1934 – Norma Shearer
The Barretts of Wimpole Street
Well, Shearer knocks it out of the park again. But I don’t think it was her best performance. But that’s like saying she was only a nine instead of a ten. But she was still a nine. One of the things I have come to love about the actress is her complete ease and her fluidity in front of the camera. Shearer’s acting was like Karen Carpenter’s voice. Just as easy and natural as it could possibly be.
But here, she played Elizabeth Barrett, a girl who is under the emotional thumb of a father so strict it far surpasses the line into cruelty. She is ill, and has not left her sick bed for years, and her father actually tells her that he would rather have her sick and lame than disobedient and free to live her own life. And while Shearer played the part very well, the easiness of her on-screen presence was tinged with an effort that she usually didn’t have. It felt like she was trying a little too hard to be the character, instead of just being her. There was a sense of effort or discomfort with the role, like she was putting on airs that she didn’t have to put on, like she was performing for the stage and not the movie camera.
But it wasn’t constant, and she was still a delight to watch. I especially liked her in the climax of the film, when she sees her father’s absolute cruelty towards her younger sister, and decides to escape with her fiancée. You see, she was pitted against another Hollywood powerhouse, Charles Laughton, and she easily held her own. But the two played off each other well and the result was some pretty hefty drama. Shearer really showed off what she could do, and as always, I was impressed. And it didn’t hurt that her face was just made for close-ups.
And there was one scene where she had to sing a song. All I can say about that is thank goodness they didn’t feel it necessary to overdub her voice. It was definitely her. And I like that it wasn’t perfect. She was not a singer, but she did just fine, and it further added to the realism of the character. It didn’t need to be a beautiful voice in that moment. She really did the part justice and she really earned her nomination. But she was up against Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night for the Best Actress Oscar, so maybe it was understandable that she didn’t win. Maybe.