3.01.2007

VOTE: April's Supporting Actress Sundays

Yes, it's early but... Now that the Supporting Actress festivities for 2006 are all done up. (How 'bout Jennifer Hudson's Intergalactagown & lil Abigail's Easter Baskirt?) StinkyLulu's just rarin' at the bit to get some vintage actressin' on the move. So just to whet y'all's actressexual appetites:

How 'bout some votin'?
What year deserves the focus
for APRIL's month of
Supporting Actress Sundays?



Your nominees for April are:
  • 1940: Judith Anderson in Rebecca, Jane Darwell in The Grapes of Wrath, Ruth Hussey in The Philadelphia Story, Barbara O'Neil in All This And Heaven Too, Marjorie Rambeau in Primrose Path.
  • 1949: Ethel Barrymore in Pinky, Celeste Holm in Come To The Stable, Elsa Lanchester in Come To The Stable, Mercedes McCambridge in All The King's Men, Ethel Waters in Pinky.
  • 1967: Carol Channing in Thoroughly Modern Millie, Mildred Natwick in Barefoot in the Park, Estelle Parsons in Bonnie and Clyde, Beah Richards in Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, Katherine Ross in The Graduate.
  • 1976: Jane Alexander in All The President's Men, Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver, Lee Grant in Voyage of the Damned, Piper Laurie in Carrie, Beatrice Straight in Network.
  • 1985: Margaret Avery in The Color Purple, Angelica Huston in Prizzi's Honor, Amy Madigan in Twice in a Lifetime, Meg Tilly in Agnes of God, Oprah Winfrey in The Color Purple.
  • 1994: Rosemary Harris in Tom and Viv, Helen Mirren in The Madness of King George, Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction, Jennifer Tilly in Bullets Over Broadway, Dianne Wiest in Bullets Over Broadway.


  • So. Lots of options here. Oprah and Uma, two Tillys, Frankenstein's bride, the voice of Satan, a housekeeper from Hell, some dirty pillows, a couple pros and at least one Queen. The choice is yours...

    Let your voice be heard in the voting column at right.

    16 comments:

    Criticlasm said...

    76 & 67 are both amazing for different reasons.

    Barry said...

    1985

    par3182 said...

    tough choice but i'm going with 1967 - i watch barefoot in the park whenever it's on tv just for mildred natwick

    The Siren said...

    1940, by a country mile. Not only Mrs. Danvers and Ma Joad, two of the most famous supporting roles of all time, but also Barbara O'Neil, who was wonderful in ATAHT as the shrewish, hateful wife who drives Charles Boyer to murder.

    The Jaded Armchair Reviewer said...

    Argh, 1940, 1985 AND 1994. I voted for them in the previous Smackdowns and now have to watch two (if not all three) get pushed back once more. ;-;

    StinkyLulu said...
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    StinkyLulu said...

    But I'm with JS: I'm good for most of these. (But 1985? Really?) Alas, though -- I can only do one year at a time...

    This'll be the 11th smackdown (if we count the most recent one for 2006). But I think 1967 is the very first time we have a roster in which I've already seen all the films. (Though it's been a really long time since I saw Bonnie & Clyde and I don't remember Parsons at all...)

    The Jaded Armchair Reviewer said...

    "But I'm with JS: I'm good for most of these. (But 1985? Really?) Alas, though -- I can only do one year at a time...

    This'll be the 11th smackdown (if we count the most recent one for 2006). But I think 1967 is the very first time we have a roster in which I've already seen all the films. (Though it's been a really long time since I saw Bonnie & Clyde and I don't remember Parsons at all...)"

    1985 - Aside from being the year I was born, it has one of my favorite actresses in Anjelica Houston winning with her dad's direction so I'm interested how you and everyone else will review that performance. Meanwhile, The Color Purple. Enough said. As for Amy Madigan, her work in the sadly canceled Carnivale now makes me interested in anything that she does. :)

    I hate Estelle Parson's win for Bonnie & Clyde. Aside from that last scene where her eyes are bandaged (and I believe it was the the direction of that scene which gave it the dramatic weight), there's nothing else to it other than her screaming and complaining.

    DL said...

    Yeah, Estelle Parson was just annoying in Bonnie & Clyde. Her performance is maybe the only bad thing in a spectacular movie. And of course it's the one thing the Academy decided to reward the movie for. Argh.

    Vertigo's Psycho said...
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    Vertigo's Psycho said...

    I've always loved Parsons in Clyde- her character is supposed to be annoying as hell, and I think Parsons perfectly conveys Blanche's irritating manner, and is very funny with her nails-on-the-chalkboard line deliveries (she sure knows how to drive Bonnie up the wall, and get her way in the process).

    I'm normally biased towards older movies, but I'd have to forgo 1940 this time around in favor of the 1976 pack, as Piper Laurie is peerlessly wacky in Carrie (she'd easily K.O. Mrs. Danvers in Round 1). Also, I'd love to know how the smackdowners assess what I'm almost positive is the shortest performance ever to win an Oscar.

    Anonymous said...

    I voted for 1994 because I want to hear everyone's opinion about Jennifer Tilly getting nommed over a thousand more deserving candidates.

    Criticlasm said...

    Has Estelle Parsons every been anything but annoying? Perhaps insane?

    I think Beatrice Straight in Network still holds the record for shortest win for her one scene in Network, with Judi Dench second for Shakespeare in Love.

    StinkyLulu said...

    The conventional wisdom does hold Straight as the winner of this contest. But nominations for such shorties (performances that clock at 10-12 minutes or less) are not that unusual. For example, Sylvia Miles' performance in Farewell, My Lovely is actually a few seconds shorter than Straight's, and Talia Shire's in Godfather2 is about the same length as Dench's in Shakespeare.

    I keep threatening to do the chart for screentime/percentage. I 'spose I really should get on that...

    Criticlasm said...

    Yes, please do that. You are not nearly busy enough. ;)

    John T said...

    I'm not sure if voting has closed, but I'd cast mine for 1976, as it has three very small performances (Jane Alexander, Jodie Foster, and Beatrice Straight), that could either be qualified as brilliant or glorified cameo, Piper Laurie as the psycho mother in Carrie, and Lee Grant in a movie that I know in name only (have no idea what it's about).