Showing posts with label Katharine Hepburn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Katharine Hepburn. Show all posts

Best Actress, 1940

Awards presented February 27, 1941

The nominees were ... 
... when they should have been ... 
Ginger Rogers in Kitty Foyle.

Rogers's Oscar looks a bit like one of those semihonorary awards that get presented to performers who have done better work in better films but somehow never got rewarded for it. She had been in the movies since the early 1930s, and in addition to the magical teaming with Fred Astaire, had given delightful performances in Stage Door and Bachelor Mother, among other films. Her career lasted into the 1950s, and in 1965 she came out of semiretirement to appear on Broadway in Hello, Dolly! Rogers had a special quality of being bold but not brassy -- the girl next door, if that girl happens to be a sensational dancer and gifted comedian.

... when it should have gone to ...
Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story.

One of the most professionally made romantic comedies ever to come out of Hollywood, a tribute to taste and talent, particularly that of Cary Grant, James Stewart, director George Cukor, and Donald Ogden Stewart, who adapted Philip Barry's play for the screen. But mostly to that of Hepburn, who had worked with Barry on the play, turning what had often seemed like her weaknesses -- artificiality and condescension -- into integral parts of the character, and then allowing her to transcend them at the end. She had bought the rights to the filming of the play and used it to revive her screen career, which had stalled. After the commercial failure of Bringing Up Baby was blamed on Hepburn, who had been labeled "box office poison" on an infamous list compiled by a theater owners' organization, she bought her way out of her contract at RKO, went to Broadway and had a smash with Barry's play, and returned able to name her terms in a new contract at MGM.

Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart in The Philadelphia Story 

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Best Actress, 1935

Awards presented March 5, 1936

The Academy was still indicating who placed second and third. Katharine Hepburn placed second in the voting. Elisabeth Bergner came in third.

The nominees were ... 
... when they should have been ... 
It's generally accepted that the Oscar went to Davis because she had been stiffed for her performance the previous year in Of Human Bondage. But since I gave her an Oscar for that one, I don't feel obliged to reward her for acting in this junky but enjoyable melodrama. 

... when it should have gone to ... 

Katharine Hepburn and Fred MacMurray in Alice Adams
Alice Adams was one of Hepburn's greatest roles, and if Bette Davis hadn't been rewarded for the previous year's snub, it's very likely that Hepburn would have won; as it is, she placed second. Booth Tarkington's study of small-town pretentiousness and snobbery seems almost tailor-made for her jittery intensity. Fred MacMurray, an underrated actor never given his due -- at least a nomination -- by the Academy, is a perfect foil, the groundedness of his character in contrast to Alice's flightiness. The happy ending seems unearned, however. Hattie McDaniel deserves special mention for her wonderful performance as the untrained servant at an awful dinner party, held in wilting heat, that's designed to impress MacMurray. 
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Best Actress, 1932-33

Awards presented March 16, 1934
(Films released from August 1, 1932 through December 31, 1933 were eligible.)

 The nominees were ... 
... when they should have been ... 
Katharine Hepburn in Morning Glory. The Academy had four Hepburn pictures to choose from: A Bill of Divorcement, Christopher Strong, Morning Glory, and Little Women were all eligible. It's easy to see why they chose this one over the first two -- A Bill of Divorcement was her debut and Christopher Strong was a notorious flop. Morning Glory to some extent recapitulates Hepburn's own experiences. In it she plays a small-town girl who comes to the big city determined to become a Broadway star. Born to a well-to-do New England family, Hepburn was also stagestruck, and she managed to launch an acting career in 1928 without much training or experience. An RKO scout saw her in her first stage success in 1932, a play called The Warrior's Husband, and signed her to a contract. But in Morning Glory she's still tentative as a screen actress and director Lowell Sherman does little to help. She needed a "women's director" like George Cukor to bring out her strengths. 

... when it should have gone to ... 

Joan Bennett, Spring Byington, Jean Parker, Frances Dee, and Katharine Hepburn in Little Women 
And for Little Women she got Cukor, who did just that. Plus, she had a beloved classic American novel with a role -- the tomboyish Jo March -- that fit her perfectly. It could be said that the Oscar for Morning Glory was as much for her work on Little Women, which was a box-office hit, but on the other hand it also seems prophetic. Again and again, the Oscar went to Hepburn for the wrong movies: the didactic Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, the talky The Lion in Winter, and the slushy On Golden Pond. She now holds the record for most Oscar wins, but it's something of a fluke that she got them for some very weak movies instead of for films that she helped make into classics, such as Little Women, Alice Adams, Stage Door, Bringing Up Baby, Holiday, The Philadelphia Story, Adam's Rib, Pat and Mike, The African Queen and Long Day's Journey Into Night.  
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