Best Supporting Actor 1942

[ITALIANO]

I've voted for Van Heflin - both for his performance in this movie and for his solid, reliable, unnarcissistic presence in so many other movies.

It's never easy these years because one feels for these great character actors not only admiration - which is logical - but also a kind of affection: their familiar faces belong not only to another (better?) America, but almost to another (better?) world, and I'm not sure that, in seventy years, one will feel the same for, say, Christoph Waltz or John Hawkes. Still, it's true that none of the other four is at his personal best, not even Henry Travers, who was the least versatile of them, and played variations on this kind of role often during that decade.

[Big Magilla]

Two that should have been nominated over Heflin and Bendix: Tim Holt as spoiled brat George Minafer in The Magnificent AMbersons and Monty Woolley in his signature role in The Man Who Came to Dinner.

In what way is Monty Woolley anything but lead in The Man Who Came to Dinner? Billing be damned, it is nothing but the dead center of the film!

I would also argue that Tim Holt is a lead, but it has been a while since I revisited the film so I won't argue that one here.

The structure of the play is such that Wooley's character is the clear lead. The film is more of an ensemble piece, with expanded roles given to the characters played by Bette Davis and Ann Sheridan. If you add up his screen time I suspect you will find that he is on screen no more than Walter Brennan in The Westerner; Donald Crisp in How Green Was My Valley; Charles Coburn in The More the Merrier; James Dunn in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and probably less than Barry Firzgerald in Going My Way; Edmund Gwenn in Miracle on 34th Street and Walter Huston in Treasure of Sierra Madre, all of whom won supporting Oscars for those roles in this decade.

And, no, Tim Holt was not the lead in The Magnificent Ambersons.

[Damien]

Walter Huston was a great character actor who should have won Best Actor in 1936 for Dodsworth. But in Yankee Doodle Dandy he does very little, and his nomination has always puzzled me.

Frank Morgan was a great character actor who should have been nominated in this category in 1939 and '40 for The Wizard of Oz and The Shop Around The Corner, and should have won Best Actor when he was nominated for Affairs of Cellini in 1934. To Academy voters in 1942, his playing Mexican must have been seen as an example of his stretching his talent. Today, it's just an embarrassment, as is the sentimentality of his character.

William Bendix was a wonderful actor, especially when paired with or against Alan Ladd, and his Life of Reilly was a childhood favorite. I'm glad that he has an Oscar nomination, but Wake Island is really an ensemble piece and he doesn't stand out particularly.

That leaves two more great performers, one the quintessential beloved character actor, the other an unusually intelligent actor who became a leading man despite his character actor tendencies. I love the former, Henry Travers, and he should have been nominated in '45 and '46 for The Bells of St. Mary's and It's A Wonderful Life. Van Heflin is one of the more underrated actors of his era, his talent and charisma shone through his rather Everyman looks (come to think of it, John C. Reilly bares a resemblance to him) and he should have been a Best Actor contender in 1949 for either Madame Bovary or East Side, West Side. Travers is lovable and heart-breaking in Mrs. Miniver and his pride in his rose is just wonderful. (I am much fonder of Mrs. Miniver than most people today, but that MGM Anglophilia gets me almost every time. Heflin is pathetic and heartbreaking in Johnny Eager. I would have liked to see a tie between the two men, but because Heflin's boozy role was more obvious Oscar-bait than Travers's, I'm going with Henry Travers.

My Own Top 5:
1. Claude Rains in Kings Row (and Now, Voyager)
2. Charles Coburn in In This Our Life
3. Eugene Pallette in The Male Animal
4. Ward Bond in Gentleman Jim
5. Henry Travers in Mrs. Miniver

[Mister Tee]

I have to go along with FilmFan and say Monty Woolley in support would be category fraud at its most flagrant.

Of Walter Huston's four nominations, this is the only one not fully deserved. He's perfectly fine in Yankee Doodle Dandy, but not special like he is all the other times, and there's no reason to vote for him.

I find Tortilla Flat a pretty ridiculous movie, with everybody doing cheesy accents. I think the world of Frank Morgan, and acknowledge all the times he should have been nominated and wasn't. But voting for him in something silly like this is no way to make it up.

I have alot of affection for William Bendix, largely based on Life of Riley reruns in my childhood, but his comedy in Wake Island is of the belabored variety. Wake Island in general seems like a "you had to be there" case -- this nothing-burger won best director from the NY Critics? The film does have one minor distinction: at some point, a character makes the sign of the cross, and an observer utters the legendary line "I guess there are no atheists in foxholes".

Henry Travers is, as always, genuinely moving in his meek little way. Too bad he wasn't nominated for his now more famous Clarence the Angel a few years down the road. He's a worthy runner-up.

But Van Heflin in Johnny Eager stood out for me when I first saw the film decades back, and again when I saw it more recent times. He's got all the best lines in the film, and a wonderfully corrosive attitude that enlivens the melodrama considerably. It's also a pretty substantial role -- today, some around here would be arguing he's a co-lead -- and for me he's the quite obvious pick of the bunch.

[FilmFan720]

Two that should have been nominated over Heflin and Bendix: Tim Holt as spoiled brat George Minafer in The Magnificent AMbersons and Monty Woolley in his signature role in The Man Who Came to Dinner.

In what way is Monty Woolley anything but lead in The Man Who Came to Dinner? Billing be damned, it is nothing but the dead center of the film!

I would also argue that Tim Holt is a lead, but it has been a while since I revisited the film so I won't argue that one here.

[Big Magilla]

I'm not crazy about any these performances.

As many times as I've watched Johnny Eager I've never gotten thelove for Van Heflin's performance.

William Bendix is, along with Robert Preston, the comic releif in Wake Island, one of the first of the glut of WWII war films made during the war. Whatever special value it had at the time has long since been eroded by much better films. Bendix's brutal thug in the same year's early noir, The Glass Key was far more award worthy.

While it's true Henry Travers does a lovely job in Mrs. Miniver, and it's nice that he was nominated, the performance stops short of being truly award worthy.

James Cagney so dominated Yankee doodle Dandy that it's difficult for anyone else in the film to obtain notice, which is probably why Walter Huston insisted in an-screen death scene. It's the only scene in the film in which he truly stands out. Nomination worthy in a weak year, but not winner worthy.

That leaves Frank Morgan as my default winner. His dog lover in Tortilla Flat is the best thing about the film and the only chance we really have to reward one of the screen's great character actors.

Two that should have been nominated over Heflin and Bendix: Tim Holt as spoiled brat George Minafer in The Magnificent AMbersons and Monty Woolley in his signature role in The Man Who Came to Dinner.

[Reza]

I'm glad that William Bendix and Frank Morgan at least did get nominated even if the performances were nothing special. That's true of so many of the ''supporting actors'' during the early years with many never even making it to the list at all. I also love Henry Traver's charming ''little'' performance and glad he was mentioned. Huston played well opposite the bombastic Cagney in Yankee. Heflin is the standout amongst this list as the intense alcoholic friend of Johnny Eager.

Voted for Van Heflin

My picks for 1942:

Rudy Valee, The Palm Beach Story
Charles Coburn, In This Our Life
Van Heflin, Johnny Eager
Walter Huston, Yankee Doodle Dandy
Henry Travers, Mrs. Miniver

The 6th Spot: Ward Bond, Gentleman Jim

[ksrymy]

Only missing William Bendix so I'll vote unless everyone here talks about how great his performance is here in which case I will probably interlibrary loan it.

I really hate Yankee Doodle Dandy I really do. Huston was alright but nothing much. Another throwaway nomination in an attempt for him to win.

I really like Tortilla Flat. That being said, I like Steinbeck's novel not the film and, as we've mentioned in these polls so many times, this is far from Morgan's best work. Although I expect a few votes to be thrown toward him for his marvelous career.

So it's between Heflin and Travers for me. I very recently (not but fifteen minutes ago) finished watching Mrs. Miniver and could not help but notice how warm and lovely Henry Travers makes his Mr. Ballard. The first tender scene where he asks Garson if he may name the rose after her is just lovely, just lovely. The look he has when he is announced as the winner of the rose contest is absolutely heartwarming. The only problem is that Travers is far from stealing the show. He may be the most dull of the five Oscar-nominated cast members although May Whitty is his only competition there.

Heflin, on the other hand, should be singled out for being the outstanding member of the cast of Johnny Eager and I'm always glad to see and acting Oscar go to someone in a film noir.

Right now, I'm kind of stumped. I'll make another post tomorrow. I need to sleep on this.

The biggest snub here is Sig Ruman's bumbling Nazi in To Be or Not To Be which Charles Durning was nominated for in the Mel Brooks remake forty some years later. I also think Rudy Vallee's performance in The Palm Beach Story is nomination worthy as is Monty Woolley's performance in The Man Who Came to Dinner which is my winner for the year.