Three women were chosen as Best Actress candidates in the initial year of the Academy Awards, but five performances were considered, giving the edge to the nominee who starred in three films that year (two of which were nominated for the top film awards). Watching their performances today is interesting because the style of performance for silent films differs so greatly from what contemporary actors do. Here are the nominees:
It’s very difficult to see what prompted Oscar voters to nominate Louise Dresser for her performance as Mama Pleznik in A Ship Comes In. Today it would most likely be considered a supporting performance since much of the film is about her character’s husband Peter, and even then it wouldn’t likely get much awards consideration. The film concerns a family of European immigrants coming to the United States and their integration into American society. Peter Pleznik (played with a great deal of vigor and joy by Rudolph Schildkraut, father of future Oscar winner Joseph Schildkraut) is optimistic about almost everything in his new home country. He makes a friend quickly, he gets a job soon after the family arrives, and he even feels like his son is becoming a real American by joining the military. Meanwhile, Dresser’s Mama sews clothes and bakes cakes and has nothing much of her own to do plot-wise. She does get to react to the news that her son is now a soldier, but seeing him in uniform just makes her walk very slowly and stay rather stone-faced. It’s an unexpected acting choice. When she runs after him as he leaves their home, she does hug and kiss him intently. All of that emotional work is shown as shadows on the wall, though, so we get no direct representation of Mama’s feelings. Likewise, when her husband is released from jail after being convicted of attempting to kill a judge – it’s just too preposterous a storyline to explain more fully than that – she tears up a bit when he returns home, but again the main reaction seems to be moving more slowly than usual. Her big scene is supposed to be when she learns that her son has been killed in battle, but she apparently hasn’t learned enough English in the years that they’ve been in the U.S., so even that realization becomes more muted. It’s similar to when she tries to convince the trial judge who sentences her husband that Peter couldn’t have done anything wrong. The judge cannot understand her, again making it seem as though she doesn’t speak English. When she buys a wreath for her son, the camera focuses on the woman who’s selling her the wreath. We mostly get the back of Dresser’s head during a scene that could have been a real showcase of emotions. The filmmakers just don’t do Dresser any favors; her actions are mostly limited to reactions to what others have done or said. I can’t truly say that it’s a bad performance; it’s not even enough of a performance to warrant much of an evaluation.
Janet Gaynor plays Diane, a poor young woman in early 20th Century Paris, in the film 7th Heaven. I’ve read many descriptions of her character that claim Diane is a prostitute, but I didn’t really notice much evidence of that in the movie. Gaynor plays Diane as naïve and weak at the start of the film, as she is under the control of her abusive sister Nana. When she is almost beaten to death by her sister, she’s rescued by Charles Farrell’s sewer worker Chico. He takes her to his apartment to save her from being arrested, and their love story begins to develop. At first, she’s very tentative and sad and hopeless around him, and he’s very enthusiastic and optimistic and loud. She wrings her hands a lot – I mean, a lot – during the first half of the movie, so I guess that’s supposed to indicate just how nervous and afraid she might be. It’s really Gaynor’s eyes that show her changes in character, though, not her hands. As Diane falls more in love with Chico and becomes braver, even her posture changes and her eyes show her feelings more directly. Gaynor’s big scene in the film comes near the end when Diane learns that Chico may have been killed in World War I. She’s able to convey both anger and sadness simultaneously in that scene, and her joy in learning that he’s still alive is clear. Gaynor was quite tiny next to Farrell in their scenes together, but she’s the one who got the awards attention for this performance and two others in the same year.
In her second nominated role, Gaynor plays Angela, a poor woman who’s charged with solicitation in Street Angel. She’s desperate for money to help her ailing mother, and when she sees how easily the local hooker, Lisetta (Natalie Kingston), makes money, Angela thinks she will give it a try. However, she’s terrible at it. None of the men she approaches seem interested – or even aware that she’s coming on to them. However, she swipes some food and gets charged with robbery while soliciting. She escapes custody on her way to the workhouse, though, and falls in with a carnival and later meets a talented but poor painter. For much of the plot, though, Gaynor’s Angela is afraid of being caught by the police. This leads to many sequences showing her worried face. She also tries to keep from being attracted to “vagabond” painter Gino (Farrell again), and her behavior is almost childlike at times in her attempts to get him to leave her alone. Her tantrum when he accidentally tears her costume is hysterical. Gaynor gets a range of emotions to portray in this film, and that ability to convey so many feelings was such a strength during the silent era. This may be the least challenging of her three roles for which she won the Oscar, but she still manages to combine an interesting physicality (Angela performs a balancing act while with the carnival) with that expressive face of hers.
The performance by Gaynor that is truly a revelation is as The Wife in Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. As I have written elsewhere, I didn't quite understand her charm or reputation in A Star Is Born, a film for which she would be nominated a decade later, but I get it here. She's shy and gentle and sweet. She can demonstrate great naivete, but she can also convey her growing knowledge of her husband’s plans to kill her. She shows great love for her husband in one scene and tremendous fear of him in another. She is also able to demonstrate how she begins to forgive him after they spend time together in the city and away from their home. When she goes missing during their return boat ride, you can also develop a sense of her own strength and ingenuity. Gaynor has a distinct kind of vulnerability that serves her well here. She seems almost childlike in the early scenes of the film, but you watch an evolution in her character as she gains a clearer sense of how she and her husband are going to be reunited and happy. Her character’s name (title, really) of The Wife makes her more enigmatic, perhaps, but it also allows us as viewers to project some pretty strong emotions onto Gaynor’s characterization. She’s not just a wide-eyed girl; she’s a tougher woman than she initially appears.
Gloria Swanson takes on the title role in Sadie Thompson with all the gusto and ferocity she can muster. It’s a magnificent performance, one of the best of the silent era of films. Her Sadie has arrived on the island of Pago Pago after fleeing San Francisco under suspicious circumstances. The film, especially in the character of Lionel Barrymore’s Alfred Davidson, suggests that she is a prostitute on the run from a potential arrest. She’s reportedly on her way to a new job in Apia but gets stuck in Pago Pago for at least a week and decides to have some fun while waiting for the ship to be ready. She flirts with a group of Marines who are stationed on the island and seems to fall in love with one in particular, Sgt. O’Hara. She spends her time hanging out in her room, entertaining (male) guests, playing jazz records, smoking, and chewing gum. No one can chew a piece of gum like Swanson; even though it’s a silent film, you can hear the smack of that gum chewing. She also walks with a deliciously confident, sexy swagger in the film’s first half. When Sadie inevitably comes into conflict with Davidson, the pompous reformer who tries to get her to go back to San Francisco to face her punishment, Swanson shows the discomfort and fear in Sadie’s eyes. She also knows how to deliver a slow burn with what we call “side eye.” Two scenes, in particular, elevate Swanson’s performance. She throws an epic tantrum when Davidson convinces the governor of the island to force Sadie to return to the United States. Later, she seemingly goes mad when, trapped in her room due to the torrential rain, she begins to imagine being jailed. After her supposed conversion to being a good, moral (read: Christian) person, she holds her body differently. Sadie now slouches, almost cowering when she comes into contact with anyone else, especially Davidson, a sharp contrast from the woman who left the ship at the beginning of Sadie Thompson. In many ways, the character of Sadie Thompson is an actress in her own right, as you find out at the film’s end, and Swanson takes full advantage of the opportunity to play the powerful range of emotions the movie demands. This performance ranks alongside her Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard and demonstrates just why Swanson was one of the greatest stars and actors ever captured on film.
Oscar Winner: With three solid performances, Gaynor won the first award for Best Actress. Find an actress nowadays who could do what is asked of Gaynor in 7th Heaven, Street Angel, and Sunrise. It’s quite a feat, and she must have had an edge by starring in three films.
My Choice: Gloria Swanson in Sadie Thompson
gives one of the greatest performances of the silent era. Here’s someone who
understood the power that comes with silent film acting. Swanson would never
win an Academy Award despite being nominated multiple times. I think she should
have been the first winner.
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