Mary Pickford, Coquette

as NORMA BESANT

Won: Academy Award - Best Actress

What more is there to say about Mary Pickford's Academy Award® winning performance in Coquette? What else is there to say that hasn't already been said? It is, after all, considered to be one of the worst performances to ever win an Oscar, and has been crucified by many an Oscar-enthusiast over the years. Instead of diving thoroughly into bashing  Pickford's work here, I'll just talk about the art of exaggeration and how Pickford utilizes it to a criminal extent. First and foremost, Pickford does not know how to act within the sound medium. She emphasizes everything. It is as though she is worried the audience won't be able to understand the language, so she'll put some oomph into what she's saying just about 100% of the time just to be safe (ex: instead of "I'd never dreamed he'd send them," we get "I'd never DREAMED! he'd send them!"). Second, she doesn't seem to be confident in her own cutesie-ness, and so she over-emphasizes that aspect as well, constantly pursing her lips and jamming her finger to her mouth like some sort of special-needs Lolita. One of the things I thought while watching Pickford in her scenes was that she was "trying too hard," and I firmly believe that had she toned it down (or if someone had told her to tone it down), it may very well have been good work. It's this very over-emphasis that makes what might have been a so-so to solid performance into the frenzied--and often times laughable--piece of work that it is today. And the very reason that the performance gets the vitriol that it does today is mostly because it comes off as too cartoonish. Overall, I don't hate it as much as other reviewers seemed to have hated it; I found it to be watchable at the very least. But it is the quintessential example of what it means to be "over-the-top", and just a nasty mark on the Best Actress category as a whole.