Humphrey Bogart: The African Queen (winner)
Arthur Kennedy: Bright Victory
Fredric March: Death of a Salesman
Montgomery Clift: A Place in the Sun
Marlon Brando: A Streetcar Named Desire
What’s Missing
1951 is a decent year in film, one perhaps better than it looks based on Oscar nominations. That’s true across the board, not specifically for Best Actor.It would, I admit, be a huge stretch for Oscar to consider Claude Leydou for his work on Diary of a Country Priest for 1951, but I can consider him. The same could be said of Michael Rennie and his work on The Day the Earth Stood Still because early science fiction was never much in Oscar’s wheelhouse. The fantasy elements of Pandora and the Flying Dutchman may have kept James Mason off the list, which is a damn shame. The real miss for me, though, is Kirk Douglas. I could see him nominated for Detective Story and I could see him more easily nominated for Ace in the Hole. To see him nominated for neither is crazy.
Weeding through the Nominees
5. Putting Arthur Kennedy in fifth here for Bright Victory is much more about the film than it is about Kennedy. Despite his five nominations (this was his only one for a leading role), I don’t think he’s every really gotten the respect he deserves as an actor, and today he’s pretty much forgotten. What I’d like is a better role for him to be nominated for. So much of Bright Victory ends up feeling cobbled together, like the sort of role that was designed to be nominated for awards. Throw in the odd racism of the film and I’m not sure it plays.
4. I like Fredric March as well, and I have a fondness for this version of Death of a Salesman. I get the feeling here, though, that it’s the role being nominated and not so much the actor. There are few American stage roles more iconic than that of Willy Loman. And yet for me, Biff Loman (played here by Kevin McCarthy in his only Oscar-nominated role) is the central character of the drama, even if he’s not the biggest role. In a lot of ways, this is McCarthy’s film so much more than it is March’s.
3. Bogart earned only three Oscar nominations and The African Queen was his only win. Both of those facts are mildly tragic. I’m a huge fan of Bogart; I like everything about him. His persona worked really well for him and because of that, he played against type just about perfectly. I just don’t like The African Queen that much. I’d be so much happier with Bogart winning for Casablanca or The Caine Mutiny or one of about a dozen other films. It feels like a career win in the guise of competition, and Bogart deserved better.
2. Had you talked to me about this half a decade ago, I’d have never believed that I’d be putting Monty Clift in second in an Oscar race and putting him above Bogart and Fredric March, and yet here we are. I’m actually a little surprised at the nomination because of the subject matter of the film. But, regardless of how much we might hate his character in this, it’s impossible not to respect what Clift does with his role in A Place in the Sun. It’s hard for me to really love a hateful character, and Clift is a hard sell for me, and yet I’m happy to have him in second.
My Choice
1. Willy Loman might be one of the most famous American stage roles, but Stanley Kowalski is in that same company. More importantly here, someone could play Willy Loman without reference to Fredric March, but anyone playing Kowalski since 1951 is referencing Marlon Brando. Few people have become that completely connected to a role that is considered that formative and important. A Streetcar Named Desire was Brando’s coming out party, and while he get his Oscars in later years, there’s no way anyone else should have walked away with the statue in 1951.
Final Analysis
Tragic is a good word to use for Bogart's win this year. Someone who was deserving in roles that were equally so many times over wins for a less than great performance in a silly picture. I'm glad he has an Oscar but as was their wont the Academy gave it to him at very much the wrong time.
ReplyDeleteMy placement would be very much the same as yours except that Bogart would move to dead last for me, and how sorry I am to write that sentiment.
If Brando wasn't in the mix I would love to see Clift win, outside of Prewitt in From Here to Eternity this is his best film performance. But Brando is there and out of these five it just seems incredible that he lost especially with his three costars taking the win (don't get me started on Kim Hunter's victory!).
Now if we're talking an open field he would come in second to Kirk Douglas in Ace in the Hole. Brando is completely interlaced with Stanley and that kind of iconography is hard to match but Douglas goes very deep into the repellent Chuck Tatum and at least for me gives a more complex portrayal. Ace in the Hole tanked at the box office which I think is why Douglas didn't make it (though Sweet Jesus Strangers on a Train was a huge hit and Robert Walker's brilliant work wasn't recognized so you never know.)
There were several other worthies. You mentioned James Mason in Pandora but I thought he was stronger in The Desert Fox. John Garfield was customary excellent in his last film He Ran All the Way as was Michael Redgrave in The Browning Version. But the award shouldn't have landed anywhere else but in Brando or Douglas's hands.
I missed that The Desert Fox was this year, and it's a good mention. That said, I'm pretty much going to mention James Mason in every year he had a starring role and wasn't nominated. His lack of an Oscar win is (to me) one of the most inexplicable Oscar facts, up their with Joseph Cotten and Myrna Loy never being nominated.
DeleteDouglas for Ace in the Hole would certainly be in the running for me. I'd probably still go with Brando, but Douglas really should be here, and I'd probably have him in second.
Does it say something about the year when three of the great performances--Brando, Douglas, and Clift--were for such miserable bastards?
Couldn't agree more about James Mason, such a talent and not nearly recognized enough. But that's the same for Myrna and Joe Cotton.
DeleteInteresting fact that I just discovered-TCM is showing some of Cotton's films this morning which led me to think it was his birthday (they do that sort of tribute usually) and looking at all of the birthdays James Mason and Joseph Cotton share a birthday though they were four years apart-Cotton being older.....and it's today!
Don't ask how I know this, but Joseph Cotten and James Mason were exactly as far apart in age as I am with Dermot Mulroney.
DeleteI pretty much agree with your thoughts on this one. I think Bogart should have gotten his Oscar for Treasure of Sierra Madre.
ReplyDeleteOr Casablanca or The Caine Mutiny or The Maltese Falcon...
DeleteIn a Lonely Place would be another. I will say a lot of people love The African Queen...I'm just kinda meh about it.
DeleteRight--there are a lot of places I'd much rather see Bogart on the stand for.
DeleteWow what a list to pick from! Agree with your ranking and with inclusion of Kirk Douglas for Ace in the Hole.
ReplyDeleteDouglas is by far the biggest miss here, especially with two worthwhile films and roles. I'm probably still going with Brando, but Douglas should be in the running.
DeleteA Place in the Sun, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Ace in the Hole certainly are elevated by the great performances. I love all three of those films.
ReplyDeleteBogart is a category on to himself, his acting style is very specific. The chemistry between Bogart and Hepburn make The African Queen work, though it isn't a film which lingered in my memory.
Don't get me wront--I love Bogart. I just don't love The African Queen, and I wish he'd won for a different film.
DeleteOn a side note, Alastair Sim deserves mention for his memorable lead performance in Scrooge (1951). Considered by some to be the definitive of the many film versions of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol
ReplyDeleteDammit, I missed that the Sim version was from this year. It's my favorite version of the tale, but a great deal of that belongs to the great Michael Hordern, who is the best Jacob Marley in film history.
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