Best Actress 1948
Winner: Jane Wyman, Johnny Belinda
Nominees: Ingrid Bergman, Joan of Arc
Olivia de Havilland, The Snake Pit
Irene Dunne, I Remember Mama
Barbara Stanwyck, Sorry, Wrong Number

The Field: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★


Ranking Oscar's Ballot
 
 My Pick:
Olivia de Havilland, The Snake Pit ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

From There:
Jane Wyman, Johnny Belinda ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Ingrid Bergman, Joan of Arc ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
I have been consciously postponing Joan of Arc for a while now; you can smell the elephantiasis and the box-office desperation from a mile away. Joan of Arc is the sort of movie that was made so that it could be promoted, and somehow, even though Bergman won a Tony onstage in this role, her casting in the film seems calibrated more toward PR than dramatic plausibility. Her first scenes are uniquely uncomfortable, with the 5'10", 33-year-old actress failing to seem much like a willowy, agonized teenager living under her father's thumb and runneled with sublime ecstasy and terror after hearing her "voices." Happily, Bergman's performance becomes more emotionally credible and more technically proficient the nearer we get to Joan's imprisonment and martyrdom, even though the movie gets stodgier and more pedestrian. Falconetti's shadow threatens at all points to swat Bergman off the screen, and she has a hard time raising a sword with authority, but the solidity of her face and her persona, which sometimes leads to flat-footed performances (see The Bells of St. Mary's), somehow redeem Joan of Arc from being overly wispy and sentimental about its heroine. I found myself rooting for the performance even when it wasn't working; she's missing three stars by a hair.

Barbara Stanwyck, Sorry, Wrong Number ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Irene Dunne, I Remember Mama ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Who gets your vote in this field, and on my dream ballot below? VOTE HERE!


My Favorites from 1948:
(As determined by years of Oscar eligibility)

My Pick: Joan Fontaine, Letter from an Unknown Woman
Nominees: Ingrid Bergman, Joan of Arc
Nominees: Olivia de Havilland, The Snake Pit
Nominees: Moira Shearer, The Red Shoes
Nominees: Jane Wyman, Johnny Belinda

Honorable Mentions: None

Gourmet Prospects: Jean Arthur, A Foreign Affair; Joan Bennett, Secret Beyond the Door; Ingrid Bergman, Arch of Triumph; Claudette Colbert, Sleep, My Love; Linda Darnell, Unfaithfully Yours; Bette Davis, Another Part of the Forest; Suzy Delair, Quai des Orfèvres; Marlene Dietrich, A Foreign Affair; Judy Garland, Easter Parade; Paulette Goddard, An Ideal Husband; Dorothy Hart, The Naked City; Valerie Hobson, Blanche Fury; Jennifer Jones, Portrait of Jennie; Marcia Mae Jones, Street Corner; Vivien Leigh, Anna Karenina; Myrna Loy, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House; Lisbeth Movin, Day of Wrath; Diana Wynyard, An Ideal Husband

Further Research: June Allyson, The Bride Goes Wild; Anne Baxter, Homecoming; Anne Baxter, The Luck of the Irish; Constance Bennett, Smart Woman; Janet Blair, I Love Trouble; Ann Blyth, A Woman's Vengeance; Madeleine Carroll, An Innocent Affair; Joan Caulfield, The Sainted Sisters; Jeanne Crain, You Were Meant for Me; Joan Fontaine, The Emperor Waltz; Greer Garson, Julia Misbehaves; Betty Grable, When My Baby Smiles at Me; Barbara Hale, The Boy with Green Hair; Katharine Hepburn, State of the Union; Marsha Hunt, The Inside Story; Ruth Hussey, I, Jane Doe; Dorothy Lamour, The Girl from Manhattan; Veronica Lake, The Sainted Sisters; Viveca Lindfors, Adventures of Don Juan; Diana Lynn, Ruthless; Virginia Mayo, A Song Is Born; Merle Oberon, Night Song; Maureen O'Hara, Sitting Pretty; Eleanor Parker, The Woman in White; Jane Randolph, Open Secret; Lizabeth Scott, I Walk Alone; Alexis Smith, The Decision of Christopher Blake; Alexis Smith, The Woman in White; Ann Sothern, April Showers; Shirley Temple, Fort Apache; Gene Tierney, The Iron Curtain; Claire Trevor, Raw Deal; Lana Turner, Homecoming; Alida Valli, The Miracle of the Bells; Loretta Young, Rachel and the Stranger

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