Presenting the 17th Academy Awards' nominees for Best Supporting Actor:
Hume Cronyn, The Seventh Cross
Barry Fitzgerald, Going My Way
Claude Rains, Mr. Skeffington
Clifton Webb, Laura
Monty Woolley, Since You Went Away
Cronyn is a man in Nazi Germany who must choose between protecting himself and helping a friend, a political refugee. Fitzgerald is an old and old-fashioned priest with a crumbling parish. Rains is a successful Jewish businessman who marries a woman who loves his money more than him, but he's hopeful that'll change. Webb is a bitchy columnist whose protege's murder is investigated. Woolley is a stuffy retired colonel boarding with a middle-class family, nursing a strained relationship with his grandson.
This was always going to be Fitzgerald's Oscar:
The fact that he was nominated for the exact same performance in Best Actor tells you so. At the time, Academy bylaws permitted an actor to be considered for whatever category, and he happened to score enough votes to place in both categories. Afterward, rules were changed so that an actor could only be nominated in the category submitted by their studio, but that got confusing, too: a clerical error in 1963 led to the entire cast of Cleopatra being submitted as leads, while Peter Sellers' multiple roles in 1964's Dr. Strangelove led to four simultaneous campaigns: one in Lead for all three roles together, and three in Supporting for each role individually. So then the rules were changed again: you could vote for a role in whichever category, but the category they got the most votes in first would be their nomination: thus, Kate Winslet in The Reader went from being campaigned all 2008 as Best Supporting Actress, only to wind up in Best Lead Actress.
So that's how a Supporting Actor won the Oscar and changed the rules.
It's not, admittedly, the best lineup. My rankings, from fifth to first:
5. Claude Rains as Job Skeffington
Mr. Skeffington
third of four nominations
Moving even as he makes the very stupid decision to marry Fanny; Rains shows that he himself feels almost helpless in his attraction, flattered and surprised that she accepts his proposal. Such a warm, sweet performance, the kind that'll make you fall in love with an actor. He'd actually be my winner, but I just can't see him as Supporting. He's the plot driver of the movie, its moral compass, he gets multiple scenes without Bette Davis, the best of which is the one that clinched him the nomination, where he has a final ice cream with his daughter. He drops out for maybe 25 minutes, sure, but he comes back and, if it was Laurence Olivier or someone in that vein doing the same thing, he'd inarguably be the Lead.
4. Barry Fitzgerald as Father Fitzgibbon
Going My Way
one of two nominations; Golden Globes winner for Best Supporting Actor, NYFCC Awards winner for Best Actor
The kind of role this category was created for, a showcase for this beloved character actor to lay on the Oirish. He's won over maybe a little too easily, and perhaps a smidge offscreen - is it really a round of golf that gets him to finally align with Father O'Malley? - but Fitzgerald plays it all well enough, natural and humorous, his tut-tutting so guttural you can hear the aged weariness. Be odd if he didn't nail it, honestly.
3. Hume Cronyn as Paul Roeder
The Seventh Cross
only nomination
Projects a believable quality of decency, a man who does the right thing and understands all the while the difficulty in doing so. There's strain, yes; fear, certainly; but there is also a righteous anger, anger that he, that anyone, has to put in this position at all. And he understands why someone wouldn't help as he does, but that's frustrating, too. Cronyn doesn't play the hero, but nails the quiet struggle of principles.
2. Monty Woolley as Colonel William G. Smollett
Since You Went Away
second and final nomination
Many of his early scenes are of the comical, blustering, pompous old man variety, he can do that in his sleep. Watching this iceberg slowly melt is a treat, though, especially as he takes on a grandfatherly role towards Jennifer Jones and Shirley Temple. He gets a couple of terrific scenes on each side of the Intermission, all to do with repairing his relationship with his grandson, and to Woolley's credit, he doesn't overplay it; no, he's a Colonel, and he approaches each moment just right. He'll make you laugh, he'll break your heart.
1. Clifton Webb as Waldo Lydecker
Laura
first of three nominations
He's a classic bitch, sneering at everyone around him, a genuinely unpleasant character who, nevertheless, executes his put-downs so sharply, you don't wonder at his being a rich and famous newspaper columnist. He's so quick, so quotable! But he's also mean, and while you start to wonder how Laura found herself surrounded by such a pit of vipers, you don't wonder that he formed an attachment to her: Webb makes clear that Lydecker is relishing his role of Pygmalion, keeping his doll and making her according to his wishes. He's not cold-blooded, just inhuman. A scene-stealing performance.
Next, the nominees for Best Picture: Double Indemnity, Gaslight, Going My Way, Since You Went Away, and Wilson.
1 comment:
"...not cold blooded, just inhuman." Very apt.
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