Loretta Young, Come to the Stable

as SISTER MARGARET

Two nuns hope to build a children's hospital. That is the concept of Come to the Stable, and that is basically everything I don't want to see when I'm watching a film. But I figured I'd put aside my stubborn prejudices, give this one a chance, and come into the film with an open mind. So I watched, and watched a little more, and as was the case with My Foolish Heart, I found myself growing aggressively disinterested by both film and its lead actress.

...because really now, just what does Loretta Young do in Come to the Stable that's nomination worthy? There comes a point where there has to be something more to offer than just a kind-hearted disposition, a warm smile, and a soft-spoken voice. I'm no actor myself, but I've seen enough actresses tackle those three attributes at this point that I cannot imagine it's much a challenge. Sure, Young has God's warmth seeping out from her pores, but what else? What Ingrid Bergman had in her arsenal was her powerful talent of tackling raw emotion and using that in such a way that it hits you in your heart. There's no doubt that Deborah Kerr fared well because of the complexity of the story. But in the case of Young, all she ever really brings to the table are the three aforementioned qualities in varying degrees and in interchangeable order.

The film doesn't really require much else from her, and I'm not sure that she could have done anymore than what she actually does. So, as with My Foolish Heart, it's an hour and a half of Young trekking through a variety of situations on puritanical autopilot, occasionally playing naive here and there with broadened eyes as necessary. I'm not frustrated about the film's subject matter - I understand that it appeals to a certain audience (and back then, that audience was a broad audience as it would seem), and I'm not that frustrated that I had to watch it. Rather, I'm more frustrated that a large enough contingent of the Academy thought to nominate this performance (and two more performances from the film, for that matter!), as if they literally could not identify another actress that was up-to-snuff. Because this was seriously one of the most lackluster nominated turns I've watched in this decade. A filler nomination if there ever was one.