Best Actress Ranking - Update

Here is a new update. The newly added performance is highlighted in bold. 

My winning performances are higlighted in red.

1. Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind (1939)
2. Jessica Lange in Frances (1982)
3. Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard (1950)
4. Olivia de Havilland in The Heiress (1949)
5. Anne Bancroft in The Graduate (1967)
6. Janet Gaynor in Seventh Heaven (1927-1928)   
7. Glenn Close in Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
8. Geraldine Page in The Trip to Bountiful (1985)
9. Susan Sarandon in Thelma & Louise (1991)
10. Edith Evans in The Whisperers (1967)

11. Norma Shearer in Marie Antoinette (1938)
12. Greta Garbo in Ninotchka (1939)
13. Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
14. Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth (1998)
15. Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
16. Bette Davis in The Little Foxes (1941)
17. Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music (1965)
18. Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame (1958)
19. Glenda Jackson in Women in Love (1970)
20. Joanne Woodward in The Three Faces of Eve (1957)

21. Elizabeth Taylor in Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
22. Barbara Stanwyck in Ball of Fire (1941)
23. Julie Christie in Away from Her (2007)
24. Shelley Winters in A Place in the Sun (1951)
25. Audrey Hepburn in Wait until Dark (1967)
26. Ingrid Bergman in The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945)
27. Anne Baxter in All about Eve (1950)
28. Judi Dench in Mrs. Brown (1997)
29. Jane Fonda in Coming Home (1978)
30. Greer Garson in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)

31. Doris Day in Pillow Talk (1959)
32. Meryl Streep in One True Thing (1998)
33. Deborah Kerr in From Here to Eternity (1953)
34. Katharine Hepburn in Guess who’s coming to dinner (1967)
35. Marsha Mason in Chapter Two (1979)
36. Jane Wyman in The Yearling (1946)
37. Teresa Wright in The Pride of the Yankees (1942) 
38. Jennifer Jones in Love Letters (1945)
39. Ellen Burstyn in Same Time, Next Year (1978)
40. Susan Hayward in My Foolish Heart (1949)

41. Vanessa Redgrave in Mary, Queen of Scots (1971)
42. Diane Keaton in Marvin's Room (1996)
43. Loretta Young in Come to the Stable (1949)  
44. Mary Pickford in Coquette (1928-29)
45. Sissy Spacek in The River (1984)
46. Shirley MacLaine in The Turning Point (1977)
47. Irene Dunne in Cimarron (1930-1931)
48. Diana Wynyard in Cavalcade (1932-1933)

Anne Baxter as Eve Harrington in All about Eve

Few performances in the Best Actress category are as difficult to evaluate for me as Anne Baxter’s turn as an aspiring but also scheming actress in All about Eve. It’s hard to deny that the part itself is a true showcase, written to perfection like almost everything else in this classic Best Picture winner. And Anne Baxter does find various great moments in her performance – but as my ranking shows, I am not completely convinced that her approach was overall successful or that she was even the right actress for the part.

I do have to say what I find very interesting that, despite my reservations about Anne Baxter’s performance, there is never a moment in All about Eve where I think that she is actually hurting the movie or threatens to destroy its flow. Instead, she completely integrates herself into the outstanding ensemble and contributes to the success of the story – but looking back on it, I think this has mostly to do with the fact that the remaining actors possess the necessary aliveness to compensate for her often stoic acting choices. I get that Eve is an outsider, even when she is welcomed into this group of theatre folks – but I still don’t think that Anne Baxter got everything out of the role that was possible. And I think that it is Anne Baxter’s sometimes lacking acting style that is responsible for one of the most discussed questions around this movie: leading or supporting? To this day, movie fans debate if Anne Baxter’s choice to compete in the Best Actress category is the reason that Bette Davis lost the award for her iconic role as Margo Channing, thus paving the way for Judy Holliday’s win for Born Yesterday. Personally, I agree with Anne Baxter – Eve is a leading role. But somehow, Anne Baxter’s performance doesn’t feel the same. What I mean is that both Eve and Margo were given the same chances by screenwriter Joseph L. Mankiewicz – both are given an intriguing arc, both are dominating the story and both are given material that can easily lead to performances that are proclaimed “all-time great”. But only Bette Davis fulfilled this. Her performance is so dominating, so effortless and so memorable that she made Margo Channing naturally the center of attention. All about Eve became all about Margo, as also the later musical version Applause demonstrated. But as I said, this was a result of casting – if an actress who could have held her own against Bette Davis had been cast as Eve, then history might have been very different but Anne Baxter simply too much disappears next to Bette Davis, even with a role that, on paper, has the same potential.

Maybe the part of Eve actually had even more potential than Margo – the apparently innocent and devoted fan who turns out to be a scheming manipulator, trying to take everything away from her idol (her parts, her friends, her lover) is a dream role that demands an actress to do a complete turnaround in her performance and constantly act on different levels for different targets. And I won’t deny that Anne Baxter possessed the instinct for this – she knows when to appear innocent, when to crack an evil smile and when to completely let go of her carefully constructed protection. But still, the outcome does not convince me. First of all, what I think, is that Anne Baxter quite simply was too mature for the role of Eve. I realize that she was only 26 years old when she played the role but something about her was too “grown-up”. She simply lacks that quality that would make Margo Channing say that she feels an urge to protect her, she never really comes across as that devoted, wide-eyed fan who only lives for her idol. I’ve been unsuccessfully trying to come up with an actress who might have been more suited for the part – I just think that an actress with more spark and youth could have portrayed the naivety of the character better. Because of her maturity, Anne Baxter, at least for me, destroys her entrance completely – she feels much too secure when talking to Karen (does anyone really think that it took all her courage?) and her scene in the dressing room also feels too calculated. I get that Eve is acting at this point but she unfortunately doesn’t do it convincingly. Barbara Bates later gives a much more believable performance of the same character as Phoebe at the end of the movie – I am not saying that Barbara Bates would have been a better Eve but I can imagine that she would have given her opening scenes the needed charm and plausibility.

This acting style of Anne Baxter in my opinion also ruins the effect when she finally turns out to be something completely different. Anne Baxter never seems to hide her true intentions. I know that by now we are all aware of Eve’s true plans but watching the movie, there is no reason to immediately assume just how far Eve went to get to that award show. The beginning of the movie is intriguing and makes you wonder just what happened between these characters and if Eve had been a more likeable and sympathetic character, the question would have been going on for much longer (even when she tries to seduce Bill, she does it with such a clearly evil agenda in mind that it's surprising she would think that anyone would fall for it). But Anne Baxter’s acting style and Bette Davis’s performance don’t make it very difficult to side with Margo right away and begin to expect the worst.

But as I said, the acting of Anne Baxter does not diminish the success of All about Eve – I just think the movie and the role could have succeeded on a more intriguing level. Other scenes when Eve is fooling (or trying to) those around her also suffer from her melodramatic acting style, from convincing Karen to make her Margo’s new understudy to lying to Addison about what happened in the ladies’ room. But I would expect that a woman whose acting style is called “fire and music” would be more convincing in her schemes. Anne Baxter mostly puts on a melodramatic whisper and turns her head away from her scene partners to look into the open space which makes it impossible to imagine that she can seriously rival Bette Davis’s Margo on the stage – or off.

This was a lot of negative talk so far which could pose the question why Anne Baxter is then not lower on my list. Well, first of all, as I said, despite her acting choices she does not harm the movie but still fits into it and still manages to make her journey captivating. But most of all, Anne Baxter succeeds when Eve finally drops her niceties and shows her true self. She is absolutely mesmerizing in the scene with Celeste Holm in the ladies’ room and later when she is defeated by Addison in her hotel room. Again, I wish her approach in these scenes would have been a bit deeper (just how true is her love for the theatre? Is it only about awards and fame? Or about acting, too? Just what is her true personality in the end anyway?) but it works to bring her performance full circle.

So, there remains a certain frustration as the role itself certainly had the potential to become a 5 star performance but I think that Anne Baxter was not the right actress to do so. Still, it’s a captivating performance that works within the structure of the picture.  

And a hint to the next performance that will be ranked:

YOUR Best Actress of 1950!

Here are the results of the poll:

1. Gloria Swanson - Sunset Boulevard (28 votes)

2. Bette Davis - All about Eve (16 votes)

3. Judy Holliday - Born Yesterday (9 votes)

4. Anne Baxter - All about Eve & Eleanor Parker - Caged (2 votes)

Thanks to everyone for voting!

Best Actress 1950 - The resolution

After having watched and reviewed all five nominated performances, it's time to pick the winner!

5. Anne Baxter in All about Eve

Anne Baxter wants to do everything right but unfortunately does a lot wrong in her performance but is nonetheless still able to create an interesting character thanks to the brilliant writing. She shows the differences between the fake Eve, the evil Eve, the manipulating Eve, the scared Eve and the real Eve but her limited talent prevents her from combining her instincts with a truly great performance.

4. Eleanor Parker in Caged

                     

Eleanor Parker shows Marie like a deer caught in the spotlight – frightened, unable to do anything. This way, she is wonderfully able to distance Marie’s character from the other, more experienced inmates and give an extremely moving performance that shows how innocence and goodness can be turned into hardness, bitterness and insubordination.

3. Bette Davis in All about Eve

Bette Davis is able to show all the weak and strong sides of Margo and mixes them with wonderful sarcastic humor and so creates one of the most fascinating characters in movie history. In a very private portrayal of a larger-than-life woman, Bette flawlessly demonstrates the self-assurance of Margo without ever overshadowing any of her co-stars.

2. Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard

Gloria Swanson gives a pitch-perfect performance as she completely understands both the character and the movie style: it’s a mix of satire and realism, a dark comedy and a shocking drama and Gloria Swanson fitted her performance to this – stylized to the maximum, over-the-top and larger-than-life but always real and Gloria Swanson never crosses the line to unconvincing.

1. Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday

Judy Holliday delivered a comedic tour-de-force in Born Yesterday that carries this movie and turns it into one of the great comedies while never forgetting to show also more serious sides of the character. It’s an incredibly multidimensional and deep characterization that is done in the most subtle way because Judy Holliday never draws any attention to her performance itself. Instead, she understands how to maximize the comedy aspect while slowly creating a character that is so much more than visible on the first look.

Best Actress 1950: Gloria Swanson in "Sunset Boulevard"

After various actresses had rejected the part of silent film star Norma Desmond, director Billy Wilder turned to Gloria Swanson, an actress who, just like Norma Desmond herself, had been one of the great stars in silent films but whose fame faded after the transition to talkies. While Gloria Swanson was interested in playing the part, she felt insulted by the demand to make a screen test for her studio but finally swallowed her pride and gave one of the most iconic and unforgettable performances of all time and the signature work of her entire career.

Sunset Boulevard, Billy Wilder’s masterpiece and one of the greatest movies of all time, tells the story of Joe Gillis, an unsuccessful and cynical screenwriter, whose life takes an unexpected turn when he has to stop his car in the driveway of a big, apparently abandoned mansion. Very soon her realizes that this mansion is not left but inhabited by Norma Desmond, a great, but forgotten star of the silent era who dreams of a return to the silver screen.

Before Norma Desmond appears for the first time, the viewer hears her distinctive, bidding voice from the distance. Then the camera moves slowly towards her, but her face is mostly hidden behind some blinds in front of her windows. It’s a mysterious introduction to one of the most fascinating movie characters ever. Norma Desmond lives in a world of the past. She doesn’t realize that she is forgotten by today’s audience but still thinks of herself as the greatest of them all. She is not the same kind of diva as Margo Channing in All about Eve – Margo has trouble to face reality while Norma doesn’t even see reality and lives in her own fantasy world. And it’s also obvious from the beginning that the years of isolation, living in an empty house full of pictures of herself, watching movies with herself, has driven Norma close to the edge of insanity. As her butler says, she has already tried to kill herself and Norma’s constant behavior, her mood swings, her way of talking and behaving, show that this woman is slowly becoming crazy.

Gloria Swanson gives a performance that is pitch-perfect because she completely understands both the character and the movie style: it’s a mix of satire and realism, a dark comedy and a shocking drama and Gloria Swanson fitted her performance to this – her performance is stylized to the maximum, over-the-top and larger-than-life but always real and Gloria Swanson never crosses the line to unconvincing. It’s the only way this character could have been played successfully and Gloria Swanson is masterful. She also understands the humor and comedy of the film and that Norma Desmond is not supposed to be realistic but Gloria is able to give a real performance of this unreal character. She also perfectly brings all the supposed qualities of Norma to live – she is able to make it believable that this woman used to be a great star, there is something hypnotic about her personality that glues the viewer’s eye to the screen whenever she appears.

Norma Desmond is not a diva because she is a great star – she is only a diva because she thinks she is. Gloria Swanson is not afraid to show that Norma is mostly a pathetic character. Forgotten, laughed at, only remembered by people who actually experienced her fame. But Norma never becomes a laughable character thanks to Gloria Swanson’s dominating tour-de-force that always hints at something dangerous, unstable and uncontrollable behind Norma’s face that prevents from laughing at her. Instead, she is completely captivating from start to finish.

Even though the character of Norma Desmond sometimes seems of secondary importance compared to Joe Gillis, she never steps into the background and her presence is constantly felt. Gloria Swanson also developed a wonderful chemistry with William Holden who also plays his part with outstanding determination.

Gloria Swanson plays her role with full confidence in her own ability to combine her personal experiences as a silent movie star with Norma’s inability to leaves these days behind her. Especially in the scenes when Norma finally goes mad, Gloria Swanson’s own roots in the silent era become most effective because her widened eyes, filled with insanity, her way of moving could only be done by an actress who knew a time before there was ‘talk, talk, talk’. In these scenes, Gloria Swanson’s performances crosses the line from outstanding to perfection. Her line delivery, which has been wonderful already and turned so many of her lines into classics, becomes so deliciously mad without ever seeming exaggerated. Her final scene is an incredibly mix of insanity, paltriness and comedy. A performance like hers could not have been so successful in any other movie because it completely depends on Sunset Boulevard’s style and story but in this fictitious world, it’s true perfection.

In the role of Norma Desmond, Gloria Swanson knows exactly what she is doing and what she can achieve. It’s one of the great screen performances and for this she gets

Best Actress 1950: Eleanor Parker in "Caged"

Eleanor Parker received the first of her three unsuccessful Best Actress nominations for her role as Marie Allen in the prison movie Caged.

Caged is certainly not a great movie, it’s mostly over-the-top and laughable but it’s still entertaining and camp enough make it an unforgettable example of its genre. And even though the movie itself may not be too great, it still offered some very gifted actress some very challenging parts, especially Eleanor Parker and (to a lesser extent) Hope Emerson.

Like Anne Baxter, Eleanor Parker was a rather theatrical and melodramatic actress whose acting style always differed from those of her co-stars but unlike Anne Baxter, she had enough talent to make it all work and also succeed outside of her own comfort zone. Eleanor Parker had a wonderful delicacy that worked especially well in the context of Caged because Marie Allen is such a delicate, helpless and lost character.

Right in the first scenes it is shown that Marie is different from all the other women that are brought to jail with her. She seems confused and scared, she has to be grabbed and thrown out of the car because she is unable to leave it herself. It seems that Marie Allen is hoping to experience a bad dream unlike the other arrivals that all seem to have been there before. It’s an outlook at what is about to become of Marie in a place like this.

Eleanor Parker has a wonderful face that was made for close-up and not many other actresses were able to portray fear, desperation and loneliness with such effectiveness without saying a single word. Eleanor Parker shows Marie like a deer caught in the spotlight – frightened, unable to do anything. This way, she is wonderfully able to distance Marie’s character from the other, more experienced inmates and give an extremely moving performance that shows how innocence and goodness can be turned into hardness, bitterness and insubordination. Eleanor Parker’s performance is so convincing that one even forgives the fact that she is obviously not 19 years anymore.

Shortly after the movie started, the viewer learns that Marie Allen got 15 years for armed robbery. Step by step it is revealed that she actually helping her husband to commit the crime but he got killed in the process. Eleanor Parker wonderfully portrays Marie’s insecurity as she enters the prison and also her shame about what she did and how she disgraced her family. During the first scenes, Marie speaks very little but Eleanor Parker’s ability to combine all her different feelings and show them on her face helps her to give a very moving and compelling performance. Her way of communicating mostly with her face underlines her quietness and her difference from all the other open and open-mouthed women. Also her theatrical acting effectively demonstrates her isolation in her new life.

Caged shows that even though Marie helped to commit a crime, she is actually an innocent and good-hearted woman who followed her husband and for whom the punishment in prison is only damaging and not helping. The cruelty of prison life that demands of the inmates to either “eat or be eaten”, the constant supervision of the demonic prison guard and the feeling that there is no hope and no future for her, change Marie Allen’s character and make her become just the kind of woman that society actually wants to prevent.

Eleanor Parker movingly shows how everything in Marie’s life is taken away from her. When she learns that she is pregnant, there is hope in her life but later everything is destroyed when her own mother is unwilling to take care of the child. Eleanor Parker’s acting when she pleads to her mother, begs to her and breaks down crying is chilling.

Eleanor Parker successfully established Marie as an innocent and needy character and that way maximizes the moving effects of the scenes when she is slowly destroyed and then changed by everything around her. Even though her performance seems a bit monotonous at first, her expressive face that was made for suffering, still captivates the viewer.

Eleanor Parker also shows the development in Marie very effectively and never too sudden. Marie somehow always remains that young and innocent woman but life in prison changes her forever. She is still affected by her surroundings but she seems to care less and less with each day. She slowly learns how to survive and how to hold her own. Eleanor Parker’s Marie becomes a symbol for Caged’s message that punishment in prison can achieve the exact opposite result than intended.

Only in the end, the movie seems to rushed and that way makes her transformation seem too sudden but Eleanor Parker is still able to make this believable and chilling. She never loses the core of Marie’s character and shows that Marie did not change because she wanted to but because she had to and now this new personality has taken over her life.

Overall, Caged is not great but still effective in its portrayal of prison life. It also contains a mix of different acting styles as Eleanor Parker mixes theatricality with realism, Hope Emerson goes for pure camp (but in a good way) and the supporting cast is a wild mix of everything.

Overall, Eleanor Parker gives a very effective performance that wonderfully shows the change in her character. For this, she gets

Best Actress 1950: Anne Baxter in "All about Eve"

After having won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar a couple of years earlier, Anne Baxter received her only Best Actress nomination for her performance as the title character in All about Eve – a young and shy aspiring actress who turns out to be a scheming manipulator.

Among movie fans, Anne Baxter is generally considered to be the reason why Bette Davis didn’t win the Best Actress Oscar for All about Eve – Anne Baxter’s decision to go lead instead of supporting reputedly resulted in vote splitting and cost Bette the award. But this simply overlooks the fact that Anne Baxter’s Eve is clearly a leading character in All about Eve.

Anne Baxter was a rather limited and artificial actress with a tendency for overacting and that melodramatic acting style from the 40s. This all worked in her Oscar winning role in The Razor’s Edge because this part gave her a lot of emotional and heartbreaking scenes where her acting style either fitted the situation or wasn’t so noticeable because of the character’s miseries. But in All about Eve, Anne Baxter didn’t have the luxury of obvious tragedy but only had herself and the dialogue to rely on. And while she was able to use that wonderful dialogue wisely, her shortcomings as an actress become too obvious in this part.

As mentioned before, there is always something artificial about Anne Baxter’s acting. This does not refer to the fact that Eve is a character who is always pretending and acting herself, but simply to Anne Baxter’s entire performance. All about Eve is filled with performances that are alive and real and Anne Baxter can never keep up with them. When Eve meets Karen Richards for the first time outside the theatre, Anne Baxter moves like a robot, positioning herself in front of Celeste in the right angle for the camera which results in completely unnatural movements and line deliveries.

The biggest problem of Anne Baxter’s performances lies in her early misinterpretation of the character. The viewer is supposed to believe that Eve is not only shy and quiet but also immediately likeable in a way that would make a woman like Margo Channing give her a room in her house and make her fool everyone around her (except for Birdie). This ability to make almost everybody like and trust her is the most important quality in Eve’s character and considering that Eve is supposed to be such a great actress, it should not be too hard for her. But Anne Baxter’s performance is never able to show these qualities. When she is questioning Karen about Margo, there should be some kind of excitement and admiration, but Anne Baxter delivers her lines mostly bored, sometimes even threatening but always very stiff. She does not succeed in showing the allegedly innocence in Eve. When she finally meets Margo, it’s also such a lifeless scene because Anne Baxter again seems almost bored to be there. Her biggest failure is the scene when Eve is telling about her own life and her past. It’s these scenes that should connect Eve to the other characters but again, Anne Baxter delivers her lines with so much lifelessness and a monotonous voice that is constantly gasping for air that it’s impossible to believe that anyone would care for this woman in any way. The only way to make this scene even slightly moving is by highlighting it with depressing music in the background. The normal reaction should have been that Margo’s and Eve’s ways part after that encounter because Anne Baxter fails to show why Margo and her friends accept her in their group.

Anne Baxter’s lifeless performance also makes another important aspect of Eve’s character unbelieving: the fact that she is supposed to be a great actress ‘full of fire and music’. It’s absolutely impossible to believe that a woman like Eve could seriously challenge Margo on the stage.

What does succeed in Anne Baxter’s performance is her ability to show Eve’s longing for that stage. In these scenes, she shows that this is not only a desire, but even an obsession. When she watches Margo’s curtain call or talks about how important the applause from the audience is, her performance and her character become much more interesting. It’s in these scenes that Anne’s acting style works well in the context of the move. Next to that, she is also able to show how inexperienced Eve seems to be compared to everyone around her. Thanks to her acting style that separates her from all the other performances, Anne Baxter is also able to separate Eve from all the other characters. Even when they are interacting, Eve seems to be distant.

Of course it’s obvious that Eve is a character who is supposed to be constantly acting but it’s Anne Baxter’s job to never let the other characters or the viewer realize this. But since Anne Baxter is not able to show this in Eve, the final outcome where Eve’s true character is revealed doesn’t work as well as it could have in the hands of a better actress.

But the astonishing thing about Anne Baxter’s performance is that, as misinterpreted as it may be, it still works in the context of the film. Anne Baxter’s performance does not harm the movie in any way but surprisingly works in its overall context. The reason is that Anne’s performance is low-key and quiet enough to never draw attention to itself but melt with the rest of the cast and movie.

On the whole, Anne Baxter’s performance improves during the run of the movie because her scenes of anger or hidden evil are much better acted than those of silent obedience. Her smile when she tells Margo about her phone call to Bill is a great moment in her performance and suddenly the character of Eve appears from a different angle. Her most famous scene in the bathroom with Celeste Holm is very well done and Anne Baxter is able to nail the moment when Eve suddenly shows her true self. Whenever Anne Baxter can show the merciless and conniving side of Eve, her performance suddenly comes alive. But even then, there are still more over-the-top moments to come. Her big fight scene with Addison DeWitt is so over-the-top, overdone, melodramatic and unreal that it’s impossible not to laugh when Addison slaps her after her fake laugh or when one sees her over-the-top crying.

The final scene of Eve is clearly the best moment in Anne Baxter’s performance because here she shows how Eve really is – lazy, bossy and too arrogant to notice the obvious truth in front of her eyes.

It’s a performance of so much mixed feelings because Anne Baxter has the right instincts for the part. She shows the differences between the fake Eve, the evil Eve, the manipulating Eve, the scared Eve and the real Eve but her limited talent prevents her from combining her instincts with a truly great performance.

Anne Baxter wants to do everything right but unfortunately does a lot wrong in her performance but is nonetheless still able to create an interesting character thanks to the brilliant writing. For this, she gets

Best Actress 1950: Bette Davis in "All about Eve"

After having appeared in All about Eve, Bette Davis told director Joseph L. Mankiewicz: “You resurrected me from the dead” which may have been exaggerated but still described the situation quite well. After having been the most acclaimed dramatic actress at the end of the 30s and the beginning of the 40s, the quality of Bette’s work began to diminish and she appeared in mostly mediocre movies – until Mankiewicz offered her the part of the aging theatre diva Margo Channing in All about Eve. Her performance turned out to be an artistic comeback on the highest level for which she received her 8th Oscar nomination.

All about Eve tells the story of two women: one is Margo Channing, a great star of the New York theatre stage and the other is Eve Harrington, a young and aspiring actress who pretends to be Margo’s biggest fan but turns out to be a scheming manipulator who tries to get Margo’s next part.

The movie begins with an awards ceremony where the greatest achievements of the stage are awarded with the Sarah Siddons award while the viewer hears the voice of the theatre critic Addison DeWitt who explains the situation and presents the main characters of the story. Considering that Margo’s is such a great star and diva, her entrance is rather unspectacular. The camera suddenly cuts to her while DeWitt is introducing her to the viewer but Bette Davis movie star personality is already visible in this short scene. The way she rejects water in her drink, lights a fire or looks around her fits perfectly to DeWitt’s description that Margo is ‘a great star’ and that she will never be anything else. It’s an incredibly subtle introduction of a very real diva. When Eve Harrington receives the award for the best acting, Margo does not applaud. Instead, she seems to be curious to see what happens – and there seems also to be something knowing behind her face. With a few looks, Bette Davis shows there is a whole history behind her and Eve – a story that hasn’t been told yet.

From the first moment Bette Davis appears in the flashback scenes, she creates a multidimensional, larger-than-life but always very real theatre diva. Just like her character is supposed to be, she dominates the screen but she is able to make it look completely natural. Bette Davis never overacts any emotion but instead is able to be larger-than-life in a very subtle way that results in a very honest and believable characterization. She flawlessly demonstrates the self-assurance of Margo and how she is automatically the center of attention but Bette Davis never overshadows any of her co-stars but instead creates wonderful relations with them all: her chemistry with Celeste Holm, Thelma Ritter, Gary Merril and, of course, Anne Baxter, is fantastic and she never turns All about Eve into a Bette-Davis-movie but a wonderful ensemble piece instead.

But Bette Davis doesn’t stop at showing Margo’s self-confidence but very soon opens her characters up and demonstrates a certain vulnerability and uncertainty especially when it comes to her age. She is able to joke about that topic but it’s obvious that this is actually very serious and troubling for her because it’s concerning her professional and her private life. She is realizing that she is becoming too old for the parts she is playing and she is constantly worried that Bill, the love of her life who is younger than her, will someday leave her for a woman his own age.

As if all these worries wouldn’t be enough, she soon begins to doubt the intentions of Eve, the young girl whom she gave a room in her house and a job as her assistant. When she catches Eve with her own costume in front of a mirror, she seems rather amused but very soon she is not able to define Eve anymore. Bette plays this beginning suspicion very well.

She is especially impressive at the party scene because all of Margo’s worries and fears come together here and make her react in a sullen way. Bette convincingly shows that Margo hates herself for acting the way she does – being mean to everyone, unpleasant and suspicious but she simply can’t stop it. She feels hurt so she likes to hurt others. Bette is able to clearly show when Margo is her real self and when she is behaving in a fake, arrogant way when something is not going according to her wishes or she simply doesn’t know how to handle reality. And especially handling reality becomes more and more difficult for her as she realizes that she has come to a crucial point in her life where she can’t go on like this anymore.

Eve does not only threaten Margo with her youth but also with the simple fact that she is able to fool everyone else (except Margo’s friend Birdie). Suddenly, Margo is alone on her side. Eve seems to destroy the natural authority that a star like her has – her friends are on Eve’s side when Margo is behaving in the most temperamental way where she can’t hide her true feelings.

Bette Davis is able to show all the weak and strong sides of Margo and mixes them with wonderful sarcastic humor and so creates one of the most fascinating characters in movie history. It’s a very private portrayal of a larger-than-life woman. Bette shows that for this woman who is used to get everything she wants, the uncertainties of her life are becoming too much. Margo is in a phase in her life where she prevents herself from happiness because she doesn’t know how to react to all the changes.

But finally, Margo opens her thoughts and soul in a cold car on the side of the road. A fight with Bill seems to have provoked her to finally decide about her own life. She realizes that she turned herself into a stage character and that she must find herself again. It’s a great moment and Bette is able to deliver it without any self-pity but rather shows a thoughtful reflection on Margo’s character.

When she and Bill are finally getting engaged, Bette plays Margo with a wonderful openness and relaxedness that hasn’t been visible in her performance up to that point. She shows that Margo finally figured out what is good for her and how she wants her life to be.

Bette Davis delivers an astonishing and unforgettable portrayal of a great star at her personal crossroad and for this she gets

Best Actress 1950: Judy Holliday in "Born Yesterday"

Judy Holliday received her Best Actress Oscar for reprising her stage role as dumb blond Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday.

A ‘dumb blond’ is certainly not the kind of character one expects to find among the list of Best Actress winners since this type of role is usually reserved for the Supporting category where one can find nominees and winners like Jean Hagen, Mira Sorvino or Jennifer Tilly. This kind of role is also always better suited for a supporting part because as hilarious as Jean Hagen may be in Singin’ in the Rain – who would want to see a whole movie with her annoying Lina as the main character?

But Judy Holliday is the exception to the rule. The reason is that she was not only a comedic genius – she was also able to always make her characters incredibly deep and layered. She had the gift of a true comedian that she was able to bring a certain pathos to her parts and was able to switch between hilarious comedy and saddening moments in one second.

Actually, it is incorrect to say that Judy Holliday won for playing a dumb blond – because that’s not what Billie is. Billie is uneducated and ignorant – but she doesn’t mind it. In fact, she likes it because she knows that she doesn’t need to be smart for her role as the mistress of a rich tycoon. Her life is very simple and she knows how to handle it (“If he don’t act friendly…I don’t act friendly.”) Only when Paul opens her eyes for a different world, she realizes her own faults and tries to become a better person.

So, Billie is not a typical dumb blond and unlike a lot of other dumb blondes, she is also not a mean or unpleasant character. Instead, she is totally charming and loveable. One has no problem to have Billie as the central character because she is able to immediately captivate the audience and constantly show new sides of Billie. She shows that there is always a sadness behind her face. It’s obvious that she isn’t really satisfied with her life but she doesn’t realize that herself. She needs help to discover her own inner feelings.

Judy Holliday is able to show how Billie’s character, her thoughts and ideals begin to change but she also stays faithful to the character. Billie doesn’t become a genius but instead, she simply starts to think on her own and begins to see the world differently.

It’s an incredibly multidimensional and deep characterization that is done in the most subtle way because Judy Holliday never draws any attention to her performance itself. Instead, she understands how to maximize the comedy aspect while slowly creating a character that is so much more than visible on the first look.

Judy Holliday is able to make Billie very real, insecure, sad but also incredibly hilarious. She uses her voice to deliver even the most banal lines in the most unforgettable way – even things like “Yes, you.”, “Wait a minute.” or simply “Harry.” are so funny because Judy delivers them in the greatest way. She offers an expertly crafted performance that emphasizes the comedy in every possible situation but never comes across as over-rehearsed, mistimed or forced upon the audience. In this part, Judy Holliday had to walk a very thin line between being hilariously amazing or a complete disaster and she constantly succeeded.

Who can forget the scene when she is playing the radio and starts to sing-along while they are having guests or the scene when she is playing cards with Harry. In this one, Judy shows that Billie is an excellent player and underlines the fact that Billie can be good at something once she is taught about it.

Judy has such a natural talent for comedy that is always visible and makes her such a charming and joyful presence. Her best line delivery may be
Billie: "Could you do me a favor, Harry?"
Harry: "What?"
Billie: "Drop dead."

But not only does she do an amazing job concerning the comedy, she also handles the more serious aspects in the greatest way. When she talks about her father and her distance to him, she shows the viewer a very troubled side of Billie that would never have been expected.

The screenplay actually shows that Billie is a very suggestible character – she doesn’t become smarter herself but instead is formed by William Holden’s character who teaches her his own beliefs and thoughts. But Judy Holliday is still able to show that Billie always keeps control over everything that happens to her and that she is much more aware of the happenings around her than people may think. She may not know a lot of things, but she understands.

Judy Holliday delivered a comedic tour-de-force in Born Yesterday that carries this movie and turns it into one of the great comedies while never forgetting to show also more serious sides of the character. For this, she gets

Best Actress 1950

The next year is 1950 and the nominees were

Anne Baxter in All about Eve

Bette Davis in All about Eve

Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday

Eleanor Parker in Caged

Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard