Thursday, February 13, 2014

A Very, Very Brief Review: My Sister Eileen (1942)

A screwball comedy starring Rosalind Russell and Janet Blair, about two sisters from Columbus, Ohio, one a writer, the other an actress, who move to New York City, figuring if they can make it there, they can make it anywhere.

Any movie that ends with a cameo from the Three Stooges gets a thumbs-up from me. Russell received her first of four Oscar nomination for this (she never won). Blair is good, too.

3.5 stars out of 5.

4 comments:

Erik Beck said...

An enjoyable film and performance from Russell. But the fact that this was her first nomination, two years AFTER His Girl Friday makes me want to get a TARDIS and go back to 1940 and slap the crap out of the Academy voters.

Mythical Monkey said...

A huge, inexplicable oversight on the Academy's part.

The nominees that year:
Bette Davis (The Letter)
Joan Fontaine (Rebecca)
Katharine Hepburn (The Philadelphia Story)
Martha Scott (Our Town)
and the winner
Ginger Rogers (Kitty Foyle)

I think my five nominees would be
Bette Davis (The Letter)
Katharine Hepburn (The Philadelphia Story)
Margaret Sullavan (The Shop Around The Corner)
Joan Fontaine (Rebecca)
and my winner
Rosalind Russell (His Girl Friday)

Joan Fontaine's performance is maybe the most iconic, which is why I include it, but she was never one of my favorites.

It was a good year for actresses, with Vivien Leigh (Waterloo Bridge) and Irene Dunne (My Favorite Wife) in the mix, too.

I love Ginger Rogers, but would have picked her for one of the Astaire-Rogers pictures.

As for Martha Scott, Our Town was her first movie -- I think they nominated the role rather than the performance. Nothing that happened afterwards in her career justifies such a leap of faith on the Academy's part with so many other performances to choose from.

But I could be wrong.

Erik Beck said...

Those are actually my same five nominees, though I go with Hepburn for the win.

Mythical Monkey said...

I go with Hepburn for the win.

An excellent choice -- The Philadelphia Story is one of my very favorite movies.