Introducing... The Supporting Actress Nominees of 1964
Friday, June 27, 2014 at 4:00PM You've met the panelists and this Monday (June 30th) the Smackdown arrives. So, let's meet the characters we'll be discussing.
As is our Smackdown tradition we begin by showing you how the performances begin. Do their introductions scream "shower me with gold statues!"? Do the filmmakers prepare us for what's ahead? Here's how the five nominees we'll be discussing are introduced (in the order of how quickly they arrive in their movies). Do any of these introductions make you want to see the movie?
THE INTRODUCTIONS
-Dr. Shannon
-Miss Fellowes
7 minutes in. Meet "Judith Fellowes" (Grayson Hall in The Night of the Iguana)
After a prologue where Dr Shannon (Richard Burton) appears to have some sort of loss of faith mental breakdown in a church where he preaches, we see that he's now giving tours of Mexico. Enter Judith Fellowes with a gaggle of old women, immediately questioning his fees. Her gaze is direct (he doesn't return it) and they enter the bus where she leads her women in a sing-along. Dr Shannon doesn't appear to like her. At all. More friction is surely ahead on their travels.
The Lions are calling for a Christian."
9½ minutes in. Meet "Mrs. St. Maugham" (Dame Edith Evans in The Chalk Garden)
The Chalk Garden makes by far the biggest deal of its venerated supporting actress introduction. We literally spend the first long scene of the movie waiting for Dame Edith to appear. Our protagonist Miss Madrigal (Deborah Kerr) has arrived to Mrs St Maugham's enormous home to be interviewed for a governess position to her tempestuous granddaughter (Hayley Mills). Regarding the plot setup - StinkyLulu aptly tweeted...
4: Early60s big on magical nannies. 62/ MiracleWorker; 64/MaryPoppins & ChalkGarden ; 65/SoundOfMusic. #BoomerThing? #64StinkyThoughtsOn1964
— Brian Herrera (@stinkylulu) June 26, 2014
Anyway... The bell offscreen rings and the butler says to Miss Madrigal "The lions are calling for a Christian" (funny). Cut to: Mrs. St. Maugham writing at her desk, pretending to be oblivious/surprised that someone has entered her chamber even though she rang the bell for them. The immediate impression: She likes to rigidly control every situation, she thinks quite highly of herself, and she's probably as difficult to deal with as her granddaughter.
[non subtitled shouting.]
16½ minutes in. Meet "Madame Hortense" (Lila Kedrova, Zorba the Greek)
The introduction of this old widowed hotelier, which only shows your hands, gives you nothing of her character or personality except perhaps "excitability". But it's already signalling her importance to the plot because the camera shifts quickly to her point of view, the first time we've gone outside the reality of the two leading men. She watches them arrive in her village through a telescope and shouts out an unsubtitled bit of dialogue to a villager below her window. We'll get a proper very lengthy introduction shortly thereafter.
Sure had yourself a good time today, didn't you Missy?
19½ minutes in. Meet "Velma Cruthers" (Agnes Moorehead, Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte)
After a grisly 1920s prologue wherein teenage Charlotte's married lover is murdered with a meat cleaver (presumably by Charlotte) we jump ahead 40 years and old/crazy Charlotte (Bette Davis) is terrorizing city laborers who want to tear down her house. Cut to: Velma in the shadows of the mansion hearing the ruckus and running to the veranda. Who is this? This instant familiarity, teasing Charlotte about her temper with admonishment and comfort, signals her as the person who runs things... including Charlotte. Her outfit signals that she's the housekeeper. What's with the lurking and placating ... concern for or manipulation of her volatile employer?
Henry, what a disagreeable surprise!
1 hr and 24 minutes in. Meet "Mrs. Higgins" (Gladys Cooper, My Fair Lady)
Just after the intermission of this super-sized musical, at the glorious Ascot Gavotte setpiece, we meet Henry's mother. She's given a full star's entrance, costumed in a different color than all other woman in the scene, back to camera so she can turn into frame for her reveal. Her face immediately falls and we see where Professor Higgins got his rude streak from. Like mother, like son.
Reader Comments (14)
Is this the right place to complain about Glynis Johns NOT being nominated?!!
Peggy Sue - I think it is. I will complain as well. I think Glynis should have been nominated instead of Gladys Cooper.
'Cast off the shackles of yesterday.' What great advice!
Tennessee Williams, cabana boys, and AVA GARDNER! What more could you possibly want in a film?
Yes to Glynis! Yes to Ava! They should have taken the places of Gladys, much as I love her and the eventual winner Lila Kedrova.
I would place Gardner in Leading, though. But yes, she definitely deserved to be nominated! BAFTA was always more generous with Ava than AMPAS... Sigh.
Oh, Glynis. The negligent parent as genial, earnest eccentric – preoccupied but never dumb. Who else could open the film with the extraneous and entirely baffling-to-most-kids "Sister Suffragette", and make it work? It wasn't until years later that I realized her big song actually supports “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”; from Jane and Michael’s perspective, Mr. and Mrs. Banks already seem like they speak vaguely important nonsense all the time, but with Poppins they’ve found an adult who admits when she’s bluffing!
"1 hr and 24 minutes in"
if you can watch a whole other movie before a character shows up i'd suggest they're extraneous
#scriptnotes
Yay for Glynis John fans. i can sometimes handle in retrospect when a great performance isn't nominated because i'm like "well, these other movies are what they liked this year"... but when that happens, a movie they otherwise love and they ignore one of its best elements? confusing.
@par-In Gladys Cooper's case I'd agree with you but I think there are exceptions. Vanessa Redgrave in Atonement had that one scene at almost the end of the film and her performance was a so finely observed I had hoped she would be nominated, and she was in the conversation that year. True she was completing the arch of the character played so well by two other actresses but it was she who really brought it home.
The other example I can think of is Carolyn Jones in The Bachelor Party, another one scene wonder who was actually nominated. She showed up late in the relatively short film and totally stole the picture, admittedly not hard to do with that nihilistic drag of a film but her performance is so delicately beautiful she deserved the recognition.
Nathaniel-I think Hollywood's attitude towards Glynis Johns was confusing on the whole. A bewitching and unique talent that the powers that be weren't able to figure out how to cast properly most of the time resulting in her best work being done in British films that didn't get the wide audience that would have made her a bigger star.
She was an enchanting comedienne and like her closest counterpart Kay Kendall romantic comedy should have been her niche but she was frequently cast in drama with a plum comic role, Miranda, Mad About Men, The Court Jester, Mary Poppins, only coming along infrequently. Perhaps she was too competent at all genres, she's very moving in the dramatic segment "Gigolo and Gigolette" of the film Encore and as the doomed mother in All Mine to Give, and like Myrna Loy and Ida Lupino was taken for granted.
joel6 - i appreciate that insight because she's just woefully underappreciated. STILL.
On another matter:
Happy Ramadhan Month to my fellow moslems all around the world.
May we all be fasting happily!
Here are my best supporting actresses for 1964:
1. Edith Evans in „THE CHALK GARDEN“ (Great Britain)
2. Françoise Lugagne in „LE JOURNAL D'UNE FEMME DE CHAMBRE“ (France)
3. Lila Kedrova in „ALEXIS ZORBAS“ (Greece)
4. Grayson Hall in „THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA“ (USA)
5. Irene Papas in „ALEXIS ZORBAS“ (Great Britain)
6. Lola Albright in „LES FÉLINS“ (France)
7. Ann Sothern in „THE BEST MAN“ (USA)
8. Angela Lansbury in „DEAR HEART“ (USA)
9. Jitsuko Yoshimura in „ONIBABA“ (Japan)
10. Agnes Moorehead in „HUSH … HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE“ (USA)
10. Jessica Walter in „LILITH“ (USA)
11. Anastasija Vertinskaja in „GAMLET“ (Russia)
12. Yûko Kusunoki in „AKAI SATSUI“ (Japan)
13. Eva Dahlbeck in „ÄLSKANDE PAR“ (Sweden)
14. Louise Latham in „MARNIE“ (USA)
15. Suzanne Flon in „THE TRAIN“ (USA)
16. Nelly Benedetti in „LA PEAU DOUCE“ (France)
17. Anne Meacham in „LILITH“ (USA)
18. Margaret Leighton in „THE BEST MAN“ (USA)
19. Glynis Johns in „MARY POPPINS“ (USA)
21. Ava Gardner in „SEVEN DAYS IN MAY“ (USA)
22. Jeanne Moreau in „THE TRAIN“ (USA)
23. Kim Hunter in „LILITH“ (USA)
24. Eva Dahlbeck in „FÖR ATT INTE TALA OM ALLA DESSA KVINNOR“ (Sweden)
25. Angela Lansbury in „THE WORLD OF HENRY ORIENT“ (USA)
26. Harriet Andersson in „FÖR ATT INTE TALA OM ALLA DESSA KVINNOR“ (Sweden)
27. Bibi Andersson in „FÖR ATT INTE TALA OM ALLA DESSA KVINNOR“ (Sweden)
28. Anne Vernon in „LES PARABLUIES DE CHERBOURG“ (France)
29. Gladys Cooper in „MY FAIR LADY“ (USA)
30. Lynn Redgrave in „GIRL WITH GREEN EYES“ (Great Britain)
31. Mona Washbourne in „NIGHT MUST FALL“ (Great Britain)
32. Diane Baker in „MARNIE“ (USA)
33. Xenia Valderi in „IL DESERTO ROSSO“ (Italy)
34. Pamela Brown in „BECKET“ (Great Britain)
35. Maggie Smith in „THE PUMPKIN EATER“ (Great Britain)
36. Martita Hunt in „BECKET“ (Great Britain)
37. Anita Björk in „ÄLSKANDE PAR“ (Sweden)
38. Keiko Kishi in „KAIDAN“ (Japan)
39. Elizabeth Ashley in „THE CARPETBAGGERS“ (USA)
40. Larissa Kadotschnikowa in „TINI ZABUTYKH PREDKIV“ (Russia)
41. Tatjana Bestajewa in „TINI ZABUTYKH PREDKIV“ (Russia)
Thomas - thorough. Why didn't you vote on the smackdown?