Nun vs Monster! Give our '65 conversation a listen.

by Nathaniel R

Who do you suppose was in second place for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1965? We suspect Shelley Winters won in a landslide for her monster mom but perhaps Peggy Wood's Mother Superior was the runner up since The Sound of Music was so massive. What'cha think? We've noticed on the Smackdown posts that y'all don't really comment about the conversation of the podcast itself but just the write-up / blurb portion. We hope you're listening. The panelists (mwah) were super fun and lively. Here is the podcast again embedded below for your pleasure.

Podcast: 1 hour and 15 minutes
00.01 - Introductions: Spencer Garrett, Kayleigh Donaldson, Baby Clyde, Kevin Jacobsen, and Terence Johnson
06:30 - Othello , Laurence Olivier's "blackface", minstrelsy in that era, Dame Maggie Smith in her youth and today, and the documentary Tea with the Dames
27:00 - Shelley Winters in A Patch of Blue -- some people hate the performance, some love it. The movie is more complex than you've heard and an example of the shifting of the 1960s towards more adult themes
38:30 - Natalie Wood's failed Oscar bid for Inside Daisy Clover. A trainwreck of a movie or a fascinating timepiece or both? But it really needed to be a musical. More new Hollywood vs Old Hollywood issues
54:00 - The Sound of Music. Supremely rewatchable. We talk about musical dubbing, our favourite musical numbers, and Julie Andrews Oscar run. Why didn't they nominate Eleanor Parker? 
1:10:00 - Goodbyes and the re-casting game!

listen on iTunes or download right here

Smackdown 1965

Smackdown '65: Nuns, child abusers, and tragic pawns

The Supporting Actress Smackdown series picks an Oscar vintage and explores...

 

THE NOMINEES  1965 was all about the Julies, Christie and Andrews, headlining the years biggest hits but both were located in the lead actress category. When some of the year's most lauded supporting actress turned up in films Oscar wasn't interested in they selected quite an odd list from which films they were looking at, still missing one very obvious great choice. Recent Oscar winner Shelley Winters (A Patch of Blue) and recent nominee Joyce Redman (Othello) were invited back and future Dame and Oscar darling Maggie Smith (Othello) was invited for the first time. TV regular Peggy Wood (The Sound of Music) and a longtime Hollywood screenwriter Ruth Gordon (Inside Daisy Clover), nabbing her first nomination in an acting category, were also chosen. The resulting shortlist of characters included a nun, a child abuser, two women doomed by hateful petty men, and an eccentric old Californian who wasn't quite in touch with reality... not unlike some Oscar voters! 

THE PANEL  Here to talk about the performances and films are, in alpha order, Oscar buff Baby Clyde (The Film Experience), freelance writer Kayleigh Donaldson (Pajiba, What to Watch, SyFy FanGrrls), character actor Spencer Garrett (Bombshell, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), writer and podcaster Kevin Jacobsen (And the Runner Up Is...), writer, cosplayer, and director Terence Johnson (Le Noir Auteur, Vampyr Resistance Corps). And your host at The Film Experience, of course, Nathaniel R. Let's begin...

1965
SUPPORTING ACTRESS SMACKDOWN + PODCAST  
The companion podcast can be downloaded at the bottom of this article or by visiting the iTunes page...

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Smackdown 1963: Three from "Tom Jones" and Two Dames

Presenting the Supporting Actresses of '63. Well well, what have we here? This year's statistical uniqueness (the only time one film ever produced three supporting actress nominees) and the character lineup reads juicier than it actually is - your Fab Five are, get this: a saucy wench, a pious auntie, a disgraced lady, a pillpopping royal, and a stubborn nun.

THE NOMINEES 

from left to right: Cilento, Evans, Redman, Rutherford, Skalia

In 1963 Oscar voters went for an all-first-timers nominee list in Supporting Actress. The eldest contenders would soon become Dames (Margaret Rutherford and Edith Evans were both OBEs at the time). Rutherford, the eventual winner, was the only nominee with an extensive film history and she was in the middle of a hot streak with her signature role as Jane Marple which ran across multiple films from through 1961-1965. In fact, Agatha Christie had just dedicated her new book "The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side" to the future Dame. Despite Rutherford's cultural popularity, the only women who would return to the Oscar fold (and quickly) would be Joyce Redman and Edith Evans. The latter was beloved -- voters couldn't get enough of Evans in the Sixties during her seventies.

Notable supporting actresses of the year who Oscar didn't nominate were most of the Globe nominees: Wendy Hiller (Toys in the Attic), Diane Baker (The Prize), Linda Marsh (America America), and Lisolette Pulver (A Global Affair). Other key players passed over for this shortlist were: Maggie Smith (The VIPs), Jessica Tandy (The Birds), Claire Bloom (The Haunting), Gena Rowlands (A Child is Waiting), Constance Towers (Shock Corridor), Claire Trevor (The Stripper), Julie Christie (Billy Liar) and any of the women from Fellini's 8½.

THIS MONTH'S PANELISTS

from left to right: McGovern, Scarlett, Bugbee, Mullins, Nathaniel

Here to talk about these five nominated turns are your host Nathaniel R (The Film Experience) and the panelists: Teo Bugbee (freelance culture critic), Kieran Scarlett (screenwriter), and Brian Mullin and Sean McGovern (of the Broad Appeal podcast). And now it's time for the main event... 

1963
SUPPORTING ACTRESS SMACKDOWN 

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