Can anyone explain why Olivia lost the Oscar to Jane Wyman in her syruppy preformance in Johnny Belinda?This has to be one the the greatest prefomances of the century for an actress, even by todays standards.Girl Interrupted didnt even come as close, so how could Olivia have lost the oscar. BTW, another great prefomance by Olivia is Lady in a cage, a little known film that I feel was a terrifieing portrayal of violence.
shareI really don't see what was so great about Olivia's performance. She did well and really got us in the mind of the character, but she acted so helpless and childlike with such an unrealistic voice throughout the movie.
shareHer character *WAS* helpless most of the time.
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I agree with you, her performance was okay but in my opinion Irene Dunne should have won the Oscar that year. Just my opinion.
sharede Havilland made many enemies in Hollywood during her career. As it has with so many others (John Wayne comes to mind), I suspect it played at least a small role. She was quite a maverick for her day.
Remember When Movies Didn't Have To Be Politically Correct?
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I am sure the academy felt Olivia has two oscars and Jayne Wyman none. This is the reason Olivia did not win. Hold back the Dawn was also a great performance.
She lost to her sister that year. Must have been tough familial.
The simple truth is that de Havilland had already won an award for TO EACH HIS OWN ('46) over Jane Wyman's work in THE YEARLING ('46).
No doubt that influenced the voters. They probably figured it was about time Jane got an Oscar, even though Olivia had won most of the national and international awards that year for THE SNAKE PIT.
Jane Wyman WAS excellent in JOHNNY BELINDA, no doubt about that. In fact, Wyman, Lew Ayres, Agnes Moorehead and Charles Bickford were all nominated for Oscars in that film.
But I do believe that Olivia's Virginia Cunningham in THE SNAKE PIT required an even broader range of emotions. She gave it subtle nuances that made it memorably realistic. She was at the height of her powers.
Anatole Litvak's direction was on par with John Huston's for TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE that year. He would have deserved winning--and also Alfred Newman for his memorable background score. I admired the script based on the best-selling novel which added the background of Virginia's illness to the story and made crisp use of flashbacks.
Well I haven't seen Wyman's performance but Olivia De Havilland was perfect in her role, she didn't miss at all in the whole film, she completely developed her character and gave a compelling and believable performance that ranks among her best and it's certainly Oscar material, definitely one of the best performances of all time, simply brilliant. The film is also an amazing piece by the incredible director Anatole Litvak.
shareThey needed 4 Oscars for Best performance by an actress in 1948.
One for Olivia, one for Jane, one for Ingrid, and one for Irene.
Irene Dunne was nominated 5 times for best performance by an actress, and never even got an honorary award. She's probably the most distinguished Hollywood performer never to win anything.
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that's a good question, she deserved that Oscar.When there's no more room in hell, The dead will walk the earth...
"Robbed" lol. It´s the worst performance I´ve seen from De Havilland thus far - all this forced, overwrought, self conscious hysteria alternating with innocent, pure-hearted mousiness makes her performance rather annoying to behold. She f-cked up.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
I saw this on TCM today, I thought Olivia's performance was great and the movie still holds up really well today. I think the reason Olivia lost was the subject matter of the movie, the subject matter was really sensitive for the time period, on the other hand Wyman's role was about an underdog. It's about a deaf mute girl who is raped but overcomes these obstacles, I'm sure Oscar voters ate that stuff up compared to someone who had a nervous breakdown. I think Wyman was worthy of the oscar and gave a good performance.
To be fair though, 1948 was a great movie year for actresses, I think Irene Dunne or Barbara Stanwyck any would have been a good choice as well.
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I think the reason Olivia lost was the subject matter of the movie, the subject matter was really sensitive for the time period, on the other hand Wyman's role was about an underdog.
I love Carole Lombard & bought two biographies in 2015. In the old days Studios often voted in sync because Gone With The Wind needed no publicity, MGM voted to give Academy Award to Robert Donat over Clark Gable because Donat's movie was a flop.
Carole Lombard died in January 1942 on U. S. War Bond Tour & was supposedly worried about Gable cheating on her, per usual, with Lana Turner & decided to take plane home instead of train as planned. Plane crashed 7 minutes after stopping to refuel into Mount Potosi.
Olivia fought Warner Brothers & won & I am willing to bet Wyman was either an MGM or Warners Studio property. I've never seen Johnny Belinda, I'll watch for it on TCM.
I recorded The Snake Pit & saw parts of it while it was on the air. I was going to delete but I'm glad I watched, it's an excellent film.