Before seeing this film, I was inclined to agree with the OP. But now I think 1937 was one of those rare great years for strong, diverse, incomparable lead actress performances, along with 1962, 2002, 2004, and this past year (2013). I would have been happy with any of the nominees except one, really. Each woman is excelling in a unique role and genre.
I can totally see why Luise Rainer won. The poster above me says that had she lost, no one would be complaining about it all these years later. Well, I can get why people have issues with the blackface or even the part and the performance. But such a statement is unfair because Rainer had just won the year before and so no one would have held it against the Academy for refusing to award her a second win so soon afterward, unless it was a Sophie's Choice-level performance (which I'm sorry to say nothing this year was). Also, no one would complain if Rainer hadn't won because she up and quit the industry afterward, so few remember her today. She was more of an actor than a movie star personality like the most successful actors of her day, including her competition, but there's no telling how far Rainer's career could have gone had she stuck it out and played the game.
The part is rather one-dimensional, but I can totally see why she won. She has the most expressive face of anyone in her era. At first I thought she was a bit too mannered or over the top in this film, but I think it wasn't really any failing on her part but a reflection of the direction, which wasn't exactly going for subtlety. And yes, the part is actually a bit one-note, but her performance is so lived-in and intense. And I honestly think she had more screentime and impact than Muni. If you can get past the blackface and you don't find the film too sentimental or forced, then Rainer is terrific. I don't know if I would have given her my win that year, especially given her win the year prior (and for such a trite performance, though that year was so weak that I don't know who else I might have voted for; Lombard?). But this is a truly individual piece of acting.
I can see why Greta Garbo's performance in Camille was considered one of the greats of the era, and it's undeniably one of the all-time greats of the romantic melodrama genre. These films don't get made anymore because there are few classical literary works left to adapt. I agree Garbo shows a wider range of emotion than her fellow nominees, and I loved her screen presence and performances and think she definitely deserved to take home an Oscar in her lifetime. Camille would have been a fine choice, but I'm not sure it's my favorite performance of hers. I loved her in Grand Hotel, one of the first big films she did, and though it's not the most complex role, it remains my favorite film of hers and her most swoon-worthy performance, if that makes sense. I haven't seen Helen Hayes's Oscar-winning performance from that year (and there's another actress who unnecessarily won a second Oscar). But otherwise Garbo would have had my vote. I also really liked her in Queen Christina because it was one of her more distinctive, strong-willed parts. However, that year was also competitive and that role didn't have the same range of emotion as some of her others, so I can't say she should have won that year.
I do understand why voters might not have been bowled over by Camille after seeing Garbo's previous films. Again, unlike Rainer, she was more of a movie star than an actress, as accomplished and naturalistic as she was. She certainly has a way with words and Camille is probably her most fully realized performance with the broadest range of emotion, so I think she was just as if not more deserving than Rainer. But Camille is not my favorite movie of hers (everything around her is a bit slow and stagy). And to audiences of the era who had already ripped off Garbo before, it would have been seen as more of the same.
My other two picks for Best Actress are possibly objectively less worthy but still brilliant to me. Barbara Stanwyck in Stella Dallas has one of the all-time great women's weepie performances. Like Garbo, it's not my favorite performance of hers, and most would certainly agree that she scaled greater heights in Double Indemnity, among others. But Stanwyck, if like Garbo more a movie star than an actor, was nevertheless one of the most versatile actresses of her time, of all time. A moving dramatic actress. Like Garbo, this film feels like a bit more of the same if you've already seen Stanwyck's more famous performances. Yet don't forget that this was one of her earliest performances, and her first nomination, so it wasn't familiar at the time. Most of this film is fine but unremarkable apart from the subject matter. But if anyone deserved an Oscar for one final scene, it was Stanwyck in Stella Dallas. In that last scene, her choices are perhaps more expressive and devastating than all of Rainer's Good Earth scenes put together. (And again, that's no knock on Rainer's highly accomplished performance, but just a reflection of her more thinly written, submissive character.) Of all the women nominated that year, Stanwyck had the longest career because she had a unique look but wasn't trading on her looks, because she could do comedy and drama, because she had both an expressive face and a way with dialogue.
Finally, next to her dramatic rivals, Irene Dunne in The Awful Truth seems trite, but this is one of the all-time great lead actress performances in a romantic comedy, from a performer who had already excelled in melodramas and musicals. Comedies don't get their respect, and I don't think any character had as much personality and life that year as Dunne drunkenly singing Gone with the Wind. And like Stanwyck and Garbo, she had a prolific career but never got THE role to bring her a competitive Oscar.
The last nominee, Janet Gaynor, was being recognized for her comeback performance in A Star Is Born. Like Rainer, she was a quietly affecting, endearing performer. Her best performance was probably in Sunrise, and she deservedly won the first Oscar that year for her work in that silent classic as well as 7th Heaven. I think A Star Is Born is a classic tragic story and Gaynor is certainly worthy of the nomination, proving once again she could chart a character from innocence to personal loss, this time in sound and color. But especially knowing she had already won, I think the nomination was her reward this time.
Also good that year were Carole Lombard in Nothing Sacred (perhaps her best performance, actually, but again, the problem of a less substantial role and the "more of the same" factor) and Katharine Hepburn in Stage Door (how strong a year it is when Kate isn't even nominated for a good film).
So I can see why Rainer was worthy of her second win, even if she wasn't an immediately iconic film presence, and even if she won the year before for a relatively trite and forgettable part. Irene Dunne is giving perhaps my favorite performance of the group, the most surprising and obviously the funniest. Stanwyck's character has the most personal growth and the single most heartbreaking final display of emotion. Garbo has the most range of emotion, especially in her dialogue, in the most iconic role of the group, and she carries her film more than anyone else in the lineup, even if she is mostly shot in full. And Rainer is doing the most transformative, actorly work of anyone, in an important period piece, and has the most closeups to show off her unparalleled expressive face. I guess knowing what I know now, I would have voted for Garbo, or even Dunne to make sure she won once, given that she never came close again. But in some ways Rainer and Stanwyck are also the best.
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larkpraise
9 years ago
Rainer was brilliant in "The Good Earth". Garbo was superb in "Camille". Gaynor was exceptional in "A Star is Born" but Fredric March really stole the picture. Dunne, as always, was excellent in "The Awful Truth" but we know Academy voters don't usually go for comedic performances. But Stanwyck was THE BEST in my humble opinion because she showed the many facets of a difficult character and made the unlikable, likable of Stella. It was a great year for actresses and all five were Oscar Worthy and I have no complaints about Rainer receiving her second Oscar. I would have been happy had Garbo, Gaynor or Dunne won as well. But Stanwyck was incandescently superior, especially in the last scene. All actresses nominated that year were deserving.
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