Best Actor 1946: Results

5. Larry Parks in The Jolson Story- Larry Parks is okay and does what he needs to do, but that is very little.

4. Gregory Peck in The Yearling- Peck gives a nice performance, despite struggling with the old timey dialect he is given. Not much but okay.

3. Fredric March in The Best Years of Our Lives- March gives a very strong performance in many moments of this film, even when he is regulated to the background.

2. Laurence Olivier in Henry V- Olivier is great throughout the film as Henry V, He always carries himself as perfectly as possible, and reads the old words with as much power as possible.

1. James Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life- Stewart gives a great performance as George Bailey, incorporating almost everything great about his on screen persona into this single fantastic performance.

Deserving Performances:
Dana Andrews in The Best Years of Our Lives

Best Actor 1946: Larry Parks in The Jolson Story

Larry Parks received his only Oscar nomination for playing famous entertainer Al Jolson in the Jolson Story.

The Jolson Story is another one of those old fashioned biopics. It is an incredibly positive view of its subject, very inaccurate, and never in depth.  It still is sort of enjoyable in its own particular way anyways.

Larry Parks plays Al Jolson but he does not try to sing like him. He is always dubbed by Jolson himself, which looks a little strange at times but he lip syncs well enough, so it is not all that obvious. When it is the extreme close ups though Parks face just does not fit Jolson's voice. A lot of the performance is spent singing so for portions of the film this is all Parks is doing.

Parks is technically limited by the fact that he is in an old biopic therefore he can never really get under the skin of the character that well. Parks though never goes off on his own to put more into the performance that what is in the script either. He does nothing subtle at all in this performance, but that is not exactly a problem. Jolson is shown just on the surface and that is how Parks plays him.

He has the right sure of himself gestures. He smiles, and says a lot of things very excitingly. He has right amount of showmanship, and he is romantic enough with Evelyn Keyes.  There is scene that requires a little more is when he talks about being a workaholic. He does an okay job in this one scene but he still does not show a deeper side of Jolson which he could have in this one scene.Parks basically does what he needs to do but that just is not that much of a feat.

Best Actor 1946

And the Nominee Were:

James Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life

Fredric March in The Best Years of Our Lives

Larry Parks in The Jolson Story

Laurence Olivier in Henry V

Gregory Peck in The Yearling

Who do you Pick? Who Do you Predict? Will Olivier fare better than Kenneth Branagh as Henry V?