Goldie was adorable, but did she deserve to win an Oscar over Susannah York's astonishing performance in "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" or Dyan Cannon's deft comic acting in "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice"?
Here's the supporting actress list for 1969, judge for yourself:
Catherine Burns, Last Summer
Dyan Cannon, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
Goldie Hawn, Cactus Flower
Sylvia Miles, Midnight Cowboy
Susannah York, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Ready for this? I think Ingrid should have won the Best Supporting Oscar for this film and she wasn't even nominated. I don't think she was miscast at all. She is completely plausible and really it is a great comic performance.
shareIf Ingrid Bergman had been nominated, it would have been as Best Actress, since she was in a leading role. It has long been noted that it's hard to be nominated for best a Actor/Actress Oscar when you're in a comedy. There are exceptions, but it's much less common than in the supporting categories.
Bergman was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical for Cactus Flower, but didn't win.
Hearing Goldie Hawn announced as the winner that year is still my favorite Oscar moment ever.
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Unfortunately never saw that segment from the 1970 Oscars ceremony. As far as I know she wasn't there on the night was she? Raquel Welch received the oscar for her.
shareNo, she didn't deserve it. In fact it stands out as one of the most ridiculous Oscars ever along with Cuba Gooding Jr.'s, Roberto Benigni's or Renee Zellwanker's to name a few. I think Susannah York or Sylvia Miles, in spite of her limited screen time, should have won. Anyway, York herself stated she thought it was rude of the Academy's to have nominated her without her permission so she pretty much ruined her chances of winning.
shareRoberto Benigni absolutly deserved the Oscar. The other two I also doubt.
shareYou may not believe this,but I think Ingrid Bergman gives the standout performance in this film as well. I think Hawn may have gotten the Oscar because she was essentially a lead in the supporting category, but Bergman is absolutely luminous in this film and it's a shame that it is one of the most forgotten films in her resume because it's an enchanting performance that, I think, anchors the film.
shareReally, Goldie Hawn won an oscar for this? I didn't know that. I like her in this but given the other performances on the list I would have chosen any of them over this, though I exclude 'Last Summer' because I can't remember the film.
Maybe it's a modern prejudice against comedic performances in Oscar races but even given that I just don't see her performance in this as *that* outstanding.
I think a lot of it had to do with her fame because of "Laugh-In." She was off the show by the time Cactus Flower was released but from what I remember she was very popular by then because of it.
You Can Lead a Horticulture, but You Can't Make Her Think!
Goldie Hawn was still a regular on LAUGH-IN at the time CACTUS FLOWER was released. LAUGH-IN didn't premiere until 1968 and CACTUS FLOWER was released in '69.
shareI think Goldie really set the bar for loveable dumb blodes....there would be no Legally Blonde if not for her (or the book).
Though if you ever see an interview with Goldie and they ask her about her Oscar, she believes that she shouldn't have won, or even have been nominated. She thinks because it was her first performance, it wasn't her best. She was in London at the time of the show and didn't bother going to the ceremony because she didn't think she would win. She thought the real winner was Dyan Cannon, and she sticks by that opinion to today. Shows real honesty on her part, which is why she's such a great person!
That could be said for MANY acting performances, Miles. Just think of Faye Dunaway in "Chinatown", which she did not win the Oscar for... but instead, won for "Network". Goldie was not running against her other performances, she was running against other performances that same year by other female actors.
shareThere has always been a school of thought that Dunaway's NETWORK Oscar was a consolation prize for not winning for a superior performance in CHINATOWN, which she lost to Ellen Burstyn for ALICE DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE, even though she gave better performances in THE EXORCIST and THE LAST PICTURE SHOW...sometimes it's just a vicious cycle that just goes round and round.
shareHer acting is surprisingly subtle. Specially love the little touches like when she is telling Walter Matthau what a decent guy he is and feints a karate chop to the back of his neck... or when Ingrid Bergman leaves the record store and she well with tears of concern... very nuanced performance.
Samantha
"Nobody's perfect."
I agree...it's the little moments like the ones you mentioned that make Hawn's performance in CACTUS FLOWER so special, though I still have to say that Ingrid Bergman is the one I went away from that movie remembering.
sharewow I am really amazed that Hawn won an oscar for this.....it seems that the part is not that much further from herself...esp. in 1969.....If anyone deserved to win an oscar it was Ingrid Bergman...in one of her most wonderfull performances.....she really does make this movie....
shareI absolutely feel that Goldie's Best Supporting Actress Academy Award was well-deserved. This was her first major role in a film but she managed to hold her own with veterans like Walter Matthau and Ingrid Bergman, and I think that's quite an accomplishment.
shareI can imagine Goldie winning a Golden Globe, but an Oscar? C'mon!
shareA tough year - they were all good. I think both Goldie and Susannah York deserved the award. And since Goldie was nominated only one other time - for Best Actress in 1980 for Private Benjamin - I'm glad she won it for something. She is one of our legendary comic performers. How many others have had such a long and successful career as she? Too bad she didn't receive other Oscar nominations. She was deserving of nominations for Shampoo (1975) and First Wives' Club (1996). She gives excellent comic performances also in Butterflies are Free (1972) and Overboard (1987). And I personally love her in Protocal (1984), a movie not highly thought-of by most.
"That was a good movie. You should have been in that movie."
I love Goldie too but I think she received the Oscar nominations she deserved. I loved the other films you mentioned but the only one I would consider close to Oscar-worthy was SHAMPOO, though the ladies in SHAMPOO all took a back seat to Lee Grant, who did win an Oscar for it.
shareGoldie and Dyan Cannon had one advantage, they had larger parts than the other nominees and both could be considered lead roles. Miles was great in her one scene, Burns was good, and York memorable. Tough call here. Pamela Franklin (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie), Bonnie Bedelia (They Shoot Horses, Don't They?), Sian Philips and Celia Johnson (Goodbye Mr. Chips), Verna Bloom (Medium Cool), and Ingrid Bergman all provided good supporting performances that year as well. Philips was cited by The National Society of Film Critics, The National Board of Review named Franklin best supporting actress, The New York Film Critics chose Cannon and The Golden Globe was given to Hawn.
shareIt was an amazing year for Supporting Actresses, wasn't it. I definitely could have seen that Oscar going to Suhsannah York. THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY? was a freakin' masterpiece, an aabsolutely amazing film.
shareWhat were they thinking? Hawn's laughable victory has to be the most unremarkable performance to win an Oscar this side of George Chakiris in WEST SIDE STORY. Especially when you compare her bird-brained shtick (LAUGH-IN goes big screen) against any of the other performances she was up against.
shareGoldie's performance is funny and charming. Unremarkable performances that received Oscars would be led by Don Ameche in Cocoon, closely followed by Michael Caine in Hannah and Her Sisters, with honorable mentions to Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine), Tommy Lee Jones (The Fugitive) Tom Hanks (Philadelphia),
Maureen Stapleton (Reds),Vanessa Redgrave (Julia),George Kennedy(Cool Hand Luke), Martin Balsam (A Thousand Clowns), Holly Hunter (The Piano), Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman for Million Dollar Baby, Donna Reed (From Here to Eternity), Gloria Graham (The Bad and the Beautiful),Joe Van Fleet (East of Eden) and Chakiris. And William Hurt in Kiss of the Spider Woman and Jessica Lange in Blue Sky are bad performances that were honored. Goldie's performance is better than all the above and her performance goes beyond shtick; it's her most varied performance. Look at the scene where Bergman tells her that she's Matthau's nurse not his wife. Hawn's reaction is pure Gold(ie). An example of a comedic performance which was given an Oscar, there's Lee Marvin in CAT BALLOU, a win that many question, especially considerin then "serious" competition:Olivier, Burton, and Rod Steiger(The Pawnbroker). The NY Film Critics chose an undeserving IMHO Oskar Werner(Ship of Fools), and the National Board of Review chose Marvin and cited both performances he gave that year in Cat Ballou and Ship of Fools.
It's not a very good performance by Hawn. You can see her trying to remember her lines before she says them....
Ironically, Hawn's greatest performance was probably on "Laugh-In," where she effortlessly mangled her lines and giggled her way through a coupla seasons before making movies like "Cactus Flower" and acting in a straight forward manner, thus revealing that the "Laugh-In" bubble-brain-schtick character was almost entirely a fiction.
More irony: her daughter Kate Hudson is a name in the 2000's, but has none of the distinction that Goldie brought to "Laugh-In" and a handful of good movies like "The Sugarland Express." Mother Goldie was an original; Kate's a bland knock-off.
Sure Goldie is good in this movie, as is the entire cast. The one who really stands out, though, is Bergman. By far. I can't be bothered to look up who was nominated for Best Actress in 1970, but she deserved at least a nomination...
shareBergman had tough competition in dramatic roles that year: Maggie Smith won for the Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and the nominess were Fonda They Shoot Horses,...?,Minelli The Sterile Cuckoo, Jean Simmons The Happy Ending, and Genevieve Bujold for Anne of the Thousand Days.
shareWow, that's a long list but you're right about Ameche. And I'm glad someone finally criticizes Hanks' and Hunter's triumphs. I'd have added some others, otably Whoopi Goldberg in "Ghost" or Jack Nicholson in "Terms of Endearment".
shareI agree with all, except for Maureen Stapleton, Vanessa Redgrave, Michael Caine and George Kennedy. They were deserving (in my opinion), you are right about ALL the others. There's Morgan Freeman: he's a wonderful actor, with unforgettable performances (Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption etc.), and he finally won over the superb performance of Thomas Haden Church and Hilary Swank was way the worst nominee of the year, Imelda Staunton should have won (but Kate Winslet and Anette Bening would have also been deserving). Jo Van Fleet in East of Eden? Come on... Over Natalie Wood? Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive? Over Ralph Fieness in Schindler's List? Sometimes I really don't get some of the decisions of the Academy.
About Goldie's reaction it's really pure Gold.
I think Hawn was more deserving than George Chakiris...you might want to revisit this performance of Hawn's...it has a little more depth than you might remember.
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