1940 – Ginger Rogers
Kitty Foyle
So, Ginger Rogers took home the Oscar for Best Actress. Did she do a good job? Yes, she really did. But I have to wonder if the Oscar was awarded to the movie and the role, and the actress was just along for the ride – a little. In this case, the character may have outshined the actress. Don’t miss-understand. I’m not saying the award wasn’t deserved. I think she did just as well as the other actresses in the category, but Kitty Foyle was a movie and a character that had a great deal of social significance in 1940, and that might have had more to do with her win than her accomplished performance.
It was a daring role. A strong, independent woman who gets pregnant out of wedlock, and decides to keep the baby and raise it herself, as a single mother. A real woman in such a situation was considered shameful at best, lacking in morals at worst. There was a negative stigma attached to un-wed mothers that was often not deserved. But Rogers played Kitty Foyle as a heroine, a champion of-sorts, for all single mothers. Never-mind that the baby died during the birth. The point is, that had the child lived, she was determined to raise it without the help, financial or otherwise, of any man.
But when I separate the actress from the character, I somehow feel a bit ambiguous. She did a good enough job, and I don’t begrudge her the Oscar she earned. But there were a few scenes in which her acting felt a little forced, like she was trying to portray a character that wasn’t completely natural to her. It was like a girl from New Jersey trying to make people believe she is from New Hampshire. Most of the time she’s fine, but once in a while, her façade slips a tiny bit, because she seems to be trying too hard to be convincing.
Still, Rogers did a fine job of portraying the wide range of emotions necessary for the part. She could be love-struck, jaded, aroused, bitter, excited, cautious, or resigned. Whatever a scene required. She even had to play a teenager for one scene, and was believable enough. And she was particularly good in the scene where she learns that he baby has died. So, sure, give her the Oscar. Why not?