Best Supporting Actress 1967

[OscarGuy]

I find it most interesting that a year this early in the Oscar canon (not early per se, but definitely before my time) holds four performances I've seen. First time so far this is the case and, wouldn't you know, the one performance winning the vote at the time I voted was the one performance I had not yet seen. One day, but who knows when.

Channing, Parsons, Richards and Ross are all particularly good in their films. I can't say I dislike any of them, but for me Ross is the least memorable of them all. And, quite frankly, I really can't remember anything she did or whether it was remotely award worthy.

I'm hard pressed to really site any one of the other three as my favorite as each has a distinct style and purpose that make me appreciate them. Parsons is wacky fun when paired with on-screen beau Gene Hackman and more than makes up for some occasional lulls in the story.

Richards, for me, is the emotional heart of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. She's the only performer in the film that doesn't feel like is trying to make a social statement, of course she is, but compared to Poitier and Hepburn she's a deep emotional well.

But, I voted for Channing for two reasons, one the exact opposite of why Damien thought she was the weakest link. She was playing her effervescent self. But more so she was a bright beacon in every scene she played. You coudln't take your eyes off of her, stealing the show from Julie and MTM and everyone else. It may not have been deep, but it was amazingly fun and I enjoy Millie more than a lot of people, it seems.

[Reza]

The film belongs to Hoffman and Bancroft with big nods to Mike Nichols, Calder Willingham Buck Henry and Simon and Garfunekel.

I would also add to it the brilliant cinematography by Robert Surtees.

[Reza]

But, for reasons dating back to my youth, I'll go with Mildred Natwick, who stole the show in Barefoot in the Park and was my rooting interest on Oscar Night that spring. Back in the days before he claimed to understand the human condition, Neil Simon was capable of turning out a pretty funny script, and I think Barefoot is perhaps his funniest. It's certainly minor, and never did have an ending that worked, but the laughs come one after another, and the cast in general makes it fly by. Redford is deceptively good, as well...but Natwick is the one whose line readings are in my head all these years later ("I feel like we've died, and gone to heaven...only we had to climb up"). That she also had a long, honorable career is only icing on the cake. She rates the win on performance alone.

Barefoot in the Park doesn't really hold up and most of the jokes (especially the physical jumping about by the cast) today seem pretty forced. Simon overdoes it on the gag involving the 5 flights of stairs and it quickly becomes tiresome. However, I agree that Redford is very good though Jane Fonda (looking extremely delicious) tries too hard to be comic......she is all over the place and shouts out her lines as if being frantic would make her look funny and bring on laughs. Mildred Natwick comes off best and gives a great comic performance. It was also such a delight to see her in sophisticated mode for a change and her subtle facial expressions at all the crazy goings on around her are a scream. She easily gets my vote.

Ross is lovely and I agree with Damien that she perfectly captures a young girl's confusion and anguish about the situation she is placed in. Yes she is in her 70s now and has, unfortunately, aged extremely badly.

Parsons is the comic relief of Bonnie and Clyde and is like the comedian in Bollywood films who appears to relieve the tension created in the main plot between the leads. Only here her character is very much part of the main ''serious'' plot which the script so brilliantly captures by portraying the events in a sort of mixture of the tragic and comic.

Beah Richards is dignity personified and, along with Spencer Tracy, is the character who talks sense in discussing the ''situation'' at hand.

Channing is Channing and I'm glad she at least got an Oscar nod on her resume.

My top 5:

Mildred Natwick, Barefoot in the Park
Marjorie Rhodes, The Family Way
Estelle Parsons, Bonnie and Clyde
Lee Grant, In the Heat of the Night
Beah Richards, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner



Edited By Reza on 1279915234

[ITALIANO]

I was in my early teens, and my father had brought with him from England my first book about the Oscars. I was understandably excited. In the same days, they were going to show Millie (the Italian title is simply Millie) on tv. Ok, it was a musical - something that I found back then even more boring than I do now - it had Julie Andrews, but now I knew that it had also been nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress. I couldn't miss it.
Well - I should see the movie again because, I admit, I was too young and too much time has gone by since then. But still. The movie was unwatchable - and I don't even think that Andrews was the main responsible by the way - but I kept looking waiting for this unknown (to me) Carol Channing. Finally, a blond drag queen with a big head and big eyes comes on the screen and starts singing and making "funny" faces - and I realize, in a state of shock , that this nightmarish caricature of a human being had been nominated for an Oscar! Years later I learned that Channing was very famous in the United States, but I've never seen her in anything else. I can only say that, in my confused memory, she's still the most embarassing Supporting Actress nominee I've ever seen - but again, maybe I was just too young to appreciate her Art.

Beah Richards embodies, even more than Hepburn or Poitier, all that is wrong about Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (and much is wrong in that movie). It's not her fault and she's not a bad actress (that role could certainly only be played that way - if it had to be played), but it's all so predictable and cliched, especially seen today.

It's good, of course, that Bonnie and Clyde got an Oscar - and yes, I think that one of the reasons why Estelle Parsons won was that she was part of that wonderful cast and that much-loved, important movie. And Bonnie and Clyde HAD to win something - not Best Picture maybe, it was too "new" to get that, but Best Supporting Actress (and Best Cinematography) must have been an acceptable compromise by the Academy's standards. (I realize now that it hadn't even been nominated for Best Editing!). The performance in itself is funny, perfectly in line with the movie and its philosophy - she could do even more and would be soon nominated again for an even better performance, but I can't complain that she won here.

I love The Graduate and I love Katharine Ross in it - her beautiful American face so perfect for that role, for that movie, for that generation. It's not always good to be a symbol, and actresses even more than actors generally end up being more limited than helped by it; but while her promising start didn't lead to a glorious film career, for a short but beautiful time Ross was the face of a new, healthy, young America - and, while not a Meryl Streep, she wasn't a bad actress either. She does well what she has to do in that movie.

But yes, of course, this is the year when we all suddenly become Big Magilla. There are several kinds of "old actresses", and God knows that age often brings out the worst rather than the best from a performer. But Mildred Natwick easily falls into the "best" side, certainly she does in this movie - not mannered at all, VERY funny without forcing it, a natural, unaffected acting turn (not easy when you play Neil Simon, though it's true that Barefoot in the Park is early Neil Simon, which also means Neil Simon at his best). Plus, this is a woman who went from to John Ford to Hitchcock to Stephen Frears - always giving effortlessly good performances. She gets my vote.



Edited By ITALIANO on 1279883285

[Precious Doll]

Estelle Parsons but a mile for me.

My choices were:

1. Estelle Parsons for Bonnie and Clyde
2. Angie Dickinson for Point Blank
3. Maggie Smith for The Honey Pot
4. Alenia Capr for Common Law Cabin
5. Susan Hayward for The Honey Pot

[Damien]

The Family Way was a big deal back in 1967 because it was heavily promoted as Hayley Mills's first Adult role. (Much the same way that Deanna Durban's initial cinematic smooch was highly publicized for 1939's First Love.)

Marjorie Rhodes is wonderful in the film which, like the previous year's Alfie, was adapted by Bill Naughton from his own play. What I remember most vividly about the picture, however, is how embarrassed I felt because I was 12 years old and seeing it with my parents. (The movie's about a newly wed young man who can't get it up -- or, in polite circles, is unable to consummate his marriage.)

[Damien]

A very good line-up.

Carol Channing is the weak link here. She's amusing, and it's nice that her singular vivacity was preserved on film when she was at her peak especially since she wouldn't be recreating her most famous role as Dolly Levi. But it's not so much a performance as Carol Channing being Carol Channing much the way she would be if she were guest starring on, say, The Dean Martin Show. And, even with Saint Julie, Thoroughly Modern Millie is torture to sit through.

Beah Richards is deeply moving in Guess Who's Coming To Dinner and while it's Spencer Tracy and Isabel Sanford who make this facile movie fun to watch, it is only Richards who from time to time grounds it in reality.

Elaine is such an integral component of The Graduate that it would have felt odd if she wasn't represented at the Oscars. And Katharine Ross is perfect (and perfectly cast) -- it's not a histrionic role, but the actress conveys the vulnerability, passion and inevitable hurts of being young and in love, and her confusion as the situation around her becomes clear is deeply moving. She's a lovely actress and this is a lovely performance. (I just realized that Elaine Robinson is now 70 years old. Yikes!)

Estelle Parsons is truly memorable in Bonnie and Clyde. Unlike a Geraldine Page, Parsons controls her hysteria, so that she is at once funny and sympathetic. She was a fine choice and one can't quibble with her victory. But she wouldn't have been my choice.

Mildred Natwick was one of the great character actresses of stage and screen, and her work in Barefoot In The Park is one of the funniest things I've ever seen -- which is pretty amazing considering she's reciting Neil Simon dialogue. I smile broadly just think of some of her reactions to the craziness going on around her, and her line readings and comic timing are priceless. This is a great comedic performance. One vote for Mildred Natwick.

My Own Top 5:
1. Mildred Natwick in Barefoot In The Park
2. Eleanor Bron in Two For The Road
3. Maureen Arthur in How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying
4. Arlene Golonka in The Busy Body
5. Marjorie Rhodes in The Family Way



Edited By Damien on 1279870297

[Mister Tee]

I held off reading Magilla's text till after I'd voted, but assumed (correctly) that for once I'd be right alongside him in my vote.

To backtrack: I have to confess I've never got around to seeing The Family Way -- missed it during its initial run despite my Hayley Mills devotion, and these days it's impossible to track down. (Netflix recognizes its existence -- it'll "Save" it for you -- but doesn't suggest it'll ever be actually released)

'67 was of course the breakthrough year for the counterculture, with the twin landmarks Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate dominating the scene, but it was a pretty high quality year even beyond them -- I'd rate In Cold Blood, In the Heat of the Night, Cool Hand Luke and Two for the Road very highly, making this easily the best year for films since '62. Those films helped make for strong races in the other acting categories (add in best picture nominee Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and you've accounted for the entire best actor race), but this category seemed to take place on another planet, with mostly minor representation from the big films, and the rest of the slots given over to piddling films.

Katharine Ross represents The Graduate behemoth, but, apart from being beautiful (and thus believable as someone Benjamin would pursue so manically) she doesn't make a very deep impression.

Beah Richards gives a "credit to her race" sort of performance. She's a solid performer, but the character reeks of nobility, and there's only so much she can do to make that interesting.

Carol Channing is her usual freakish self, and I guess she gives what life there is to the desperately-trying-to-be-fun Thoroughly Modern Millie, but I wasn't much impressed with her when I saw the movie back in '68, and my recent attempt to watch the film again didn't survive much past the first half-hour.

A friend of mine once said that, when he saw Estelle Parsons win for Bonnie and Clyde, he figured all you had to do to win a Oscar was scream through an entire movie. That's an easy, lazy impression to come away with -- she does do a good deal of screaming in the latter portions of Bonnie and Clyde. But there's quite a bit more to her performance, most of it very good. She's clearly the serious-movie choice in this category, and I don't much question her win.

But, for reasons dating back to my youth, I'll go with Mildred Natwick, who stole the show in Barefoot in the Park and was my rooting interest on Oscar Night that spring. Back in the days before he claimed to understand the human condition, Neil Simon was capable of turning out a pretty funny script, and I think Barefoot is perhaps his funniest. It's certainly minor, and never did have an ending that worked, but the laughs come one after another, and the cast in general makes it fly by. Redford is deceptively good, as well...but Natwick is the one whose line readings are in my head all these years later ("I feel like we've died, and gone to heaven...only we had to climb up"). That she also had a long, honorable career is only icing on the cake. She rates the win on performance alone.

I wonder if anyone under 30 will join Magilla and me in this.

[Big Magilla]

Prior to 1967 there were only two precursors that gave out supporting awards - the National Board of Review and the Golden Globes. Beginning this year, the National Society of Film Critics in their second year of existence added the two categories. The New York Film Critics would follow suit two years later.

This year the two first precursor awards from the NBR and the NSFC went to the splendid British character actress Marjorie Rhodes as the mother of the groom in The Family Way. It looked like we might have a consensus winner and no one could argue with the choice. Rhodes easily gave one of the three most memorable supporting actress turns of the year - matched only by veteran Mildred Natwick as the mother of the bride in Barefoot in the Park and relative newcomer Estelle Parsons as the second female member of the gang in Bonnie and Clyde.

Then came the Golden Globe nominations and things began to unravel. All three - Rhodes, Natwick and Parsons - were ignored despite the fact that there were six nominees including Lee Grant and Quentin Dean in In the Heat of the Night; Prunella Ransome in Far From the Madding Crowd; Lillian Gish in The Comedians; Beah Richards in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and the winner, Carol Channing in Thoroughly Modern Millie.

Oscar picked up on Channing and Richards, restored some sanity with the nominations of Natwick and Parsons but went with ingenue Katharine Ross in The Graduate over the glorious Marjorie Rhodes.

Actually Ross was 27 when she made The Graduate, only ten years younger than Anne Bancroft who played her mother, and had been around for a while but nothing she did before or after was all that remarkable. Truth be told there's nothing really remarkable about her work here, either. The film belongs to Hoffman and Bancroft with big nods to Mike Nichols, Calder Willingham Buck Henry and Simon and Garfunekel.

Beach Richards is properly dignified as Sidney Potier's mother in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner but for my money Isabel Sanford as Hepburn and Tracy's opinionated maid is much more memorable and deserving of recognition.

Carol Channing is perfectly delightful in Thoroughly Modern Millie but the film is such a bloated mess I don't think it deserved any of it nominations.

Estelle Parsons is wonderful in Bonnie and Clyde and the landmark gangster film deserved at least one acting winner, though my personal choice is Gene Hackman. Still, Parsons is an admirable choice.

My favorite, however, is Mildred Natwick who never gave a bad performance and in fact elevated many mediocre films at least for the time she was on screen. And when the film was good - The Enchanted Cottage - The Quiet Man - The Trouble With Harry - The Court Jester - she was often one of the reasons it was so good.

I don't know whether I'd call Barefoot in the Park a good movie, or merely a serviceable one, but I suspect it wouldn't even be that with anyone other than the sublime Natwick as Jane Fonda's mother. She enthusiastically gets my vote, though if Marjorie Rhodes had been nominated as she should have been, the choice would have been much more difficult.