Best Actress 1952 was a year with a clear runaway favorite to win, as only one performance had won the New York Film Critics Circle Award, the Golden Globe, the National Board of Review - and, hell, even the Tony Award! The Oscar was just the last step in an inevitable march for Shirley Booth:
Her competition included Susan Hayward, the only actress anyone considered a viable threat; Julie Harris, who also recreated a role she played on Broadway; and, in their only direct competition against each other, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis. The nominees:
Shirley Booth as Lola Delaney
Come Back, Little Sheba
***
only nomination; Golden Globe winner for Best Actress - Drama, National Board of Review's Best Actress of 1952, NYFCC Awards winner for Best Actress; BAFTA Award nominee for Best Foreign Actress [in 1953]
Perfects obnoxious kindness. She's sincere and there's not a mean bone in her body, but she talks too much, reveals too much, pries too much, and can't seem to stop talking. Booth plays the fear of the silence, filling up her long lonely days with music and forced conversation, giving you a woman who has struggled but is still determined to be and do good - but, God, if she'd only read the room! She's like a girl still, and maybe the years of stagnation have allowed her to maintain that. I wish it were a better-written role.
Joan Crawford as Myra Hudson Blaine
Sudden Fear
*****
past winner, third and final nomination; Golden Globe nominee for Best Actress - Drama
Love this performance. Definitive in every decision she makes, whether it's firing a performer or changing her will, a certainty that goes hand-in-hand with the kind of careless dismissal she possesses when discussing her finances and privileges - it has never occurred to her to do things other than the way she wants to. The fact that this is challenged by the new man in her life clearly excites her, Crawford lets us see in the eyes the way she's won over by this charming challenge; when that challenge becomes a deadly conspiracy, Crawford again lets us see in the eyes the fear, helplessness, and, finally, determination to survive. Without having to say anything, she tells us why she can't go to the cops, but will instead have to kill. Her performance in the entire last thirty minutes will have your entire body coiled.
Bette Davis as Margaret Elliot
The Star
***
It feels a little rude, just two years removed from Margo Channing and here's Davis playing an Oscar-winning legend in the dregs of her career. It's a bad screenplay, but Davis at least attacks the role with vigor and wit. She's not afraid to play humiliation, as witness her disastrous screen test and subsequent viewing of it. Throughout, she shows you the little tricks and adjustments she uses in real life to "play" herself, tricks she never uses with her daughter.
Julie Harris as Frankie Addams
The Member of the Wedding
*****
only nomination
A 27-year-old playing a 12-year-old tomboy, full of the to-the-balcony physicality and twitchiness that makes a Broadway performance work but risks coming off like a lost Kristen Wiig character on film. It's bizarre. It's a lot. It's terrific. Maybe only a full-grown woman could know enough to so completely capture not just the awkwardness of adolescence, but the existential despair of not knowing who you are or what you want while all the while being very aware that Life is about to happen. Emotions and loyalties turn on a dime, you hate and love everyone, and whatever you say, you mean, even when you really don't. A perfect marriage of performer and role.
Susan Hayward as Jane Froman
With a Song in My Heart
****
third of five nominations; Golden Globe winner for Best Actress - Comedy or Musical
A real movie star performance, perhaps because Hayward gets to play a star (Froman specifically requested Hayward play her). It's no wonder she shines even just lip-syncing to Froman's voice: when you need someone to convey presence and power and connection to an audience, Hayward's your girl. Alongside that, she projects humility: she knows she's good, but she never takes the fans for granted, always remembers her success in the context of the struggle before. The way she plays the America Medley clinches the nom, for me.
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I am very torn between Crawford and Harris but, gosh, I'm going with the performance I have thought about almost every day since seeing it:
JULIE HARRIS
in
THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING
Tomorrow, the nominees for Best Director: Cecil B. DeMille (The Greatest Show on Earth), John Ford (The Quiet Man), John Huston (Moulin Rouge), Joseph L. Mankiewicz (5 Fingers), and Fred Zinnemann (High Noon).
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