Lansbury wins his second Oscar in two years for his stellar supporting performance as a humble bar singer who catches the eye of Dorian Gray (Hard Hatfield), a vain aristocrat in the London underground slums. was nominated for Under the gentle light of Oscar-winning cinematographer Harry Stradling, Lansbury’s production of “Goodbye Little Her Yellow Her Bird” has tragic consequences as Dorian’s interest in her fades. It is a signal of an unforgettable event that resonates with the heart. As for the rest of the film, the Oscar Wilde portrait of Faust’s story is all beautifully rendered, though its subject matter still doesn’t feel more natural as a literary presumption than a cinematic one.
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1946
“Harvey Girls”
The product of Arthur Freed and the MGM Studio Machine, this musical western has one show-stopping Oscar-winning number, About Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe, and nearly the entire cast. However Lansbury is featured in it. But Lansbury (her singing voice is, curiously, overdubbed) shows a brazen sexuality as a dancehall vixen in 1890s Arizona and a clean-living waitress who arrives on staff at New Harvey. A group of “Harvey Girls” threatens a single-family restaurant in the city. (The film doubled as an advertisement, as Harvey House was an actual chain of restaurants and hotels along the passenger train route. bete noir.
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1958
“Long Hot Summer”
Orson Welles inserted a character inspired by Big Daddy Pollitt from Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof into a scenario patched from three works by William Faulkner, making it a “long and hot Summer’s rule as thoroughly as bile tycoon Will Varner. In a small town in Mississippi, other actors struggle to make themselves known. But most of the drama comes from Paul Newman’s complicated relationship with the charismatic Ben Quick. Criminal record. Quick’s interest in Wells’ daughter, played by Joanne Woodward, carried over into one of Hollywood’s great off-screen love stories.
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1962