Welcome back to the Supporting Actress Smackdown. Each month we pick an Oscar vintage to explore through the lens of actressing at the edges. This episode takes us back to 1937, which was only the second year of the category.
THE NOMINEES It was only the second year of the Supporting Actress category yet the tropes and shortlist makeup were already falling into place. Oscar voters went with a mix of industry veterans (Alice Brady the first consecutive nominee in this category), stage stars transferring to film (Dame May Whitty), fresh faces (Anne Shirley), and rising talent (Andrea Leeds, Claire Trevor) to play an array of familiar types: the martyr mom, the tetchy elder, the sad / confused daughter, the insecure actress, and the complicated hooker...
THE PANELISTS Here to talk about these performances and films are (in alpha order) critics Chelsea Eichholz, Pamela Hutchinson, Tim Robey, Boyd van Hoeij. and your host Nathaniel R.
SUPPORTING ACTRESS SMACKDOWN + PODCAST
The companion podcast will be available tomorrow.
LET'S BEGIN...
ALICE BRADY as "Molly O'Leary" in In Old Chicago
Synopsis: A widow raises her three sons in fast-growing filthy Chicago in the late 19th century. But she's not so sure they're doing their father's memory proud.
Stats: 45 yrs old, 74th film, billed. Second (and final) nomination and first win. 22 minutes of screen time (or 23% of the running time)
Chelsea Eichholz: Brady's matriarch sandwiches the film with the opening and closing scenes focusing on her character and motivations and sadness. She does get lost in the middle and I wanted more of her and how she built her business and less of her feuding sons. It makes sense why she won because it's a suffering mother role that she makes the most of and people remember her other mother role from the previous year. I would have awarded her the year previous for My Man Godfrey, but I'm glad she has her plaque. This win really feels like the blueprint for so many motherly wins in the decades to come. ♥♥
Pamela Hutchinson: Quite enjoyable playing the “type” of the brisk Irish matriarch, but I guess she won for the later dramatic scenes – the victory parade, the fire and her speeches at the end. But she’s still playing a type. And to put it politely, none of the film’s performances have the strength to compete with the entire city of Chicago burning to the ground around them. ♥♥
Tim Robey: Cleaves to the archetype of an indomitable, ever-loving matriarch who’s also a snippy fun sponge. Mrs O’Leary opens up to us for a couple of moist piano singalongs, but then shuts down and gets huffy by default. She’s horrid to Alice Faye, who gets the last laugh by outacting her at the end. How to trigger a city-wide inferno (and not care) without exactly setting the world alight? Brady was waaay more fun in My Man Godfrey a year prior. ♥♥
Boyd van Hoeij: While watching this, I had some problems keeping my Alices apart; Alice Fey felt like a shoo-in for a supporting actress nomination as the showgirl-cum-wife of Tyrone Power's character. But then I didn't count on the afterglow-effect of Alice Brady's nomination from the previous year, for My Man Godfrey. She's fine here as the materfamilias of the O'Leary clan, even if that final monologue, which screams "here's my Oscar moment," looks rather overblown nowadays (and that's saying something after seeing 20 minutes of blazing fires devour all of "old" Chicago in spectacular fashion...). A bit baffled she won for this, though, it feels like the movie belongs more to the younger generation and the spectacular, barn-burning finale than to her, that last speech notwithstanding. ♥♥♥
Nathaniel R: You've probably all heard the famous but possibly apocryphal story about the theft of Alice Brady's Oscar IN ceremony. Would only that the theft could have occurred in the usual way we talk about Oscar thefts... i.e. one of the other actresses winning it instead. Yes, Brady deserved an Oscar but not for this performance (if you're handing out supporting nominations for this movie, Alice Faye and Don Ameche were right there!). I like that Brady's cued into illustrating the parts of the character that the other characters reference (a sign she's read the whole script rather than just her dialogue) especially in that drunk scene and her general bossiness. She's also clear on Molly's morality, such as it is, which is less moral than it is "me and mine" in this saga about an ambitious family. Unfortunately whatever points I give I have to detract for a truly inauthentic final monologue; I'm more interested in the prop model of Chicago burning behind her and considering that actresess are always the best special effect, that is pretty damning. ♥♥
Reader Write-Ins: "I'd like to thank her for giving birth to Tyrone Power." - Peggy Sue (Reader average: ♥♥♥)
Actress earns 15 ❤s
ANDREA LEEDS as "Kay Hamilton" in Stage Door
Synopsis: A young actress, unable to find follow up roles after her breakthrough, longs for a new part she feels was written just for her. Fate proves cruel and sends her reeling.
Stats: 23 yrs old, 7th film, 6th billed. First (and only) nomination. 13 minutes of screentime (or 14% of the running time)
Chelsea: Leeds benefits so much from her film still feeling modern and her role in particular so relevant to this day. The tragic nature of her character arc and her perfectly executing it make her nomination a no-brainer. She may not be the most well-known of her castmastes now, but she's exactly what the film needs. That dark edge elevates the film and had to have resonated with so many of the studio extras that were allowed to vote in these early years. She brings a subtle sadness that so many of her contemporaries would have overplayed. I do wish her costar and future icon Lucille Ball had been nominated alongside her since she would've been my winner this year but I'm glad Leeds represented the film. 4 hearts. ♥♥♥♥
Pamela: In a film where the leads are playing supporting roles, this supporting actress gets to play a lead. And she does it very nicely. But it’s not long before you crave a little acid savoury after all her sugar sweetness. She is wonderfully sincere, I grant you, but if I’d have been tempted to give the nomination to Eve Arden, and her cat. ♥♥♥
Tim:Snagged the nomination and the short straw at once, for playing the tragic, quip-free one in a mostly sparky ensemble. Sweet enough until she has to randomly faint, or just fade into the furnishings. Her birthday scene is a rare chance to add layers, but Leeds has a job on her hands enlivening the catatonic self-pity afterwards. Slicing up raw onion for the rest of the cast, Kay’s staircase-climbing fate teeters on the brink of ridiculousness. ♥♥
Boyd: I think this might be my favorite of the five. Leeds is very good as a fragile little thing with big dreams who had her first taste of fame but then faced a void she couldn't handle. (It's arguably an even worse position to be in than the one someone like the Coens' Llewyn Davis was, who was talented but never tasted fame/had a breakthrough.)I do think the writing could have been sharper; her character comes across as a bit of a cliché and I don't think her character's arc is really mined for all its thematic potential ("acting is faking," for example, as Hepburn says at one point... but this idea isn't tied into Leeds' character's journey or the surprising aftermath of her dramatic deed. My favorite scene has to be the birthday scene with that one solitary candle that shines in the dark before she blows it out; it's a simple but beautiful image that's of course very ominous as well, as she can't see the light at the end of the tunnel and snuffs out her own life. ♥♥♥♥
Nathaniel R: She's the meek tragic heart of this movie and more than ably delivers that. She's especially touching fighting the internal wars where you're watching her being exceedingly generous to someone less talented than she is after they've won her dream role. Unfortunately the meek tragic heart of the movie isn't exacty why this movie is so good. Oscar history is filled with examples of very fine ensembles being reduced to one very solid if not particularly genius performance by Oscar voters. Her performance is humorless when the movie a whole is a lively snappy comedy (not her fault but it's not entirely representative). She also overdoes her final scene. Then again it would be hard not to unless you were one of those actors who are hyper aware of the technical side of filmmaking; the cinematography, editing, and direction are all amping the scene up to eleven before Leeds even joins them. ♥♥♥
Reader Write-Ins: "Her staircase scene is one for the ages. What she does with a simple walk up stairs with no dialogue is astounding. I would have loved to see what she did with a meatier part." - James P. (Reader average: ♥♥♥¼)
Actress earns 19¼ ❤s
ANNE SHIRLEY as "Laurel Dallas" in Stella Dallas
Synopsis: A loving daughter of an estranged couple is naturally drawn to the high society of her father's life. She learns painfully that her mother is a joke to the upper crust.
Stats: 19 yrs old, 31st film, 3rd billed. First and only nomination. 39 minutes of screen time (or 37% of the running time).
Chelsea: Stanwyck is the best part of the film but I have a soft spot for Anne Shirley's performance. She doesn't give the typical hysterical kid performance and their relationship gave me flashbacks to the Best Actress winning Min & Bill vibes from a few years earlier. The problem is we don't get to see any layers to this character since the film is so focused on Stanwyck, and it makes Laurel seem more like an object than a person. She's a capable actress that rises to the occasion but the role is underdeveloped. ♥♥♥
Pamela: I don’t think her eyes could get any wider. Such earnestness, which would be wrong in most films, but it’s exactly what’s required here – especially in the scenes that demand her simply to parade her good breeding, like a show pony. It’s the scene in the train carriage that gets me every time, though, and she plays it delicately. Cleverly directed too: the lighting and the cutaway presence of Stanwyck do a lot of the work. ♥♥♥♥
Tim: I love the movie, but her tasks are quite basic: bright debutante glee tumbling regularly into crestfallen dismay. Laurel isn’t fully a character to me, or at least not until the last couple of reels, when Shirley’s naïve polish comes off, the camera stops taking her for granted, and she finds a good handle on filial confusion. When all’s said and done, a performance that mainly enables Stanwyck’s, but that’s an important job she tackles quite well. ♥♥♥
Boyd: I think this is a typical case of a nomination occuring because the main actress — Barbara Stanwyck, also nominated but in the Best Actress category — was so mesmerizing and the reasoning must be: well, she can't have been mesmerizing in a vacuum so her main partner in the film must get some of the praise as well. Shirley was perfectly adequate but the role is so incredibly underwritten, which is a bit of a shock given how nuanced Stanwyck's Mrs Dallas is, she has no personality at all. The final sequence in the film perfectly encapsulates how I feel about her entire performance; we are Stanwyck, looking at a performance occurring behind glass, untouchable. Lolly is the perfect daughter/daughter-in-law but has no discernible characteristics of her own. I guess the family genes skipped a generation. ♥♥♥
Nathaniel R: In general this Oscar lineup is 3/5ths very satisfying but sadly Brady (the winner) has to share the 'dud of the lineup' distinction with Anne Shirley but for diametically opposed reasons. Brady is so professional and able that if a director asks her to go (too) big (as in that final monologue) she'll just step up and over-deliver. Shirley, on the other hand, is so green that she can't really modulate the size. Teenage hysteria can be fun onscreen if the actor is preternaturally gifted but if they aren't it can feel just like too much. Take it down a notch Shirley! That said the purity of her emotions does sometimes work for the movie. But all in all I think Stella Dallas would be a miracle movie if the daughter was on Stanwyck's performative level. ♥♥
Reader Write-Ins: "If we judge performances based on the literal meaning of "supporting," Shirley is the winner. Every line reading and motion is in deference to the star." - Lenard (Reader average: ♥♥½)
Actress earns 17½ ❤s
CLAIRE TREVOR as "Francey" in Dead End
Synopsis: A prostitute visits her notorious gangster lover who has come back to town. But what will he think of her now?
Stats: 27 yrs old, 23rd film, 5th billed. 1st nomination (of an eventual three). 4½ minutes of screentime (or 5% of the running time.)
Chelsea: I adore Claire Trevor's win for Key Largo and think she was one of the most interesting performers of her time. This film, however, really found her wandering around that studio lot looking for the cafeteria and asked her to shoot something real quick. I'm convinced. She does well with the short time she's alloted but it's a stereotypical sex worker/ruined woman role that doesn't add anything to the film and paints the profession so poorly. I'd rather her scene been cut. ♥♥
Pamela: She loses a point for being a one-scene wonder, but she really makes a terrific impact. The film misses her – and her chemistry with Bogart, who’s so good here. I know the brassy dame with a soft side schtick is a schtick but I do enjoy it. ♥♥♥
Tim: One scene! Hard to know whether to deduct marks for sheer brevity, but she outlines as much of a character in four minutes here as several others do in 40. Given Trevor's frequent theatricality, you could have forgiven her for snatching at this minuscule chance and luridly overstating her role, but instead she’s confidently nuanced, letting elusive flickers of feeling tell the story. A tiny aria of regret. ♥♥♥♥
Boyd: Overall, in this category, it's been nice to see they had a tendency in 1937 to nominate actresses who were actually supporting actresses instead of leads relegated to the supporting category. That said, this nomination truly baffles me as Trevor is not in the movie much at all and her character has no major importance or relevance for the story (which sometimes can paper over the fact the role itself is quite small). She looks beautiful, I guess, but can't really say much more that's either positive or negative. (Side note: Why didn't they nominate Sylvia Sidney instead, she has a more substantial supporting role — and no, this isn't an oxymoron in this context — or did people think they were voting for her but she was called Claire Trevor?) ♥♥♥
Nathaniel R: There are few things I love more in the history of the category than those moments when Oscar voters are forced to recognize work in a small role (in the category created for smaller roles) because the actress is just too good to deny. Trevor is so gifted that in four minutes (just one scene) she can give you memorable physicality, evocative backstory, and richly complicated current state of mind. She can do all that while also improving her co-stars performance (and Bogart wasn't exactly a slouch) because so much of what she's doing is reflecting back on shared history and also preemptively fearing what Bogart's gangster might be giving, which makes his criminal feel far more dangerous than he does in the rest of the movie. It helps of course that the movie is special, too, but she's just dynamite here despite playing a broad character type (the unhappy hooker) within a tangential subplot that the movie otherwise doesn't lean into much. ♥♥♥♥
Reader Write-Ins: "The best of her nominated performances. Nearly perfect." - Patrick (Reader average: ♥♥♥¾)
Actress earns 19¾ ❤s
DAME MAY WHITTY as "Mrs Bransom" in Night Must Fall
Synopsis: A cranky invalid falls for the charms of a man with secrets who has knocked up her servant girl. She doesn't know what she's in for.
Stats: 72 yrs old, 5th film, 3rd billed. 1st nomination (of an eventual two). 37 minutes of screentime (or 32% of the running time.)
Chelsea Eichholz: This film would be such a banger if it was 40 minutes shorter. Whitty gives a pretty typical older character actress performance that stays consistent and doesn't give her much depth but gets the job done. I just wish she had more biting lines. ♥♥
Pamela Hutchinson: The only woman here who could win any kind of IRL smackdown. And though she’s hardly in what you’d call a supporting role, hers is the most memorable performance on this list. Thankfully, she resists the temptation to soften her character at all, which would have been easily done. Can’t believe I am saying this, but I was far more interested in her than in Rosalind Russell. ♥♥♥♥
Tim Robey: When you’ve been Whittied once, you know the deal. This harrumphing dowager sets out the stall for the rest of her film work. I was braced for monotony, but she deepens: the scale of the role (a lead, really) and dawdling pace let her test out various effects. All her cooing over Robert Montgomery makes the character more vulnerable than the bossy fusspot we first meet – she’s believably daft in her credulity, too. ♥♥♥
Boyd van Hoeij: Scenery chewing of the highest level. Extremely entertaining but also the role in the entire film that's played the most broadly, giving the proceedings more of a piquant comedic edge, which of course nicely counterbalances the more thriller-like and psychological aspects of the Olivia-Danny relationship. Still, as a whole, the performance feels maybe a little too theatrical — not surprising, given Dame Whitty's background — and not quite cinematic enough; she's playing to the back row when the camera is standing a mere two feet away from her. ♥♥♥
Nathaniel R: Is Dame Whitty a shameless ham? Yes. Do I care? Not at all as she's so much fun gluttonously gorging on chocolates and just as addicted to oedipal flirtations with a much younger obviously up-to-no-good complete stranger she's invited in almost too spite her niece. The way she coos "silly boy" at Robert Montgomery is the best kind of camp sexuality and the way she coats each line toward Rosalind Russell (a surprising drip here) with disdain is the best kind of catty melodrama. Is Dame Whitty a supporting actress? Hell no. Do i care? Of course. Yes, it's kind of my thing to care. This is a three-lead movie no matter how you spin it with Montgomery, Russell, and Whitty all basically sequestered together in a single room bantering, arguing, and mistrusting each other for nearly the entire (too long) running time. Dame Whitty would be my easy winner from this lineup IF it were a supporting role but since it's not I'm rooting for Claire Trevor. ♥♥♥♥
Reader Write-Ins: "I’m convinced that Dame May Whitty is one of the greatest actors of Hollywood’s golden age. She’s delightful in this film." - Eoin (Reader average: ♥♥♥½)
Actress earns 19½ ❤s
RESULT: Alice Brady won the Oscar on her second consecutive nomination (after her brilliant comic turn in My Man Godfrey the year before). Here at the Smackdown we were torn with Trevor, Whitty, and Leeds in a literal dead heat. That meant that this month it was YOUR votes which picked the winner. And the winner is CLAIRE TREVOR for her one-scene wonder role in the classic noir Dead End. This is her second Smackdown victory since she also won for her Oscar-winning role in Key Largo (1948).
And the winner is... CLAIRE TREVOR for her one-scene wonder role in the classic noir Dead End. This is her second Smackdown victory since she also won for her Oscar-winning role in Key Largo (1948). Trevor, Whitty, and Leeds were all tied with our talking head panel and your votes were also close. In the end just a 4th of a heart separated each woman with Dame May Whitty a close second and Andrea Leeds a close third in your votes. EXCITING YEAR AND GOOD MOVIES, TOO. We hope you enjoyed.
THE FULL PODCAST CONVERSATION
The podcat will be available tomorrow on Spotify for a more in-depth discussion with our marvelous guests. [All Previous Smackdowns]
UP NEXT: The Smackdown is taking a break rather than rushing through this final season, now that the current Oscar season is exploding. We'll likely save 2004, 1997, and 1951 (which are the next Smackdowns) until spring 2022 after the current Oscars but if we opt to do any of those sooner we'll let you know.