Best Actress in a Supporting Role 1942: Agnes Moorehead in The Magnificent Ambersons

Agnes Moorehead received her first Oscar nomination for her performance as Fanny Minafer in The Magnificent Ambersons. 

The Magnificent Ambersons is a fantastic movie about the decay of a rich Midwestern family at the beginning of the 20th century. Unfortunately it's not quite perfect as the ending (which was far from what Orson Welles intended) feels completely out of the place and the editing really cuts out too much - it's clear that the movie was severely changed during post-production. But nonetheless the movie is great just as it is and Orson Welles' direction is nothing short of amazing. The cinematography is also truly great, while I'm a bit more mixed on the cast: Tim Holt is an extremely unlikeable lead and while that's the point of the character the problem is that he plays him in a boring and straightforward fashion without any sort of complexity. Dolores Costello, as his mother, is a pale and forgettable presence. On the other hand, Joseph Cotten delivers a solid, charming turn and Anne Baxter is excellent in one of her first roles. 

Throughout the whole movie, Agnes Moorehead delivers a performance that borders on hamming and chewing the scenery: while she might overdo it a bit sometimes, for the most part she delivers an exceptional performance that is larger-than-life without being unbearable. Fanny is by far the most interesting character of the movie and Moorehead makes her a compelling force of nature that carries and supports the movie at the same time. Her extremely high-pitched voice and her theatrical way of behaving could have made Fanny shrill and unsuffearable but they work extremely well within her characterization: this qualities make Fanny a colorful and entertaining character without turning her either into a joke or an obnoxious creation. As I stated before, I don't care much for Tim Holt's performance as George, the young heir of the family and Fanny's nephew, but Moorehead's scenes with him are actually very good. They pay off each other extremely well as George and Fanny question and interrogate one another, and in those scenes Moorehead brings a sly, even manipulative quality to Fanny, particularly when she casually mentions George that his mother Isabel and the widower Eugene Morgan used to be engaged. But Moorehead shows the motives behind Fanny's acid insinuations and makes her an extremely complex and layered character that is always a thrill to have on screen. She spends most of her screen-time in the background but she adds incredibly to every single scene she is in - I love how the camera occasionally focuses on her reactions and glances, and in those spaces between words Moorehead adds a lot of nuance and complexity to the character. 

Fanny is a lonely, embittered spinster who is secretly in love with Eugene, who is deeply in love with Isabel, her sister-in-law. Moorehead is simply heartbreaking in portraying the loneliness of Fanny and she does such a phenomenal job in conveying so many emotions with her facial expressions - on the surface it's an extremely loud performance but the core of the character is in the quieter moments in which Moorehead finds the desperation and longing of Fanny. She is extremely moving in the scene in which Eugene thanks the two ladies for their friendship without ever taking his eyes off Isabel: Moorehead does a wonderful job in the scene as she struggles to gain Eugen's attention even for a moment, without success. And she is amazing in the scene after her brother dies - with her brief, tearful close-up she shows that Fanny is not only mourning her brother, but she's also devastated because now Eugene can pursue his love story with Eugene, meaning that she'll never have him. And another key moment in her performance is when George teases her about marrying Eugene and she starts crying - Moorehead makes Fanny's pain vivid and deeply touching. 

Then there is her famous big scene in which Fanny, after the family is left without financial support, suffers from a nervous breakdown: it's an extremely over-the-top scene but I honestly couldn't care less. She built up perfectly to that moment over the course of the movie and when it finally comes she's astonishingly raw and devastating. She really makes Fanny the broken mess she is supposed to be and gives the outburst the power it needs. She unleashes the emotions she only suggested previously, and has some tremendous line-readings that are chilling to the bone ("I wouldn't mind if it burned me George!"). The ending of the movie is, unfortunately, a huge let down and the original ending would have brought a more proper closure to her character's arc but she still does some moving facial work in the last scene. 

This is an extremely compelling performance by Agnes Moorehead who dominates the whole movie thanks to this powerhouse turn of hers. She delivers the best performance of the movie by far and even if she sometimes overdoes it she still delivers a devastating portrayal of her character's frail emotional state. Her breakdown is truly one for the ages. 

4.5/5