Continuing a tradition that began in 2007, when an accident of timing permitted me to profile Judith Anderson's performance in Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca on Halloween week, I'll be devoting October's Supporting Actress Sundays to the variously monstrous, haunting and thrilling performances nominated in the category (they're the ones with the underlines). So, in anticipation of October thrills, I ask...What year deserves the focus
for OCTOBER'S month of
Supporting Actress Sundays?
for OCTOBER'S month of
Supporting Actress Sundays?
1937: Alice Brady in In Old Chicago, Andrea Leeds in Stage Door, Anne Shirley in Stella Dallas, Claire Trevor in Dead End, May Whitty in Night Must Fall.
1946: Ethel Barrymore in The Spiral Staircase, Anne Baxter in The Razor's Edge, Lillian Gish in Duel in the Sun, Flora Robson in Saratoga Trunk, Gale Sondergaard in Anna and the King of Siam.
1956: Mildred Dunnock in Baby Doll, Eileen Heckart in The Bad Seed, Dorothy Malone in Written on the Wind, Mercedes McCambridge in Giant, Patty McCormack in The Bad Seed.
1960: Glynis Johns in The Sundowners, Shirley Jones in Elmer Gantry, Shirley Knight in The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, Janet Leigh in Psycho, Mary Ure in Sons and Lovers.
1964: Gladys Cooper in My Fair Lady, Edith Evans in The Chalk Garden, Grayson Hall in The Night of the Iguana, Lila Kedrova in Zorba the Greek, Agnes Moorehead in Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte.
1968: Lynn Carlin in Faces, Ruth Gordon in Rosemary's Baby, Sondra Locke in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Kay Medford in Funny Girl, Estelle Parsons in Rachel, Rachel.
1973: Linda Blair in The Exorcist, Candy Clark in American Graffiti, Madeline Kahn in Paper Moon, Tatum O'Neal in Paper Moon, Sylvia Sidney in Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams.
1987: Norma Aleandro in Gaby - A True Story, Anne Archer in Fatal Attraction, Olympia Dukakis in Moonstruck, Anne Ramsey in Throw Momma From the Train, Ann Sothern in The Whales of August.
Let your voice be heard by voting fairly in the column at right or by clicking HERE.
12 comments:
Oh please do 1973!!! I already half of my zingers done for that year!
Or hell, 1960 or 1956 would also be great choices.
The Bad Seed, Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist!
for now I'm thinking 1968:
- Rosemary's Baby!!!
- a John Cassavetes film!
- the adaptation of one of the best novels ever: heart is a lonely hunter!
- paul newman directing his wife in a film quite ahead of its time!
- FUNNY GIRL! (need I say more)
but 73 is very cool also.
I voted 1956 for sheer camp value. And because Eileen Hackart dragged that crappy horror flick back from the dead every time she was on.
Still, I'll be really glad to see a 1968 smackdown. Love Carlin, Gordon, Parsons and Medford and have heard good things about Locke.
I'm torn! I'm greatly interested in analysis of Linda Blair's work (how much of it is her, and how much is Mercedes McCambridge? The special effects? Freidkin?), but none of the other peformances from that year interest me.
While I once did a project on the novel The Bad Seed in high school, I think I'm leaning towards '87.
56 looks amazing, also because you have Mercedes McCambridge in Giant AND Dorothy Malone who is insane in Written on the Wind.
I voted for 1956 because I've been waiting for years to see your analysis of Eileen Heckart in "The Bad Seed"! She gives the one semi-realistic performance in a movie stuffed with overwrought melodrama - it's like she breezes in from a completely different (and MUCH better) movie whenever she appears!
whaaaat? no! Nancy Kelly is the star of The Bad Seed! impecable acting
I really disliked Kelly in The Bad Seed, especially when she pounds her womb and screams. She's playing way past the rafters, it's grotesque. With a real director to reign Kelly in and less Hays Code neutering, this movie might have been something. As it is, Heckart is really the only one to rise above the material.
Bad! BAD uterus! Take THAT!
1946!!! First of all they're all great movies. Secondly there's lots of biographical data about all those actresses that can really chime into whatever you write about them. Third, they were all established actresses in their prime; not an ingenue in the bunch.
Doug / PostModern Joan
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