Your Choice For 1958 Best Actress Oscar

[Det Jim McLeod]

Choose who you would have voted for from the actual nominees with your reason why.

THE NOMINEES.

Susan Hayward in I Want To Live!*

Deborah Kerr in Separate Tables

Shirley MacLaine in Some Came Running

Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame

Elizabeth Taylor in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof

*= actual winner

I think I would go with Deborah Kerr. It was so unlike her other roles of classy, confident women. Here she plays a meek, mousy spinster who is dominated by her overbearing mother. I found her performance to be really touching and I liked the strength she had by standing up to her mother at the end.

 

[LsDoorMat]

I'd go with Susan Hayward. She runs the gamut of emotions in I Want To Live.  As for Deborah Kerr - It's interesting what OP says about her portraying classy confident women, because I agree with that. But she always also seemed spinsterish in her roles too. Maybe that is why I didn't think much of her portrayal in Separate Tables. I'd say her best performance was in The Innocents. There she is a spinsterish schoolteacher who is also classy and confident. In fact she is confident to the point of making stuff up as she goes along and insisting she is right to the point she gets somebody killed. 

[Swithin]

Oh, definitely Rosalind Russell.  I love all the other ladies and they gave great performances, but I'm with Roz on this one. (I would have picked Ms. Kerr for The Sundowners at the 1961 Oscars.)

 

[JamesJazGuitar]

9 hours ago, LsDoorMat said:

I'd go with Susan Hayward. She runs the gamut of emotions in I Want To Live.  As for Deborah Kerr - It's interesting what OP says about her portraying classy confident women, because I agree with that. But she always also seemed spinsterish in her roles too. Maybe that is why I didn't think much of her portrayal in Separate Tables. I'd say her best performance was in The Innocents. There she is a spinsterish schoolteacher who is also classy and confident. In fact she is confident to the point of making stuff up as she goes along and insisting she is right to the point she gets somebody killed. 

I'd also go with Susan Hayward.    As for Kerr:  I view that as a supporting performance since the film is an ensemble cast type film.        Kerr is indeed good but her character isn't the leading female character in the film,  since there isn't one.

I Want to Live is all about the character played by Hayward.       

 

[skimpole]

Russell.  MacLaine is more a supporting role, and Kerr is better in Bonjour Tristesse.

[King Rat]

I have no strong objections to any of those candidates winning, but would write in Jean Simmons for Home Before Dark.

[LornaHansonForbes]

Even though the 1950s were an exceptional decade for film and pretty much every year of the decade has a long list of worthy nominees to choose from for best picture, actor and actress- 1958 Stands out to me for a lack of truly great films, there are a lot of good films, very good films, and fine films – but when it comes to films (and performances) worthy of the mantle of “best”- I have a hard time coming up with five different options in the three main categories.

All five of the nominees for best actress are technically fine- although I wish Roz Russell wouldn’t SHOUT so much as AUNTIE MAME- but only two of the nominees really deserved to be singled out for exemplary performances- Elizabeth Taylor and Susan Hayward, And of those two, Susan Hayward is clearly the best choice.

[LornaHansonForbes]

**DEBORAH KERR Is very good in HEAVEN KNOWS MR ALLISON, , but the role is in no way shape or form a challenge for her, it’s a part practically written with Deborah Kerr in mind. Also, Robert Mitchum gives the absolute best performance in that film- I wish he had gotten nominated instead.

EDIT: I am getting old and just realized that in 1958 DEBORAH KERR was nominated for “separate tables” and not “heaven knows Mr. Allison.”

Apologies.

 

 

[Det Jim McLeod]

2 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

**DEBORAH KERR Is very good in HEAVEN KNOWS MR ALLISON, , but the role is in no way shape or form a challenge for her, it’s a part practically written with Deborah Kerr in mind. Also, Robert Mitchum gives the absolute best performance in that film- I wish he had gotten nominated instead.

EDIT: I am getting old and just realized that in 1958 DEBORAH KERR was nominated for “separate tables” and not “heaven knows Mr. Allison.”

Apologies.

 

 

Heaven Knows Mr Allison was from 1957 and Kerr was nominated for that, she lost (never won) to Joanne Woodward in The Three Faces Of Eve.

[filmnoirguy]

I would have voted for one of my "all-time" actresses of the 1950s, Susan Hayward in "I Want to Live."  Well deserved Oscar win for a great performance.

Having said that, I wish she would have won for my favorite Hayward performance, 1955's "I'll Cry Tomorrow."  This could have opened the door for Rosalind Russell to win for what I consider her signature role in "Auntie Mame" (she played it on Broadway, as well).

Like Swithin, I would have voted for Deborah Kerr in 1960's "The Sundowners."    Elizabeth Taylor may have been a very good actress, but she never should have won for "Butterfield 8." 

 

[filmnoirguy]

16 hours ago, JamesJazGuitar said:

I'd also go with Susan Hayward.    As for Kerr:  I view that as a supporting performance since the film is an ensemble cast type film.        Kerr is indeed good but her character isn't the leading female character in the film,  since there isn't one.

I Want to Live is all about the character played by Hayward.       

 

Likewise with David Niven's win in "Separate Tables."   A supporting performance in an ensemble cast.

[Sepiatone]

I have no qualms about the original winner.

Sepiatone

[JamesJazGuitar]

8 minutes ago, filmnoirguy said:

Likewise with David Niven's win in "Separate Tables."   A supporting performance in an ensemble cast.

As for Niven in Separate Tables:  Appearing on-screen for only 23 minutes in the film, this is the briefest performance ever to win a Best Actor Oscar. 

[Roy Cronin]

I also will go with Susan Hayward with a truly remarkable Lead performance. 

I am a huge fan of Separate Tables, but as others have noted, I view it as essentially an ensemble piece ( it was brought up in an older thread about ensemble work.)

Deborah Kerr was great in the role, but it was a bit overwrought.   If she were on the screen longer I think I would also be a nervous wreck.

[Fading Fast]

I marvel at how good a movie "Separate Tables" is, but until this thread, hadn't thought about the screen-time-to-Oscar-category ratio. Now that you guys put that thought in my head, and I haven't seen it recently, isn't Hiller (whose performance is incredible, just incredible in this one), who won the Best Supporting Oscar, on screen longer than Niven (whose performance is also fantastic), who won the Best Actor one?

[TheGrandMaster]

Kerr is my pick from the nominees, Kim Novak in Vertigo is the best of the year.