George Sanders in Rebecca
George Sanders in Foreign Correspondent
Herbert Marshall in Foreign Correspondent
Showing posts with label 1940 Best Supporting Actor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1940 Best Supporting Actor. Show all posts
Friday, 11 February 2011
Best Supporting Actor 1940: Results
George Sanders in Rebecca
George Sanders in Foreign Correspondent
Herbert Marshall in Foreign Correspondent
Best Supporting Actor 1940: Walter Brennan in The Westerner
Walter Brennan won his third Oscar from his third nomination for portraying Judge Roy Bean in The Westerner.
The Westerner is a an unfortunate film, since it might of pretty good if they stuck with their great character they had, and the great performance with it. Instead the film gets caught up with Gary Cooper who is dull as ever with a dull character and dull romance, with scenes that do not have the only character worth watching Judge Roy Bean.
Walter Brennan is an actor who before I saw this film was use to seeing him as the friendly, comedic, or wise old guy, or sidekick to the main hero. Here though Walter Brennan portrays a villain, and a pretty cold blooded one at times especially at the beginning of the film.
I found it fascinating to see Brennan actually pretty chilling at the beginning when he condemns sentence on an innocent man, and hangs him. It is surprising but interesting to see Brenna as being a quite effective and cold villain as this. A villain cold enough to later darkly joke about killing the man later on in the film.
After his initial hanging Judge Roy Bean goes to his bar which he also uses for a kangaroo court. Despite being a villain he somehow makes Roy Bean likable anyways with his usual Brennan charm, which does not seem out of the nature for the judge. The Judge again goes to his hanging ways when he comes across a wrongly accused saddle bum Cole Harden (Gary Cooper).
Cole avoids a hanging but manipulating the Judges love for a stage actress Lily Langtree who he claims to have met. These scenes are sort of enjoyable because Brennan makes Roy Bean's love for Langtree an oddly honest, and charming one like a child's crush despite the nature of the character. Brennan completely steals these scenes from Cooper which makes his performance enjoyable but in terms of the film the scene do not work entirely though because the Judge is being manipulated by Cole.
This manipulation does not really work because of Cooper's boring dull portrayal against Brennan charming effective portrayal, really makes me doubt Cole's ability to really get the better of the judge. Even though I fully believed the judge naivety if Miss Langtry is involved thanks to Brennan again, in think the film would have worked better if the Judge actually got the better of Cole. Yes it would have been a completely different film, but it would have been a much better film.
Brennan performance is an enjoyable humorous performance that somehow also makes for an intense villain when he needs to as well. I find it wonderful that he can make him properly villainous, but also a likable character that I actually did feel for him at the end of the film. I find Brennan performance to be simple a perfect supporting performance that up shows everyone else in the film, and is the enjoyable or interesting part of an otherwise boring film. A performance makes me wish the film had been completely about Roy Bean like apparently it was originally.
Walter Brennan is an actor who before I saw this film was use to seeing him as the friendly, comedic, or wise old guy, or sidekick to the main hero. Here though Walter Brennan portrays a villain, and a pretty cold blooded one at times especially at the beginning of the film.
I found it fascinating to see Brennan actually pretty chilling at the beginning when he condemns sentence on an innocent man, and hangs him. It is surprising but interesting to see Brenna as being a quite effective and cold villain as this. A villain cold enough to later darkly joke about killing the man later on in the film.
After his initial hanging Judge Roy Bean goes to his bar which he also uses for a kangaroo court. Despite being a villain he somehow makes Roy Bean likable anyways with his usual Brennan charm, which does not seem out of the nature for the judge. The Judge again goes to his hanging ways when he comes across a wrongly accused saddle bum Cole Harden (Gary Cooper).
Cole avoids a hanging but manipulating the Judges love for a stage actress Lily Langtree who he claims to have met. These scenes are sort of enjoyable because Brennan makes Roy Bean's love for Langtree an oddly honest, and charming one like a child's crush despite the nature of the character. Brennan completely steals these scenes from Cooper which makes his performance enjoyable but in terms of the film the scene do not work entirely though because the Judge is being manipulated by Cole.
This manipulation does not really work because of Cooper's boring dull portrayal against Brennan charming effective portrayal, really makes me doubt Cole's ability to really get the better of the judge. Even though I fully believed the judge naivety if Miss Langtry is involved thanks to Brennan again, in think the film would have worked better if the Judge actually got the better of Cole. Yes it would have been a completely different film, but it would have been a much better film.
Brennan performance is an enjoyable humorous performance that somehow also makes for an intense villain when he needs to as well. I find it wonderful that he can make him properly villainous, but also a likable character that I actually did feel for him at the end of the film. I find Brennan performance to be simple a perfect supporting performance that up shows everyone else in the film, and is the enjoyable or interesting part of an otherwise boring film. A performance makes me wish the film had been completely about Roy Bean like apparently it was originally.
Best Supporting Actor 1940: William Gargan in They Knew What They Wanted
William Gargan received his only Oscar nomination for portraying Joe in They Knew What They Wanted.
They knew what they Wanted is mostly standard 40's fair about a love triangle, which is not exactly bad, but it just is not anything good either. Also due to the censorship of the time makes the plot rather hard to follow at the end.
Joe is the foreman for a winery owned by an aging Italian man Tony Patucci (Charles Laughton). Tony uses Joe to writer letters to a waitress Amy (Carole Lombard) he wishes to marry even though she does not even know who he is. Tony even sens Amy Joe's picture instead of his own making for quite the mix up when she finally comes to get married.
Joe is a man who wishes no long term relationship at the beginning, but this changes when Amy comes around. Gargan is fine in the early scene being the freewheeling foreman who just wants to help his boss/friend out. Than as soon as she comes to town he becomes frustrated due to wanting Amy himself. I gotta say this is when Gargan's performance becomes immediately underwhelming. He has no real charm that shows why Amy would be driven to him otherwise just his looks I guess. His frustrations he shows never really seem all that real either, and it makes for very awkward moments at the end of the film.The whole ending part really required some authentic emotions but instead we don't get any.
Gargan is underwhelming and lacks a real drive or passion in his performance. The most lacking part of his performance though is that he has no chemistry with Lombard stopping their relationship from being believable and making the pregnancy plot at the end of the film all the more confusing. Gargan is okay at the beginning but soon his performance is incredibly lacking.
Joe is the foreman for a winery owned by an aging Italian man Tony Patucci (Charles Laughton). Tony uses Joe to writer letters to a waitress Amy (Carole Lombard) he wishes to marry even though she does not even know who he is. Tony even sens Amy Joe's picture instead of his own making for quite the mix up when she finally comes to get married.
Joe is a man who wishes no long term relationship at the beginning, but this changes when Amy comes around. Gargan is fine in the early scene being the freewheeling foreman who just wants to help his boss/friend out. Than as soon as she comes to town he becomes frustrated due to wanting Amy himself. I gotta say this is when Gargan's performance becomes immediately underwhelming. He has no real charm that shows why Amy would be driven to him otherwise just his looks I guess. His frustrations he shows never really seem all that real either, and it makes for very awkward moments at the end of the film.The whole ending part really required some authentic emotions but instead we don't get any.
Gargan is underwhelming and lacks a real drive or passion in his performance. The most lacking part of his performance though is that he has no chemistry with Lombard stopping their relationship from being believable and making the pregnancy plot at the end of the film all the more confusing. Gargan is okay at the beginning but soon his performance is incredibly lacking.
Best Supporting Actor 1940: James Stephenson in The Letter
James Stephenson received his only Oscar nomination for portraying Howard Joyce in The Letter.
The Letter is in many ways a strange melodrama, that did not quite work for me, even though it does have a few well done scenes.
Stephenson portrays Howard Joyce who is the lawyer of Leslie Crosbie (Bette Davis) who has killed a man in what she claims is self-defense. Joyce has his suspicions though which are more fully established by a letter he is given that basically shows she murdered him in cold blood. Stephenson does a good job of playing Joyce in a very proper calm fashion for this very uptight lawyer.
Stephenson never breaks his manner, and does show his character hiding what he knows well in certain scenes. Stephenson carefully makes only small reactions that only the audience would know hinting that he knows of what really happened, without making it so the character would see his doubts about Leslie. Most of the film Stephenson portrays Joyce pretty straight and to the point which is proper, except for his scene where he defends Leslie in court. A brief scene but Stephenson handles it well showing a nervousness and guilt over what he is doing. Stephenson performance well being adequate still is nothing amazing, or at all memorable but I still feel he did a fine job.
Stephenson portrays Howard Joyce who is the lawyer of Leslie Crosbie (Bette Davis) who has killed a man in what she claims is self-defense. Joyce has his suspicions though which are more fully established by a letter he is given that basically shows she murdered him in cold blood. Stephenson does a good job of playing Joyce in a very proper calm fashion for this very uptight lawyer.
Stephenson never breaks his manner, and does show his character hiding what he knows well in certain scenes. Stephenson carefully makes only small reactions that only the audience would know hinting that he knows of what really happened, without making it so the character would see his doubts about Leslie. Most of the film Stephenson portrays Joyce pretty straight and to the point which is proper, except for his scene where he defends Leslie in court. A brief scene but Stephenson handles it well showing a nervousness and guilt over what he is doing. Stephenson performance well being adequate still is nothing amazing, or at all memorable but I still feel he did a fine job.
Thursday, 10 February 2011
Best Supporting Actor 1940: Albert Bassermann in Foreign Correspondent
Albert Bassermann received his only Oscar nomination for portraying Van Meer in Foreign Correspondent.
Foreign Correspondent is an enjoyable and effective Hitchcock thriller, and it even managed to get in its final war speech well without seeming overly forced and actually pretty powerful, since it seemed almost all films about the war during the war had a speech similar to this near then end.
Albert Bassermann portrays Van Meer a dutch diplomat who has information wanted by foreign agents which leads to a complex, and interesting turn of events. Bassermann performance is a small simple one of an old man who just wants peace. He has the right quiet dignity in his first scene which work well for the film. After this scene though he is just always in a drug induced state. I suppose he is still fine if slightly odd, as just the drugged man. He even has a odd speech when drugged which he handles alright, but still it can't be that powerful since he still has to act drugged.
Bassermann gives fine performance which serves its purpose but little more than that. I was more impressed by other supporting players though. I particularly liked George Sanders who is quite good at playing a good guy for once, also good is Herbert Marshall as the more than meets the eye peace council leader, and even preferred Edmund Gwenn in a small but enjoyable role as a cockney assassin. Bassermann is not bad at all, I just feel he was not the best supporting player in the film.
Albert Bassermann portrays Van Meer a dutch diplomat who has information wanted by foreign agents which leads to a complex, and interesting turn of events. Bassermann performance is a small simple one of an old man who just wants peace. He has the right quiet dignity in his first scene which work well for the film. After this scene though he is just always in a drug induced state. I suppose he is still fine if slightly odd, as just the drugged man. He even has a odd speech when drugged which he handles alright, but still it can't be that powerful since he still has to act drugged.
Bassermann gives fine performance which serves its purpose but little more than that. I was more impressed by other supporting players though. I particularly liked George Sanders who is quite good at playing a good guy for once, also good is Herbert Marshall as the more than meets the eye peace council leader, and even preferred Edmund Gwenn in a small but enjoyable role as a cockney assassin. Bassermann is not bad at all, I just feel he was not the best supporting player in the film.
Best Supporting Actor 1940: Jack Oakie in The Great Dictator
Jack Oakie received his only Oscar nomination for portraying Benzini Napaloni the Dictator of Bacteria.
Jack Oakie quite clearly is doing a parody of Benito Mussolini with Benzini Napaloni. It is a fine humorous enough parody, but that is the entirety of his performance. He does a funny parody accent although its rather inconsistent but hey this is not meant to be taken seriously, and he does the same for the mannerisms Mussolini. A nice funny enough performance but again not an amazing one, and also many of his scenes much of the humor comes from visual gags, and than humor from his performance.Overall Oakie performance is nice enough and does serve its purpose but lets just say although his comedic timing and his parody are fine his performance is never really a "gut buster".
Best Supporting Actor 1940
Albert Bassermann in Foreign Correspondent
Walter Brennan in The Westerner
William Gargan in They Knew What They Wanted
James Stephenson in The Letter
Who do you predict, who do you pick? Was the a third time a charm for Brennan, or was someone else more deserving?
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