1936 – Maria Ouspenskaya
Dodsworth
OK, this is a bit of a tricky one because Maria Ouspenskaya had such a small supporting role. She had a total screen time of about five and a half minutes. She played a Grand Dame with a very commanding presence. Her part was small but powerful, and Ouspenskaya played it for all it was worth. She seemed to demand attention, which was exactly what the character needed.
She played the Baroness Von Obersdorf, the regal and controlling mother of Fran Dodsworth’s lover and fiancée, Kurt. She thoroughly disapproved of her son’s rash engagement to Fran, and she had, in my opinion, good reasons for her refusal to allow the marriage. There is a movie trope about the very old being very wise, by virtue of their long years of experience, and the character of the Baroness embodied this perfectly. From the second she appeared on the screen, she was clearly in complete control of the situation. Ouspenskaya was perfectly cast.
The way she portrayed the Baroness, she made it obvious that she saw through every one of Fran’s deceptions and even her self-delusions, and she told her in no uncertain terms that she would not allow her son to enter into a marriage with a woman who was too old to give him children. And furthermore, she knew what the result would be of a young man marrying a woman who is too many years his senior. Even when Fran threw her out, it was clear that the Baroness was leaving by choice, having said all she intended to say on the matter.
So this just goes to prove that it isn’t the size of a part that makes it a good one. I would venture to say that it is about twenty percent how the character is written, and eighty percent how the character is played. The Russian-born actress was about sixty years old when this film came out, and it is interesting to note that this was the first of her Hollywood film roles. I remember seeing her as the grandmother in Love affair, in 1939, and as Madam Von Eln in King’s Row in 1942. She was always good. But now, after looking at her short Hollywood filmography, I would be curious to see her in films like 1941’s The Wolf Man, and 1945’s Tarzan and the Amazons, where she played the Amazon Queen.