She Definitely Deserved the Oscar!!

That Grace Kelly was gorgeous -- in a conventional way -- does not discount the acting skill that she displayed during her brief stage, TV and film career. That the legendary Judy Garland popped pills does not discount her superb triple threat as an actress, singer and dancer. I understand that folks tend to be biased against female actors who flirt or sleep around with their married peers (as if they are guiltier in the pleasure seeking) and believe that they are always handed roles from the casting couch. I also understand that folks tend to be biased against entertainers who get caught in the grip of drugs -- the only reason my maternal grandparents refused to listen to the music of, and attend performances by, Billie Holiday; and the only reason I prefer to listen to but not watch Amy Winehouse deliver her gravelly groan-and-growl vocals. However, what gets lost in the argument of who deserved the Oscar for 1954 -- Grace Kelly or Judy Garland -- is that the choice was not the moviegoing public's to decide.

Instead of time traveling to the 1950s, let us simply think back to last week: to which movie or which actor/actress we believe *should* have won this Oscar and that Oscar. Even if there had been a tie between Grace Kelly and Judy Garland, many film buffs -- especially those of you who were at least adolescents in the year 1954 -- would be arguing through the present day about the injustice done to Garland. We are all entitled to our opinions.

I will say this: Just as Halle Berry demonstrated in Monster's Ball, nearly half a century earlier Grace Kelly in The Country Girl surprised the powers-that-were in the movie industry and pulled off just short of a miracle. Both actresses delivered heart-wrenchingly real performances that resonated with Everywoman and which made them deserving of the Best Actress Academy Award. Unfortunately, we are living in a misogynistic society that believes because Halle Berry bared her breasts (and more), wore hardly any makeup in Monster's Ball and fornicated with a white man, and because Grace Kelly wore eyeglasses, minimal makeup and dowdy housedresses and in The Country Girl -- they were only superficially qualified. Au contraire, both actresses fought tooth and nail for their respective roles, tapping into the kind of pain that every woman possesses. Their acting was much more than skin deep.

In Kelly's case, no amount of diamonds, furs and hairspray can take away from the gritty performance she turns in opposite Bing Crosby and William Holden. Kelly detractors seem too obsessed with the mythologized aspects of her life -- the Philly glamour girl turned Monegasque princess. In Berry's case, no number of Revlon endorsements, hair weaves and high-profile couplings can take away from her cinema verite performances both in Monster's Ball and, in her pre-fame role as a crackhouse cohabitant with Samuel L. Jackson, in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever.

We cannot go back in time to award Judy Garland her Oscar any more than we could award Bing Crosby the prestigious statuette for his Best Actor Oscar-worthy performance in The Country Girl. Having said that, I have injected myself with a special serum, for I know that there is more venom to come in this thread.

Agree, Grace deserved Oscar

~ UC Berkeley Film Studies Graduate Proud ~

Kelly definitely gave a gutsy performance in this but she was not the lead character as I had hoped for based on the title. The title mystifies me really because everything centered on Bing.

Garland on the other hand was in the epitome of a lead actress role and nailed the singing and the emotion for her character. A fully rounded performance that draws the viewer in.

I personally lean towards Garland as the most deserving but am not unhappy with Kelly's win because she was excellent as well.

This is different from other years when a much less stellar performance has won out over really good performances, as happened this year with Bullock.

I saw The Country Girl and A Star Is Born back-to-back and I really can't say Grace Kelly didn't deserve it, she was great, she developed a very difficult character and was really believable, I think Garland was amazing as well but it really wasn't unfair that Kelly won as lots of people say, Judy Garland wasn't really robbed.

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I watched this last night for the first time and honestly feel that this is one of the least deserving wins in that category. She's rarely convincing, mostly alternating between bland or histrionic. But with two studios campaigning for her, and her popularity at the time, it was hardly surprising she won.

Her roles for Dial M For Murder, Rear Window and her other movies except Country Girl were not different. Thats fine. Grace did her thing in movies very well. Men and women really enjoy her in movies. I really liked her, Judy Garland and Dorothy Dandridge in their movies. Any of them would deserve oscar. I saw her character show frustration,loyality, sadness, love ect. Grace did show emotion, but it was in subtle way, becuase thats her character.

Her character wasn't plain in the least. They didn't even try to make her look that way. The movie showed her to be pretty talented actress. I wouldn't say she is the best actress, because there are other many great movie stars and actresses. I can never pick one  I agree she deserved the Oscar.