Most Over-rated Actress of the Golden Era?

I knew we were related.

dhermann1 said:

I knew we were related.

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Thanks. Now I feel better...

Most overrated actress of the Golden Era

Katherine Hepburn is the most overrated actress in American film. Critics agree that she was one-dimensional. In addition, she carried with her an uncomfortable persona that made audiences feel a little sorry that they too weren't so high-classed and smart as Katherine Hepburn. While she was able to emote within this limited dimension, all the roles she played were tainted by and secondary to her persona. Bette Davis was the finest actress of this era, hands down!

Chas said:

Marilyn Monroe. Easily. Of all of her movies I have seen (which would be most, but I never was really much of a fan) she played two roles. The same person in all but one film- the Misfits.

I don't agree with the assessment of Dean as overrated; there were some terrific moments of total improvisation on his part, and he was actively avoiding being typecast, ie. Giant.

The worst actress of the golden age, however, was Jayne Mansfield. Or, as Jack Parr would say, actresses.

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I always saw Jayne Mansfield and Marilyn Monroe as the same. And I could not go for either one. But it may very well be the characters they generally play. I can't stand dumb blond roles. I also agree that Betty Hutton was a bit much. Also Lana Turner. These are ones that didn't seem to grab me as a viewer.

But Katherine Hepburn, well, I really liked her in comedies. She was great in "Philadelphia Story". I can understand how her voice might grate over time though.

3 overrated actresses

Audrey Hepburn.--Never understood the appeal. Uses a smarmy cuteness to cover for her lack of acting chops. In recent years, I feel her appeal has been because of her tragic death and her charitable work.

Grace Kelly.--Highly overrated especially considering her oeuvre is so short (although she made a lot of movies in a short period of time, retiring by the age of 26). I just watched Rear Window, and all I can think of, again, is why is she so stilted, as in, notably, High Noon, and what is that accent that keeps drifting in and out. Too bad Hitchcock wasn't so taken with dialogue. She was good in The Country Girl, but Garland should have won the Oscar.

Jennifer Jones-I don't know, maybe she's not overrated. For an actress who was a major star of her time, and appeared in many movies, memory of her doesn't exactly roll off the tip of the old frontal lobe, which may be a testament to the quality of her acting, or the movies she was in (though that's doubtful; Beat the Devil and The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit are just two of her films that are excellent). I've always heard stuff about her sleeping her way to the top; I have no idea if that's true, and if so it's yet another regrettable thing about patriarchal Hollywood, but to my eye, I've never understood her appeal as an actress (not even, really, as eye candy).

For an underrated actress of the time, how about Ann Sothern? I'm just throwing it out there; I know she wasn't in many "serious" films, but she was awfully good in the ones I've seen her in (Cry Havoc; A Letter to 3 Wives).

I love forums like this. So, here it goes, my opinions on some of the actresses that have been mentioned.

First, I think Marilyn Monroe is a very underrated actress. I think when people think of her they think of Marilyn the Icon, not Marilyn the Actress. She had comic timing that was spot on, especially in films like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) and The Seven Year Itch (1955). She was very good in the more dramatic movies, too. Check out Don't Bother to Knock (1952), Bus Stop (1956), and The Misfits (1961).

Jayne Mansfield, too, like Monroe, specialized in the "dumb blonde" role, but she had good comedy skills that were showcased well in The Girl Can't Help It (1956) and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957). Her dramatic talents went vastly overlooked, but she managed to still the show in The Wayward Bus (1957).

Personally, I don't find Katharine Hepburn overrated. Yeah, most of her movies cast her in a similar role, but like others have said, many actors specialized at playing a certain character type, especially during the Golden Age. Hepburn was great in Stage Door (1937) and Bringing Up Baby (1938), and even in her later movies, like Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), and On Golden Pond (1981).

I don't see Judy Garland as being overrated, and Jane Russell is a hit-or-miss for me. Garland is great in The Wizard of Oz (1939), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), and A Star Is Born (1954). Russell, well, I haven't seen many of her films, but she did exceptional in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the movies she did with Robert Mitchum, and The Tall Men (1955).

Now, Barbara Stanwyck is the one I can't stand. I've only seen her in Clash by Night (1952) and Titanic (1953). She's not remotely attractive, and she's not nearly the actress she's made out to be. If I were to watch a movie starring a "strong woman", I would much prefer to watch Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, or Katharine Hepburn. And don't even get me started on how much I don't like The Big Valley.

Elizabeth Taylor is another good one. But to me one of the most underrated is Doris Day. I don't think she gets nearly enough credit for being for being the good comedienne she was. Jean Harlow, too, isn't regarded as highly as she should be. Mae West gets notice for being the movie's first platinum blonde, but when, indeed, it was Harlow who was a star two years before West.

As for Greta Garbo, she's another hit-or-miss for me. Yes, she quite beautiful, but she's not quite that good of an actress when you think about it. I like her in Grand Hotel (1932), Ninotchka (1939), and yes, Two-Faced Woman (1941). Her accent is too thick and she's very hard to understand. Now, Marlene Dietrich, another beauty, was a good actress but was often miscast in offbeat movies.

Marion Davies, literally almost incredibly over-rated on the Internet Movie Data Base,
because there exists a group of super-dedicated Marion Davies fanatics who rate all of her movies at a 10/10, probably numerous times each under different user names.

Katharine Hepburn.
A dozen best actress academy award nominations and four wins for an actress who always spoke in her same natural accent no matter what the ethnicity of the character she was portraying was, including, French, Greek, and Chinese?

Tomasso said:

14. Ginger Rogers

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I'm mortified. Many years ago, when my muscles were young and my bones were flexible, my dancing wife and I spent a year, learning, practising and rehearsing Fred & Ginger's Swing Time routine. We performed it at a vintage festival. At the time I became sick of the routine, now, decades later, I watch Fred & Ginger's effortless, class act and realise that I was right to take up a day job.
In the early 1990's, we saw Ginger, here in the UK. It was just before her stroke that, so sadly, confined her to a wheelchair.

^^^ One of my favorite numbers they did together -and while it's been said before, that she did that in high-heels is insane.

She is, if anything, underrated as she is often thought of as Fred's dance partner and not the talented actress she was in her own right. I've seen several of he not-with-Astaire movies and she has real acting chops.

Me, I'm just waiting here patiently, lying on the floor, I'm just trying to do this jigsaw puzzle before Lizzie comes in with a full-throttled defense of Barbara Stanwyck. While, waiting, I'll put out mine: even though attractiveness is an opinion, there are generally recognized views and while Barbara Stanwyck wasn't up there with Ingrid Bergman in public opinion, I think it is fair to say many people found her more than remotely attractive. IMHO, her acting ability is the best there is - it's subtle, she gets absorbed into the role and she does it with an ease only matched by Spencer Tracy. She also does something the great ones do, she elevates mediocre dialogue. Her performance on "The Big Valley" showed two things (1) that a great actress can make mediocre material better and more credible and (2) the massive gap between her acting abilities and everyone else's on that show: She was a true movie star actress, the rest of the cast were, basically, adequate TV actors and that was apparent in every scene she was in. I'd also add that she had a successfully career in movies from pre-codes through the 50s and then, say what you want, a good run on TV - that's impressive longevity in a business that chews up most of its talent in much, much less time.

Off topic - Hey Fading Fast, I got your Rolling Stones reference!

I'm not a big fan of Monroe, Hepburn, or Russell. The only movie that I liked Barbara Stanwyck in was Double Indemnity. I agree with what others in this thread have said about Monroe reaching icon status because of her early death. I'm not a film critic at all and really do not know what makes a good or bad actor/actress other than I can connect with their role or not. It is kind of like me at an art gallery. I like it or I don't and I can't really say why.

I am, however, a big fan of Maureen O'Hara and Paulette Goddard.

Stanwyck, to me, needs no defense -- the fact that she was able to present a convincing facade of contentment to the public over the years of her marriage to the despicable Frank Fay is all the testimony her acting ability requires.

The actress I really can't stand is Marlene Dietrich. Nothing about her is the least bit pleasant or likeable.

I have to agree with you as to Marlene Dietrich. I've never been a big fan of hers either.

I think that sometimes here we're talking about two different things: acting ability ans star quality. Some actors have one, some have the other and a very few have both. To use some male examples, two very fine actors; Gene Hackman and Robert Duvall, have fabulous acting chops, but they can't carry a big-budget film by themselves. They always have to co-star with someone else. Only in small, independent films do they get to star. At the other extreme there's John Wayne. He was a one-note character actor, and he played one role: John Wayne. He could play it straight or comic or even occasionally as a bad guy, but he always played John Wayne. But whatever star quality is, Wayne had it in spades. When he was up there on the screen, your eyes were riveted on him.

Hepburn was like that. Maybe not a great actress, but she had star quality, that presence that draws attention and makes everyone else fade into the background. Maybe that's why she did some of her best work playing opposite an equally loud, hammy performer: Peter O'Toole.

Jean Harlow. She may have been a saint...or a sinner...I don't know, but I find that when she's up on that silver screen she tends to suck the life out of the film. Just can't act. She almost ruins The Public Enemy for me...fortunately Cagney rescues the film. She does the same in Hell's Angels.

Doctor Strange said:

Off topic - Hey Fading Fast, I got your Rolling Stones reference!

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Awesome, reasonably obscure and I was just having some fun with it, didn't really think anyone would get it. Well done sir.

LizzieMaine said:

Stanwyck, to me, needs no defense -- the fact that she was able to present a convincing facade of contentment to the public over the years of her marriage to the despicable Frank Fay is all the testimony her acting ability requires.

The actress I really can't stand is Marlene Dietrich. Nothing about her is the least bit pleasant or likeable.

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Dietrich never overwhelmed me and I certainly never got the Dietrich mystique. However, I was impressed with her performance in "Judgment at Nuremberg," but playing a cold aloof German widow probably didn't stretch her acting skills to far from reality.

I think that's exactly it -- I can't think of a role where she wasn't playing "Marlene Dietrich." That certainly wasn't an uncommon habit among movie personalities of the Era -- the only major movie star of the period who really disappeared into whatever role was being played and didn't seem to have a stock persona to fall back on was Paul Muni. But the "Marlene Dietrich" character itself annoys me -- she seems to be going out of her way most of the time to say "LOOOOOOK AT ME, I AM SEXXXXY AND DANGEROUSSSSSS," but that's all there is to it. It's like a comic-book level idea of what "sexy and dangerous" is supposed to be.

The thing is, she could have been better. Some of her radio work is quite good, even when she's making comedy guest appearances which consciously parody her screen persona. I think she was very badly served by a studio system that treated any performer as a commodity to be marketed rather than trying to explore the boundaries of what they were capable of doing.

And offscreen she could be quite witty. I love her smackdown of Frank Sinatra, who went on only one USO tour at the very end of WW2, was poorly received, and came home complaining about how rough the experience was. "Well," said Dietrich, "you can hardly expect the European Theatre to be anything like the Paramount."

^^^ The one movie I saw her try to do both comedy and empathy was in "The Lady is Willing" and, IMHO, she was awkward at best and, in truth, failed at it. He comic sense was off and she never made you sympathetic for her at all. She was more sympathetic when they set her up as a haughty women who has a come down or at least someone scornful of others who gets put in her place - like in "Manpower," or "Shanghai Express." And I just remembered, she gave a strong performance - as a cold aloof women (surprise, surprise) - in "Witness for the Prosecution."

The more I think about Dietrich the more it seems to me that she would have been a much better performer in silent pictures -- that broad, overripe persona would have given Vilma Banky a run for her money. She did appear in a few silents in Germany, but by the time she got to the US, that ship had sailed. If you watch "The Blue Angel," though, she's essentially playing a silent-picture type of characterization in a talkie.