Alternate Best Actor 1950: Results

5. Vincent Price in The Baron of Arizona - Price gives a properly devious turn even if the film's odd perspective of his character limits him a bit.

Best Scene: Arguing for his guilt.

4. Alec Guinness in Last Holiday- Guinness gives an unexpectedly remarkable turn in his wholly convincing portrayal of a man coming into his own as he faces death.

Best Scene: Final sendoff. 

3. Jean Marais in Orpheus - Marais gives a terrific atypical leading turn ideal for his wonderfully off-beat romantic fantasy.

Best Scene: Trying to not look at his wife. 

2. John Garfield in The Breaking Point - Garfield gives his best performance in his uncompromising portrayal of a man willing to take the easy way out even as it leads to dire consequences.

Best Scene: Final shootout. 

1. Richard Widmark in Night and the City - Richard Widmark delivers a frankly pioneering portrayal that captures his character's determination and mania as he tries to get himself out of a hole by digging to the other side.

Best Scene: Final idea.

Updated Overall

Next: Review of François Périer in Orpheus and supporting update.

Alternate Best Actor 1950: John Garfield in The Breaking Point

John Garfield did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Harry Morgan in The Breaking Point.

The Breaking Point is another effective adaptation of To Have and Have Not, which follows a charter boat captain being forced into the black market after becoming financially strapped.

This adaptation being closer to the original novel as the nature of the man's situation is not during wartime changing the dynamics a bit of our lead character. John Garfield is an actor I'll admit to having struggled with a bit. Someone who I can sense the talent of more than I often see it, someone I've been waiting for his great performance. Well...this may be what I was waiting for. Garfield's style perhaps came too early, as he was a predecessor of the method actors that became the rage of the 50's. This style though perhaps less fitting to some of the parts found in the studio system. Here though we get a role that is ideal for that approach, and we also seem to have Garfield most within his element. This as we get a sense of the guy's financial difficulties just from the outset in Garfield's performance. This as he speaks with exasperation towards his wife about his woes as a fisherman and his inability seemingly to do anything else. Garfield's work has a quiet quality within the intensity here that is remarkable. This as he grants a sense of the man's years of a failure at this point as he speaks about it. Garfield granting it as much with a feeling of an acceptance of defeat in life more than anything. Although he carefully does create the stakes of likability just in the earnest warmth he brings in his interactions with his wife (Phyllis Thaxter), emphasizing just an honest love essential to where his character goes from this point.

We see though as Harry plies his trade and Garfield here is terrific in creating the sense of desperation in the immediacy of his action and suspicion. This with a sardonic quality he brings towards every word and a bit of suspicion towards his clients. Garfield finding a man whose suffered one defeat after another and is almost expecting just another one around the corner. This to the point of even interacting with the sultry costumer Leona (Patricia Neal), the idea of flirtation Garfield initially puts forth is almost an aggressive dismissive quality. This though is quite articulately performed though in the way Garfield so bluntly speaks Harry's words about how much he likes his wife, the intensity of that suggests so well the undercurrent of interest he does have in the woman. Another misfortune, by the way of a trip to Mexico where a costumer runs from the bill, leads Harry to take a job with a black market dealer, in order to just get out of Mexico. The job though, initially seeming an easy job of transporting illegal immigrants, quickly results in self-defense killing when the lead man tries to kill Harry. Garfield is great in these silent moments here as his eyes instantly capture this killer instinct of a man who formerly had combat experience. It with desperation though still in the moment of the fight, bringing a real visceral quality to the moment, something that typically rare in films from the time. Garfield though here finds the real darkness of the story by presenting within the struggle a real fight for one's life, and not just a typical hero stopping a bad guy.

When coming back from that job though Harry begins to be pulled between multiple forces in life. This including the two women in his life and again Garfield is excellent here in striking up two unique chemistries with Thaxter and Neal separately. This with Thaxter there is just a straight forward sense of affection and even vulnerability in Garfield's performance. This as he speaks of killing the man there's no sardonic edge, just a man revealing his personal sensitivity with an intimate poignancy. This against the moments with Neal where he carries that blunt shield of casual dismay though again within that, particularly in the way he looks at her, a palatable lust even if he barely falls upon it. Garfield's work though excels here leaning on that edge of the work and creates the sense of the way the two worlds seem to be pulling on him. This more overtly found though as his wife, and his partner (Juano Hernandez) pulling him away from more black market jobs, while his desperation and something else pulling him towards it. I think the later is important, and perhaps codes didn't allow the film to completely get it into it, however it is alluded to effectively within Garfield's performance. This being that same lust towards Neal, Garfield portrays a glint of thrill when negotiating and preparing for a job of taking some bank robbers after a robbery. Garfield's performance suggesting the lure of the darkness without being overt about it, yet creating a palatable sense of the urge towards the criminal world. This falling apart within the climax where the robbers truly hijack his boat and murder his partner in the process. Garfield is outstanding in this largely silent work from him, this in being absolutely captivating in building the tension of each moment of the sequence. This in building the man's discontent internally while bringing this incisiveness within his eyes of the man waiting to make his move against the men. This is the best work I've seen from Garfield. This as the role not only seems cued within his presence, but Garfield's work brings to life the distinct darkness within his portrait of a man more willing to commit to the criminal world than he admits. It is the sort of performance of an actor truly coming into his own, even if sadly it was one of his last.

Alternate Best Actor 1950

And the Nominees Were Not:

Richard Widmark in Night and the City

Alec Guinness in Last Holiday

John Garfield in The Breaking Point

Vincent Price in The Baron of Arizona

Jean Marais in Orpheus

Alternate Best Actor and Supporting Actor 1948: Results

5. John Garfield in Force of Evil - Garfield gives one of his better performances in his nearly uncompromising portrayal of a sleazy lawyer. 

Best Scene: Falling from comfort.

4. Rex Harrison in Unfaithfully Yours - Harrison gives an appropriately entertaining and irreverent portrayal of a romantic falling into madness.

Best Scene: Failing to murder.

3. Ray Milland in The Big Clock - Milland gives a terrific wrong man performance that is particularly effective in realizing the film's tricky tone throughout.

Best Scene: Confrontation.

2. Robert Donat in The Winslow Boy - Donat delivers on the promise of playing a barrister, by delivering a powerful portrayal of a man capable of weaponizing his passions.

Best Scene: Interrogating the boy.

1. Takashi Shimura in Drunken Angel - Good Predictions Anonymous, Robert, Bryan and RatedRStar. Shimura gives one of his greatest turns against type, before he had his type, in delivering the mess of  man that covers the noble spirit of the titular angel.

Best Scene: Pondering the Yakuza.

Updated Overall

Updated Supporting Overall 

Next Year: 1975 Lead

Alternate Best Actor 1948: John Garfield in Force of Evil

John Garfield did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Joe Morse in Force of Evil.

Force of Evil is a rather effective film noir that follows a corrupt lawyer and his descent into the criminal underworld.

Force of Evil is notable as a film noir as the protagonist is amorally bent from the opening of the film. He is not the wrong man who gets into a plot nor the sap who is corrupted by some other force. The character of Joe Morse rather is comfortable in his place as a lawyer for the equally corrupt men involved with the numbers racket. In this role is John Garfield, an actor who had a notable intensity for his period in particular however I personally don't feel he always utilized it properly. This is actually a performance that doesn't play into that idea, at least not in a more traditional way. Garfield isn't the angry young man he often played, but rather a cold calculating man. This is interesting to see, and honestly seems to play towards his strength as his performances often become rather unwieldy when he goes for a more overt intensity. He still has an intensity here to be sure however he rearranges it to be far more internalized which works for the nature of Joe Morse's character. Garfield presents a man defined very much by his moral state which is almost in this certain separation from the moment.

Garfield's performance portrays a man essentially organized in this context of lacking nearly any concern for general decency, however not actively sadistic in this sense. Garfield offers this smooth delivery of a man very much presenting himself as this proper slick lawyer however this is subverted through the context of his work which is typically duplicitous in some way. Although distant this approach is actually rather effective in creating the sense of the style of Joe Morse's character and how he thrives within the underworld. He portrays this exact manner of his conviction in his dealing with the other nasty men of the other world. This is through the calm that Garfield brings along without an exact overt emotion in these interactions. He instead consistently emphasizes Joe's ability to detach himself from the dirty work of it all, and more of treat as though it is merely what is his duty as a lawyer should be. This could be alienating potentially however the approach works for the role particularly in terms of establishing what will be his arc throughout the film, which is strictly connected to his brother Leo (Thomas Gomez).

The relationship with his brother is central to the film overall as it is where the sense of any morality lies. This in itself is a bit more complex than one might expect given that Leo is also in the same world though as a smaller time crook in the underworld. Leo even in his more obviously criminal position is in a sense the conscience as he pushes back against Joe's methods that pull both deeper in. Garfield is very good in his interactions with Gomez though by delivering the right nuance within Joe's cold facade. In these moments Garfield doesn't break his overarching calm approach, but does grant tiny hints in his reactions towards him suggesting just the faintest hint of a struggle in Joe as Leo challenges him. This slightly other side is also shown within his relationship with one of Leo's secretaries Doris. Again Garfield does not fall onto any habits of his other performances to portray this keeping his performance true to the cold man Joe is for the most part. He again though just ever so slightly eases away that cold demeanor to reveal just hints of charm, and a more outgoing spirit. Again what is notable about it is how consistent Garfield is. He shows enough to hint the potential for change, yet still keeps the character firmly within his personal manner defined by amorality overall. The ending actually doesn't take Joe as far from this as one might expect for a noir, which were required to be moralizing in some way. The situations again push Joe out of his comfort yet Garfield does not depict an extreme change. This approach does work though in again keeping a more understated reactions towards the upheaval around him. He shows a loss of a bit of the calm, yet still shows the man's attempt to hold control as consistent even as his plans falls apart around him. This is a good performance by Garfield as he avoids the typical pitfalls of his performances, while still utilizing his talents to deliver an atypical yet intriguing protagonist to lead this noir. 

Alternate Best Actor 1948

And the Nominees Were Not:

Takashi Shimura in Drunken Angel

Rex Harrison in Unfaithfully Yours

Ray Milland in The Big Clock

Robert Donat in The Winslow Boy

John Garfield in Force of Evil

Best Supporting Actor 1938: Results

5. Basil Rathbone in If I Were King-Rathbone sometimes just gives a rather dull villainous performance, but other times he gives a needlessly strange performance as if the King was a crazy old man.

4. John Garfield in Four Daughters- Yes it is true Garfield has an intense on screen presence, but unfortunately in this case he does not serve it to really create a character. Instead he only ever scratches the surface with his performance, and unfortuantely at the end of his performance he overacts a great deal.

3. Gene Lockhart in Algiers- Lockhart is able to be pathetic enough as Regis the informer, but unfortuantely he always seems miscast in the role. This is because he never seems like a truly convincing slimy rat he should be.

2. Robert Morley in Marie Antoinette- Morley gives a good humorous performance in his first half, and than an effectively sad performance in his second half. It never is quite a great performance, and he is forgotten for a good deal of the picture, but it remains a good one.

1. Walter Brennan in Kentucky- Yes Walter Brennan is one actor the academy got absolutely right, every time he won, he deserved to win. Brennan gives an effective performance as an old man with a grudge, as well as love. Brennan who transforms himself to almost double his age seamlessly also manages to show the grudge as something the old man simply cannot shake since it has been something with him for so long, as well as his love for horses as something just as deep as the hatred, even deeper, since Brennan carefully shows it overcome his feelings of hatred.

Deserving Performances:
Pat O'Brien in Angels With Dirty Faces
Edward Arnold in You Can't Take it With You

Best Supporting Actor 1938: John Garfield in Four Daughters

John Garfield received his first Oscar nomination for portraying Mickey Borden in Four Daughters.

Four Daughters starts as a light comedy about the relationships of four daughters of a musician (Claude Rains), and in the middle abruptly turns to melodrama.

The cause of the abrupt change to melodrama is the character of Mickey Borden a cynical song writer played by John Garfield. He comes in and with his low grade charm quickly sweeps one of the four Daughters Ann off her feet so much that she dumps the person she was about to marry and runs away with Mickey. The only problem is John Garfield does not really make this turn of events all that believable. Garfield is simply not that charming in the role even in a  low grade fashion, and lacks any real chemistry with Priscilla Lane as Ann.

John Garfield most certainly has screen presence there is no doubt about that, he does stand out in the cast above everyone else, Claude Rains might have but he is given too little to do. Garfield standing out though is not a great accomplishment in this lackluster film. The more performances I actually see of Garfield the more I find problems with his acting actually. Although Garfield acts well enough to be believed, his acting never seems to pierce down deeper into his characters, which is most certainly true about Mickey.

He plays cynical well enough with Mickey, but that is about it. There is never enough more to his characterization of Mickey to show why he was able to lure one of the Daughters away so easily and abruptly. Than all of the sudden he feels guilt for his action later, this transition is not earned by Garfield, and feels especially lacking. After that he has an insanely overacted scene where he goes crazy, or at least that is the way Garfield plays it with an over the top face and everything. Garfield's whole performance is lacking. Yes he does stick out among this cast, but that was very easy to do among this cast. There is never a single moment that really breaks into the core of the character, instead he always stays very much on the surface.

Best Supporting Actor 1938

And the Nominees Were:

Gene Lockhart in Algiers 

John Garfield in Four Daughters

Walter Brennan in Kentucky

Basil Rathbone in If I Were King

Robert Morley in Marie Antoinette 

Best Actor 1947: Results

5. Gregory Peck in Gentleman's Agreement- All Phil Green does is make speech after speech about antisemitism, or give disapproving looks. No actor could really have made these constant speeches interesting. The only other part of his performance are his romantic scenes with Dorothy McGuire which lack chemistry.

4. Michael Redgrave in Mourning Becomes Electra- Orin is very difficult character and Redgrave gives his best go at it. He mixes his performance with both a little subtlety that works fairly well, and theatrics which are interesting but are not always entirely convincing.

3. John Garfield in Body and Soul- Garfield gives a a good performance throughout but his character is a little too simple for most of the film. When he does get a chance to do more he does, it is shame his character was not more fully written for the whole film.

2. William Powell in Life With Father- Poor Powell always second place. Powell last Oscar nomination is a nice funny performance, it is not that much but certainly an entertaining performance.

1. Ronald Colman in A Double Life- A good prediction Dinasztie Colman gives a terrific performance interspersing subtlety of Anthony John with the insanity of Othello especially well. It is a risky performance for sure but one that succeeds very well. He was last Lead Actor winner I saw and I am glad the last I saw was a great one.

Best Actor 1947: John Garfield in Body and Soul

John Garfield received his second and final Oscar nomination for portraying boxer Charlie Davis in Body and Soul.

Body and Soul is a fine movie about a boxer who gets more and more involved with shadier character, even if a bit overbearing at times.

The downtrodden boxer seems to be a popular role going at least back to The Champ. Charlie Davis though is not always a downtrodden boxer throughout the film, and the film goes through his rise and his fall. Garfield is believable in the role as the boxer, and the working class guy. He is just fine as he slowly works up the ranks as a boxer, even though some of his success is unfortunately helped  by shady characters. Garfield is just fine as the man you follow throughout his career as a boxer, he shows Charlie's ambition well enough.

Garfield performance early on here is perfectly fine although never overly interesting. This is not because of Garfield but Charlie as a character is mostly reacted upon in these early scenes. Most everyone else tells him what to do, and Garfield just shows Charlie's want to succeed. There really is not all that much to his performance in these scenes, Garfield is fine, but Charlie really is incredibly simple. The moral dilemma is mostly shown by the good people like his mother played by the ever boring Anne Revere, his ill fated friend, his former opponent turned manager, his girlfriend, conflicting with the bad people such as the crooks involved with his career, and his other girlfriend. It is mostly the other people tugging on Charlie, without Charlie really reacting exactly. Garfield as I said is fine, but Charlie is simply not an active character for most of the film.

He finally reacts to his situation at the beginning before it flashes back, and at the end of the film. Charlie finally starts to see the problems of being helped by the mob since now they want him to take a dive, and he sees how poorly they treat his friends. Charlie starts to actually react, and Garfield finally can really show his acting chops. He shows well how Charlie now sees the problems in his life well, and Garfield gives a good honest and emotional performance. He shows Charlie's loss well, and his want to finally refuse the corrupt men who are now controlling him. He makes the final fight satisfying by making Charlie's refusal to be controlled very honest and powerful.  It is a strong end to his performance which I wish the whole performance was. If Charlie had been a more reactive character throughout Garfield's performance could have been great, but since Charlie is so simple for most of the film Garfield performance remain just good.

Best Actor 1947

And the Nominees Were:

Gregory Peck in Gentleman's Agreement

John Garfield in Body and Soul

Ronald Colman in A Double Life

William Powell in Life With Father

Michael Redgrave in Mourning Becomes Electra  

Who do you pick, who do you predict?