Hi Medusa,
I also like the focus shifting ever so slightly from the movers and shakers of the Hollywood scene by our glimpses of the frustrations and drive of a “non-talent” played with verve by Gloria Grahame–who just happens to be married to someone “important”. Her scenes remind me a bit of the singular characters who enliven the show biz periphery of Stage Mother (1933) (Alice Brady), The Hard Way (1943) (Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson, et al), and The Big Knife (1955) (Ida Lupino, et al), as well.

I honestly find each of the brief appearances of Gaucho Ribera (Gilbert Roland) in The Bad and the Beautiful to be the highlights of the movie for me.
Whats wrong with me??! Don’t answer that–I know.

Hi Al,
While I agree that Jean Hagen was wonderful in Singin’ in the Rain, and deserved the award for that performance, I believe that the compensatory nature of that year’s Best Actress award reflected a choice by Academy voters who were also influenced by MGM’s then still extant, if unofficial block voting, (which got behind the commercially successful dramatic vehicle from the studio, not the comedy and chose GG because of her previous, un-awarded work as well as her commercial prominence in the industry at that time). Besides, comedy is so easy, right? Anyone can do that, can’t they?…or so it seems at Oscar time!

Btw, I don’t think that Grahame, as an actress, could really avoid “looking in the mirror”. The obsession with her appearance, and continued efforts to surgically alter her allure was acknowledged by all who knew and liked her to have been a bane of Gloria Grahame‘s existence. I suspect that may have been one of the reasons her often relatively powerless characters may distrust themselves and seem so utterly poignant and overwhelmed by their circumstances–which, to be honest, are still reflected in our present day society’s obsession with appearances. I just hope that as she grew older, and eventually turned to the stage for some challenging roles, she found more satisfaction and less need for external amendments of her looks.
Appreciatively,
Moira

The top photo of Grahame and her Oscar is beautiful — she looks so fresh and unaffected.

Really enjoyed this!

For example, look at the category of film editing. Four of the five nominees had done work on the big pictures of that year: High Noon (winner of the editing award), The Greatest Show on Earth, Come Back Little Sheba and Moulin Rouge.
The fifth nominee was William Austin for Flat Top.

What!!!???

Monogram Pictures released Flat Top, starring Sterling Hayden and Richard Carlson and this studio famous for low budget productions did not get too many nominations. (Although the original story for Dillinger, a sleeper hit, was nominated in 1945.)
William Austin also edited The Queen of Outer Space, Bomba and the Jungle Girl and Sex Kittens Go to College.
I never saw Flat Top.
In his reference book listing movies Leonard Malin said Flat Top integrates a story about WWII training for fighter pilots with news footage. Heck, maybe it even deserved its nomination although the choice seems odd. If you’re an “old movie” buff you probably did a double take similar to what Leon Errol used to do when you read what I wrote.

In a round-about way I’m trying to suggest that the competition for best supporting actress in 1952 seemed equally peculiar.
Gloria Grahame won the award. She was up against: Thelma Ritter in With a Song in My Heart, Colette Marchand in Moulin Rouge, Jean Hagen in Singing in the Rain and Terry Moore in Come Back Little Sheba.

Terry Moore!!!???

Movie buffs, you can be excused for doing your Leon Errol thing again. When Julia Roberts won her Oscar for Erin Brockovich she said the TV producers ought to let her talk because she was never going to be up on that stage again. If Moore had won she could have given the same speech.
The only serious competition Gloria had was Jean Hagen in the classic Singing in the Rain.
Thelma would get a lot of nominations but no award, sad to say; and this wasn’t the year she should have got it. I would have given it to her the next year for Pickup on South Street over Donna Reed for From Here to Eternity.
John Huston had deservedly won kudos for Key Largo, Treasure of the Sierra Madre and African Queen. His career was like a roller coaster ride and it was starting its descent with Moulin Rouge; Colette never had a shot.
You could argue that Jean Hagen should have received it instead of Gloria. But MGM was making so many great musicals at that time that Singing in the Rain was not recognized for its magnificence until some years later.
So, Gloria got it. She was “hot” at the time and appeared in some of the most popular pictures of the day.
I like Bad and the Beautiful and Gloria (who, of course, WAS Bad and Beautiful). But there seems to be a sexist message. Male characters could cheat in the movies and it was okay, if not very nice. If women characters cheated, they got killed. It seems like Gloria is being punished for enjoying sex and saying that she does.

Back to the 1952 awards. Gary Cooper, Shirley Booth and Anthony Quinn deserved their acting Oscars. Bad and the Beautiful won for black and white art direction; it was up against Rashomon, among other nominees.
Gloria should have been beaming with happiness. Instead, apparently, she was gazing into the mirror and wondering how to improve her appearance.

Is there any chance that this focus on one person could occur more often?