Best Actress in a Supporting Role 1959: Shelley Winters in The Diary of Anne Frank

Shelley Winters won her first Oscar from her second nomination for her performance as Petronella Van Daan in The Diary of Anne Frank.

The Diary of Anne Frank is a harrowing movie about the last few years of the life of Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl who was forced into hiding in an attic with her family and some friends in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. I wasn't really expecting that much from this movie but I ended up loving it: despite being three hours long, it flows surprisingly well and is never once boring and George Stevens did an amazing job in never making the movie feel stagey despite the fact that it basically takes place in one room and he is also excellent in giving the movie a true sense of place. An Oscar win for his effort would have been quite deserved in my opinion. The cinematography is also phenomenal and it was completely worthy of its Oscar (and the same goes for the Art Decoration). The cast is also surprisingly good - even the weak link, Richard Beymer. isn't that bad. Millie Perkins is awfully miscast but I think that her performance is still quite good as she portrays Anne's maturation rather well while carrying the movie with enough charm. Joseph Schildkraut is amazing as Otto, Anne's father, bringing the right amount of warmth and tenderness to the role and sharing a powerful chemistry with Perkins: his final scenes are heartbreaking and I really think he should have been nominated (too bad he campaigned as lead); Gusti Huber is quite impressive as Anne's strong-willed mother and her outburst at Mr. Van Daan is one of the movie's highlight - speaking of Mr. Van Daan, Lou Jacobi is also rather effective in portraying his selfishness in a human, believable way. Diane Baker gets very little to do, but delivers a charming turn.

Shelley Winters plays Petronella Van Daan, a character based on Auguste Van Pels, one of the people who lived in the attic with Anne Frank. The character of Petronella can be seen as rather thankless: she spends most of the time in the background and only gets to shine in a few moments and is given much less focus than most of the other cast members. Shelley Winters though manages to make the most out of the role, giving the second best performance in the whole movie and making a vivid and three-dimensional character out of a potential caricature. First off, I have to say I really admire Shelley Winters for being one of the few stars of the time to be completely willing to disappear completely into a role: in her performance here there is an utter lack of vanity that is hard to find in performances from those years, and she isn't afraid to make her character's appearence and personality look ugly. She inhabits her character completely and is always convincing and believable. As I mentioned above, Shelley Winters is confined in the background for most of the time but still manages to be surprisingly impressive: she never tries to steal the scenes from the other members and she blends very nicely with the rest of the cast, but at the same time she makes her brief reactionary shots of fear or downright terror truly unforgettable and there isn't a scene in which she passes unnoticed. She is also very good in portraying Petronella's progressive physical decay: scene by scene, she looks slightly more tired, disheartened and worn out.

While Otto and Edith Frank are portrayed as polite, kind and generous people, Petronella and Hans are presented as much more flawed characters: they constantly argue, they are whiny and even a bit selfish. Both Winters' and Jacobi's portrayals of their character's flaws ground the movie, adding depth and realism to it, and they both manage to create an understanding for both characters, no matter how unlikeable they might seem sometimes. Winters is particularly excellent in portraying Petronella's pathetic and delusional emotional state: she is a woman who used to be quite wealthy and during the hard times of the war she holds on to her memories of the past. In doing so, she makes us feel conflicted emotions towards Petronella: when she talks about her youth and about how much she used to be popular with boys, Winters makes her look a bit frivolous but at the same time she makes us pity her; when she cries because Anne accidentally spills some milk on her expensive fur coat, she makes us resent her for her shallowness during such a hard time, but nonetheless we are moved by her plight as we realize that the coat was the only thing left for her, the symbol of her once beautiful and happy life - and in the scene towards the end of the movie in which Hans sells the coat to buy some cigarettes, Winters is surprisingly harrowing and devastating. 

Her chemistry with the other cast members is excellent, particularly with Richard Beymer and Lou Jacobi. In her brief interactions with the former, Winters is very good in showing Petronella's love towards her son. But she's even more excellent in her scenes with the latter: they play each of their fights in a very realistic and believable manner and on her part Winters is particularly heartbreaking as she portrays Petronella's unconditional love towards her selfish husband. She is excellent in the scene in which she tries to defend herself from the accusation that she always gives a little more food to her husband than the others but one of her best moments in the movie comes towards the end when Mrs. Frank sees Mr. Van Daan stealing some food and decides to kick the Van Daans out of her house: Petronella's plea to let them stay is one of the most touching moments of the movie and Winters does a magnificent job with it. 

Overall, this is an excellent performance from Shelley Winters who truly makes a lot out of nothing: she makes Petronella one of the most complex and interesting characters of the movie and while she is obviously great in her big moments what truly impresses is her ability to leave her own mark in her brief, reactionary moments in the background. It's a fantastic performance and a very worthy winner. 

4.5/5