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Entries in StinkyLulu (7)

Thursday
Aug292013

StinkyLulu's Preliminary Thoughts on Supporting Actressing in '52

We are pleased to welcome StinkyLulu back to Smackdowning. Give him a warm welcome in the comments! - Editor

It has been a while since I dropped into a random year’s field of Supporting Actress nominees. Still, as I have re/screened the relevant films in preparation for Saturday afternoon's Supporting Actress Smackdown, it’s startling how familiar the 1952 roster feels. Remember that “Best Supporting Actress” was only in its 15th year or so (having been introduced in 1936, almost ten years after the Oscar game got started) but, already by 1952, the category seemed to have established some of its most enduring quirks.

1952’s nominated roles are definitely cut from Oscar’s favorite cloth: the hooker with a heart; the hale helpmeet; the full force of youth; the long (briefly) suffering wife; and the shrewish “ex.”

Oscar loves a type - you see these types still!

The field we'll be discussing Saturday definitely reminds us that, by the early 1950s, Supporting Actress had emerged as one of Oscar’s favored ways to anoint the newcomer/s with one hand, while taking care to honor the time-tested trouper/s with the other. As example, 1952's nominations honor not only breakout performances by “new stars” Jean Hagen and Terry Moore (not to mention the screen debut of Colette Marchand) but also familiar work by previously favored nominees Gloria Grahame and Thelma Ritter. And, yes, Oscar’s habit of nodding to certain troupers also stirs the faint whiff that a Supporting Actress nomination might sometimes be an apology bouquet of sorts — Oscar’s way to say “please forgive my neglecting to nominate (or award) that other performance…but do accept this as a token of the Academy’s esteem.” (Might Grace Kelly’s 1953 nomination for Mogambo and Katy Jurado’s 1954 nomination for Broken Lance been made possible, at least in part, by Oscar’s neglect of their High Noon turns this very year?)

And in a field full of what I have called “coasters” (efficient supporting actressness buoyed by being part of a heavily nominated film), Jean Hagen’s nomination looms especially large as that “single nominated performance from an ignored-in-other-major-categories picture”. That's a particularly burdensome last bit of support not infrequently borne by Supporting Actress nominees.

Katy Jurado (High Noon) and Ethel Waters (Member of the Wedding). Who would you call snubbed from '52's Supporting Actressing?

All told, 1952 stands as nearly exemplary of the idiosyncrasies of the Best Supporting Actress category, and is thus perhaps the ideal one to revive the peculiar pleasures of the Supporting Actress Smackdown. And while I might wonder what this roster might have felt like if, say, High Noon’s Katy Jurado or Member of the Wedding’s Ethel Waters (or even Viva Zapata’s Mildred Dunnock) had “coastered” into the field, the Smackdown challenges us to look closely at the work of the women who were nominated, for it is in such “actressing at the edges” that the category’s true pleasures shine.

See you on Saturday!

Saturday
Jul062013

Do You Miss StinkyLulu's 'Smackdown'?

You'd better sit down. Here have a grilled cheese sandwich to commemorate the moment.

In the Aughts when film blogging was rapidly progressing from infancy through busy rushed adolescence, quality Oscar-loving actressexuals were tuned in to and turned on by Stinky Lulu's monthly Supporting Actress Smackdown. Each month your host would profile the five Oscar nominees in a given year culminating in a "Smackdown" wherein a handful of fans would chime in on all five nominees and an actress would be crowned as best of that vintage. The restrospective smackdowns ended four years ago with a look back at 1956 (Limbo-dancing Oscar-winning Dorothy Malone prevailed) though one final smackdown was held five months later for the Supporting Actresses of Oscar 2009 and its winner Mo'Nique. Not that the Smackdowners always agreed with Oscar... 

I hadn't spoken to Stinky in years and we recently became reacquainted over lunch and a play. I told him how much I missed the smackdowns and it was only the 5,000th time he's heard this from someone. We got to talking and struck up a deal. We're ready to tell you... 

THE SMACKDOWN WILL RETURN

Gloria Grahame's acceptance speech was four words long "Thank you very much"There will be a couple of minor adjustments for its new home at The Film Experience but StinkyLulu will be back as emcee for the big event. The monthly smackdowns will resume (at least for a short while) at the end of August. The kick off Smackdown will be the ladies of 1952

  • Collette Marchand in Moulin Rouge
  • Gloria Grahame in The Bad and the Beautiful
  • Jean Hagen in Singin' in the Rain
  • Terry Moore in Come Back Little Sheba
  • Thelma Ritter in With a Song in My Heart

More details, years, and guest list TBA but please do speak aloud your immediate thoughts in the comments. 

 

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