Number 73: Mary Astor as Sandra Kovak in "The Great Lie" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

The very first time I rated all the winners in this group, Mary Astor created it to placement quantity fifty eight but this time I was considerably less generous. The final time I appreciated a specified stage of amusement that she confirmed in her position but this time I discovered myself only becoming distracted by her above-the-top performing that consisted primarily of camp results than everything else.

In The Wonderful Lie, Mary Astor played Sandra Kovak, a well-known pianist, a temperamental diva – and the key mom of Pete Van Allen’s (Bette Davis’s partner) infant. The Wonderful Lie is one particular of these standard, melodramatic motion pictures from the 40s – in truth, even worse and only the involvement of actresses like Bette Davis and Mary Astor helped to get this photo some serious track record. But even these two actresses aren’t capable to turn The Wonderful Lie into anything better. I acknowledge that the movie does entertain – it is the kind of motion picture that can make Bette Davis-supporters scream with pleasure even though all supporters of previous Hollywood motion picture-performing also won’t be dissatisfied. It’s a two-hour-prolonged bitch-fight in between two expert actresses – definitely more than sufficient folks are ready to really like this film just for this. But I am not amongst them.

The Wonderful Lie is complete of clichés and unbelievable over-the-leading times. And Mary Astor’s functionality suits very effectively in the context of the film – over the prime and unbelievable. In her initial scene we see her in complete diva mode – complaining about every thing, slapping her servants and acting exceptional to every person around her. Sorry, but Mary Astor is not the kind of lady to pull that off – there are actresses who are believable as a diva, but Mary Astor merely misses that specific high quality. In her efficiency, it all will come actress as pretentious and somewhat laughable.

She is constantly far better anytime the film does not pressure her into this kind of efficiency – in her more tranquil times, she is ready to connect her character’s feelings and thoughts much much more successfully than in any loud, in excess of-the-leading scene. She does have a excellent minute when she appears at the pictures of her little one but she lets it go so quickly that all the impact is ruined prior to it really started.

Her biggest good results and almost certainly the purpose why the film achieves a level of enjoyment is her chemistry with Bette Davis – her acting selections may possibly as well often be exaggerated but these two actresses nevertheless know how to perform with each other. A relatively astonishing fact is that Mary Astor was not overshadowed by Bette Davis – but the reason is significantly less Mary Astor but fairly Bette Davis who is incredibly pale and dull as the loving spouse. Mary Astor has the juicier element, that is for confident, but she, too, suffers from a absence of monitor existence and instead negligible performing.

What is most likely the movie’s highpoint is regrettably also Mary Astor’s reduced position – her scenes with Bette Davis in a tiny cabin in the desert where Sandra is intended to have the baby that the other woman will raise as her very own. Mary Astor’s failed attempts to portray a correct diva turn out to be quite apparent below – her continuous complaining, her conduct that changes all the time from developed woman to tiny little one and particularly her

exceptionally over-the-prime screaming scene are a full failure. Once more, I will not deny that Mary Astor’s functionality works very well in the context of the entire film – but that theatrical, more than-the-prime fashion is just not for me, especially when that’s all the actress has to do. There is no genuine character, no real emotion, it’s primarily just getting a bitch.

It is a thankless element that Mary Astor tried too hard to fill with lifestyle – but some successful line deliveries to Bette Davis or some a lot more effective tranquil moments can not make up for all the in excess of-the-top options she did in The Fantastic Lie.