Best Actor 1948

5. Dan Dailey in When My Baby Smiles At Me- Dailey's performance is okay but unimpressive when he is just trying to be charming, but when he tries to present the character's self destructive behavior he becomes quite bad.

4. Lew Ayres in Johnny Belinda- Ayres gives a nice pleasant performance as a really nice guy, it is not anything much more than that, but it is properly pleasant and warm.

3. Clifton Webb in Sitting Pretty- Webb gives a completely deadpan performance, which is quite amusing,effective and properly consistent.

2. Montgomery Clift in The Search- Clift's performance is much like Ayres, but I found it even more effective, in a really nice guy role. Clift portrays his part completely realistically, and has some very warm and honest moments throughout the film.

1. Laurence Olivier in Hamlet- Good prediction Dinasztie Laurence Olivier's performance is the only performance of these nominees that truly dominates his film, and his win really is the only option for me. Olivier is amazing from beginning to end as Hamlet, finding all the nuance, and complexity in the part. He never ever simplifies the part, even when he simplifies the play. This is a great performance by Olivier, and may just be his best.

Deserving Performances:
Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
James Stewart in Call Northside 777
Van Heflin in Act of Violence

Best Actor 1948: Dan Dailey in When My Baby Smiles At Me

Dan Dailey received his only Oscar nomination for portraying 'Skid' Johnson in When My Baby Smiles At Me.

When My Baby Smiles At Me is a not very special musical about two vaudevillians Dailey and Betty Grable who start having problems due to one of them being an alcoholic.

Dan Dailey is an actor I can't say I have seen very much of but apparently he made a whole lot of film with Betty Grable, and this one only seems to have any special distinction among their collaborations other than the fact than Dailey was nominated for this performance.

Dan Dailey plays a comic who also has a drinking problem, and is married to his partner Bonny. Together Grable and Dailey, really never seem all that special, I guess they are fine technically but nothing to make see why they made so many films together.

Dailey for about half of a film give a pretty light weight slightly comedic, musical and romantic performance. He has a little bit of a charm, but not overwhelming so. He is never that funny, that romantic, or that charismatic in this performance. He is not bad, but just not really special.

About half way through though his character's self destructive behavior comes to the forefront. He loses his wife because he goes out with other women and his alcoholism. Dailey is required to make a rather extreme change from happy go lucky fellow to on his last line one.

I really can't say he makes this transition as he would need to. In fact his big breakdown scene where he goes crazy over the fact that his wife is getting remarried. It is just overacted by Dailey, and it is the type of drunken breakdown one might find in a bad melodrama.

Dailey is better in his later scenes involving the alcohols toll, becuase he really does not overact so much, showing rather a slightly more subtly the effect drinking has on him. He still is not particularly good, just better. This is not an entirely bad performance, but it certianly has one really bad scenes, and never one great scene to make up for it either.

Best Actor 1948

And the Nominees Were:

Lew Ayres in Johnny Belinda

Montgomery Clift in The Search

Laurence Olivier in Hamlet

Clifton Webb in Sitting Pretty

Dan Dailey in When My Baby Smiles At Me