Why wasn't Bette Davis nominated for an Oscar as "Apple Annie" in A Pocketful of Miracles?

Bette was miscast in the part. And Glenn Ford was a shitheel, as she said.

Didn't everybody hate Glenn Ford? I believe he had a reputation as a real prick.

Storm Center?

Ennui

While Davis is unusually muted and touching after she has been transformed. As Apple Annie, she is hammy in a sentimental way, not her best mode. Davis’ beef was, that because Ford was fucking Hope Lange and made sure she had better treatment than Davis. It couldn’t have helped Ford was her romantic lead in A Stolen Kife and now she was playing someone who could have been his mother.

Stolen Life not Kife

Have you seen the original, Lady For A Day? Vastly superior. I believe Frank Capra stopped directing after this remake because it was such a humiliating experience.

She was no more sentimental than Katharine Hepburn in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and she actually won for that ridiculous performance. I think Bette and Frank Capra clashed a number of times on the set.

Bette should've at least received a nomination.

Over whom should Bette have been nominated? Sophia Loren, Geraldine Page, Audrey Hepburn, Piper Laurie, and Natalie Wood all turned in superior performances that year.

Bette's best performance between Storm Center and Baby Jane was as the heroin-addicted mother of Alec Guinness (only six years younger than Davis) in The Scapegoat.

I have never heard of the three Davis films mentioned so far... Apple Annie, A Stolen Life, Storm Center.

Apple Annie is the name of her character in A Pocketful of Miracles.

If you've never heard of A Stolen Life, R10, this is worth a look.

R2 No, as far as I know, everybody didn't hate Glenn Ford.

Davis gave him a big break after WWII by casting him in A Stolen Life (after her first choice, Henry Fonda, said no). A Stolen Life was "A BD Production". She cast it. (Ford apparently turned down her advances.)

Pocketful Of Miracles was produced by Franton Productions, an independent company co-owned by Frank Capra Productions and Glenn Ford's Newton Productions. Ford apparently gave his girlfriend at the time, Hope Lange, a better dressing room, and I guess he treated Bette without much respect. Ford also insisted Hope Lange get the part Capra wanted Shirley Jones for. Though later Jones had good things to say about Ford when they starred in The Courtship Of Eddie's Father.

R8 Guess Who's Coming To Dinner was a much better movie than Pocketful Of Miracles. Not sure why you find Hepburn's performance ridiculous.

Didn't Bette star in The Catered Affair in between SC and WHBJ?

r14 Hepburn was hammy and you know it.

R16 Then you must think she was always hammy, because she gave her usual professional, entertaining performance and got many good reviews.

[quote] Not sure why you find Hepburn's performance ridiculous.

She didn't deserve the Oscar win for that performance. She did nothing special in that film. Yes, I know, it was probably a make-up win for losing for greater performances she gave decades prior (and, of course, a sympathy win due to Spencer Tracy's death). However, it's still one of her weakest performances from a stellar filmography.

Apple Annie was in annual circulation on one of those movie shows I watched growing up. Maybe it was on the "4:30 Movie". It's OK but Pocketful Of Miracles is better.

[quote]As Apple Annie, she is hammy in a sentimental way, not her best mode.

Exactly. She was great in so many roles, that it's hard to believe how bad she can be in that hammy, sentimental mode. The worst I've seen is "Connecting Rooms" (1970).

Variety: “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” is an outstanding Stanley Kramer production, superior in almost every imaginable way, which examines its subject matter with perception, depth, insight, humor and feeling. Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier and Katharine Hepburn head a perfect cast.

NY Times (Bosley Crowther): Mr. Tracy and Miss Hepburn are superior—he the crusty, sardonic old boy who speaks from a store of flinty wisdom but whose heart overflows with tender love; and she the seemingly airy patrician whose eyes often well with compassionate tears.

Montreal Star: It is a fine film, full of strength and tenderness, played with great subtlety and wit by an entirely superb cast.

Nobody seems to mention how bad or hammy Miss Hepburn is...

R15, A Catered Affair and Storm Center were both released in the summer of '56, but A Catered Affair was released first.

R22 Minor correction. It was called The Catered Affair. A Catered Affair was the Harvey Fierstein version.

Baby Jane was considered Bette's big comeback. Her career was at a low point by the time of Pocketful Of Miracles. The only starring roles she was getting were on half hour anthology TV shows. Distributors were unhappy she was in the film and actually asked for her not to be co-starred with Ford on the posters as they thought it could negatively impact the box office.

^ I. e., they were afraid audiences would think she was Ford's love interest in the movie. She really was almost washed up at that point.

Hope Lange's performance as Queenie really drags down every scene she's in and she's in a lot of them. While I've liked her in some films, here she's woefully inadequate as a brassy showgirl who becomes a kind of Tex Guinan night club hostess and performer. Besides missing all the humor, she's not nearly sexy enough. She was ok at playing good girls like in The Best of Everything and Bus Stop but farcical comedy was not her thing.

And I can't imagine Shirley Jones, who Frank Capra cast before she was replaced by Glenn Ford, would have been much better. Dare I say, Shirley MacLaine might have made something of the role though she's still not sexy enough.

One thing that worked against Bette's favor in her later career is that she aged terribly. The booze and cigs took a horrible toll on her looks.

Though it was not ultimately a big comeback moment for Bette, I believe there was great hope that this movie would do the trick.

Apparently, Shirley Booth was first offered the role of Apple Annie (and wouldn't she have been sublime and manage not to make a cliche of the character?) but she turned it down after watching Capra's original 1930s version Lady For a Day, saying she couldn't better May Robson, who created the role.

Then it was offered to Helen Hayes who wanted to do it but (fortunately) had stage commitments she couldn't ;leave.

Rather than quote it a lot, I'll just link to the TCM article about the film. This part was funny, though:

Star and director were also often at odds with Davis constantly making suggestions to the latter, who had to repeatedly silence her with his amiable reprimand, "Tut, tut, tut, tut!" Capra later suggested that Davis's bad behavior on the set was due to her "inner insecurity and delicate-spirited fears, especially after having been off the screen for so long." In response, a less-forgiving Hope Lange retorted, "Bette Davis is about as delicate-spirited as a tank!"

OP here. Peter Mann, who played Ann-Margret's aristocratic Spanish fiancee was extraordinarily handsome/hunky. I couldn't stop looking at him whenever he was onscreen. Not a bad actor either. Did he just leave the business after this movie flopped?

Every character actor of the moment seemed to be in this film, including the great Arthur O'Connell, miscast (yet somehow redeeming himself) as Peter Mann's father the Italian count.

Bette admits to having fought with Capra.

R26 I love Hope Lange but she really was totally wrong for the part. It was played by Glenda Farrell in the original. A character based on nightclub owner-performer Texas Guinan, called Missouri Martin in the original. Shirley Jones at least was a musical performer and more vivacious than Hope. And she'd just won an Oscar playing a hooker in Elmer Gantry. Capra probably knew what he was doing in casting her.

Glenn Ford was also miscast. Capra wanted Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin.

Wikipedia: "Capra originally cast Frank Sinatra as Dave the Dude, but the actor walked out due to disagreements about the script. Kirk Douglas, Dean Martin and Jackie Gleason rejected the role. Then Glenn Ford approached Capra with an offer to help finance the film through his production company, if he was cast as the lead. The director felt Ford was wrong for the part, but out of desperation he agreed to the arrangement"

Harrison's Reports (review): "The old Robson touch of wistful poignancy to the role is missing. Miss Davis' sharp, clipped, almost cold delivery gives you the feeling that any minute she'll be calling out to 'Petah.' She fails to beget your sympathy."

Bette Davis made quite a few enemies during her career. Hence, she lost Oscars.

Because less Academy members felt that she was deserving of the award than others did, OP. :(

Ugh, if Sinatra had been cast as Dave it would have turned into another Rat Pack styled movie like Robin and the 7 Hoods.

I think Glenn Ford's performance was the least of the problems in this film (though I realize as a producer he might have been responsible for lots of bad decisions).

You have to remember the era. Bette Davis was smarter than most of the men in the room and their indifference to a smart woman caused her to be ornery.

I loved her as Kate Bosworth in A Stolen Life with Glenn Ford.

R37 I doubt Bette Davis was smarter than Frank Capra.

R36 I doubt Frank Capra would have allowed the movie to become a Rat Pack-styled movie.

r39 Bette Davis was an extremely intelligent woman who really was smarter than a lot of the men in Hollywood of the era.

R40 And as I said, I doubt she was smarter than Frank Capra. Also I don't really buy the whole revisionist thing where she or certain other strong women weren't really difficult, they were just victims of male domination. You can be a strong, intelligent woman, and also be difficult.

Capra has a less than believable entry in his autobiography about dining in a restaurant in the 30s with an actor (I forget which actor, I read the book long ago, but very possibly Gary Cooper) when the actor starting complaining about an itch in his nether regions. Capra took the actor into the restaurant bathroom and diagnosed the affliction as crabs. While Capra was squatting down in the bathroom stall in front of Cooper sitting on the toilet, examining Cooper's crotch, someone just happened to open the stall door at that particular moment. Capra explains that as the start of a vicious rumor.

[quote]And as I said, I doubt she was smarter than Frank Capra. Also I don't really buy the whole revisionist thing where she or certain other strong women weren't really difficult, they were just victims of male domination. You can be a strong, intelligent woman, and also be difficult.

Do you anything about how men - male Hollywood executives -were in that era? JFC we see it to this day.

She was smart AF and it frustrated her that she wasn't taken seriously and wasn't listened to.

Also, she had SHIT taste in men who were her intimate partners and husbands. But that was really just the way it went in the 1930s/1940s/1950s.

R42 I'm a huge Bette Davis fan. But read about how she behaved when she did The Night Of The Iguana, for example. You seem to have a one-reason answer for her behavior. I'm not saying you're wrong in what you say. But it's also too simplistic. She had some emotional problems that probably went back to her childhood. She was explosive and could blow up at people out of all proportion, and she was even physically abusive with people.

[quote]But read about how she behaved when she did The Night Of The Iguana, for example. You seem to have a one-reason answer for her behavior.

She clashed with the Method bullshit of the other actors.

Capra said he wanted Helen Hayes for Apple Annie and she was interested; the kerfuffle over Glenn Ford insisting on Hope Lange instead of Shirley Jones delayed production, and Hayes had a tour planned and was no longer available: "I could have strangled Glenn Ford. Because he wanted Hope Lange I lost Helen Hayes."

Hope Lange was spread wide open for Glenn Ford.

Ms. Davis deserved a nomination indeed. Did you know that she didn’t even require make up or props to look the part of a haggard, washed up hag of a woman? Thats how dedicated she was to the part. She in fact also smelled like a homeless person whose pussy had been unwashed for months each day she shuffled into work. That’s a real actress if there ever was one.

[quote]R45 She clashed with the Method bullshit of the other actors.

No, she realized she didn’t have her usual starring role. (And the British Margaret Leighton, who she resented, was not a Method actress.)

Method was overrated.

Who the FUCK is Margaret Leighton? Everybody knows who Bette Davis is. I guess the popeyed Yankee New England bitch won.

The film at 2h16m seems endless. Davis might have been nominated in the supporting actress category but certainly not best actress.

VARIETY

"The picture seems too long, considering there's never any doubt as to the outcome, and it's also too lethargic . . ."

"The best lines in the film go to Peter Falk, who just about walks off with the film . . .

[quote]R51 Who the FUCK is Margaret Leighton?

Mmm, the costar who won rave reviews and a Tony for that production while Davis was OUT, [italic]on her ass, [/italic] after just a few months.

Nobody remembers this Margaret Leighton bitch.

Don't feed R54, who's polluting this and other threads with its ignorant skankitude.

I believe when Bette signed on for NIGHT OF THE IGUANA Tennessee Williams assured her there would be rewrites that would round out the character of Maxine, not to seduce her into taking the role, but because he knew Maxine wasn't fully-fleshed out. But in rehearsals and then in try-outs he came to understand that Shannon and Hannah's relationship were the core of the story and he had no desire to write more dialogue for Maxine. Also, he was a raging alcoholic by then and couldn't have written more even if he'd wanted. Apparently, Shelley Winters, who replaced Bette after her abrupt exit from the play, was also deeply dissatisfied with the role.

Somehow, the sheer charisma of Ava Gardner in the film of IGUANA convinced everyone to care about Maxine but that role is always a one-note supporting character in all the revivals I've seen.

Can someone remind me how Pocketful of Miracles ends? Can't remember....or maybe I never lasted to the end of the film as it does seem to go on and on after the transformation. Does Annie go back to being Apple Annie?

R57, Annie wakes up and realizes it was all a dream.

[quote] Who the FUCK is Margaret Leighton? Everybody knows who Bette Davis is. I guess the popeyed Yankee New England bitch won.

Williams wanted Katharine Hepburn and Bette Davis to star in the play, but Hepburn turned it down.

Pocketful Of Miracles wasn't a hit. Peter Falk probably got a nomination because he got great reviews. The picture only got this one acting nomination, and Best Costume Design (color) and Best Song. Davis didn't get great reviews. The idea that she would have gotten an Academy Award nomination is silly. Anyway, she got one the following year, so who cares?

Thelma Ritter would have been perfect for the part.

Glenn Ford patronized Bette with his smug statements. He said Bette helped him, years before, when she had cast him in "A Stolen Life." It made him a star. He gave her the "Apple Annie" role to save her boosting career. She was furious! She said "that shit heel wouldn't have help me out of a sewer."

Glenn's girlfriend, Hope Lange, cast in the film. Bette was promised a star dressing room, which was next to Glenn Ford's. He gave it to Hope Lange, so they could be near to each other. Bette was angry because Glenn broke his promise. Frank Capra told Hope that Bette Davis was "delicate spirited." Hope said "Bette Davis is as "delicately spirited" as a Sherman tank!"

Bette was very kind to Ann-Margret. Since this was her debut scene, Bette made sure Ann-Margret looked her best. She adjusted her costume, fixed her make-up etc. Ann-Margret was very grateful and she was wonderful. She spoke so highly of Bette.

R42 I don't remember that in Capra's autobiography.

R62, see R29

R42, What rumor? If that story were true, it would have surfaced decades ago, especially on DL.

Peter Falk is only doing his Peter Falk schtick in the film though it was the first time anyone had seen it so it was considered something of a revelation and even Oscar nomination-worthy.

I'm sure Edith Head was thrilled with Bette when she "adjusted" An-Margret's costumes. But at least it probably helped secure that Oscar nomination for Edith.

R63/R64, I may have wrongly attributed it to Capra but I definitely remember reading that passage in an autobiography that was published in the mid-70s. That's how long ago I read it, age 12.

Great article about Bette and Tennessee

It wasn’t a good movie. Her acting wasn’t very good in this. Her clipped speech wasn’t indicative of a pan handler.

Bette's mother died shortly before filming began and she was not in good shape emotionally.

Bette Davis, Frank Capra and Edward G. Robinson

R70, Bette did not think much of Edward G. Robinson. She hated having to kiss him in “Kid Galahad”.

He calls me “Cookie”

Edward didn't think much of her, either. He called out her failings as an actress.

From r67 interview:

[quote]DAVIS: I don't want to be a stand-by actress, like Faye Dunaway. One is not a star if one is not sought after, written for, demanded. Miss Dunaway has never been anyone's first choice: she has been cast primarily because Jane Fonda has not been available. She is an accidental star, and I don't want to be that: If I thought I was such a thing, I would find some other line of work.

Addled old cunt - -

Fascinating to read those 2 interviews at r67 with Bette and Tennessee re IGUANA side by side. I could easily see the truth in both even though they say totally contradict each other about the experience of doing the play.

It was an entertaining movie but really just a trite mishmash of the Pygmalion/Cinderella/“Queen for a Day” type yarns.

I prefer the Love Boat's version with Eleanor Parker; it's less laborious.

I'd much rather it be The Man Who Came to Dinner if we're watching Bette Davis Christmas movies.

At the true nadir of her career in '74, Davis was offered Black Christmas and wisely turned it down. Bette was not so wise when it came to Mildred Pierce; Come Back, Little Sheba; Ship of Fools and The Killing of Sister George. We might also have seen her in It Happened One Night, Lilies of the Field, and Mary Poppins if not for studio politics or budget constraints. And evil spawn BD kept her from appearing in Possessed and The African Queen.

R77, less laborious and Eleanor Parker gave a better performance.

Was there any movie Glenn Ford didn't stink up?

I can't see Bette Davis in Come Back, Little Sheba, thank God Shirley Booth did it.

[quote] Was there any movie Glenn Ford didn't stink up?

The Big Heat, Blackboard Jungle, 3:10 To Yuma, Gilda, A Stolen Life, The Sheepman, The Rounders, The White Tower, The Secret Of Convict Lake, The Courtship Of Eddie's Father, Trial, Dear Heart, Fate Is The Hunter, Experiment In Terror, The Fastest Gun Alive...

R82, “Ransom”

Ford was listed in Quigley's Annual List of Top Ten Box Office Champions in 1956, 1958 and 1959, topping the list in 1958. For 10 consecutive years from 1955 through 1964, Ford was listed among Quigley's list of the top 25 box-office stars. (Wikipedia)

I've never seen that particular movie but I've seen her in many and have loved her. Sometimes I think her voice puts people off but I enjoy it.

Because I personally hate that movie. Especially if Joseph Biroc was involved

I can't see Bette Davis in Come Back, Little Sheba, thank God Shirley Booth did it

I can't see her in Lilies of the Field!

Davis could be subtle, nuanced, vulnerable, subdued. Look at her work in The Old Maid, Watch on the Rhine, Winter Meeting, Payment on Demand, Phone Call from a Stranger, and La Scopone Scientifico.

Bette Davis as Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire? Nah, I couldn’t see her pulling that off. Interesting that she lost both Scarlett O’Hara and Blanche Dubois to Vivian Leigh.

Vivien Leigh on Bette Davis when she was offered Joan Crawford's role after Joan left Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte:

"I could almost bear to look at Joan Crawford's face at 6 am......but not Bette Davis."

Always bears repeating.

R90 Maybe I have the poster blocked, but where was Bette as Blanche DuBois mentioned?

I've heard of Olivia de Havilland being considered for it (the play) but not Bette.

r87 provides a link of all of the films Davis either turned down or for which she campaigned or was considered but didn't get. Several are dubious IMHO.

R93 Oh, okay. Thanks!

R93 Oops, I meant --

Was Glenn Ford still married to Eleanor Powell when he was fucking Hope Lange?

R96, No.

I read one time how Ford and Bill Holden (who both worked for Columbia and were friends) would rent a hotel suite together for getting together with starlets. Both known as womanizers.

It's too bad that Albee's choices, Bette and James Mason, weren't cast as Martha and George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Good as she was, I could never get past the stunt casting of Elizabeth Taylor.

It's too bad - but Bette Davis and James Mason weren't exactly box office giants in the mid-60s.

I wonder if Bette Davis and Mike Nichols would have enjoyed each other's company.

I saw it on stage with Colleen Dewhurst and Ben Gazzara - I thought Taylor and Burton were much better.

Capra wanted Shirley Booth for the part but she turned it down after watching “Lady for a Day.” She didn’t think she could do a better job than May Robson.

Bette and James Mason would've been great as George and Martha. Too bad that didn't happen.

R103, see R28.

Rosalind Russell probably could have done it.

In 1961 Roz Russell was shooting GYPSY and would never have considered playing an old hag, and 3rd lead at that.

It’s a woefully flat movie… really just a footnote in cinema history for being (whorish) Ann-Margret’s debut.

I believe Lucy was originally attached in the Ann-Margret role but had to pull out that last minute after being counselled by a "new advisor" in her coterie...

As if the movie doesn't bog down enough in its last hour, did they really need to have Ann-Margret sing that dreary song a cappella? Why is that character singing? Suddenly it's a musical? And they already had the terrific Cahn-Van Heusen title song which was so sweet and catchy, it was nominated for an Oscar.

It was if someone knew Ann-Margret would be a break-out star (and she was - in another movie!) they felt they had to give her more to do. I wonder what Capra thought of that musical moment?

R107 She wasn't the third lead.

I didn't say Russell would have played it, I said she could have played it. She had the ability to play it.

R110 She became famous as a singer on Ted Mack's Amateur Hour. Capra must have liked the song or he wouldn't have put it in the movie.