Best Actress 1951: Vivien Leigh in "A Streetcar named Desire"

‘She brought everything I intended to the role and even much more than I had dared dream of.’ Is there really anything else to be said? If Tennessee Williams praises a performance of his most famous female character in a movie based on his most famous play with such clear words, then there cannot be any doubt that the actress in question has done a job that surpasses usual indicators of quality and reached a level of excellence that can only rarely be seen on the screen and offers a once-in-a-lifetime experience for everyone involved – the playwright who watches as his words become reality, the audience which becomes deeper and deeper involved into this unsettling and yet so fascinating characterization and the actress herself who leaves an everlasting imprint in the history books of movie acting. And even more astonishing in this case is the fact that the actress in question had already done the same thing 12 years earlier on exactly that same, almost unreachable level of excellence. It’s one of the most famous movie facts of all time that British actress Vivien Leigh secured two of the most famous American female movie characters of all time – first the coquettish, beautiful and manipulative Southern Belle Scarlett O’Hara in Hollywood’s most famous epic Gone with the Wind and in 1951 the faded, delusional and mentally breaking Southern Belle Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar named Desire. Her work as Scarlett O’Hara is probably the single most famous motion picture performance of all time, a legendary case of actress and role fitting together so perfectly that even the thought of another performer in this part seems completely absurd. In this role, she twirled the screen and forever defined the character of the Southern Belle, making her Scarlett selfish and loveable, mean-spirited and delightful, empty and deep. The normal path for Vivien Leigh after this astonishing work should have been the way it was until 1950 – a career of several movie and stage roles that helped her go on proving her seriousness of her craft that would never again reach that same level of complexity and perfection. But in 1951, Vivien Leigh suddenly returned to the Oscars with a performance that would, as perplexing at is may seem, make her Scarlett O’Hara ‘only’ the second-greatest piece of work she had ever done. Her Blanche DuBois is a creation that haunts and hurts the viewer, a woman who so shatteringly walks down a road of self-destruction while being pushed down this road at the same time and she portrayed this slow, drawn-out mental break-down with a delicacy and heartbreaking anguish that is almost peerless among her craft.

Interestingly, director Elia Kazan apparently did not think as much of Vivien Leigh as Tennessee Williams did – he talked about her as an actress small talent but whose vast determination would have made her crawl through broken glass if she had thought it would help her performance. Well, Elia Kazan is maybe not the best judge in this case – or to put it better, not the most neutral judge. I’m sure that, among the method actors who slowly conquered the acting world, Gone with the Wind was seen as the highpoint of triviality and melodramatic movie acting from those melodramatic days of old Hollywood and Vivien Leigh, with her past as Scarlett O’Hara, certainly did not fit Kazan’s own criteria for great actors – he surely had much more admiration for Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden who had all originated their parts in A Streetcar named Desire on the Broadway stage and Kazan was surely not too pleased when the studio insisted to replace Jessica Tandy, who originated the role of Blanche on the Broadway stage and won a Tony for it, with Vivien Leigh, who was considered a bigger box-office drawn than the unknown Tandy. But Elia Kazan’s criticism as well as his ‘compliment’ on her determination feels rather difficult to be taken seriously – of course, everybody is entitled to his/her opinion but a performance like that of Vivien Leigh cannot only be explained with determination. A lot of actors and actresses display enormous amounts of determination and while this is certainly a very important ingredient for a truly outstanding performance, it cannot replace the necessary talent and abilities. And also: didn’t Vivien Leigh disappear more into the role of Blanche DuBois than her method-acting cast mates? She famously later blamed her performance as Blanche DuBois for causing her own mental problems, she felt that the role tipped her over the edge, grabbed her and never let her go again. It’s maybe the opposite of the acting style of Brando, Hunter and Malden who used their own personality first before finding themselves in their roles and later leaving it again – but Vivien Leigh’s own personal problems made her performance as Blanche DuBois just the same irreplaceable meeting of actress and part as it was 12 years earlier with her and Scarlett O’Hara, even if the consequences resulted in such a personal tragedy. But it’s not difficult to imagine Vivien Leigh being hunted by Blanche DuBois for the rest of her life – she seemed to go so deep into this character that she not only played her, but understood her, felt like her, suffered like her and slowly feel into the darkness of her own mind. It’s basically impossible to think that Vivien Leigh stopped being Blanche DuBois at the end of the day and became her again the next morning – such a level of abandoning one’s own personality can only be explained with a complete surrender to the part one is playing and letting it take over every aspect of one’s own existence. Of course, Blanche DuBois was not completely new to Vivien Leigh – she had already played the role on the London stage under the direction of her husband Laurence Olivier, a run that surely was the beginning of her own connection to this tormented soul and helped her to perfect her understanding in the movie version that would follow.

10 years after A Streetcar named Desire, another movie version of a Tennessee Williams play would again lead the playwright to extensive praise of an actress – but while Geraldine Page’s acting style was more that of a machine that could produce every single human emotion with exact precision, Vivien Leigh portrayed Blanche DuBois with much more emotional closeness that allowed her to completely fit into the form of her character while Geraldine Page preferred to control her characters from a distance. Overall, Vivien Leigh’s acting style is probably the biggest key to her success in this role – yes, there is melodrama in her performance which would make it easy to dismiss her work next to the raw brutality and sensitivity of Marlon Brando and the warm earthiness of Kim Hunter but this melodrama so wonderfully clashes with everything around her that it only helps to increase the loneliness of this woman, her cherishing of days gone by, her inability to cope with the people and reasons that confront her and the intensity of her growing isolation, mentally and physically. Stanley may be called a survivor of the Stone Age by Blanche but Marlon Brando was able to fill his role with an amount of tenderness and child-like dependence that naturally worked in perfect harmony with his brutality, roughness and cruelty and resulted in a performance that is a landmark in pure human force on the screen. Vivien Leigh crafted her own tour-de-force differently, turning Blanche into a passive creature, a woman who is shifted and influenced by the characters around her, who retreats herself more and more into her own mind even though it’s the most dangerous place for her to be. The clash of these two acting styles, these two completely different actors and characters and their chemistry of hate, rejection but also sexual lust is the driving force of A Streetcar named Desire. Vivien Leigh is the antithesis to Marlon Brando just as much as Blanche DuBois is the antithesis to Stanley Kowalski. Today, A Streetcar named Desire is often referred to as a ‘Marlon Brando movie’ but for me, it’s Vivien Leigh who carries the picture and has to handle one of the most challenging parts ever written and in which she not only plays but also evokes all different kind of emotions. Very few other performances are able to pull the viewer so completely into their own misery until the pain and desperation felt on the screen seems to be felt by everyone watching it. But Vivien Leigh portrayed the mental breakdown and humiliation of Blanche DuBois not only on this emotional, but also on an intellectual and psychological level.

Just like Blanche appears out of thick fog at the beginning of A Streetcar named Desire on the movie screen, she also seems to appear out of another world in the environment of the French Quarter in New Orleans. Her delivery of the line ‘Can this be her home’ shows how unable Blanche is to connect to her new surroundings and how she prefers to live in a world of memories, good and bad. Blanche was looking for a kind of security that she will never find here. For the entire movie, Vivien Leigh sustains this aura of inexplicability, of mysteriousness, even when her character has been stripped down of all secrets, of all privacy and all dignity. By focusing on these effects of Blanche, Vivien Leigh was able to create her desperation and helplessness without making it too obvious. Her performance never turns into a display of ‘Look what I can do!’ but instead she fulfilled the task of working with the realism that this movie version demands and the delicacy and otherworldliness of the character of Blanche. Blanche DuBois may want magic instead of realism – Vivien Leigh gave us both, the realism of a harrowing break-down and the magic of a performance was able to realize it with almost poetic beauty that brings absolute justice to the writing of Tennessee Williams and the character of Blanche. She can be real and surreal at the same moment – walking around in the dark, laughing about liquor while trying to prevent Mitch from speaking the truth he came to say, yelling at him for a short moment before she becomes a desperate girl again and creates a moment that is almost like an imaginary dream that unwillingly pulls the viewer more and more inside. Like so many heroines in his plays, Blanche is destroyed by both her own longings and the actions of the people around her. In the case of Blanche, it is never clear if she is truly a victim or an offender – she is exposed to the mental and physical abuse of Stanley which pushed her already delicate condition further and further into a state of madness but she also looks back at a past of sexual behavior that may have been caused by her inability to cope with the memory of her husband’s death but also does not excuse an affair with a pupil. In her interpretation, Vivien Leigh may overall have gone the ‘sympathy road’, playing Blanche mostly as a desperate victim (Jessica Lange’s Blanche DuBois showed her sexual interest in Stanley in various scenes in which Vivien Leigh played her with fearful shame) but this interpretation is in no way easier than another one might have been and Vivien Leigh was brave enough to find some moments in her work in which she leaves it open for everyone to decide how much sympathy and understanding she truly deserves. Blanche is clearly a manipulative woman who tries to lie her way out of her own memories and into the lives of Stella and Mitch. Also, her fake attitude that she has built for herself, that cheerful, high-pitched naïve little girl that dreams to be a Southern Belle is often hard to take and makes it even understandable that Stanley would not want her in the house. Blanche’s arrival destroys the balance that has existed in the marriage of Stella and Stanley as her behavior affects everyone around her and almost even takes everyone down with her. In this way, Vivien Leigh did not corner the other performances of the movie but every character is allowed to develop its own intentions and thoughts.

Vivien Leigh does thankfully not exaggerate the dreams of a Southern Belle. Her Blanche DuBois is not a successor of Scarlett O’Hara – in A Streetcar named Desire, Vivien Leigh demonstrates beautifully how Blanche uses the masque of that cheerful woman to hide all the overwhelming worries to haunt her constantly. This way, she did not turn into a squeaky, fake and unbearable creation like Mary Pickford’s Norma Besant in Coquette but instead made it clear that any melodrama or stylized approach is part of her characterization and not of her performance. The fact that both of Vivien Leigh’s Oscar-winning portrayals are some kind of Southern Belles would make it easy to see Blanche DuBois as an alter ego of Scarlett O’Hara but where Scarlett O’Hara had the strength to adjust herself to a new life, to new circumstances and situations, Blanche DuBois is exactly the opposite as she cannot leave the past behind, lets it haunt and torture her, influence her actions and finally break her. The suicide of her love, a deed she indirectly provoked, has destroyed something inside her but she does not use her fantasies to escape reality but rather becomes dominated by her past, constantly hearing the music that was playing when her husband killed himself, waiting desperately for the shot to make it stop. It’s hard to imagine Scarlett O’Hara being so completely affected by anything that happens in her life. Scarlett O’Hara also existed in a different world of plantations and Southern gallantry while Blanche DuBois comes to life in a small, Black-and-White character study in which Vivien Leigh receives no support from opulent costumes, a sweeping score or fancy Art Direction – in A Streetcar named Desire, she has nothing but herself to rely on.

Playing a character so close to the edge of sanity, almost near a mental breakdown is incredibly hard to pull off without over-acting or doing a collection of ‘crazy tics’. And so, Vivien Leigh has to be applauded even more for letting everything she is doing appear so natural while emphasizing every single emotion Blanche is feeling and experiencing. Her delicate appearance perfectly matches Blanche’s fragility while her voice helps her wonderfully to express the different states of minds she is experiencing. She can pronounce her own name with a tone that seems to come right from the graveyard in which almost all of her family members have retired and she can laugh during her date with Mitch in the most girlish giggle. With all this, she found the harrowing core in what could have been an exaggerated portrayal. She combines the naivety of a lost girl with the self-assurance of a lustful woman – her Blanche is stuck somewhere in her own development, unable to become her own person. She can throw Mitch out of the apartment by exposing a scream that is half anger and half fear, she can appear almost like a dark ghost out of the worst nightmare when she recounts to Mitch about her downfall while leaving the viewer puzzled if they should feel their heart break out of pity or feel their heart stop out of anxiety. Vivien Leigh also finds constantly new nuances in Blanche, breaking down when Cola is spilled on her dress and later angrily pushing her sister away who tries to comfort her after Stanley shouted at her. A scene of her seducing a young man/boy is as disturbing as it is painful and Vivien Leigh portrays the constant spiral downwards which is Blanche’s life with a straight-forwardness that catches all her illusions and fears. This also underlines the fact that Blanche is, essentially, a very straight-forward role that clearly tells an actress what to do and how to do it (unlike Stanley who leaves more room for interpretation) – but the role itself is already so demanding that even with the guidance of Tennessee Williams’s words, a failure could come very easily. The scene in which Vivien Leigh discusses the loss of her old home with Stanley, presenting him letters from lawyers and then fighting with him for the old lovers of her husband shows how completely she lost herself in the role, finding Blanche in every body movement and line delivery. When she talks about her past with her husband and the night he killed himself, Vivien Leigh shows Blanche completely lost in her own thoughts, overwhelmed by her memories while also appearing to be having waited for years to share these moments with somebody, anybody. Who is Blanche? Who does she want to be? These questions seem never clearly answered – Blanche may say that she never lied in her heart but does this not mostly mean that she never lied to herself? This is certainly true because the masque that she has build only exists to fool others but never herself. Blanche always exposes little bits of truth whenever she is forced to, hoping to receive affection and acceptance in return. Vivien Leigh also constantly acts these two Blanches – one on the outside whom she expresses with her body, face and voice and one on the inside who listens to imaginary musical pieces and is always tormented by her own doings and thoughts whom she expresses only with her eyes.

Blanche says that she wants Mitch very much and later even begs him to marry her. But it’s always rather doubtful if Blanche is really looking for this kind of love or if this is a last attempt by her to escape her old life even though it only fastens her circle of destruction and self-destruction – or if she is truly able to even feel this kind of love anymore. It seems that for her, everything is better than that music inside her head but her body mostly appears like an empty shell with a dead soul living inside. ‘Death…the opposite is desire’, Blanche expresses. She may have lived a life of desire for a long time but she did not only take the streetcar named desire but also one called ‘Cemetery’ and the apartment of Stanley and Stella will be place at which she will be crushed like a flower. She has build a cage for herself in her own mind but also in this apartment which secures her from the outside world, from the woman selling flowers for the death but also keeps her locked inside with Stanley whose unwillingness to understand her and his willingness to torture her will finally break her completely. Her final scenes are among the most disturbing displays of human humiliation ever presented – the way she hides behind the curtain like a scared animal and then tries to fight against the nurse while howling like a wounded animal show how much of her dignity and self-understanding as a human being have been taken away from her. At one point, Stella accuses Stanley that men like him have destroyed Blanche and forced her to change but when she delivers her famous last line ‘I have always depended on the kindness of strangers’, it becomes clear that she was destroyed by all sorts of men, by her own deeds, by words, by actions and much more because she existed in her own world that simply had to collide with the harsh reality of her life some day. Blanche may cheerfully hum ‘Paper Moon’, a song about believe, make-believe and the closeness of reality and illusion – but for her, this make-believe cannot last.

Many actresses have played the role of Blanche DuBois. So it’s maybe wrong to say that only Vivien Leigh could play her but it’s certainly not wrong to say that nobody can ever top her. Her Blanche is a mysterious, pathetic, lovely, charming, appealing, tragic, fragile, hopeless and helpless creation that has stood the test of time in the most glorious way. At the end, the viewers feel as if they have known her all her life, to watch her fall and being violated felt too unbearable to remain at a distance and Vivien Leigh gives one of the few performances that make the viewers feel actually helpless but the truth is that we hardly know anything at all about her. She leaves the movie with just as many questions as she entered it and even though Vivien Leigh showed that Blanche was constantly pushed further and further to the edge of her own mind while walking towards it at the same time, she still did not gave an answer to all the mysteries that surround her. She’s a woman who lived behind a thin veil of illusions until these illusions were crashed and destroyed and led her to be unable to separate between them and reality anymore. In realizing all this, Vivien Leigh gave a performance that dug so deeply in this character’s mind and portrayed such unforgettable moments, that it is one of a few movie performances that can truly be called a work of art, that serves the movie it is set in while also existing in its own universe, proofing once and for all the greatness of her talent and standing as a symbol for movie acting at its finest. So it no surprise that for all her talent, determination, willingness, honesty, helplessness, desperation, fear, panic, happiness, suffering and incomparable excellence, Vivien Leigh receives

Best Actress 1951: The resolution

Right after getting viewed and reviewed all 5 nominated performances, it truly is time to pick the winner!

five. Eleanor Parker in Detective Tale

It is simple to envision that this complete overall performance could have been significantly far more satisfying and in fact get over the limitations of the creating if Eleanor Parker had truly dared to leave her possess comfort and ease zone and make investments all the choices the character supplied despite these obvious limitations – but she however played it also simple all round and reduced her character to a selection of distinct teary-eyed reaction photographs.

4. Shelley Winters in A Area in the Solar

                     

Shelley Winters does undergo from the sheer reality that she basically could not switch Alice Tripp into far more than what George Stevens would permit her (and this is relatively small) and usually Alice also does come to feel way too one-dimensional in her tries to get George to marry her, but if Alice is a plot system, then Shelley Winters produced positive that she would at the very least be a fantastically realized 1.

3. Jane Wyman in The Blue Veil

Jane Wyman experienced from her weak substance and quite usually limits her performance to two various facial expressions but inside these restrictions she crafted a touching piece of work that is saved by her determination to stay practical even though highlighting the sentimentality of the tale and her sturdy final moments.

two. Katharine Hepburn in The African Queen

Katharine Hepburn has rarely been so deliciously entertaining, so wonderfully amusing and so significantly heartbreaking in 1 film. Rose Sayer is certainly not a quite deep or sophisticated character but there is nonetheless one thing nearly magical about watching Katharine Hepburn deliver her to these kinds of splendid daily life.

one. Vivien Leigh in A Streetcar named Need

Vivien Leigh gave a efficiency that dug so deeply in this character’s head and portrayed such unforgettable moments that it is one particular of a handful of film performances that can really be referred to as a operate of art, that serves the film it is set in even though also existing in its very own universe, proofing as soon as and for all the greatness of her talent and standing as a image for motion picture acting at its greatest.

Best Actress 1944: Claudette Colbert in "Since you went Away"

Nearly all evaluations of Considering that you went Absent evaluate Selznick’s American house front sage to the Very best Image winner of 1942, the British residence front saga Mrs. Miniver. And why not? Each motion pictures take a appear at family members for the duration of Globe War II and equally feature a sturdy mother-figure who have to keep her household collectively. The large distinction are the circumstances that these people and girls have to endure – Mrs. Miniver had her husband by her side but she had to fear about her oldest son who had joined the Royal Air Force and she also had to capture a German pilot in her kitchen and suffer via a variety of air-rids just before the motion picture is over. Claudette Colbert’s Anne Hilton on the other hand advantages from an ocean amongst her residence and the European battlefields so there need to have to be no worries about Nazis in her kitchen area or bombs previously mentioned her head. But in contrast to Mrs. Miniver, Anne Hilton has to mourn the absence of her spouse who has long gone to struggle in the war and remaining her with her two daughters. For a motion picture, the story of Mrs. Miniver surely offers a lot a lot more fascinating factors and plots considering that war is a considerably a lot more real and tangible presence. Since you went Away focuses on the day-to-day life of a family with out a spouse and father and had to consist of various subplots that feel fairly unneeded really frequently but without having them the movie could in no way have attained the managing time of 172 minutes – which possibly would have upset David O. Selznick very considerably since a extended working time can only suggest epic and epic can only mean Oscar. But in 1944, Academy voters ended up searching for in one more route and rather of war they voted for singing monks and as an alternative of a robust and caring mother they voted for a wife gradually driven insane by her husband.

Because you went Absent is surely an fascinating movie that serves as a time capsule for the time it was manufactured in and for that reason is introduced with a great deal of honesty and realism even though also introducing an envisioned volume of sentimentality and patriotism. But even however, the story mostly lacks emphasis when it comes to what it needs to present and quite frequently the film shifts from a story about a loved ones throughout war time to a teenage romance or a comedy and it mostly guides its character and solid through overly built plots and scenarios. There is also a purpose why Since you went Away is not called 'Mrs. Hilton' – it is a much much better ensemble motion picture than Mrs. Miniver and does not present the character of Anne Hilton as its accurate middle. Rather, Because you went Absent focuses on Jennifer Jones as the oldest daughter of the household and it also by no means presents Claudette Colbert the same dramatic chances and times as Mrs. Miniver did for Greer Garson. This lack of correct depth or character advancement created it required to solid an actress in the function of Anne Hilton with adequate earthy attraction and character to avert the character from dropping way too significantly into the qualifications. And Claudette Colbert was surely the proper sort of actress for this variety of component.

10 a long time after she received an Oscar for her part in the famous comedy It took place one Night time, Claudette Colbert gained her third and ultimate Oscar nomination for the considerably a lot more standard component of Anne Hilton. This character definitely benefited from Claudette Colbert’s monitor persona even however it did not enable her any genuinely grand actions as an actress. In her element, Claudette Colbert is mostly diminished to re-acting, extremely rarely is she permitted to anchor any times of the story and whenever she does discover herself in the middle of focus it is largely for obligatory remarkable scenes. She does manage individuals scenes nicely, no issue about it, but they by no means support her to make a even bigger effect on the general storyline. But all this does not indicate that Claudette Colbert is invisible in Given that you went Away – her sturdy display existence and expertise as an actress surely avert this but as the movie goes on, she does grew to become a a lot more and much more fleeting existence even though she utilizes each bit of her screen time sensibly. Claudette Colbert’s greatest misfortune is that the element of Anne Hilton not only gives no true challenge for her but the structure of Because you went Away also works in a way that tends to make her absence by no means really apparent – Anne Hilton is not the kind of character one misses when she not onscreen, relatively she arrives and goes with no any adjustments in the overall tone of the film.

Nevertheless, Claudette Colbert is a wonderful and robust presence in Given that you went Absent and even even though she may not be its psychological centre she even now was able to craft a powerful, loveable, caring and three-dimensional human being whilst gliding by means of the tale with simple magnificence and charm that assisted her to insert that little further spark to Anne Hilton which also was seen in so many other of the figures she played. The husband of Anne Hilton, who is so sorely skipped for the duration of the whole movie, is previously gone when Since you went Absent begins. In the movie’s first scene, Claudette Colbert demonstrates Anne sorrows, worries and pains as she comes home soon after she mentioned goodbye to her partner and has to encounter her house and her life with out him. Claudette Colbert’s facial operate in this instant is undoubtedly outstanding as she initiatives all the distinct thoughts that Anne Hilton is encountering at this moment but her voice-above throughout this scene is just a tad way too melodramatic and sometimes instead distracts from the seriousness of the scene as an alternative of emphasizing it. A crying scene when she is alone in her bedroom also does not really function in the extraordinary context it is supposed to do since her crying feels fairly exaggerated, as if Claudette Colbert was even now the spoiled Ellie Andrews, and the musical score also underlines the scene with a instead cheery melody as if the film would like the audience to laugh about this lady simply because she is essentially helpless with out a guy at her side.

Claudette Colbert improves her efficiency as the movie goes on, especially soon after Joseph Cotton entered it as a shut buddy who openly admits that he has much more thoughts than friendship. The plot by itself may seem relatively pressured but Claudette Colbert and Joseph Cotton have a superb chemistry with each other and never exaggerate the drama in their scenes – as an alternative, both actors take care of their partnership with humor and dignity and the storyline makes it possible for Claudette Colbert to glow in what she does so effectively: be earthy, stylish, charming and actual at the same time. She also performs properly with Jennifer Jones and Shirley Temple as her daughters, enjoying the variety of mother a great deal of children can only dream of – comprehension, loving, guiding and total of pleasure and existence. Specially her scenes with Jennifer Jones supply Claudette Colbert with a variety of extraordinary moments that distinction properly with her otherwise charming and humorous work – when she has to explain to her daughter some awful information, Claudette Colbert manages to be just as transferring as Jennifer Jones, exhibiting a mother going through all the pain of her daughter at this moment.

So, Claudette Colbert is constantly sturdy whenever she is on the screen and truly requested to do one thing with her character but total the component suffers from the conventional storytelling that does not see in Anne Hilton anything at all far more than a sensible and caring mom (even however the storyline with Joseph Cotton adds some welcome ‘pep’ to the proceedings) and provides her only with limited chances and challenges. Claudette Colbert understands how to craft her character and how to show a female who is concurrently lacking her spouse, organizing her loved ones, charming an previous pal, worrying about funds and the future and need to preserve up a façade of power and courage for the sake of her youngsters. But all this happens mainly scene by scene, always depending on what the screenplay in fact asks of her. Claudette Colbert does depart the movie on a high notice, so – the scene when she discovers a Christmas current from her partner and is conquer with feelings, pleasure and disappointment, is a superb example of previous Hollywood melodrama done completely correct.

Overall, Claudette Colbert provides an effective, charming, occasionally transferring, often humorous performance that is not automatically a great accomplishment in performing but nonetheless a pleasant and memorable pierce of operate, specifically taking into consideration how underwritten and underused Anne Hilton really is. For all this, Claudette Colbert receives

Best Actress 1963: Patricia Neal in "Hud"

Ah, the never-ending debate…leading or supporting? Even I have experienced a variety of conversations about this subject on this weblog already but the straightforward reality is that there is no reality. Everyone will see the input and influence of a efficiency otherwise, everyone has different requirements for the definition of ‘leading’ and ‘supporting’ and every person has quite just a distinct impression overall. So, my views on Patricia Neal’s Oscar-profitable change as Alma Brown, the lonely and earthy housekeeper in Hud: slight borderline case with a robust tendency for supporting. I utilised to get in touch with this a clear supporting functionality in the past – and for good factors. I nonetheless insist that, if the film makers experienced needed to, the component of Alma Brown could have been left on the cutting room ground without having impacting the general plot of the motion picture. The complete tale of Hud circles close to Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas and Brandon De Wilde with Patricia Neal providing some a lot more emotional times from time to time but she never does both turn out to be a portion of the principal storyline nor does she ever get her very own. She is Paul Newman’s item of affection and as such created incredibly thin. But someway, Patricia Neal’s display presence and her distinctive consider on this character assist her to accomplish a stage of visibility in Hud that other actresses may well have skipped and her position as the only woman presence in this modern day Western in some way tends to make her classification as Major Actress much more easy to understand. In the end, it is all relative – the Golden Globes nominated her as Supporting Actress (but the winner was Margaret Rutherford for The V.I.P.s which has to make Patricia Neal’s earn truly special – has there at any time been an additional Greatest Actress winner at the Oscars who misplaced the Golden World as Supporting Actress for the identical overall performance?) while the critics in New York, the Countrywide Board of Overview and the BAFTAs awarded her in the major category. So, even however I would probably still place her in the supporting class if I could choose the class placement myself, her entry as top actress does make ample perception. But: what about the efficiency? I typically complained that if an actress is not presented enough substance to construct on, content that presents her with a produced character and makes it possible for her to discover further depth and factors herself, it is quite tough for her to compete with other, much more completely realized performances in this category. Soon after all, Vivien Leigh had almost certainly in excess of a few several hours of monitor time in Gone with the Wind, additionally a demanding character that goes through numerous transformations whilst Patricia Neal has perhaps 20 minutes of display screen time and is provided a character that only exists to reject Hud’s sexual advances. How can they compare? Nicely, to sum it up: Patricia Neal does experience from the thin composing and the fact that Hud creates its own entire world that Alma Brown is scarcely touching at all – but it is also the real truth that it is all about high quality and not amount and a single critic was undoubtedly right when he mentioned that Patricia Neal fully recognized all of the part’s potentials, no make a difference how small or scattered they may possibly be.

As Alma Brown, Patricia Neal experienced to struggle hard to make her presence noteworthy and to enable her character truly become a portion of Hud as an alternative of an occasional addition. And for this struggle, Patricia Neal chose a extremely intriguing strategy that does not include any scene-thieving, overacting or exaggerating – instead, her performance is one particular of the most straight-ahead, delicate and minimal-crucial parts of operate this classification has at any time observed. There are no massive split-downs, no huge scenes, no large emotions. Alma Brown is one particular of the most serene, comfortable, wise and unflashy creations in motion picture background, a lady who breathes and life but does not overwhelm the viewers. It’s an really exciting and distinctive approach to a component that could have been played in a thousand distinct ways and that could have invited countless actresses to try to leave a big impression as desperately as possible – but by not trying to make any massive impact at all, Patricia Neal found a way to develop Alma as a lady who escapes the typical logic of people like these and she underlined the script’s creating by exhibiting Alma as an outsider by choice but creating her a part of Hud by her habits and interactions with the other forged-members. Her Alma is fascinatingly mysterious and however extremely familiar, she is neither a really deep nor a extremely intricate character but she benefits a excellent offer from Patricia Neal’s interpretation which is in a position to propose a total existence beyond Hud, a journey that Alma has absent via and that will proceed lengthy following the motion picture has ended. Due to the fact of a absence of an very own plotline by the script, Patricia Neal experienced only herself to depend on and her performing choices, even though not usually ready to truly get over the restrictions of her character, created it attainable for her to go away a distinctive mark on her part and the motion picture and she was in a position to incorporate various levels beyond the floor of Alma, additional only by her own interpretation. Patricia Neal confirmed that she did not genuinely require a script to help her – due to the fact whilst her operate with her dialogue is extremely intriguing, it’s mainly her unspoken scenes that truly flip Alma into a the memorable character she turned out to be: little seems at Paul Newman, limited times of question or regret, choices of power performed with a certain vulnerability or little gestures of joy that make her interactions with Paul Newman so tense and nevertheless so peaceful.

In her initial instant on the monitor, Patricia Neal currently shown how unforeseen her interpretation of Alma Brown is – her shipping of the line ‘He parked correct on my flower bed’ soon after the arrival of Hud lacks all the thoughts that typically would accompany a line like this: concealed pain or suffering, regret, a magic formula longing, every little thing that could help an actress to notify all the untold tricks of Alma Brown in 1 2nd. Patricia Neal alternatively delivered the line with no any of these feelings and stated it in a quite issue-of-fact way, with perhaps a slight annoyance but still a tone that expressed even an acceptance of his conduct because she previously is aware what to assume of him. And when she later asks him why he selected to park just on her bouquets, her voice once more speaks with clear composure that is not attempting to cover any further inner thoughts but again exhibits how nicely she is aware of Hud and gentlemen like him. In her first interactions with Paul Newman, Patricia Neal also lays the foundation of their partnership – her Alma Brown is a lady who clearly enjoys all his stories about the a great number of girls he goes to bed with, who likes his behavior and evidently never thinks of herself as an item of passion but instead somebody who prefers to satisfy Hud on the identical stage when it comes to their personal lives. This way, Patricia Neal also underlined that Alma is aware her placement as housekeeper in the Bannon home but neither in this placement nor as a woman she is prepared to put herself underneath Hud’s influence and charm. Throughout her afterwards scenes, Patricia Neal slowly demonstrates how much Alma has been formed by the life she led so far – the dialogue about her previous is only minimal but her facial acting and the way she speaks her traces make it clear that Alma is a lady who seasoned a wonderful offer throughout her life so far, excellent and undesirable. The way Alma behaves about the family, as the only woman in a globe of gentlemen, demonstrates that she is currently employed to this lifestyle variety of lifestyle. Patricia Neal crafted Alma as a girl who has her possess philosophy, her possess knowledge and the energy to live her life appropriately to it. She is not a saint nor a mysterious creature that came out of nowhere – alternatively, she is extremely much a element of her atmosphere, earthy and true, transcendent and not at after. Patricia Neal turned Alma into a true 3-dimensional human becoming, a female who possesses the toughness she wants in a globe like this, the no-nonsense frame of mind that aids her to hold her strength and her dignity but also the joyful spirit that allows her to constantly take pleasure in lifestyle, no issue how tiny it may offer to her.

Because Alma is primarily created as a female counterpart for Hud, Patricia Neal’s scenes reverse Paul Newman (which are most of them) are the most critical issue in her perform. She could have effortlessly endured the exact same fate Eleanor Parker in Detective Story or Shelley Winters in A Spot in the Sunshine did 12 years earlier – playing figures that are only noticed as critical as lengthy as they provide a storyline for the central male character. But Patricia Neal did not fall underneath this force but rather was able to craft Alma Brown as a woman who clearly exists independently from Hud and this way prevented her from turning into a plot device that only exists to give Paul Newman much more display time. Her chemistry with Paul Newman is the most choosing aspect of her operate and both actors did their very best to merge a specific level of mutual indifference, respect, friendship and obvious sexual curiosity to achieve a great and fascinating chemistry. In a variety of small times, Patricia Neal demonstrates that Alma is a female who cares much more about Hud than she need to and who occasionally thinks about him in a way that is different from their moments of relaxed honesty as she at times looks to take pleasure in the concept of currently being an item of affection to him. But she can also suffers from his continual insults, disinterest and actions like all people else. The seem on her confront as she is undertaking the dishes, a appear completely rid of any thoughts which once again underlines Patricia Neal’s straight-forwardness in the element, tells how easily Hud can hurt her, even with Alma’s own protectiveness. And so, despite her longing for him she keeps her distance. Or far better: she keeps him at length. Her slight annoyance following a single of Hud’s instead unsubtle developments on the porch or her shipping and delivery of the line ‘Way over’ when Hud, naturally drunk, once again tries to make a go at her in the kitchen, display that there are no illusions in Alma’s daily life and that her very own knowledge and her very own knowledge avert her from surrendering to her actual physical wants. And the scene when she talks to him in her little property, soon after possessing swiftly removed her underwear that was hanging exterior to dry, shows an almost burning enthusiasm among these two without at any time getting rid of the subtlety of the character – her smiles, her eyes all tell of a specific longing while her terms are striving to keep Hud at a length. It is largely this comfortable, open but sexually stuffed environment in between Patricia Neal and Paul Newman that is one particular of the most interesting factors of Hud.

Patricia Neal’s efficiency is a gorgeous case in point of a focused realism on the display screen but also of an actress getting an underwritten and slim part and filling it with lifestyle many thanks to her personal acting, her own personality and her capability to use her substance to craft the thought of a complete entire world outside of the composed phrase. Of course, this lovely portrayal still exists inside the choices of Patricia Neal’s function – it is easy to praise an actress for carrying out so significantly with so small but it does not modify the truth that this ‘little’ is even now holding her back again in a particular way. She surely succeeded in the part but this success is just as restricted as the position itself. Still, Patricia Neal employed her constrained display screen time and substance very properly and was ready to produce a unforgettable, three-dimensional character by totally concentrating on the realism of Alma Brown’s life, her present and her earlier, a girl who does not devote her existence thinking about what could be but only about what is. She introduced a splendidly sad, longing quality to her portion and that way took it significantly additional than the screenplay allowed. In her closing scenes, her unexpected tears are these kinds of a start off distinction to her earlier characterization that the result is mind-boggling for a quick instant right up until Alma once more turns into the lady she utilized to be. Her husky voice and her entire body language all demonstrate a specified sexuality powering her hard façade, but also a great deal loneliness and the trace of a difficult existence, a calm and self-assured but nonetheless doubting lady who a lot more than when suffers from her possess knowledge, her personal options to continue to be at a length to her surroundings and defend herself towards being damage once more. And even for the duration of her last talk with Hud, in which she yet again exhibits that she understands men like him and that the only factor she can do now is leave, Patricia Neal provides her traces in which Alma finally tells Hud that she did have some sexual pursuits in him, again so completely straight-ahead and with no making an attempt to turn them into something noteworthy that Alma leaves the motion picture just as quietly and incidentally as she entered it. So, for her unique and captivating technique to this portion, she gets

Best Actress 1944: Greer Garson in "Mrs. Parkington"

Someway, Greer Garson often appears like a excellent product of the 40s. Really usually she projected that typical, relatively dated performing fashion from people a long time, a particular melodrama that dominates her performances and includes long stares into the open up place, extremely managed entire body movements, a posing in entrance of the digicam and a inclination to milk every scene for spectacular influence. But Greer Garson experienced one particular, no two essential positive aspects above other actresses from that era that helped her to turn into a item of her time while appearing strangely timeless, too – particularly the potential to merge her acting fashion with a particular naturalism that enabled her to look surprisingly refreshing and spontaneous and a massive volume of appeal that carried most of her perform and produced it possible for her not to rely only on her talent for melodrama but also to fill her character with poise, sweetness and dignity. She never experienced to depend on more than-the-leading crying scenes or hysteric breakdowns to command the screen – the phrase ‘less is more’ was definitely the credo of her performing performances. And this mixture of charm, naturalism, subtlety and clear melodrama resulted in performances that are nearly always entertaining and pretty to look at even although they could in no way really seem like actually grand achievements. From a present day stage-of-see, most of her function may appear rather harmless and restricted, even though also gratifying sufficient to make it comprehensible that she utilized to be this kind of an Oscar darling throughout her reign. But a lot more than her outdated-fashioned performing fashion it is the quality of her videos has destroyed the status of Greer Garson above the a long time. By 1944, she would probably have been nominated for studying the mobile phone guide – even though she was plainly able of much more. But for an actress of her standing it does seem to be puzzling that she was so rarely cast in films that genuinely deserved her. Up coming to her, Bette Davis is the only other actress to have acquired 5 consecutive nominations for Ideal Actress. But Bette Davis starred in Jezebel, Darkish Victory, The Letter, The Small Foxes and Now, Voyager – all of them classics in their very own way and barely neglected. Greer Garson created her Oscar-run with Blossoms in the Dust, Mrs. Miniver, Madame Curie, Mrs. Parkington and Valley of Determination. Mrs. Miniver is at minimum a winner of the Best Photo award, even however a relatively overlooked a single, but the rest of these films are standard melodrama with no any true recommendable attributes apart from its foremost woman. This does not suggest that these videos resemble images like Sophie’s Selection or Monster which are also common videos but with overpowering direct performances. A Greer-Garson-motion picture is often a instead dated, lifeless and unremarkable knowledge, even with Greer Garson’s charming presence. And these dated and unremarkable videos also did barely at any time offer you this actress really tough areas but mainly let her do what she did ideal – be gracious, charming, lose some tears and hold her head in the proper angle in front of the camera.

This all sounds perhaps fairly complicated. Was she a good actress or a bad actress? Nicely, the answer is straightforward: undoubtedly a great actress but she’s usually caught in her possess limited variety and in no way as great as one particular may possibly assume her to be, thinking about her all round seven Greatest Actress nods. And what about her part as Susie Parkington in the not very cleverly titled Mrs. Parkington? Properly, the film by itself is the regular Greer-Garson-motor vehicle – and even amid them it is relatively sub-standard but it also offers the great realization that Greer Garson could really rise earlier mentioned her content at times even when she nevertheless did not move herself outdoors her possess convenience zone. Mrs. Parkington receives all its strength and psychological content material from Greer Garson and she solitary-handedly prevents the film from collapsing under its possess melodrama and pretentiousness. Mrs. Parkington only exists to source the top actress with a flashy portion and so it forgot every little thing else – from a well-composed screenplay to an attractive supporting solid (with a single exception) to any other interesting figures (once more, with 1 exception). So basically, her efficiency ought to not vary quite significantly from most of her other turns, Oscar-nominated or not. And in a whole lot of approaches it doesn’t – but there is something about Greer Garson’s function in Mrs. Parkington that somehow will come jointly so fantastically entertaining, relocating and charming that she and her functionality, even although in no way exclusive or a phase out of her ease and comfort zone, feels by some means far more amazing than it normally does. Once more, this does not mean that this performance will protected her a spot among the all-time greats but she does undertaking this sort of an admirable character out of paper-slender composing that it feels difficult to deny her a little a lot more regard than usually.

Mrs. Parkington, as described just before, is neither the peak of sophistication nor of entertainment. It does what so many movies for the duration of the 40s did – notify the story of a woman’s lifestyle in flashbacks whilst the present difficulties her with a variety of critical issues and circumstances. Mrs. Parkington – the movie and the character – question a lot of Greer Garson she has to be a youthful, poor girl operating in her mother's guest property who marries a wealthy Significant from whom she starts to length herself until she realizes in the finish that she without a doubt loves him. All this although the present-day Susie has to deal with her spoiled youngsters who definitely did not change out the way she almost certainly hoped they would have. The motion picture also addresses a large component of Susie’s daily life – from her days as a youthful female to an aged grandmother. Of course, it is certainly a showy part and Greer Garson performs it with her normal blend of freshness and outdated-fashioned posing but nevertheless with a stronger emphasis on her natural and charming facet than her melodramatic one. When Greer Garson first enters the motion picture, in her outdated-female make-up, the whole efficiency essentially relies upon on the initial couple of seconds of her function – is she convincing and that way invitations the audience to comply with her story or does it all show up too unconvincing to be anything else than preposterous? Fortunately Greer Garson did almost everything correct in this initial moment – the way she nods at her family which is waiting for her downstairs is so distinct from her usual swish self and in just a handful of times communicates the feelings of a very pleased, loveable and lively woman, a woman who certainly seems to be back at a prolonged and eventful life. Greer Garson captured the spirit of this woman so nicely in this instant that she creates the basis of every thing to follow in this one scene.

In Mrs. Parkington, Greer Garson definitely faces one of the most curious dilemmas in motion picture history: she manages to be the two as well youthful and too aged for her position. But as just described, she solves the dilemma of the aged Susie Parkington very properly – there is heat, wisdom and power in her portrayal and she also brings together the female of the current-working day scenes perfectly with the girl of the flashback scenes. There are apparent times when the viewers definitely has to surprise how her young children could change out to be this sort of troubles but Greer Garson manages to demonstrate that Susie is pondering the same, as well, and as a result does not need to give an reply due to the fact there is none. Greer Garson’s overall performance does not perform very as well in the course of her early flashback scenes – her age is much way too seen in these times and she often simply lacks credibility as an unsophisticated female expanding up in the middle of nowhere. But Greer Garson once more is significantly far more calm, open and honest in her portrayal than normal – she does not speak for a long time right after the inescapable Walter Pidgeon appeard but the lusty and fascinated looks she is throwing at him make her intentions flawlessly very clear. Greer Garson also did not overdo these scenes – she did not attempt to duplicate girlish allure or teenaged attraction but held her characterization quite minimal-key. The biggest troubles in Greer Garson’s efficiency come throughout the early scenes with Walter Pidgeon but she is not to be blamed for them – in Pidgeon, she has an impossibly pompous monitor partner, taking part in a purely despicable character. For the duration of what is undoubtedly supposed to be a intimate scene when they are each chatting at evening on a balcony, they listen to a guy slap his wife which only brings about Parkington to say ‘Ah, he must enjoy her really much’ just before he asks Susie if she would like to be thrashed by him. Even Greer Garson seems to be misplaced in this scene. Afterwards, factors get even worse when Susie’s mother dies – a loss of life for which Parkington could be indirectly blamed. But Greer Garson reacts to the news of her mother’s loss of life only with a stern search with no any psychological content. But probably she can't imagine that the script is actually forcing her to listen to Parkington trying to cheer her up by telling her she have to appear to New York with him. Once again, probably Greer Garson’s missing expression is her lack of ability to locate any type of psychological outlet for a horrible scene like this and it is hard to blame her but she could have at minimum tried…Later, she all of a sudden finds an unforeseen shining moment amid this insulting plotline. The scene in which Parkington proposes to her is once again practically offensive but her shipping of the line ‘Oh, Key Parkington’, which is essentially her settlement to his proposal, is as very good as it will get under the situations, probably even much better. She finds the correct sum of shock, delight, question and fear in this limited sentence with out any sentimental exaggeration.

Afterwards, the chemistry between each actors improves especially simply because they by no means play the love between their figures as some thing pure, unique and everlasting – rather, they give a sensible portrayal of a marriage that was 50 percent out of love and halt out of comfort even though these two distinct personalities get used to every single other. Greer Garson also demonstrates the progress in Susie with slow, reasonable steps – it’s an unavoidable method as Susie requirements to discover her area in New York’s society and offer with the conduct of her partner which is leading to unhappiness and destroy all around them. Her unfortunate, distressing seems during a ruined dinner celebration and afterwards the scene when she leaves him because she are not able to stand his conduct any longer are accomplished extremely movingly by Greer Garson. Total, it’s quite remarkable to observe how she will take Susie from the naïve, inexperienced female to a girl who takes her existence into her own arms, intervened with the scenes of a sensible and loving grandmother.

Greer Garson’s chemistry with Walter Pidgeon may sometimes lack the required spark and plausibility but she often functions very effectively with Agnes Mooreheard – the aforementioned exception to the unimpressive supporting forged. As a French aristocrat, she offers new life and energy into the movie anytime the two sales opportunities absence way too considerably of it. In her romantic relationship to the Baroness, Greer Garson once more shows a consistent expansion in Susie – very first, she does not know if she can believe in this female who employed to be an essential portion in the life of her partner and then, stage by action, develops a accurate and significant friendship with her.

Greer Garson could not really develop some thing otherworldly in her performance but the sheer energy and naturalness she displays in this portion is adequate to praise her for having done so much with so small. The way she continuously blows her hair out her confront is maybe a easy and banal attribute that often arrives at the price of more important emotional reactions but she does it with so considerably vitality and so frequently contrasts with her common display personality while in no way leaving her comfort and ease zone that it is fairly basically a lot a lot more intriguing and entertaining than anticipated. The viewers definitely miracles how a lady who discovered so a lot energy insider herself in the course of the operate of the film could acknowledge this sort of conduct from her young children – and so the closing scene of Mrs. Parkington, when the older Susie all of a sudden finds her youthful spirit once more and decides to act the way she thinks is greatest, provides the whole character of Susie to entire circle. For all this, Greer Garson gets

Best Actress 1963

The next year will be 1963 and the nominees have been

Leslie Caron in The L-Formed Space

Shirley MacLaine in Irma La Douce

Patricia Neal in Hud

Rachel Roberts in This Sporting Life

Natalie Wood in Adore with the Correct Stranger

YOUR Best Actress of 1951

Here are the outcomes of the poll:

one. Vivien Leigh - A Streetcar named Want (43 votes)

2. Katharine Hepburn - The African Queen (6 votes)

3. Shelley Winters - A Spot in the Sun (two votes)

four. Eleanor Parker - Detective Tale (one vote)

5. Jane Wyman - The Blue Veil ( votes)

Many thanks to every person for voting!