This Oscar race is an example of when the winner itself was perfectly fine in a vacuum, but in the context of the rest of the nominees, the win looks out of place. Judy Holliday turned in a fine performance in George Cukors comedy Born Yesterday, but she beat out two actresses who had just given two of the best female performances of all time. The first was Bette Davis stunning performance in All About Eve, and the second was Gloria Swansons dazzling turn in Sunset Boulevard. This was almost certainly an instance of vote-splitting at its most devastating. Those two performances surely garnered scores of votes, but the result probably pushed the steadfast fans of Holliday and those who couldnt decide between Davis and Swanson to the forefront. Its a shame that neither of those historic dramatic performances would be recognised by the Academy. Instead, a safer comedy performance by Holliday pulled off the upset.
