Best Actress, Pre-Code Edition: An Alternative Oscar History

by Cláudio Alves

Helen Hayes' Oscar-winning turn in THE SIN OF MADELON CLAUDET is the quintessential Pre-Code Best Actress vehicle, detailing the story of a "fallen woman" with a kind of candor that would be forbidden by July, 1934.

Last time in this alternative Oscar history, we looked at the first three seasons of the Academy Awards through my dream Best Actress quintets. They coincided with the last few years when American silent cinema was still produced stateside by the big studios in town.

The rise of the talkies meant a lot of things for the industry, drastic, often destructive changes that have been fictionalized in such Hollywood self-reflections as Singin’ in the Rain and Babylon. In terms of pure cinematic form, this transition imposed limitations aplenty, generally making movies more static, more awkward and less visually expressive. Not all of them, but a concerning number. In terms of acting technique, the advent of synchronized sound recording ignited a change of the guard that left many a former star in the past and brought thespians of the New York stage to the Hollywood soundstage and Silver Screen immortality – the ones starring in movies that haven’t been lost, of course.

It was also the start of a short period we retroactively call Pre-Code Hollywood. Let’s consider my Best Actress ballot in those years…

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TCM Film Festival: Day One - "Airport" and "The Wild One"

by Christopher James

The only thing more disasterous than a gang of bikers or a bomb threat on a plane is light rain in Los Angeles. All joking aside, it's always great to return to the Hollywood and Highland center for another year of the Turner Classic Movies Film Festival.

The festival was kicked off with a red carpet screening of a freshly restored Rio Bravo, with Steven Spielberg, Paul Thomas Anderson and Angie Dickinson as special guests. The opening night film is part of WB's 100 year anniversary, which will be a theme of the weekend with many of the celebrations. Rather than watch Howard Hawks' epic western, I opted to fill a couple other blind spots...

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Oscar Trivia: Longest gap between nods... and who might return next?

by Nathaniel R 

Tie a yellow ribbon round the ol' Oscar ceremony this year. There are a lot of "welcome back" nominations at the 92nd Academy Awards since the nominations skewed towards senior actors as it occassionally does. Seven previous winners are in play again -- Bates, Theron, Zellweger, Pacino, Pesci, Hanks, and Sir Anthony Hopkins... all of whom have been missing in Oscar action anywhere from 15 to 29 years!  Surprisingly none of them are close to the all time record for “longest gap between nominations”.

Still, two decades is a big long stretch of time since most actors of either gender have all of their Oscar activity in a relatively condensed period of time; when you’re hot, you’re hot. Gaps over 20 years are uncommon. Even Lee Grant and Ingrid Bergman, famously blacklisted or exiled for a spell before returning triumphantly to Oscar’s good graces, didn’t have to wait that long. So herewith a list of the only actors who returned to the mix after a 20 year absence. 

The 25 Longest Gaps Between Oscar Nominations (for Actors)

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Smackdown '70 Companion Podcast Pt 1: "MASH" and "Airport"

Nathaniel R welcomes Mark Blankenship, Dan Callahan, Denise Grayson, Lena Houst, and Bobby Rivers to talk 1970 at the movies

Pt 1 (35 minutes)
You've read our takes on the five Supporting Actress nominees of 1970, now let's talk the movies they're in. On the first half of the podcast we discuss "cheese with wings" Airport (1970) and what it wrought at the movies and the Oscars. Who was the MVP among its actresses: Helen Hayes? Maureen Stapleton? Jean Seberg? Jacqueline Bisset? We then turn our attention to another smash hit M*A*S*H (1970) and both its modern filmmaking and its misogyny.

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Pt One: MASH and Airport (1970)

Smackdown '70: Maureen, Helen, Lee, Sally, and Karen Black

Presenting Oscar's Chosen Supporting Actresses of the Films of 1970. The Academy welcomed back one enduring icon (Helen Hayes), two of the eventual giants of this particular category (Maureen Stapleton and Lee Grant), and two new stars of the moment (Sally Kellerman and Karen Black).

THE NOMINEES  

Their characters were a devastated soon-to-be widow, a sneaky old lady flying the friendly skies, a pregnant waitress confused by her man, a wealthy "liberal" snob who is more conservative than she thinks, and a disciplined but highly excitable military nurse. 1970's supporting shortlist was more "pure" than the category often is now (only Karen Black could be argued as a lead... but she's on the borderline so it's fine) but how strong were the roles and how good the work?

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