The Verdict -- Best Supporting Actress 1962

#5. Thelma Ritter in Birdman of Alcatraz: A career recognition Oscar nomination if I've ever seen one. Ritter plays the character of Mrs. Stroud with a robotic proficiency that gives her character very little personality and and underwhelming sense of mediocrity. Yes, her final scene is a blockbuster and had she been allowed to expand on that, she just might have been able to deliver a better performance than this average one.

#4. Mary Badham in To Kill a Mockingbird: Young Mary Badham just doesn't have the experience or acting talent to play the role of Scout in the American classic. She makes Scout loveable and relatable, but can't quite navigate the complex emotional journey that her character is supposed to go through in the course of the film. I can't fault the poor young actress too much, because she tries her best but just can't reach that deep. She's too happy and unlike the character.

#3. Shirley Knight in Sweet Bird of Youth: This rating was the most disappointing of all these five performances for me to give. It's because the potential in this performance following that first scene was just so great. In that first startling scene, she gives a completely different performance from the rest of the film. Heavenly goes from being intelligent, independent, and unexpectedly morbid to a simple minded prop that the rest of the characters manipulate with ease. It's not Shirley Knight's fault per se, but I can't reward her too amply.

#2. Angela Lansbury in The Manchurian Candidate: The most iconic performance in the bunch, but being iconic does not make the performance a great one. Lansbury does a great job at making Mrs. Iselin a memorable screen villain, but not one with a particular amount of depth. Instead, she just plays a really great caricature of a villain that can't rise about that status as a caricature. I don't want to sound too down on this performance, but I don't see what everybody else does. It's a one-note performance done quite well.

#1. Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker: Patty Duke's performance just could not be denied the win. This is a performance that just grabs a hold of you at the start of the film and continues to be startling and moving throughout the film. Duke doesn't just play Helen Keller, but channels her in every single way possible. Beautiful, haunting, and complex. None of the other nominees even comes close to touching her in terms of effectiveness. A one-note performance done brilliantly.

The Year in Review: By far the easiest verdict I've had to give to date. Patty is just heads above every other nominated lady. It wasn't a particularly fun year to do for me, as you can tell since it took me over two months to do it (Yikes!). I promise to speed the process up for my next year! Promise, promise, promise! Also, I choose all my years randomly, so as much as I love recommendations for years to do, I prefer to keeps this spontaneous and out of my own hands. But I may do a poll someday. =)

All Supporting Actress Nominee Ranking:

1. Patty Duke in "The Miracle Worker"
2. Anna Paquin in "The Piano"
3. Emma Thompson in "In the Name of the Father"
4. Claire Trevor in  "Dead End"
5. May Whitty in "Night Must Fall"
6. Angela Lansbury in "The Manchurian Candidate"
   
7. Anne Shirley in "Stella Dallas"
8. Shirley Knight in "Sweet Bird of Youth"
   
9. Rosie Perez in "Fearless"
10. Alice Brady in "In Old Chicago"
11. Mary Badham in "To Kill a Mockingbird"
    
12. Holly Hunter in "The Firm"
13. Thelma Ritter in "Birdman of Alcatraz"
    
14. Winona Ryder in "The Age of Innocence"
15. Andrea Leeds in  "Stage Door"

Shirley Knight in Sweet Bird of Youth

Shirley Knight received her second Oscar nomination for her performance as Heavenly Finley in Richard Brooks' Sweet Bird of Youth. The movie itself is more of an actor's showcase than a great film. Geraldine Page, Paul Newman, and Ed Begley (in his Oscar-winning role) are all very good, with Page being the clear standout of the film with her absolutely outstanding performance. Knight has the most thankless role in the entire film, as her character is the worst written and severely underutilized. The film is about the return of Chance Wayne (Newman) to his hometown, where he hopes to entice his ex-girlfriend Heavenly to return with him to Hollywood despite the resistance of her father (Begley), a local political boss. Knight doesn't have a single scene with Geraldine Page, however, which is a shame.

When we first see Heavenly Finley, Shirley Knight makes an incredibly good impression, giving a weary and hugely self-aware performance. From the start of the film we are told that Heavenly is under the control of her father, but the scene where we actually see her she proves to be much more hardened and clever than the rest of the characters give her credit. Knight imbues Heavenly with this defiant resentment towards her father, which is startling different than we as viewers would have expected. Her surprising intelligence mixed with her good looks creates a sort of alluring intelligence, and she is clearly knows all about and is not fooled by any of her father's tricks. This first scene gives you high hopes for the performance of Shirley Knight, who is absolutely startling and strong, far cry from the beautiful love interest she is intended to be.

Sadly, however that one scene is just about all that we really get to see from Shirley Knight. The rest of the film she never seems to get another chance to expand on that intelligence she showed in the first scene, but instead is dragged around by the other characters to keep her away from Newman. For a character that seemed so independent and clever on first glance, Heavenly is so weak and easily manipulated for the rest of the film and it's almost a slap in the face. Her one or two scenes with Newman show them to have a strange but stilted chemistry, and all the 'fire' in their relationship is mostly told rather than shown. All that she showed in her first scene is gone around him. The scene with the boat is strange and Knight isn't given enough to work with, and the rest of the film she might as well be a statue with the amount stone-faced stoicism she has.

When in comes down to it, Shirley Knight's performance hinges on a single scene, which quite frankly is enough to make her deserve the nomination. Had her performance been able to keep up with that high quality she would have been a formidable contender this year, but the script treats Heavenly more as a prize than a character. The rating I'm giving her might seem high considering the amount of negatives I threw at her in the rest of this review, but for that one scene she really is a wonder to behold. 3.5/5 Thelmas.

Young vs. Overdue -- Best Supporting Actress 1962

And the nominees were....

• Mary Badham as Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird
• Patty Duke as Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker (winner)
• Shirley Knight as Heavenly Finley in Sweet Bird of Youth
• Angela Lansbury as Eleanor Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate
• Thelma Ritter as Elizabeth Stroud in Birdman of Alcatraz

The Field: This year is somewhat of a good look at the overall preferences that the Academy tends to have when it comes to Supporting Actresses. It has the caring mother role (Ritter), the precocious young child (Badham), the despicable villain (Lansbury), a character with disabilities (Duke), and the beautiful young woman (Knight). Some of those traits even overlap between the characters. The field also covers every single acting award won that year, so that alone makes me excited to watch all of these films. I've only seen To Kill a Mockingbird, because at most high schools the book is basically required reading, and the film was shown right after we finished. I'm not too familiar with the actresses, though I know this is Ritter's last of her six nominations even though it's the first I'll be watching. I'm hoping for a wide variety of performances that gives me my first truly great year, but either way it'll be fun.