Presenting the 17th Academy Awards' nominees for Best Actress:
Ingrid Bergman, Gaslight
Claudette Colbert, Since You Went Away
Bette Davis, Mr. Skeffington
Greer Garson, Mrs. Parkington
Barbara Stanwyck, Double Indemnity
The Oscar ceremony honoring the films of 1944 took place on March 15, 1945. By that time, Going My Way was enough of a hit that a sequel, The Bells of St. Mary's, was already filming, reteaming director-writer Leo McCarey and star Bing Crosby, and adding Ingrid Bergman as a nun. When the Best Actress category for this year was announced, both McCarey and Crosby had already won their Going My Way Oscars, so when Ingrid Bergman was named the winner for Gaslight, she quipped, "I'm afraid if I didn't have an Oscar, too, they wouldn't speak to me." She needn't have worried.
Some Old Hollywood fans bemoan the win, not because she wasn't good, but because (a) she wound up getting two more anyway, and (b) this was probably the strongest chance Double Indemnity's Barbara Stanwyck had at winning. The other three were all former winners, with both Davis and Garson perennial favorites during this period. And in retrospect, certainly, it makes sense: Stanwyck's portrayal of Phyllis Dietrichson entered the public consciousness in a way none of the other performances have, the grande dame of all femme fatales. She even has her own Wikipedia page, which no other character here, or even in Double Indemnity, can claim!
The one who won, the one who left a legacy, or one of the others - who would you choose? My rankings, from fifth to first:
5. Claudette Colbert as Anne Hilton
Since You Went Away
past winner, third and final nomination
It’s an honor to watch Claudette Colbert, honestly. She humanizes a character who could very easily just be a Symbol of the Patriotic Woman - and, oh, she does her duty, but Colbert allows you to see the strain, the tension in her body; she lets you see how it relaxes with Joseph Cotten or with Hattie McDaniel. When she does break down in tears, it’s at once alarming and cathartic, a dam bursting forth. And wow, can that woman nail a telephone scene! (Bonus Point: Hilarious in No Time for Love)
4. Bette Davis as Fanny Trellis Skeffington
Mr. Skeffington
I can't decide whether what Davis does throughout is brilliant or unhinged but still brilliant. . Fanny is awful, a woman who, even through the decades, insists on playing the part of young ingenue, and so Davis adopts this girlish titter that is at first amusing but increasingly becomes unnerving, desperate, like she doesn't know how to stop the charade. Because she is so unsentimental, she is genuine, and we are only able to sympathize with Fanny because Davis has refused to play for it.
Such a dependable actress, no wonder she was nominated five consecutive years. I think she's great, doesn't overdo playing young or elderly when called for, charts a believable arc from scrappy working-woman to doyenne of society. The entire sequence where she runs to England to reclaim her husband from the designs of a scheming aristocrat showcases how tough the years have made Mrs. Parkington, yet how soft she still remains - her best qualities fully formed.
2. Barbara Stanwyck as Phyllis Dietrichson
Double Indemnity
third of four nominations; NYFCC Awards second runner-up for Best Actress
She leaves such an indelible impression, you forget that she's not in a ton of the movie - yet, she's the whole thing, isn't she? We’re seduced right along with Neff, from the moment she enters with that towel and changes into something more suitable. She sizes him up immediately, Stanwyck lets you see the quickness with which her gears turn, even as her outer body keeps eerily still. Stanwyck is sexy, witty, dangerous; every time you watch (and I’ve seen this maybe three or four times), you can glean something new. She sells every look, every line reading - she even sells that hair!
1. Ingrid Bergman as Paula Alquist Anton
Gaslight
first of three wins, second of seven nominations; Golden Globe winner for Best Actress, National Board of Review's Best Acting of 1944; NYFCC Awards runner-up for Best Actress
I've watched Double Indemnity and Gaslight more than once, and sorry, Oscar had it right. Bergman gives you the young talent burdened with a haunted memory, the young lover caught in the whirlwind of romance, the uncertainty of her reality, the desperation with which she reaches for understanding, the despair of knowing you must have lost your mind...and the true hysteria of an avenging angel. Her climactic scene really nails it for me, so perfectly, engrossingly, has Bergman played this arc. A performance that is both reserved and ferocious, that keeps you watching for every tic, every look of hopelessness, every guttural stutter, keeps you guessing as to the state of her mind. Perfection.
Next time, the nominees for Best Supporting Actor: Hume Cronyn (The Seventh Cross), Barry Fitzgerald (Going My Way), Claude Rains (Mr. Skeffington), Clifton Webb (Laura), and Monty Woolley (Since You Went Away).
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