1940 – James Stewart
The Philadelphia Story
This was clearly a very popular movie when it came out in 1940. It was nominated for six Oscars, and took home two. This was one of them. Stewart took home the prize for Best Actor, and I am not sure if I would have voted for him. It isn’t that he did a bad job. Quite the contrary, he did a good job. But I just finished watching The Great Dictator with Charlie Chaplin, and I would probably have gone in that direction. But that’s just me.
I find it significant to note that of the four main members of the cast, Cary Grant was the only one who was not nominated for an acting award. But I almost understand that. Grant was playing himself, as he did in many of his films. Mind you, Stewart did, too, but maybe a little less so here. He played the part of Macaulay Connor, a writer who could be great, if he wasn’t forced to write for Spy Magazine, a cheap rag that is on the lookout for the next big story.
The character was pretty much the same one as we’ve seen Stewart play in other movies. He could almost have been transplanted from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington or You Can’t Take It With You, and he would have been just fine. The only difference would have been a slightly move cynical attitude born of time and experience, but that’s about it. He still had the same moralistic, gentlemanly, boy-next-door personality that seemed to come from the actor, and not just from the characters he typically played on the screen.
In the second act of the movie, he had to play drunk, which isn’t always easy. He wasn’t a sloppy drunk, but was more silly, neatly aligning with the rom-com, screwball comedy genre that dominates the film. Personally, I think I might have appreciated a little more of an over-the-top performance in these scenes, but again, that’s just me. He wasn’t drunk enough. A few slurred words and more stumbling would have been more effective than the little hiccups and silly dialogue that we got. The rest of the time, it was just a typical James Stewart performance. I know he was Hollywood’s golden child at the time, but I wanted more. Nominated? Maybe. A winner? I’m not so sure.