As mentioned above, Rosalind Russell and Ruth Sherwood appear to be a match made in heaven. Rosalind Russell’s sharp-edged and sassy acting style combined with her talents for double-takes and exaggerated facial expression turned the character of Ruth Sherwood into a woman who constantly both acts and re-acts, openly tells her mind and also shows how much the craziness around her shapes her own personality. In Rosalind Russell’s hands, Ruth Sherwood became the straight character of the story who is also the one providing all the humor and all the laughs and is no-nonsense without being serious. My Sister Eileen is a movie that mostly seems to think of itself as a comedic masterpiece and more than once forces its own understanding of humor on the audience – from the Greek landlord to street cleaning vehicles shooting water into Ruth’s and Eileen’s basement apartment to Portuguese naval officer dancing their way through their front door, My Sister Eileen uses every opportunity to achieve its goal of entertaining and amusing its viewers by exaggerating and overdoing almost every single plot point – but as a result it only ends up contradicting itself more than once since this kind of forced humor takes away a lot of the spontaneity and relaxedness that s movie like this needs to turn into a truly successful comedy. My Sister Eileen is not a race car but it still wants to be as fast as humanly possible. And because of this constant sprinkling with its own ideas of humor, My Sister Eileen exclusively depends on the abilities of its two leading ladies to counterbalance the craziness around them with the more quiet moments of the script while also realizing their performances in harmony with the movie and adding their own ideas of humor, too. And in this aspect Rosalind Russell was the perfect choice for Ruth Sherwood and the demands of the script which asked her to grab every comedic opportunity and also inject her strong personality into the character with the goal of crafting a woman who is a believable centre of reason but still a self-made part of all the exaggeratedness around her – like few other actresses, Rosalind Russell was able to work her way through any script and turn herself into the constant center of attention, injecting every moment and situation with her distinct style and screen presence. All this worked very well for many of her comedic and dramatic characters and Rosalind Russell is clearly the most noteworthy aspect of My Sister Eileen, more than once saving it with unexpected laughs and absurdities – but her constant domination of the production in every scene, no matter if suitable or not, is not only responsible for the movie’s best moments but also manages to harm her work and the overall production, too. In some ways, My Sister Eileen was not the kind of movie that – despite appearing tailor-made for her kind of acting style – truly displayed all of Rosalind Russell’s talent. Or better – it showed too little of some and too much of others. Because there is the Rosalind Russell who can find humor in almost every situation, who is able to maybe control the proceedings around her but never feel affected and who can combine fast talk, quirky line delivery and deadpan punch lines like few others. In this aspect, it was a wise decision of Rosalind Russell to add her own style to the picture – the lines ‘Yes, Mr. Banes’ and ‘Thank you, Mr. Banes’ don’t seem to offer much for an actress but Rosalind Russell’s weird and fast delivery combined with her exaggerated eyes result in what is probably the funniest scene of the movie. The character of Ruth Sherwood is already intended to be slightly sarcastic and observing but when Rosalind Russell flawlessly tosses out lines like ‘You…go away’ or ‘You’ll cool off’, she adds a special layer to this woman, going beyond the purely observing and commenting aspect and crafting Ruth’s own personality much stronger and decisive than the script suggested. But even if this script gives Rosalind Russell various lines that are perfectly suited to her comedic talents and even lets her add some of her own tics and tricks, too, it unfortunately doesn’t offer her anything else beyond this succession of sarcastic one-liners and quirky remarks. As it is, the part of Ruth Sherwood is not only underwritten but also extremely underdeveloped and she never turns into the kind of plausible human being a comedy like this needs to give the audience the chance to catch a break every once in a while but she always remains a vessel for a constant display of the aforementioned sarcastic jokes or observations which not even Rosalind Russell’s constant efforts can change. Because of this, she is not allowed to display her usual ability to find true humans underneath her often eccentric creations and too often has nothing to do but overemphasize the comedic aspect of her acting, both exhausting and underwhelming the audience in the process. So, Ruth Sherwood, as previously mentioned, is just too little and too much of Rosalind Russell – too little of her human talents, too much of her desire to use every second on the screen for maximum effect.
What Rosalind Russell does in My Sister Eileen works fine in the context of the movie and she, without a doubt, is its single source of energy. But her performance is similar to that of fellow nominee Teresa Wright in The Pride of the Yankees – in both cases, the script does not offer the actresses anything beyond a performance that mostly exists on the surface and leaves them with nothing to do but ‘do their thing’. In the case of Teresa Wright, this was beaming with charm and loveliness while she makes it clear that Lou Gehrig deserves every bit of the admiration she can give. In the case of Rosalind Russell, it is grabbing the movie and actively stealing every scene – a tactic that both serves and harms the story. It serves it by constantly breathing fresh air into the proceedings and harms it by taking the air back just as quickly as she gave it, suffocating everything and everyone around her. Rosalind Russell might in be the raison d'être of My Sister Eileen but her screen presence and comedic acting also have another side as there is the Rosalind Russell who uses her screen presence to not only take charge but dominate her movie and her comedic acting can be overstated to an extent that makes any chance for human development impossible – because even if the script did not offer any true human being to play, Rosalind Russell still sacrificed her own possibilities in this aspect for the sake of playing Ruth Sherwood as a ‘human joke box’. All these instincts and deeds of Rosalind Russell can be very compelling and raise a whole production to a higher level if she is given a script that helps her to move her dominant nature in a natural frame. But while the character of Ruth Sherwood seems to benefit from Rosalind Russell’s distinctive style, My Sister Eileen sometimes almost collapses from her tight control over the whole proceedings as she too often wants to make sure that My Sister Eileen never forgets who is the center of its universe during every moment of her onscreen time. In this aspect it is easy to imagine that Rosalind Russell won a Tony Award for her stage performance – if the plot of Wonderful Town followed the original source and the character of Ruth Sherwood was not changed too much, then her acting style in this role must have been perfectly suited to the stage, resulting in the kind of performance that makes theatre audiences go home after the show, saying ‘Wasn’t Rosalind Russell a hoot?’ Movie audiences probably thought the same in 1942 but Rosalind Russell’s constant winking at the last row of the theatre whenever she ends a punch line or reacts to somebody else’s still seems much better suited for the stage. And this is not only because of the fact that My Sister Eileen is a movie that was not able to shake off its stage roots when it made the transition to the movie screen as most of the action takes place in Ruth’s and Eileen’s little basement studio apartment that sees a continual coming and going of all sorts of typical, kooky and eccentric supporting players who give Ruth a lot of opportunities for amusing reaction shots or scenes in which she tries to deal with all the eccentricities around her. It’s hard to criticize Rosalind Russell since she is in every way the most cherishable aspect of My Sister Eileen but everything that makes her ‘such a hoot’ also prevents her performance from becoming truly admirable. She alone may be responsible for every laugh that My Sister Eileen is able to produce and her performance turned out as amusing as humanly possible under the circumstances. But since the script of My Sister Eileen does not present her with a truly developed or even interesting character, she relies too much on this ability to ‘wink’ at the audience and very often she simply feels too proud of her own comedic talents. She uses basically every line to be better than those around her, often seems to wait for the laughter of the audience to die down and when she is not delivering some kind of punch line, she uses the time between her dialogue to either wrinkle up her face as a reaction to the dialogue of the other characters or makes some other gesture to keep the attention of the viewers centered on her. During the scene in which she is having dinner with a man, Rosalind Russell reacts to his constant talking with one exaggerated exhausted face after another – this scene is almost representative of her whole performance since Rosalind Russell constantly displays her own awareness in the part of Ruth Sherwood, almost appearing boastful, as if she is playing with the viewers, telling them that she is as much aware of her own effects as everyone else and that she considers herself just as funny as everyone else does (or should). All this creates the strange effect that Rosalind Russell fulfills the task of being the most memorable aspect of her movie and provide it with the needed laughs but she also sometimes comes across as too arrogant in her acting choices too really deliver a performance that feels honestly developed.
My Sister Eileen is a movie that can be a lot of things – it can be a star-vehicle for one, a star-vehicle for two and an ensemble piece at once. But the final outcome is, from start to finish, supposed to be a showcase for Rosalind Russell as not only the script gives slight focus to the character of Ruth but the casting of a pale and almost invisible actress like Janet Blair in the role of Eileen makes it almost too easy for Rosalind Russell to turn herself into the glorious centre at which everything and everyone points to. Of course, the nature of the two central roles also adds to this – Ruth Sherwood is not only smart and witty but she is also the responsible and dependable older sister who is used to take care of Eileen who, even though not dumb, is a little helpless in the world and needs Ruth as her guide and advisor. Thanks to Rosalind Russell’s mature personality, it is easy for her to play these aspects of Ruth very naturally – she shows that Ruth has always taken care of her little sister and is determined to help her to find her way in the world, giving her a little push if necessary, like writing a sensational review of her stage performance hours before the curtain actually rises. Ruth is well aware of her own importance in Eileen’s life but also has never-ending confidence that Eileen can make it on her own eventually. Rosalind Russell plays these more serious aspects of her character very well and, most importantly, in a very light way that always stays in touch with the light nature of the film and she always understands that Ruth and Eileen are not only sister but also best friends. In those moments, she succeeds in humanizing Ruth to a certain degree – but only at moments that actively ask her to do so. But considering the structure of the story and the importance of Ruth Sherwood in the central relationship of My Sister Eileen, it was probably a natural choice to let a star like Rosalind Russell turn My Sister Eileen into a typical star-vehicle. But My Sister Eileen is a movie that would actually have benefited from being either an ensemble picture or at least a two-star vehicle and it would also have helped Rosalind Russell to strengthen her own performance as it would have made a lot of Ruth’s actions more plausible and would also maybe have led Rosalind Russell to reduce her own acting style instead of trying to do her own work as well as that of Janet Blair, too. An actress with a stronger personality and stronger ability to hold her own against Rosalind Russell could have helped the overall quality of My Sister Eileen was well as Rosalind Russell’s interpretation of not only her own character but also of the whole movie and her place in it – of course, Rosalind Russell cannot be blamed for being the biggest star in the production but she was surely aware of how far she was widening her own dominance, causing everybody to else to constantly take a few steps back. It was a dangerous move that paid off in the sense that Rosalind Russell has the strength and the power of persuasion to steal an entire movie and make it worthwhile but at the same time she cannot overcome the constant feeling of lost opportunities that haunt the entire production from start to finish.
In the end, Rosalind Russell worked her way through My Sister Eileen with a lot of confidence and competence and gave an amusing and harmless performance that got all of the comedy out of the material even it if missed a more human aspect. Essentially, Ruth Sherwood is a role that offered Rosalind Russell everything that she could do in her sleep – and apparently Rosalind Russell knew this, too. She often feels too self-assured in a role that could have used much more consideration to her own acting and much more devotion to her fellow players but at least she, unlike her supporting cast, knows how to entertain. It’s an overall mixed performance that never truly reaches a level of excellence and Rosalind Russell’s ability to find humor in almost every angle of the script is often as misplaced as it is delightful but she deserves some kind of praise for appearing strangely indispensable despite all the problems in her work. So to come back to the initial question – it is surely mainly the fault of My Sister Eileen itself that Rosalind Russell’s performance is mostly forgotten compared to some of her other performances since her resume offers various movies that leave a much stronger impression and are much better suited to her own acting style. But even with the quality of My Sister Eileen put aside, Rosalind Russell’s actual performance also does not provide enough to turn it into any kind of truly memorable experience. Still, if My Sister Eileen is worth watching, she is the only reason for it. A mixed performance that still manages to be pleasing as long as it lasts.
Title: Best Actress 1942: Rosalind Russell in "My Sister Eileen"
Rating: 100% based on 99998 ratings. 5 user reviews.
11:17 AM
Rating: 100% based on 99998 ratings. 5 user reviews.
11:17 AM
