Best Actress in a Supporting Role 1957: Diane Varsi in Peyton Place

Diane Varsi received her first Oscar nomination for her performance as Allison McKenzie in Peyton Place.

Peyton Place about the lives of the citizens of a New England small town. It's an enjoyable enough movie but in the end it does not amount to anything more than a soap opera - a fine, nicely made one but still a soap opera. The score and the cinematography are quite remarkable but the cast itself is a mixed bag - there is one standout, while the rest of the cast ranges from quite good to very mediocre. Also I have to say the movie is a bit overlong and not all of the storylines are truly interesting. 

Diane Varsi received a supporting nomination for her turn here but if there is a true lead in Peyton Place it's hers: Lana Turner is the big star, but the main focus of the movie is on Allison's coming of age and Varsi is in many ways the center of the movie. I probably would have placed her in the leading category although supporting does make sense if you consider the movie an ensemble piece. Allison is an intelligent girl who is graduating soon and dreams of being a writer. Varsi is quite good at establishing the character early on - she makes Allison a bright, lively young girl and she carries her scenes with an nice, low-key charm. To be honest, some of my favorite moments of her performance are the ones in which she's acting "naturally" when she details Allison's everyday life: she makes for an endearing character to follow and she comfortably portrays her character's youthful innocence - but she does not make her innocence feel like naivety, instead she clearly shows how Allison is aware of everything around her and that she is definitely not a child anymore. Allison is the character that is presented as closer to the audience - often she's not doing much, she observes everything around her and quietly reacts to it. It's a rather passive character but Varsi makes Allison an acute, intelligent observer that never steps into the background. 

Unfortunately, her performance does not fare quite as well in some other regards. My main reservation about her performance is that she never seems to strike a particularly good chemistry with any of the other cast members, and that's exactly why I mostly prefer Allison's few moments of solitude and reflection. I don't think she really shares much of a chemistry with Hope Lange who plays Allison's best friend Selena - their friendship never feels as meaningful and powerful as it should, and the emotional power is brought in their scenes by Lange exclusively, who really seems to strive to find any sort of chemistry with Varsi. Allison's relationship with a shy boy, Norman (Russ Tamblyn), also falls flat since the two of them are nothing particularly special together for most of their scenes (here, though, I think most of the blame goes to Tumblyn). I did like one of their scenes together, the one at Allison's secret place: in this scene, the two actors actually bring a nice amount of warmth and tenderness to their interactions and it's actually one of my favorite scenes of the movie. Even here, though, Varsi is much more effective at portraying Allison's ambition for her future rather than her affection for Norman - she perfectly captures Allison's dreams of escaping for Peyton Place and becoming a successful writer somewhere else, and brings the right determination to her character's longing. Instead, some of her weakest scenes are opposite Lana Turner as her mother's Constance; I think their scenes together are more one-note than they should and that's also because of Varsi who seems to focus on just one aspect of her character here. She does a fine enough job at portraying her character's disdain for her mother's narrow-minded nature but in the moments in which she is supposed to show some love for her she falls short. Also I feel she's rather unconvincing in her stormy confrontations with Turner - she can't pull off the louder acting these scenes request, and she manages to be awkwardly stilted and overdramatic at the same time. Their final reconciliation does not pack the needed emotional punch especially because the storyline itself pales next to Selena's one (which is by far the best of the movie).

Over the course of the movie, the script clearly indicates that Allison becomes a much more mature woman as the years passes. I actually never felt Varsi portrayed Allison's arc all that well - she becomes slightly colder and loses the youthful charm of the beginning, but it all feels a bit too rushed and portrayed a bit too shallowly to truly leave an impact. Varsi's performance also lacks a true closure - she is mostly quite unimpressive in the movie's last half an hour as she is completely overshadowed by Hope Lange's storyline and performance, and her reunion with Norman could have been way more powerful, feeling a bit like a missed opportunity for her performance.

Diane Varsi does not give a bad performance at all - she's particularly effective in the movie's first hour at portraying her character's intelligence, ambition and bright spirit. But later on in the movie she becomes progressively less impressive and most of her storylines ends up amounting to very little because she never seems to find a particularly strong connection to her fellow cast-members. It's still a nice enough performance that serves as a fine centerpiece for the movie, even if it's not something that deserves particular recognition. 

3/5