Re: 1936-1947 Best Supporting Actor Winners
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2021 9:22 pm
This is a pretty solid group, and it wasn't easy making a choice.
The Academy's over-generosity makes it necessary to deal with the whole Walter Brennan thing. As I see it, his first win was well within the range of justifiability, and his last (and most griped-about), for The Westerner, is flat-out deserving. It's the Kentucky one that really screws the pooch, and makes everyone view Brennan's entire Oscar run as mere pandering by the extras -- he not only wasn't close to John Garfield that year, he wasn't even especially worthy of nomination. If I were picking him for any of them, it'd be The Westerner. But this embarrassment of riches slate leads me to other candidates.
Joseph Schildkraut is the only other one I give no consideration. I've watched the movie multiple times, and can never find any reason why he'd win the category.
I can't get as enthusiastic as some of you about Crisp. It's solid work from a dependable veteran, but it doesn't shine extra-bright, for me.
On the other hand (and again, in disagreement with many here), I DO find Van Heflin a complete standout in Johnny Eager -- his character is far and away the most interesting part of the otherwise humdrum Johnny Eager.
But so many of these guys are terrific, even if I wouldn't have voted for them in their particular years. I'd have gone with Richard Widmark for Kiss of Death, but how can you not love Edmund Gwenn's Kris Kringle? Harold Russell is immensely moving -- even though Claude Rains/Notorious would have been my choice that year.
But still there's more. Thomas Mitchell was indelible in Stagecoach (and his other 1939 roles were pretty damn impressive, as well). Charles Coburn was at his estimable best in The More the Merrier. James Dunn broke the heart in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
But I'll go for someone no else here has chosen, for a movie I seem to like way more than most: Barry Fitzgerald in Going My Way. Absolute perfection.
The Academy's over-generosity makes it necessary to deal with the whole Walter Brennan thing. As I see it, his first win was well within the range of justifiability, and his last (and most griped-about), for The Westerner, is flat-out deserving. It's the Kentucky one that really screws the pooch, and makes everyone view Brennan's entire Oscar run as mere pandering by the extras -- he not only wasn't close to John Garfield that year, he wasn't even especially worthy of nomination. If I were picking him for any of them, it'd be The Westerner. But this embarrassment of riches slate leads me to other candidates.
Joseph Schildkraut is the only other one I give no consideration. I've watched the movie multiple times, and can never find any reason why he'd win the category.
I can't get as enthusiastic as some of you about Crisp. It's solid work from a dependable veteran, but it doesn't shine extra-bright, for me.
On the other hand (and again, in disagreement with many here), I DO find Van Heflin a complete standout in Johnny Eager -- his character is far and away the most interesting part of the otherwise humdrum Johnny Eager.
But so many of these guys are terrific, even if I wouldn't have voted for them in their particular years. I'd have gone with Richard Widmark for Kiss of Death, but how can you not love Edmund Gwenn's Kris Kringle? Harold Russell is immensely moving -- even though Claude Rains/Notorious would have been my choice that year.
But still there's more. Thomas Mitchell was indelible in Stagecoach (and his other 1939 roles were pretty damn impressive, as well). Charles Coburn was at his estimable best in The More the Merrier. James Dunn broke the heart in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
But I'll go for someone no else here has chosen, for a movie I seem to like way more than most: Barry Fitzgerald in Going My Way. Absolute perfection.