How Luise Rainer Won Two Oscars In A Row
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- In 1938, Luise Rainer became the first actor to ever win consecutive Academy Awards. In this episode I explain how she benefited from the studio system, how freelancing disadvantaged her opponents, and how white privilege influenced the casting of The Good Earth.
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Luise Rainer lived to be 104, and never regretted her decision to leave Hollywood. She outlived Mayer gladly.
@@richardmcleod5967 dont think she would give a shit if you or anybody else know her or not. if she cared she would not leave HW
Richard McLeod that’s not too surprising. Seems she loved the job, but hated the stranglehold the studios had on how things worked. From your comments though, she seems to have gotten the best of both worlds- got to revisit acting and have critical acclaim, but got away from the tentacles of the studios.
I remember someone said that winning the Oscar can make a person live five years more, so Louise still need to thank Mayer for giving her 10 more years 😂
@@richardmcleod5967 lol! If that wouldn't be him someone would have, she had the talent and sooner or later she would have shown that to the world.
@@jiananlee5482 lol! I know at least one actress who died the next year after winning.
Thank you for mentioning Anna May Wong! Wish more people would know about her.
Good news; The popular Netflix miniseries "Hollywood" shined a light on Wong. Glad more people know about her now. ☺
@@leroymccoy9008 I was so excited to see Anna May Wong's cameo when the series first premiered in May.
It was awesome to see the Golden Age of Hollywood reimagined, particularly correcting past wrongs such as casting POCs in respectable roles and giving LGBT a moment to shine all the while weaving in real historic celebrities in the plot. However, in the end, it still depresses me to know how such fantasies (especially that of Anna May Wong being recognized by her contemporaries) never came to fruition in real life.
She should have played in the Good Earth.
@@kevintan1104 : Woke is never woke enough, is it?
Anna May Wong is not as unknown as you may think
Luise was a terrific person, but had zero business playing Olan. Hollywood’s history of yellow face is as infamous (and even longer in terms of length of time used) as their history of blackface. I also LOVE that the whole plan of Mayer to replace Garbo with Rainer as the “queen of MGM/Hollywood” blew up in his idiotic face...when Luise left Hollywood, having no desire for the exact same things Garbo had no desire for
political correctness will kill us all.
Casting dark skinned black actor as King Edward VI in My Lady Jane is just as bad as casting white actors to play Asian characters in The Good Earth. 🎭🩰🎨
RIP Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 - February 3, 1961), aged 56
And
RIP Luise Rainer (January 12, 1910 - December 30, 2014), aged 104
You both will always be remembered as legends
Barbara Stanwyck, who I think deserved to win for “Stella Dallas”, was granted an Honorary Oscar in 1982 for her lifetime’s body of work. For me, by modern standards, she was a better actress even than Bette Davis, who was also a great actress of course but an even greater movie star. As mentioned in this short documentary, Stanwyck didn’t have a major studio behind her to lobby for her to win Oscars, but the fact that she was a free agent before most actors in Hollywood were contributed greatly to the fact that she was able to shine in such a diversity of quality roles.
Right on!
I agree-- watching Stella Dallas had me in tears, and it was because of her performances that it's considered one of the greatest melodramas of all time. Add to that Double Indemnity and you have a phenomenal career-- and that's just two of her movies
I never liked "Stella Dallas". It seemed to justify the class system in my eyes.
Barbara Stanwyck is constantly robbed ... I can't think of another actress who can truly act in ANYTHING, very sutble and nuanced acting style, at the same time very moving and effective.
You think Barbara stanwick was the better actress than Betty Davis I can't see Barbara
I'll always be mad at the fact that Irene Dunne and Barbara Stanwyck never won the Oscars they deserved just because they had the guts to freelance... I think it was the same thing that happened with Cary Grant who also went freelance after leaving Paramount.
I think Rainer's problem was not lack of talent or beauty.she was at MGM who had under contract Shearer,Garbo,Harlow,Loy,Sullivan,Russell,Crawford,Powell,MacDonald,Garland.
Sullavan.
What a depressing situation for Anna May Wong! Thanks a lot for mentioning her, she should be way widelier known than she is.
Tilly Losch was Austrian though, not German ;)
No wonder Luise Rainer lived 104 years
Im so glad you putting out videos almost every week now I look forward to your videos yours is true unbiased and real for the times we live in keep making good videos girl
I wish you analyzed the Jennifer Hudson's win for "Dreamgirls".
She has only done Best Actress winners so far, not Best Supporting Actresses.
Yeah, but that was disgraceful and generated a scandal at the time because Hudson was the lead. So it may impact that year's best actress video
@@Asylum07MasterMadman For that, you can blame both the studios and the Academy.
Dreamworks and Paramount pushed Beyoncé as their Best Actress nominee for DREAMGIRLS from the beginning. Understandably, there was some logic to their decision: nobody had ever heard of Jennifer Hudson outside of American Idol, and Beyoncé was (is) the biggest pop star in the world. It was all about strategy for them, because Beyoncé's star power was big enough to ensure votes; after all, if Cher could win an Oscar, why couldn't Beyoncé? (It's because Cher is a fucking good actress obviously, but I'm just trying to capture the studios' mindset.)
Ironically enough, given that Julie Andrews and Barbra Streisand both won Oscars from their debut performances (in musicals, no less,) Jennifer historically had a better shot than Beyoncé did. But even then, that year's winner was Helen Mirren playing the title role in THE QUEEN, which was about the Royal Family dealing with the aftermath of Princess Diana's death. Given the Academy's preference for British themes, the resonance of the tragedy, and the regard Helen Mirren is held in as an actress (not to mention that Meryl was nominated the same year for THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA,) Hudson had about a snowball's chance in hell if she went in for Best Actress.
@@Asylum07MasterMadman If she was campaigned as the lead, she wouldn't get in anyway. Aside from technical awards, the only other thing that Dream Girls deserved to win is a Supporting Actor for Eddie Murphy. that's it.
She had talent. She should be more well known.
I would love to see you do a video about Halle Berry’s win! But I’ll watch what ever you put out!! You post great content!!
What a brilliant channel!!! Love the videos here♥️
1937 was a very good year for this category. Garbo was great. Gaynor was good. Rainer is a great actress, who IMO has the odds of a giving great performance stacked against her here by reason given in the video. I place her last among the 5 despite her talent. I'm a HUGE Stanwyck fan and that last scene is for the ages. But my choice is without a doubt Irene Dunne in THE AWFUL TRUTH. She is so delicious that just her appearance in any frame is cause for a smile. A superb comic performance with real honest emotions.
In hindsight I think that Barbra Stanwyck or Greta Garbo should had won the Oscar for best actress. Luise Rainer got the last laugh in the end. I wish that somebody would make a real movie version of The Good Earth with an all Chinese cast.
Garbo wasn’t LB Mayer’s sweetheart. She was “difficult” for him to work with, even though Irving Thalberg adored her. MGM (and by “MGM” we all mean “LBM”) kept ceaselessly renegotiating Garbo’s contracts, they gave her “power” as producer and paid her more and more money.
But MGM never got to understand Garbo’s motivations and desires. In 1930’s she had better paychecks than many other actors/actresses, but she was too difficult to control, therefore yes, is understandable why MGM never put a “For Your Consideration” campaign on her behalf.
Yet, as Stanwyck and Dietrich (highest paid woman in any filed at that time), Garbo did not need the Oscar to be remembered and leave a mark in culture through celluloid.
Very well stated. LB Mayer didn't like people who stood up to him, were too original or didn't subscribe to his image of American virtues. Cases in point: Billy Haines, Buster Keaton and Greta Garbo.
You run a truly well done UA-cam channel. Good job.
Although I don't hate Luise Rainer, I still cannot understand why they chose a white woman to play an Asian character. It just baffles me.
Though Luise Rainer's double win remains one of those very "puzzling" Oscar facts, there are two facts that are never mentioned but had great importance (politically and culturally) at the time. The first is the obeisance to "the theater": Luise Rainer came to Hollywood as the last European ingenue of the great director Max Reinhardt (before Reinhardt would move his base of operations to the US, as the Nazi regime limited his access to theaters in Germany and Austria). Reinhardt's reputation was such that he was allowed carte blanche by WB for his movie of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM in 1935 (though the expense was such that it would be the first and last time Reinhardt had the opportunity to work in the movies). And Rainer had been his star. The second was that Luise Rainer was Jewish. That is very important. She was, in fact, the ONLY Jewish actress to even be nominated for Best Actress for DECADES (it wouldn't be until 1950 that it would happen again, and that time it was Judy Holliday and she also won). Not only was she Jewish (and refused to hide that fact) but she would get married during this period to someone who was also widely known as Jewish, the playwright Clifford Odets. In 1936 and 1937, to give an openly Jewish woman an award was some sort of statement made to the increasing anti-semitism that was a political reality of the period. (And i'm saying this as an Asian-American.)
Fingers crossed you decide to make a Stanwyck video some time in the near future! 🙏 🤞
Luise Rainer was tremendous in this movie and the Great Ziegfeld. Spencer Tracy winning over James Cagney was a Robbery, though!
Don't let Rainer's films and performance get in the way of your agenda, but I recently saw The Good Earth and thought her acting nuanced and deliberately understated,as did Graham Greene,"Discussing the actors, Greene praised Rainer for a "beautiful performance" that "carries the film", and criticized Muni's performance as exaggerated and "not of the same quality" as Rainer's......
Love this
Not racist. Very few Asian women felt that working in Hollywood was a respectable career.
You know it all comes down to dollars and cents.
Can you do one on WHY Barbara Stanwyck never won an Oscar!!
Considering she made a comeback in film at 86, Luise Rainer’s career could have ended nihilistically. It didn’t.
im stunned
The way America is these days I'm suprised that certain groups haven't tried to resurrect the Hayes code.
"The Awful truth," is a movie I watch once a year atleast.
You're mispronouncing her name throughout the video ... weird.
Do any Gen z people even know what a quarter even looks like? I gave up plastic money 10 years ago. It is so easy to steal from people that way
Casting dark skinned black actor as King Edward VI in My Lady Jane is just as bad as casting white actors to play Asian characters in The Good Earth. 🎭🩰🎨
I gasped when you said Greta Garbo $200 a week vs her male costars $10,000 a week. Truly shameful.
ionadelfina SAME!!
Sian M except it hasn’t been disproved. Cherry picked data doesn’t make facts. Yes it’s less than it was then (and how you can turn that horrifying gap into “meh, that was then, not now” is pretty disgusting because that gap is absolutely disgusting) but it’s still there. Even if it’s a bit less than is often quoted, which adjusts for “women’s choices” it’s still there. Besides, all that adjustment actually tells us is the reasons for the pay gap, that it’s still mostly sexism, and not that it isn’t there at all.
@@danielintheantipodes6741 Umm...it's more like a woman making 800,000 to a mans 40,000,000. She was making 2% of what he was making and they were doing the exact same job. That's worthy of outrage.
ionadelfina who are we referring to tho, the 30s or now? And I’m with Daniel on this. The other thing is, these Hollywood people are basically American royalty. What they make for one film is what most of us won’t even make in a while lifetime, male or female. And their discrepancy in pay is such a first world issue! Why does no one ever talk about woman in the 3rd world, who get paid NOTHING for working like literal slaves, and who I’d imagine, would be SO grateful to receive the $80,000 salary, even if it was so much less then a male co-worker. I’ve never seen a single person who discusses the pay gap mention this. Really sad.
Creta Garbo earned by film $250.000 at that time.
How devastating for Anna May Wong to not be able to have that role.
To be honest she looks much more China ware seller than an actress, so it was better the cast Luise instead.
Paul Skye Kahawaty idk what kind of racist bs this is, but your criticism is further invalidated by the fat that if you’d ever read the book, you would know that Olan was supposed to be unattractive. So it doesn’t make sense to cast a glamorous star anyway.
@@rosieweaselby I've read the book and I know that O-Lan is very plain and unattractive and Wang didn't love her at first, however, the studios at the time want to invest on actresses who really have star quality regardless of the role. I suppose they might have seen Anna's contemporary mainland Chinese actresses like Ruan Lingyu, who was a head turner in every angle. So they knew just because Anna is the only Chinese actress in Hollywood, doesn't mean they should invest in her!
Paul Skye Kahawaty This is not a good reason to cast a white person to play a Chinese person. You’re not very bright.
Add Bow If Girl that’s only true by today’s standards, this was almost 100 years ago and its easy to point fingers with standards that wasn’t going to exist for a long, long time. Can’t possibly fathom how something normal nowadays will be judged in another 100 years time
Luise Rainer deserved a better showcase for her talents, and Anna May Wong deserved better in general.
Casting dark skinned black actor as King Edward VI in My Lady Jane is just as bad as casting white actors to play Asian characters in The Good Earth. 🎭🩰🎨
“Just ask Scarlett Johansson” *snaps* 😂
Skipping the Academy Awards where you might win your 2nd Oscar just because you want to spend a quiet night at home...is low key badass!
I like Lise Rainer for doing as she pleases. Louis B. Mayer wanted to make Luise Rainer another Greta Garbo who was upset because she was getting paid less money $200 per picture while her male counterpart was getting $10,000 per film. I now know why she got fed up with Louis B Mayer. What is interesting is Luise Rainer who felt like Greta Garbo so if Mr. Mayer was going to manipulate Luise Rainer - it was not going to happen. That is why she quit Hollywood and left after 3 movies. How shameful that Louis B. Mayer tries to think he can get away with it. I am surprised to learn many actresses were free-Lansing to get movie roles with various studios instead of being loyal to an anyone movie company. They wanted the option to pick their own roles and pictures from any movie company like Barbara Stanwyck who worked consistently with many others film companies. Now I see the reasons why so many actors/actresses were seen more in various movie companies. These were the clever ones that knew better even Gregory Peck did the same free Lansing to get better roles which he did.
Thank you for calling out the racism part of this story. It will trigger some people but it shouldn’t be excused just because it was from a different time period.
Obviously not one of the great minds , are you?
It was more cultural insensitivity than racism.
It's 2020 and I'm still salty.
TheSongwritingCat same I still do not like her or the movie to this day.
It is a great movie. Luise Rainer was Jewish and the Nazis would have killed her. That great lady had not a wee bit of racism in her and she played that Asian with all due respect.
I think Luise Rainer would have been indeed a new Garbo if she would have wanted. Her mysterious charisma, her German coldness and her unconventional acting were absolutely fascinating. However, she went against the fame and lived happily for 104 years in private while most of her famous workmates died much earlier of alcohol and drugs. Quite interesting when you think of all the people who desperately search for fame.
would her German coldness have translated in Hollywood in the 40s during WW2? Maybe not.
@@aagold76 Maybe not. But Marlene and Hedy didn't suffer for it. O.k. it's a much bigger story, I agree. They worked at war efforts but they still found fame an work, no matter of their German name and background. And quite a thick accent may I add.
Darling, there are almost 83 Million of Germans. If we are "cold", what are Americans (except of burger-eating-machines)? Fight against stereotypes (!) And by the way: Rainer's aura was anything but COLD
Sure! I watched her telephone scene in the great zeigfield and she was GREAT, it's a shame that she didn't wanted have a career, but in other hand she seemed happy
Luise Rainer was Austrian, not German.
pointing out racism really got some of you mad, huh?
medrano chav nah, I just don’t think you can expect 1930’s Hollywood to be as sensitive to these matters like we are today. It’s easy to look back and feel superior but do you really think Rainer or Hepburn were racist for doing a yellow face role? Please. The problem was with the studio.
@@jmeekselectric I think that white folks in the 30's never minded the feelings of people of color. I think they never thought twice about the abuses of power and cultural violations they committed in their work. I think that we shouldn't make excuses for systemic racism. why were actors of color relegated to roles that exoticized them or caricaturized them? why was the humanized portrayal of a Chinese woman played by a German woman?
i understand that it was a different time. but I think it's fair to acknowledge our racist past. I think it's worth noting instances of racism in our history. Why make excuses for white supremacist power structures nearly 80 years after the fact?
Jimmy Meeks of course it’s racist. Not realising it’s racist doesn’t make it not racist. Mind you, I don’t always hold the actor accountable, and certainly not alone.
@@jmeekselectric Just because we have different sensibilities today doesn't make it right to begin with
Jimmy Meeks Yes. They were indeed racist.
Eighty years later and Hollywood still has not completely freed itself from homophobia, racial stereotyping and prejudices.
Agree
If you don't like it DON'T WATCH THE MOVIE,,,,DUH,,,,,I don't like "Woke," movies,,,,,,,guess what,,,,,,,,I DON'T WATCH THEM !!!!! Quit with the delusion that you know better than everyone else. I'd bet my last dollar that you're both the biggest racist liberal-phonies, this side of the barn.
@@garrettdavis6500, you read far too much into my comment. I made no comments on movies, so I have no idea what that portion of your comment is about. I do not believe that I am better or know better than everyone else. My opinion is based on my observations during the years I lived and worked in Hollywood. As for your "last dollar' bet....you lose. I am a Reagan Republican.....even worked on both of his presidential campaigns.
Don't forget ableism.
Rainer and Garbo who where both European, both hated the studio system and Hollywood, both left early in the game and both ended up much better off than those who stayed until the bitter end being crushed by the system. There is a lesson in that for others to learn from.
How did Garbo and Rainer end up being better off for leaving the movies so early in their careers? Better off doing what?
They both ended up living long happy lives doing exactly what they wanted to do and they didn't die broke. Most of the actresses that they left behind spent the rest of their lives trying to cling to an industry that didn't want them after they reached a certain age, so they spent all their money trying to stay young and relevant only ending up lonely, broke or alcoholic drinking themselves to death or suicidal. Very few of those Hollywood goddesses had happy ending.
I thought Rainer and Garbo left on their volition. I never had the impression that the public did not want them. I think Garbo could have gone on to play more mature roles. I saw her last film, Two Faced Woman and I thought she was amazing. She was offered parts after her last film but she turned them down. The director of The Trouble With Angels (1966) stated that he wanted Garbo for the Mother Superior role..she initially said "I'll think about it" but she did not show up for the script reading as she had promised. Roz Russell eventually played the part.
Norma Shearer and others who were Americans also left. Norma Shearer left the same year Garbo did just as many did when the "talkies" overtook silent films. Both had been the darlings of MGM. They didn't hate the studio system as much as one would think. It paid them too well and enough money for them to retire in their late 30's and live well for the rest of their lives.
It wasn't so much the system itself as the system had to react to the changing times. World War II was on the horizon, and the men on those ships liked the pin-ups of the Betty Grable types to give them some type of solace and ability to forget about the perilous conditions in which they found themselves.
Age was another consideration. A few had such a tenacity they could change with each decade, but they were few. Bette Davis and Joan Crawford lasted about the longest. However, I have to mention Lillian Gish who made her first movie in 1912 and her last movie in 1986. I doubt anyone in Hollywood can top her record.
Garbo and all the greats from the 30's were getting older and that is another issue. It wasn't so much the system alone in creating such conditions, it was the system fighting to stay alive in a changing world. And with television looming (it was already being touted at the New York 1939's World's Fair), the Studio System knew their days were numbered and really they did end by the late 1950's.
Just like today Sears Roebuck has just about played out due to changing economic conditions, but boy did they have a run while it lasted, and so did the movies from the Golden Era of Hollywood.
Point well made and taken.
Rainer looks so much like Meryl Streep its uncanny.
Paul Miller I was just about to comment that!
It's the cheekbones
@@RNCHFND yeah you wicked Meryl
Not really but I guess a lil' bit.
Ha! I agree. In these scenes from "The good earth" she reminds me so much of Meryl in "Sophie's choice". Specially when the narrator says she finds Rainer's performance
exaggerated, I thought: "If Meryl gave that performance, you would probably praise her."
Luise Rainer made an appearance at the Royal National Theatre in London to celebrate her 100th birthday. She was interviewed on stage. She was beautiful, charismatic & articulate about her MGM movie career & what happened with Mayer. I am so glad I went.
Thank you sooooo much for highlighting white privileged and systematic racism in Hollywood with the Good Earth! Many people don’t understand how hard it is for actors to get work in a machine that was built to oppress them and strip them if their story and identity. It’s so frustrating this is still going on today!
Sian M oh boy here is the classic white defensiveness retort about how film should only represent population by the percentage of people in America also the excuse of “other countries...blah blah blah”. I don’t live in China or Japan. I live here. This problem is America so stop diverting the problem of systematic racism in hollywood to somewhere else! Also, should mainstream media only pertain to white audiences only? No! Hell no! Your argument is flawed. We are a pluralistic society and must reflect the diversity of this nation. White folks use that excuse to stay in power and control the narratives of other people of color. You can afford to give up that power, honey. Or are you so threatened to lose it that you have to resort to tired old excuses to hold on to that power.
@Sian M As I watched this video I wondered when (snort, OK, if) the lofty, holier than thou, white guilt-ridden maker would ever turn her attention to the same behaviour in other countries' entertainment industries. Specifically, those operated by non-white people. It will never happen. If there were only one white person in a country of millions, that person would still be a privileged oppressor, and the lefties would chase that person to the ends of the earth to scold him or her. Unless it was a xe or xir or something... but then again, it would still be a white person, right?! By the way, I live in Australia, and I reckon most people would be shocked to learn that black people make up 14% of the population of the USA - movies and TV shows make it look like it's double that, or more. Anyway, good on you for commenting!
@Sian M Oh, can you imagine what a movie from Wakanda would look like? And the annual awards ceremony? Or, rather than imagining, just look at movies / ceremonies from China, Japan, India etc. There would be absolutely no diversity in Wakandan cinema, yet do you think people like that person you replied to would care?
Sian M Sian M Dear Trigger Bleeding Heart White Person, I work in the film industry and went to film school and racism in Hollywood including yellow, black, and red face is well documented. This video (which I don’t think you watched as you would have understood the point of the video) highlighted the institutional racism in Hollywood. You are talking about so many things in your argument that clearly you don’t have a firm grasp on the subject. You are talking about population segregation as whites hold the majority (for now) of the population so they should have the ultimate say of how people of color are present and how many films people of color are allowed to make. As a Native American (not black as I think you assumed) we are less than 1% of the population and by your calculation that should be reflected in the films in Hollywood. Sorry to all the Native American film makers out there, you can’t make films because less than 1% of all films in America can be made by you. Racism is the power to hold people of color in their place and your argument about population segregation does just that. Also if you’re sooooo worried about all the problems in the world then the last thing you should be doing is commenting on a UA-cam video! There is a horde of immigrants rushing the border as faux news and your white president is so worried about! What are you doing here! Fires in California! Quick go do something! Why are you wasting your time commenting on a video when you have the world to worry about! I for one can’t solve all those problems and will continue making films and commenting on UA-cam videos all I want. You, my dear triggered snowflake can continue arguing about something that you clearly don’t understand.
@@brookew.h.n5568 You have no argument so you decided to insult him broadening the perspective to the rest of the world. You're so ethnocentric on American politics you should get your money back from whatever institution you got you degree from.
-sincerely, a leftie European who DOES watch foreign film and keep up with international crimes against goddamn humanity.
Such as for example the African exclusion of white minorities as well as the horrifically under reported enslavement of African and Indonesian houseworkers by Muslim millionaires.
You know your worldview is lacking if anything either of us told you were news to a supposed scholar of racial tensions like you.
You can't have it both ways. Either you're informed, or you're just as generalising and prejudiced as any other racist.
Both Camille and Moulin Rouge are two of many adaptations of Dumas's La Dame aux Camélias.
Yep, there is also the opera La Traviata, which, like Camille, is closer to the original story than Moulin Rouge IMO.
This is my favorite video of yours so far! I recently learned about Anna Mae Wong through research for my thesis, and I’m so glad you mentioned her as well as stressed the injustice of her not getting to play a sympathetic Chinese character in a movie about Chinese people.
She didn't exactly disappear. She went to New York to work on the stage, which was her first love.
Google is our friend. She did very little stage work in NY.
@@akrenwinkle She left to be with playwright Clifford Odets.
I am learning a lot from these videos.
You're being brainwashed from these videos.
@@howtubeable Out of pure curiousity, how so?
Garbo was ROBBED. Her performance in "Camille" was one of the most amazing performances in the history of the cinema.
I also think that of Anna Karenina.
Did you see what she got paid for her role $200 in Camille? When her counterpart got $10,000 to Garbo's miserable salary she got angry and demanded the contract be renegotiated for at least what they gave her was still low but at least $3000. No wonder she didn't wish to continue the charade these movie companies were making but refused to pay the actresses what they deserve. Unfortunately, this is what's going on in the movie business discrimination.
Excellent short! So many wonderful informative facts weaved in so well.
The plight of beautiful Anna May Wong is a heartbreak. How AWFUL they were not willing to cast 'The Good Earth' leads with Asian actors. I add this as I have read the wiki page on Miss Wong. Apparently the Chinese Government also influenced MGM NOT to cast Miss Wong as O-Lan as it would be perceived as a disgrace for China. Good grief!
Luise Rainer did come back on many occasions to Hollywood throughout the years for the film Festivals of her films and also her daughter lives in Southern California. I met her twice at film Festivals of her films at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Samuel Goldwyn Auditorium in Beverly Hills. She was quite charming and signed several photographs and magazine covers of the day for me.
She also gave a one woman LIVE recitation of Alfred Lord Tennyson's epic poem "Enoch Arden" at the University of Southern California in 1983 when one of her Film Festivals was also being given at the Academy. She also starred in a television show (The Love Boat) during the 1970's or 80's. She remained very active with her visits to Hollywood over the years after her prime period in the 1930's and had many enjoyable visits for years to come after her initial success in Hollywood.
Your videos are just wonderful. So well researched. Awesome! Would you perhaps be able to do in-depth videos on Anna May Wong and Dorothy Dandridge, please?
IMO, Dunne (Theodora Goes Wild) and Garbo (Camille) should've won during the two years that Rainer won.
Agreed on Garbo, but I'll vote for Carole Lombard for My Man Godfrey for 1936.
Actually Rainer's perf in The Great Ziegfeld shld be consider as supp as she was hardly in the film. The Leads are clearly Powell & Myrna Loy...
but LB Mayer wld never put his latest star discovery under the supp category, the first yr it was introduced, which was meant for character actors and real supporting players and stars tt were on the 2nd rung or as we called it now, the B-list or C-list
That is such a scandalous pay gap, but people will still pretend it's a myth😠 Kudos to Garbo for showing Mayer what's what.
Do one about the famous tie (Hepburn/Streisand) that would be cool.
Tavo Ruiz if Streisand hadn’t voted for herself she’d have lost by one vote and never known. I hate that the tie was over a role Hepburn should have won outright easily. The pity Oscar the year before didn’t stop her from winning though which is good.
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@@jmeekselectric have you seen Funny Girl?
You are so eloquent and your voice is soothing. Keep up the good work!
So eloquent. Just like Tokyo Rose.
I was SO hopeful you would bring up Wong in this video, and then you did!
Me too!
I'm sure freelancers were envied by others tied to the studios! You described Rainer's performance perfectly by referring to her as a zombie! She looks as if she was struck on the head with a 2x4! Stanwyck deserved the Oscar that year for sure!
Anna May Wong went to Europe and worked here for some years. I attended a screening of one of her silent works in Berlin and I can say that on a big screen, she was truly marvellous. Thalberg and Mayer go a lot of things right, but oh boy, when they made mistakes..they were terrible.
Thank you so much for bringing about an asian actress and her struggle in Hollywood
I always heard her win for The Great Ziegfield was more controversial- I think it's the shortest screen time of any of the Best Actress winners.
I think Patricia Neal was the Best Actress win with the least screentime, at 22 minutes in Hud
Judie Dench was more controversial with a cameo role as The Queen in Shakespeare's in Love and yet won as Best Supporting Actress.
@@newbiechu7024 but frankly, Judi Dench is the only reason to watch Shakespeare in Love.
Her role in 'Ziegfield' is Supporting. It's a Hollywood problem in the classic era.
@@elijahsackville-glucksburg they still do that- some supporting winners win for actual lead roles, but they're not as known yet- so they get promoted as supporting and some win lead for supporting- Louise Fletcher in Cuckoos Nest is a great example of that
You've done marvelous job. Keep going. Please do one of my fav - Diane Keaton, Frances Mcdormand, Cate Blanchett and Charlize Theron.
Ed Miller My bad, sir. Sorry
Ed Miller But the marvelous mrs. Blanchett is my all time fav. I really really love her. My love for her is unfathomable. Can’t forgive myself , haha. I wish Cate Blanchett is not gonna mad at me just because I added one single little ‘e’ on her last name.
I've realized for some time that the Oscars has been used by studios to attract people to the movies and to continue going to theaters to get more revenue. After learning the Oscars was, in part, spearheaded by an MGM executive, I've now realized it's always been this way.
I only use the Oscars to get a sense of films I would enjoy seeing. Although usually a trailer will immediately tell me if a movie is just another idiotic comedy, films that are made well-known due to Oscar buzz also helps. For example, I never would have seen The Shape of Water if it wasn't for Oscar buzz.
Barbara Stanwick should have gotten the Oscar for Stella Dallas
You’re amazing! The depths, facts, research, and opinions blend to make such compelling narrative. Thank you for bringing up Anna May. It’s still happening to Asians now. To blacks and Hispanics to an extent but nearly 100 years after Anna May and Asian actors are still no where close to getting equality and justice unless they play type cast roles: foreigners, marital arts, etc.
I believe there was an interview with Rainer towards the end of her life. And she said there was another actress, Anna, who wanted the part more than her. And that Anna was far better than her.
Luise went to Mayer and asked him to consider Anna, and he grabbed her by the throat and forced her to do the role
My 1st choice: Stanwyck.
2nd: Garbo.
whoever you are .... lol
It is mortifying and embarrassing that Asian and black actors were blocked from Hollywood. Hattie McDaniel, notoriously, was not permitted to sit at the GWTW table, but had to take a place at the back of the hall and only David Selznick's begging even got her there! Having said that, some of the western actors did great justice to the parts they played. I think Luise Rainer was great as Olan and I think, for what it may be worth, that she certainly deserved the award. Thank you for the video!
Casting dark skinned black actor as King Edward VI in My Lady Jane is just as bad as casting white actors to play Asian characters in The Good Earth. 🎭🩰🎨
Luise Rainer was a genius - and would outshine the other Hollywood bubble heads by far. What a great lady
When you talked about Greta Garbo’ spay difference I had to turn off the video and fume for a moment. (I already knew about Anna May Wong, otherwise I probably would’ve been hit with a one-two punch of anger)
Luise Rainer looks a bit like Meryl Streep who is also adept at playing ethnic roles. 8/2019
Barbara Stanwyck should have won that year.
I think that you forget an important factor in her win: the contrast between the sparkling, glamorous role she won an Oscar for the previous year, to the dull, unglamorous role she played in The Good Earth. She was funny and charming a bubbly and pampered in The Great Ziegfeld. In The Good Earth she was shy and oppressed and worn out. Quite a difference. And her playing an East Asian woman was a plus in 1938, unlike now where it is considered offensive. People thought her believable as a Chinese peasant. I remember reading an article from back then praising Rainer by saying, "Could you imagine Greta Garbo becoming a poor Chinese slave?" Those back to back performances showed Rainer's versatility. I agree that the studio machine helped her to win, but her cross-racial performance back then was considered real acting.
Agreed Rainier in my opinion give justice to her role as a Chinese peasant not accustomed to the life she was thrust with her husband.
Bravo
No but Anna Mae Woo was also considered for this roll. As much as liked Ranier's performance. Anna Mae should have gotten it. It was the studio politics at the time.
Wong.
None of those other four nominees could have pulled off that role as well as Rainer did. It was her contrast of roles in back to back years which was the deciding factor. She wasn't the only actress who got hyped that year or any other year.
Main takeaway from these videos: Studio Execs screwing over talented actresses always always ALWAYS works against them.
Your videos are amazing. Really interesting.
Stanwyck was THE BEST! She was robbed! In my opinion I would have ranked them this way: 1. Stanwyck. 2. Dunne. 3. Garbo. 4. Rainer. 5. Gaynor.
Whatever your inferior opinion: it does not count :)
I’m watching the first few episodes of “Hollywood” on Netflix and I’m just now learning of Anna May Wong’s story. I guess this is a bit of a spoiler, but it’s an important story to be told and I’m glad to see her represented, although it is sad it’s important to remind folks of the dark side of sexism&racism in Hollywood’s history.
I loved Hollywood on Netflix and I was glad that even if it was fiction she got her an Oscar
That remais true until today , if we think every winner in every category was deserving of an Oscar we have to think again and see the big picture and the circumstances of that given year , to understand the reason for that win. Like Akira Kurosawa never winning a Best Director Oscar for example.
Excellent and enlightening video.I always wondered why Anna May Wong didn't play Olan.What a shame she didn't get that chance she was perfect for the part.
Thank you for such a wonderful history of Academy Award winners. I had been wondering why Louise Rainer disappeared following such massive success...now I know. Nevertheles, she was a great actress with super personality.
I LOVE YOUR ACCOUNT!!!!! Thanks for making videos of such Quality!
To be honest, after watching the film, I realised it wasn’t a easy film to make. I think Louis did a pretty good job even after 80 something years
All I see is 'yellow-face' 🤢🤮.
Casting dark skinned black actor as King Edward VI in My Lady Jane is just as bad as casting white actors to play Asian characters in The Good Earth. 🎭🩰🎨
It should be mentioned that most of these German speaking actresses of the 30's and 40's didn't just happen to land in Hollywood. With the exception of Dietrich, they were Jewish refugees who were forced out of their native countries with the rise of the Nazis. The most famous are Louise Reiner, Hedy Lamarr, Elizabeth Bergner, Lilly Palmer. They all led complicated complex lives. Some denied their Jewish roots, others embraced them.
Very interesting...I think it was probably just a convenient excuse if MGM used the Hays Code to justify not casting Anna May Wong. As I understand it, the Hays Code governed how things were portrayed within the fictional story of the movie. Since Paul Muni was portraying a Chinese man and Anna May Wong obviously would have been portraying a Chinese woman, this should not have been viewed as "miscegenation". (Such a ridiculous made-up word...I always imagine it being said by someone with a pronounced Southern accent and/or a pronounced lack of education...)
Of course, I may be over-estimating the willingness and ability of the public in 1930s America, Joseph Breen in particular, to appreciate the difference between fictional characters and real-life actors. Still, I think if they had been careful to avoid any overt displays of physical affection between Muni and Wong, and any implications of them sharing a bed, etc., it would not have caused a major uproar. But then again recently a big stink was caused because a young woman of color had a major role in a Star Wars movie and apparently some of the fans in Geekland didn't like it. So I guess it's hard to know what will upset people, and how far we've really come in the past 80 years or so...
I thought so too, but if you think about it the interracial relationships onscreen in code era films are always with white actors in blackface/yellowface or a Latin equivalent, while Latin stars who passed or were publicised as white or "as good as" still didn't have love stories with white costars. Karina Longworth came up with a couple of examples to illustrate it in an interview which I can't remember so kind of a useless comment but hey! I'm not entirely sure how hard and fast the rule was, we all know people did bend the code somewhat but I think this may have been a more enforced part of it
Not to downplay the fact that MGM doubtless did use it as an excuse, and that Wong was woefully underutilised and never recognised fully for her talents overall. I think they wanted Luise because she was a white star to familiarise and guarantee box office for a film in a foreign setting that was a prestige picture and thus definitely a risk
i like how white slavery was forbidden to be shown, like what?
It’s not like when Katharine Hepburn’s Chinese in dragon seed
Why isn't it?
One lesser, additional reason that Rainer left Hollywood was the death of producer Irving Thalberg in 1936 at age 37. He had a bad heart. In an odd twist, Rainer herself died in 2014 at 104. BTW, in The Good Earth, she looks like she ate a handful of Xanax.
I’m binging on this channel. Soooooo good! Thank you so much. Beautifully put together with great insights!
The German name "Luise" is three syllables: loo-EE-seh. It's hard to hear her name mispronounced. (But that's just me.)
Luise Rainer died in 2014 at the ripe old age of 104 years old. :)
Louis B. Mayer
was a monster.
I vividly remember bringing my sister to tears just by telling her the plot of Stella Dallas. We were teenagers and it was back in the day when old films were shown on terrestrial channels at the weekend. No chance of our kids doing the same on a rainy Sunday afternoon these days :-( I can no more get my daughter to watch an 80yo film than nail jelly to the wall.
Yellow Face was Hollywood's racist history, which continues to this day. Anna May Wong not only deserved that role but, was ten times the actor Luise Rainer could ever be. Frosted Yellow Willows, Rest in Peace.
Casting dark skinned black actor as King Edward VI in My Lady Jane is just as bad as casting white actors to play Asian characters in The Good Earth. 🎭🩰🎨
The movie business (the Oscars too) is filled with shitty stuff all the way from the top! I feel so sorry for the people below. Can't blame the actresses for rebelling or demanding something better.
The Good Earth? Yuck. Extremely racist film.
Watching this video means I have watched your entire playlist in the last 24 hours! I love learning the history, so much of which I don’t know! I have subscribed, and I’m looking forward to more videos!
Can you please do a video on Black people being marginalized in the movies???