IT'S HERE! Welcome to the Supporting Actress Smackdown, a summer festival in which we investigate Oscar shortlists from years past. 1947 was a fine cinematic vintage and Oscar made room for a ghostly judge's wife, a countrified mother of 15, a jaded dance hall girl, a single New York City fashion editor, and a righteous rock of a mother in the Supporting Actress race. What's most historically interesting about this particular set is that it's a who's-who of character actress superstars of the 1940s. Get this: all but one of them won this category and received multiple nominations within an eight year span from the mid 40s to the early 50s.
THIS MONTH'S PANELISTS
Here to talk about these five nominated turns and the movies and Oscars of 1947 are, in alphabetical order: critic Angelica Jade Bastién (Vulture), actress Dana Delany (China Beach, Desperate Housewives), lyricist and librettist Thomas Mizer (The Marvelous Mrs Maisel), and actor Patrick Vaill (Broadway's Tony-winning revival of Oklahoma), And, as ever, your host at The Film Experience, Nathaniel R. Let's begin...
1947
SUPPORTING ACTRESS SMACKDOWN + PODCAST
The companion podcast can be downloaded at the bottom of this article or by visiting the iTunes page...
Ethel Barrymore as "Lady Sophie Horfield" in The Paradine Case
Synopsis: A judge's mistreated wife is fascinated with his current murder trial.
Stats: Then 68 yrs old, 21st film, 5th billed. Third (of four) nominations in this category all within a six year span in the forties. 4 minutes of screen time (or 3% of the running time)
Angelica Jade Bastién: Ethel Barrymore plays Lady Sophie Horfield with a tremulous, nervous energy that immediately makes legible the dark aspects of her marriage. There is a tragic, said air that Barrymore imbues the character with. Unfortunately, she’s in two thin scenes and we don’t get to spend much time with her character in order to flesh her out further. ♥♥
Dana Delany: The remarkable thing about Barrymore’s performance is how much she conveys in such little screen time. Evidently the Academy was shown Hitchcock’s longer cut in which she had two more scenes, hence the nomination. But it doesn’t matter because her pas de deux with Charles Laughton is terrifying. She knows her husband is a lecherous sadist but is paralyzed by his abuse. She stutters and apologizes and longs for the young man she loved. But she knows he no longer exists. “Doesn’t life punish us enough Tony?” Her final exit is like a ghost, slipping away. ♥♥♥♥
Tom Mizer: It’s hard to say “Ethel Barrymore” without doing a grand bow to the balcony—so when her character first appears so inconsequential and dithery, I was disappointed. But then I recognized a look in her eye, that of an abused puppy, wanting love but fearful. It’s a small detail that lingers. In a later scene, Laughton doesn’t even seem to notice she’s in the same movie, let alone a longterm marriage. Barrymore’s quick brushstrokes help us see this as a choice and fill in a lifetime of neglect. It’s smart character work that supports theme (smart women kept out of a wealthy man’s world), but this near cameo doesn’t allow her to do much else. . ♥♥♥
Patrick Vaill: This is a headscratcher for me. She's Ethel Barrymore, I get that, but surely there were other performances that could have made this list! She's good, no doubt, but this feels a bit like Ellen Burstyn's 14 second Emmy nominated performance. There's much subtext that she's able to bring out in that last scene, but it feels like a perfunctory nom, like Judi Dench in Mrs. Henderson Presents or Chocoloat. Her eyes are glorious and she is every inch worthy of her legend, but I can't get behind a role this insubstantial being nominated, regardless of the actor. This movie is interesting to me and I really liked it. Apparently its budget doubled over the course of the shoot and the whole thing sounds a bit of a nightmare! Gregory Peck is really gorgeous in both movies. ♥♥
Nathaniel R: I'll say this: despite what is at best an incomplete performance (I didn't know until after viewing that her scenes had been cut and boy does it show in retrospect) she leaves a gossamer haunted impression anyway. She reminded me of Vanessa Redgrave in Howards End, off in her own meditative longing just to the side of the tangled earthier mess all around her. Torn between two and three hearts I opted for generosity due to that fleeting bit where this delicate creature is clearly fantasizing about poisoning her husband. ♥♥♥
Reader Write-Ins: " Nice to see her give it a go against type." - Debby (Reader average: ♥♥½)
Actress earns 16½ ❤s
Gloria Grahame as "Ginny" in Crossfire
Synopsis: A dance hall girl wants nothing to do with the murder investigation she accidentally steps into when she invites a soldier to her place.
Stats: Then 24 yrs old, 5th film, 4th billed. Her first (of two) nominations in this category - she won the second time. 10 minutes of screentime (or 11% of the running time)
Angelica Jade Bastién: Gloria Grahame is an actress that reminds me why I love film in the first place. She undoubtedly gives the most fully realized, multi-faceted performance finding the fault lines of moral complexity and yearning in a figure that could be so easily played at a single register. She’s prickly, knowing, sexy, and carries all that wrapped up in a sullen quality. This is a woman who within a few seconds of seeing Grahame you can understand the totality of the life she’s lived and the things she desires. She’s bursting with such energy and intriguing bramble it’s easy to imagine her leading a film of her own. I could watch Gloria Grahame move for hours on end and still want more. ♥♥♥♥
Dana Delany: Disclaimer: Anyone who knows me, knows Gloria Grahame is my favorite actress. Crossfire is where Grahame establishes her film noir credentials. Right from her golden halo entrance she finds the perfect balance of toughness and vulnerability. But absolutely no sentiment which I adore. She’s got a chip on her shoulder because she’s had to support herself her whole life and she doesn’t belong to any man. When she finally allows, “I liked him. I felt sorry for him” the clouds part for a second and then the sun is gone. One thing I found fascinating about these 1947 films is the way the woman have to “manage” the men. It’s after the war and all the upper-class women must behave and find a way to get what they need somewhat surreptitiously. I appreciate that Grahame’s Ginny has no time for that. ♥♥♥♥♥
Tom Mizer: Her horn blaring, shock of blonde entrance is a lot to live up to. And boy does Grahame scrap and punch to deliver. She’s a live wire, just when the film needs her to break up its talky, repetitive rhythms. She poses, she jabs, she lets silences unsettle—and then she herself is caught speechless for a moment by the gentleness of a dance. In that moment, she gives us a glimpse of the girl from Wilkes-Barre. It’s a lot of performance, but isn’t the character performing for her life? When the film leaves her behind, I wanted to be left with her.. ♥♥♥♥
Patrick Vaill: This movie is gorgeous to look at and I think it's good. It feels sometimes self-conscious of its being the first movie to confront antisemitism-like it's thrilled by its own daring. Traffic is a movie that feels that way too sometimes. Grahame is so fascinating. I think in all of her work she has a strength and a withholding quality that seems borne out of experience; experience that she'll never tell. Her unknowability is used well here. She often seems tormented and uninterested in being 'saved', which I like. She finds strength in her vulnerability, if that makes sense. I wish she had more to chew on here but she's captivating I think it's a good nomination! ♥♥♥
Nathaniel R: She gets the kind of dreamy "star" introductory scene (beginning with a true close up blurring into focus and ending with a slow dissolve on her face) that suggests that the director and cinematographer are going to be doing half the work for the actor. But Grahame is no slouch and their assistance feels like gilding the lily. Especially since this lily doesn't like all the fuss of gilding. The world weary vibe here is incredible as is the push-pull of the carelessly fast way she lets a soldier in to her heart and how the demands of her flirty dance hall job are at war with a default hostility. ♥♥♥♥
Reader Write-Ins: "Nobody's asking for a three-dimensional take on a taxi dancer in a B movie in the '40s. But Gloria Grahame doesn't phone it in, dammit, so we get smarts in a "dumb blonde" archetype, strength when everyone is trying to manipulate her, and interiority for a role intended to be all surface." - James P. (Reader average: ♥♥♥⅓)
Actress earns 23⅓ ❤s
Celeste Holm as "Anne Dettrey" in Gentleman's Agreement
Synopsis: A good time city girl and successful fashion editor pines for a crusading journalist at her magazine.
Stats: Then 30 yrs old, 3rd film, 4th billed. First (of three) nominations in this category. 14 minutes of screen time (or 12% of the running time).
Angelica Jade Bastién: I loved Celeste Holm’s energy and style in this film. She’s a breath of fresh air. Holm also nails her final monologue that concerns her tangled feelings for Gregory Peck’s character and how to root out antisemitism in a way that is fully realized. ♥♥♥
Dana Delany: This was Holm’s third film and there is a Broadway brassiness to it. She is “clever, beautiful and dangerous.” I understand why she won the Oscar. She has the 11 o’clock Moss Hart speech in a prestige film. And she knows how to deliver it righteously, with just enough mist in her eyes. I always find Holm’s to be a bit too shiny and bright. It feels a bit crafted, but it definitely works. I also get why Holm went back to the stage after getting slotted in the gal pal role too much. ♥♥♥♥
Tom Mizer: If they gave Oscars for who I’d most want to have drinks with, here’s your winner by a landslide. She’s fast, funny, and wounded—like watching the first seeds of Sex and the City being planted in Bryant Park. Holm breathes life into the New York gal details and knows when to step back and be just one of the magazine gang (in her first scene, her hair says more than she does). But I think the screenplay lets her down in the end. Her last big scene is full of hairpin turns and she holds tight and flies around them, but the character she’s built just barely keeps together.. ♥♥♥
Patrick Vaill: She is so alive and so easy. She swaggers, basically, and it's so unlike any other actor's energy except maybe Rosalind Russell. She has no interest in proving herself to anyone and that moxie gives this movie so much. That last scene is so good and she's so good in it because you see in the beginning what she wants, but then she puts that want on the back-burner, waiting until her moment. Like Revere, Kazan has focused her so clearly that what we see is an actor bringing her character to fruition. That speech is wild and she so easily mixes the charm and the hardness. Really marvelous. I want to also mention that June Havoc is excellent. ♥♥♥♥♥
Nathaniel R: She's in less of the movie than I'd remembered but she paints such a complete picture, if you care to look, of a single professional and progressive city girl. Her charismatic editor compartmentalizes well and knows herself, too. Gentleman's Agreement would be so much less satisfying without her final scene where she lays her heart on the line, gingerly but bravely, knowing full well that it'll be trampled. Hey, she's gotta try! It's a rarely seen crystallization of the go-getter spirit when there is no getting but merely going (Anne has been here before and probably will be again.) I longed for a spin-off romantic comedy where someone would choose her. Catch up, men, catch up. ♥♥♥♥
Reader Write-Ins: "Holm’s blend of intelligence and charisma make her an easy winner for me. A strong field even if the actresses are all somewhat limited by their scripts. " - Ray L (Reader average: ♥♥♥♥¼)
Actress earns 23¼ ❤s
Marjorie Main as "Phoebe 'Ma' Kettle" in The Egg and I
Synopsis: A poor farm wife and mother of 15 (!) befriends a neighbor who is having trouble acclimating to the farm-wife life.
Stats: Then 57 yrs old, 51st film, 3rd billed. First and only nomination. 11 minutes of screentime (or 10% of the running time.)
Angelica Jade Bastién: Marjorie Main as Ma Kettle is one of the most grating, broadly rendered rural stereotypes I’ve witnessed in a while. I must admit that I am finding it hard to judge Marjorie Main by her own merits considering I found the film a hellish journey through the dregs of patriarchal expectations placed on women. ♥
Dana Delany: Main makes a great entrance and never stops. She is a wild-eyed dervish with a low-slung bosom that she is constantly itching for fleas. She is rough and tumble and laughs at life. It’s clear why Ma and Pa Kettle had nine spin off movies of their own. Main takes what could have been a bumpkin caricature and infuses her with a generosity of spirit. And seems to be having great fun with absolutely no vanity. It’s not easy to raise fifteen kids! I laugh when I think of Percy Kilbride who played Pa, quitting the role after “Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki.” I mean, c’mon! ♥♥♥♥
Tom Mizer: Is it wrong to give an extra half star for not giving in to all the prejudiced stereotypes she could have? Others in this movie certainly don’t hesitate to wallow. Main brings unexpected warmth, weight and history to the hillbilly archetype. She employs a mean change up to pitch laughs. (Watch how she undersells a “joke” line then swipes a table clean in a clattering rimshot.) And she out-Streeps Streep when she rubs at her tattered clothes and sagging breast the first time she’s in the mortifyingly, gorgeous presence of Claudette Colbert. This is a stage pro at work...but this sitcom doesn’t have enough air to really let her fly. ♥♥♥
Patrick Vaill: I liked this and her performance! Her first scene is so great and her energy is so warm and loose-it brings something really bouncy and special to the movie. Where some actors use moments of introspection to reveal a darkness or something subversive, she seems to use it to reveal a kindness, a gentleness. I like that. It is such a special piece of work. Her boob scratch in her first scene made me howl on my couch. She anchors the chaos surrounding her gorgeously and gives kind of comedy performance from a spring movie that makes me so happy when it's nominated. And it became a franchise, which I also love. ♥♥♥♥
Nathaniel R: That the dud of this particular shortlist is still a warm lively performance means Oscar's acting branch did pretty well in '47. This is cartoonishgly broad, yes, but Marjorie does manages to surprise twice by letting the hilbilly shtick drop when "Ma" is taken off guard -- first with the sudden realization that her son doesn't belong in her world (maybe he should be in college) and then by a surprise win at a local fair (her reaction is sweetly shy). ♥♥
Reader Write-Ins: "Pretty broad of course, but she's creating something here and I think she succeeds with a sympathetic reading..." -Troy B (Reader average: ♥♥♥)
Actress earns 17 ❤s
Anne Revere as "Mrs Greene" in Gentleman's Agreement
Synopsis: The ill tough mother of a journalist supports him through a difficult time and longs to see a more tolerant world.
Stats: Then 44 yrs old, 28th film, 5th billed. Third (and final) nomination in this category. 19 minutes of screentime (or 16% of the running time.)
Angelica Jade Bastién: Anne Revere turns in a sturdy performance that is undergirded by an essential morality and strength I found fascinating. I wasn’t blown away by her work but she is an essential aspect to the film itself and fills the role admirably. ♥♥♥
Dana Delany: I find Anne Revere’s performance even more moving, knowing what happen to her 4 years later. Kazan named names, she didn’t and was blacklisted. She didn’t make another movie for 20 years. In her final speech she says, “I want to be around to see what happens. (It’ll be) EVERYBODY’S CENTURY.” Not quite. I appreciate how real and no-nonsense she is. She doesn’t play “movie maternal.” Maybe because she was only 13 years older than Peck. She’s a wonderful listener and brings authentic human behavior to the part. (But because she has a natural intensity, I think I prefer her in slightly unhinged roles, like the mother in A Place in the Sun. A movie where her part was cut to nothing after HUAC and yet she is memorable.) ♥♥♥♥
Tom Mizer: Sure she seems a bit too young but THAT is what I imagine when I think Gregory Peck’s mother. She smartly mirrors his physical and emotional uprightness. But she’s not just a reflection, she has a humor and history and pain all her own. We see it in how she is always busied with multiple thoughts and props and actions. And we feel it in her impassioned (nearly impossibly preachy) final speech, that she somehow fills with rage and specificity. I swear I could see some long-ago breadlines in her eyes. The quality of her performance helps me believe our lead would do what he does—and that seems almost textbook exemplary supporting ♥♥♥♥
Patrick Vaill: I love this performance. She's like a patrician Thelma Ritter and such a great listener. Her early scene at the breakfast table listening to Peck explain antisemitism is so good without her even saying a word. Her last scene, too, is remarkable and moving, an expression of something she was building so quietly that you didn't notice until she shared it. Kazan's direction of actors is so focused and keeps them so attuned to what they're doing in their lives. Gregory Peck may be the moral center in this movie, but she is its conscience and as an actor shows such skill in conveying that with ease. She is great. ♥♥♥♥
Nathaniel R: When I'm searching for photos to illustrate these posts, I have to skim back through the movies for a variety of stills. It was frustrating here. Gentleman's Agreement isn't doing any work to elevate this great actress, always letting others share her frames or the focus. But that said, Revere was ALWAYS inhabiting this tough woman beautifully, and with all sorts of three-dimensional non-stock feeling. I particularly loved watching her watch her own son parenting. She has a few notes but she'll keep them to herself unless he asks. Mostly she knows she did a damn fine job of raising the hero and she's proud that he's following suit. ♥♥♥♥
Reader Write-Ins: "Nobody plays the understanding mother better and she nails all aspects of her character, the love and understanding for her son, the willingness to believe." - Daniel O. (Reader average: ♥♥¾)
Actress earns 21¾ ❤s
Celeste Holm won the Oscar. And though the reader vote was passionate about her (Holm handily wins there) the talking-head panel was otherwise slightly more obsessed. Gloria Grahame wins the Smackdown in a crazy tight squeaker, it came down a third of a heart (Graham) versus a fourth of a heart (Holm) in the end. Both are special actresses and we love a truly competitive race.
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NEXT UP: The 2002 Oscar race will be discussed on Wednesday, June 17th. Watch Chicago, About Schmidt, Adaptation, and The Hours before then to maximize your pleasure. [All Previous Smackdowns]