Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1970: Trevor Howard in Ryan's Daughter

Trevor Howard did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite being nominated for a Golden Globe, for portraying Father Hugh Collins in Ryan's Daughter.

Trevor Howard plays the role of the priest of a small Irish village. The role was written for Alec Guinness and it is easy to see him in the role. Guinness turned it down though and Trevor Howard was cast instead. Alec Guinness is not an anagram for genuine class for nothing, Trevor Howard on the other hand name is not an anagram for vow rot harder for nothing either. What I mean by that nonsense is that, while I'm sure Guinness would have been great in the role, Howard's casting offers a rather interesting take on the character of the priest. Howard has a natural roughness to him making him far from a genial man which tend to be the nature of most supportive priest characters.

Howard keeps his usual gruff personality in his portrayal of Father Hugh who does his best to be the moral compass of the village, and basically goes about checking to make sure everything is going as it should be. Howard's performance is a rather effective one because he balances between his natural roughness and the good nature of his character. Howard does not tone down anything about rough side to portray Father Hugh. Howard brings a power to his character through the roughness actually by making him a man who will speak his mind, and speak his mind without reservation either. The way everyone seems slightly weary of Father Hugh is made believable because Howard makes him a force to be reckoned with.

Even though Howard makes Father Hugh gruff he does not forget to convey the morality of the character. Howard actually in part uses the gruffness to add to the righteousness of the man. There is no sense of falseness of his morality because Howard shows that Father Hugh is a character who could never even think of even having the slightest pretension. Howard makes Father Hugh a man who knows what is right and will not hesitate just to speak his mind quickly when he sees someone is at fault. When Father Hugh sees the bad or sometimes rather evil actions of the towns people, Howard is terrific in getting right to the point with his fierce moral indignation that he conveys from the priest.

Howard importantly brings the proper nuance to Father Hugh when he talking to someone he thinks deserves more than a slap in the face. Howard is very warm in his scenes with Sarah Miles as Rosy the titular character. In these scenes Howard is able to convey the importance of his beliefs strongly, and as something more than just a reason to cut sinners down to size. Howard gives the role the appropriate heart needed whenever the Father tries to talk to Rosy gently about her ideas of romance, or later when he tries his best to mend thing after Rosy has an affair of her marriage with a British soldier. Howard carefully shows that although Father Hugh will condemn when necessary, that there is a large heart behind his somewhat coarse exterior.

It is rather odd that the academy decided to ignore Howard's performance here, but I guess they felt they rewarded the film enough by recognizing John Mills's Oscar winning performance as the village idiot Michael (a performance that I will continue to defend, as I do believe he was the best of the truly supporting performances nominated). The academy though should have also recognized Trevor Howard as well as he very much excels with his performance as Father Hugh Collins. Howard succeeds in giving the local priest that large personality that makes him in a way one of the commanding forces of the island,  but Trevor as well well still brings the right tenderness there should be in a man who wants his congregation to be moral and thrive as they should.

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1970: Karl Malden in Patton

Karl Malden did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying General Omar N. Bradley in Patton.

Patton is a film almost wholly involved with the story of General George Patton played by George C. Scott. The film's weakest aspects are when it attempts to diversify the story with the excessively simplistic German scenes that easily could have been removed from the film. There is only one supporting character who makes an impression on the film, Michael Bates might have with General Montgomery if he had not played him as such a caricature, that performance is of course Karl Malden as General Omar Bradley. The film carefully spotlights Bradley advancement as a General while following Patton, and in terms of the literal beginning of the story Malden actually appears before Scott does.

I always thought of Malden's performance as a good one but watching the film again for his performance the  only improved the strength of the work. This is readily apparent from his very first scene where he rides to see the end result of a battle in which the allies took heavy losses. Malden establishes the nature of Bradley very effective in the way he handles the scene. He barely says much of anything, but brilliantly portrays the reaction that Bradley has toward the tragic result of the situation. Malden expresses rightly the subtle way that Bradley is forced to suffer the sight. Malden shows that it definitely does move him to see so many of the men dead, but Malden correctly keeps it in the man of Omar Bradley who is must do his duty.

Omar Bradley is the opposite of George Patton in most ways other than that they are both competent. Patton is a loud passionate and very fierce man who does things his own way without even a question with others opinions on the matter. He is easy to find conflict and does seem to have some delusions of grandeur in his belief that he is the reincarnation of many a great warriors. Omar Bradley is nothing like that with an easy going nature, and a complete lack of glory seeking in his attitude. Malden successfully makes Bradley the perfect foil for Scott's Patton. Malden, like his Oscar winning turn, is great in playing unassuming roles. Malden is great because he does not mind being genuine in this regard, and instead of finding flamboyance where there shouldn't be, he brings out the complexities of such a man.

Malden is excellent in the role in bringing to life this man, who is in the war to do his job as efficiently as he thinks he can. Malden does not make Bradley a simple sort, as many may have, and just like Mitch Malden knows that just because a man is reserved does not make him dull. I should say Malden doesn't reprise Mitch here though as Malden has the right forceful presence necessary for a commander of man like Bradley, but Malden shows Bradley to man who carries this power in his personal determination. Malden makes Bradley a restrained man among the nature of Generals, and especially when compared to the overwhelming personality of George S. Patton. Bradley would be a man who is part of the room, Patton on the other hand insists on being the room.

The greatness of Malden's performance is in his chemistry with Scott's performance. Malden is quite fascinating in that he makes Bradley a proper right hand man at first who wants to work with Patton to fight against the Nazis, but Malden has certain hesitations suggested within Bradley kind supportive face. Although Malden goes along with Patton, but in Patton's most eccentric moments Malden hints at a certain coldness toward Patton. This is important as Bradley career takes off and Patton slowly becomes muddled in various controversies. When they meet again on less even ground Malden still keeps Bradley as mostly amiable, but when Patton goes too far Malden  reveals Bradley's side that openly distastes Patton prideful, and less professional side.

Karl Malden gives a great performance that complements Scott's main performance in a marvelous fashion. Although it is Scott's film of course, Malden is not to be forgotten through his fascinating depiction of Omar Bradley. Malden easily could have fallen into the rest of the supporting characters of the film that are forgotten as soon as they leave, or even before that. Malden, unlike the rest of the supporting cast, makes the most of his somewhat limited screen time. In his time he shows a honest depiction of a General who is passionate about his duty, but in heart is an ordinary man taking a down to earth attitude to this duty. He's extremely effective in finding the finer details of the man, especially in Bradley complex relationship to a man whose manner toward war is almost antithesis to his own.

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1970: Donald Sutherland in Kelly's Heroes

Donald Sutherland did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Sergeant "Oddball" in Kelly's Heroes.

Kelly's Heroes is an entertaining film about a ragtag group of World War II  soldiers who hatch a plan to steal some Nazi gold. I should say though I do wish there were more character driven moments, Clint Eastwood who plays the titular Kelly said many were cut from the final product, as the ones that were not cut are the best moments of the film.

Donald Sutherland plays one of the members of the odd group appropriately named Oddball. Oddball commands three Sherman tanks and helps act as the brawn to help their forces pierce through the enemy lines to get to the money. This is a bit of a departure from Sutherland's usual characters, as he often does play saner roles, well at least saner than this. Oddball's name just is not just a name as he has a philosophy, style and accent all his own. This performance is all about the creation of the character, who is rather consistent throughout as he always stays in his very peculiar manner throughout the film. It really would be out of character for Oddball to strive for long from his own personal daze.

Sutherland's performance is weird, but it's the right type of weird. He delivers every line with his bizarre accent that only succeeds in accentuating every random statement that he seems to make. Sutherland's performance works because he is entertaining to watch him simply do whatever it Oddball is doing. He importantly finds the right tone to play Oddball in, in that he never goes too far with his performance. He, in I suppose the Sutherland fashion, doesn't really play Oddball in a loud crazy fashion. Sutherland instead is very effective in playing the weirdness in a fairly quiet fashion, which works in portraying his very relaxed attitude and philosophy toward life and the war.

Sutherland's portrayal of Oddball's antics in the war scenes are particularly striking as he still seems to take everything in stride even when he is taking down a column of German men with his tank unit. The scene might seem a bit intense, but not at all thanks in part to Donald Sutherland's Oddball. It is easy to see how everything involving Oddball could have failed miserably a he is a very absurd character, which often can mean a very obnoxious character. Sutherland makes everything work at just the right pitch turning Oddball into an endearing and strangely lighthearted presence in the film. 

Sutherland portrayal of Oddball is just a fun performance to watch. He has some very enjoyable moments throughout the film but my favorite moment of Sutherland's has to be his casual dismissive behavior when Oddball reveals he knows how to ride in tanks, but does not know how they work in anyway. My problem is that the film does seem like it perhaps left off some great moments off the cutting room floor as the film did leave me wanting more of almost all the main characters including Oddball. Sutherland even with that gives a rather memorable turn with his portrayal of this rather memorable character.

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1970: Alec Guinness in Scrooge

Alec Guinness did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Jacob Marley in Scrooge.

It seems that almost every great actor seems to have one role where they just get show off how awesome of an actor they are. This does not always work if the role does not call for it, or they are not great actors but when these two factors are met it can result in a very memorable performance like Laurence Olivier in Sleuth or Gene Hackman in Superman for example. Well that brings me to Alec Guinness in the often played role of Jacob Marley. A character dead to begin with which must be distinctly understood or you'll think it is odd that he's so white and likes chains so much. Anyway he's the old partner of Ebenezer Scrooge who comes to warn him about the result of evil ways.

Alec Guinness, much like Albert Finney as Scrooge, takes a unorthodox approach to his character. Marley is most often portrayed as a wailing man suffering from his terrible fate. In that regard he was best portrayed by Michael Hordern, but Guinness is not going to follow the rest because he's Alec Guinness. Guinness only has really two scene the one where he visits Scrooge, and another one that was probably added because again he's Alec Guinness. Guinness does quite a lot in these scenes, and as per usual with Guinness although this is definitely a PERFORMANCE sort of performance Guinness very simply is Jacob Marley in the film. Marley is a small role, but Guinness proves that cliche that I dare not utter.

Guinness firstly takes a very physical approach with the role as he enters Scrooge's chambers. There is a unnatural flow to the way he steps and walks. He moves his body as if he is actually apart from the gravity of the earth. Guinness does not rely on special effects, or even his makeup, but has his own body convey the ghostly nature of Marley. Guinness becomes the ghost with his movements and makes his entrance particularly striking and memorable. His ghostly ways are not his only deviations from the normal Marley method, as he also suggests a very different relationship with Scrooge before he died. Where most Marley is too consumed with his own grief to establish it, Guinness a more shrewd approach with his depiction.

Guinness basically says that Marley kind of looked down upon Scrooge and given his whole current predicament he has not exactly become any less sour in his mindset. Guinness always seems slightly condescending in his attitude to Scrooge as he talks to him in his perfect crackly voice. Guinness creates an underlying comedy, while still staying appropriately creepy, through this condescension. My personal favorite moment might be when Scrooge is accusing Marley of being a hallucination making Marley no more than an old potato. Guinness's reaction is hilarious as he shows Marley as being rather ticked off that his old business partner, who he did not care for, is daring to to talk back to him and calling him an old potato.

In his first scene Guinness leaves a great impression bringing the haunting quality, in the haunted house sense, that Marley should have while have the right type of underlying humor to the whole thing. In this version though Marley appears again during the Ghost of Christmas Future segment. Instead of just being shown his grave Scrooge in this version falls into finding himself in Hell, and greeted by who else but his old partner. Guinness changes his performance quite a bit but all accordingly with the plan. Being in hell, gravity is present once again for him and that otherworldly quality is no longer there. Guinness also removes his ghostly reserve and his passive aggressive behavior toward Scrooge becomes much more blunt.

Guinness is hilarious in this final scene as he portrays Marley relishing in every moment he gets to present Scrooge with the result of his greed. Every line Guinness delivers with a dry and extremely sharp wit. Guinness is wildly entertaining in his deviousness in the scene effectively turning the scene into a brilliant dark comedy when it might have simply been horror. I love every moment Guinness has in this scene, but my favorite has to be when he almost bursts out laughing when finally seeing what Scrooge's chain looks like. Like Hackman in Superman and Olivier in Sleuth, Guinness definitely shows off here, but like those performances it absolutely works. In his two scenes he steals the film and manages to be the greatest Jacob Marley even though his approach is most unorthodox.

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1970

And the Nominees Were Not:

Alec Guinness in Scrooge

Donald Sutherland in Kelly's Heroes

Trevor Howard in Ryan's Daughter

Karl Malden in Patton

Leonard Frey in The Boys in the Band

Alternate Best Actor 1970: Results

5. Jean Louis Trintignant in The Conformist- Trintignant fails to find consistency in his performance, and simply gives an uninteresting portrayal of a character with potential.

Best Scene: Marcello watches the assassination.

4. Alejandro Jodorowsky in El Topo- Jodorowsky gives an effective performance as a cool headed gunfighter then a repentant monk, but he never stands out past his own direction.

Best Scene: El Topo creates a new exit out of the cave.

3. Peter Boyle in Joe- Boyle gives a good performance as working class loud mouth by showing the man behind the bluster, but the film's shortcomings keep him from giving a great performance.

Best Scene: Joe's introduction.

2. Albert Finney in Scrooge- Finney overplays a moment here and there, but his alternate take on Ebenezer Scrooge does manage to work for the most part.

Best Scene: The redemption medley.

1. Gian Maria Volontè in Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion- The only alternate that really brought much excitement for me is Volontè's work. Volontè gives an interesting and entertaining performance that cleverly manages to make sense of his character's seemingly random behavior.

Best Scene: The inspector openly confesses to his crime.

Overall Rank:

1. George C. Scott in Patton
2. Jack Nicholson in Five Easy Pieces
3. Nicol Williamson in The Reckoning 
4. Warren Oates in Barquero
5. Jason Robards in The Ballad of Cable Hogue
   
6. Gene Hackman in I Never Sang For My Father 
7. Peter Sellers in Hoffman
   
8. Gian Maria Volontè in Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
9. Alec Guinness in Cromwell
10. Melvyn Douglas in I Never Sang For My Father
11. Richard Harris in The Molly Maguires
12. James Fox in Performance 
13. Sergei Bondarchuk in Uncle Vanya
14. Jüri Järvet in King Lear
15. Yves Montand in The Confession
    
16. Tom Courtenay in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
    
17. Innokenty Smoktunovsky in Uncle Vanya
18. Lee Marvin in Monte Walsh 
19. Alain Delon in Le Cercle Rouge
20. Jean-Pierre Cassel in La Rupture
    
21. Albert Finney in Scrooge
22. Ron Moody in Twelve Chairs
23. Peter Boyle in Joe  
24. Marcello Mastroianni in Sunflower
    
25. Robert Mitchum in Ryan's Daughter 
26. David Bradley in Kes
    
27. Donald Sutherland in MASH 
28. Richard Harris in A Man Called Horse 
29. Sean Connery in The Molly Maguires
    
30. Dustin Hoffman in Little Big Man  
31. Dhritiman Chatterjee in Pratidwandi
    
32. Richard Harris in Cromwell 
    
33. Fernando Rey in Tristana 
34. Michel Piccoli in Les Choses de la Vie
    
35. Jean-Pierre Leaud in Bed and Board
36. Marcello Mastroianni in The Pizza Triangle
    
37. Telly Savalas in Kelly's Heroes
38. Paul Newman in Sometimes A Great Notion
39. James Earl Jones in The Great White Hope
    
40. Alejandro Jodorowsky in El Topo 
41. Jean Yanne in Le Boucher
    
42. Clint Eastwood in Kelly's Heroes
43. Elliot Gould in MASH
44. Frank Langella in Twelve Chairs 
45. Robert Stephens in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
46. Tony Lo Bianco in The Honeymoon Killers
47. François Truffaut in The Wild Child
    
48. John Moulder-Brown in First Love
    
49. Ryan O'Neal in Love Story 
50. Lee Van Cleef in Barquero
    
51. Kenneth Nelson in The Boys in the Band 
52. Jean-Pierre Cargol in The Wild Child
53. Alan Arkin in Catch-22
    
54. Ben Gazzara in Husbands
    
55. Peter Falk in Husbands 
56. John Cassavetes in Husbands 
57. Jean-Claude Brialy in Claire's Knee
    
58. Michael Sarrazin in Sometimes a Great Notion 
59. Dennis Patrick in Joe 
60. Christopher Lee in Count Dracula
    
61. Rock Hudson in Darling Lili
    
62. Jean Louis Trintignant in The Conformist
63. Beau Bridges in Landlord
    
64. Frank Langella in Diary of a Mad Housewife 
65. Rod Steiger in Waterloo
    
66. Christopher Jones in Ryan's Daughter 
67. Richard Benjamin in Diary of a Mad Housewife 
68. Frederick Williams in Count Dracula
    
69. Jason Robards in Julius Caesar
    

Next Year: 1970 Supporting

Alternate Best Actor 1970: Jean Louis Trintignant in The Conformist

Jean Louis Trintignant did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Marcello Clerici in The Conformist.

The Conformist is about a man who works for the Italian fascist country, and goes to arrange the assassination of an old friend. The film is visually striking, but I failed to find it particularly gripping, although that is mostly because of the factor I will be discussing here.

This is the second performance as a government lackey I have seen and unfortunately this is the distant second from Gian Maria Volontè in Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion. Trintignant does seem to randomly try to play the part in different ways, but unlike Volontè's work there is not an underlying purpose to this. Trintignant does not seem to know how to play the part, and does not even know how exactly to play the different approaches he decides to take. Trintignant often plays the part as the silent killer sort, sometimes just a non-entity, sometimes just a man who is pushed around by others, and sometimes an emotionally sensitive man. This would be fine if he went from one to another in a character arc but that is simply not the case.

Trintignant often is the non-entity who sits in rooms and listens to other speak. I will admit it is a difficult trick to make such a character interesting but it can be done, Gary Oldman in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is one example. Trintignant seem thoroughly out of his element here as he is a non-entity as the character of Marcello, but he is also a non-entity when it comes to the film itself. He never has the right magnetism to draw you in to his performance, even though he does not seem t be doing something. There is not anything that Trintignant conveys in these scenes, he just seems to sit there and allows for Bernardo Bertolucci's direction to be the only star of the show.

Marcello is often a protagonist pushed around by the actions of others, not unlike the titular character in Bertolucci's later film The Last Emperor. Trintignant does nothing in terms of showing how this treatment affects Marcello in anyway, something John Lone did so brilliantly in that later film. Marcello changes for sure but not in the proper way as he just seems to go from one way to another, then another without the proper connection. One of the great aspects of John Lone's performance was that he portrayed the effort in his character that showed the way his character was changed by the way he was oppressed around him. There is none of that with Trintignant making every change in Marcello seem random in nature.

Of course there is the silent killer that shows up, and this probably Trintignant excels the most as Marcello but it still does not really work. For one thing Trintignant comes to it so haphazardly as he will sometime become an emotional fellow for no foreseeable reason, and Trintignant plays this version of Marcello as most just a whiner. This without a doubt takes away considerably from the cold Marcello, but as well there is nothing compelling in his performance. Trintignant is cold, but nothing more in his portrayal of Marcello and even his coldness is too simple. It is nothing like Edward Fox in The Day of Jackal where there was a striking soullessness in performance, there simply is nothing notable Trintignant brings to this killer.

Trintignant's performance in this film is almost entirely a failure in finding the right tone to set for his character. He never knows how to play the character of Marcello in the film, which is a shame as the character in the right hands could have easily been a great one. Trintignant never seems to find a grip on this character, instead trying many different ways to play him without the right rhyme or reason to it. It is only made worse by Trintignant inability to make any of the different attempts at a character particularly interesting either. His boring man who gets pushed around is too boring, his emotional man is too whiny, and his cold man just is not cold enough.