Best Supporting Actress 1977

[Sabin]

I was going to post that I abstain because I've only see one of the nominated performances, but it turns out I've seen three. That's how weak this lineup seems. I have little memory of Quinn Cummings but that's probably for the best. She must have the porniest name in Oscar nominee history. I rewatched Close Encounters a few years back and remember being very struck by Teri Garr wasn't nominated. Not because her performance is that good, but because it's very bait-y. Melinda Dillon is just fine.

Redgrave. I won't vote because I haven't at least seen four of the nominees, but it's clearly going to be Redgrave unless I'm just blown the fuck away by Tuesday Weld and Leslie Browne in movies that I'm probably never going to see.

Annie Hall beat Star Wars. Awesome.

[ITALIANO]

Ah, but that would have been impossible. IF it had happened, she wouldn't have been nominated or, more probably, nominated in place of Marsha Mason.

And the annoying child would have an Oscar...

[Big Magilla]

Italiano - the question isn't what would have happened if Julia hadn't been released in 1977, but what would have happened if Redgrave hadn't been considered in support?

[Big Magilla]

Big, just to set the record straight: Melinda Dillon did not win a Tony for Virginia Woolf. She was nominated for Featured Actress but lost -- interestingly -- to Sandy Dennis for A Thousand Clowns.

You're right. I should have double-checked that one.

[Mister Tee]

Not much to say here that others haven't said. An extremely weak field, with one shining light at the center.

I can't say I was that thrilled with the omitted alternatives, either. Pescow was as close to a decent choice as existed. I know Skala got some critical praise, but I thought she was hopelessly hammy.

Leslie Browne was the most disgraceful nominee. Godawful performance -- and her dancing wasn't nearly enough to offset it. (Baryshnikov's was, barely)

Yes, Quinn Cummings was annoying, as was the character -- Eve Arden in a 10-year-old body.

I like Melinda Dillon as an actress generally, but both her nominations are for un-taxing roles.

One thing the void of potential nominees did was allow the cult of Tuesday Weld to finally get its princess on the Oscar list. I liked Weld well enough, though not to the extent some of her rabid fans did. But nothing associated with Mr. Goodbar deserved to be honored.

At the time, it did seem startling that a major leading actress -- one with 3 lead nominations in the past decade or so -- would be cited in the supporting slot. (We've obviously got past that inhibition) But I never for a moment considered it fraudulent placement -- by role size, Redgrave is clearly supporting (though emotionally dominant). And she's wonderful -- in her earlier scenes, and especially for the magnificent late encounter with Fonda, whch may be the closest female equivalent the movies have to the Brando/Steiger taxi-cab scene. She's the automatic choice here...something with which, I'm glad to see, everyone, so far, agrees.

[mlrg]

Vanessa Redgrave - Julia

[ITALIANO]

There are a few things to say here. Comparing Diane Keaton's turn in Annie Hall to Vanessa Redgrave's one in Julia is absurd - one is clearly, absolutely a leading role, and one is as clearly and as absolutely a supporting one. Extremely well played, and emotionally powerful - but still supporting (Redgrave has less screen time than Quinn Cummings or Leslie Browne in their respective movies).

Redgrave won, and we don't even need a poll this time to know that the Academy made the right choice. Had she lost, it would have been for her personal political choices - something which happens, of course, and could have happened even here if the competition hadn't been so poor. I guess that even the toughest conservative couldn't have voted for any of the other nominees and then dared to look at his face in the mirror the morning after.

The fact that Redgrave's win is one of the most deserved ever in this category (and one of the most talked-about, for reasons that don't have anything to do with acting) shouldn't make us forget that objectively this is one of the worst Best Supporting Actress races in Oscar history. So bad that the most intriguing question isn't "did Redgreve deserve to win", but rather - had Julia been made in any other year, whom of the other four would the Academy have chosen? We'd have a rather embarassing winner, believe me.

In a way, the best of the four is probably Melinda Dillon - she doesn't have much to do, true, but she does it well and with a certain emotional honesty. Still, I'm not sure that she'd have been the Academy's alternative choice - for reasons that have to do with the movie itself more than with the actress.

I'm afraid that it could have been Quinn Cummings, for being this (irritatingly) precocious child saying the supposedly brilliant lines written by what was considered back then to be America's wittiest playwright - and for being in a big box-office hit. So thank God Julia came out in 1977.

The others didn't have a chance. Leslie Browne is completely non-expressive - truly one of the - not even worst, I'd say unjustifiable Suppprting Actress nominees ever.

As for Tuesday Weld... It's true that she was an interesting actress and had been in some extremely interesting movies, so nobody can complain that she got an Oscar nomination... But still, in that awful Mr Goodbar, not only she doesn't have a scene which is really hers - she doesn't even have a close-up. It's as if her scenes had been directed while Richard Brooks was out for a coffee break and some lazy assistant took his place (now that I think of it, unfortunately this can't be said of the rest of the movie): she comes running into a room, shouts some very obvious femininist cliches mixed with a few bad words, and then runs away - all in long shots. It's a terrible, terrible role, and one feels sorry for the otherwise talented actress who had to deal with it.



Edited By ITALIANO on 1282917938

[Precious Doll]

My choices:

1. Vanessa Redgrave for Julia
2. Tuesday Weld for Looking for Mr. Goodbar
3. Cloris Leachman for High Anxiety
4. Mink Stole for Desperate Living
5. Janice Rule for 3 Women

Also of note Susan Tyrell for Andy Warhol's Bad & Ann Wedgeworth for Citizen's Band.

[Damien]

Big, just to set the record straight: Melinda Dillon did not win a Tony for Virginia Woolf. She was nominated for Featured Actress but lost -- interestingly -- to Sandy Dennis for A Thousand Clowns.

[Reza]

In retrospect Browne, Cummings and Dillon are absurd choices as nominees but at the time the popularity of their films swept them along. Weld finally received a nod after years on screen. She is good but in a lousy film.......this nod was clearly in recognition of her career.

This was Redgrave's fourth nod without a win. Not only was she in an important and much talked about film, but she was also superb. Voted for her.

My top 5 of 1977:

Vanessa Redgrave, Julia
Irene Papas, Iphigenia
Jenny Agutter, Equus
Sissy Spacek, Three Women
Sally Kellerman, Welcome to L.A.



Edited By Reza on 1283018097

[Damien]

What a grim list.

Quinn Cummings is the zenith of arch, phony, insufferable child performers. One of the most unappealing movie kids ever. I heard that a few years after her Oscar nomination, she was working as a salesgirl in a hardware store on Santa Monica Boulevard.

Leslie Browne is simply insipid in The Turning Point -- a fact borne out by her subsequent lack of an acting career. A ridiculous nomination.

Melinda Dillon is okay in Close Encounters; she's actually better than the movie as a whole, but that's not saying much.

I love Tuesday Weld and I'm very happy she in the record books as an Oscar nominee. But even back then when she was nominated, I could scarcely recall her being in the pathetic Looking For Mr. Goodbar, even though I had just seen it a few months earlier.

I can see a case being made for Vanessa Redgrave both for lead and supporting. She doesn't have all that much screen time, but her presence imbues every moment of this beautiful movie, which would arguably place her in the lead category. But supporting it was, and it's laughable to think of voting for anyone else. To me Redgrave is the greatest actress of her generation (both in film and on stage), and she is quietly such a force of decency and strength and courage and love, that I'm in awe of her every time I watch Julia, which is Fred Zinnemann's crowning achievement. The contrast between Redgrave's serenity and Jane Fonda's tremulousness is

My Own Top 5:
1. Vanessa Redgrave in Julia
2. Sally Kellerman in Welcome To L.A.
3. Florence Giorgetti in The Lacemaker
4. Sissy Spacek in Welcome To L.A.
5. Alix Elias in Handle With Care (aka Citizens Band)



Edited By Damien on 1282925068

[The Original BJ]

I suspect this one will be a land slide.

Leslie Browne’s dancing is impressive in The Turning Point, but her acting is hopelessly wooden. No way.

I have a very low tolerance for overly precocious kids in movies, and I basically found Quinn Cummings insufferable.

Tuesday Weld is all right in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, but she doesn’t really have all that much to do. I kept waiting for her to have a moment that I thought was special or substantial, and it never truly came for me.

Melinda Dillon is the heart of a really popular movie -- you can see why she got nominated. I think she’s memorable in Close Encounters, but it’s definitely a case of an actor’s presence making a strong impact, not necessarily the performance. I don’t dislike anything she does, but I don’t think the role gives her much of an acting challenge.

Which, of course, leaves Vanessa Redgrave, who is miraculous. In the early scenes of Julia, Redgrave does a fantastic job of illuminating how Julia’s mysterious, intelligent persona held such sway over Lillian all those years. (What Redgrave accomplishes is even more notable given that the script sort of leaves this defining aspect of their relationship rather vague.) And then there’s that restaurant scene, a riveting, emotionally stirring duet between Redgrave and Fonda, memorable both for the words spoken and the feelings left unsaid. In any year, Redgrave would be a terrific choice. This year, I can’t even think about giving my vote to anyone else.

[Big Magilla]

1977 was the year it all changed.

Star Wars, though completely fresh, was also derivative of Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and other films/series of old. It was the beginning of the modern era in which filmmakers concentrate on making films for kids not only with films derivative of past works, but in sequels, remakes and now in 3-D.

Oscar campaigning also changed this year. Annie Hall, a film which opened to good reviews and modest box office was thought to have been all played out until Hollywood’s Z Channel began playing it incessantly during awards season. This was the precursor to the modern practice of studios sending tapes or DVDs of their major films to Academy members at year’s end.

Another, not so obvious trend also began in 1977 – that of marketing a film with a star whose picture appears prominently in ads and whose name is billed over the title and then campaigning that star for a supporting Oscar. It began innocently enough on December 19, 1977 when the National Board of Review named Diane Keaton as Best Supporting Actress for Annie Hall. Keaton had the title role, but it could be argued that Woody Allen was the sole star of the film – a specious argument perhaps, but one that had a certain logic to it as the film is really about Allen and how his life is affected by his relationship with Annie.

Later that same day, the Los Angeles Film Critics named Vanessa Redgrave as Best Supporting Actress for Julia in which she, too, had the title role as a French resistance fighter, though the film is really about author Lillian Hellman, played by Jane Fonda, and how she is affected by her relationship with Julia.

Two days later the New York Film Critics followed the trend by naming Sissy Spacek as Best Supporting Actress for 3 Women in which she and Shelley Duvall shared over the title billing as two of Robert Altman’s “women”.

The Globes and the Oscars refused to buy Keaton as a supporting player in Annie Hall, but endorsed the Redgrave designation and ignored Spacek altogether.

This was a reversal of the decade’s earlier trend in which supporting actresses Jane Alexander (The Great White Hope), Valerie Perrine (Lenny), Louise Fletcher (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) and Talia Shire (Rocky) were elevated to lead in Oscar races in weak years. This had been a year in which there were so many strong lead performances by actresses that Redgrave early on had been considered one of seven front-runners along with eventual nominees Anne Bancroft and Shirley MacLaine in The Turning Point, Diane Keaton (talked about for both Looking for Mr. Goodbar and Annie Hall), Marsha Mason in The Goodbye Girl ane Redgrave's co-star, Jane Fonda in Julia, as well as Sophia Loren in A Special Day.

Redgrave, by virtue of having the smallest part of the seven front-runners was the logical one to move to support, even though such a designation for a reigning star in a showcase role would have been unthinkable in past years. It was a smart move, though. Not only was Redgrave’s role now the largest and most important of the competition, she was far and away the best of the nominees. Only Tuesday Weld as Keaton’s sister in Goodbar offered her any real competition. Golden Globe nominees Ann-Margret (Joseph Andrews) and Joan Blondell (Opening Night) were ineligible for Oscar consideration as their films had one-night only showings in Los Angeles.

The remaining nominees were strictly from hunger. Quinn Cummings (The Goodbye Girl) was a much too precocious child actress, Leslie Browne (The Turning Point) may have been a decent dancer, but she wasn't much of an actress and Melinda Dillon (Close Encounters of the Third Kind) was a method actress with more tics than Sandy Dennis who won an Oscar for the role Dillon won a Tony for originating in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

It’s not that the year was without decent supporting performances. Lilia Skala was magnificent as the old lady who dances herself to death in Roseland and Martha Scott summed up a lifetime of fine performances as the acerbic director of the ballet company in The Turning Point. You want someone new? Look no further than Donna Pescow as the short and dumpy girl who “isn’t good enough” for John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever.

With those three in the race Redgrave might have had some real competition, but as it stands, no one else comes close. She wins my vote by a country mile.