Greatest actresses of the 40s
1. Bette Davis has to be among the top ten on anyone's list. Although she had a hundred varieties of films, you knew it was Bette up there on he screen, whether she was Queen Elizabeth I, Jezabel or a hysterical murderess. Early in her career, her roles made her seem more innocent, vulnerable and sweet, as soon as she took control of her own career, the rest is the history of one of the gutsiest, talented actresses who ever conquered Hollywood. I believe her best was, "Dark Victory".
2. Joan Crawford was like Bette Davis in many ways, and the two of them acted together in rather disgraceful horror films when their star years were over. I guess they needed the money. However, the difference between the two great actresses was that Crawford was always sexual, usually a predatory dame who'd steal your diamonds and your husband. She won the Oscar for her best film, "Mildred Pierce". It was shameful that her daughter needed to make some dirty bucks by writing, "Mommy Dearest", which was probably a total lie. She was just as much of a grand dame in real life as Davis, but always with a twinkle and sense of humor. I met her once in an agency office, and she was an elegant, kindly woman with a great sense of humor.
3. When Shirley Temple became an aging grand dame, she was way past her movie years and into U.S. politics, earning a United Nations post and two ambassadorships. However, during the Great Depression, the little five-year-old took America out of the doldrums with her golden curls, her dimples and her song and dance routine. One of the great moments of her career, as well as in American cinema, was when the little white girl broke through the color line and danced a duet up and down the steps with black stage star Bill Robinson in "The Littlest Colonel". And that was decades before Martin Luther King and Barack Obama.
4. Hattie McDaniel didn't break the color line, and had to spend her entire film career as a mammy-type servant. She was the first black actor to win an Academy Award in 1939 for "Gone With The Wind". She will be remembered with admiration, not as an on-screen domestic, but as an understanding, compassionate and very intelligent human being. The old cliche at the time would be, "She's a credit to her race". No, she was a credit to the human race.
5. Ingrid Bergman, like Davis and Crawford, was always Bergman up on the screen, whether she was the virginal warrior, "Joan of Arc" or the sexy ex-lover of Bogie in the immortal, "Casablanca". Not many film critics consider the excellence of her last film, "Golda", when the elderly actress portrayed the elderly ex-president of Israel, Golda Meier. In addition to fine, sensitive acting, both Bergman and Meier were very much aware that they were both dying of cancer while the movie was being filmed.
6. Katharine Hepburn, like the others of her class in the 40s, was always Kate up on the screen, with her lank looks and sharp New England twang. However, what she could do with that voice, face and body! She earned many Oscars in her younger years, when she could do comedy and drams equally well, but I consider her very best film to be "The African Queen", just as old age was overtaking her. It was a great adventure story, but the growing love between the prissy social worker and the alcoholic boat captain (Bogie) was an acting gem for all time.
7. Two Hepburns need to be on the list, of course. Audrey, although as super slim as angular Kate, she also had a dancer's elegance and innocent sexuality about her that showed in every role. Of course, she took home an Oscar for the memorable musical, "My Fair Lady", but my Audrey favorite is, "Roman Holiday". As the royal princess on the run with Greg Peck and Eddie Albert in the Eternal City, we share all the emotions she feels in her new-found freedom, her growing love for Greg and joy of the funny adventures. The last scene shows a brilliant control of face and body emotions, when she's back in her role as princess and must silently tell Greg that their love could never be.
8. Maybe I vote for Judy Garland because I grew up with her movies, especially her early youthful pairings with Mickey Rooney, such as, "Babes In Arms", and especially to Hollywood's most entertaining movie of all time, "The Wizard of Oz". As she matured from cute to mature beauty, her wonderful voice and big-eyed face could always could bring laughter or tears. I had the privilege of seeing her in person in New York City just after I returned from Navy duty in the Korean War. When she sat on the edge of the stage, about three feet away from me, and sang, "Over The Rainbow", it certainly was the very best live performance I've ever seen in my life, before or since. Of course, like some of the stars of today, there was too much excess in her life, booze, drugs, husbands and mental breakdowns. Whatever price she paid for her too-short life, she left behind a legacy of wonderful performances and love for those who remember her fondly.
9. Elizabeth Taylor was an eye-popping beauty, and maybe that's why many critics downplay her great talent as an actress. Like Judy Garland, her private life troubles have been covered by the news media much too thoroughly, but that doesn't take away from her performances. I believe her best were as the innocent girl whose lover kills for her in, "A Place In The Sun," and as the sensuous Maggie in, "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof". -
10. Although Ginger Rogers did win a much-deserved Oscar as a dramatic actress in, "Kitty Foyle", her lasting reputation seems to be that she danced in all those lightweight 30s and 40s movies, and was always outshone by the enormously talented Fred Astaire. The truth is that she said many times that although Astaire got all the credit as the great dancer, she had to do the same moves, which were all the more difficult, because she did them backwards. In her later years, after Hollywood cast her aside, she continued to act. I saw her on Broadway when she replaced Carol Channing in, "Hello Dolly". She still had the great dancing moves that enriched the Dolly part into a different, but equally enjoyable, interpretation.
Honorable mention for great actresses of the 1940s: Carol Lombard, Olivia De Haviland, Joan Fontaine (Olivia's sister), Ava Gardner, Doris Day, Maureen O'Hara and Lauren Bacall