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Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 2:18 am
by Precious Doll
My best of the year, Shelley Winters in Lolita, wasn't nominated so it's a toss up between two equally satisfying performances by Mary Badham & Angela Lansbury. I've opted for Mary Badham who gives one of the greatest performances from a child ever and an all-time favorite film of mine.
Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 1:29 am
by Reza
Big Magilla wrote:Nobody, however, tops Lansbury for the win. It was one thing for her to play 33 year-old Harvey's mother at 36, but it was quite another when co-star Frank Sinatra, 10 years her senior, asked her to play his mother in Come Blow Your Horn. It was all the impetus she needed to move her career in a different direction. No further Oscar nominations but with 3 subsequent Golden Globes, 5 subsequent Tonys, and 18 subsequent Emmy nominations, who needs Oscar?
She does need an Oscar.....an Honorary one, before it is too late.
Yes Lansbury deserved to win against the competition here and you may be right that Lansbury and Ritter may have cancelled each other out giving the eventual win to Patty Duke.
My top 5:
Angela Lansbury, The Manchurian Candidate
Patty Duke, The Miracle Worker
Mary Badham, To Kill a Mockingbird
Shirley Knight, Sweet Bird of Youth
Shelley Winters, Lolita
Edited By Reza on 1278473942
Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 11:50 pm
by Big Magilla
Angela Lansbury won both the National Board of Review Award and as the Golden Globe as the year's Best Supporting Actress for her mesmerizing portrayal of Laurence Harvey's mother from Hell in The Manchurian Candidate, only the second time the two existing precursors to give such awards had agreed on the category. When it happened two years earlier, their mutual choice, Shirley Jones, won the Oscar. It looked like clear sailing for the legendary character actress.
Then the Oscars threw a monkey wrench into the works by nominating another long time non-winner, Thelma Ritter for her portrayal of Burt Lancaster's overbearing mother in Birdman of Alcatraz. Never mind that the two performances were as different as night and day, both were overdue. What was the average voter to do? Go in a completely different direction, of course, and give the award to teenage Patty Duke in her breakthrough role as Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker.
Duke was splendid , as was non-professional child actress Mary Badham, nominated for To Kill a Mockingbird.
The fifth nominee was Shirley Knight, still playing ingenues, this time opposite Paul Newman in Sweet Bird of Youth. How anyone even noticed her with the pyrotechnics displayed by Geraldine Page and Ed Begley through the film is a mystery to me. Even Mildred Dunnock in a bit role as Knight's aunt gave a more memorable performance.
My choices in place Ritter and Knight were Lilli Palmer as the German aristocrat who risks her life to help Swedish spy William Holden in The Counterfeit Traitor and Jessica Tandy, chilling as Richard Beymer's harsh, cold mother in in Adventures of a young Man.
Nobody, however, tops Lansbury for the win. It was one thing for her to play 33 year-old Harvey's mother at 36, but it was quite another when co-star Frank Sinatra, 10 years her senior, asked her to play his mother in Come Blow Your Horn. It was all the impetus she needed to move her career in a different direction. No further Oscar nominations but with 3 subsequent Golden Globes, 5 subsequent Tonys, and 18 subsequent Emmy nominations, who needs Oscar?
Edited By Big Magilla on 1279237524