Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1942: Joseph Cotten in The Magnificent Ambersons and Results

Joseph Cotten did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Eugene Morgan in The Magnificent Ambersons.

Joseph Cotten once again collaborates with Orson Welles in the role of Eugene Morgan a wealthy industrial whose life is very much intertwined with the the lives of those Magnificent Ambersons. As I wrote in my review of Holt's performance as the Amberson heir George, Welles, in the early scenes of the film, purposefully creates a false golden age as we first meet the characters. Cotten, unlike Holt, gives a fairly natural portrayal of the golden age for his character though. In his portrayal Cotten gives just enough charm to his role to make his character likable enough as well as with the right warmth to establish that Eugene certainly cares for his daughter Lucy (Anne Baxter), and in general just wants to see everyone happy in the simplest of ways. It's technically relatively simple, but Cotten never makes it seems as there is nothing, and just makes Eugene honestly a kind man.

Problems arise though when it becomes obvious that Eugene and George's mother Isabel have been in love for some time, and Eugene's presence is because of his desire to pursue this relationship once more after the death of George's father. Although George reacts quite harshly to this revelation Eugene's behavior is nothing to get in arms about. Cotten portrays in a wholly humble and fairly sweet fashion creating the needed sympathy for Eugene while showing George to be a word I won't write here. Anyway though George puts an end to it all by throwing a tantrum leaving Eugene alone. Cotten is moving enough showing Eugene basically just accepting this result in a quiet and somber fashion. The film keeps it fairly simple and short though but Cotten certainly makes us understand and care for his character's plight.

Cotten is consistently good here with some standout moments throughout, particularly his monologue about automobiles, but the material never allows Cotten do anything that notable with the role. He definitely is never bad in anyway, and he definitely steals every scene he shares with Tim Holt but that's not too much of challenge. Whenever he is on screen Cotten realizes Eugene properly as character, and he certainly allows you to understand and empathize with his character. The film is a brief one and the story of Eugene's love and loss seems to be one of the aspects of the film that was perhaps cut a little too short leaving Cotten's impact somewhat diminished. Cotten does solid work in every regard there just is not enough here to allow him to truly make something memorable with the role of Eugene Morgan.

Other Performances:

Roddy McDowall in The Pied Piper - Good Child actors are sometimes hard to come by and bad ones can almost ruin a film like say those atrocious ones in Watch on the Rhine. Luckily The Pied Piper has two of the best from the period with McDowall and Peggy Ann Garner. McDowall plays the overly smart type kid character with a few too many comebacks, which could spell disaster for most. McDowall though does it with such a considerable amount of charm and grace. I particularly found his chemistry with Woolley very endearing and they played off each other in such a wonderful and rather funny fashion. My major complaint with the film is later developments in the plot pushes McDowall to the background and there really is something lost there. The only problem with this performance is how little there is of it, the film never seemed to notice the gold they had with McDowall and Woolley.

Laird Cregar in This Gun For Hire - The more I see of him the more I think perhaps Cregar should be mentioned along with the likes of John Cazale when speaking of a great actor whose career was tragically cut short. Cregar has such a tremendous screen presence which he makes of great use as the liaison between Alan Ladd's hit man and a business man. Cregar has such a unique style about himself and he's one of those actors who is just fun to watch acting. This works well for the role of the weasel he plays here who is quite timid about death even though he is the man who hands out the money to cause death. Cregar makes it that, so you can't help but be a little sorry for his overly gentle fool, who is almost positively petrified by how black everything gets around them. Cregar has a very Peter Ustinov like quality about himself as the way he moves and deliveries his lines as the coward just has the perfect comedic tinge to it. Cregar made me enjoy his performance so much I actually was rather sad to see what happens to his character at the end of the film. It's a nice bit of work and shows his range as he manages to proves himself capable of playing a commanding character through his portrayal of Henry Morgan also in 1942.

Claude Rains in Now Voyager - Claude Rains, a noted player of villains, plays quite against that type as the doctor who plans on helping Bette Davis's character who is about to suffer a nervous breakdown because of controlling behavior of her cold mother. Rains does not have a huge role in the film showing up in various key turning points in the film basically to facilitate the best out of Davis's character. Rains, despite being such an expert at playing viscous could men, is quite adept a playing a warm one. Rains is performance is really quite strong here because it is not just the tender way he speaks that makes his character such a comforting factor. No Rains goes further than that with his performance as through his body language he conveys perfectly always a strong sense of empathy. When Davis character first appears the way Rains interacts and moves with the right delicacy and care.  The doctor just wants to help her get better, succeeding in doing so, and that is extremely easy to believe as Rains is so good at making the doctor so genuinely good. I liked every moment he appeared in the film, and like the other performances mentioned thus far I certainly could have gone for more of him.

I'm sure there's someone who's going to like this ranking.

Overall Rank:

1. Claude Rains in Casablanca
2. Cecil Kellaway in I Married a Witch
3. Jules Berry in The Devil's Envoys
   
4. Laird Cregar in This Gun For Hire
   
5. Claude Rains in Now Voyager
6. Claude Rains in Kings Row
7. Claude Rains in Moontide
8. Laird Cregar in The Black Swan 
9. Otto Kruger in Saboteur
10. Pierre Larquey in The Murderer Lives At Number 23
11. Noel Roquevert in The Murderer Lives At Number 23  
12. Jean Tissier in The Murderer Lives At Number 23 
13. Fernand Ledoux in The Devil's Envoys
14. Ward Bond in Gentleman Jim 
15. Shūji Sano in There Was A Father
16. Alain Cuny in The Devil's Envoys
    
17. Roddy McDowall in The Pied Piper
18. William Bendix in The Glass Key
    
19. James Mason in Thunder Rock
    
20. Norman Lloyd in Saboteur
21. George Sanders in The Black Swan
22. Walter Huston in Yankee Doodle Dandy
23. Peter Lorre in Casablanca 
24. Stanley Ridges in Eyes in the Night 
25. Joseph Cotten in The Magnificent Ambersons
26. William Demarest in The Palm Beach Story 
    
27. Alexander Knox in This Above All 
28. Walter Brennan in The Pride of the Yankees 
    
29. Otto Preminger in The Pied Piper
30. Tully Marshall in This Gun For Hire
31. Sydney Greenstreet in Casablanca 
32. Marvel Herrand in The Devil's Envoys
    
33. William Bendix in Wake Island
34. Paul Henreid in Casablanca
35. Thomas Mitchell in This Above All 
36. Wilfred Lawson in The Night Has Eyes
    
37. Charles Coburn in Kings Row
38. Bernard Miles in In Which We Serve
39. Stanley Ridges in To Be Or Not To Be
40. Thomas Mitchell in Moontide 
41. Finlay Currie in Thunder Rock 
42. David Niven in The First of Few
    
43. Henry Travers in Mrs. Miniver
44. Robert Preston in Wake Island
45. Paul Henreid in Now Voyager
46. Rudy Valee in The Palm Beach Story
47. S.Z. Sakall in Casablanca
48. Thomas Mitchell in The Black Swan
49. Frank Morgan in Tortilla Flat
50. Jimmy Durante in The Man Who Came to Dinner
51. Robert Stack in To Be Or Not To Be
52. Ray Collins in The Magnificent Ambersons 
53. Anthony Quinn in The Black Swan
54. Philip Dorn in Random Harvest
55. Brian Donlevy in Wake Island  
    
56. S.Z. Sakall in Yankee Doodle Dandy
57. Anthony Quinn in Road to Morocco 
58. Brian Donlvey in The Glass Key
    
59. Robert Preston in This Gun For Hire
60. Sheldon Leonard in Tortilla Flat
61. Reginald Owen in Mrs. Miniver
62. Donald Meek in Tortilla Flat
63. Richard Travis in The Man Who Came To Dinner
64. Richard Ney in Mrs. Miniver
65. Richard Whorf in Yankee Doodle Dandy
66. Akim Tamiroff in Tortilla Flat

Next Year: 1997 lead