I am picking a year and a category and choosing the actual winner, the nominee and one that got neither and will choose the one I think should have won. I am just going with 3 even though the norm is, usually, 5. I have chosen 1954 and the best actress category which showered a new lady with the Oscar and treated a veteran pretty crappy. Grace Kelly won the Oscar appearing in a beautiful icy aqua gown designed by the famous Edith Head. Judy Garland had just given birth to her son and was surrounded by all the reporters and cameramen because they believed Judy would win the Oscar but when she didn’t, they unceremoniously, packed everything up and left. Needless to say, Judy felt like a bag of meat.
1. A STAR IS BORN
Beautiful, elegant Grace Kelly wears a basic sweater and little makeup and winds up winning the Oscar for the role of the long suffering wife of an over the hill actor/singer and alcoholic Bing Crosby. The years of trying to keep up her husband’s mood took its toll and she is a shell of her former self. William Holden sees her as the beauty and wishes she would drop kick her husband out the door. It is well acted especially by Bing Crosby but, even though Grace did a good job, I didn’t think she deserved the Oscar. I do need to see this film again. Off camera, Grace was having an affair with Bing and William…not at the same time but one after the other, she was quite the gal.
3. THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA
Ava Gardener gave her all in this film which almost seemed to be a bit of her autobiography of this stunningly beautiful actress. It’s not really her biography but it does seem to recognize Ava’s freedom loving ways. Humphrey Bogart plays a director who finds Ava and proceeds to make her a star. Men fall in love with her but she doesn’t care much about their desires only her wish to feel free and dance to her own tune. It is very well acted and Ava deserved an Oscar nomination but she wasn’t recognized which is a shame because she did a great job as this earthy woman who beats to her own drummer.
Have you seen any of these pictures? Anyone else you thought should have won or, at least, be nominated?
That is the best version of A Star is Born.
ReplyDeleteI agree
DeleteI've seen all three movies and enjoyed them. Sometimes the awards are more of a popularity contest and have little to do with performance.
ReplyDeleteYou got that right. Poor Judy should have won.
DeleteI have not seen that version of A Star Is Born, yet I love Judy Garland so I'm definitely going to watch it now. Even without watching it, just reading your post, it is frustrating to know she didn't win. And to be treated that way? That's awful.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great movie but when the theatre owners balked at the length, the studio hackers got a hold of it and sliced it up. Judy and the director, George Cukor, could nevercwatch it again. Still, this film is great and her performance carries the film
DeleteAll greats movies, although my favourite Star is Born is the Streisand/Kristofferson version. Judy was excellent in this one though, and should have won the Oscar. I love The Barefoot Contessa most of all! Ava definitely should have been nominated.
ReplyDeleteYes, Ava should have been nominated and, if not for Judy, should have won the Oscar.i still have to see that version of the movie
DeleteHi Birgit!
ReplyDeleteJudy was absolutely robbed!! I think it was a combination of Grace being the current It girl, her father’s money, Warners terrible decision to take a hacksaw to A Star is Born after its release to fit in more screenings a day and the studio blaming her for all the problems on the film, which was untrue. It really should have been no one else but Judy taking the prize (I must assume it was a remarkably close vote) and what is even more galling is that Grace, if she had to win, took it for the wrong film. Her nomination should have come via Rear Window but for some bizarre reason the Academy wasn’t feeling that movie.
All that said both A Star is Born and The Country Girl are good films but the second cannot compare to the first and despite the title of the latter it belongs to Bing.
I have never been able to connect to The Barefoot Contessa. It’s solidly made with a superior cast including Ava at the peak of her ravishing beauty, but I find it rather poky. I just gave it another try a few weeks ago since it had been years since my last view, and I found it very much the same.
Since you asked about the lineup I would change it almost completely. I’d only retain Judy for the films the ladies received nominations for. That’s not to say that the actresses (Audrey Hepburn, Jane Wyman, Dorothy Dandridge) included were bad or unworthy. I am a huge fan of them all, there just were better options this year.
My line-up would have run this way:
Shirley Booth-About Mrs. Leslie-Even more than Come Back, Little Sheba this is Shirley’s best film and performance in her brief screen career.
Grace Kelly-Rear Window-The big ballyhoo about Country Girl is that Grace deglammed but she is far more interesting and varied as Lisa Fremont in all her silks and satins helping Jimmy Stewart and Thelma Ritter (where was her nomination?) crack the case in Rear Window!
Linda Darnell-This is My Love-Linda’s last role of any consequence in this obscure but fascinating film, she is extraordinary as the emotionally stunted Vida Dove.
Judy Garland-A Star is Born-Perfection and always my winner.
Judy Holliday-It Should Happen to You-The other great Judy found every layer possible in the comic/sad Gladys Glover making someone enormously appealing out of a character that could have been merely an attention hungry clown if played by someone less skillful.
You are so right about Judy I think the studios resented that she created an outstanding film on her own, with her husband, Sid Luft, and didn't beg to go to them. She wad robbed!
DeleteI so agree about Grace Kelly and her stunning performance in Rear Window. I remember so much of her on that film while nothing from The Country Girl. Rear Window should have been nominated as well...so should have Thelma Ritter.
I love Barefoot much more than you and found Ava captivating.
I have not seen Shirley or Linda in their films. I need to see these films. Linda is a sorely forgotten film actress who deserved so much more. Judy is magical in that fil .
I’m going to give Best Actress lineup in the year 1940 a much needed once over!
ReplyDeleteKitty Foyle-According to reports Ginger Rogers was stunned when she won for this syrupy paean to motherhood, and she should have been. She is not bad, though a bit stiff and overly earnest, but considering the options available that year it is crazy that she took the prize.
Out of the actual nominees: Ginger, Bette Davis for The Letter, Martha Scott for Our Town, Katharine Hepburn for The Philadelphia Story and Joan Fontaine for Rebecca-the winner should have been Bette Davis. She is magnificent as the outwardly placidly devoted but inwardly vicious and deceitful Leslie Crosbie with William Wyler taking full advantage of her madly expressive eyes to convey so much.
However, in an open field while I would include Bette without question there are two women whose exclusion is simply ridiculous. The first is Rosalind Russell in the role that really put her on top in His Girl Friday. Along with Cary Grant they tear into the rapid-fire dialog and make it memorable like no one else could. What hurt her was that the film was done on loan out to Columbia so in those crucial days of studio block voting MGM wasn’t about to throw their weight behind a film from another studio.
A similar issue might be the reasoning behind why my choice to win was also left out. To me this year should have been all about Vivien Leigh in Waterloo Bridge! She is exquisite in the movie and even though she had won the year before for Gone With the Wind it wouldn’t have been unusual for her to be back in the running the next year. Bette Davis had a run of five years where she was nominated successively but that’s where the catch comes in. Bette was Queen of Warners by that point so had their full support, Vivien was under contract to Selznick and on loan to Metro for Waterloo Bridge and they were busy promoting their own stars. A real pity because she was so deserving.
Yes! Bette was so good and her mannerisms seemed less so in the Letter which was better. I love Vivien in Waterloo Bridge, which was her favourite film, and she is so good in it, but I would still give the award go Rosalind Russell. She could match Cary Grant barb for barb and the quick verbal repartee is still unmatched to this day I'll have to do this year one day...
DeleteI have seen Star is Born, also the Streisand one (in fact I think I saw them the wrong way round date-wise). Liked them both but haven’t seen Lady Gaga. I do wonder why they can’t think up new stories!
ReplyDeleteYou Wonder where originality went. Apparently, there are going to be a lot of sequels coming up this year.
DeleteI've only see A Star is Born. I'll have to check out the others.
ReplyDeleteYes! They are good films
DeleteI haven't seen any of these but would like to... one day. "The Country Girl" seems intriguing.
ReplyDeleteI did not know Judy Garland had alcohol and drug problems. Something else I've learned from this informative site:)
ReplyDeleteHave a grand weekend.
Sandra sandracox.blogspot.com
What a coincidence that you also posted a Judy Garland movie, Birgit. Apparently the only one from the Wizard cast who went to her funeral was Ray Bolger. I think the others had already passed. She was quite a multi-faceted AND multi-talented lady.
ReplyDeleteYes, we saw THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA several years ago. I remember liking it and that's about it. :) Thanks for sharing! :)
ReplyDelete