Presenting the Supporting Actress Class of '84. The Academy looked way back in time for this vintage collecting characters from the 1920s through the 1940s: a British senior on an excursion to see "the real" India, a Depression era beautician, the ex-girl of a ballplayer, and a former singer working in a factory during World War II. The sole contemporary character was a chain-smoking furious mother from Greenwich Village...
Glenn Close and Geraldine Page were the regulars... about to lose again!
1984
SUPPORTING ACTRESS SMACKDOWN
THE NOMINEES: The 1984 Supporting Actress list skewed more mature than usual. Lindsay Crouse, surely buoyed by the love for Best Picture player Places in the Heart, and the promising new star Christine Lahti who was the least familiar face to moviegoers at the time, were the youngest, both in their mid 30s. Glenn Close, on her third consecutive nomination in the category, and Geraldine Page with a surprise seventh nomination from a long and revered acting career, were the "names" of the category... and they were both about to lose again - this time to the stage actress Dame Peggy Ashcroft who had only rarely made films.
Shut-Outs: There was very little consensus about supporting actresses beyond Ashcroft & Lahti who fought it out for the critics awards...
BAFTA & Globe nominees that failed to make the Oscar cut were many: Melanie Griffith (Body Double), Drew Barrymore (Irreconciliable Differences), Kim Basinger (The Natural), Lesley Ann Warren (The Songwriter), Tuesday Weld (Once Upon a Time in America) and Jaqueline Bissett (Under the Volcano); Other key women that voters could have chosen that year: Sigourney Weaver (Ghostbusters), Elizabeth Berridge (Amadeus), Polly Holliday (Gremlins), Sabine Azéma (who won the NBR for A Sunday in the Country), Holland Taylor (Romancing the Stone), Sharon Stone (Irreconciliable Differences), Dianne Wiest (Falling in Love), Amy Madigan (Places in the Heart) and Lonette McKee (The Cotton Club)
Here to talk about the nominees are our panelists: Sheila O'Malley (The Sheila Variations), Noah Tsika (Assistant Professor of Media Studies at Queens College, CUNY and author of "Nollywood Stars"), Joe Reid (Decider.com), Nick Davis (Associate Professor of English and Gender & Sexuality Studies at Northwestern and author of "The Desiring Image") and your host Nathaniel R (The Film Experience).
And now it's time for the main event...
1984
DAME PEGGY ASHCROFT as "Mrs Moore" in A Passage to India
Synopsis: A woman takes her future daughter-in-law on an excursion to India where they have "adventures" with locals that soon sour in the heat and segregated culture
Stats: Then 77 yrs old, her 12th film (she only made 1-3 a decade). Her first and only nomination though she had been a regular BAFTA nominee (48 minutes of screen time or 29% of running time).
Trivia Noteworthy: She is the last Supporting Actress winner to not appear at her winning ceremony and the oldest woman to ever win this category
Nick Davis: This story yields multiple opportunities for complex characterization, but only Ashcroft fully manages one. This is all the more remarkable given her tendency to underplay, conjuring Mrs. Moore with an impeccable economy of gesture and expression as a concrete personality of tangled sympathies, curiosities, and myopias. Like Vanessa Redgrave in Howards End, she projects a kind of soulful ineffability that was vital to Forster, without stooping to romantic abstraction. You see why Dr. Aziz sees her as a spirit, but she’s very much there. ♥♥♥♥♥
Sheila O'Malley: Ashcroft here is childlike and transparent (without being condescending about it), but also intelligent and complex. It's not until her final scene on the ship deck that you realize what her character's journey over the film has really been all this time: death approaches, and she has felt it coming. ♥♥♥♥
Noah Tsika: As the culturally sensitive, semi-mystical Mrs. Moore, Ashcroft isn’t playing a character as much as she’s playing a Christian principle. Huffily communicating Mrs. Moore’s confidence in navigating a range of “exotic” arenas, she embodies E. M. Forster’s self-congratulatory ideas about how to be a “good” Englishwoman abroad. I like the way Ashcroft plays Mrs. Moore’s discomfort at being saluted, and the character’s sheer disgust at her son’s conspiratorial smile after he passes sentence on an Indian man, but her lines are consistently appalling (“What a terrible river, what a wonderful river!”), and her rather predictable Old Vic intonations can’t save them. ♥♥
Joe Reid: Ashcroft brings her considerable presence to the character of Mrs. Moore, and it's through her that the film really opens up to India. Still, I was never quite as captivated as the film wanted me to be; I'm not quite chanting "Mrs. Moore!" out in the streets. ♥♥♥
Nathaniel R: In a film where most of the charactizations are muddled, Ashcroft plays to the muddle, acknowledging every time that Mrs Moore knows it for what it is even if "it" is an unknowable stew of culture clashes, racism, sexual repression, and class warfare. Her onscreen son accuses her of sentimental socialism but to Ashcroft's credit she doesn't play into that cheap dismissal or to the sentiment but to an innate moral compass. All that said her elder stateswoman gravitas, the plot mechanics (with Indians chanting her name), and the beautiful way she's shot to often appear like a mystical visiting spirit (see also: Glenn Close) are doing a lot of the pedestal building for this celebrated role. ♥♥♥
Reader Write-Ins: "Refreshing to see such a three-dimensional older lady in a prestige pic not be stuffy or frivolous to the plot. Her connection to Banjeree is the core of the film, and she/they sell it beautifully." Sean. (Reader average: ♥♥♥♥)
Actress earns 21 ❤s
GLENN CLOSE as "Iris Gaines" in The Natural
Synopsis: A woman reconnects with her high school sweetheart who has become a famous ballplayer. She's been keeping a big secret from him.
Stats: Then 37 yrs old. Fourth film. Her third consecutive nomination in first three years onscreen (21 minutes of screen time or 15% of running time).
Nick Davis: Close, like Ashcroft, has to project a floaty idealization as well as a grounded person, and also manages this balance better than their film does, waffling as it does between period realism and luminescent mythography. Close’s subtle character decisions sometimes feel preempted by Levinson’s archetypal storytelling and Deschanel’s haloes of light, but I admired the quiet yearning, secret-keeping, and somewhat mystified curiosity she brought to her interactions with Redford, insisting on playing scenes and opening up questions, rather than just luxuriating in nostalgic escapism. ♥♥♥
Sheila O'Malley: Close's nomination is baffling to me and it was baffling to Close, too (judging from a comment she made when she spoke at my grad school: she said she thought the nomination was because of how she was lit). She has a point. The character is basically a walking candle-flame. She underplays it all, including the character's martyrdom, but there's only so much underplaying you can do when there is a klieg light pointed your way. ♥
Noah Tsika: At first, Close has to suffer the indignity of playing a character much younger than her years, girlishly twirling in a field. I like her reading of the line “I don’t get lonely”—she makes it boldly flirtatious. And I like the way she glares at Robert Duvall as the latter laughs like a cocky jock. But this is a dull character in a dreadful film, and Close is badly miscast. The sight of her bathed in a heavenly light is perhaps the epitome of camp, by any definition of the term—both because she’s Glenn Close (thankfully, her star image has never been remotely angelic) and because of the ridiculous symbolism. ♥
Joe Reid: I was ready to skewer this nomination as nothing more than Best Standing in a Crowd, but while luminous Iris standing amid the baseball fans is her character's signature moment, Close follows that up with a few scenes where she provides the film with the anchor of decency it needs from her. In the end, it's not much of a task. ♥♥
Nathaniel R: You know what's even crazier than a magical baseball bat crafted from a tree struck by lightning? This nomination. Glenn, miscast, pops up on occassion, lit like a heavenly visitor to stare at her former sweetheart. Then she vanishes, always hiding her character's extremely obvious secret. Presumably in the same places she’s kept any insights into this poorly written character. If they had to go with this effortful dull baseball drama, Kim Basinger was rightthere doing sad sold-soul work with a legible character ♥
Reader Write-Ins: "I mean, what a dog of a role. But Close does marvels with it when she can. The diner scene in particular is a great example of an actress ploughing through a slab of pulseless dialogue and still managing to invest it with life." - Goran. (Reader average: ♥♥⅓)
Actress earns 10⅓ ❤s
LINDSAY CROUSE as "Margaret Lomax" in Places in the Heart
Synopsis: A beautician realizes her husband is having an affair while trying to support her widowed sister's struggles.
Stats: Then 36 yrs old, her 8th film. First and only nomination (21 minutes of screen time or 19% of running time).
Trivia Noteworthy: She is the mother of current star Zosia Mamet (of Girls fame)
Nick Davis: I wish Crouse’s sharp-edged, cerebral qualities had found more outlets in Hollywood. Her imposing but never overbearing braininess can elevate whole movies in only a few scenes—witness The Verdict or The Insider. Places in the Heart needs more of what Crouse supplies, and I admire her casting, but the film disserves her storyline. She’s stuck playing familiar beats that culminate in a predictable recognition; I’d have loved to watch her respond to her epiphany for a while, rather than just build to it. ♥♥
Sheila O'Malley: Lindsay Crouse brings a simple kind of truth to whatever she does. Her character here is unexpectedly complex: funny, sexy, tough. Her sub-plot, though, is the least engrossing part of the film, and I could live without the image of Ed Harris shoving chocolate cake down her throat with his tongue. It's a lovely performance but without the "oomph" in the role itself that usually gets Oscar attention. ♥♥♥
Noah Tsika: I adore Crouse’s accent work here, not least of all because she sounds (to me) like Reba McEntire, making a mockery of Sally Field’s labored drawl. She’s beautifully restrained when Margaret first notices the erotic current that connects her husband to his mistress; she doesn’t overplay the shock of recognition, making her subsequent slap that much more powerful. Margaret maintains her hard-won dignity, more than substantiating her own claim that she’s “not the same dumb beauty operator” that her husband once knew (though it’s impossible to imagine that Margaret, as played by the indomitable Crouse, was ever “dumb”). ♥♥♥♥
Joe Reid: Plucking a supporting nominee from the extremely subplotty Madigan/Harris/Crouse parts of "Places in the Heart" feels like a lot of work for little reward. Crouse imbues the spurned wife stereotype with some heartland grit, but her big slapping scene never rises above its predictability. ♥♥
Nathaniel R: Sometimese as drab as the colorless sheaths they called dresses in Depression era rural Texas, but Crouse makes a couple of smart choices with this ordinary woman. She's good at minor shifts in temperature, a beat warmer for her sister (while still not demonstratively "cozy"), ice cold with her husband in her big scene (sans the theatricality you’d expect). The character is underwritten and she's too understated but I appreciated her specificity in a film where most are content to hit "stock character" marks. ♥♥
Reader Write-Ins: "Her whole subplot adds so little to the main narrative I question why it was even included. Be that as it may she’s displays rock solid strength." - Joel (Reader average: ♥♥)
Actress earns 15 ❤s
CHRISTINE LAHTI as "Hazel" in Swing Shift
Synopsis: A nightclub singer goes to work in an airplane factory during World War II and gets mixed up in her best friend's complicated love life.
Stats: Then 34 yrs old, her 4th film. Her first and only acting nomination. (40 minutes of screen time or 40% of running time)
Trivia Noteworthy: She won the Oscar 11 years later in the Live Action Short Film category
Nick Davis: I’m verging on four hearts, having relished the rich portrait of female friendship she generates with Hawn, as fascinating in its intimacies as in its rivalries. Their bond is incontrovertibly the most interesting in the movie; I liked Lahti’s disarming directness and, after Kay turns on Hazel, her combination of embarrassment, anger, and disappointment. Is she really a lounge singer, though? Does she connect every dot in her character biography? Does her tumble with Lucky compute? Like Swing Shift itself, I’m of mixed minds. ♥♥♥
Sheila O'Malley: Just watching Christine Lahti saunter across the dance floor in her 1940s dress is awesome. Lahti is really a co-star here, not a "supporting" actress at all. The last shot is of her face! The friendship between the women is what is most important and she and Hawn are great together. Lahti is tough and soft, sometimes at the same moment. She also has lines like, "It's none of your beeswax, toots." Wonderful. ♥♥♥♥♥
Noah Tsika: Whether watering a plant in long shot or singing a torch song to a nearly empty ballroom, Lahti, as Hazel, projects a welcome insouciance. She does everything with an unforced authority, evoking the strong, no-nonsense Eve Arden—no small feat. Watch the way she chomps her gum, holds her cigarette aloft, enters the aircraft plant with glorious élan—or, for that matter, expresses sorrow and disappointment. When she puts her huge, expressive hand over her face to hide Hazel’s grin, my heart soars. Lahti must have kept her head amid the disastrous reshoots; the studio cut of Swing Shift may be an infamous debacle, but Lahti’s work is close to perfect. ♥♥♥♥♥
Joe Reid: Hazel is easily the most compelling character in Jonathan Demme's film, and Lahti managed to have better chemistry with Goldie Hawn than either Kurt Russell or Ed Harris does. Lahti does the brazen/wounded thing with minimal histrionics, and she provides the film with its life force. ♥♥♥♥
Nathaniel R: While Swing Shift lacks the teeming crowd-sourced spark of Jonathan Demme's best films, Lahti provides her own. (In a better film that asked more of her it's easy to imagine this as a slam-dunk Oscar win). Her body language doesn't read ‘40s singer but it's still quite legible, conveying Hazel's embattled default tetchiness and self reliance. Lahti’s best move is not that she surprises the audience with unexpected reserves of warmth for friends and lovers who disappoint; it’s that she let’s the warmth be a tender surprise to Hazel herself. ♥♥♥
Reader Write-Ins: "Vital in every scene" - Darren (Reader average: ♥♥♥½)
Actress earns 23½ ❤s
GERALDINE PAGE as "Mrs Ritter" in The Pope of Greenwich Village
Synopsis: A sickly but iron-willed woman mourns the loss of her cop son and proves formidable when his pension is threatened.
Stats: Then 60 yrs old, 24th film. Her seventh nomination... she'd win on her eighth for The Trip to Bountiful the following year (7 minutes of screen time or 6% of running time).
Nick Davis: Geraldine sits in her trailer. “I’ll play this one low-key. I’ve never really done that before. Nobody should leave this movie thinking about Mrs. Ritter. She’s tertiary. I respect that. Doing it big would be cocky.” She lights a fifth cigarette. “Then again, why should Sylvia Miles get all the Sylvia Miles parts? Why shouldn’t I be cocky? That kid Roberts swaggers all over. Is he trying to steal the movie? Fuck him! I’ll steal it! Fuck underplaying! Fuck Peggy Ashcroft! Mama’s got this!” ♥♥♥
Sheila O'Malley: Page gives a great – even epic – performance in 2 scenes that add up to 7 minutes. Tops. Her hacking cough, her fury in the second scene, the way she exhales smoke like a dragon, the ferocious way she kisses her rosary, her rage, her grief … the high high stakes for her character. Among my actor friends, her performance was one of the top topics that year. Brilliant. ♥♥♥♥♥
Noah Tsika: This is a deceptively skillful performance, one that some may be tempted to write off as mere caricature. But Page’s Mrs. Ritter is, despite her scant screen time, a full-bodied creation—a portrait of, at once, urban toughness, ethnic pride, religious conviction, failing health, defiance in the face of authority, festering class resentment, maternal love, and, most of all, agonizing grief. Page’s second scene tends to get the most attention—it’s certainly her showiest—but I love her first appearance, particularly her rapport with Jack Kehoe, who plays Mrs. Ritter’s ill-fated son. Watch the way her brusque dismissal instantly morphs into a warm embrace, or her open-mouthed response to Walter’s revelation about wanting to open up a liquor store in Phoenix. She’s spectacular. ♥♥♥♥♥
Joe Reid: As single-scene chamber performances go, it's a lot of fun. Page is doing the angry widow thing with great relish. She's got kind of a proto-Livia Soprano vibe. I certainly was hoping her character would somehow find reason to show up again later in the movie, but it wasn't to be. ♥♥♥
Nathaniel R: "Wanna fight, officer?" Straight talk: Mrs Ritter would scare all of the toughest iconic movie cops if she spit that line out at them in their own movies. She's so potent as this chain-smoking retiree that she's even working in character detail when she's out of focus. Unrepentant Geraldine doesn't just chew the scenery but swallows it after large angry bites. Then she coughs it back up again for extra nibbling to make sure she hasn't missed one savory bite. There's nothing wrong with showboating when ACTING is a movie's entire show. (See also: Rourke & Roberts) Preferred title: Mrs Ritter of Greenwich Village. ♥♥♥♥
Reader Write-Ins: "Page shows her costars how to go over the top, without toppling over." - Rob (Reader average: ♥♥♥)
Actress earns 23 ❤s
The Oscar Went To... Dame Peggy Ashcroft in a presumed landslide.
The Smackdown, on the other hand, had nothing of the sort. In a tight three-way race with little consensus, reader ballots made the difference and Christine Lahti takes the prize by a razor thin margin -- a ½ point to be exact!
Thank you for attending!
Previous Smackdowns: 1941, 1948, 1952, 1954, 1964, 1968, 1973, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1989, 1995 and 2003. (Before that 30+ Smackdowns were hosted @ StinkyLulu's old site.)
NEXT UP: 1963 is our 'year of the month' for September so the next Smackdown is on Friday September 30th, 2016 looking back at that film year as well as its Supporting Actress nominees. There are only three required films to watch this time (Tom Jones, The VIPs, Lilies of the Field) so join us!