Looking at the list, this is a very diverse group of actresses. It's not often I get to say that in this category. It's a bunch of first time nominees and a previous winner in Maggie Smith. I know what Liza brings and it will be tough to beat, but I look forward to what the others have to offer.
1972 Best Actress
Liza Minnelli - Cabaret
If there ever was a surefire win, this is it. Especially when you compare her performance to the other ladies on this list. Diana Ross is the only one that comes close. It really is the role of a lifetime for Liza as she plays Sally Bowles, a cabaret performer. The first thing you notice is how much energy and outright electricity she gives off onscreen. It's totally palpable and hooks you right from the start. Her energy is infectious and you can't help but be charmed immediately. To be expected with her having two uber famous parents, Liza is a great singer and dancer. That makes all the song interludes work so well and also highlights that she's a very talented actress on top of the entertaining parts, too. There's nuance and subtlety behind the frenetic energy, though, which is why Liza shines so bright in this performance. There are moments of quiet desperation behind her eyes that belie the carefree theatricality. We see this standout starkly when Liza is confronted with a life she absolutely dreads in having a baby and being a stuffy academic wife. Liza rebels at that idea and has an abortion and avoids that temporary chaos of self doubt. There is so much more to her character than just being a free loving cabaret performer and Liza handles it all deftly. She is spellbinding and that's not even a description I've ever used on this blog before, I think. But it holds true as she just has this magnetism whether she is performing in the Kit Kat Club or going about her day to day life with the men who surround her. One of my favorite female performances of all time and I'm so glad she won for this.
Diana Ross - Lady Sings the Blues
Before this project, I would never have guessed Diana Ross was an Oscar nominated actress. Obviously, I wasn't around in the early 70s, so I had no idea she even tried her hand at acting, let alone was worthy of a nomination. So my initial thought was did she actually deserve it or was it one of those Academy things where they reward someone successful in another medium when they dip their toes into the acting world. I feel like after watching this that could be part of it, but Ross is talented as an actress. The film is a biopic of Billie Holiday and her tumultuous life. Biopics are always tricky, musical biopics even more so. Lots of them gloss over the troubled, dark times in the subjects life and try to spin everything in a positive way. This film does gloss over a bit from what I can tell in my research, but it also hammers home her drug addiction problem. This was Ross's start in acting and she fought to be cast as Holiday. She knew it would be a star making turn and would allow her to comfortably transition to acting. My fear was that Ross would be awful, but in reality she is very good in the role. It's also very obvious that this is her first acting job and she comes across as unsure of how to play some scenes. But Ross is really incredible at times, too. She plays a great drug addict, which sounds like a put down but I mean it sincerely. Holiday had a drug problem and Ross portrays that expertly. Ross has the mannerisms down and one thing I noted that was exceptional is that her eyes in some of her club performances are droopy and tired and half open and those are when she's using. It's a great choice to portray that she is using. The singing is good, although I don't think it really sounds like Holiday. I went and listened to her music after and Holiday is very slow and not as polished sounding, while Ross has a tempo to her as well as being in key and sounding like a professional. Holiday was a jazz legend, but I much prefer Ross's version of 'Strange Fruit' to Holiday's. Ross gives the role everything she has and is up to the task of portraying another singing legend. I guess it takes one to know one kinda thing here. But if you go into this film thinking that Ross can't hang, she definitely will prove you wrong. Now, is it worthy of an Oscar? Possibly in a lesser year, but also Ross's inexperience shows through a lot during the film. When she has to act to further the story, she fails. It's a good first try but Liza laps her.
Maggie Smith - Travels With My Aunt
Ugh. Really that's all I would need to put here to sum up my feelings on the performance and the film as a whole. I did not like this one very much at all. Now before I get into what it's about and Smith's performance, you have to know that this was initially a Katharine Hepburn starring vehicle. She had wanted to do the story (based on a book) and even went so far as to tailor the script to her liking before she ultimately pulled out before shooting began. So in stepped Smith, doing her best Hepburn imitation in some really bad old people makeup bringing a lot of frenetic energy to the role that is tiring and not really fun to watch. I think Smith is a great actress but her Oscar work has left me wanting more and this is no different. I get that it's tough to step into a role designed for someone else at the last minute, but Smith could have made the performance more of something original and hers instead of aping Hepburn. The story is one where she is the titular Aunt who shows up to her sister's funeral and tells her nephew that wasn't really her mother. Then Smith leads this man on some mostly boring adventures while she cons him into doing little errands for her so she can bail out a lover of hers who she thinks is kidnapped. There is energy to the performance but like I said earlier, it's exhausting to watch and the energy takes the place of earned charm. It's a role and performance that looks and feels like it should be hilarious and one of a kind but ends up a tired one note rehash of another actress. There are some interesting moments and it seems like the book is a wild ride, but the film condenses things to the point where a lot of important transitions and details are left out and Smith can't do much to flesh out her character. I think some people might like Smith here because she is kooky and loud and all over the place but not me. I don't know why Smith captured the hearts of Oscar voters for a while but I don't see anything Oscar worthy in this performance and that makes me sad because I've been hoping for some greatness from this two-time Oscar winner. You just aren't going to find that here.
Cicely Tyson - Sounder
I was really expecting a lot more out of this performance. Tyson is a heavily awarded actress of the stage, screen, and TV. She's had many other personal accolades like a Kennedy Center honor and a Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was even given an Honorary Oscar in late 2018. I know she's a great actress and Sounder seemed to capture the hearts and attention of the Academy so I was prepared for something really strong. What I got was more of a dud. This is a decent little film based on an award winning young adult novel but the story is based around Tyson's character's son and his dog as their husband/father is sent to a work prison for stealing food. Tyson is never really the main focus of the film and so Tyson doesn't really get much of a chance to flex her acting chops. You see it in spurts like when she is pissed at the sheriff and the local store owner who rag her about her husband and especially in her iconic, emotional scene where she reunites with Paul Winfield. I said the same for him but I feel like that scene got her nominated. But besides those moments, Tyson is mostly just the supportive mother/wife who has to pick up the slack once Winfield is gone. She is solid and does everything her character needs to do for the story but she rarely gets to shine. She even disappears at times because the story is about her son. It's great that she was nominated but I was really hoping to see what made her one of the best actresses of her time. There is a lot lacking in the performance simply because the film never allowed her the chance to do much more than be a worried wife/mother. This was highly anticipated but severely disappointing through no fault of Tyson's own.
Liv Ullmann - The Emigrants
Go and read my review of The Emigrants in Best Picture to get the backstory on this film. I don't quite understand how a film that was nominated in the previous year at the Academy Awards could then be nominated in some major awards the next year. Maybe if it was an all time film with an all time performance, but this does not qualify as such. I think there was some building up of Ullmann as an international star and she had been nominated for some other awards before her first Oscar nomination here. Was this to cement her as a star in Hollywood's eyes? Possibly, but serious foreign film fans will tell you Ullmann had a few other better performances that she wasn't nominated for. In this one, she is the wife of a poor Swedish farmer and they eventually set off for America, ending up in Minnesota. It takes over three hours to witness this and I don't feel as if Ullmann does anything amazingly well. She's certainly not doing anything to keep you invested in what you're watching. Ullmann is a talented, accomplished actress but this performance doesn't ask much of her as she plays the farmer's wife who has a lot of kids role. She helps out with the farm work, raises the kids, gets pregnant, has a rough time on the ship to America, argues with husband, and has an overall miserable time. She's good at playing the downtrodden and desperate, but I'm stretching to find anything to grab onto as being worth a nomination a year after it was already nominated once. It's a Liv Ullmann performance for sure, but I feel like she is drowned out in the film by other characters including her husband, Max von Sydow. There are other, more memorable characters who seemingly do more than play restrained mother/wife and are more interesting to watch. This one is a huge disappointment that is not worth the over three hours of your time. Watch her Ingmar Bergman work instead.
This was a really disappointing year with a clear cut winner who blew me away and the rest of the category who are simply here. I have generally disliked Academy darlings because they get some unearned nominations (and even wins) at the expense of other actors who could take their place and make for far more interesting groups of nominees. Smith is one of those in a film that was not as exciting as it could have been and a role that should have been more original than just an imitation. I don't get it other than she stepped into a mess of a situation. Ullmann is tolerable though not particularly exciting. I get that she is thought of as one of the greatest actresses of her generation, but I wished for something not so dour and depressing. And even something like that can be great, but I didn't see that greatness here. Tyson is almost more of the same. An accomplished actress who was heavily awarded in her career and her only Oscar nomination is a boring portrayal of a wife/mother trying to keep things together with a momentary flash of what she could be as an actress. All three heavily disappointing. Ross at least impressed with her singing and takes on a famous singer role that she does well with. Not the most polished of performances but at least one that was interesting and worth the nomination and watch. In most years she'd be a 4th-5th most likely, instead of the 2nd she is here. Liza is the obvious winner and you don't have to dive deep into reasons why. She's just amazing in a role she was born to play and she knocked it out of the park on the first pitch. If not for her, this would be an all time worst year for Best Actress. Thank God for Liza.
Oscar Winner: Liza Minnelli - Cabaret
My Winner: Liza Minnelli - Cabaret
Diana Ross
Cicely Tyson
Liv Ullmann
Maggie Smith
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