Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1973: Results

5. Max von Sydow in The Exorcist- Sydow has a limited role but properly gives the weight and power to his role.

4. Edward G. Robinson in Soylent Green- His film is not much but Robinson gives a heartfelt performance that brings weight to a film sorely lacking in it otherwise.

3. Robert De Niro in Mean Streets- De Niro gives an effectively manic performance that infuses a childlike enthusiasm that works perfectly for the part.

2. Robert Ryan in The Iceman Cometh- Ryan gives a powerful performance piercing through the film by realizing his character's cynicism brilliantly by always managing to show that this comes from his broken dreams.

1. Robert Shaw in The Sting- Good Prediction Lezlie. This was a difficult choice to make as Ryan and Shaw are both incredible Ryan realizing his complex character brilliantly, but Shaw making so much more out of a part that is so little. For the moment the win goes to Shaw showing why he is my favorite supporting actor ever tearing into scenes with such conviction, and giving a striking villianous turn.

Overall Rank:

1. Robert Shaw in The Sting
2. Robert Ryan in The Iceman Cometh
3. Robert De Niro in Mean Streets
4. Edward G. Robinson in Soylent Green
5. Max von Sydow in The Exorcist
6. Harold Gould in The Sting
7. Hal Holbrook in Magnum Force
8. Michael Lonsdale in The Day of the Jackal
9. Jeff Bridges in The Iceman Cometh
10. Robert De Niro in Bang the Drum Slowly
11. Charles Durning in The Sting 
12. Barry Dennen in Jesus Christ Superstar 
13. Lee J. Cobb in The Exorcist
14. Fredric March in The Iceman Cometh
15. Bob Bingham in Jesus Christ Superstar
16. Kurt Yaghjian in Jesus Christ Superstar
17. Vincent Gardenia in Bang the Drum Slowly 
18. Lee Marvin in The Iceman Cometh
19. Ray Walston in The Sting
20. Tony Roberts in Serpico 
21. Otis Young in The Last Detail
22. Randy Quaid in The Last Detail 
23. Robert Earl Jones in The Sting
24. Yul Brynner in Westworld 
25. John Houseman in The Paper Chase
26. Richard Romanus in Mean Streets
27. Joe Don Baker in Charley Varrick 
28. Larry Marshall in Jesus Christ Superstar
29. Jack Gilford in Save the Tiger
30. Philip Toubus in Jesus Christ Superstar
31. William O'Malley in The Exorcist
32. John Vernon in Charley Varrick
33. Bob Dylan in Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid
34. Andy Robinson in Charley Varrick
35. James Brolin in Westworld 
36. Don Gordon in Papillon
37. Warren Oates in Badlands
38. Josh Mostel in Jesus Christ Superstar
39. Jack MacGowran in The Exorcist
40. Yaphet Kotto in Live and Let Die
41. Robert Deman in Papillon

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1973: Edward G. Robinson in Soylent Green

Edward G. Robinson did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Sol Roth in Soylent Green.

Soylent Green is a film set in a dystopic New York City where a Detective Thorn (Charlton Heston) finds himself in trouble when he gets close to discovery the secret behind a government foodstuff. The film has its moments but never becomes that interesting particularly due to its mundane and tacky art direction.

Edward G. Robinson gives his very last film performance here as a former scholar who lives with the detective Thorn. There are only two things that are at all memorable from this film one being the last line of the film, and Edward G. Robinson as Roth. Although this might not be the most prestige project Robinson was ever in Robinson still gives it his all, which is always a sign of a good actor. As Roth Robinson gives the role a lot of heart as a man who seems to have lived to long to see the world he once loved completely washed away by decay.

Robinson is very good as Roth because depression is not the overwhelming element of his performance. There are moments where it comes out powerful when he is reminded too much of his past, but early in the film Robinson is very good in portraying the more optimistic elements in Roth. This not to say he is an optimist, but whenever there is moment he is reminded of the past in a positive way like enjoying food from the past Robinson infuses the moment with a lot of heart and happiness that shows just how fondly Roth remembers the past.

Robinson here has a really nice chemistry with Charlton Heston that is rather surprisingly. Their friendship seem genuine and the best scenes of the film are the two together in their small little apartment. Honestly I think it would have been a much better film if they rewrote as a film about Heston and Robinson living in this type world just through the apartment, as they are by far the best scenes in the film. The two are excellent in as they set up the dynamic between the younger man who is unaware of the past, and the old man who can do nothing to forget.

Robinson makes Roth a wise old man effectively and always seems genuine in his excitement over something as simple as just some reports on foodstuffs that are in book form. He always manganese to find the honest emotions in these scenes which is really something considering how ineffectual the scenes away from him tend to be. Robinson though achieves something that the poor art direction of the film does not, which is honestly portraying the loss at the center of the film.

The highlight of his performance, Heston's performer, and of the film is when he decides to be euthanized as a government facility. What really adds to this scene though is the scene where he decides this is particularly strong because Robinson portraying it in such a quiet way. Robinson shows that in finding the horrible truth makes Roth just sadly gives his resignation from a place he feels he can no longer tolerate. Robinson is excellent in the scene as any of his contentment goes away as the full extent of his grief comes out in a heartbreaking moment. This may be far from the best film in his career but Robinson gives a performance worthy to be his last.

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1973

And the Nominees Were Not:

Robert De Niro in Mean Streets

Robert Ryan in The Iceman Cometh

Robert Shaw in The Sting

Max von Sydow in The Exorcist

Edward G. Robinson in Soylent Green

The Red House (1947)

***
Country: US
Director: Delmer Daves

A strange family living in self-imposed isolation, carefully guarded family secrets, an eerie forest rumored to be inhabited by spirits, a sinister abandoned house deep in that forest, a teenage girl with hazy memories of something terrible happening in that house—these are classic elements of Gothic melodrama found in the atmospheric 1947 thriller The Red House. The family in question are farmer Pete Morgan (Edward G. Robinson), his unmarried sister Ellen (Judith Anderson), and their adopted daughter Meg (Allene Roberts). Into their lives comes Meg's high school classmate Nath Storm (Lon McAllister), hired to help out on the Morgans' farm. His curiosity aroused by Pete's dark warnings to avoid the neighboring forest, Nath determines to get to the bottom of whatever Pete is concealing about the mysterious red house in the woods, persuading Meg to defy Pete and help him.

In The Red House Edward G. Robinson turns in another of his memorable performances of the 1940s. His Pete, a brusque man with a soft spot for his adopted daughter Meg, at first seems not too different from the loving father Robinson played a couple of years earlier in Our Vines Have Tender Grapes. His desire to shield Meg from the danger he perceives in the forest seems a genuine one, the result of an overly protective attitude understandable in the parent of a young woman on the verge of adulthood. But faced with the challenge presented by Nath's presence on the farm, Pete begins to show a darker side as he grows almost neurotically possessive of Meg. As it becomes more apparent that she is experiencing an adolescent sexual awakening and transferring her feelings of daughterly love for Pete to romantic love for Nath, can Pete be viewing Nath as a rival? Several scenes—such as the one where he jealously confronts Meg in her bedroom late at night after he realizes Nath has just left by the window, threatening to kill him if he ever catches him in her room again—clearly hint at this. If he does see the young man as a rival for Meg's love, what is the true nature of his feelings for Meg?

Robinson subtly conveys Pete's conflict over his confused feelings for his adopted daughter as well as the mounting agitation Pete feels as he comes to look upon Nath as an interloper trying to steal Meg away from him. By the end of the picture, Pete has become completely unhinged by the tensions of dealing with his feelings for Meg, the consuming guilt he feels over his past misdeeds, and his desperate attempts to keep his secrets buried by placing the red house off-limits. In portraying Pete's final break with reality, Robinson avoids histrionics, and his restraint makes Pete's madness seem all the more convincing and pathetic. It's a wonderful performance that shows how skilled Robinson was at plumbing the contradictory emotions and the self-delusion of a man like Pete, almost certainly bringing greater complexity to the character than was originally intended.

The other standout performance in the film is by Allene Roberts, who was only seventeen years old when the picture was shot. Roberts is especially good at suggesting Meg's dawning awareness of sexuality. Nath has a girl friend, a sluttish classmate named Tibby, played with feral intensity by an impossibly young-looking Julie London. In one scene, Meg watches from the shore as Nath and Tibby go swimming in a nearby lake and observes with obvious fascination the sexually charged interplay between them. Like Robinson, Allene Roberts makes Meg, who might otherwise have been a superficial character, someone unexpectedly complex. In the early part of the film she seems naive and biddable, devoted to Pete. Later, as she tries to break free of Pete's domination, she begins for the first time in her life to question what she has been told about her history rather than simply accepting it. Roberts does a remarkable job of depicting this transition from girlish credulity to adult skepticism. Scene by scene, you can sense her growing more assertive and independent and less inclined to blind faith in the man she has always considered her father.

The film takes its time setting up the situation and seems a bit lethargic for the first twenty minutes or so. But as the characters' relationships begin to shift and re-form and more details are revealed about the events at the heart of the mystery, the pace picks up and the mood grows more portentous. The brisk conclusion, with its noir-influenced framing and lighting, in particular is well mounted. The location photography by Bert Glennon (The Scarlet Empress, Stagecoach) in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in northern California adds a great deal of verisimilitude to the picture. The small town where Nath's mother runs the general store, the gentle countryside of dairy farms and apple orchards, the tangled forest with its streams, lakes, and stark outcroppings of rock give an authenticity often lacking in the studio product of the time. The highly dramatic music score by Miklos Rozsa with its subtle use of theremin effectively underscores the strangeness of the plot.

The Red House is unlikely to make anyone forget Rebecca, but it's a satisfying movie that succeeds on the strength of its ominous atmosphere and a pair of quietly powerful performances. It takes the Arthur Conan Doyle device of miscreants creating the illusion of the supernatural to direct attention away from their all-too-human crimes and updates it with a large dash of Freud.

Allene Roberts discusses her brief Hollywood career in a 2009 interview at the website Films of the Golden Age. Click here to read it.

House of Strangers (1949)

***^½
Country: US
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Joseph L. Mankiewwicz won Oscars for writing and directing the sardonic comedy A Letter to Three Wives in 1949 (an accomplishment he would repeat a year later with All About Eve). That same year he also directed House of Strangers, a work quite different from his Oscar-winner. So overshadowed was this film by A Letter to Three Wives that I was barely aware of it until Dave Hicks included it in his film noir countdown at Goodfella's Movie Blog. With my fairly narrow view of that nebulous genre, I wouldn't really call it a film noir myself, although the lighting and cinematography by Milton Krasner have the noir-inflected look of many American films of the time, but its inclusion in the countdown and the comments made about it intrigued me enough to make me seek it out.

Based on a novel by Jerome Weidman, House of Strangers is about an Italian-American banking family, the Monettis—patriarch Gino (Edward G. Robinson) and his four sons, Max (Richard Conte, in a strong performance), a lawyer; Joe (Luther Adler), the eldest; Tony (Efram Zimbalist, Jr.), a dandy; and the none-too-bright Pietro (Paul Valentine), who dreams of being a professional boxer. Opera-loving Gino rules his family and runs his bank with a domineering attitude born of his willful personality. Max has his law office right inside the bank, but Gino keeps his other sons in menial positions of little responsibility and no status. Understandably, these three are resentful of both Gino's treatment of them and the obvious favoritism he shows towards Max. When Gino is arrested and charged with illegal banking practices, the dynamic is in place for a power struggle to see who will succeed him as head of the Monetti dynasty.

Modern viewers will detect in House of Strangers many resemblances to The Godfather, beginning with the very first scene, as Max walks down an open-air market street in New York's Little Italy and up to the door of the bank. Viewers of the time almost certainly would have seen similarities to the plays of Arthur Miller from the late 1940s—All My Sons and Death of a Salesman—with their emphasis on troubled relationships between fathers and sons. Those familiar with Shakespeare will immediately notice parallels to King Lear: the egotistical patriarch, the favored child, the patriarch's fall from power, and the struggle between the loyal child and the envious siblings to determine who will assume the king's position. House of Strangers also throws in a love interest for Max, Irene Bennett (Susan Hayward, who was just perfecting her persona of forceful femininity and is quite good), a WASP socialite who attempts to deflect the headstrong Max from the seemingly inevitable showdown with his brothers.

In the last year or two I've become aware that Edward G. Robinson—whom I had always thought of as an actor primarily of the 1930s, along with James Cagney the film epitome of the anarchic gangster figure of that era—was actually one of the best American screen actors of the 1940s, giving performances in that decade that are remarkable in both their intensity and their variety. Equally adept at playing villains or victims, men of great malevolence or great integrity, Robinson gave masterful performances in one film after another: as Wolf Larson in The Sea Wolf, in Double Indemnity, the two films he made for Fritz Lang, The Woman in the Window and Scarlet Street, The Stranger, as the vicious gangster Johnny Rocco in Key Largo. In House of Strangers, his Gino Monetti is in a way a summation of the roles he had played during the entire decade, as he mines those performances to embody in one personality many of the qualities of character he had expressed in the previous ten years. It is quite possibly the most complex, most paradoxical, and grandest performance of his entire screen career.

Robinson's Gino Monetti is an observant judge of character, yet a man who seems blind to the contradictions in his own nature that drive his actions. He seems sincere in his desire to offer financial help to those whom other banks won't touch, yet as his trial reveals, he is not above exploiting them for exorbitant profits. He says the harsh treatment of his sons is intended to help them build character, which they clearly lack, yet he consistently undermines their self-confidence as he ruthlessly dominates them, openly bullying and humiliating them. He claims to be building a dynasty for his sons to inherit, yet he resists sharing power with them, instead clinging stubbornly to power himself, ruling from his palatial mansion with arbitrary tyranny and behaving in his office at the bank like a Renaissance prince granting audiences to subjects seeking his patronage. He is a shrewd, self-made businessman proud of his initiative and self-reliance, yet independent to the point of foolhardiness, as his disdain of banking laws and consequent legal problems indicate. He is in every way a classic tragic figure—a proud, inflexible man oblivious to his own flaws, his ego spinning so out of control that it causes him to self-destruct.

The movie's only glaring weakness is its almost complete lack of period detail. I wondered why at the beginning of the film Joe's office has a prominently displayed bust of Mussolini, but it was quite far into the movie before it became clear that the opening and closing scenes that frame the flashback structure of the film are set in the late 1930s, before the US entered World War II, and that the bulk of the movie takes place during the banking reforms of the early 1930s. The costumes, decor, and music don't adequately convey this fact, prolonging the confusion about when the events are taking place, when an on-screen title or two would have cleared up this point right away. Aside from this, I was quite impressed with House of Strangers. Joseph L. Mankiewicz had a nearly unbroken run of good films for several years in the late 1940s and early 1950s. House of Strangers is one of the best of this period and has been unjustly neglected.

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Trivia note: The young actress who plays Joe's wife is Diana Douglas, married at the time to Kirk Douglas and the mother of Michael and Joel Douglas.

MIA Classic DVDs

Before the economy went crashing to its knees, several exciting classic titles were announced for DVD. With disposable income cut however, DVD sales took a precipitous downturn, including catalog titles. Unfortunately, these previously announced titles are now MIA.

Rumor has it some of the Fox titles were fully restored, and even had audio commentaries recorded, so I can’t see Fox not releasing them. Surely they want some return on their investment? While Fox has currently all but abandoned its classic titles line, it’s my hope some of these previously announced titles from Fox and other companies will see the light of day.

A search through my increasingly faulty memory banks has come up with a few of these titles.

Several years ago we got a Betty Grable Vol. 1, but never a Vol. 2. Rumor has it poor sales for the first put the kibosh on the second. But I do recall reading that “The Shocking Miss Pilgrim” (1947), a delightful film where Betty plays the first woman secretary in Boston at the turn of the century, was fully restored and had an audio commentary recorded. The Gershwin songs make this a natural for release.

I hope it makes its way soon, either as a stand alone title or the aforementioned Vol. 2. (Fox, put out a box set with “Shocking Miss Pilgrim” and include “Mother Wore Tights” (1947) and “Coney Island” (1943) and watch that set go flying off the shelf.)

Several years ago, Fox announced the DVD release of its Technicolor John Philip Sousa biography “Stars and Stripes Forever” (1952) starring Clifton Webb, Robert Wagner and Debra Paget. For several years I thought it would come out around July 4, but it has yet to happen. I think Fox would be surprised at how well this would sell. It would make a welcome holiday screening alternative to “Yankee Doodle Dandy” (1942), as magnificent as that film is.

Fox also announced a Ritz Brothers set, and God help me, but yes, I would have bought it. I have fond memories of their hillbilly comedy “Kentucky Moonshine” (1938) and their ”Life Begins in College” (1937) gets pretty good reviews. I don’t think the excellent Alice Faye/Don Ameche musical “You Can’t Have Everything” (1937) was listed for that set, but maybe Fox was saving that for a third box set of Alice Faye titles. I can dream, can’t I?

Getting away from Fox, Warner Bros. had announced a fully restored version of their George Gershwin biography “Rhapsody in Blue” (1945), with added footage not seen since its original release. If memory serves, there was a longer, or a different version, prepared for U.S. servicemen, much like “The Big Sleep” (1946). The footage not seen stateside was to be included. I have not heard a peep about this title for several years, but if Steven Spielberg does get his proposed Gershwin biography off the ground, this would be a natural tie-in. That may be a bit down the road, but we’ve waited this long, what’s another few years?

Warner’s great version of “The Sea Wolf” (1941), with Edward G. Robinson unforgettable as Captain Wolf Larsen, has been rumored for years to be coming, also with missing footage not seen since its original release. With all the restoration going on with this title, I can’t see this going the WB Archive route. However it gets released, I can’t wait to see it. As far as I’m concerned, they can take all the time they need to do this one right.

I have vague memories of a special two-disc edition of “The Man Who Would Be King” (1975) being announced, but that was years ago and I haven’t heard anything since. Again this is a title fully deserving the two-disc treatment and I sincerely hope it will come true some day.

Readers, please let me know what titles I’ve missed or if you’re aware of the status of any of the above. Thanks.

Smart Money

“Smart Money” (1931) was the only movie Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney made together, and it’s pretty good. It has that raw atmosphere I enjoy from so many early 1930s Warner Bros. movies. And, like most Warner Bros. movies of that era, it’s very watchable.

Edward G. Robinson stars as Nick the Barber. He and best friend Jack (James Cagney) are barbers in Irontown, where Nick also runs a small-time betting operation out of his shop. He’s a big fish in a small pond and thinks he can make a splash in New York City. His friends stake him for a big poker game in the city. After being taken in by some con men, he strikes back at them using the same methods they used on him. He soon becomes one of the biggest gamblers around, causing consternation among the law and the city’s newspaper editors. (We get lots of headlines about Nick’s gambling activities). Knowing Nick’s penchant for beautiful women, the D.A. uses attempted suicide victim Irene (Margaret Livingston) to get the goods on him.

Sure, Nick has a thing for women, but there’s also an odd undercurrent of homosexuality between Nick and Jack. When Jack comes to the city to help Nick with his racket, Jack complains about Irene always being around. Nick tells him Irene will be leaving in a few days and “…you can be my sweetheart again, dearie.” Wow. Yep, we’re definitely in Pre-Code territory here.

Despite Cagney’s co-starring presence, it’s very much a supporting performance. He was simultaneously shooting this and “The Public Enemy” at the same time, so his star had yet to ascend. But upon the opening of that film, Robinson and Cagney became equals, and ruled the underworld roost at Warners for the remainder of the decade.

Noel Francis makes a nice impression as a girl Nick falls for, not knowing she’s the gal of Sleepy Sam (Ralf Harolde), the slicker who takes Nick in that first poker game. She’s in another 1931 Cagney film called “Blonde Crazy” and very appealing she was too. She never became a star, but I’m always glad to see her in the cast list.

Boris Karloff appears unbilled as a gambler who gets wiped out by Nick in Irontown. That same year he made movie history in “Frankenstein” and a year later Karloff would never go unbilled again.

Even though the title is included in the third volume of the Warner Bros. Gangsters Collection, it’s really not a gangster film, but that’s OK. They can call it in whatever box set they want as long as these titles continue to get released.

All in all, a good show. Not particularly memorable, but enjoyable viewing nonetheless. The 81 minutes fly by in the best Warner Bros. style.

Rating for “Smart Money”: **1/2