Best Actor had a variety of roles this year with James Dean, Rock Hudson and Laurence Olivier all in the Oscar Pot. I believe one man should have won for 1956, but wasn't even nominated and here we go..
1. JOHN WAYNE IN THE SEARCHERS
Despite people either loving him(that's me) or hating him, he deserved to win the Oscar as the Indian hating former soldier who is on the hunt to find his niece(played by Natalue Wood). The gentle looks Ethan( Wayne) gives to his sister in law, speaks volumes. When he sees his brother's home on fire, he knows they are dead and his first thought is of his sister in law. When he sees her dead, his brother and their son and the 2 girls taken, hate takes over. A posse is put together and along with the adopted son of John Wayne's brother, who was not home when they were ambushed, they take off after the girls. The posse gives up but not Wayne or the Native American son, played by Jeffrey Hunter, who drive on for 5 long years. This film is directed by John Ford and you can tell by the look of the film with Monument Valley taking center stage. You have Ford's stock company of actors Wayne, Ward Bond, Harry Carey Jnr., Patrick Wayne and the wonderful Hank Worden who all have great characters. Wayne is amazing as Ethan, a troubled man moving towards his goal of finding Scar and killing him. His rage is his mission and you are scared once he finds his niece since she has been raised by the Commanche. Will he kill or save her. It’s a must see western.
2. YUL BRYNNER IN THE KING AND I
I was lucky enough to see Yul Brynner in the 1980 production of The King and I in Toronto. It was so much fun to see him in his iconic role. He played this role, on Broadway, with Gertrude Lawrence before taking it to film. He is excellent as the king and he has a great rapport with Deborah Kerr as the governess who is to teach the English ways to all his children and his wives. They are at odds but grew to have great respect for one another. It's a lush musical by Rogers and Hammerstein with great costumes and the music is sublime. He did win the Oscar and I'm not upset that he won but it should have gone to John Wayne.
3. KIRK DOUGLAS IN LUST FOR LIFE
Kirk Douglas was born to play Vincent Van Gogh and this is a great film that Kirk eats up the screen every moment he is on film. Douglas plays the tortured soul of this Famous Dutch painter who had trouble hanging on to any friend which included Paul Gauguin, played by Anthony Quinn in his Oscar Winning role for Best Supporting actor, who just can’t deal with Van Gogh. This is quite a good movie based on Van Gogh and Douglas really showed this artist in all his bravado plus he looks like him to boot! It is worth checking out.
Do you agree with me or do you feel someone else deserved the win?
I've never seen The Searchers, so I can't say as to whether Wayne deserved the Oscar. You do know that there's an airport named for him, right? I've flown out of it a couple times.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, I know there is a John Wayne airport and, I hope, the name doesn't change. I hope you see this film becdusebits a great western.
DeleteIt's not likely that Orange County would want to change the name of the airport. There doesn't seem to be any issues with it at the moment. (OC is very, very conservative.)
DeleteShame Yul Brynner didn't win. He was great in that film.
ReplyDeleteOh no, he did win! This is his most iconic role. I was so happy to have seen him in the 80s in this role.
DeleteI don't know who should have won because I don't remember much about the acting in any of them. That maybe is a good thing since not noticing the acting might mean they were all acting really well. Whatever the case, those are all great films that you mention.
ReplyDeleteLee
Yes, when watching these films you're not thinking, " Wow, Wayne is great in this or Douglas is great." You'll think if the characters.
DeleteJohn Wayne is my favorite actor. And that is NOT to say that I think he was the *best* actor. Definitely not. But he was in many really good movies and he was good and so charismatic so often.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I like 'The Searchers', I love 'True Grit', which is my favorite of The Duke's movies. However, if we're talking simply about Wayne's best (technical) acting performance, well... he saved his best for last. 'The Shootist' is by far the best acting that Wayne ever did. The subtle moments of really excellent acting can be seen throughout that film.
Who should have won the 'Best Actor' Oscar in '56? Well, I haven't seen Laurence Olivier (who is somewhat overrated) in 'Richard III', but I've seen the others and... without a shadow of a doubt, I believe JAMES DEAN should have won the 'Best Actor' award for 'Giant'. Having been professionally trained as an actor myself, I can give oodles & oodles of examples for why Dean gave the best performance. (He should have won the year before for 'East Of Eden', which was actually his *greatest* performance.) I know precisely what gets written into a screenplay and what elements an actor brings to a role via improvisation & creativity. Dean was the most "creative" actor I've ever seen up to this date.
~ D-FensDogG
Oh, The Shootist brings me to tears every time I watch it it's hard for me to watch this film. It's a deeply personal film hir him, I believe. I think it makes me think of my dad who fought the Big C valiantly like Wayne. I think you would have liked my dad.
DeleteYou would know what the actors do and Dean deserved the Oscar for East of Eden. He is iconic and it just shows that, with 3 roles, he is world renown.
Oh I so agree with you about Wayne's political views. I would have been arguing with him big time just like I did with my dad. His lowest point was the McCarthy era . Wayne deserved this award but I agree that Douglas is perfect in his role and, if it was a different year, he'd have been my choice. It just shows how these choices end up being personal. I wonder why The SEARCHERS was so overlooked.
ReplyDeleteThe Searchers - such a good movie. There's a DS9 episode based on the story, Season 4's "Indiscretion."
ReplyDelete