Round-Up: Actress 1948

Jane Wyman, Johnny Belinda

as BELINDA MCDONALD

Won: Academy Award - Best Actress | Golden Globe Award - Best Actress

Behold, the first silent performance for me to review since the 2nd Academy Awards! I will preface this post with the reiteration that I've never been all that great at reading into and interpreting silent performances--they're not quite my cup of tea, and I've always found them to be more limiting than those that utilize the sound medium. To that note, I wasn't huge on Jane Wyman's performance in Johnny Belinda, and I'm thinking it's due to a mix of her own acting as well as the film's writing.

Barbara Stanwyck, Sorry, Wrong Number

as LEONA STEVENSON

It's an hour and a half of Barbara Stanwyck experiencing a meltdown in bed! As with Irene Dunne, Stanwyck's run with the Academy came to an end in 1948 with this nomination, and the implications of this role along with the fact that Stanwyck is always a fab actress make this a prospectively juicy endpoint. But while I'm inclined to say that I'm impressed by her work here, there's also much that I wished I could have seen.  

Ingrid Bergman, Joan of Arc

as JOAN OF ARC

I was aggressively displeased about having to watch Joan of Arc, for the obvious reason that I've already seen 1928's The Passion of Joan of Arc and knew that the former had no chance of stacking up, no matter the level of softness I have for Ingrid Bergman. And I was right: Joan of Arc is a severely long-winded film, its subject matter superficially Hollywoodified as 1948's half-baked attempt at a Prestige Picture. But the worst part of it all is that this dull dreck is led and anchored by an actress who is wholly miscast.

Irene Dunne, I Remember Mama

as MARTA "MAMA" HANSON

What is I Remember Mama really but another footnote in the deep vault of sentimental trite that was 1940's Hollywood? For over 2 hours we are witness to random vignettes of the lives of the Hanson family, rather hastily strung together for no incisive reason at all. And the acting? We've got an ooey gooey and oh-so-sleepy performance from Barbara Bel Geddes, Oscar Homolka in one of the most criminally overracted performances of the decade, and Ms. Irene Dunne, scooping up what would be the last nomination of her career.

Olivia de Havilland, The Snake Pit*

as VIRGINIA CUNNINGHAM

Won: New York Film Critics Circle - Best Actress | National Board of Review - Best Actress | Volpi Cup for Best Actress

Having built the foundation to her career playing saints in the likes of Gone with the Wind and Hold Back the Dawn, it's shocking to see Olivia de Havilland so completely, flagrantly flawed in The Snake Pit. And while she took a quick detour from this image as a semi-flawed yet redemptive woman in To Each His Own, there's little atonement to be had for Virginia Cunningham. de Havilland goes absolutely go-for-broke with in this film, and the resulting performance is polarizing in a most literal sense.