The nominees were ...
- Ronald Colman in A Double Life
- John Garfield in Body and Soul
- Gregory Peck in Gentleman's Agreement
- William Powell in Life With Father
- Michael Redgrave in Mourning Becomes Electra
... when they should have been ...
- Charles Chaplin in Monsieur Verdoux
- John Garfield in Body and Soul
- Burt Lancaster in Brute Force
- James Mason in Odd Man Out
- Tyrone Power in Nightmare Alley
And the Oscar went to ...
In this enjoyable, literate melodrama with a script by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin and directed by George Cukor the one weak link is Colman, who stretches credulity as a renowned tragedian whose off-stage personality reflects his on-stage roles. Preparing to play Othello, he murders an innocent waitress (Shelley Winters) and suspects his publicist (Edmond O'Brien) of having an affair with his ex-wife (Signe Hasso), who is playing Desdemona. Colman's award is one of those Oscars the Academy frequently presents to the right people for the wrong roles. Playing Shakespeare and going mad weren't in Colman's usual repertoire as a suave leading man, and he had thirty years' experience in movies with no previous Oscars, which made him a shoo-in. He began his film career in Britain and came to the States in 1920, becoming a dashing figure first in silents and then, thanks to his beautiful voice, moved easily into talkies. He took the Oscar as a signal to quit while he was ahead, and made only a handful of film appearances afterward, devoting himself to a radio and later TV situation comedy, "The Halls of Ivy," before his death in 1958.
... when it should have gone to ...
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| John Garfield |
Before Brando, Clift, and Dean revolutionized film acting, they had a great precursor in Garfield. He grew up poor in the rougher parts of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, where he learned to box but also contracted the scarlet fever that weakened his heart and led to his death at thirty-nine in 1952. Failing in school and on the verge of dropping out, he was sent to a school that specialized in hard cases, where he was put into speech therapy to cure his stammer. Impressed with his progress, his teacher encouraged him to take acting lessons, which led eventually to studies with Maria Ouspenskaya and other expatriate former members of the Moscow Art Theatre devoted to the teachings of Stanislavsky. He made his Broadway debut in 1932, and became a member of the legendary Group Theater founded by Cheryl Crawford, Harold Clurman, and Lee Strassberg. Garfield attracted the notice of Hollywood with his performance in the Group's production of Clifford Odets's Awake and Sing, and signed a contract with Warner Bros., which changed his name from Jacob Garfinkle to John Garfield. His first major role, in Four Daughters, landed him his first Oscar nomination. He was kept out of combat in World War II when his heart condition was discovered, but was continually in conflict with Warners over the roles he was offered. When his contract was up in 1946, he formed his own production company and financed Body and Soul himself. Filming the strenuous boxing scenes, he suffered a heart attack and a concussion, but the stress brought on by the congressional investigation into communist activity in the film industry may have been a chief contributor to his early death. Like many of the people associated with the film -- director Robert Rossen, screenwriter Abraham Polonsky, and co-stars Anne Revere and Canada Lee -- he was investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee. Called before the committee, Garfield refused to name names of people thought to have communist connections, and was threatened with blacklisting. He returned to the stage in 1952 to perform in a revival of Clifford Odets's Golden Boy, which had been written with him in mind, though the part went to another actor when it was first produced. He died soon after the end of that run.
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| Garfield in Body and Soul |
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| Artie Dorrell and Garfield in a fight scene from Body and Soul |
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