The Oscar Quest: Best Actress – 1947
1947 is a year I constantly criticize for being weak because almost none of the Best Picture nominees were really strong enough to win. So while Gentleman’s Agreement is a great film and a good Best Picture choice, I always feel like it’s a bit of a let down, because, what if the category were stronger?
Elia Kazan won Best Director for the film (talked about here), which makes perfect sense and is a good decision, and Celeste Holm also won Best Supporting Actress for the film (talked about here), which makes sense but is the result of a shitty category. Best Actor was Ronald Colman for A Double Life, which I guess I can live with, him being respected and all (even though Gregory Peck gave the best performance and Colman being a bit — emotive). And Best Supporting Actor was Edmund Gwenn for Miracle on 34th Street (talked about here). He played Santa Claus. End of story.
So now we have this category, which we’ll just save time and leave it at — this is the biggest Best Actress upset of all time and is one of the worst Best Actress decisions of all time (as high as #2). It was horrible.
BEST ACTRESS – 1947
And the nominees were…
Joan Crawford, Possessed
Susan Hayward, Smash-Up: The Story of aWoman
Dorothy McGuire, Gentleman’s Agreement
Rosalind Russell, Mourning Becomes Electra
Loretta Young, The Farmer’s Daughter (more…)
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