Turner Classic Movies's Now Playing for the month of February highlights Oscar winning films and performances. So, I spent a good hour combing the schedule for people of color. I finally found a group of them late in the month under the American South. Of course.
So, Candice Love Jackson's tribute to the Oscars will give you a film a day that highlights a noteworthy performance or technical triumph.
We begin with, of course, one of the greatest cinematic achievements in film--Gone with the Wind. Those who know me knew this was coming. Hattie McDaniels's Oscar-winning performance as Mammy is, by far, the one of the most stellar in the film despite having very little screen time. She elevates the role of the domestic by humanizing her in such as way that the audience had to see Mammy as real. Hattie McDaniel's Mammy is not the silent, childlike character who moves through scenes as window dressing. She commands attention in her scenes and holding court against her fellow actors, stealing many of the scenes with a look or grumble.
1. cajoling Scarlett into eating before the Wilkes BBQ/Party or
2. fussing about the confederates' "crawling clothes and dysentery"
Gone with the Wind is epic, and whatever your ideas are about its inherent glorification of the racist South, Hattie McDaniel, Butterfly McQueen, and Oscar Polk offer stellar performances that make tangible contributions to the success of the film.
Finally, I offer you a clip from Hattie McDaniel's Oscar speech. If the Academy expected Mammy to attend the ceremony, they were sadly mistaken because Hattie McDaniel came instead.
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