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. Helen Hayes in The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1932)
30. Jane Fonda in Coming Home (1978)
31. Greer Garson in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
32. Doris Day in Pillow Talk (1959)
33. Meryl Streep in One True Thing (1998)
34. Deborah Kerr in From Here to Eternity (1953)
35. Katharine Hepburn in Guess who’s coming to dinner (1967)
36. Marsha Mason in Chapter Two (1979)
37. Jane Wyman in The Yearling (1946)
38. Teresa Wright in The Pride of the Yankees (1942)
39. Jennifer Jones in Love Letters (1945)
40. Ellen Burstyn in Same Time, Next Year (1978)
41. Susan Hayward in My Foolish Heart (1949)
42. Vanessa Redgrave in Mary, Queen of Scots (1971)
43. Diane Keaton in Marvin's Room (1996)
44. Loretta Young in Come to the Stable (1949)
45. Mary Pickford in Coquette (1928-29)
46. Sissy Spacek in The River (1984)
47. Shirley MacLaine in The Turning Point (1977)
48. Irene Dunne in Cimarron (1930-1931)
49. Ruth Chatterton in Madame X (1928-29)
50. Diana Wynyard in Cavalcade (1932-1933)
Helen Hayes as Madelon Claudet in The Sin of Madelon Claudet
When I look
at my ongoing experiment to rank all Best Actress nominees and look back at my
first trial many years ago, I suddenly realize that Helen Hayes’s performance
is probably the one that I have downgraded the most. This actually hurts me as
hers is a performance I actually like very much but trying to be as objective
as possible, I now think that there are various aspects that I don’t admire as
much anymore as I used to and the kind of role in this kind of movie is also
not so highly on my list anymore.
But even
though, one thing is perfectly clear – coming right after Ruth Chatterton in a
very similar role (the suffering secret mother), Helen Hayes seems at first
almost like a revelation, simply because her work feels much more relaxed and
modern in many moments and most of the time never feels as dated and
over-melodramatic as Ruther Chatterton in Madame X. Even if there are
exceptions. It’s clear that Helen Hayes, even though a stage actress just like
Ruth Chatterton, understood the medium of film much better. But it has to be
said that she also benefitted from better material. While both Madame X and The
Sin of Madelon Claudet are no masterpieces, Madelon Claudet at least feels a
bit more lively and entertaining and moves at a much better pace. It was a
clear sign that movies had developed a lot during those few years.
But again,
The Sin of Madelon Claudet is no masterpiece – far from it. It succeeds in
telling an entertaining and touching story and it is, without a doubt,
perfectly designed as a showcase for its leading lady. Already hailed as a true
sensation on the stage and one of the most admired performers in the American
theatre, Helen Hayes’s movie debut was certainly anticipated by critics at the
time – and they weren’t disappointed. While the flaws of the movie were recognized
right away (and according to Helen Hayes, even led to fear during the making of
the movie that the whole thing would be cancelled at some point), Helen Hayes
was able to survive all this and win the Best Actress Oscar, apparently earning
more votes than her two co-nominees combined. The win did however not lead to an
exciting movie career, even if she would win a second Oscar almost 40 years
later. She mostly starred in forgettable movies (of course with some exceptions, mainly A Farewell to Arms) and later returned to the
stage, acting only occasionally in movies. Her was a career that more defined
by “respect” than by “stardom” – she was always valued very highly by critics
and her peers (she was apparently Spencer Tracy’s favorite screen actress), of
course later winning the elusive “EGOT” but she never turned into a true star.
Audiences wept when they saw her suffering mother in The Sin of Madelon Claudet
but Helen Hayes never had that certain star appeal. Apparently, she went on a
promotion tour for the movie with producer Irving Thalberg with his wife and movie
fans couldn’t push Helen Hayes out off the way fast enough to get a look at the
glamourous Norma Shearer. Obviously, all this doesn’t matter when evaluating
performances but it makes it easier to understand why she reached the top so
quickly on the big screen but never achieved the same effect in movies as she
did on the stage.
So, what
about her performance in The Sin of Madelon Claudet? What’s the reason for me
to downgrade her work despite liking it? I think the main factor why I still
appreciate her work is that Helen Hayes was a lovely and relaxed screen
presence and she handled many of the script’s faults very well and overall
carried the whole movie on her small shoulders, making a story that should make me roll my eyes all the time bearable. My main reason for letting her slip
down in my ranking is the fact that there are still many scenes that make her
stage roots too visible and the script often also prevents her from going
deeper and sometimes simply doesn’t allow her to go beyond the obvious plea for
tears…
Helen Hayes’s
work right away unfortunately starts on the wrong foot. Her first scene with
her lover in her bedroom feels like a filmed scene on the stage and I
would like to know if this was also the first scene that had been shot…Helen
Hayes clearly feels much too limited here and the way she moves her body and
her hands suggests a performance for the last row of the balcony – not overdone
but too obvious. She becomes much more alive and natural in her next scene when
she shares a little apartment with the man she loves. The way she puts his cold
feet in warm water, tries to hide her tears or angrily talks to a man who
insults his paintings are done very well and feel surprisingly modern – but again,
with just a hint of “too obviously unforced” meaning that it’s so obvious that
she tries to appear relaxed and spontaneous that the effect is sometimes
destroyed. After this, life begins to go downwards for Madelon Claudet very
quickly – her lover goes back to America and even though he promises to come
back, he never does. But the “sin” of living with this man soon forces Madelon
to pay a price when she gets a child. Helen Hayes does some of her best work in
the scene right after giving birth – Madelon doesn’t want the child and doesn’t
even want to see it but when it is put next to her, you can see her feelings
change to a sudden and unconditional love. It’s a clumsy scene in itself but all
credit goes to Helen Hayes for making it work and thus laying the base for the
story that follows.
I also
enjoy a later scene when she plans to wed a man from her village – but he will
only accept her as a wife without her child. Madelon refuses and her father
plainly ask her “Have you no shame” to which she replies “Not about this”. She
delivers these lines very matter-of-fact, even a bit amused and that way
prevents them from becoming melodramatic. I can just imagine Ruth Chatterton, widening
her eyes, shrieking “Not about”, changing her voice to a dramatic whisper “thissss”.
After this, Madelon becomes the mistress of a rich man and while these parts of the movie offer
the least interesting opportunities for Helen Hayes, I still appreciate that
she never makes Madelon appear like a gold-digger – she evokes the feeling that
Madelon appreciates the chances she gets but that she also truly cares for this
man and wouldn’t be his mistress if she didn’t. Her weakest moments appear when
it is revealed that he is actually a criminal and they get taken away by the
police and he commits suicide in a full restaurant. The way Helen Hayes
reacts to she shot is too over-the-top, wrinkling up her face in pain and screaming
“Carlos!”
If you thought
by now “Wow, there is a lot happening to Madelon but isn’t the movie about a
prostitute?” Yes, that comes later. If you’re thinking now “Wow, there is
really a lot happening to her in general”, again yes. This is also what is
working against Helen Hayes. The movie rushes through the life of Madelon in
little episodes, throwing her from one extreme to the other as if it never
really knew what to do with her. In this way, it resembles another movie with
an Oscar-winning lead performance, The three Faces of Eve, another movie that
sometimes appeared like a test scene for an actress, not knowing what to do
with her and therefore just letting her do everything. The same happened her
more than 20 years earlier. Helen Hayes gets to play poor, she gets to play
rich, she gets to play proper, she gets to play immoral – it’s thanks to her
talent and screen presence that she was able to still tell this story
convincingly but she cannot overcome many of the screenplay’s faults.
Helen Hayes's overall
strongest scenes come when Madelon gets out of prison after 10 years. She feels
more spontaneous and authentic in this moment than many other actresses of that
era, famously touching the leaves of a tree, reacting amused to the new fashion style or being determined to walk the stairs of the prison down alone. When she later
meets her son again, it’s another highlight for her – she truly shines when she
doesn’t let him know her real identity and tells him his mother was dead; it’s
obviously again meant to create tears but never feels manipulative.
Interestingly,
the most famous part of the story – Madelon Claudet becomes a prostitute to
support her son – only takes up about 5 minutes of the whole movie. After those
5 minutes, Madelon is an old woman who visits her son, now a successful doctor,
one more time. Again, it’s a manipulative moment and Helen Hayes sometimes
takes it a bit too far in her “old cute lady” act but you have a feeling that
after all she endured, Madelone deserves that moment.
So, it’s a touching
portrayal of a character and a plot that has been done countless times and when
it comes to performances in talking movies, Helen Hayes was the first Best
Actress winner who really felt “natural” in her acting and there are many
moments where she truly shines but she is also obviously too new to the medium
in some moments and the script never allows her to create a truly deep character
– after following Madelon her entire life, you don’t see any noticeable change
in her, even after all her hardships and tragedies and you never really learned
anything about her as a character. Still, it’s a strong piece of work that elevates
an otherwise forgettable film.
