Best Supporting Actor 1961: Results

5. George Chakiris in West Side Story- He dances well, and sings okay, but he certainly acts very poorly.

4. Peter Falk in A Pocketful of Miracles- Falk is the only good thing about the movie, and he tries his best to be funny but his performance just is pushed too much in the background to over come the terrible film he is in.

3. George C. Scott in The Hustler- Scott is brilliant as Burt showing his manipulations in a brilliantly, realistically, and as cruelly effective as possible. He never ever false as Burt and that is what makes his performance all the more effective.

2. Montgomery Clift in Judgment At Nuremberg- Clift has one scene and makes more than the most of it. He creates a true victim in his characterization of this man who was severely mistreated by the Nazis. His powerful performance, is emotionally true and the strongest scene in the film.

1. Jackie Gleason in The Hustler- This one was actually rather difficultly for me. It really could have gone to any of the top three brilliant actor, anyone of them would have been incredibly deserving, and it is a real shame that they decided to give the award to a dancer rather than one of these three brilliant actors. Gleason though took the prize for me because how much he did with Minnesota Fats despite Fats not really being that complicated of a character by what is only said, but Gleason makes Fats legendary though and a fascinating character. Every movement he makes is perfect, he controls the screen with his presence, but also shows more to Fats, so much more in short shots of only his face in the end of the film. Now for me, both Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton (Art Carney) are my winners, showing that comedians can also be truly great dramatic actors. (Good prediction again Dinasztie)

Best Supporting Actor 1961: George C. Scott in The Hustler

George C. Scott received his second Oscar nomination for portraying Bert Gordon in The Hustler.

George C. Scott is the second nomination from this film, and has more screen time than Gleason, although I would say his character technically is of equal importance. Bert is a fascinating character, he is a man who seems to love thrills, and manipulation. He is a man who is already rich but loves to play with Hustlers and gamblers because he merely loves the action. It is not only that but he also manipulates anyone he so chooses even when money is not involved. Scott initially comes into the film very mysteriously as the money man for Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason). Like his co-nominee in the film Scott's presence is incredibly strong.

Scott again like Gleason leaves for a time while the film more heavily focuses on Eddie Felson's (Newman) relationship with Sarah Packard (Piper Laurie). Bert returns when Eddie happens upon him in a bar. Their first scene together both actors are brilliant. Bert dissection of Felson is brilliantly and brutally handled by Scott. He shows that Bert basically knows just about everything about a man quickly. Scott brilliant shows how Bert is always dissecting with his eyes, he does not just look at someone he looks through them. His description of a natural character and character is played without fault, this description is a completely needed for the film entire, and Scott allowed me to understand it perfectly. Scott handles Burt manipulation with a magnificent effectiveness and efficiency just as a businessman would. He shows no remorse rather just a strict control, who refuses to lose his control.

His strongest scenes which are also Bert's most despicable, and manipulative is when he goes on the road with Eddie and Sarah. His slow manipulations of Sarah and Eddie are shown to be as cruelly effective as possible by Scott. Every remark Bert says or every little single he gives is made as terrible and chilling by Scott's brilliant delivery, and determined demeanor. Scott's most starkly effective scene is when he whispers something to Sarah. You do not hear what it is, but Scott's face tells is all, since you do not hear but you can see exactly what Bert is thinking. His specific manipulation of Sarah is almost too well played by Scott, his pushing her to her fate, is made believable, which is rather frightening, due to Scott's performance.

An especially strong scene of Scott's is his final scene with Newman. In this scene everyone is in the top of their form, Newman, Scott, somehow Gleason despite being pushed to the side. Bert tries is standard manipulations once again, but he fails reducing to threatening Eddie with physical violence. Scott backing down is handled again with his perfect realism. When Bert describes what he will do to Eddie, Scott shows Bert's evil to be just part of everyday business for him, through his casual delivery of the most despicable words. Scott never utters a false word and makes all of Bert's manipulations powerful, in a rather nasty way, and adds only to the greatness of The Hustler.

Best Supporting Actor 1961: Jackie Gleason in The Hustler

Jackie Gleason received his only Oscar nomination for portraying Minnesota Fats in The Hustler.

This I find to be a fascinating performance for several reasons. The first is Jackie Gleason is a comedian I hold in incredibly high regard, the original Honeymooners I find to bee one of the funniest shows ever due to Gleason as Ralph Kramden (and Art Carney as Ed Norton who also showed his dramatic strengths in Harry and Tonto). The other reason is because Minnesota Fats is not made the most complicated character ever but Gleason makes him beyond fascinating anyways.

Gleason is actually only in two scenes as Fats one at the beginning of the film and the final scene of the film. His total screen time is short but like Montgomery Clift of this year it does not stop his performance from being great. Gleason first off shows his physical acting ability is amazing here. If one compares his performance as Ralph Kramden to this one as Fats, one can see quite the fascinating transition. In the Honeymooners he is distraught, and has very poor posture, as Minnesota Fats his posture is perfect. His movements are tremendous. Every step Fats takes is absolutely perfect, Gleason walks around without fault and this shows Fats absolutely perfect demeanor and how his presence instantly holds commands, just as Gleason instantly commands the screen when he comes in. His physical abilities here are essential to his performance, and essential to the film itself. His physical prescene shows Fats incredibly strong character which is a key point of the film.

His physical movements of Fats are brilliant because both times when you initially see him he is a towring prescene, completely being the undefeatable pool game. Fats' first perfect pool game he plays is astoundingly played by Gleason. Yes he is just playing a game of pool but the way he moves around the table is as Fast Eddie Felson (Paul Newman) says is like a perfect dancer. The way Gleason moves and shoots the game could have been just a process but Gleason shows that is much more than that do to his awesome physicallity in this role. He commands the screen with both his prescene and the strong power in his voice, he shows that Fats is always aware of what he is doing, who refuses to be played by Felson. His initial quick shut down of Felson attempted Hustle is perfectly played by Gleason because of his strict command and prescene. Gleason creates Fats as a legendary pool player, having the script win games and being said as so great does not matter so much, because must Gleason creates Fats as Legendary for the script to be believed, which Gleason does perfectly.

Later as he and Eddie play in the first game, I love how Gleason carefully shows Fats lose his command slowly as he begins to lose more. But than in their last game (in their first section of games) Gleason is brilliant as he has Fats prepare himself for the final game. He once again builds himself of and takes absoulte command of the screen showing himself as a winner and Felson as the loser. After Felson loses the last game Gleason dissapears for a long while in the film. But Gleason's prescene as Fats is always remebered, because of his impression he leaves. Due to Gleason I had no problem remebering when Bert (George C. Scott) speaks of Fats's character. Also  I had no problem understading Eddie's desire to play him again because I
myself wanted to see the legendary Fats again just as well.

The second part of Gleason's performace is amazingly even more powerful than his first half. Gleason again shows his prescene just as well and his decay as Felson plays and beats him again and again. Fats's physical and mental exhuastion is shown without fault by Gleason. But the greatest single part is when Eddie is threatened by Burt for the money Eddie has won against Fats. Gleason's sad face shows so much of Fats in just his single face in this scene. It shows how Fats really just loves the game, and hates the tactics of others, and really it also shows a history of knowledge. That Fats has probably seen this all before and that it is merely a fact of his life. It is astounding to me that Gleason shows this without saying anything, anything at all, the scene only focuses on him a little, but to me he pulls it off wonderfully despite this. Now you do not learn too much about Fats, especially if only taken by what is said out loud, but I felt I met him because of Gleason remarakable performance he takes so little and makes it into so much.

Best Supporting Actor 1961: George Chakiris in West Side Story

George Chakiris won an Oscar from his only nomination for portraying Bernardo, leader of the sharks, in West Side Story.

West Side Story is a film that I will admit holds my interest well watching it, even though there are many clear flaws in the film.

George Chakiris does two things well enough in the film, which I will say before I get to everything he does not do so well. He dances well he is right on step, and does not do anything wrong with that. Also he sings well enough, not amazingly but he is fine. Now how about his acting, well that is where the problems come from. Chakiris plays the leader of the Sharks, a rather cockey man, who hates the Jets and its members,. He has problems with America and Americans. This is the way Bernado is written and that is all Chakiris attempts for. He does nothing to even try to show more of Bernado than what is written, but again this is not his biggest problem.

His biggest problem is that he fails even to meet the written requirements of Bernado's character. He never seems really cocky to me, more of someone trying to be so. Which is surprising that the was unable to do something so simply as that. Now he never is believable in any other way such as his hatred of the Jets, he just does not really seem believable as a gang leader. He is never interesting or even really entertaining, the biggest thing which contributes to this is his incredibly dull line readings. Everything he says is just boringly said by him with little emotion shown even in scenes which are suppose to be incredibly intense. He never satisfies the needs of the part even, which to tell you the truth is not very much, and even if he did satisfy the needs of the part he still would be an undeserving winner. He adds nothing to the part and cannot even fulfill it, clearly a performance I do not like. He only dances well and sings fine that's it.

Best Supporting Actor 1961: Montgomery Clift in Judgment At Nuremberg

Montgomery Clift received his fourth and final Oscar nomination for portraying Rudolph Peterson in Judgment At Nuremberg.

Montgomery Clift here gives a one scene incredibly short performance, there are two kinds of one scene or close to one scene performances which can be represented by the Supporting Actress nominees in 1976, there is the Jane Alexander type or the Beatrice Straight type. The type that leaves no impression or at best barely serves its function and the type that stands out incredibly well, and contributes very well to the film it is in. Luckily Montgomery Clift is most certainly the Beatrice Straight type.

Montgomery Clift plays a man who is one of the former victims of the Nazi regime who testifies against German judges involved with Nazism. Here is one of the performances where the actors personal life gives an another level of depth to a performance. The man he plays is a broken man in many ways as Clift was at this time in his life. Clift clearly is not a well man but surprisingly it not distracting and oddly adds to his performance here. Clift uses an effective German accent here that works very well with his character, showing the somewhat slow and off nature of the man without forcing it at all.

When Clift's character is first called in I instantly was interested in him. He instantly shows Peterson as a man who is nervous, scared, and not a complete man with just the way he walks and sits down at the witness stand. His way of demeanor and moving is compelling and instantly shows the nature of Peterson before he says a single word. Clift does not stand still constantly moving showing Peterson's nervousness but moving a caution fearful fashion, not in a shy fashion. Peterson is questioned at how he was mistreated by the Nazi's which he reveals that he was sterilized due to being determined as a simpleton by the Nazis. Clift perfectly shows how Peterson has incredible difficulty in retelling and even thinking about his troubled memories.

Clift shows so much of this poor man in 12 minutes than many actors do in more than an hour. He is excellent in portraying that Peterson tries not to be a victim, happily telling about his family and even jokes briefly about his dealings with the Nazi, but Clift always clearly shows this man is not complete and has clear problems dealing with his situation. His performance really is heartbreaking because how honestly he shows this simple man who was wronged by cruel people, especially when he is also mistreated by one of the judges defense attorneys (Maximilian Schell). His inability to deal with the pressure of the court is incredibly effective, and when he tries to gain sympathy by showing a picture of his mother, is as emotionally powerful as possible. His movements and face are perfect, when he wags his finger at the attorney saying he is wrong, it feels as real and powerful as film scenes get. Clift never rings a false note, every movement seems true and real despite the difficult nature of the character. Clift's one scene here is by far the best scene of the film, his performance left a far greater impression than the film possibly could.

Best Supporting Actor 1961: Peter Falk in Pocketful of Miracles

Peter Falk received his second and final consecutive nomination for portraying Joy Boy in A Pocketful of Miracles. 

I like Frank Capra films but this one might be his worst. It is boring, schmaltzy and not really enjoyable at all.

Peter Falk apparently was the only thing that got Frank Capra through the filming of this movie, and it was the only thing that got me through watching the movie. Peter Falk plays Joy Boy who is the right hand man to Dave the Dude (Glen Ford). Joy Boy is the guy who tries to do what Dave needs him to do, and plainly get the job done. Falk role here is pretty limited acting frustrated at what he has to do and what the other people are doing in the film. Perhaps he was there symbolize the audience's reaction to the film. I must say Falk does what he does in this film well almost acting in another movie, as a man who sees all the schmaltz and sort of makes fun of it.

His rough delivery works very well, and shows how lame the rest of the film is really. I liked his performance and his constant reactions which reflected my reactions to the film. Unfortunately the film was not about him at all and especially in the second half where his reactions are very much in the background. When you do see him his performance remains the bright spots in the film, but unfortunately the boring main characters are given more importance. If Joy Boy was given his own film perhaps that could have been something because I do like Falk here, but Falk here is limited by the film, making it so his performance can't quite be separated from the mess it is in.

Best Supporting Actor 1961

And the Nominees Were:

Montgomery Clift in Judgment At Nuremberg

Peter Falk in Pocketful of Miracles 

George Chakiris in West Side Story

Jackie Gleason in The Hustler

George C. Scott in The Hustler

Who do you pick? What do predict my ranking will be?