The nominees of 1960 continue with Best Actor:
Trevor Howard, Sons and Lovers
Burt Lancaster, Elmer Gantry
Jack Lemmon, The Apartment
Laurence Olivier, The Entertainer
Spencer Tracy, Inherit the Wind
All five performances are stellar, all five performers among the best to ever do it; only Howard was a one-and-done, the rest had been here before and would be again. Hell, three of them - Lemmon, Olivier, Tracy - already had gold, so it's no wonder that the Academy went for someone they knew and already liked, but hadn't yet awarded: Burt Lancaster.
Ironically, Lancaster said it was the easiest role of his career, basically playing himself, he said. A helluva thing to say when you've seen the movie. Here are my rankings, from fifth to first:
5. Trevor Howard as Walter Morel
Sons and Lovers
only nomination; Golden Globe nominee for Best Actor - Drama, NYFCC Awards runner-up for Best Actor
He's very effective in his scenes, conveying not just the lack of understanding for his artistic son's pursuits, but the wounding he feels at both his son and his wife seeming to conspire against him, in making him feel a fool. There's a real sense of loss and being lost in his performance. But it's a supporting one, and I wish actual lead Dean Stockwell hadn't been so readily dismissed.
4. Spencer Tracy as Henry Drummond
Inherit the Wind
past two-time winner, seventh of nine nominations; BAFTA Award nominee for Best Foreign Actor, Golden Globe nominee for Best Actor - Drama
He has that solid presence in the courtroom to argue his case while still believably maintaining a more withdrawn, melancholy persona off-stage. He delivers exactly what the script needs, a lawyer who, by sheer force of personality, delivers the sparks that makes a trial into a headline-grabbing sport…and who, as he ages, regrets the sideshow justice has become. Tracy's great achievement is communicating all of that: the showman, the fighter, the headline-grabber, the friend, and, finally, the remorseful survivor.
3. Laurence Olivier as Archie Rice
The Entertainer
past winner, the seventh of his ten acting nominations; BAFTA Award nominee for Best British Actor, NYFCC Awards second runner-up for Best Actor
Olivier is not as subtle, but he's not required to be: Archie Rice is gregarious, perhaps shameless, perhaps grotesque. You talk about a man out of time, he's still doing songs and puns and mugging faces with all the pause-for-applause timing of thirty years ago. And it is funny, despite all the lies he tells - quite easily, without a second thought - the deflections, the secret plotting, Olivier clearly communicates that Archie is always "On", the mask doesn't slip and he means every word he says, especially when he's being dishonest. Because first he's being dishonest with himself, still clawing at relevance, still scraping by in dead-end pursuits, terrified that the world as he knows it - which doesn't seem to have ever been a happy one - is coming to an end. A raw, terrifying performance to watch.
2. Burt Lancaster as Elmer Gantry
Elmer Gantry
second of four nominations; Golden Globe winner for Best Actor - Drama, NYFCC Awards winner for Best Actor; BAFTA Award nominee for Best Foreign Actor
Dangerously charismatic. He’s an animal, all survival and appetite - even they way he kisses his women is an aggressive, hungry pounce. When Gantry is down, he’s got the weight of the world on his shoulders: head bowed, shoulders sunk, stiff gait. But it doesn’t take much to get his to slowly turn back up, for those shoulders to roll back, for that big toothy smile to start shining. You see how he carries people away, even though you know that the man's full of it.
1. Jack Lemmon as C.C. Baxter
The Apartment
past winner, the third of his eight nominations; BAFTA Award winner for Best Foreign Actor, Golden Globe winner for Best Actor - Musical/Comedy
Could anyone else possibly thread the needle that makes Baxter so aggravating and pathetic yet, somehow, winning and worth rooting for? Lemmon shows you his potential, even if he's currently abusing it, and whatever grace he receives from the audience is earned. We watch how Baxter bites his tongue until he can’t anymore, we see his unassuming crush on Miss Kubelik become something more, and we get to know his quirks and habits: he's so nakedly, hopelessly himself. You got to believe every element, the drama and the comedy, and you got to be willing to spend over two hours with this guy...and Lemmon convinces you to stay.
Tomorrow, the nominees for Best Actress: Greer Garson (Sunrise at Campobello), Deborah Kerr (The Sundownders), Shirley MacLaine (The Apartment), Melina Mercouri (Never on Sunday), and Elizabeth Taylor (BUtterfield 8).
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