Supporting Actress 1966

I know I've written about it before, but I wish I had better intros that said something clever or deep or meaningful. I'm just psyched to start a new year and dive into this group. Getting into the years where I don't know the women or the films and so that brings some excitement to this. I just hope I get a good group.

1966 Best Supporting Actress

Sandy Dennis - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

I went into this film cold, not knowing what to expect from the film and only knowing that it's a celebrated play and a legendary film in its own right. When Dennis first appeared and was a bit shy and meek and had that excited, high pitched voice I was thinking oh no! But what followed is probably one of the best Supporting Actress wins I have seen so far. One day I'll earnestly rank them in some way, but Dennis will be very near the top for this performance. Part of that is because she holds her own against both Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton who are both these big bulls in a china shop. But Dennis finds her place among the destruction those two leave in their wake. For one, Dennis plays one of the best and most convincing drunk persons I have seen. She said she was a lightweight and we see very quickly that she is. She seems more at ease and happy and the way she blinks and moves her head around and slurs her words all feel real and not that over exaggerated Hollywood kind of drunk. It really did impress me because it's so hard to get right when totally sober. Dennis does a lot more, though, than just play a young woman who gets drunk. She still portrays a character beneath the alcohol and one who is very proud of her husband's job and accomplishments while also keeping an eye on him, wary she could lose him to other wives or students. This is initially under the surface before the alcohol brings it out into the open. But we also see that Dennis's Honey seems to enjoy the the back and forth of Taylor and Burton despite her own emotional vulnerability and insecure relationship with her husband. Even while drunk, she plays off the two of them and joins in their games and sort of unleashes a more innocent version of them, more aware of what's going on than being a simple drunk girl. It's anxieties being calmed by the booze and heightened by it at the same time. Her performance has these wonderful comedic moments that are scattered throughout some heartbreaking ones as well. Dennis digs deep into a character that has surprising depth and who ends up being more than just a pawn in Taylor and Burton's depraved game. This is such a great performance that I'm very happy to have found it in this project.

Wendy Hiller - A Man for All Seasons

Wendy Hiller was a previous Oscar winner and also a nominee, so it feels like this performance came along with the love for the film and the actress and not entirely on its own merits. This is the Academy giving Hiller a bone because they know her and her work. She had done a couple films in the last few years that got recognition and here she is. Hiller is Sir Thomas More's wife, Alice. Alice is a no nonsense kind of woman. She isn't afraid to speak her mind to More and I feel like that is what defines her character and performance. Scofield is the idealist while Hiller is the practical wife. She seems perpetually negative of More but it's because she wants to understand her husband when he offers up nothing in that realm. She is grumpy with him because she at the end wants him to go against his morals to stay with her and the family but he won't. You wonder why he was even married to her in the first place. It feels like it just comes along for the ride as I can't see an ignored character offering up more than what we get from her. Of course, this isn't to say that Hiller is bad or something that detracts from the film. She gives a very good performance for what she has to work with as almost the afterthought of a wife to a man who has a ton of depth to him. This isn't her film so we don't get to see much more than Hiller be a dutiful, yet burdened wife. I am interested in seeing her other work based off this performance, though, and I think that speaks to her ability.

Jocelyne LaGarde - Hawaii

I feel it would be entirely too easy to simply dismiss this performance and nomination as nothing due to the circumstances of it. Those being that LaGarde, a French speaking Tahitian woman, learned her lines phonetically and a lot of people wouldn't call that acting. I even thought this would be a mess of a performance that panders to a native woman and makes the Academy look good for nominating her. But LaGarde really does imbue a lot of emotion into her performance. I assume she knew what she was saying even if she didn't know how to say it and was able to still act out what was needed for the scenes. This was her only acting job ever, nothing before or since, and it's hard to even find much info on her. Mostly she got the role because she happened to look like the actual person she was playing, which was a queen in Hawaii. She does have quite the presence in the film because she is a rather large woman and because she gets to tell the white people what to do or no in some instances instead of bending to them or having to listen to them. She can just interrupt and demand whatever. It's a really interesting performance because it's hard to tell how much of it is actually a performance. I liken it to the child performances I hate who get told what to say and do without any thinking or feeling behind any of that. I feel LaGarde actually does bring a bit of her own self into the performance so it's not as bad as the child actors I tend to hate. It's an intriguing nomination and the first indigenous person ever nominated for an Oscar. I would say search it out and watch it for yourself to see what you think. I say it's a performance but maybe shouldn't have been rewarded like this. But I also don't begrudge the fact that it is nominated and it made me really think about what all this means.

Vivien Merchant - Alfie

There are quite a lot of women in this film in supporting roles to Alfie played by Michael Caine. The one with the saddest story is the one that gets the Oscar nomination which seems on brand for the Academy. It also is about a very touchy and controversial subject, so that goes in favor of Merchant as well. The film is about Caine having all these little trysts and affairs with women and using them and discarding them when things get serious. Merchant is the wife of a guy in a hospital that Caine is also recuperating at. The husband asks Caine to take Merchant home and both seem resistant but then acquiesce. This results in a one night stand before Caine moves on to other women. Merchant is a frumpy, seemingly depressed woman. I guess in a way she is most unlike the other's because she isn't as charmed by him and seems to have just wanted some physical attention and to be close with someone. But she is mostly just a sad woman and when she let's Caine know she's pregnant and he arranges for it to be taken care of, it feels like she is mostly used as a plot device and not a fully fleshed out character. She's sad, gets knocked up on the one night stand, and has an abortion. Merchant is devastating in the moments before and after the event and maybe that's where she earns the nomination but it's all served to make Caine question his ways and have a moment to see the result of his flippant actions. But it does feel like Merchant's purpose is to elicit this emotion in him and she has a very one note performance because of that as compared to some of the other women. I think she's good in that one note and her role has a profound effect on the film, it's just lacking the depth of a normal performance. I can't begrudge her that fact when the film doesn't allow her any growth or to even be anything other than depressed and sad. It's a decent performance from Merchant but not one that makes me stand up and get excited about.

Geraldine Page - You're a Big Boy Now

I am not a big fan of Geraldine Page. I have made that crystal clear over the duration of this project. She's a good actress but her nominations have been awful garbage (okay, maybe some hyperbole there). She's been nominated at times for basically doing nothing and this is my fifth foray into watching her completely disappoint me. It still disappoints me. This is Francis Ford Coppola's thesis film project from UCLA and it is very counter culture 60s. Page is the mother of the ridiculous lead of the film and she tries to control him to no avail. She is a domineering, clingy mother who wants to dictate what her son "Big Boy" does and who he can see and all that. This is a performance where she mostly screams about being someone's mother and being stopped as an actress and spies on her son and sends locks of her hair to him while he is away. Obviously, the character is a bit crazy and obsessive of her son and quite a bit over the top. Page offers nothing to this student film. Why the hell she was nominated, I don't know. She's over the top in this film and not engaging enough to keep her around for anything else. Your son moves on while you scream about it needing to mean something and blah blah blah. I feel like an Oscar nomination should do more than just be obnoxious and histrionic. Page now has three more Oscar nominations that we have to deal with and I am hoping that those first three are exceptional and can be sucked into in a good way. Essentially this is a weird film with a subpar performance considering the reputation of this actress among the Academy members. Not really one to search out unless you feel the need to watch all of Coppola's film because Page certainly isn't the reason to watch it.


Well, this isn't a very strong group. Dennis stands out as being head and shoulders above the rest. She is the clear and easy winner for me and the Academy. As for the rest, well, it's all a toss up. I am just not a Page fan at all and that's becoming more of a reality with each nomination. I don't like the performance or the film all that much even if it is neat to see Coppola's start. LaGarde. It's hard to truly rank this one as she phonetically learned the script, so is that acting? I think she puts some acting into it and is genuinely interesting to watch and makes the film better. She would never win but I'm fine with her being here. Merchant is more of a prop for the film. It's like hey, this chick makes a mistake and pays for it dearly in the end. The film uses her and doesn't allow her to be more than just a PSA. Hiller is fine. Good in the role but there's not much of it. I'd want more but it wasn't her film. Dennis is amazing and this is probably the easiest win in a long time for this category. Sadly it's because it sucks so much for the rest. Oh well, on to 2021 in reality and to better groups in this project.

Oscar Winner: Sandy Dennis - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
My Winner:  Sandy Dennis - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Wendy Hiller
Vivien Merchant
Jocelyne LaGarde
Geraldine Page