Best Actress 1935 - Vote for the Best Actress 1935

[Big Magilla]

She played leading roles into her late 80s so she must have been a good actress, but nothing in either of the two films I've seen her in, convinces me of this.

I only watched Escape Me Never once a long time ago and have no real recollection of Bergner's performance. She also played the lead in 1934's The Rise of Catherine the Great which I've seen more recently but can't remember her in either, although I certainly remember a miscast Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. as Peter and Flora Robson who acted circles around both of them as Elizabeth.

[ITALIANO]

Yes, the movie is prehistoric and the acting in it (including Bergner's) only slightly more modern, but she's very effective in that scene where she threatens to jump from the terrace of the Venetian palazzo - you can see that she had talent and even a certain charisma. And today a part of that scene would be certainly used as her "clip" when Best Actress is announced.

[Mister Tee]

The inspiration for the story of All About Eve may have been "The Wisdom of Eve" but Mankiewicz based Margo Channing on his wife, Rosa Stradner. Davis, though I still maintain was largely playing herself, maintained that her performance was based on Tallulah Bankhead. Claudette Colbert, who was originally cast, was said to be basing her intended performance on Ilka Chase. It's a role that's open to interpretation.

I have a pretty bad copy of Escape Me Never, was hoping the YouTube copy would be an improvement, but it's no better. It's a pretty lousy story anyway. The 1947 remake, which is easier on the eyes, is also pretty bad despite a cast headed by Ida Lupino, Errol Flynn and Eleanor Parker.

The story runs pretty downhill pretty fast, but I think Bergner is pretty mesmerizing in her first (extended) scene -- she earns her nomination for that sequence alone.

[Big Magilla]

The inspiration for the story of All About Eve may have been "The Wisdom of Eve" but Mankiewicz based Margo Channing on his wife, Rosa Stradner. Davis, though I still maintain was largely playing herself, maintained that her performance was based on Tallulah Bankhead. Claudette Colbert, who was originally cast, was said to be basing her intended performance on Ilka Chase. It's a role that's open to interpretation.

I have a pretty bad copy of Escape Me Never, was hoping the YouTube copy would be an improvement, but it's no better. It's a pretty lousy story anyway. The 1947 remake, which is easier on the eyes, is also pretty bad despite a cast headed by Ida Lupino, Errol Flynn and Eleanor Parker.

[ksrymy]

For those still missing Bergner's performance, the film is in nine parts here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0zbgPIkfYw

Also, Magilla, it's funny you talk about Bette Davis and All About Eve below - Elisabeth Bergner's experience with a megafan during the stage production of The Two Mrs. Carrolls was the inspiration for "The Wisdom of Eve" which, we know, was the source material for All About Eve.

[ksrymy]

For those still missing Bergner's performance, the film is in nine parts here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0zbgPIkfYw

[jowy_jillia]

My Choices:
Edna Best - The Man Who Knew Too Much
Madeleine Carroll - The 39 Steps
Greta Garbo - Anna Karenina
Katharine Hepburn - Alice Adams
Margaret Sullavan - The Good Fairy

[Damien]

I voted for Claudette Colbert.

[Big Magilla]

Blame the source material. The Leslie Howard-Bette Davis version of Of Human Bondage is the best of the three film versions of Maugham's stilted novel. Have you ever tried watching the Paul Henreid-Eleanor Parker or Laurence Harvey-Kim Novak versions?

Nevertheless Davis was not my choice in either 1934 or 1935. Myrna Loy, as I've said many times, was my choice in 1934, and when the Academy changed its records to list Davis as an"official" nominee for 1934 even though she wasn't, I was taken aback that they didn't also include Loy who was also a major write-in candidate for The Thin Man that year.

While I think Davis was good enough for a nomination in 1934 and marginally so in 1935, I don't think she gave a really great performance until Jezebel. She topped that repeatedly over the next four years with Dark Victory, The Old Maid, The Letter, The Little Foxes and Now, Voyager and gave her greatest performance pretty much playing herself in All About Eve. Her "nicest" performance was as the old lady in the TV mini-series, Family Reunion.



Edited By Big Magilla on 1246988334

[Mister Tee]

but it was the year they were bound and determined to give Davis a make-up Oscar for not having won for Of Human Bondage. Not a bad performance, but Dangerous was not a very good movie.

Do you think Of Human Bondage IS a good movie? Honestly, I find both it and Dangerous fairly laughably melodramatic, but in each case redeemed by the lightning early Davis brought to the screen (same as Hepburn in Morning Glory -- a dumb movie, but you can imagine how electrified people must have been by someone as never-seen-anything-like-that-before as Hepburn was).

I'd guess the major advantage Bondage has in history is its status as the first, breakout performance of Davis' career (and maybe its genesis as a Maugham novel), but I don't honestly see much difference between Davis winning for it or Dangerous. Better, of course, she should have won for Now Voyager or All About Eve or The Letter.

As for 1935 overall, it's one of my most-deficient years -- I'm missing Colbert and Bergner -- but I think Hepburn is the easy choice of the remainder.

[Big Magilla]

I voted for Claudette Colbert as the naive shrink in Private Worlds. I voted for Colbert in 1934 only because my first choice, Myrna Loy in The Thin Man was not among the nominees.

This is my favorite Colbert performance and it's a shame so few people have seen it.

Hepburn is great, of course, in Alice Adams, but why was Garbo not nominated for Anna Karenina over Hopkins, Oberon, Bergner and even Davis? Hopkins is shrill in Becky Sharp, Oberon seems to be channeling Diana Wynard's stiffness in The Dark Angel and although I've never seen Bergner's version of Escape Me Never the material is not that great and Bergner, who I have seen in Catherine the Great, doesn't impress me.

Also worth considering in 1935 were Madeleine Carroll in The 39 Steps, Margaret Sullavan in The Good Fairy, Irene Dunne in Roberta and Ginger Rogers in Top Hat, but it was the year they were bound and determined to give Davis a make-up Oscar for not having won for Of Human Bondage. Not a bad performance, but Dangerous was not a very good movie.

[jowy_jillia]

For me this is a two-woman race between Davis and Hepburn. But I'm choosing Hepburn for the win.

Results:
1934
1. Claudette Colbert - It Happened One Night - 4 votes
2. Bette Davis - Of Human Bondage - 1 vote

1932/33
1. Katharine Hepburn - Morning Glory - 3 votes
2. May Robson - Lady for a Day - 2 votes

1931/32
1. Marie Dressler - Emma - 4 votes

1930/31
1. Marlene Dietrich - Morocco - 5 votes
2. Marie Dressler - Min and Bill - 1 vote
2. Norma Shearer - A Free Soul - 1 vote

1929/30
1. Greta Garbo - Anna Christie - 2 votes
2. Greta Garbo - Romance - 1 vote
2. Norma Shearer - The Divorcee - 1 vote

1928/29
1. Ruth Chatterton - Madame X - 4 votes
2. Jeanne Eagels - The Letter - 1 vote

1927/28
1. Janet Gaynor - Sunrise - 4 votes
2. Janet Gaynor - Seventh Heaven - 3 votes
3. Janet Gaynor - Street Angel - 1 vote

Most Wins:

Most Runner-Ups
Norma Shearer - 2