Monday, March 02, 2015

The Original Displaced Personalities

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I'm not even going to pretend that I think Eve Harrington's got a chance in her face-off in this week's "Beauty vs Beast" over at The Film Experience against the one and only Margo Channing - Bette Davis will surely snap her like that breadstick between her teeth. And that's how it should be. But bless Anne Baxter! She's a pip. When she lets those innocent doe-eyes sharpen and we see the demon underneath, watch out. Anybody'd be a fool to underestimate her.
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4 comments:

Pierce said...

With the exception of All About Eve and her Oscar winning role in The Razor's Edge, I really don't think that Ann Baxter could act, and she certainly shouldn't have been nominated in the same category as Bette Davis, even though she played the title character. All About Eve is my favorite movie. I watch it at least once a year and when I do, I still see new things in it. People think that, had Baxter not been nominated in this category, Davis would have won. However, the best performance of the year didn't win the Oscar. That was Gloria Swanson in Sunset Blvd. The award went to Judy Holliday, who was brilliant in Born Yesterday, but was honored, basically, because she had survived the blacklisting. Holliday was a gift from the gods. She made a handful of movies, did a few stage performances and then we lost her at the age of 43. Swanson was remarkable as Norma Desmond and, in spite of all those brilliant silent performances, it was her signature role. The only one of the nominees who is completely intolerable was Eleanor Parker. If you go to the Sing-Along Sound of Music, you get to boo her when she appears as the Baroness. It's a lot of fun!

Row-bin said...

When I was 10 years old and my fifth grade teacher asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said Margo Channing. My mom and dad got a letter home and wrote back that not only did they support my Margo Channing dream, but the only disappointment was that I didn't throw in a Baby Jane Hudson for good measure. My parents are rad.

joel65913 said...

I voted for Margo/Bette but agree that MISS Anne Baxter had it all goin' on. She could at times be very emotionally resonant and deeply touching as she was as Sophie in Razor's Edge but also was a marvel of the pregnant pause and precise phrasing. That came in handy in many of the overbaked melodramas she found herself cast in during the 50's and 60's which required that grand lady air. People bust on her work in The Ten Commandments but was there any other viable way to play that purple prose she was handed? She's playing to the back row across the street from whatever theatre she's appearing in in her mind and she's magnificently entertaining doing it!

Many feel she should have gone supporting in Eve but she fought to compete in lead and I say good on her. The film had two leads and two supporting female players and for a change the academy got that right and nominated everybody where they belonged. If it cost Bette her Oscar that is a shame but it was her due.

sissyinhwd said...

wasn't it a piece of celery