Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1946: Claude Rains in Deception & Results

Claude Rains did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Alexander Hollenius in Deception.

Deception follows as a cellist Karel Novak (Paul Henreid) reunites with his lover Christine (Bette Davis) after the end of WWII, unfortunately a famous composer might complicate things.

 

That famous composer is of course played by the great Claude Rains in his third performance from 1946, following his Oscar nominated performance as a lovelorn Nazi in Notorious and as a rather jovial Satan in Angel on My Shoulder. Despite playing a Nazi and the devil, strangely enough his performance here as lauded composer Alexander Hollenius might be the most actively nefarious in his manner. Rains makes his dynamic entrance as Novak and Christine decide to marry, despite it being clear that Christine had been Hollenius’s lover at the time of the couple’s reunion. Naturally Hollenius decides to crash their wedding and the intensity of Rains’s passive aggression as he comes in to "congratulate" the pair on their nuptials reveals immediately his true intentions. The direction of the character’s ire is properly conducted by Rains with an artful combination between a seething jealousy and egotistical derision. Rains’s eyes present caution immediately towards Christine, his true hatred for this development with nearly the petulance of a boy being denied his cookie, but also with the grandiosity fitting a man who has been declared as a genius by many…including Novak himself. 

There is an unquestionably joy of performance within Rains’s performance that manages to easily differentiate himself from his “other man” performances including his Oscar nominated turn from 46. Rains makes a choice in this instance really not to emphasize any empathetic qualities within his Hollenius instead making an alternative choice in reinforcing the despicable nature of the character. That isn’t to say Rains forgoes any genuine emotion, quite the contrary, however in this instance, unlike Notorious where he weirdly makes one sorry to a degree for the villain in that film, he essentially plays Hollenius as an entitled brat. He has a blast, and it is hard not to enjoy it with him as Rains, even while keeping a certain regal veneer by the virtue of his innate presence and voice, goes all in to show that it is nothing but a hollow facade to the nature of the man. It is especially easy to enjoy Rains’s truly petulant delivery of describing musicians who play his music basically as Monkeys doing his bidding. Rains creates no fancy qualities in this explosion but rather enjoyably strikes right into the heart of who this man is by delivering his outburst with a decided lack of refinement. 

The situation exacerbates quickly when Hollenius recruits Novak to be a musician for his next piece which gives him easy access to brow beat Christine’s love. Rains though shows a slightly different side as the conductor/composer where he still emphasizes just the general sadistic glee he gets from every second, but within it there is at least some notion of general passion in his delivery where we see the musical genius prodding for more. While Christine believes it to be purposeful torture, Novak appreciates the treatment as a method to improve his skill, which naturally leads Christine to confront her old lover for his true intentions. Rains takes complete ownership of this sequence as to be expected where he delivers every line as this long planned dictation that emphasizes the sense of planning in every word while in his eyes still bringing just this childish type of joy of victory over a playground rival. When the composer explains he will essentially make Novak brilliant, before destroying him by revealing the affair Christine had with him, Rains is delightfully diabolical in his ability to present such confidence in the plan meanwhile you sense the seething resentment behind that confidence that is his true motivation. Rains successfully finds a new avenue in playing yet another scene stealing villain that while it has shades of his other works in no way feels a copy of it. Although I wouldn’t say he quite hits the high of his Oscar nominated turn, this is another delicious slice of the Rains pie so to speak, and just another example of him being the very best when it came to character acting in that period.

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