Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1942: Cecil Kellaway in I Married a Witch, Jules Berry in The Devil's Envoys & Results

Cecil Kellaway did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Daniel in I Married a Witch. 

 

Jules Berry did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying the Devil in The Devil's Envoys. 

I Married a Witch a fairly enjoyable screwball comedy about the descendant of an old witch persecutor (Fredric March) cursed by a witch to fail in love, however things get in a bit of knot when the witch (Veronica Lake) escapes from her imprisonment and falls in love with the man. 

 

The Devil's Envoys is a splendid fantasy about two servants of the devil, tasked with seduction and then destruction, infiltrating the court of a castle.

Cecil Kellaway is a character best known really for his warm and affable characters, as found in his two Oscar nominations for example. This though is a far cry from that, and more evocative of his career best turn found in his guest spot on The Twilight Zone as a most unusual curator of sorts. Kellaway's performance here is as Lake's warlock father who we initially meet, along with Lake, as a disembodied voice. Kellaway's vocal performance alone is memorable in the sheer degree of the deviousness of it as he encourages Lake's Jennifer to essentially be her worst self. Kellaway playing this with a wonderful, and fitting devilishness within the character, and finds the right combination between the comical and the sinister. Kellaway really is the essential ingredient within the film as his consistent appearances take what is an enjoyable romantic comedy and really turning up the latter nicely. I mention these two performances in tandem though as much as the films are different, they are in some way companion pieces about supernatural "creatures" engaging in romance even though the intention is the opposite. As Kellaway is the wrench in the romantic clockwork, as is Jules Berry, who is the titular devil. Where first we establish each romantic pairing or triangle, that involves misleading and maybe some genuine love, this is turned on its head when the actual devil appears to mess things up for all. Berry's performance is one of literal devilishness. He comes in with the right fanfare of someone just loving his state as the prince of darkness and of all lies. Berry shows just the greatest of joys in this state of the man just eager to make all the lovers suffer in any way in which he devise. His expression only brimming with this sinister glee, similar to Kellaway in bringing this sense of fun within the nefarious nature of the character. 

As the romance goes along for both film these two act as the antagonists at any path that leads towards some sort of true love, though in very different ways. Berry's performance is one actually that is of a shift towards the more dramatic as the devil foresees a certain plan and has a distaste when it starts to go away from his chosen path. Berry bringing this quiet egotistical pompousness to the devil's assurance that all will be left unhappy and in his own words "belong to him". There is a certainty of the fiend, however he effectively brings a certain annoyed demeanor as the plan isn't quite going to plan. He still brings this confidence as though it is something that he's seen before and will again, and in that sense is sure, while still creating this slowly growing undercurrent of cause of concern that everything isn't in his power. Kellaway on the other hand is just whole lot of fun in portraying Daniel ever trying to be fiendish and keep anyone from falling in love as well, though his methods decidedly less suave or confident than the devil's. Kellaway is a hoot in portraying the sort of mania in Daniel as he goes about his schemes with this sort of craziness that is befitting a creature of a truly chaotic disposition. Kellaway is just fun to watch whether he's incompetently framing March's character for his own murder, or trying to drive the lovers to their doom. There is just this hilarious sort of insanity he brings to every line though with the right demonic glee of his own. Kellaway's performance brings the right extra ingredient overall to the film that really takes it up a notch overall by providing not just a proper antagonist, but also such a source of fun. Of course this is true for both performances which provide this nice swerve in both film's romantic narratives. Each giving their own memorable turns as sinners with a smile.

Updated Overall Lead

Updated Overall Supporting

Next: Backlog Vol. 3 & Recommendations 

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

Next Year: 1997 lead