tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post3677228273104523676..comments2024-03-27T21:42:56.131-05:00Comments on 1001plus: Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Actress 1938SJHoneywellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13550007053995112090noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-41117161476244570162018-04-28T15:54:37.988-05:002018-04-28T15:54:37.988-05:00Fair enough. I'll keep an eye out for it.Fair enough. I'll keep an eye out for it.SJHoneywellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13550007053995112090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-50980367674569071662018-04-28T08:19:22.824-05:002018-04-28T08:19:22.824-05:00I'm probably in the minority on preferring Kat...I'm probably in the minority on preferring Kate over Bette in this instance but as I said it's very close even for me between them. <br /><br />Holiday is the last film she made at the end of box office poison period before she departed for the East and The Philadelphia Story on stage. She had already cut ties with RKO and it was a one off for Columbia when George Cukor insisted on her for Linda Seton. It's her third co-starring venture with Cary Grant-who is also wonderful-and the film contains some of Lew Ayres best work as well as her alcoholic brother Ned. <br /><br />TCM programs it pretty regularly and its on DVD so it should be relatively easy to track down.joel65913https://www.blogger.com/profile/14526657073681774683noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-18324874634897450742018-04-27T21:24:15.462-05:002018-04-27T21:24:15.462-05:00Considering the track record of some years, three ...Considering the track record of some years, three out of five isn't bad. I agree on Bainter here. She makes the best of a very treacley screenplay and manages to go toe-to-toe with Claude Rains, which is pretty damn comendable. The story is just laden with drippiness, though, and that's a serious issue. In fact, the only thing that prevents it from being the most over-the-top melodrama nominated is the nomination of <i>Three Comrades</i>, which is pure, uncut syrup. That she does what she can is admirable, but that ending is a solid, stupid mess. <br /><br />My problem with Wendy Hiller almost certainly stems from the fact that the first thing I saw her in was <i>I Know Where I'm Going!</i>, a film I disliked intensely, and one that plays very much on the strength of her character--she's front and center in a film I dislike and I've never been able to shake that. <i>Pygmalion</i> is the film where I started to change my opinion on her because she's such a force in it. She lacks the charm of Audrey Hepburn, but then again, who doesn't? But she is in many ways more admirable, and that's important. <br /><br />I don't know the Hepburn film you mention at the end, so I'll see if I can find it. It would have to be a hell of a performance to move me on Bette, though. <br /><br />SJHoneywellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13550007053995112090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-3929920677835222582018-04-27T15:24:18.008-05:002018-04-27T15:24:18.008-05:00The Academy did pretty well this year in compariso...The Academy did pretty well this year in comparison to some years with three out of five who truly belong here. <br /><br />I’m glad this nomination brought the great Fay Bainter a little immortality as the first actress to score both a lead and supporting nomination in the same year but the lead role didn’t cut the mustard for her to be in this line-up. But if it guaranteed her the win in supporting which she very much deserved I guess it wasn’t too much of a waste of a slot. She’s as capable as she ever was but the film is just so much melodrama. <br /><br />I adore Maggie Sullavan and she makes as much as she can out of the gloopy inanity of Three Comrades but it’s not at The Shop Around the Corner or Mortal Storm level. <br /><br />I’m in and out on Norma Shearer. In my opinion she improved as she got closer to the end of her career when she tamped down the theatricality-it never went away but the hand to forehead excess diminished-and her style is very much suited to Marie Antoinette. Along with 1940’s Escape I think it’s her best onscreen work. I agree the film cries out for color-if Thalberg had been alive when production started I’m sure it would have been but he died in the planning stage and Mayer was not as pampering to the Widow Thalberg. But either way she definitely deserved the nomination-her whole performance is terrific but her final scene really seals the deal.<br /><br />I’m surprised to hear you’re not a Wendy Hiller fan, I think she was a superior actress but we all have our likes and dislikes. Be that as it may I’m in agreement on her Eliza being the best take on the character. She’s wonderfully tough and even after her transformation manages to retain some of her original grit, something missing in Audrey Hepburn's My Fair Lady Eliza. Audrey’s grace was innate and though she tries there’s nothing of the guttersnipe about her ever. Another solid nomination. <br /><br />But out of the line-up Bette is the winner in a walk. Jezebel isn’t a favorite Davis film of mine the way Dark Victory or Watch on the Rhine are but she owns the film. As with her best work she’s unafraid to be a termagant or expose her insecurity. In an open field she wouldn’t be my winner but she’d be an awfully close second. <br /><br />There was a lot of good work this year but I think there were only a couple of other really worthy performances that could have been considered to replace the bottom two. <br /><br />I’d agree that while she was magnificent in La Bete Humaine Signoret was supporting. I would have much rather seen her there than Miliza Korjus in The Great Waltz though Fay Bainter would still come out on top.<br /><br />With her out there’s Ingrid Bergman in the original Swedish version of A Woman’s Face though I’d put her in sixth place. The two strongest contenders are Vivien Leigh as the street performer turned star in the Sidewalks of London and Katharine Hepburn as the restless rich girl in Holiday. I think Hepburn is delightful in Bringing Up Baby showing a side of her talent that didn’t often get utilized which I think is why the performance is so venerated. That’s all well and good but while I wouldn’t say the performance is one-note it doesn’t provide for much shading. Her work in Holiday on the other hand is full of variation and color, it’s my favorite of all her work-I think she was nominated and awarded for all the wrong performances except for The Lion in Winter-and had she been nominated she would be my choice. joel65913https://www.blogger.com/profile/14526657073681774683noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-70471289363957189552018-04-27T14:35:47.019-05:002018-04-27T14:35:47.019-05:00I think that's pretty close to true. She'd...I think that's pretty close to true. She'd beat every 1938 performance for sure. There are perhaps a couple of others in other years I might pick over her, but this is such a great and defining role that there's no other place to go. SJHoneywellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13550007053995112090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-38970869597782775192018-04-27T14:11:38.140-05:002018-04-27T14:11:38.140-05:00A no-brainer, isn't it?
Bette Davis would hav...A no-brainer, isn't it? <br />Bette Davis would have won, as you say, any year on this performance.TSorensenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12208153011927807857noreply@blogger.com