Best Actress 1953 - Vote for the Best Actress 1953

[bizarre]

Ava Gardner is earthy, sensuous, wonderful and entirely real in this rather bloated and poor film - especially impressive considering Ford traded in synthetic constructs, especially when his female characters were concerned.

Audrey Hepburn was sweet and charismatic in Roman Holiday, but the pic and the performance are froth.

Deborah Kerr's best performances are still just matters of her fighting past her clear limits as an actress. Here, her brittleness and discomfort with the camera best her, and Zinnemann's bipolar direction doesn't help things out for her. The role is window dressing, too.

I haven't seen Caron or McNamara.

My picks for this year:

1. Yūko Mochizuki, A Japanese Tragedy
2. Jean Peters, Niagara
3. Ava Gardner, Mogambo
4. Setsuko Hara, Tokyo Story
5. Maria Schell, The Heart of the Matter

[Greg]

I think she was nominated for using the word ''virgin''......which was a first in a Hollywood film.

I take it, that in 1953, when people sang Christmas Carols, no one sang "Silent Night."



Edited By Greg on 1289490897

[Big Magilla]

Yes, Jean Simmons' omission is the saddest thing about this year's many omissions - Pickup on South Street, The Naked Spur and The Big Heat were all better films than Stalag 17, Julius Caesar and The Robe in my estimation, but of course they were "little" films, not the kind Oscar voters generally went for.

I think Jean Simmons was the victim of vote splitting amongst her three popular films, Young Bess, The Robe and The Actress. She won the National Board of Review for all three.

[Damien]

I agree with Big and Reza that voters nominated her because they were impressed by an ingenue talking about sex.

What's all the more galling about her nomination for this, um, not-very-impressive performance is that she likely knocked out Jean Simmons, who had a great year.

[Big Magilla]

Or, as I said in my original post:

The Moon Is Blue is a smirky, leering comedy that was successful at the time because people were titillated by hearing the young ingenue use words like "virgin", "pregnant" and "mistress". If you haven't seen The Moon Is Blue but have seen Three Coins in the Fountain you should have a fairly good sense of McNamara's limited range.

[Reza]

So, I just watched The Moon Is Blue (which has been sitting on my DVR for a couple of months now), and am a little flabbergasted by McNamara's nomination. The film itself is pretty uninteresting, but McNamara is horrible in the film. The role itself must list as one of the most annoying protagonists in Hollywood history, and McNamara does nothing to improve upon the weak script. She is an unappealing presence in a wreck of the film. Why was she nominated for this?

I think she was nominated for using the word ''virgin''......which was a first in a Hollywood film.

[FilmFan720]

So, I just watched The Moon Is Blue (which has been sitting on my DVR for a couple of months now), and am a little flabbergasted by McNamara's nomination. The film itself is pretty uninteresting, but McNamara is horrible in the film. The role itself must list as one of the most annoying protagonists in Hollywood history, and McNamara does nothing to improve upon the weak script. She is an unappealing presence in a wreck of the film. Why was she nominated for this?

[jowy_jillia]

My Choices:
Harriet Andersson - Sommaren med Monika
Danielle Darrieux - The Earrings of Madame De...
Joan Fontaine - The Bigamist
Deborah Kerr - From Here to Eternity
Jean Simmons - Young Bess

This isn't according to the Oscars eligible rules, but my own Best Actress Award for 1953



Edited By jowy_jillia on 1252795265

[ITALIANO]

Audrey Hepburn, the wonderful young Audrey Hepburn, in the movie that made her a star, is the only possible winner here.

And then of course one can praise Ava Gardner, in her only, richly deserved nomination, or Deborah Kerr,whose performance is more affecting than unfocused, or Leslie Caron or even poor Maggia McNamara, though her movie is really unwatchable by today's standards, but one con only choose Audrey as the best of the year.

[Damien]

Tough year to decide, because there are two great performances in competition.

Haven't seen Maggie McNamara, but there's nothing about the reputation of her performance to suggest she should be a factor.

Deborah Kerr is bland in From Here To Eternity. She's not bad, but she barely registers, and she never convinces you that she's hot to trot. If Zinnemann really wanted to cast a "lady" against type, he should have cast Grace Kelly who was like this character, Karen, in real life. Underneath her cool, refined exterior, she was the biggest slut of all time.

No one is second to me in love and admiration for Audrey Hepburn -- in the 1980s, I named my cat after her -- but how sad that her one Oscar came for this joyless "romance." Such a dour bore as William Wyler should never have been permitted anywhere near this material.

Leslie Caron is simply wonderful in Lili, and what a difficult role! Lili is a character that could easily have been bathetic or saccharine – she had to straddle a fine line between naïf and blossoming woman and she handled both aspects of the character beautifully. There's not a false note in the performance and she's not afraid to evince some irritating characteristics.

In Mogambo, Ava Gardner took a rather cliched role -- loose woman who actually possesses a deep moral compass (aka a heart of gold), and just about every dance hall girl in every western possessed the same attributes (as did many dames in film noir). But Gardner -- and I'm not sure how she brought this off -- brings such humor, self-awareness and liveliness to the role, that she seems like a completely original creation. I also love how she subtly indicates a an innate intelligence indicating that while she knows she has smarts, she also is cognizant of what her place in society is, and is comfortable with the hand she's been dealt. She is an understated force of nature and she is someone to cherish.

Both Caron and Gardner are Oscar-worthy in quite different roles, and I love them both. Ultimately, I'd go with Ava for her achievement of creating something new and fresh from old cloth.

And Jean Simmons -- arguably the most consistently outstanding actress of the early-mid 50s -- should have been nominated for Young Bess.



Edited By Damien on 1249692855

[Okri]

Kerr gets my vote. I see nothing special about Roman Holiday, a surprisingly leaden romantic comedy (Peck and Hepburn are watchable). Caron would probably be my runner-up.

And I'll echo dws - Danielle Darrieux's (ineligible) performance is light years ahead of everyone else. I also really like Gloria Grahame in The Big Heat, though she might be supporting.

[Mister Tee]

I think miscasting -- or, as I'd label it, off-casting -- is what makes From Here to Eternity something special. Recently I had the movie on and only half-listened to Montgomery Clift's dialogue, and realized it was dialogue far more appropriate to someone tougher (like the early-suggested Aldo Ray) rather than Clift with his ethereal style. But this movie without Clift's Prewitt is unthinkable, a far lesser film.

I feel the same about Kerr. Yeah, some more obviously bad-streak actress would have been an easier fit, but I think Kerr's icy veneer breaking down has far more resonance -- you can believe both lust and love are operative in her affair with Lancaster.

She gets my vote, but I do think Hepburn is a more than respectable choice -- I imagine she seemed even more impressive when appeared as a new face.

The others are fine, but not in the running for me.

[dws1982]

I'm with Sonic Youth, who said that he found Kerr to be very miscast in From Here to Eternity, and I don't think she overcomes the miscasting. Joan Fontaine was offered the role supposedly, and she might have been much better. Not big on Roman Holiday, although Hepburn is pretty good. Mogambo is one of the few late-era Ford's I haven't seen. I've been trying to watch all of his available films in chronological order over the last few months, but I got bogged down and haven't gotten out of the silent era yet. The other two I've never even come across on video or on TV, although I think The Moon is Blue is part of the Warner Archive series now.

I can't cast a vote. From 1953 films, Oscar eligible or not, my favorite Lead Actress is Danielle Darrieux in The Earrings of Madame de...

[Reza]

The Moon Is Blue is a smirky, leering comedy that was successful at the time because people were titillated by hearing the young ingenue use words like "virgin", "pregnant" and "mistress". If you haven't seen The Moon Is Blue but have seen Three Coins in the Fountain you should have a fairly good sense of McNamara's limited range.

Which basically means that the Academy nominated McNamara because she had the 'guts' to say 'pregnant', 'virgin' and 'mistress' on the big screen.

[Big Magilla]

I voted for Audrey, though it was a tough choice between her and Deborah Kerr. Leslie Caron and Ava Gardner were also quite good, but I wish they had nominated Jean Simmons in Young Bess or The Actress instead of Maggie McNamara in The Moon Is Blue, which is now commercially available in Region 1 through the Warner Archive and in Region 2 (the UK I believe).

The Moon Is Blue is a smirky, leering comedy that was successful at the time because people were titillated by hearing the young ingenue use words like "virgin", "pregnant" and "mistress". If you haven't seen The Moon Is Blue but have seen Three Coins in the Fountain you should have a fairly good sense of McNamara's limited range.