I have REALLY enjoyed reading your rankings!! I have not seen all of these performances, so it is cool to be able to read your analysis of them. I agree with most of them so far, and also 100% agree with your #1 Best Actress ranking (Charlize).

My #1 Supporting Actress would definitely go to Sandy Dennis, so interested in seeing where you rank her!

GREAT job!

i am loving all your work. i do agree with most of your rankings, but for lead actress could you give us an explanation like you gave for these performances on why you have charlize theron in first place? you probably already know that i think it's one of the most criminally overrated performances ever, and i'm really confused since i watched 'the miracle worker' just this week, so it's my freshest lead performance, and WOW. anne bancroft is just outstanding that i can't understand how you rank her 10 places below charlize... please don't take this as an offense, i am loving and respecting your work here, it's very informative

Fritz let me just say I love your analysis to Renee Zellweger so much. Though she was not my personal choice that year [Shohreh Aghdashloo was] but your analysis highlighted what everybody loved about that performance and why Renee was also deserving in getting that damn Oscar.

I hope Marcia Gay Harden lands on the top ten!

quote:

Originally posted by iskolar:

I hope Marcia Gay Harden lands on the top ten!

So do I!

quote:

Originally posted by vozas:
interesting that you mentioned corinna harfouch from 'untergang'. she's the one who plays goebbel's wife right? i too thought she was fantastic, definitely better than anyone on the category

Yeah, she played Frau Goebbels! I agree with you, she's amazing, one of the most chilling portrayals of 'evil' that I have ever seen.

quote:

Originally posted by JOSE:
My friend Fritz, i will still like you anyway.
Seriously from the list the one I hate is Cloris´s performance... and as i told you everyone here loves her. then there is another one i dislike or i dont find such a good thing and i know you love her... and the one you think that i might dislike, i didnt vote against her when i had the chance to do it back on the forums...) But definetely the one i like from here, she wont be in your top 10. i will be surprised if that happens. :-)

LOL, that is one confusing post...
The one I like is the thing you don't like but I think you think I like the thing that I like...

Mmh, I know that you really love Maggie and Rita, don't worry about them (they might not be as good as you hope, but I still treat them nicely!)

quote:

Originally posted by Troy:
I have REALLY enjoyed reading your rankings!! I have not seen all of these performances, so it is cool to be able to read your analysis of them. I agree with most of them so far, and also 100% agree with your #1 Best Actress ranking (Charlize).

My #1 Supporting Actress would definitely go to Sandy Dennis, so interested in seeing where you rank her!

GREAT job!

Thank you!

quote:

Originally posted by vozas:
i am loving all your work. i do agree with most of your rankings, but for lead actress could you give us an explanation like you gave for these performances on why you have charlize theron in first place? you probably already know that i think it's one of the most criminally overrated performances ever, and i'm really confused since i watched 'the miracle worker' just this week, so it's my freshest lead performance, and WOW. anne bancroft is just outstanding that i can't understand how you rank her 10 places below charlize... please don't take this as an offense, i am loving and respecting your work here, it's very informative

Thank you!
I published that ranking here on Goldderby about 3 years ago and did a little analyses about each winner, too. I don't think it would be good if I do it again...
I can send you my thoughts about her as Private Message later...
And about Anne Bancroft: I, too, think she is amazing, I mean, she is in my Top 10 and I am very selective about who is allowed to join there top positions! I am actually rather proud of having her so high because it is generally an overlooked performance and most people today seem to think that Bette Davis shoule have gotten it ( )

quote:

Originally posted by iskolar:
Fritz let me just say I love your analysis to Renee Zellweger so much. Though she was not my personal choice that year [Shohreh Aghdashloo was] but your analysis highlighted what everybody loved about that performance and why Renee was also deserving in getting that damn Oscar.

19: Tatum O'Neal as Addie Loggins in Paper Moon


It was not easy to judge Tatum’s performance because it is well known that her performance is a result of clever directing and shooting scenes up to 70 times until she got it right. But in the end, I decided to only judge what’s on the screen and that is one absolutely adorable and funny performance.
Yes, of course she is leading! I mean, she is in almost every scene of that movie. But the Academy gave her the Oscar for supporting…
Tatum is simply too cute and funny to be true. Her chemistry with Ryan is wonderful, he always acting like a child while she seems more like the grown-up. Especially their conversations in the car are a highlight.
I love it how she always reminds him that he owes her money and the way the says “Then get it!” at the restaurant or that "**** off"-looks she gives him when he wants her to stop smoking and she just continues...
It’s a wonderful naturally performance, nothing seems forced.
And you have to love her when she makes her little tricks with people (“It was twenty dollar bill!”) or when she says to Mose “No, I don’t know what scruples are but if you got them then it’s a sure thing that they belong to somebody else!
And her scenes in the hotel are maybe the best. When she wants to trick that guy into going up to Miss Trixie’s room and she tells him “You won’t be sorry” with a you-know-what-I-mean-look.
It’s an incredible grown-up performance, Addie is a real three-dimensional person. The way she cares about the poor people, always wanting to help and she is so touching at the end when Mose brings her to her aunt and you see her sad face…
It may be a manipulated performance, but I don’t care. I think Tatum is outstanding and it's easily one of the great child performances!


Best performance of the movie: Tatum O’Neal

My own choice for the win that year: Tatum O'Neal or Madeline Kahn

Oh can I just make a little request? can you PM me your thoughts regarding the Best Actress winners this decade from the post you made?

Or better If you have more time, then you can PM me the whole list.

That would be very much appreciated Thanks!

18: Catherine Zeta-Jones as Velma Kelly in Chicago


Catherine Zeta-Jones gives the kind of musical performance that I wanted from Jennifer Hudson but didn’t get: full of energy and incredibly entertaining. Her singing and dancing are amazing and even though she doesn’t have a lot of difficult acting parts, her Velma is one of those bitches you have to love. She works wonderful opposite Renée Zellweger, going from intimidating diva to sorry loser.
Her rendition of “All that Jazz” is one the greatest opening numbers ever and from that moment on she dominates everyone around her whenever she is onscreen. I also love the “**** you” look she gives the cops when they enter during her number.
And even though you have six great women in the “Cell Block Tango”, Catherine is still the highpoint. And her “I can’t do it alone” number is nothing more than a showcase for everything Catherine has to offer: great looks, great voice, great dancing skills!
As I said, her acting parts a few, but she still has some great scenes: Her “****” when Roxie pretends to be pregnant and her scene in the witness stand, when she has to read the diary and says “I’m a little out of practice” and dramatically begins “What a laugh…” are just great.
And in the end, when she says to Roxie “There is only one business in this world where that is not a problem” you know that these two really can get away with everything – even murder.
I just love Musicals and if the actor knows how to sing and dance and does it with so much energy as Catherine Zeta-Jones, then I have no problems to give a great place in my ranking!


Best performance of the movie: Renée Zellweger

My own choice for the win that year: Catherine Zeta-Jones

quote:

Originally posted by iskolar:
Oh can I just make a little request? can you PM me your thoughts regarding the Best Actress winners this decade from the post you made?

Or better If you have more time, then you can PM me the whole list.

That would be very much appreciated Thanks!

Mmh, yes, I can do that, but I am not on my own computer right now...But I will send it to you in the next time...
But I have to say that my comments on the Best Actress winners aren't so detailed as the ones I did for the Best Supporting Actress winners.

17: Claire Trevor as Gaye Dawn in Key Largo


Claire Trevor plays Gaye, the mistress of gangster Johnny Rocko. She used to be a great singer but now she has turned into an alcoholic and spends almost the whole movie begging for a drink which Johnny won’t give her.
Claire Trevor’s performance is so outstanding because she is always a character on the edge – always shaking, always desperate for a drink, always humiliated by Johnny.
Claire is for me also the best part of her movie – personally I think that Key Largo is rather boring, but Claire’s desperate gangster bride makes it definitely worth watching it. She also benefits from the fact that there are only two women in the movie – herself and Lauren Bacall who gives one of the worst performances I have ever seen. Another bonus for Claire for being the only great female performance!
Claire shows Gaye as a woman who knows how humiliated she is by Johnny but who doesn’t seem to be able to break out of it. She is totally dependent from Johnny even though there is obviously no love left. And all this leads up to her big money scene, when Gaye agrees to, in exchange for a drink, perform one of her old songs for the group.
It’s a gripping scene and as the viewer, you feel just like Lionel Barrymore, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall: you are so embarrassed for Gaye that you almost can’t watch it. She begins her performance with telling how great she used to be, still cherishing the memories of that better time. Claire Trevor also doesn’t overdo the scene: she doesn’t sing totally awful, you can believe that she once used to be great but now she is only a sorry alcoholic who almost can’t carry a tune anymore. Also the look on her face shows how uncomfortable she is, singing about “Don’t know any reason why he treats me so poorly…”
Yes, Gaye is beaten down, at the bottom, but with this song, Johnny has humiliated her once too often…
A marvelous performance, easily one of the best ever in this group.


Best performance of the movie: Edward G. Robinson and Clair Trevor

My own choice for the win that year: Claire Trevor

16: Anne Baxter as Sophie Nelson McDonald in The Razor's Edge


The first time I ever saw Anne Baxter was in “All about Eve”, where she made a negative impression on me. I didn’t like her fake nice behavior which should have been noticed by anyone with one eye in his/her head and her way of speaking her dramatic lines as if she has an asthma attack.
Well, my ranking position already shows that I have high respect for her performance in “The Razor’s Edge” even though she gives some of that typical, melodramatic overacting from that era. But there are so many highlights in her performance that I can forgive the negative aspects.
The trip begins when we are first introduced to her character Sophie at a party of her rich friends. Anne shows us Sophie as a lovely, care-free girl and she does a good job at it. Her joy and happiness contrast very sharply and very effectively with her later scenes. But: those annoying asthma attacks, that I have already hated in “All about Eve”, were already there when she tells her best friend Isabelle how much she loves her boyfriend Bob: “He’s no more crazy about me than I am about him. (Deep breath) I don’t think anyone has every loved anyone as I love him. (Deep breath).” Still, a good first scene.
Later, at Isabelle’s marriage, we meet Sophie again, married herself, and still sooooo much in love. We learn of her child and even though it’s a very short scene, Anne Baxter again succeeds at showing us Sophie as a girl with not a single worry in her life, a girl who has everything she ever wanted and who couldn’t be happier.
Then, her big money scenes come. First, in the hospital, when we learn that her husband and her child are dead. Isabelle’s husband brings her the bad news. Sophie, herself injured in the accident, says, with relief: “We could all have been killed. It was lucky I was holding the baby in my arms. Where is Bob?” Anne Baxter knows how to milk that scene for every possible dramatic effect and she is fantastic at it. When she asks with trembling voice: “Is Bob dead? Is he dead?” and then with fear and disbelief: “And the baby, too?” It’s a heartbreaking scene and Anne Baxter is able to keep her usual love for over-acting under control.
But her best scene comes next. Time goes on and we never hear of Sophie again. But then, one night, Isabelle, her husband and Larry (the hero of the movie) are off to some cheap Parisian bar. And what do you know, it’s just that bar where Sophie now spends all her time, drinking and giving her love to everyone who wants it. It’s this scene that surely won her the Oscar and guaranteed her this position in my ranking as I consider it one of the best acted scenes ever. Anne Baxter plays it with much subtlety that it’s just heartbreaking. That look on her face, when she recognizes her old friends, who suddenly came back into her life, is worth an Oscar alone. In this scene, Sophie pretends to be happy, even though you can see and feel all her misery and her desperation in every word. Anne Baxter also doesn’t use the drunk condition of Sophie of overact. No, in this scene, she is just wonderful, with her finest moment when she talks to Larry about the past and how they used to write poetry together.
“Pretty good, too, wasn’t it?”, she asks.
“Not bad. For a kid.”
“It was good”, says Sophie, with tears in her eyes, thinking about the past and everything she lost. And then she says to the group: “So long, folks. Come again, I’m here every night.”
Is there no one to help Sophie out of this misery? Oh yes, there is. Larry, the oh so noble Larry, wants to marry Sophie to help her. She agrees and next we see her in a hotel where she meets with all her old friends. Anne Baxter is very good in this scene. She isn’t the carefree girl she used to be, instead she seems now rather shy and unsure of herself. Despite being with her old friends, you feel, that she doesn’t belong there anymore, she clearly feels uncomfortable around them. And Anne Baxter has some good reactions shots in this scene, too, because, too bad for her that her old friends seem to do nothing in these days but have drinks.
Well, so far, Anne Baxter has been nothing short of amazing, but when you are so high, you can only go down and now begins the rough part of the journey that is Anne Baxter’s performance.
She meets with her old friend Isabel and sees the picture of her little daughter. Sophie thinks of her own daughter and begins to cry. Anne Baxter now winkles up her face in so many ways that you wonder if it will ever get back again in its old position. And when she talks with Isabel about how hard it is for her to stop drinking, she dramatically declares: “Sometimes when I’ve been alone…I wanted to shake the house down”, to which she bangs her fist against the wall, a scene, that always makes me laugh so much because it’s so over-the-top. But Anne Baxter can still find room for some good moments, when she talks about Larry and says: “He’s really good, Isabel. I was gone. Lost. Gone. This is my one chance, I know that!”
And later, when she is drunk, she turns a quite serious scene into a comedy with her over-the-top acting. When she tells Larry with a Clint-Eastwood-voice: “Hello, Larry! Come on, join us!”, she plays a drunk as a caricature rather than a character…
Well, still, despite this letdown in her last scenes, it’s still a great, unexpected performance that deserves the praise it gets.


Best performance of the movie: Anne Baxter

My own choice for the win that year: Anne Baxter

15: Eva Marie Saint as Edie Doyle in On the Waterfront


Eva-Marie Saint took home the Oscar for her wonderful performance as Edie Doyle, the sister of a killed man who wants to know “who killed my brother!”
Eva-Marie is a central character to the story: she is responsible for the change in Terry’s (Marlon Brando) character. Her sweetness and her love make him do the right thing even if that means going against his own people.
Eva-Marie’s own lovely appearance and her sad face work very well here. She shows Edie as a restless character, always moving her eyes, always unsure of herself but also determined to find the killer of her brother. She has a wonderful chemistry with Marlon Brando the two make one of the greatest Oscar-winning pairs ever.
Eva-Marie has the not easy task of playing a character that’s pure and good – in contrast to all the others. She is shy and quiet and slowly develops feelings for Terry. She never flirts with him or makes a move on him, instead she makes him love her with her simple way of seeing life: “Shouldn’t everybody care about everybody?” She is very touching when she tells Terry: “Help me if you can, for God’s Sake” and later she is just lovely when they are dancing and she says “I feel like I’m just floating…just floating.”
Eva-Marie goes through a wide range of emotion – from scared and terrified to loving and sweet to angry and bitter – and everything is done perfectly. I especially love the scene when she is following Terry in the dark alley, running and shouting his name, adding perfectly to the tension of the scene.
It’s essentially a complex performance of a simple character, always played to perfection.


Best performance of the movie: Marlon Brando

My own choice for the win that year: Eva Marie Saint

14: Donna Reed as Alma Burke in From Here to Eternity


I don’t know what it is that makes me love Donna Reed’s performance so much. It’s no big role, it’s maybe not the most challenging role and she is also not the best thing about the movie – but I am still totally in love with that performance.
Donna plays Alma/Laureen, a young woman who works in a club on Hawaii. Thanks to the morals of the time we never learn if Alma is just supposed to entertain or if she is a prostitute.
Donna Reed has just wonderful chemistry with Montgomery Clift and an amazing screen presence. Her first line “I’m Laureen” is already said with so much passion and hidden meaning that you will never forget that character.
Of course, Donna Reed also suffers from the script that makes her the typical prostitute with a heart of gold who falls in love with Prew in the first five minutes and later gives him a key for her home, telling him “You can use it anytime you want to, even when I’m not here” and when they are at home, she immediately tells him to sit down while she will cook dinner. Oh, and when is alone at home, she is doing needle work…
But we also learn very quickly that Alma has her own agenda: her big ambition in life is to become rich and “be proper”. She tells us that she used to date a rich guy in her home town, but that didn’t work out. Alma has learned that she can’t marry into a better class so she has to work her way up. And while she clearly has honest feelings for Prew, she makes it clear that a long-term relationship or even marriage isn’t an option for her. She doesn’t want to be the wife of a soldier, she wants to be respected and proper. In a very impressive scene when she tells Prew about her plans with a determined look on her face. But then she also tells Prew that she needs him – because she is lonely. Now we see how her face change from determined to sad and caring. Donna Reed is simply a wonderfully natural actress and she brings so much grace and style to her role. She makes you believe that this is a woman that Prew has to go back to. She is also just great when they meet for the second time and she has no time for him. You can see how much she wants to be with him, how she is torn between her duties and her love and I adore her reaction when she tells him “Oh stop calling me Laureen, my name’s Alma!” She seems genuinely shocked because this is probably the first time she ever told anyone her real name.
Her big money scene is her break-down when Prew leaves her to return to the Army and she shouts at him “What did the Army ever do for you besides treat you like dirt? What do you wanna go back to the Army for?” It’s one of the best and most real break-downs that I have ever seen.
And then there is her final scene when Alma has created her own story of what has happened seemes to have disappeared in some fantasy world...it’s a very intense scene because we don’t know what Alma is really after and Donna Reed plays it to perfection.
So, it’s simply a wonderful performance that is for me definitely one of the most deserving wins in this category.


Best performance of the movie: Montgomery Clift

My own choice for the win that year: Donna Reed

13: Meryl Streep as Joanna Kramer in Kramer vs. Kramer


Meryl Streep can never do wrong, a fact she already showed at the beginning of her career when she won the Oscar for her completely realistic portrayal of a woman short before a nervous break-down and who leaves husband and son to find herself. The first image of Joanna already tells us everything we need to know: we see the packed bags and Joanna sitting on the couch, looking scared and worried. With this one scene, Meryl Streep already shows Joanna as a deeply disturbed woman. When Ted tells her about a colleague who committed suicide, her looks seems to say ‘I can understand him’ and when she tells Ted that she is leaving him, it’s totally authentic. When she walks out the door and begs Ted not to take her in the apartment again, it’s a very impressive scene and you never have the feeling that Joanna is just stupid or a bad mother; instead, Meryl Streep shows us with a few couple of minutes that Joanna is deeply unhappy woman who has to leave.
Even though she is now gone for a big amount of time, Joanna’s presence is always there and so it’s no surprise when she returns again.
Her scene with Ted in the café is again very real, you always have the feeling you are watching a documentary. The way they both behave friendly and interested in each other and then quickly change after Joanna tells him that she wants her son.
Then Meryl has her big scene in the court room which is worth an Oscar alone. Meryl certainly shows us that she is a good crier, having tears running down her face during the trial, after the trial and later when she comes to Ted’s apartment. All these scenes are played incredibly well and Meryl Streep certainly proves with this performance that she is on the best, probably even the best living actress.
I am always surprised that Meryl actually doesn’t have a very big role, but all her scenes are simply amazing and made unforgettable by this talented actress.


Best performance of the movie: Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep

My own choice for the win that year: Meryl Streep or Jane Alexander