Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1960: Results

5. Gene Kelly in Inherit the Wind- Kelly plays with his type once again playing a loud showman, but this time with a deep rooted cynicism.

Best Scene: E.K. Hornbeck's cynicism is questioned by Drummond. 

4. Charles Laughton in Spartacus- Laughton gives a nice enjoyable performance that creates a believable portrait of a politician who uses quiet methods of persuasion.

Best Scene: Gracchus shares a meal with  Lentulus Batiatus.

3. Fred MacMurray in The Apartment- MacMurray is quite good in role giving a commanding presence that revels to just the right degree in his character immorality.

Best Scene: Sheldrake tries to bribe Baxter one more time. 

2. Laurence Olivier in Spartacus- Olivier as usual gives a great performance here as the main villain of the film. He is effectively a tremendous force of evil, but as well still creates a three dimensional character out of the tyrant that is his character.

Best Scene: Crassus tries to understand Varinia's love for Spartacus.

1. Eli Wallach in The Magnificent Seven- This was a very close one for me, and yes I was ready to give Olivier by lead and supporting for this year. Wallach though is equally excellent in his role in the Magnificent Seven, and manages to do basically anything he possibly could with his role. Even with his role being very limited Wallach never makes it feel that way giving an extremely entertaining as well as being appropriately menacing as well.

Best Scene: Calvera's introduction. 

Overall Rank:

1. Eli Wallach in The Magnificent Seven
2. Laurence Olivier in Spartacus
3. Peter Sellers in Never Let Go
4. Peter Falk in Murder, Inc.
5. Peter Ustinov in Spartacus
6. John Mills in Tunes of Glory
7. Masayuki Mori in When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
8. Masayuki Mori in The Bad Sleep Well  
9. Robert Mitchum in Home From the Hill
10. Fred MacMurray in The Apartment
11. Shin Saburi in Late Autumn
12. Ryuji Kita in Late Autumn
13. Nabuo Nakamura in Late Autumn
    
14. Steve McQueen in The Magnificent Seven
15. James Coburn in The Magnificent Seven
16. Peter Ustinov in The Sundowners
17. Roger Livesey in The Entertainer
18. Takeshi Kato in The Bad Sleep Well
19. Charles Laughton in Spartacus
20. Sal Mineo in Exodus
21. Tatsuya Nakadai in When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
22. Martin Stephens in The Village of the Damned
23. James Mason in The Trials of Oscar Wilde
24. Ralph Richardson in Oscar Wilde
25. Woody Strode in Spartacus 
26. Michael Craig in The Angry Silence 
27. Richard Attenborough in The League of Gentlemen 
28. Max Cartier in Rocco and His Brothers
29. Spiros Focas in Rocco and Brothers
30. Tatsuya Mihashi in The Bad Sleep Well 
31. Alan Bates in The Entertainer 
32. Bryan Forbes in The League of Gentlemen
33. Geoffrey Keen in The Angry Silence 
34. Roger Livesey in The League of Gentlemen 
35. Jack Nicholson in The Little Shop of Horrors
    
36. Gene Kelly in Inherit the Wind
37. Arthur Kennedy in Elmer Gantry 
38. Nigel Patrick in The League of Gentlemen
39. Martin Balsam in Psycho 
40. Bernard Lee in The Angry Silence 
41. Daisuke Kato in When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
42. Takashi Shimura in The Bad Sleep Well
43. Trevor Howard in Sons and Lovers
44. Paolo Stoppa in Rocco and his Brothers
45. Robert Coote in The League of Gentlemen
46. Hume Cronyn in Sunrise at Campobello
47. Herbert Lom in Spartacus
48. Jack Kruschen in The Apartment 
49. Norman Bird in The League of Gentlemen
50. Maurice Ronet in Purple Noon
51. Ray Walston in The Apartment 
52. John Mills in Swiss Family Robinson 
53. Ed Wynn in Cinderfella
54. Dennis Price in Tunes of Glory 
55. Michael Gwynn in Village of the Damned
56. Harry Morgan in Inherit the Wind 
57. Brad Dexter in The Magnificent Seven
58. David Lewis in The Apartment
59. Albert Finney in The Entertainer
60. Richard Conte in Ocean's Eleven
61. Adam Faith in Never Let Go
62. Andre Checchi in Black Sunday 
63. Laurence Harvey in The Alamo
64. Charles Bronson in The Magnificent Seven 
65. John Neville in Oscar Wilde
66. Laurence Naismith in Village of the Damned
67. Tony Curtis in Spartacus
68. Richard Widmark in The Alamo 
69. Robert Vaughn in The Magnificent Seven 
70. Dick York in Inherit the Wind
71. John Wayne in The Alamo
72. Alan Young in The Time Machine 
73. Alexandre Rignault in Eyes Without a Face 
74. Billie Kearns in Purple Noon
75. Dennis Weaver in The Gallant Hours
76. Miles Malleson in Peeping Tom
77. Katamari Fujimara in The Bad Sleep Well 
78. Ivo Garrani in Black Sunday 
79. Joseph Wiseman in The Unforgiven 
80. Cesar Romero in Ocean's Eleven  
81. Cecil Parker in Swiss family Robinson
82. John Fraser in The Trials of Oscar Wilde
83. Francois Guerin in Eyes Without A Face 
84. Nigel Davenport in Peeping Tom 
85. George Peppard in Home from the Hill
86. Albert Salmi in The Unforgiven
87. Horst Buchholz in The Magnificent Seven
88. Ko Nishimura in The Bad Sleep Well 
89. Everett Sloane in Home from the Hill
90. Charles Bickford in The Unforgiven
91. John Dall in Spartacus
92. Dean Jagger in Elmer Gantry
93. Sammy Davis Jr. in Ocean's Eleven
94. Dean Martin in Ocean's Eleven 
95. Edward Chapman in Oscar Wilde
96. Michael Anderson in The Sundowners
97. Akim Tamrioff in Ocean's Eleven 
98. Sessue Hayakawa in Swiss Family Robinson
99. Chill Wills in The Alamo
100. John Ireland in Spartacus
101. John Gavin in Psycho
102. John Gavin in Spartacus
103. Kevin Corcoran in Swiss Family Robinson 
104. Paul Lukather in Dinosaurus!
105. Claude Akins in Inherit the Wind
106. Vladimir Sokoloff in The Magnificent Seven
107. Alan Roberts in Dinosaurus!
108. The Rest of the Villagers in The Magnificent Seven

Next Year: 1999 Supporting 

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1960: Gene Kelly in Inherit the Wind

Gene Kelly did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying E.K. Hornbeck in Inherit the Wind.

Gene Kelly's on screen performances for the most part are very similar. They are basically only slight variations on the performance that he gave in his Oscar nominated performance in Anchors Aweigh. Kelly though plays a far more dramatic role here as the news paper writer who comes to town to cover the story of a teacher put on trial for teaching evolution in the classroom. Kelly portrays Hornbeck who is based on H.L. Mencken, who was interestingly also the basis for Arthur Kennedy's character in Elmer Gantry, although his character in that film is given a little less focus than Kelly here.

Kelly plays his part as a cynical showman, and actually he uses well his usual screen persona well refuting it in a way at the same time. He of course as the same voice, and one could argue almost the same delivery as in his musicals as Hornbeck, but with Hornbeck there is always an underlying deep rooted cynicism that always prevails. Kelly infuses every line he has with a great deal of enthusiasm and well showmanship, but below everything that he says there is always an unmistakable amount of venom within it.

This is a fairly limited role for Kelly actually after his speeches early in the film he mostly just has a quick reaction that only ever is brief, which is especially true in the court room scenes where he takes a back seat. That is not to say Kelly is forgotten, and he is good in coming in whenever he can bringing about the sharp wit of his character very well. He does not do a great deal though more until the end when Spencer Tracy's character questions his cynicism. Kelly is quite good in this scene as he shows Hornbeck feign any feelings of self-doubt, and quickly go back to his old ways. This is a pretty simple, Kelly does play it well though, and it shows that he had more in him than the Gene Kelly musical character.

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1960

And the Nominees Were Not:

Fred MacMurray in The Apartment 

Eli Wallach in The Magnificent Seven

Charles Laughton in Spartacus

Laurence Olivier in Spartacus

Gene Kelly in Inherit The Wind

Best Actor 1945: Results

5. Cornel Wilde in A Song To Remember- Wilde performance is just a dull boring performance lacking in any redeeming factors.

4. Bing Crosby in The Bells of St. Mary's- I will admit Bing certainly smiles a lot but does little past that. He sings, and smiles that is it.

3. Gene Kelly in Anchors Aweigh- Kelly does his usual thing here, some like it, I don't really.

2. Gregory Peck in The Keys of the Kingdom- Gregory Peck gives a nice charming performance as a Priest, who stays interesting and effective to watch throughout the film.

1. Ray Milland in The Lost Weekend- No doubt about this one Milland by far gives the best performance, in a harrowing, and very effective turn as an alcoholic writer. His performance is exceptionally effective, and shows incredibly realistic performance of a man who is just about over the edge.

Deserving Performances:
Cornel Wilde in Leave Her to Heaven

Best Actor 1945: Gene Kelly in Achors Aweigh

Gene Kelly received his only Oscar nomination for portraying Navy Sailor Joseph Brady in Anchors Aweigh.

Anchors Aweigh is a sailor musical, which I got tired of very quickly. I did like one scene though, and that is the cartoon dance sequence. That scene is quite good, but the rest of the film  I just get bored by rather quickly.

Gene Kelly is never an actor exactly in which people praise for his acting skill. He is the type who mostly plays the same type of character. The dancing singing semi romantic guy. Kelly is an actor who generally relied on his his skills as a dancer rather than a thespian. This means pretty much means, since this performance is not really any different than any of his other performance the liking of Kelly depends on how much you like him usually in terms of his charisma and such.

I never have found myself liking Kelly that much as an actor. I get annoyed by his voice when I hear it too much as I do in this film. I can understand that some may find he has fine charisma and screen presence though, even though I just really do not like his style myself. Yes I do think he dances well, and sings alright, but overall his performance just is not anything special in terms of any actual acting. He does his thing in this movie as he did in most of his movies, which is fine, but just does not amaze me all that much.

Best Actor 1945

And the Nominees were:

Gregory Peck in Keys of the Kingdom

Bing Crosby in Bells of Saint Mary's

Ray Milland in The Lost Weekend

Gene Kelly in Anchors Aweigh

Cornel Wilde in A Song to Remember

Is this the biggest one horse race in this category or will it be someone else? Oh and I guess this is my Christmas edition due to Bells of Saint Mary's.