I think the hammy stuff, I usually associate with genre works, comedies,
How do you evaluate acting from earlier eras? Is it simply unfair to compare them with modern actors?
I can find the hammy, over-the-top delivery difficult to overcome when trying to take a film seriously.
I found this funny:
I agree that hammy line delivery can be a real impediment for people trying to get into old black and white (another impediment) movies. I grew up at a time when these movies were showing frequently on late night television, and then, much later, featured on TVO's wonderful
Saturday Night at the Movie, a weekly double feature of classic movies hosted by the irrepressible Elwy Yost. I guess early exposure helped me to take it in stride. Plus it was usually minor characters who amped up the hammy and usually in comedies. But, sure, I can see the difficulty. I had a similar problem with the uber-hammy approach used in silent films,
But there have always been great acting performances in all eras, and I don't think I would evaluate them much differently if they come from a present era or a distant one. I think the one thing I notice most, though, is the transition from movie star acting, relying heavily on persona and to some extent charisma, and the more drama-school approach of modern actors with its emphasis on acting chops and versatility. The Golden Age guys had some superb technicians among them, like Olivier, Gielgud and later Burton, O'Toole, and Hopkins--though, in their cases, the closer their movies were to actual plays or movies that encouraged theatrical performances (Richard III, Hamlet The Entertainer in Olivier's case; Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Look Back in Anger and Beckett in Richard Burton's case; The Lion in Winter, Lawrence of Arabia and Beckett in Peter O'Toole's case, for example), the better they were. Daniel Day Lewis doesn't seem to have that sort of limitation. He can do anything and accept any challenge as an actor.
But that doesn't mean the movie stars were bad actors. William Holden is one of my favourite actors; Bette Davis brought an intensity to her performances that was often riveting; John Wayne was pretty damn impressive in some of those cowboy movie and he practically weaponized persona. Grant, Bogart, Gable, Cooper, Cliff, Taylor, Katherine Hepburn, et al--all of them contributed greatly with their acting to a host of entertaining movies. There are lots of ways to be good. Though I know he could be over the top early in his career in those screwball comedies, I would take Grant's body of work as an actor over just about anybody remaining in our competition. Just so many fun movies, with him the biggest reason why.
