Best Supporting Actor 1943: Akim Tamiroff in For Whom the Bell Tolls

Akim Tamiroff received his second and final Oscar nomination for portraying Pablo in For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Akim Tamiroff plays Pablo the leader of the group of rebels in the Spanish Civil War who Robert Jordan (Gary Cooper) comes to join to blow up a bridge. Akim Tamiroff's Pablo is a rather weak willed man, who Tamiroff is perhaps just a tad too cartoonish in his portrayal since Tamiroff does his usual routine which is a combination of a craziness as well as some joviality.

Although this can work as just a side character in comedies or as a comic relief in other films here it does not really work so well. Tamiroff does tone down his usual style here, but really not enough to make Pablo either realistic or compelling. What I really do not like about his performance is the fact that Pablo could have been a pretty interesting character, but Tamiroff never reaches this potential like say Katina Paxinou does in the role of Pablo's wife and the eventual leader of the rebel group Pilar.

I suppose Pablo is appropriately weak willed and cowardly in the hands of Tamiroff, but there is really too much emphasis on this aspect of Pablo. Yes it is obvious that leadership would be taken from Pilar because of this but Tamiroff never makes any indication to how Pablo was ever their leader to begin with he seems too much like a clown much of the time, and too much like a loser most of the time. There is not even the slightest hint to Pablo ever being a strong man or a leader.

Tamiroff though fails more thoroughly when Pablo comes off as a dangerous man who you have no idea what he is going to do. Tamiroff never seems brutal, or sinister enough to give Pablo's actions any emotional weight. Tamiroff always remains far far too simplistic and never manages to bring the complexity of the character to life. Pablo perhaps could have been a fascinating character in his unpredictability, but Tamiroff never brings more than a paper thin characterization to the part.

Best Supporting Actor 1943: J. Carrol Naish in Sahara

J. Carrol Naish received his first Oscar nomination for portraying Giuseppe in Sahara.

Sahara details a small group of allied soldiers who attempt to hold up a large group of German soldiers.

Naish plays Giuseppe an Italian soldier held captive by the Allied Soldiers. Naish really has a very simple role and a very little screentime. He does an Italian accent that although clearly Italian it is not as over the top as it really could have been. Naish in his little time does give a sympathetic portrayal of Giuseppe showing just a man who desperately needs help. He mostly just stands around looking scared which Naish realistically portrays until he stands up for himself in a big anti Nazi speech at the end of his performance. It is well handled by Naish really putting the right passion and pride into the speech while keeping with the character still showing just an inner strength within Giuseppe. Although never amazing or substantial Naish gives a good performance technically but in a very very limited part.

Best Supporting Actor 1943

And the Nominees Were:

Claude Rains in Casablanca

Akim Tamiroff in For Whom the Bells Tolls

Charles Coburn in The More the Merrier

J. Carrol Naish in Sahara

Charles Bickford in The Song of Bernadette

Best Supporting Actor 1957: Results

5. Russ Tamblyn in Peyton Place- Tamblyn although not awful gives a rather dull performance that at best is barely adequate.

4. Arthur Kennedy in Peyton Place- Kennedy goes way over the top, and well at least that does not make him as boring as much of the performers in this film it does not make his performance particularly good either.

3. Vittorio De Sica in A Farewell to Arms- De Sica has a limited part but does manage to be charming and emotionally convincing enough to be the most interesting part of his film.

2. Red Buttons in Sayonara- Red Buttons gives a passionate, and effectively convincing performance. Although his part is limited Buttons makes the most out of everything he does have rising above the rather weak film he is in.

1. Sessue Hayakawa in The Bridge on the River Kwai- Good Prediction RatedRStar. This year the choice is obvious to me with Hayakawa he is simply on a different level than the rest of the performances this year. He gives a remarkable performance creating a complex portrait of a man who puts codes before all else to the point of insanity. It is a great performance that compliments the great film it resides in.

Best Supporting Actor 1957: Red Buttons in Sayonara

Red Buttons won his Oscar from his only nomination for portraying Airman Joe Kelly in Sayonara.

Red Buttons plays Airman Joe Kelly who is rebellious ignoring strict suggestions from just about everyone not to marry a Japanese woman Kasumi (Miyoshi Umeki). I will give Red Buttons credit in that he makes Joe Kelly the most interesting character in the film unfortunately Sayonara is a very weak film and that is saying very little. Buttons also manages to take every scene from Marlon Brando but again this being one of Brando's weakest performances that is again saying very little.

On entirely his own merit though Buttons does give a good performance as Joe Kelly. He plays Joe Kelly as a fairly average sort of man who wants to do things his way no matter who objects to them. Buttons has a simple charm, and a lively personality that works well for the role. He makes Kelly a likable man who loves his wife rather than a man who wants to be an upstart for the sake of being an upstart. He instead manages to show that Kelly honestly wants to do what he is doing for the right reasons.

Buttons is good throughout the film and has a sweet simple chemistry with Umeki in there scenes together. Their relationship is not anything amazing but they clearly show a love for one another that appropriately fits within the context of the film. The relationship really is not suppose to be anything overly special but just a normal one between these two people, and Buttons and Umeki manage to do that well. 

Buttons is passionate, and moving when he needs to be in the role particularly in a scene where Joe tells Kasumi she loves her just the way she is. The only real problem with this performance is the role itself in the end Joe Kelly does not amount to all that much in the end. What he is though Buttons does make the most out of and avoids being dull and uninteresting like the rest of the film. In fact Buttons made me wish Kelly was the main character of the film, since his performance is the only worthwhile one in the film.

Best Supporting Actor 1957: Sessue Hayakawa in The Bridge on the River Kwai

Sessue Hayakawa received his only Oscar nomination for portraying Colonel Saito in The Bridge on the River Kwai.

Sessue Hayakawa plays the camp commandant of the Japanese  forced labor Prison camp for Allied Soldiers. Colonel Saito is an interesting counterpart to the imprisoned Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness). They are both career soldiers who have achieved the same rank. They are actually both fiercely devoted to being soldiers, and what they believe to be the code they must follow. Their difference lies in the fact that where Nicholson code is proper warfare and gentlemanly behavior, Saito behavior is the Japanese Warrior code of Bushido. 

Sessue Hayakawa has a challenge from his very first scene which is not to be forgotten next to Alec Guinness's formidable performance as their characters go head to head from the earliest moments of the film. Hayakawa not only manages not to be forgotten but also manages to be just as memorable as Guinness in these scenes. They go full force with their codes to one another both in a similar yet different fashion that creates a fascinating dynamic between the two performances.

Hayakawa as Saito who has all the power is far more forceful with his implementation of his code. Hayakawa is great because he shows just how ingrained the whole idea of the Bushido warrior code is in Saito. It is clearly something that has been impressed on him his entire life so much that no matter what he cannot shake the code he feels he must go by which most importantly deals with the idea of a soldier dying before even failing.

Hayakawa has a great presence and force of will that appropriately matches Guinness'. The difference though is Guinnness always stays British and proper whereas Hayakawa is far more forceful intensely repeating his demands to attempt to get his way. Although like Nicholson Saito is really insane with his devotion to his code Hayakawa is absolutely believable in this insanity that is prevails is an entirely calculated and controlled man.

Hayakawa is appropriately brutal but in an entirely military fashion. He never thinks a second thought of what he is doing, even almost having several men killed in an especially calm and simple fashion showing that Saito has gone all the way many many times before. Saito is always the soldier first and that is where his cruelty comes from, and his idea that the British for surrendering are not soldiers anymore, Hayakawa is particularly great showing an incredible pride in the escaped soldiers who were killed, because to him they were soldiers again. This sounds insane and it is, but Hayakawa shows that to Saito it is the absolute truth.

Hayakawa is interesting because like Guinness he manages to pull humor out of his character despite the fact that Saito is almost entirely no nonsense. Hayakawa though brings this humor to the part without it ever seeming out of character. He really shows this well in his scene where he tries to act nice to Guinness to get his way by attempting to pander to Nicholson by making a few concessions. Hayakawa is just great in the way the usually brutal man quietly and kindly asks Nicholson to go along with the way he runs the camp.

Hayakawa performance truly excels though because he does not make Saito a one dimensional Japanese commander devoted to Bushido. He most certainly is this but a man of his own as well. The interesting aspect of his performance is the fact that he really never wanted to be a career soldier. He was rather pushed it into by his father. Hayakawa shows Saito is still a devoted soldier, but because of his past he subtly shows that he himself is scared by his devotion to Bushido knowing that even though he really does not want to he will have to kill himself either way, this aspect of Saito is given few words but is completely realized by Hayakawa.

It is in this aspect of the performance that Hayakawa is especially brilliant because he manages to create sympathy for this cruel villain. After he loses the camp to Nicholson Hayakawa manages to make me feel sorry for him actually since he has been so ingrained in his code he can't help it. In the second half of his performance Hayakawa performance almost becomes entirely silent, but still manages to create this sympathy. He shows a depression in Saito who has left his fate to Nicholson. Hayakawa has been a sad sad man no longer able to control his environment as he had before. It would have been easy to not care about this cruel man but Hayakawa realizes Saito so well particularly his past that  makes it easy to feel for a man who has lost everything at the end. Saito could have been a one note character, but Hayakawa manages to bring him completely to life in a performance that works as a perfect compliment to Guinness' s performance making a perfect supporting performance.

Best Supporting Actor 1957: Vittorio De Sica in A Farewell to Arms

Vittorio De Sica received his only Oscar nomination for portraying Major Alessandro Rinaldi in A Farewell to Arms.

A Farewell to Arms is an overblown version of the love story between a soldier and a nurse during World War I.

Vittorio De Sica's nomination here is a rather odd one, because he was the director of many films that received Oscar nominations, more than one that won for best Foreign Language Film yet he was never nominated once as the director for any of these films instead he was only nominated for his performance in this film. In A Farewell to Arms he is a carefree surgeon in the Italian Army who is a friend of Rock Hudson's American in the Italian Army. In the first half of his performance De Sica is nice and charming easily conveying the relaxed attitude of the man. Although De Sica is asked to do very very little he certainly is a warm presence and far more interesting than the two leads (Rock Hudson, Jennifer Jones) who lack any sort of chemistry, in fact De Sica and Hudson have better chemistry together than Hudson and Jones.

De Sica proceeds to disappear for a great deal of the film, and we are left with the very boring Jones/Hudson relationship. He eventually shows up again a completely different man distraught over the war. There is no transformation since De Sica was given no time for any transition he simply is this way when he reappears. De Sica manages actually to shine here showing a man who really has lost hope, as well as experienced a great deal of trauma. In his final moments Rinaldi is delirious with fever and goes on and on with anguish over the war. This would have been an easy scene to mess up, but De Sica actually does deliver the appropriate emotion making his breakdown realistic. It is a good finish to his otherwise adequate performance that is most certainly the best part of this film, but that really is saying nothing.