1936 – Gladys George
Valiant is the Word for Carrie
I have mixed feelings about this movie, but not about Gladys George’s performance. She was good, though the movie was a little dull. And it wasn’t that nothing happened in the story. A lot actually happened, but the pacing was just a little slow. But I’m here to review the actress’s performance, not the film, and based on that, I have to give Gladys two thumbs up.
Gladys played a woman with a shady past. The film never explicitly said what that past was, but it was implied that she was a prostitute. And even though that part of her life was behind her, it continued to haunt her. Carrie was trying to be a good woman, but the world refused to see it. And in her effort to be a good person, she took custody of two orphaned children and raised them as her own. The role called for a certain kind of strength in the face of public scorn, a carefully suppressed need for human contact, and a great deal of compassion for the two orphans.
Gladys George did a wonderful job creating this character that was full of strong emotions. She was a conflicted woman, wanting what was best for the children, and yet fighting the fear that her reputation would be more harmful to them than anything else. She was a serious-minded woman, and yet once the three of them ran away together, she proved to the world, and to herself that motherhood suited her. Her love for them was easy to see, and it was all due to Gladys’s wonderful performance. The predominant emotions that the role required were concern, worry, and selflessness, and Gladys pulled it off pretty convincingly.
Another thing that she did very well was to age. Over the course of the film, she aged, I’m estimating around 18 or 17 or 18 years. The makeup, and the costume changes were good, but it was also in the way she carried herself. She moved just a little more slowly, more stiffly. And the look in her eyes seemed just a little more wise, more care-worn. And the unexpected end of the film, where Carrie decides to go to jail rather than allowing her tarnished reputation to cast a shadow over her adopted children was played perfectly. There was an inner strength there that was appealing. The Best Actress nomination was well-earned.