Best Supporting Actress 1973

[Big Magilla]

Valentina Cortese was of course well known in America. She had a short but high profile career in Hollywood films from 1949-1953 (Thieves Highway; The House on Telegraph Hill) and was married to Richard Basehart from 1951 to 1960.

Just prior to Day for Night she had two more high profile roles in English language films, The Assassination of Trotsky and Brother Sun, Sister Moon.

German actor Holger Lowenadler probably had the best shot of any foreign actor in a foreign language film of being nominated for supporting actor. His acclaimed performance in Louis Malle's Lacombe, Lucien was eligible in 1974, the same year Cortese was nominated for Day for Night. Charles Boyer, who I mentioned previously also had a strong shot the following year for Stavisky.

[Uri]

(And I'm with Sabin: it doesn't matter to me how much Bogdanovich had to do with it -- which, based on O'Neal's later uninteresting work, was probably alot)

I guess it won't be a surprise, but I like being aware of some wheels clicking (sorry, Kate). When evaluating acting, which is what we're doing here, I believe in making the distinction between an effective performance and a well crafted one. This is why I usually think children should not be considered for acting awards. Most of the times, no matter how good the end results are, it's obvious that it's not the outcome of a process made by the child actor him or herself. (Or when it is, what we get in a self conscious, fake "prodigious" stuff – yes, Dakota, I'm talking to you). There are these rare exceptions to this rule – Jodie foster was a mature actress at ten, River Phoenix conveys a complex, multilayered approach at early age too. The girl who plays Sally Draper on Mad Men seems to be another. O'Neal wasn't, certainly nor was Blair.

I was not about to vote since I haven't seen Sidney, but I'm now quite sure I wouldn't be voting for her anyway, so I'll play the game. I haven't seen American Graffiti in a while, but I don't recall Clark as an obvious standout, so I'm very happy to go with Kahn. It's not that I'm against caricature acting (I'm a huge fan of Jean Hagen and I even might vote for Kahn again next year) but what is great about her in Paper moon is that it's a very sensitive, well rounded characterization of a person who can be very easily been ridicule by a lesser performer.



Edited By Uri on 1281773365

[ITALIANO]

There have been a few (very few) actors nominated for supporting roles in American-produced movies in which they mostly spoke a foreign language (De Niro, those from Babel, etc), but Valentina Cortese, as incfedible as it may seem, is the only supporting nominee from a non-American or English movie. I thought it could happen again years later with Virna Lisi for her great performance in Queen Margot; she was after all am actress with a (short) American past, the movie was important and "big" (and WOULD BE Oscar-nominated), the role was showy and Academy-friendly (a queen, a mother), she had made herself ugly for it and, last but not least, she had even won Best Actress at Cannes. I'm sure that, had it been better promoted, it could have happened (it's not like the race was that competitive that year) - it didn't.

Cortese's nomination, anyway, should make Best Supporting Actor the only place in which no non-American or English movie has ever been nominated, unless it's also true for some of the newest technical categories.



Edited By ITALIANO on 1281767789

[Big Magilla]

I'm pretty sure Cortese was the only foreign nominee in support to be nominated. I was kind of surprised Charles Boyer didn't pick one up after winning the N.Y.F.C. the following year, but Stavisky was another of those films that opened in L.A. the year after it opened in N.Y.

I think De Niro had two things going against him. One had two films in the running: Bang the Drum Slowly for which he could have been considered either lead or support and may have gotten votes in both categories, and Mean Streets in which he would have gotten most, if not all, his votes in support where he faced stiff competition not only from the actual nominees but several otehrs including Max von Sydow in The Exorcist, Martin Balsam in Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams and both Robert Ryan and Fredric March in The Iceman Cometh. Ryan, of course, was another who could have gotten votes in either category.

[Mister Tee]

by year's end I expected Cortese to win (I wasn't yet aware of the failure of the film to be held back from an L.A. release)

I think the fact must have been under-publicized at first, because, looking through old notebooks, I see I had Cortese (and the film itself) in early prediction drafts. But by nominations day, I knew they were ineligible. I was, though, always dubious about a foreign-language performance actually winning an Oscar. In fact, am I wrong, or isn't Cortese still the only such supporting performer ever even nominated? (Excluding the freakish like DeNiro in the very mainstream Godfather II)

Speaking of DeNiro -- he was the NY/National Society supporting actor winner, and he also failed to get an Oscar nod, which surprised me at the time. In the first four years of NY giving out such a prize, its winners had always got automatic slots (though the tradition was to disappear as the decade wore on).

[Snick's Guy]

Kahn gets my vote

[ITALIANO]

To (most of) those who have voted for Sylvia Sidney clearly without having seen Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams: she doesn't do much in the few minutes she's on screen, except showily dying of a heart attack. Now, it's nice that one of the sweetest faces of American cinema finally DID get a nomination - but an Oscar for this? No way.

Candy Clark? Good but not especially memorable (only after years I realized that I had mistaken her for another actress of the movie) and American Graffiti depends more on its (excellent) ensemble cast than on individual performances.

Most of The Exorcist's power instead depended on the crucial role of the young girl, and this is why Linda Blair was nominated and probably deserved to be. But most of the young girl's power depended, as we know well now, on elements which didn't have much to do with acting talent.

There are too many problems with Tatum O'Neal's performance. It's true that - like many other child actors, and some adult actors too, but a bit TOO evident in this case - she owed alot to Bogdanovich himself and even more to his editor; the result was still undeniably good, but this, combined with the fact that hers is obviously a leading role, makes voting for her impossible today.

There IS a true, and very good, supporting performance in Paper Moon though, and it's not even a tiny role as some may think (unless they compare it with O'Neal of course). Madeleine Kahn's pulls it off with her usual comic skills, and in my opinion she's without a doubt the best of the four, and maybe of the five, too.



Edited By ITALIANO on 1281739144

[Big Magilla]

Magilla, I hate to start another dispute with you so soon, but are you serious in claiming there was no controversy around O'Neal's win? Not after the ceremony, perhaps, but that's because all the incredulity had been expressed on nomination day (or even earlier, when the ads started touting O'Neal in the incorrect category). The wide feeling at year's end had been that O'Neal might well win the lead Oscar. It was viewed as ridiculous, by everyone I knew or read, that she was nominated where she was. Which took some of the fun out of her winning, despite my thinking the performance was miraculously good. (And I'm with Sabin: it doesn't matter to me how much Bogdanovich had to do with it -- which, based on O'Neal's later uninteresting work, was probably alot).

I recall mild surprise at the category placement, not wholesale outrage which would have no doubt affected the win. There was more controversy over the Blair/McCambridge thing as I recall.

My own feeling when I first saw the film was that both O'Neals were strong possibliltes for lead nominations and both Madeline Kahn and CCH Pouinder (whom only Damien seems to remember) were both strong candidates for supporting actress. However by year's end I expected Cortese to win (I wasn't yet aware of the failure of the film to be held back from an L.A. release), with Sidney her strongest competition.

According to Inside Oscar, Paramount promoted O'Neal for lead, not support - but we were now in the era where nominators, not studios, made the decisions on acting category placement. The only one who seemed to be publicly outraged was the N.Y. Times' Vincent Canby who thought (correctly as it turned out) that the nominations of both O'Neal and Blair in this category hurt the chances of his favorite. He harrumphed "How can Sylvia Sidney compete with the souped-up electronics and editing that went into Miss Blair's performance and with the preconditioned responses that were elicited by Miss O'Neal's?"



Edited By Big Magilla on 1281728824

[Mister Tee]

I thought I was going to be the lonely voice advocating for Kate Reid, and I'm glad others are citing her. I'd also throw in Valerie Perrine in Last American Hero as someone who might have been considered.

There was obviously no way Linda Blair wouldn't get nominated for the cultural phenomenon The Exorcist turned into, but I don't think it's any more than a pleasant- enough acting performance with tons of effects grafted on.

I'm also pleased people are mentioning Mackenzie Phillips. I'd thought, going into nominations-time, that American Graffiti might come close to Last Picture Show's double-double in the supporting categories, with Phillips also here, and surely at least Paul Le Mat on the male side, with Charlie Martin Smith a possibility. But, then, I'd also thought Graffiti was a strong best picture possibility, and couldn't believe that the race came down to the two mediocre commercial efforts. At any rate, I'm glad Clark got nominated, but she wasn't quite enough to win.

I'm once again astounded to see the board going for the old gal in such numbers. I have long-term affection for Sylvia Sidney, but her Summer Wishes Winter Dreams part is quite brief, and the nomination is more than enough for her.

Then I confront the existential dilemma: do I vote for the actress I thought all year was going to win this prize, or the one who was ludicrously jammed into the category when she should have been a leading contender for lead actress? (Exactly the reverse of the incorrect decision the Academy made two years later, proving they were consistently wrong in their judgment)

Magilla, I hate to start another dispute with you so soon, but are you serious in claiming there was no controversy around O'Neal's win? Not after the ceremony, perhaps, but that's because all the incredulity had been expressed on nomination day (or even earlier, when the ads started touting O'Neal in the incorrect category). The wide feeling at year's end had been that O'Neal might well win the lead Oscar. It was viewed as ridiculous, by everyone I knew or read, that she was nominated where she was. Which took some of the fun out of her winning, despite my thinking the performance was miraculously good. (And I'm with Sabin: it doesn't matter to me how much Bogdanovich had to do with it -- which, based on O'Neal's later uninteresting work, was probably alot)

But, as I said, all year I'd thought Madeline Kahn would be the winner -- based on a thoroughly solid performance and one magnificent scene, plus sour grapes from those of us who'd thought she was snubbed a year earlier. And, since I'm supposed to be voting for the best supporting actress of the year, I'm going to throw my vote her way.

[Bruce_Lavigne]

I have a very strong bias against voting for leading roles in the supporting categories, even though O'Neal is miles ahead of the others this year. Moving her up to lead where she belongs and replacing her with Cries and Whispers' Kari Sylwan gives you my personal lineup, made up entirely of performances I think are perfectly good but am not in any way enthusiastic about.

Sidney gets my vote in what I consider a place-holder year for this category.



Edited By Bruce_Lavigne on 1281721552

[Eric]

I'm not abstaining in deference to not having seen the old broad playing the snappy, opinionated broad no doubt representing the anti-anti-establishmentarian brigade. Especially not given the performance was directed by Gil Cates. (In contrast, next year, I'll refrain from voting until I see Cortese.)

I've seen the other four, and that's good enough. I like Candy Clark alright, maybe not enough for the award (plus, Damien reminded me that I liked Mackenzie Phillips more). Linda Blair doesn't exactly spend the ENTIRE movie in putty and spanish peanuts, and indeed makes a solid adolescent impression in the early scenes with Ellen Burstyn, but once the effects take over, the show shifts to Burstyn and the generation-gap priests.

I am in full agreement that Tatum O'Neal is in the absolute wrong category here, but even strictly on the merits of her performance, I think she pales next to Kahn's hysterical, sweet-n-sour floozy. Among her two nominations, I'd definitely choose Trixie over Lily to "sit up front with her big tits."

Diane Cilento, The Wicker Man
Joan Hackett, The Last of Sheila
Glynis Johns, The Vault of Horror
Madeline Kahn, Paper Moon
Mackenzie Phillips, American Graffiti



Edited By Eric on 1281719318

[FilmFan720]

I too haven't seen Sidney, so I won't vote. The other four nominees all come from great American films, but Tatum O'Neal (even if in the wrong category) is heads and tails above the others.

[rudeboy]

I haven't seen Sidney's performance but cast another vote for the wonderful Tatum. It'd have been great if her dad had also managed a nod for his work here, what an entertaining team they made. Blair, Kahn and Clark all do good work in these roles.

[mlrg]

Tatum O'Neal - Paper Moon

(P.S. - I'm voting in these polls only in years where I've seen at least 4 nominated performances. Coincidently, this year I've seen all 5 of them)

[Precious Doll]

I voted for Sylvia Sidney who along with Tatum O'Neal gave the best performances of the nominated actresses.

As I go by date of release in country of origin Valentina Cortese is the clear best choice of the year. My selection this year are:

1. Valentina Cortese for Day for Night
2. Diane Cilento for The Wicker Man
3. Adriana Asti for A Brief Vacation
4. Joan Hackett for The Last of Sheila
5. Kate Reid for A Delicate Balance



Edited By Precious Doll on 1281688421