Best Supporting Actor 1949: Results

5. John Ireland in All the King's Men- I will admit the character of Jack Burden's is not a great one, but Ireland stilted and uncharismatic performance does not help matters at all.

4. Dean Jagger in Twelve O'clock High- Jagger's character actually should have been the heart of his film, but Jagger is unable to really bring an authentic emotion, or life to his character.

3. Arthur Kennedy in Champion- Kennedy does not get a lot of time to develop his character but he does manage to find himself as a moral conscience and later contrast to Kirk Douglas' character quite well.

2. James Whitmore in Battleground- Whitmore's performance is realistic and always proper as the commanding sergeant of the men in Battleground, but the most impressive part of his performance is his expertly handled physical disintegration throughout the film. 

1. Ralph Richardson in The Heiress- I do not blame anyone for not being interested in this year, since again this is another supporting year with a clear cut winner. Richardson performance is simply superb piece of acting. He is outstanding in creating a memorable, and incredibly effective character. He manages his character quiet and more obvious cruelty exceptionally well. Richardson also manages to make a fully realized and three dimensional character.

Deserving Performances:
Alec Guinness in Kind Hearts and Coronets
Edmond O'Brien in White Heat

Best Supporting Actor 1949: Dean Jagger in Twelve O'clock High

Dean Jagger won an Oscar from his only nomination for portraying Major Harvey Stovall in Twelve O'clock High.

Dean Jagger portrays an elder officer at the air force base who has the difficult job of writing casualty notice letters. The role of Harvey Stovall I think as written is suppose to be sort of the heart of the film. The reflective and likable older officer is what he is suppose to be I am quite sure. Unfortunately one of my least favorite character actors Dean Jagger portrays him. Jagger for my always comes off very dully as an actor and rarely adds anything to the films he is in.

Jagger simply has a distinct lack of screen presence, even though I was watching the film for him, at times I would barely even notice he is in a scene due to his lack of charisma as a performer. Jagger, even when a scene centers on him, never creates a memorable characterization of Stovall. Stovall becomes just almost a functional character, because Jagger fails to really realize him in his performance.

Jagger stays rather dull and uninteresting throughout his portrayal, but hey he is even given a drunk scene. Jagger in his drunk scene is pretty bad actually. He frankly just did not seem to be drunk, or even acting drunk, he just was incredibly poor in this scene. In fact this scene was suppose to be quite a poignant moment, but Jagger was unable to bring any really depth to his performance, or even competence causing the utter failure of this scene.  Overall Jagger does have, I think, a good character, but Jagger fails to make anything out of what he is given. I do believe another better actor in this role could have made the character of Harvey Stovall really shine.

Best Supporitng Actor 1949

And the Nominees Were:

Arthur Kennedy in Champion

James Whitmore in Battleground

Dean Jagger in Twelve O'clock High

John Ireland in All the King's Men

Ralph Richardson in The Heiress

I was originally not going to this year now, but since I just watched three of the nominees for Best Actor, I might as well do this now.