The Next Year

1986

So the nominees were:

• Jane Fonda in The Morning After
• Marlee Matlin in Children of a Lesser God
• Sissy Spacek in Crimes of the Heart
• Kathleen Turner in Peggy Sue Got Married
• Sigourney Weaver in Aliens

This year is never talked about. OK, almost never. So it will be really interesting. I can barely wait.

What do you think? What's your ranking? What do you predict for my ranking?

Note: I know I posted 2003 already but it turned out that I have to wait a little bit more for In America, so I'm really sorry. I solemnly promise to do that year as soon as I can! I decided to pick 1986 because all the movies were readily available for right now. Sorry again.

The requested years that I've had: 1938, 1945, 1970, 1971, 1981, 1986, 1987, 1988, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2008. From these, 1938, 1945 and 1970 fall into the almost impossible category (1970 is the most likely). 1981 and 1987 could happen but I have to get Anna and Only When I Laugh somehow. However, I'll probably have access to all of the movies of the other years.

The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 1958

1958

So the much anticipated ranking is:

5. Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mamie

Somehow I feel that Roz Russell's performance as Auntie Mame is quite lacking and not a really great one. There's something really off-putting about it and I feel she could have tried harder to elevate the material. It might be that she didn't impress me because I don't go for this type of performance. I don't know why I didn't like her but the point is that I wasn't impressed at all.

4. Deborah Kerr in Separate Tables

I liked Deborah Kerr in Separate Tables, despite the fact that she didn't give the best performance of the ensemble an she was too much outshone by some of the fellow members of the cast. If we look at her performance out of its context, it's a pretty great one. It just pales in the context of the movie and the rest of the performers. Still, good job that works well.

3. Shirley MacLaine in Some Came Running

Although it's true that Shirley MacLaine gave a great performance as Ginnie Moorehead but she was trapped in a movie that's constantly working against her, plus she didn't have enough time to develop the character as well as she could have/should have. Still, I applaud Shirley for making Ginnie loveable and being the best part of her movie.

2. Susan Hayward in I Want to Live!

It's no wonder that Hayward won the Oscar for this performance. Although I have some problems with her work here, I can say that she's indeed fantastic at showing all of Barbara's emotions. It's a very realistic portrayal of a desperate woman who wants to live. Hayward made this character much more complicated and layered than most actresses would have.

1. Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

This is a wonderful performance that (at least to me) lives up to its reputation. Elizabeth Taylor is really fantastic as Maggie, the Cat, creating a fascinating, complex, multi-layered character. The fierce emotionality Liz added to Maggie is just brilliant. You can so easily identify with this character thanks to Taylor's greatness in this part. Extraordinary work.

So I can proudly announce

that my 30th winner is...

Elizabeth Taylor

in

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

The first double winner. :)

Final thoughts: A so-so year. I didn't give any 5s but I guess a year can be great if I don't give any 5s. It wasn't the problem here. This ranking surprised me though I was almost sure that Liz would win. There was only one really fantastic performance (Liz), Susan was "just" fantastic. I had my problems with the others. Roz was quite much for me, Shirley was very good but she was robbed of enough screentime, so it couldn't have worked anyway. Deborah is not my favorite actress but I really liked her in Separate Tables.

About the next year: I don't have any idea yet, I still want to save 1967. Originally, I wanted to do that but I want to save the great years. I'll think about the next year but I'd be glad to have requests. :) It's your turn. I don't want to make a poll because that usually turns out bad and I'm rather superstitious.

What do you think?

Deborah Kerr in Separate Tables

Deborah Kerr received her fifth Oscar nomination for playing Sybil Railton-Bell, a shy spinster in the Best Picture nominee, Separate Tables. This was the fifth unsuccessful nomination for Deborah but I don't think she even had a prayer of winning that year. Susan Hayward (as I said) was almost a sure thing plus Liz Taylor and Rosalind Russell were both stronger contenders and bigger names than Deborah Kerr. I'd say that Deborah might have got ahead of Shirley MacLaine who was just becoming a major star. What if is a very interesting question of 1958. What if Susan Hayward hadn't been in contention? I'd say Elizabeth Taylor would have won because her performance was a surprisingly deep one and she was the hottest star plus she had the sentiment on her side because of the death of her husband. I guess Deborah would have lost anyway.

Separate Tables is not really talked about nowdays, unfairly, I might add as it is a pretty good movie. I wouldn't say it's my pick for Best Picture but I enjoyed it. It's a real ensemble picture, full of great, world-famous actors who give very good performances. Rita Hayworth stands out the most, I think and I feel that she might have deserved a nomination though I'm not 100% sure. David Niven gives a very good performance but I feel that Sidney Poitier or Paul Newman deserved to win more (I usually switch my vote for 1958 and 1963 between them). Wendy Hiller dismissed her own Oscar win. Although I agree with that she wasn't amazing, I still think she was the best of the weak nominees that year and she was pretty great this way, too.

Deborah Kerr (as you might know) is not one of my favorite actresses. Some go for her dignified, subtle acting style but I'm not one of those. I prefer highly emotional performances with lots of fire and music. That's me. Of course, that doesn't mean that I cannot respect certain works of Ms. Kerr, I just don't think that she's the greatest. It's fun, though, that she was born on 30th September like me (and Marion Cotillard). I know that I said it last time but I'll say it again and again.

Separate Tables is really an ensemble piece so it takes a very special performance to stand out. And as such, we cannot really talk about leading characters, in my opinion. Everyone is either leading or supporting. However, back then category placement was a matter of vanity and not competition. I guess, nowadays an actress with Deborah's role would go immediately supporting and would have an excellent chance of winning. And that's really something that I admire about the actresses of Old Hollywood. They weren't desperate enough to humiliate themselves by going supporting just to ensure the win. That is certainly very positive pride.

It takes a special performance to stand out in an ensemble movie, as I said but Deborah Kerr's work as Sybil is, unfortunately, not special at all. It's not even the best or most significant part of Separate Tables. Actually, I'm quite shocked that she was recognised over Rita Hayworth. Not because Rita was miles better (she was actually) but Deborah's role is not showy and (apart from one scene), it's very quiet and she's mostly in the background sitting without a move.

Sybil is a shy spinster who's probably in love with the major played by David Niven. Sybil has to put up with her awful, bossy and very snobbish mother (Gladys Cooper, reprising her role from Now, Voyager) and she wants to gain some freedom. However, she's too afraid to take action and things get very ugly for her. She has to be disappointed in the major and she's more and more under her mother's influence. Deborah shows Sybil as a mentally unstable, very sensitive woman who's screaming inside and wants to have a better life. It's shown very well by Deborah and I most certainly want to praise her for making Sybil such a sympathetic character. I really did want her to be happy and I think Deborah portrayed the necessary emotions really well. I was most certainly impressed by that. Also, she quite carefully developed this character and none of the changes seemed forced or unrealistic.

There's one serious problem about Deborah. She doesn't get enough spotlight and since her role is not the best of the movie, she gets stuck too much in the background. When I saw her and Rita Hayworth, it was so hard to focus on Deborah as Rita was so great and Deborah seemed a little bit dreary compared to her. However, the breakdown of Sybil was played excellently by Deborah and I was really touched by those scenes.

So I can say that I liked Deborah Kerr in Separate Tables, despite the fact that she didn't give the best performance of the ensemble an she was too much outshone by some of the fellow members of the cast. If we look at her performance out of its context, it's a pretty great one. It just pales in the context of the movie and the rest of the performers. Still, good job that works well.

I gave a 4 to Shirley, too, so I'll give it to Deborah.

What do you think?

Shirley MacLaine in Some Came Running

Shirley MacLaine received her first Best Actress nomination for playing Ginnie Moorehead, a vulgar, loud young girl in Vincente Minnelli's Some Came Running. I don't think that Shirley had any chance of winning the Oscar that year. She was a relative newcomer, this was her first nomination and there were bigger, more overdue stars than her (namely Susan Hayward, Deborah Kerr, Rosalind Russell and Elizabeth Taylor). I guess this was the sort of breakthrough nomination that's so often given nowadays. The members of the Academy discovered Shirley's talent and the nom helped her get a lot of great roles that made her a real star.

Some Came Running is a weird movie and it's not good at all. It's overlong, way too complicated and long. There are so many storylines and the whole thing just didn't make any sense to me. I was really confused sometimes and I didn't see the point of the actions of the characters. I guess the Academy members liked it more as they gave a couple of nominations to this one. Arthur Kennedy got her last Oscar nomination for playinf Frank. I don't really think that he deserved to be recognised as he wasn't anything special. The same goes for Martha Hyer who's so clichéd here.

Shirley MacLaine is not among my favorite actress but I guess you know that quite well already. But there are things that I like about her acting. She could play a young girl with a heart of gold so easily and believably. I even liked her Irma La Douce, which is quite a rare thing. She perfected this type of character in the Best Picture winner, The Apartment. Things were changing later and she started to play mothers and I don't like those performances that much though Terms of Endearment was quite good.

However, Some Came Running she was still in her girl-with-a-heart-of-gold period. Ginnie is a girl who meets a military man and quickly falls for him. But Ginnie's mobster ex-boyfriend goes after them and wants to take her back, causing a real tragedy. Ginnie seems to be a real troublemaker but in fact, she's probably the most innocent character of the whole movie. She's naive and she loves Daniel like a child. Ginnie's emotions are really pure and she doesn't want to hurt anybody. I think Shirley was great at showing Ginnie's personality, which is not really complicated but there's more inside her than it seems.

In the beginning, we see her as a loud, over-the-top girl who's instantly humiliated by Frank Sinatra's character, Daniel. Ginnie's love is so strong that these things don't bother her. After that, she's not on screen for a very long time and even after that, she's rarely there. Shirley only becomes a leading character towards the end of the movie, until that she's just a colorful element of the background. I'm not saying that she's bad, it's just that I didn't see enough of her and she was not outstanding enough to survive the movie's gaps. I guess that's the biggest problem of this performance. The overall effect of it might have been much stronger if she had been given more screentime. This way, we can only be touched by the ending (which is indeed very good).

So it takes a lot of time to really see how good Shirley is as Ginnie Moorehead. As I said, she was best at creating Ginnie's innocence and showing her loving personality. All the scenes of humiliation are done excellently by her and the character almost broke my heart. She was the only character in this movie that I really felt sorry for. In fact, she was the only character who had depth and who was properly written and played. Shirley deserves lots of credit for being the only great thing about it movie. For me, watching this film meant waiting for her to come because I knew that something good was going to come. Like the scene where she goes to meet her "rival", a schoolteacher with whom her love is in love with. It's a really heartwrenching moment done exceptionally well by Shirley. She perfectly showed Ginnie's determination to get the man she loves more than anything. It was a sad moment but a great one.

I still have to say that I wasn't truly blown away. Although it's true that Shirley MacLaine gave a great performance as Ginnie Moorehead but she was trapped in a movie that's constantly working against her, plus she didn't have enough time to develop the character as well as she could have/should have. Still, I applaud Shirley for making Ginnie loveable and being the best part of her movie.

I decided to give her a 4 because of the strength of some of the scenes.

Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame

Rosalind Russell received her last Oscar nomination for playing the title role of Auntie Mame, a very eccentric, free-spirited woman who has to take care of her nephew after her brother dies. If Susan Hayward hadn't been nominated that year, I think Russell might have won. She was overdue and she had a successul movie and won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical. I feel, though, that her star faded a little bit at the time and she wasn't as popular as she was 15 years before. Still, I think she was at least the third. That being said, I think Russell's 'time' was in 1947 when she infamously lost to her friend Loretta Young.

Auntie Mame is movie that I really didn't like much. It's much better than Travels with My Aunt but I don't think that it deserved a Best Picture nomination. There are many "funny" situations but I never laughed out loud. The art direction and the costumes were, however, just excellent and I feel the movie deservedly received those nominations. I guess audiences at the time must have been crazy about this movie but right now it didn't really impress me. Peggy Cass is amusing in some moments but I didn't feel that she really rocked in that role or deserved a nomination.

Rosalind Russell is an actress I don't really know what to think about. I saw too few of her movies to judge her overall work. For example, I loved her in His Gorl Friday, but I thought she really overacted in Mourning Becomes Electra. She might have been one of those actresses who were nominated for the wrong roles or something. She's now mostly renowned for her comedy roles so I was actually quite looking forward to watching Auntie Mame, which is one of her most popular movies.

One expression sums up Rosalind Russell's performance the best: over-the-top. Her Mame is a very exaggerated character, who's quite loud and colorful. This is not exactly the type of performance that I go for and this one was not an exception, either. All in all, I wasn't impressed by Roz Russell. One would expect a very significant and grand entrée from such a character but somehow it wasn't that big. She's just there and that's it. She's saying things to her nephew in a very over-the-top manner, she has colorful costumes and that's it. That might be heavenly for some, but not me.

Roz Russell is really weird as Auntie Mame. You don't get a full picture of her and you don't know what to think about her. The character's development is not solved very well by Roz. Mame might be a fickle person but I don't think that she changes that fast. Her motherly instincts become strong from one moment to another without anything that could make it more believable.

Roz wass great at comedy in general and she solved the funny parts of the movie well without making Mame a total idiot. Although the horse riding scene if on the edge, Roz somehow survived that one, too. There are parts when Mame is more sarcastic and those scenes show something of the His Girl Friday Roz. Otherwise, this is not one of her best comedy performances on the screen.

This doesn't mean that she's not amusing in some of the scenes. She did not make me laugh out loud but she made me smile once in a while. Mame's extravagance is quite entertaining if you get used to it. Because you really have to empty your head to enjoy this performance. If you really think, you will be disappointed but you'll like her to a degree if you don't think that much. Because there are really stupid things about this performance. If you're willing not to care about them, you'll be quite pleased by Roz, ortherwise you'll have two and a half hours of suffering. I think you should let yourself get used to this character.

Still, somehow I feel that Roz Russell's performance as Auntie Mame is quite lacking and not a really great one. There's something really off-putting about it and I feel she could have tried harder to elevate the material. It might be that she didn't impress me because I don't go for this type of performance. I don't know why I didn't like her but the point is that I wasn't impressed at all.

What do you think?

Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Elizabeth Taylor received her second Best Actress nomination for playing Maggie Pollitt, a woman who's desperate to have some connection to her husband in the movie Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Elizabeth Taylor's second nomination was even more significant than her very first one one year earlier. This time, she played a truly complex character in a movie that's based on a contemporary play and that was nominated for Best Picture. Still, I don't believe that she had a chance of winning over Susan Hayward. She may have got ahead of Roz Russell but Hayward was unbeatable that year. Nowadays, however, many people think that Liz should have won her first award for this performance of hers instead of BUtterfield 8.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a movie that's a milder version of Tennessee Williams' play. Still, I think it's a brilliant movie and I might even give it my vote for Best Picture. The filmmakers had to be very careful with the censors but I still feel that Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is quite a progressive and brave piece of work and everybody can be proud of it. The ensemble cast is just brilliant. Everybody has the so-called 'moment' and everyone is very memorable. Paul Newman might have even become my own Best Actor pick. Burl Ives is, simply, astonishing. I think they mixed up the titles of the movies and that's why he won for the wrong film. Moreover, Judith Anderson was robbed of a nomination and perhaps even a win.

But what can I say about Elizabeth Taylor? I wrote a bit cynical review about her on the day she died (right before that) and that still hurts me a bit. Although as an actress she's not one of my favorites, I love Elizabeth Taylor, the star. Nobody had a star power or a beauty like hers. And yet the celebrity gradually overshadowed the actress and we didn't see her in more great movies in which she could have given great performances. However, she gave an almost legendary performance in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at a time when she was at her prime as an actress.

Her nominated performances (except the last one) consit of several parts: screaming, crying, a big monologue and an effective ending. While these things didn't work with me in Raintree County or Suddenly, Last Summer, they were absolutely fine her, in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Somehow, I felt that she did this part with total, almost brutal honesty and that she really felt for Maggie the cat. When she filmed this movie, a personal tragedy came in her life: she lost her husband, Michael Todd who died in a plane crash exactly when she began filming. I guess that helped a lot. All the sorrows that Liz must have felt came to surface in this part and in a very good way.

In my opinion, Maggie, the Cat is a fabulous character like all the female characters that were created by Tennessee Williams. Somehow, he had an instinct for writing great parts for actresses. Although Liz didn't originate this part, it seems to have been taylor made for her (no pun intended). Her high-pitched voice fit Maggie's personality so well and what could have been really annoying somewhere else worked totally well here. I just loved the way that she handled all the pain and desperation inside Maggie. Liz's performance becomes so strong and intense and as a result, the audience can relate to the character so easily.

Liz has a great monologue at the beginning where she's complaining to her husband about the lack of love (and sex) she receives. We can feel Maggie's sadness but we can also observe her determination to change things. Liz shows that Maggie is an incredibly strong and loving woman who just wants to love and be loved. She does everything possible for her husband. And she fights for his benefits, too if she has to. Maggie experienced poverty (as she says in a wonderful monologue) and she doesn't want that to happen once again.

I have one complaint, though. It's that the greatness of Liz mostly shows itself at the beginning and towards the ending she doesn't get as much spotlight as she would deserve. That's not a minor thing but it's forgiveable as it's not really Liz's fault.

Still, this is a wonderful performance that (at least to me) lived up to its reputation. Elizabeth Taylor is really fantastic as Maggie, the Cat, creating a fascinating, complex, multi-layered character. The fierce emotionality Liz added to Maggie is just brilliant. You can so easily identify with this character thanks to Taylor's greatness in this part. Fantastic work.

Again, a strong 4,5.

What do you think? I think Liz was at her most beautiful here. She was incredibly sexy and beautiful. Gaaah... :) Do you agree?

Susan Hayward in I Want to Live!

Susan Hayward received her fifth nomination and her overdue Academy Award for playing Barbara Graham, a woman who's sentenced to death because she took part in killing a paralyzed old lady in the movie I Want to Live!, which is based on a real life case. Last time when I was writing about Greta Garbo, I mentioned a locked Oscar win. That was certainly the case with Susan Hayward. Everybody wanted her to win, she won every award. It really was her time in every possible way: she had an extremely baity role, she played a controversial real-life character, she was way overdue plus she was a beloved superstar. No surprise that she won and the audience applauded enthusastically.

I Want to Live is actually a much better film than I remembered. Although it starts out very oddly, it turns out to be a very effective piece of work that was more than worthy of a Best Director nomination (I'd not even complain about a win). It's a very intense and exciting experience and I loved the fact that it minimalised the clichés of the movies about capital punishment. So if you watch it, don't expect a cheesy drama with tears and such. It's actually a very tough movie that is sometimes really nerve-wreckingly exciting.

Susan Hayward. I really cannot say much about her as I've only seen one movie in which she starred and that's her Oscar-winning role in I Want to Live! I haven't seen her roles as alcoholic women in Smash-Up and I'll Cry Tomorrow. True from what I can see, she seems to be an actress who went for really baity roles. In fact, some even consider her the one who invented Oscar baiting (though I would argue with that). All in all, I have the difficulty of not being able to compare this one to her other works and therefore, I may not even be able to properly evaluate her.

Just like the movie itself, Hayward's performance also starts out a bit out of tune and it seems very odd and weird. We get to know Barbara Graham as a very immoral, careless woman, whose credo is "Girls just wanna have fun." That being said, this character is not a saint and she doesn't come off as a very likeable person. The only thing that really bothered me about Hayward's performance is in connection with this. I felt that she was quite hammy in the beginning and somehow I was turned off by her line readings. And I became quite confused: is this the character or did Susan exaggerate Barbara's personality? In the end, I reached a decision about it: I think it's both. Although Barbara is indeed a character who's quite over-the-top, Hayward was a little bit too much at the beginning of the movie.

Still, that's the only bad thing I can say about Susan as apart from that. she gives an incredible performance as Barbara. Maybe not incredible but at least fantastic. I loved the way Susan developed Barbara. She both changes and remains the same. On the outside, Barbara is raging and then she's in peace but inside, she remains the same wild girl whose instincts can take her over. She has very loud outbursts and meltdowns, she's crying, screaming and so on. This might seem way too much but for me, it all worked. I can't say why, I was just really impressed by her.

The courtroom scenes are also handled extremely well by Hayward. We see Barbara fighting for her justice/freedom and all the emotions that Hayward shows are really impressive. She swears on everything possible, cries and screams (again) and it's so understandable. I can totally imagine the real Barbara acting this way.

What quite probably won Hayward this Oscar was the emotionality of this performance. We really feel sorry for Barbara even though we're never certain if she was really innocent. We are sorry for her when she's hysterical when they want to take her baby away and we're feeling really awkward when she goes to her own execution. Her last scenes are incredibly effective and one just keeps wondering about what she whispered to the priest in the end. Did she say "I did it?" Hayward brilliantly added all the shades and layers to this character and it's obvious that Barbara knows much more than she says.

So to sum up, it's no wonder that Hayward won the Oscar for her performance as Barbara Graham. Although I have some problems with her work here, I can say that she's indeed fantastic at showing all of Barbara's emotions. It's a very realistic portrayal of a desperate woman who wants to live. Moreover, Hayward made this character much more complicated and layered than most actresses would have.

A strong 4,5.

What do you think?

Note: Dear Readers, you seem to be quite inactive with this year. Are you so uninterested in this year? I could use 1 or 2 comments. :)

The Next Year

1958

So the nominees were:

• Susan Hayward in I Want to Live!
• Deborah Kerr in Separate Tables
• Shirley MacLaine in Some Came Running
• Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame
• Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Wow, an interesting looking year but I don't have any idea how my ranking will look like. At the time, a whole country wanted Susan Hayward to finally win and her triumph was one of the most applauded ones (if not the one) in history. Many people are still talking about that year with sweet memories, so we'll see if I go with America's pick of the time or somebody else.

What do you think? Who's your pick? What are your predictions?

The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 1937

1937

So the much anticipated ranking is:

5. Luise Rainer in The Good Earth

This is a decent performance and I can really understand those who love it but I also understand the arguments against it. Still, Luise Rainer gives a very loveable and truly great performance as O-Lan which may not be for the ages but it is certainly very memorable and its emotional nature is truly impressive. Well done work with some incredible moments by a great actress.

4. Janet Gaynor in A Star is Born

I can say that Janet Gaynor is very good as Esther Blodgett/Vicki Lester but I can't say that she really is great. She's very charming, she's very loveable but the limits of her role prevented her from being truly outstanding in this part. As I said, she's really enjoyable but I couldn't help wanting a little bit more. It's lacking work but a good one, at least.

3. Barbara Stanwyck in Stella Dallas

This might be the weakest one of Barbara's nominated performances but I still enjoyed her work as Stella Dallas. Although the character is quite unlikely and even a little bit confusing, Barbara makes her so entertaining in a very weird way. I can't explain why I liked her this much but I was really blown away by some of the scenes.

2. Greta Garbo in Camille

I have to say that Garbo really succeeded in creating a very complex and likeable character and a great performance despite the fact that she obviously has her flaws. Still, Garbo's luminous presence and wonderful personality might make up for the weaker sequences. Overall, it's a great performance that I really liked, I am still feeling a bit strange about her.

1. Irene Dunne in The Awful Truth

When I almost gave up on 1937, along came Irene Dunne to charm me with this incredible performance as Lucy Warriner. Not only does she give, what I consider one of the funniest performances ever, but she also breaks your heart a little bit as you really start to care about Lucy and her life. It's really incredible work and it's 100% right what Cary Grant said about Irene.

So I can proudly announce

that my winner is...

Irene Dunne

in

The Awful Truth

Ready for your speech?

Final thoughts: A good year but not a great one. Irene was an easy winner and the ranking of the nominees was incredibly easy. Only Irene was truly fantastic but Barbara was really-really close to that. Garbo might have even inspired Maria Callas with this role but she left me a little bit colder. Luise was very nice but not enough and the same goes for Janet Gaynor. Overall, I liked this year but it wasn't outstanding in any way. Plus, I had to say goodbye to Barbara Stanwyck as I've written about all of her nominated performances and that makes me really sad. :(

About the next year: Wow, I looked for a special year to celebrate the first anniversary of the reviews and I found it. But before that, I'm doing a less special but interesting year. It's gonna be incredibly obvious after the clue :):

• I want to win! :@ GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH...
• I feel like a ..t on a .o. ..n ..o.!

What do you think?

Barbara Stanwyck in Stella Dallas

Barbara Stanwyck received her very first Best Actress nomination for playing the title role of Stella Dallas. Brilliant Barbara Stanwyck. She's widely considered to be the greatest actress never winning an Oscar and rightfully so. Yes, she got that Honorary award much later but I don't think that her loss for Double Indemnity, one of the all-time best performances, is forgivable. I wonder with the words of Norma Desmond about the Academy. "Don't they know what a star looks like?". Stanwyck herself thought that she should have won the coveted award for this role as Stella Dallas. I think she didn't have very much chance over Garbo, Dunne and, of course, Luise Rainer. It's interesting that 1937 was "the time" for three of the nominees and yet none of them won. That makes me sad and I guess that fact makes people dislike Rainer's win so much.

Stella Dallas is such an unlikely and yet interesting movie. It's a typical 30s melodrama with all its drawbacks but I think some of it works quite well. Although it's not a stylish soap opera like many of the later melodramas. It's definitely not King Vidor's best work but I still liked it and I don't think it's as bad and trashy as many people say. The performances are (except for Barbara) quite horrible, especially the one by John Boles who plays Stella's husband. Anne Shirley is not much better, either. Sometimes I felt as if she played the lesbian lover of Stella Dallas, not her daughter. And when she was really "girlish", she was annoying as hell.

Thanks to my reviews on this blog, out of nowhere, Barbara Stanwyck became my favorite movie actress along with Jane Fonda (Deciding between them would be so tough. Interesting enough, I once asked Jane Fonda about Barbara Stanwyck and she said she really liked her but I'll tell about that later, if you're interested.). She has a presence and a voice like nobody and she's probably the most versatile actress of her era. Even the big shots like Bette Davis or Katharine Hepburn were quite repetitive sometimes but I never felt that with brilliant Barbara. Her range covers the femme fatale, the soap opera matriarch (not a trashy diva like Joan Collins and such), the insufferable bitch, the foul-mouthed dancer and the self-sacrificing mother.

Walter Matthau once said about Barbara that when she was good, she was great but when she was bad, she was terrific. Nothing could sum up Barbara's performance in Stella Dallas better. Stella is definitely a soap opera character (and a very unlikely one) and yet Barbara somehow made me feel sorry for Stella and care about her. Barbara didn't suffer from the movie as much as she could have and even more, she achieved real greatness in some of the scenes.

Many people are bashing her earlier scenes because it's overacted by Barbara. I have to both agree and strongly disagree. Yes, she was a bit hammy in some of the scenes but I always felt that it came mostly from the bit trashy character and it wasn't completely Barbara's fault. At first, Stella is a dreamer who wants to be a rich, sophisticated lady. She becomes rich, but not sophisticated. I guess Barbara brilliantly showed all the changes in this woman and how she gradually gave up herself. And only because of one thing: motherhood. Somehow, motherhood turns Stella into something very unlike her. She remains the same person but she also becomes very caring, loving and protective.

The previously mentioned hamminess works well, however, in the scene at the train where she's laughing in a very rude way and everybody's looking at her (that's where I saw the parallel between Stella and myself :D). Many would say it's a very embarassing moment but for me, it all worked.

Still, the real greatness in this performance comes after Stella's sacrifice. Interesting enough, her sacrifice is not as sentimental and melodramatic as I expected, it's much more quiet than I thought. After her over-the-top behaviour, Stella listens to a conversations where two girls are laughing at her. Barbara's face is so expressive and brilliant there. I was totally astonished by that sequence. Same goes for the one, where she's lying to her daughter about why they cannot be together. I don't want to give away much but it's really heart-breaking to see her. If I'm talking about heart-breaking moments I cannot forget the very last minutes of the movie when Stella is watching her daughter's wedding from the street. There was a small nuance that I observed that was totally amazing. Barbara bit her handkerchief. I don't know why but I think it was a moment when Barbara's genious came to surface.

Yes, this is the weakest one of Barbara's nominated performances but I still really liked her performance as Stella Dallas. Although the character is quite unlikely and even a little bit confusing, Barbara makes her so entertaining in a very weird way. I can't explain why I liked her this much but I was really blown away by some of the scenes. The really brilliant Barbara showed her greatness that had yet to bloom after this movie. Really great early work.

This was my last review of a nominated Barbara Stanwyck performance. I'm incredibly sad. Incredibly sad. :( :( Who's gonna make me feel good? :( :D

What do you think?