonderful, heartwrenching performance as Alice in A Place in the Sun. She took a very simple character and made her an intriguing personality, with whom you can easily sympathise. You feel for her from the beginning to the shocking end and the way Shelley develops this character is just extraordinary. Truly memorable, haunting piece of work that really elevates and enriches its movie, one that stays with you long after the credits roll.

2. Jane Wyman in The Blue Veil

Jane Wyman gives a beautiful, touching and heartwarming performance that's really worth waiting for it. I instantly connected to the character and Jane constantly captivated my heart and soul. It really is a piece of work that doesn't seem to be a big achievement and yet it really is something special for me. Although I might be a bit too sentimental about this work of Wyman, I'm not ashamed to say I was deeply moved by Wyman's acting here. 

1. Vivien Leigh in A Streetcar Named Desire

Vivien Leigh's performance as Blanche DuBois is indescribable. No matter how much I'm sweating and trying to point out parts of her brilliance, I constantly fail as you have to see Vivien's acting for yourself to feel her brilliance. Her acting in A Streetcar Named Desire is something that words cannot really describe so if I have to give a brief summary about what a brutally, unbelievably amazing performance hers is, I have to turn to Brando who said: Vivien Leigh was the best Blanche. She was Blanche DuBois.

So I can proudly announce

that the winner is...

Vivien Leigh 

in 

A Streetcar Named Desire

This stranger also loved you, Viv.

Final thoughts: What a brilliant, endlessly intriguing year! I've wanted to do it for so long and being able to finally see all the films... I'm amazed. The winner was no surprise, naturally, if it was, check into the next hospital. Yeah, it's all about Vivien (who became a two-time winner joining Jane, Great Glenn, Liz and Barbara), but the others were excellent as well. I have positive feelings even about Eleanor who's the weakest link here. Anyway, I don't want to say too much, it's been one of my favorite years so far. 

Omissions:

• Elizabeth Taylor in A Place in the Sun

About the next year: We have not one, but TWO winners of the predicting game, so congrats Marc and Nues20! Joe also found it out after the usual deadline (which has always been so), but since he wants 2007 so badly, it'll be AT LEAST the first year I'll do from now since I forgot about the deadline myself. :) So you guys pick a year and those will be the next ones! :) You'll make my life easier because I had no idea what to do next. :) It stars on Monday, I know that for sure. :) 

What do you think? Any thoughts on your mind?

Jane Wyman in The Blue Veil

Jane Wyman received her third Best Actress nomination for playing Louise Mason, a woman who dedicates her life to raising other people's children after the death of her own. I ask myself this question: after winning the Golden Globe, was Jane a serious threat for the win? Not very likely as Vivien Leigh seemed to be an overwhelming front-runner for the Best Actress prize so anyone else could only be a distant second. Wyman might have been in that position though I'm still not sure about how Shelley Winters and Katharine Hepnburn fared with Academy members. Moreover, Jane had just won an Oscar so there was no rush to reward her again. We'll never know but that Golden Globe win still bothers many people. 

It came as a shock even to myself but I absolutely loved The Blue Veil. It was such a lovely, wonderful movie, with some necessary sentimentality, which by the way wasn't as bothering as it could have been. I was incredibly touched by some of the storylines, even though they were all really predictable. As one review says on imdb, The Blue Veil is a first-rate tear-jerker and I cannot say more than that. You either like it or not, simple as that. I especially loved the storyline of Joan Blondell and Natalie Wood, which was by far the most interesting one (which even overshadowed Jane Wyman). Blondell was 100% deserving of her Oscar nomination and in another year, I would seriously consider giving her my vote. And Natalie Wood was able to act circles around people even when she was 13 (even when she was 9 so I guess that didn't come as a shock).

When Jane Wyman won a Golden Globe for her role on the soap opera Falcon Crest, she was joking on the podium if one could win an award for playing a nice person and that made me wonder how odd it really must have been for her. In the 40s and 50s, she played these angelic, incredibly warm women in tear-jerkers and she received excellent reviews and Oscar nominations for doing so. However, the taste of the audience changed considerably in thirty years. It was no wonder that many of the great actresses of Wyman's era went on to play bitches on primetime or nighttime soaps. Their acting style seemed dated and that hasn't changed a lot. By today's standards, the acting of Wyman and her peers can seem quite ancient and only a few seem as great as they did back then (Barbara Stanwyck comes to my mind first). 

However, when you watch an older movie, you have different expectations and I tried to evaluate Jane Wyman's work compared to her contemporaries. In the end, I felt I didn't even need to as her work in The Blue Veil speaks for itself. It's not the sort of acting masterclass that we look for in A Streetcar Named Desire or All About Eve, it's just a piece of work that still works excellently despite the fact that it was intended for people with very different thinking and values. I suppose that's what helped her win the Golden Globe over Vivien Leigh: this movie is a typical old Hollywood vehicle for a huge star (and stars are really what the Hollywood Foreign Press loves). 

But the thing is that when writing about this performance, I always think that I don't have to listen to what my brain says about Wyman and instead, as cheesy as it is, go with what I felt about her. Margaret Thatcher wouldn't approve of this, I guess but I go with my feelings anyway. First of all, I was attached to this performance even before I saw it as it's one of the most hard-to-find movies in the Best Actress category. That was the case with Country, Anna, The Constant Nymph, but The Blue Veil was always the big one and it seems like such a big achievement just to watch it (many thanks to Cal who posted it on youtube). And for me it was worth the wait. 

There was one thing about Jane Wyman here that really got me from the very first moment. Thanks to the excellent interpretation of Wyman, I could feel the sadness and of her character. Even when she smiled, I could feel how full of sorrow she really is. She's a kind but extremely withdrawn and repressed human being and I was amazed by how well and effortlessly Wyman pointed out how tragedy formed the personality of this woman. There's one heartbreaking fact going with her: the children she raises belong to her and yet she can never really become the mother of them and even when it seems to happen, society's (and biology's) rules contradict her. 

The movie and Wyman show the journey of Louise where the children seem to be very different destinations. Louise loves these children differently and for different reasons and their attachment is different every time. And as a result, Louise becomes a magic nanny very much like Mary Poppins with the exception that she doesn't leave after she fixed everything. Louise doesn't solve problems, she becomes a mother to the children who don't even seem to have one (for whatever reasons). And in my opinion (many would argue with this), Jane even reveals the flaws in this character. She shows that Louise has to resist the temptation of considering herself the real mother of her children up to the point where she does so. The only thing that's missing here for me, is that Jane could have underlined this aspect more and instead she often went for the easier, more effective and tear-jerking solution, even though I can just as well imagine that this is mostly due to the movie and the story. 

Louise's final story with the abandoned child is probably the most important one in the film as it's destined to be the most effective one: Louise is really old and she becomes the real mother of a child finally and she doesn't want to give up this state. And Jane nails all the monologues about her character's love for that child and yet for me the most memorable moments come in the end where (SPOILER) Louise meets all the children she raised. One just cannot resist dropping some tears when watching these scenes, even when it's out of courtesy. And I was especially moved because Jane seemed to achieve all this with minimal acting and she remained as subtle as she was throughout the movie. 

To sum up, Jane Wyman gives a beautiful, touching and heartwarming performance that's really worth waiting for it. I instantly connected to the character and Jane constantly captivated my heart and soul. It really is a piece of work that doesn't seem to be a big achievement and yet it really is something special for me. Although I might be a bit too sentimental about this work of Wyman, I'm not ashamed to say I was deeply moved by Wyman's acting here. 

What do you think? (Vivien's review comes tomorrow or on Friday depending on the amount of comments I get). :) 

The Next Year

1951

So the nominees were:

• Katharine Hepburn in The African Queen
• Vivien Leigh in A Streetcar Named Desire
• Eleanor Parker in Detective Story
• Shelley Winters in A Place in the Sun
• Jane Wyman in The Blue Veil 

A rarely talked about year where the (legendary) winner seems to be a very easy one with everyone else a little bit ignored (party because the movies are pretty hard to find). Let's see if I go for the very popular winner or one of the four other ladies. 

What do you think? Who's your pick? What's your prediction for my ranking? :)

The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 1954

About the field: Wow, this was quite probably the most interesting line-up so far. It's far from being the best, but it was so colorful and I had much pleasure in it. Too bad that nowadays it's more about Garland vs. Kelly and they forget the other great nominees. My ranking was not as easy as I thought when I finished reviewing the ladies. There was one good, two very good, one very-very good and a timeless, amazing performance. My pick was very easy and I understand why people hate that loss. But the ranking:

5. Grace Kelly in The Country Girl

On the one hand, she's painfully miscast and in the beginning she has no weight. On the other hand, in the end her presence and effect is quite strong and is worthy of my praise. Not easy to judge it, but I myself missed her mysterious persona from her other movies, in other words, the essence of Grace Kelly.

4. Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina

This may not be Audrey Hepburn's best work, but I was utterly charmed and perfectly entertained by it despite its lack of great character development. But I laughed, I was moved, I cared about Sabrina and most of all, I had some kind of an emotional connection to her

3. Jane Wyman in Magnificent Obsession

Jane Wyman gives a satisfying, emotional and very moving performance, which however lacks depth. It might be also due to the weak points of the screenplay, but she wasn't able to be towering and truly impressive. Although everything is where is should be, the achievement is a bit too thin. Very strong work, though.

2. Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones

I must admit that I was totally charmed and mesmerized by the magnetic presence and extraordinary beauty of Ms. Dandridge, who gave a very exciting, wild, sexy and attractive performance as a very complicated woman. A great achievement by a great talent.

1. Judy Garland in A Star is Born

If you travel 1000 years in time and see which performances people still remember, Judy Garland's in A Star Is Born will be one of them. Judy Garland's acting achievement is really one of a kind, a true and eternal classic, one that cannot be forgotten or overlooked by anyone who loves movies. This might be a performance for the ages.

So I can proudly announce

that my winner is...

Judy Garland in A Star is Born

Don't be that surprised! :)

About the next year: Picking was so hard. I wanted to do two other years, but I did not get the movies after all and I was incredibly mad. So I was forced to find a year, which is interesting to me. So finally I found a fine year to do. The clues:

• Friendship forever
• #1 annoying fanclub for an actress and a nom
• (L) Tortured artists (L)

There was one right prediction from Joe, which was a bit late, but I just mention it.

So what do you think? Any observations, thoughts, request for the next years?

Jane Wyman in Magnificent Obsession

Jane Wyman received her fourth and final Best Actress nomination for playing Helen Philips, a woman who becomes blind in Douglas Sirk's movie, Magnificent Obsession. I think Wyman did not have much chance to win the Oscar over Grace Kelly and Judy Garland as she was a previous Oscar winner. I believe firmly though, that she was the third with the votes since the movie was a success (and along came another Jane Wyman-Rock Hudson movie, hat has become a classic).

Magnificent Obsession is a very weird, but extremely entertaining soap opera. The story is so unlikely and illogical that you just cannot take it seriously and by this, you have great fun while watching it. It's not a classic, but a fair movie anyhow with great actors. I realized with this movie and Pillow Talk how talented Rock Hudson was actually. He had a very strong charisma and a great screen presence. Too bad that nowadays he's more remembered because of his private life than his performances. Agnes Moorehead is again very reliable and gives a fair supporting performance.

Jane Wyman is an extremely interesting actress. On the one hand, she's not as legendary as some of her peers and she's not often talked about. On the other hand, every time I watch her, I feel satisfied by her performances. (I must admit though that this every time means two movies). She totally relied on her emotions, but was able to deal with the technical part of her performances too.

She was great at playing disabled women dealing with their condition. In Johnny Belinda she was deaf, here she's blind. Although the characters cannot be more different, they share a common thing: strength, courage and intelligence. I think Wyman was the best one at this and there has never been a performance ever since who's able to get across the feelings of such a condition. That's one thing.

Magnificent Obsession's Helen goes through a lot of tough events in this movie. Right at the beginning of the film, she loses her beloved husband. This is probably the least effective part of her performance as these scenes mostly focus on Rock Hudson's character rather than hers. She's there, uses all the opportunities, but she's nothing very special. Yet.

Her performance becomes truly interesting when Helen loses her eyesight in a very tragic and extremely over-the-top accident. It's so interesting to follow her emotions: she doesn't blame everyone, she doesn't break down, but there's some silent pain right there and some hope for the unlikely recovery. She's truly magical here.

The scenes of finding true love are also excellently handled by Wyman. She never becomes over-the-top or unnecessarily sentimental, she brilliantly found the balance in these sequences. I was impressed by her very much, but I cannot overlook a problem: the emotions she shows are astonishingly shallow and pale. It is astonoshing since the heartbreaking depths were the best things about her performance in Johnny Belinda. She was too simple and there was nothing complex about her acting.

There's one scene though, which is simply unforgettable. After she realizes the very unpleasant reality in Switzerland she goes on a date with Rock Hudson: here I felt that all the necessary emotions were there and I was certainly extremely moved by her occasionally. When she says "I always closed my eyes when I was dancing" or something like that, her performance really reaches the top and has a great effect on the viewer.

After that she disappears for a while and she's there only in the end, but she's very-very good and effective there, too. I felt that the emotions again were very real, but also not very complex and a touch of honesty would not have harmed her acting. However, as I said, it's quite moving and entertaining.

To sum up, Jane Wyman gives a satisfying, emotional and very moving performance, which however lacks depth. It might be also due to the weak points of the screenplay, but she wasn't able to be towering and truly impressive. Although everything is where is should be, the achievement is a bit too thin. Very strong work, though.

So what do you think? Predictions, opinions? Who should be next Audrey or Dorothy? I'm planning to do Garland on Thursday. So whoever you chose, will be reviewed tomorrow and the other one on Friday or maybe Saturday, if I don't have time.

The Next Year

Now it's time to move on and continue the fun with a very controversial and talked about year, which is talked about mostly because of two nominees. But let's see which one of them I prefer or I go with someone else.

1954

So the nominees were:

• Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones
• Judy Garland in A Star is Born
• Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina
• Grace Kelly in The Country Girl
• Jane Wyman in Magnificent Obsession

So what do you think? Who's your pick? What's your ranking? Any predictions for my ranking? I am not sure either as I have previously seen only one of them.

I've already written Grace Kelly's profile, so she will be the first, but YOU decide who the next should be.

The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 1948

About the field: Well, this year turned out to be way better than I expected. However I must say that my ranking looks much different than I thought it would be. I'm most shocked at my #5 as I expected her to become my pick. Nevertheless I can say that I saw two mindblowing, one great and two very good performances, so I can conclude that this was a rich and versatile year, which I really enjoyed. My ranking wasn't that easy, because there was some competition for #1, but in the end my pick was obvious. So now it's time to see the ranking

5. Irene Dunne in I Remember Mama

Irene Dunne gave a heartwarming, lovable performance which definitely had it's flaws but it did not bother me for her strong presence attracted my attention all the way. Great work, which had amazing moments in it.

4. Ingrid Bergman in Joan of Arc
Another unpopular and not talked about performance that I was impressed by. Her last huge scene left a huge impact on me and I simply loved her You can hate Ingrid in this, you can hate me for this, but it doesn't change anything.

3. Olivia de Havilland in The Snake Pit
She's courageous, charming and yet far from amazing or very memorable. I think that this performance might grow on me, but now I'm disappointed. Had I not heard that much about her, I would have been satisfied, but this way I'm feeling a bit awkward.

2. Jane Wyman in Johnny Belinda
I saw a great performance, which aged well and was much better for the second time. My admiration has dropped a bit in time but I still have to admit how great she is in this movie. Very good and memorable work.

1. Barbara Stanwyck in Sorry, Wrong Number

I can honestly say that I was very-very impressed and that I saw one of Stanwyck's finest works, which completely grabbed my attention from start to finish mainly caused by Stanwyck's dexterity with emotions. A really intriguing character study.

So my winner for this year is...
Barbara Stanwyck in

Sorry, Wrong Number
Barbara has just found out. :D

So now I've finished this very exciting year. So now it's time to move on. Unfortunately I can only start it in a week (precisely on Monday, 16th August). But naturally, I give you clues as usual, which will be TOO easy this time.

• Adultery, a guilty pleasure
• Being an artist is never easy
• Did you like The Green Mile?

So what do you think?

Jane Wyman in Johnny Belinda

Jane Wyman, the star of movies and television received her second Best Actress nomination and only Oscar for playing Belinda Macdonald, a deaf, but very intselligent girl, who's raped by a local bastard whom she later shoots in the movie Johnny Belinda. Wyman also received a Golden Globe for her performance and yet she thought that she would surely lose to Irene Dunne. She should not have been so pessimistic as the Academy found her to be the Best Actress that year.

Johnny Belinda is a brilliant movie, which I enjoyed much more for the second time and right now I can understand all its nominations. It might even get my vote in the Best Picture category. The acting is truly top-class: Lew Ayres gives a very subtle and memorable performance as the local doctor teaching Belinda, but Agnes Moorehead and especially Charles Bickford also stand out in their roles. The directing and the screenplay are both flawless and they are excellent jobs.

And there's Jane Wyman. Boy, I was almost in tears when I was watching her. For the first time I loved her, but did not notice that she was THIS brilliant. I mean, she's so utterly heartbreaking and lovely that I she made me literally speechless. She says so much simply with her face (she does not have a single line in the movie, but this is probably one of the most difficult characters one can receive). Wyman is a big emotional dynamite in this movie that sometimes she becomes almost unbearable to watch.

The biggest achievement of Wyman was that she was not afraid to show a darker side of Belinda. This is also a typical deglam role, but unlike Olivia de Havilland, Wyman does not use this to prove how beautiful and great she is. Easily put: her acting was not so forced that I saw her sweating. She gently pampers your heart with her charm, loveliness and most of all her very expressive face. Throughout the entire movie I felt a certain warmth in my soul.

It's also amazing how well she solved the development of her character. First she's like a scared little animal, who has potential in herself, but cannot express herself. Then she becomes more certain in herself and learns until she becomes a very intelligent woman who's able to take care of her child.

And we get to witness these change through very memorable, heartwarming and even terrifying sequences. Her most famous scene is probably the one where she's raped, which is in my opinion almost unbearable to watch despite the fact that it lasts for about 5 seconds and it doesn't show anything rough. But the true fear which one can notice in her eyes is alone Oscar-worthy: it's so chilling and harrowing that one will never forget those 5 seconds. The worst thing about it is, that we know what that awful man does to her, but she doesn't understand a thing about it, only that she's being hurt.

Belinda's innocence however doesn't fade completely. She remains a kind, lovely girl, but the fear and this horrible experience completely poisoned her. She's almost oddly believable and credible in these scenes: Wyman's stardom becomes unimportant, we cease to believe that it's her acting. She totally lived Belinda's character, breathed with her.

And yet I say that this is NOTHING compared to her greatest scene, where she's praying in sign language: it's such a gutwrenching, heartbreaking and tearjerking experience that is almost impossible to describe. That's probably one of the best-acted scenes that I have ever seen. It's really no exaggeration to tell that Wyman hit such heights with this role that it's almost impossible to top.

I have already mentioned how fearlessly Wyman revealed the darker side of this character: when Belinda feels that her baby whom she loves more than anything or anyone is in danger, she's not even afraid to kill anyone. Wyman show the instincts of a mother, who's merciless, if she has to protect her son.

So to sum up, I saw a great performance, which aged well and was much better for the second time. My admiration has dropped a bit in time but I still have to admit how great she is in this movie.

So what do you think? This was our last nominee. So conclusions tomorrow! :)

The next year...

Hi everyone, I'm back from my vacation so now it's time to go on with our next year, which is (as you all guessed well) 1948. I don't know either how my ranking will look like as I only saw the winner, but I can give links to ALL of the movies. On forums this year is mostly talked about because of the performances of de Havilland and Wyman, however I can pick anyone, so let's just start it. I think I'll see at least two excellent performances and naturally I'm waiting for your preditions.



So the nominees were:

• Ingrid Bergman in Joan of Arc
• Olivia de Havilland in The Snake Pit
• Irene Dunne in I Remember Mama
  
• Barbara Stanwyck in Sorry, Wrong Number
  
• Jane Wyman in Johnny Belinda
  

So what do you think my ranking will look like?