Your blogger spent hours upon hours re-watching four films from 1944 in order to take part in The Film Experience blog's smackdown among film buffs deciding who really deserved the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress that year.
Wouldn't you know it? We picked someone other than the actual winner.
The nominees were:
Cary Grant (1904-1986) with Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore (1879-1944), None but the Lonely Heart
Jones with Shirley Temple (1928-2014)
Jennifer Jones (1919-2009), Since You Went Away
Lansbury with Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982) & Charles Boyer (1899-1978)
Angela Lansbury (b. 1925), Gaslight
MacMahon
Aline MacMahon (1899-1991), Dragon Seed
Moorehead
Agnes Moorehead (1900-1974), Mrs. Parkington
The actual winner was Barrymore, the great dame of the stage, who took the Oscar the first time (of four) that she was nominated, and while she took second place in our group's estimation, it was the precocious debut by Angela Lansbury (just 17!) that won our hearts.
Amazing, isn't it, that Angela Lansburgy made her film debut 73 years ago ... and is still with us today!
Read the panel's comments about the films here.
Listen to the panel discuss these films and their various issues — yellowface used in Dragon Seed, much was made of Barrymore's acting style, WWII issues came up — here, in an hour-long podcast.
By the way, a few other great films of 1944 include:
Double Indemnity
Meet Me in St. Louis
Arsenic and Old Lace
To Have and Have Not
Laura
The Curse of the Cat People
National Velvet
Murder My Sweet
Henry V
The Phantom Lady
The Lodger
Kismet
and let's not forget the delicious Cobra Woman
