The Pittsburgh Press (March 17, 1946)
I DARE SAY —
Second thoughts on movie awards
By Florence Fisher Parry
We all knew that Ray Milland would get the Oscar this year for the best acting performance in the movies. In a superbly conceived and directed motion picture whose every perfection offered their own improvement to his role, Ray Milland came through with a matchless performance.
We have no quarrel with the justice and taste of the award. Mr. Milland has been in the movies for a long time and has worked hard and well. He is by no means the “typical” movie actor. He is not popular. He has not made effort to conceal his distaste for much that is accepted by Hollywood. There has always been, about his performances, a kind of aloofness, almost a snobbishness, that has not been acceptable to many moviegoers, who are very touchy and suspicious when anyone hints of feeling superior to them in any way. I don’t know what his standing is among his confreres. But I suspect that popularity (or lack of it) in no way influenced the award.
In the case of Joan Crawford, we strongly suspect that sentiment played a prominent part in the bestowal of the Oscar. It must have been a field day for the Sentimentalists, in and out of the movies, to see an oldtimer come through with a Come-Back.
For Joan Crawford is one of Hollywood’s most valiant troupers. Barbara Stanwyck and Claudette Colbert share the same reputation, and it is well known that Barbara Stanwyck is probably the best liked actress out there – since Jean Harlow died.
Miss Colbert does not enjoy quite the same quality of popularity; but this trio of Old Timers command a real respect from all. Directors like to direct pictures in which they star, for they know the ropes and offer no trouble. Colbert is the very mischief to photograph, and as the years go on all three contribute their inevitable problems to the cameramen. But there’s no one who stands so high in the opinion of Movieland as REAL TROUPERS – and Joan Crawford’s reward, in the shape of this year’s Oscar, is begrudged by no one but rival aspirants.
Moreover, Joan Crawford stands for something that is the very essence of the Movies, Hers is the favorite American story incarnate. Nellie the Sewing Machine Girl, Tillie the Toiler, have nothing on Joan! She is the very epitome of all the Soap Opera heroines who now populate our radio programs. She would have been a hit in mother’s day, when Laura Jean Libby and Mary J. Holmes provided their avid readers various renditions of Joan Crawford in all their prolific paper-back output.
There is really no one in the movies today who can match Joan Crawford in this respect. Barbara Stanwyck is not QUITE the type, for there is a realistic hard-boiled forthrightness about her that makes one suspect that Barbara is ON to herself, and would be the first to kid herself when she essays the role of a Grand Lady.
But Joan always has had the faculty of actually identifying herself with all the heroines she has portrayed. She is – forgive the word – a Born Phoney. She has aspired to be a Lady from the time she was a kid, and loves to wallow in lady roles – herself transformed for the nonce into the Beautiful Refined Creature she is portraying.
I always feel that she is pained and really suffers when she is called upon to play a common part.
(She would have been wonderful in the role of Stella Dallas – but not for love or money could Samuel Goldwyn have lured her to throw off her hard-won ladylikeness and Be Herself in this superb role.)
The fact that Joan won the Academy Award for her performance of Mildred Pierce is perfect, really! The motion picture was so completely Up Her Alley – and I DO mean Alley. Seldom has an “important” picture been so completely cheap. I was astonished at its reception by the public, and immediately revised my fond delusion that the tastes of moviegoers had enjoyed an improvement in the past 10 years. Mildred Pierce the novel was an honest, sensational piece of fast fiction. Mildred Pierce the movie was a composite of all the Proctor and Gamble radio serials; and I am sure that NO one was more captivated by it than Miss Crawford herself! In some of its most phoney sequences Miss Crawford did herself proud, obviously deeply affected by the ungodly dialogue she was given to emote!
That is why I am so reconciled – indeed – so delighted – with this award. Never mind how sophisticated other stars in Hollywood may be, how ON to the phoniness of even the Academy Award institution, Miss Crawford still can be Carried Away by it and honestly be Overcome by its implied honor!
Now when I saw the touching picture in “Life” last year of Miss Joan Fontaine hearing the news of receiving the Oscar, I was disposed to question the sincerity of her evident astonishment and humility. Joan Fontaine is a smart gal and pretty much ON to herself, and would have a lively sense of good publicity.
But THIS year, if I see pictures of Joan Crawford dissolved in tears and indeed quite Overcome by her Oscar, and leaning on the arm of some strong swain for support lest she faint, I shall swallow it hook, line and sinker, knowing that Joan Crawford means every tear and sob.
Indeed, I was reminded, as I read the news of the award, of the old Fourth Reader poem, “Excelsior.” I am sure that were someone to read this poem to Miss Crawford today, she would be most impressed by its noble sentiment, and instantly identify herself with the lad who, Onwards and Upwards, held high the inspiring device.