Oscar season means one thing here at Movieline: I get to revisit my favorite moments in Academy history and cackle at the craycray performances that earn trophies. Case in point, here are our ten favorite, uninhibited, screechy, and freaky-deeky Best Supporting Actress performances. You know it's the best category, right? The only one where madness is consistently exulted? Good. My only regret: Lesley Ann Warren didn't win for her performance in Victor/Victoria, and for that our list suffers. Sigh. At least Renee Zellweger didn't make the cut. Rejoice!
10. Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny
It wasn't my intention to begin with the most maligned Best Supporting Actress win ever -- in fact, I was going to start with Helen Hayes in Airport, but there's just not enough of her screechy septuagenarian shenanigans to justify it. Oh, well. Squawky Marisa will do, especially since she's got a biological clock that's ticking into delirium, a floral catsuit that is a FLORAL CATSUIT, and a brazenly phony accent that will give you chills, thrills, and an ear infection.
9. Josephine Hull in Harvey
Doctor! She's seen the bunny rabbit too! If James Stewart's bittersweet performance as Elwood P. Dowd leaves you feeling a little melancholy, Josephine Hull's role as his sister Veta will have you hooting. Even after she's taken to the sanatorium!
8. Cate Blanchett in The Aviator
I don't even like this performance, but it can't be denied that Cate Blanchett's gestures, quips, and jaw-juts as Katharine Hepburn define the word "histrionic." If Kate subsisted on a diet of caffeine pills and Muppet souls, she'd act like this. Hah-wahd!
7. Kim Hunter in A Streetcar Named Desire
It's hard to believe this might be one of Tennessee Williams' less hysterical plays, partly with Vivien Leigh practically spewing frailty and Kim Hunter weeping and tangling with brute ole' Stanley. But overripe pangs of agony are Tennessee's gift, and Kim pulls through with electric passion -- and in the following clip, some regrettable relent.
6. Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker
Now, portraying Helen Keller requires histrionics, but Patty Duke's turn as Anne Sullivan's deaf, dumb, and blind matriculant is a massive power-play. She is in charge. Girlfriend can fight. She's compulsively watchable and incredible. And grabby! Now, from here on in, the zaniness gets very intense on our list and I can't help but assign ALL CAPS nicknames to the remaining contenders. I get real excited. You've been warned.
5. Estelle Parsons in Bonnie and Clyde
ESTELLE "TABBY SCREECH" PARSONS. Blanche Barrow's got the asthmatic streak of Blanche Dubois, but she's mostly got a caterwaul to outclass most dying snow leopards. The screaming begins here and continues uninterrupted for a good portion of the movie. It is unbearably great.
4. Beatrice Straight in Network
BEATRICE "STORM TEARS" STRAIGHT. She showed up for one day of filming, five minutes of footage, and left a trail of histrionics leading right to Oscar's heart. "I am your wife, dammit!" is not just a glorious piece of dialogue. It's a fulgent sequin of camp and fury that also manages to be Network's most human moment.
3. Shelley Winters in A Patch of Blue
SHELLEY "FIRE FACE" WINTERS. Not only is she livid with her blind daughter for running around with a black man, but she bellows like Zero Mostel caught in a tornado. I included the colorized version to scare you more. As Kim Hunter can tell you, whenever physical abuse enters an over-the-top performance, wonderful things happen. Bonus: Straightforward racism! NSFW, unfortunately.
2. Dianne Wiest in Bullets Over Broadway
DIANNE "HOLY HELL" WIEST. Cigarettes up and diaphragms out, girls! This performance is why Best Supporting Actresses exist -- because of zesty, cartoonish bravado. Dianne Wiest chainsaws through dialogue with the force of a bloodthirsty countess and leaves a puddle of destruction in her swishy wake. Woody Allen's other Best Supporting kooks, like Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Mighty Aphrodite's Linda Ash, would disintegrate in this sorceress's presence. I disintegrated! Goodbye, everyone! Signed, my ghost.
1. Sandy Dennis in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
SANDY "G*D-DAMN GRAND CHAMP" DENNIS. All hail! Get on your ugly plebe knees! Sandy Dennis looks like a somehow-woozier Rachel Zoe, and she brings the loopy to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which is a feat. Where to begin with this unforgettable performance? Hmmm. Well, here: Sandy has been drinking, everyone. (Have I made it clear that I'm referencing the actresses like they're not playing a character? Well. I'm doing that.) She's been given the most dada, spontaneously weird role in an already dada, spontaneously weird movie, and she is seizing the day. The sputtered catchphrases are all classics: "Violence!"; "Oh, I love brandy. I really do"; and of course, "I dance like the wiii--iiii--nnddd." She is a bunny-toothed thunderbolt in this movie, and she sells a performance that should be shown at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Pass the brandy, mortals!