Joan Crawford did not show up to collect her Academy Award in person.
By 1945, Crawford had been in the industry for 20 years. She'd been a critical and box office darling since 1928's Our Dancing Daughters, was one of the "all-stars" in the 1931-32 Best Picture winner Grand Hotel, and was even dubbed Queen of the Movies by Life in 1937. But, as happens, her star waned, especially when she was listed among other notables as being "box office poison" in a Hollywood Reporter ad taken out by an independent exhibitor. Oh, she worked, yes, but to increasingly dismal results, and she parted ways with longtime home studio MGM.
At Warner Bros., she begged Michael Curtiz for the lead role in Mildred Pierce, about a working woman who sweats and slaves to provide her children with perhaps more than they can afford, and who is rewarded with a booming business...and an ungrateful daughter and a scheming new husband. He wanted Barbara Stanwyck, and forced Crawford to audition. Which she did. And won the part. And the movie was a hit. And now, for the first time ever, she was nominated for an Academy Award.
But she did not show up. Blame those first-time jitters, perhaps, but Crawford begged off from appearing, claiming illness. Still, she had the show playing on the radio, and when she heard she won, she jumped into action. By the time the morning papers came out, there she was: in her sickbed, full face of makeup, clutching her Academy Award for the suddenly summoned photographers.
She had to face off against another first-timer and three previous winners. The nominees being:
Ingrid Bergman, The Bells of St. Mary's
Joan Crawford, Mildred Pierce
Greer Garson, The Valley of Decision
Jennifer Jones, Love Letters
Gene Tierney, Leave Her to Heaven
Ingrid Bergman had just won last year, and here she was playing the leading lady in the sequel to last year's Best Picture winner, Going My Way: she plays a nun who occasionally butts heads with Bing Crosby's Father O'Malley. Greer Garson was nominated last year, too, and here she was for the fifth time in a row, having won once for 1942's Mrs. Miniver: she plays the daughter of an embittered former worker who works for, and falls in love with the son of, the man her father worked for and hates. Jennifer Jones was nominated for Supporting Actress last year, but this was her third nomination in a row, having won for 1943's The Song of Bernadette (she came back the next year, too): she plays an amnesiac who may have murdered her husband. Gene Tierney is the only nominee who got a one-and-done, but it's worth noting that her role in Leave Her to Heaven came about due to the success of last year's Laura, in which she played Laura: here she plays a woman so obsessed with her husband, she tries to isolate him by any means necessary.
My ranking, from fifth to first.
5. Jennifer Jones as Victoria Morland, aka Singleton
Love Letters
past winner, third of five nominations
Vacant, but it's not much of a role, anyway.
4. Greer Garson as Mary Rafferty
The Valley of Decision
past winner, sixth of seven nominations
Garson fan here, and yes, she's great once again. Maid-to-lover is a similar pitch to Mrs. Parkington, but there is a more overwhelmed element, especially as Mary is torn between her union family's hatred of the man she works for, and her affection for the family, especially son Gregory Peck. She's convincing, she's steely when necessary and romantic when necessary, but I don't think she and Peck have quite the same chemistry she and Walter Pidgeon share, a threadbare difference, but it's there.
3. Ingrid Bergman as Sister Mary Benedict
The Bells of St. Mary's
previous winner, third of seven nominations; Golden Globe winner for Best Actress, NYFCC Awards winner for Best Actress (also for Spellbound)
Sister Mary Benedict is a firm leader, has an athletic past, and while she does occasionally butt heads with Father O'Malley, there's no malice. Oh, she's also sick, and much more so than she realizes. Bergman's very convincing in every aspect, bringing the disparate elements together into a single credible character. Thank goodness, because that script keeps tossing stuff at her to throw her off. Wish this was for Spellbound, but watching this between that and Gaslight shows the range of her talents.
2. Joan Crawford as Mildred Pierce
Mildred Pierce
first of three nominations; National Board of Review's Best Actress of 1945; NYFCC Awards runner-up for Best Actress (tied with Deborah Kerr for The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and Love on the Dole)
Crawford, never a slouch as a performer, throws herself full tilt into Mildred's whole deal: the insistence that she spoil the children, the hard work she puts into every facet of her life, the physical presence that suggests someone never quite comfortable standing still, even though she seems a little tired. How Mildred convinces herself everything is for the children, denying herself the pleasures of ambition and success, fulfillment always just eluding her, is conveyed through this kind of...I don't know, still nervousness? Nervous stillness? Anyway, Crawford communicates the internal contradictions Mildred struggles with, it really feels like the part she was born to play.
1. Gene Tierney as Ellen Berent Harland
Leave Her to Heaven
only nomination
But Tierney gives my favorite performance because it is just so surprising. Ellen can be cruel about other people, certainly people who don't give her what she wants and how she wants it, and that cruelty turns her trembling passion into icy calculation. But in every moment, Tierney reveals a personal understanding of and sympathy for Ellen, and over-spoiled rich girl possibly groomed by her father, her fixation on him needing some kind of outlet, so why not a husband that resembles him? I think Tierney knows that while hers is a lost soul, it's not an inherently evil one: she's damaged, perhaps irreparably, as she refuses help or even familial kindnesses (yet how can she not resent a mother who's so openly done with her?). Even when she kills, Tierney plays it with a certainty that lets you see how, yes, this course of action is obviously the logical one...if you're Ellen Berent Harland. I don't know, I couldn't help feeling sad for her, a miraculous thing to accomplish.
Tomorrow, the nominees for Best Actor: Bing Crosby (The Bells of St. Mary's), Ray Milland (The Lost Weekend), Gregory Peck (The Keys of the Kingdom), and Cornel Wilde (A Song to Remember).
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