Supporting Actress Smackdown - 1953

The Year is...

1953

And the Smackdowners for the 26th Annual Academy Awards are...

ADAM WALDOWSKI of The Oscar Completist
KEN of Canadian Ken
SLAYTON of The Glorious Diatribe
with
yours truly, STINKYLULU.

1953's Supporting Actresses are...
(Each Smackdowner's comments are arranged according to ascending levels of love. Click on the nominee's name/film to see StinkyLulu's Supporting Actress Sunday review.)

Grace Kelly in Mogambo

ADAMWhen you look as good as Grace Kelly, it never hurts to prove you're more than just a pretty face. You needn't necessarily deglamorize to be taken seriously, but when you're costarring in trash like Mogambo? A bad British accent and fueling the flames of melodrama shouldn't get awards buzz.
STINKYLULUKelly offers an occasionally electrifying vulnerability to the role of Linda, amplifying the character’s elemental struggle between instinct and etiquette. Yet, the performance remains strangely subservient, all defensive postures with few hints of what actually drives Linda to take the risks she does.
SLAYTON It’s apparent from the get-go that Kelly’s Linda isn’t the demure waif that she so desperately tries to portray – she’ll fall back onto the façade of femininity around men but she’ll snarl like a lioness if a rival tries to invade her territory. As for the performance? Typically sharp.
KEN An aristocratic dish of strawberries and cream. Whose fleeting pins-and-needles-smile easily out-maneuvers Gardner’s silk-wrapped sledge-hammer. It’s easy scoring points as whore-with-a-heart-of-gold. But Kelly – as the prim young matron tentatively exploring an unexpected yen for the wild side – susses out richer rewards.

TOTAL: 11s

Geraldine Page in Hondo

SLAYTON Although the character Angie is completely defined by her relationship with Hondo, she emerges as the most fully inhabited portrayal in the film. Her initial sexual excitement with John Wayne’s rugged visitor is especially well delivered. A refreshingly human presence in a film full of genteel superficialities.
KEN Minus the vocal embroidery of her later glory years, less glamorous than even Betsy Blair, the 50’s Plain-Jane poster girl, Page opts for a no-nonsense approach – spare, quietly admirable. It works. And she finds new life in the oldest line of all, "I love you", spunkily propelling it at Wayne like David with his slingshot.
ADAM Here is the quintessential leading role placed in supporting. Category placement aside, Page has such star quality and charm it's difficult to believe it's her screen debut. Standing up against western landscapes and John Wayne would be a challenge to some. For Page, it's just one of eight Oscar nominations.
STINKYLULU Easily my favorite Page performance yet, exceeding both my expectations and those of the role. With unpretentious complexity, Page's performance as Angie invests the film with a depth and dimension that is both haunting and humane.

TOTAL: 15s

Marjorie Rambeau in Torch Song

STINKYLULURambeau’s performance is mostly a mélange of familiar bits – “clever” line readings, "idiosyncratic" tics, and muggish eyerolls – all of which, in sum, seem less like humanizing detail and more like shoddy craftsmanship.
ADAMMajorie Rambeau, in only three scenes, hits her punchlines too hard. She's amusing and maneuvers through a fairly warm scene near the end. It's a fine, but brief performance. That's all.
KENThe picture’s a club-footed semi-musical with Crawford in full Gorgon mode. Rambeau is Ma – blowzy, tippling family skeleton in the star’s closet. A few perfunctory nibbles at the script. Then one "big" scene played Ethel Bowerymore style. Peignoir, pearls and beer-bottle. But, alas, (as she says about the pretzels), not enough salt to make a cat thirsty.
SLAYTON The lovely Ms. Rambeau breaks the mildly offensive monotony of this picture with a brief but indelible characterization. In her two scenes, she offers some hilarious facial expressions and some excellent line readings – it’s almost (almost) enough to make us forget about the other hour and fifteen minutes.

TOTAL: 8s

Donna Reed in From Here to Eternity

SLAYTONReed’s performance is merely an egoless line reading: we’re not aware she has a backstory until one is revealed through dialogue. When not inane, she’s incongruous – in a ludicrous bit of speechmaking she talks of her “plan” as though it was one of world domination rather than one of self-sustained living.
KENInitially she projects a pragmatic, low-key sexiness – bruised cynicism, steely optimism, nicely mixed. But the picture (utterly bereft of period atmosphere) is a big hot-air balloon, its humorless banality and self-importance eventually swallowing up Reed’s performance. Her emotional outburst near the end seems her least genuine moment.
STINKYLULUCrafting an empathetic portrait of a possibly despicable character, Reed maneuvers the cliché's of the role with savvy precision. Reed’s Alma is neither a victim of her circumstances, nor a hard-hearted hellion, but always already a bit of both. Adept, intelligent, necessary work - essential to this curious film.
ADAM Not only does Reed stand out among a brilliant ensemble--she has such chemistry with Clift and understanding of Alma that the film owes much of its greatness to her complex performance. With a film as great as From Here to Eternity, that speaks volumes. I could rave all day, but that final scene on the boat is enough for a win.

TOTAL: 11s

Thelma Ritter in Pickup on South Street

KEN The loveable stool-pigeon character doesn’t make much sense. Plus the Runyonesque dialogue she’s given tends to compromise Ritter’s natural style. Like Judge Judy forced to conduct cases in Runyonspeak. But she sheds the excess baggage for an impressive final scene – resigned, weary ("an old clock runnin’ down") and very affecting.
STINKYLULURitter delivers delicious wit and sympathetic verve in the role of Moe, and the actress's signature grit is almost enough to distract from the schticky sentiment of the role. But, even with Ritter's alacrity (and the admiring devotion of Samuel Fuller's camera), Moe remains more a somewhat precious plot-device than an actual character.
ADAM Ritter, no stranger to scene-stealing, is little more than serviceable here. While she includes some clever mannerisms, Moe lacks the three-dimensional feel superior Ritter characters embody. Still, her final scene packs a punch.
SLAYTON Ms. Ritter is a drug, and I’m addicted: With this sublime performance, Ritter slowly husks away the character’s outward layers to reveal the scarred, weary human being behind the shield of pragmatism and pluckiness. A brilliant feat of acting – Funny, sad, wry, elegiac, beautiful.

TOTAL: 14s

Oscar chose...
Donna Reed
in From Here To Eternity
But the SMACKDOWN dissents and, by a single heart, "category-fraud" be darned, anoints...
Geraldine Page in Hondo
as
Best Supporting Actress of 1953!

BUT, lovely reader, what do YOU think?
Please share your thoughts in comments.