Nikan
Based
Posts: 3,193 
Likes: 1,586
|
Post by Nikan on Feb 25, 2024 23:27:50 GMT
I think - at least filmography wise - she was real special...  Like how somebody like her doesn't make AFI's 25 ladies list? was she inaccessible to the Americans? Was she a little "too british"? I mean she was awarded; but I feel she hasn't been "embraced" like a Liz Taylor or Audrey Hepburn... and I recently re-watched From Here to Eternity and was reminded however memorable her character is, she's not "as endearing" as Donna Reed's... |
|
|
|
Post by pupdurcs on Feb 25, 2024 23:44:53 GMT
Underrated.
To my mind, she was a great movie star and arguably the foremost prestige actress of the 1950's. Her filmography is littered with all-time classics, in which she often played a key or starring role (Black Narcissus, From Here To Eternity, The King And I, The Innocents )
It's surprising to me she didn't make the AFI Top 25 female stars. Moreso than Olivia De Havilland, as I think more of Kerr's films maintained popularity over the years. She should be much closer in modern esteem to the Hepburns, Davis and Bergman.
Maybe there is something to the "too British" thing, in terms of how she's seen in the popular American consciousness. Jean Simmons and James Mason may be underrated for similar reasons. All luminous film actors and stars, but they didn't seem to be held up as Gods in Hollywood the same way they did for a Gary Cooper or a Marilyn Monroe or a Grace Kelly. Cary Grant seemed to escape the "too British" thing with his mid-atlantic accent making it hard to place exactly where he came from. Vivien Leigh escaped it by having her two most iconic roles be Southern Belles.
|
|
|
|
Post by stephen on Feb 25, 2024 23:45:53 GMT
Underrated, especially nowadays.
|
|
|
|
Post by pacinoyes on Feb 25, 2024 23:55:47 GMT
I'll say Just Right.......she is weirdly underrated and overcompensated for being underrated because she doesn't have an Oscar........this always happens for females with lots of nods (males not so much, ah well) - it will happen to Amy Adams and Glenn Close too.........
I am always amused when people say Streep, Huppert, Blanchett are too cold........ I think I could argue Kerr was a cold actress .....I wouldn't......but I certainly could
|
|
Nikan
Based
Posts: 3,193
Likes: 1,586
|
Post by Nikan on Feb 26, 2024 0:03:31 GMT
I'll say Just Right.......she is weirdly underrated and overcompensated for being underrated because she doesn't have an Oscar........this always happens for females with lots of nods (males not so much, ah well) - it will happen to Amy Adams and Glenn Close too......... I am always amused when people say Streep, Huppert, Blanchett are too cold........ I think I could argue Kerr was a cold actress .....I wouldn't......but I certainly could Err, I had thought she won for King and I. and I've never heard that about Streep or Cate... if I start hitting coffee shops 3 am maybe I will    |
|
|
|
Post by pupdurcs on Feb 26, 2024 0:20:19 GMT
The AFI Top 25 Female Stars is full of genuine movie icons, and it's hard to justify bouncing anyone on it out....but, I look at Ava Gardner's films in her peak years, and hardly any of them feel like they have any staying power today, especially compared to someone like Kerr. I mean, I 'm sure Mogambo, Bhowhani Junction and The Barefoot Contessa were big hits in their day, but I don't think they really lasted beyond their era compared to so many of Kerr's films. Kerr and Gardner are really part of the same era/generation, yet Kerr's body of work remains far more relevant today.
Yet Gardner was a great American beauty, with a tempestuous private life that captured the imagination (marriages and relationships with Frank Sinatra, Mickey Rooney, Howard Hughes, George C Scott etc).
|
|
|
|
Post by futuretrunks on Feb 26, 2024 0:28:01 GMT
She market-checked Amy Adams before the latter was born.
|
|
|
|
Post by pacinoyes on Feb 26, 2024 0:36:41 GMT
I'll say Just Right.......she is weirdly underrated and overcompensated for being underrated because she doesn't have an Oscar........this always happens for females with lots of nods (males not so much, ah well) - it will happen to Amy Adams and Glenn Close too......... I am always amused when people say Streep, Huppert, Blanchett are too cold........ I think I could argue Kerr was a cold actress .....I wouldn't......but I certainly could Err, I had thought she won for King and I. and I've never heard that about Streep or Cate... if I start hitting coffee shops 3 am maybe I will That's hitting the diner at 3:00 AM NikCave - not a coffee shop......geesh.....interesting side note - If you always have a cup of coffee in your hand, then anywhere you go then becomes your very own personal coffee shop |
|
Nikan
Based
Posts: 3,193
Likes: 1,586
|
Post by Nikan on Feb 26, 2024 0:52:26 GMT
The AFI Top 25 Female Stars is full of genuine movie icons, and it's hard to justify bouncing anyone on it out.... but, I look at Ava Gardner's films in her peak years, and hardly any of them feel like they have any staying power today, especially compared to someone like Kerr. I mean, I 'm sure Mogambo, Bhowhani Junction and The Barefoot Contessa were big hits in their day, but I don't think they really lasted beyond their era compared to so many of Kerr's films. Kerr and Gardner are really part of the same era/generation, yet Kerr's body of work remains far more relevant today. NS a Rita Hayworth-lead film but really only 2 titles interest me ( Gilda and Lady...) and while not bad, she was easily the weakest line in Seperate Tables where a good female performance is given by, lemme hear it: Mrs. Deborah Kerr. |
|
|
|
Post by finniussnrub on Feb 26, 2024 0:56:33 GMT
She wasn't nominated for The Innocents so underrated.
|
|
|
|
Post by pupdurcs on Feb 26, 2024 1:05:04 GMT
The AFI Top 25 Female Stars is full of genuine movie icons, and it's hard to justify bouncing anyone on it out.... but, I look at Ava Gardner's films in her peak years, and hardly any of them feel like they have any staying power today, especially compared to someone like Kerr. I mean, I 'm sure Mogambo, Bhowhani Junction and The Barefoot Contessa were big hits in their day, but I don't think they really lasted beyond their era compared to so many of Kerr's films. Kerr and Gardner are really part of the same era/generation, yet Kerr's body of work remains far more relevant today. NS a Rita Hayworth-lead film but really only 2 titles interest me ( Gilda and Lady...) and while not bad, she was easily the weakest line in Seperate Tables where a good female performance is given by, lemme hear it: Mrs. Deborah Kerr. deserves her spot on the AFI list, imho. Yes, like Gardner, being an iconic American beauty helped secure her spot, but she was a very fine actress, a terrific movie star and some of her key films still hold up today. Not just Gilda and The Lady From Shanghai, but Pal Joey ( where she acts Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak off the screen and deserved an Oscar nomination for her performance), Only Angels Have Wings and Cover Girl, with Gene Kelly. |
|
|
|
Post by countjohn on Feb 26, 2024 1:14:05 GMT
Underrated, obvious choice from me since I'm a big fan. Probably my no. 2 pre 60's actress besides K. Hepburn (yes, I'd have her ahead of Davis and Bergman). Not overnodded at all and deserved 2 or 3 wins. Don't see how you can call the person who gave those performances in Tea and Sympathy or Affair to Remember "cold" either. She was emotionally restrained but that's why she holds up so well, not all the screaming and histrionics you got with dramatic actors in that era.
|
|
|
|
Post by stabcaesar on Feb 26, 2024 1:17:48 GMT
One of my absolute faves, but I actually think she’s rated just right around here because she’s seems to be a fave here. Underrated elsewhere though.
|
|
|
|
Post by TylerDeneuve on Feb 26, 2024 1:21:34 GMT
pupdurcs - Ava Gardner was always better than her films, it's true - but if anything, she should be higher on the list, not removed.
|
|
|
|
Post by pacinoyes on Feb 26, 2024 12:47:39 GMT
Underrated, obvious choice from me since I'm a big fan. Probably my no. 2 pre 60's actress besides K. Hepburn (yes, I'd have her ahead of Davis and Bergman). Not overnodded at all and deserved 2 or 3 wins. Don't see how you can call the person who gave those performances in Tea and Sympathy or Affair to Remember "cold" either. She was emotionally restrained but that's why she holds up so well, not all the screaming and histrionics you got with dramatic actors in that era. I think you could see it though - I mean - you may not think so and maybe I don't either but A LOT of people hated Deborah Kerr in her day for it.....and one man's "Emotionally restrained" is another's "cold and technical" after all........there's actually a great argument to be had as to which acting styles have "held up" - I agree Kerr's do......but in some instances the exact opposite of her style holds up even better - which you wouldn't have thought at the time.....specifically Anna Magnani .......who was often called specifically (wildly) histrionic in her day as a criticism and was accused of perpetrating a style that would not endure...and yet........ Magnani is one of the GOATs - and endures - in a way that Kerr who I like a lot just isn't ... Good argument that can be true and false at the same time........sometime Kerr could burn hot though......often working at odds with her "manner".....a contradiction that makes her more interesting than say Grace Kelly - another of those "too cold" types................. to some.....ymmv |
|
Javi
Badass
Posts: 1,533
Likes: 1,622
|
Post by Javi on Feb 26, 2024 20:20:58 GMT
I'd say underrated - the woman was a hoot. Anyone who starred in Heaven Knows Mr Allison, The Innocents and The Night of the Iguana is in my good books.
|
|
