Smackdown Season Schedule

Attention actressexuals and awards-nuts. The final (?) season of Supporting Actress Smackdown is deep in progress. Ep. 1 on 2020, Ep. 2 on 2000 and Ep. 3 on 1946 are behind us. Here's what's next and if the movies are currently on a streaming service we've indicated that otherwise they're all available to rent at the usual places like YouTube, iTunes, Amazon, and Apple TV. As per usual we'll be intermittently celebrating the following film years leading up to these events... 

Smackdown 1998 on Monday July 26th, 2021

• Kathy Bates, Primary Colors (Hulu)
• Brenda Blethyn, Little Voice
• Judi Dench, Shakespeare in Love (Fubo and Starz)
• Rachel Griffiths, Hilary and Jackie
• Lynn Redgrave, Gods and Monsters (HBOMax)

To get the maximum enjoyment out of the Smackdown consider rewatching the films along with us! Voting is open from now until Saturday July 24th. email in your votes with "1998 smackdown" in the subject line and a heart rating on each actress from 1 (poor) to 5 (perfection). You can include notes if you'd like as we might quote you.

Smackdown 1986 on Thursday August 26th, 2021

• Tess Harper, Crimes of the Heart (Amazon Prime)
• Piper Laurie, Children of a Lesser God (Amazon Prime)
• Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, The Color of Money 
• Maggie Smith, A Room With a View (HBOMax)
• Dianne Wiest, Hannah and Her Sisters (Fubo)

Voting opens August 1st!

Tentative Dates Thereafter
Sept 27th - Revisiting 1937
Oct 21st - Revisiting 2004
Nov 18th - Revisiting 1997
Dec 16th - Revisiting 1951 

Smackdown '46: Duel in the Sun with the King of Siam

Welcome back to the Supporting Actress Smackdown. Each month we pick an Oscar vintage to explore through the lens of actressing at the edges. This episode goes back to the 19th Academy Awards honoring 1946. It isn't a particularly beloved Oscar vintage though the Best Picture winner, The Best Years of Our Lives, is sublime. Apart from the winner and the Christmas film It's a Wonderful Life, the Academy all but ignored the most enduring pictures of that post-war year (Notorious, Gilda, The Postman Always Rings Twice). But we're here to discuss Best Supporting Actress and these five women were having a moment...

THE NOMINEES For the 1946 Oscars the Academy invited back two previous winners (Gale Sondergaard & Ethel Barrymore), tossed a bouquet in the form of 'career' nomination to a legend (Lillian Gish), honored a character actress for stretching (Flora Robson) without realizing how poorly that kind of stretch would age, and invited a new starlet (Anne Baxter) into the club. That's a typical mix in some ways though the films were a fun mix of genres rather than five straightforward dramas. We've got a culture clash historical epic (Anna and the King of Siam), a thriller (The Spiral Staircase), a camp western (Duel in the Sun), a post-war spiritual journey (The Razor's Edge), and a restless genre-hopping whatsit (Saratoga Trunk).

THE PANELISTS Here to talk about the performances and films are (alpha order from left to right), playwright Peter Duchan, film critic Guy Lodge, Statueseque's Allen Nguyen, and Actor Tory Devon Smith. And, as ever, your host Nathaniel R. Let's begin...

 SUPPORTING ACTRESS SMACKDOWN + PODCAST  
The companion podcast can be downloaded at the bottom of this article or by visiting the iTunes page...  

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The Best Costumes of 1946

by Cláudio Alves

Before we head into the nitty-gritty of the Best Supporting Actress Smackdown of 1946 tomorrow, it's time to look at some pretty clothes and lose our minds in a hurricane of 'what ifs.' By the end of that decade, the Academy had implemented two Best Costume Design categories – black-and-white and color – but those awards were only introduced in 1948 for the 21st Academy Awards. Before that, costume designers had no way of winning Oscars. If you're an awards obsessive who loves the art of costuming, it's easy to wonder what would have happened if the category were introduced at the beginning. What would have been nominated in 1946? Who would have won? Here are my tentative answers to these complicated questions…

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Introducing the Smackdown Panel for '46

In just a week's time the next Supporting Actress Smackdown and its companion podcast arrives. We'll be discussing the films and performances of 1946 so hurry up and finish watching Anna and the King of Siam, Duel in the Sun, The Razor's Edge, Saratoga Trunk, and The Spiral Staircase. Your votes count. Let's meet your fellow panelists, shall we?

PLEASE WELCOME NEW GUESTS...

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Best Supporting Actress 1946: Getting to know the nominees

by Cláudio Alves

The Supporting Actress Smackdown of 1946 is fast approaching, and with it comes one of the most head-scratching lineups in the category's history. To call this bunch of films, performances, and legacies problematic is to undersell just how much racial insensitivity plays into this particular Oscar race. Still, what complicates matters further is that the nominated actresses are all artists with considerable talent, superlative careers – most of whom started on stage – and undeniable historical importance. Unpacking all this mess is too great a task, but I'll try to introduce you, dear readers, to this impressive quintet of Old Hollywood thespians...

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