1936-1947 Best Supporting Actress Winners

[Mister Tee]

This is a way more impressive group than the lead slates we were looking at last week -- though, to be fair, the two winners from those years (Sondergaard/Brady) are the least impressive of the bunch, so it may just be the 40s winners are better all around.

Sondergaard is by far the worst of these -- a shallow villainness who doesn't even have that much screen-time.

Brady is okay in the Academy-beloved "devoted mother" role, but her My Man Godfrey performance a year earlier was exponentially better.

Anne Revere also fills that loving-mom niche. It's solid work, but not top-tier. Fay Bainter, who, for variety, plays an aunt, ranks maybe a bit higher.

I've always looked at Teresa Wright's win as being largely reward for the dual nomination -- but a recent look tells me I was wrong: she makes an impression. Not enough to win this competition, but worthy of respect.

From here on, I think all the winners are impressive enough I could have voted their way.

Voting for Katina Paxinou may have been a way for many Academy voters to express their sympathy for the outcome of the Spanish Civil War. She gets by largely on presence, but that's what the role calls for.

Don't know what's wrong with most of you; I love Celeste Holm in Gentleman's Agreement. Her barbs are the life of the party, and keep the movie from tipping over into sanctimony.

It's long been a contention among film folk that Mary Astor clearly should have won for the same year's The Maltese Falcon. The Falcon is of course by leagues the better film, but I don't know that Astor's performance in The Great Lie isn't more formidable -- she really takes command in that film.

Anne Baxter has what we'd now call an Oscar bait role, and she rides it extremely well.

It's hard to know what to say about Hattie McDaniel that hasn't been covered somewhere over the decades. It's certainly the most dimensional role a black actress got in the era, and she's an indelible presence. I can see why some of you would vote for her.

Jane Darwell is among the best of the Devoted Mothers and, again, I can't argue voting for her.

But since so many of you are ignoring or even knocking her, I'm voting for Ethel Barrymore. She gives a powerful, full-bodied performance. Her line reading on "Disgraced you, son" alone is worth the prize -- it's stuck with me since I first saw the movie over 50 years ago.

[Big Magilla]

Voted for Darwell whose heartbreaking performance in The Grapes of Wrath is my all-time favorite winner in this category.

McDaniel is a close second for me, although her Mammy in Gone with the Wind is my second favorite supporting actress performance of 1939 following Margaret Hamilton's immortal wicked witch of the west in The Wizard of Oz whose "I'm melting" will reverberate throughout time.

I do like Barrymore whose performance in None but the Lonely Heart is a masterclass in acting, in which her real tears shamed the director who wanted her to use glycerine like everyone else in film, and Baxter whose over-the-top performance as the dipsomaniac in The Razor's Edge still haunts.

Bainter and Wright were excellent, but not quite as excellent as their principal competition, Beulah Bondi as the Civil War mother in Of Human Hearts and Agnes Moorehead as Aunt Fanny in The Magnificent Ambersons.

Astor took the award that should have gone to Sara Allgood as the matriarch of the coalmining family in How Green Was My Valley and Paxinou took the award that should have gone to either Gladys Cooper as the doubting nun in The Song of Bernadette or the non-nominated Una O'Connor as the mother who unwittingly leads the Nazis to her son (Charles Laughton) in This Land Is Mine.

Revere's performance was routine, and Holm's was brave but extremely overrated.

[Reza]

Hattie gets my vote. Followed by Jane Darwell, Mary Astor, Anne Baxter and Katina Paxinou's hammy turn.

The rest are all forgettable.

[OscarGuy]

Thanks to my site's collective attempt to watch all the winners, we actually managed to hit all of the supporting winners. I will be honest, most of these performances are utterly forgettable. The only ones of this grouping I would even consider are Teresa Wright, Hattie McDaniel, and Jane Darwell. It's ultimately between McDaniel and Darwell. I give the slight edge to McDaniel who stood her own against Vivien Leigh and managed to carve out a role and performance that wasn't as heavily steeped in racist stereotypes as others in that period, or even that film.

[Big Magilla]

Inasmuch as awards for supporting players weren't given until 1936, the two winners from Oscar's first decade are included with all ten from Oscar's second.

Gale Sonderggard was a bit of an odd choice for the first Oscar in this category. Her nasty villainous in Anthony Adverse wasn't nearly as interesting as Blanche Yurka's pure evil Madame De Farge in A Tale of Two Cities, which oddly wasn't even nominated.

Alice Brady, once the highest paid actress in silent films, was a popular choice for Mrs. O'Leary whose cow stated the Chicago fire in In Old Chicago but in retrospect its her comedic performances in The Gay Divorcée and My Man Godfrey that we remember more fondly.

Fay Bainter was the first performer to be nominated in both lead and supporting categories in the same year, giving her the edge in the 1938 battle of the B's between her, Beulah Bondi, Billie Burke, and Spring Byington.

Hattie McDaniel and Jane Darwell had the roles of their careers in Gone with the Wind and The Grapes of Wrath, respectively.

Mary Astor was a standout in almost all her films, any one of which she could have won for, including the same year's The Maltese Falcon.

Teresa Wright received her second and third nominations the year after she received her first, giving her an edge over some very strong competition.

Katina Paxinou was a legend of the Greek Theater whose backstory may have helped her win in the midst of World War II.

Ethel Barrymore was forced to give up the theater after a bout with pneumonia, instantly becoming as beloved an on-screen presence as she was on the stage.

Anne Revere was a surprise winner over her younger competition for what was a typical sturdy performance for her.

Anne Baxter acted her heart out in The Razor's Edge and was justly rewarded for doing so.

Celeste Holm won for her fresh look but not her best performance.

So, have at it.