Actress Round-up: 1937

Irene Dunne, The Awful Truth

as LUCY WARRINER

1937's batch of Best Actress contenders have proven to be tougher for me to evaluate than in other years. Grading Barbara Stanwyck's work in Stella Dallas was confusing in that I initially didn't know what to make of her hamminess. Luise Rainer's performance in The Good Earth was personally divisive given all the racial baggage that comes with the picture. And finally, along comes The Awful Truth, a light and silly comedy which provides some much needed, good 'ol fashioned amusement to balance out the somber deaths and sacrifices seen in the films of the other nominees. Irene Dunne's work in The Awful Truth was kind of difficult for me to analyze initially, because it's such a stark contrast from the scenes of sobbing and pain that I was forced to endure from the other ladies. In fact, it would seem as if Dunne's not putting in as much effort as everybody else, but with a closer look I realized it's easy to miss out on the little details that make her performance so effortlessly delightful.

Luise Rainer, The Good Earth

as O-LAN

Won: Academy Award - Best Actress

"A product of its time" -- it's something I come across often when I read up on any of the films and/or  performances of classical Hollywood. It's usually used dismissively, sort of like, "Yeah, what they did there was pretty offensive, but what can you do? It's just a product of its time." Now, I've been immersed in enough movies from this era to know what to expect--that it was a racially insensitive time, and thus the characters of color presented in these films are intrinsically racist depictions. But this doesn't change the fact that The Good Earth was vexing to watch. Normally the presences of ethnic characters acted as decorative flourishes as opposed to any portrayal of substance or real-life. Yet here was The Good Earth, the first film of the era I've seen to boast "ethnic" lead characters and an entirely "ethnic" cast--so what was normally just the occasional spoonful of racism now becomes a big 'ole full-course meal of it. And as a staunch enthusiast of naturalism in the films I watch, you can imagine how frustrating it was for me to not only sit through The Good Earth but to also separate from its performances my apprehension towards the film's (personally) offensive racist representations. It didn't matter to me how honorable these characters actually were--no level of honor justifies the cultural appropriation of billions of people through yellowface, slanted eyes, and buck teeth. And at the heart of the film is the Academy Award winning performance of Luise Rainer, whose O-Lan has proven to be a tough piece of work for me to evaluate.

Greta Garbo, Camille

as MARGUERITE GAUTIER

Won: New York Film Critics Circle - Best Actress

The main reason why I haven't been all that fond of the Greta Garbo performances I've seen thus far is because of that Greta Garbo Illusion. There's always that sense of unapproachability--it defines Garbo's entire legacy. In everything I've seen her in, she seems so detached from the audience and she's kind of wafting in her own world. This in turn reinforced the novelty of the Garbo image, and no one was more aware of this than Garbo herself--she didn't like it when people lingered on set and stared at her during filming, and when director George Cukor asked why, she replied: "When people are watching, I'm just a woman making faces for the camera. It destroys the illusion." So therein lies my problem: the elusiveness that makes up much of Garbo's appeal has to be maintained, but it makes connecting with her and feeling for her a problem especially if the characters she plays--troubled and depressed women--require a viewer's compassion. I had my reservations about Camille, thinking it'd be another two hour picture where Garbo stands around "making faces" under the pretense of suffering. Upon watching Camille, I could tell immediately that there was something different about Garbo here.

Barbara Stanwyck, Stella Dallas

as STELLA DALLAS

It took me some time to formulate my feelings towards Barbara Stanwyck in Stella Dallas into words. Because for the most part, I was unsure of how I felt towards her. What I can't deny is her amazing screen presence--she's got a sultry confidence that oozes out of her like clockwork which in turn makes her incredibly sexy even if she wasn't a conventional beauty by Hollywood standards. That said, her Stella is an unusual creation--it's a packaging of fine acting mixed with off-the-charts acting that annoys and charms all at once. So I struggled a bit in figuring out just how much I liked Stanwyck here, as one typically does when faced with divisive performances. But it got me thinking: perhaps my indifference towards Stella and Stanwyck was the desired effect after all?

Janet Gaynor, A Star is Born

as ESTHER BLODGETT/VICKI LESTER

At the tender age of 22, Janet Gaynor forever cemented her place in film history by becoming the first lady to be named Best Actress by the Academy Awards. She had amazed Hollywood with her triumphant triple-threat batch of performances, so it's almost perfect that she'd headline A Star is Born, seeing as she was quite literally a star born only ten years prior. As the small-town girl who dreams of becoming a movie star and who eventually takes Hollywood by storm, even winning her own Oscar within the context of the film--you watch Gaynor in that famous scene at the Academy Awards, standing up at the podium and giving her acceptance speech while clutching her real life Oscar in her hands...and it's hard to deny that in that very moment on celluloid, her career had officially come full circle. Now, I say that it's almost perfect casting because despite the perfect similarities between the artist and the character, I don't think Gaynor was a skilled enough actress to make the superficially written Esther truly flourish.