Looking Back at Oscar for Some Winning Performances

With the 68th annual Academy Awards just three days away, it’s a great time to check out some award-winning performances by supporting actresses available on home video.

Gale Sondergaard holds the distinction of being the first best supporting actress. She won for her deliciously evil turn in “Anthony Adverse” (MGM/UA, $20), the 1936 epic based on Hervey Allen’s bestseller, as the vile assistant to a wealthy Scotsman (Edmund Gwenn) who is Adverse’s (Fredric March) adopted father.

Get out your hankies for 1941’s sudsy “The Great Lie” (MGM/UA, $20), for which Mary Astor won supporting actress as a volatile concert pianist who discovers she’s pregnant after her marriage to a pilot (George Brent) is annulled. Bette Davis also stars.

Greek actress Katina Paxinou made her American film debut in “For Whom the Bell Tolls” (MCA/Universal, $20), the classic 1943 adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s novel about the Spanish Civil War. Paxinou won for her towering performance as the fiery freedom fighter Pilar.

Anne Baxter received her 1946 best supporting award for her glowing performance as the tragic Sophie in “The Razor’s Edge” (FoxVideo, $20), an engrossing adaptation of Somerset Maugham’s novel. Tyrone Power, John Payne and Gene Tierney star.

Claire Trevor nabbed a supporting Oscar for her sympathetic turn as the boozy mistress of a gangster (Edward G. Robinson) in the superlative 1948 film noir “Key Largo” (MGN/UA, $20). John Huston directed. Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall star.

Josephine Hull won her best supporting award for the 1950 comedy fantasy “Harvey” (MCA/Universal). Hull is charming as the high-strung sister of a good-heart drinker (James Stewart) whose best friend is a six-foot tall invisible white rabbit.

Jo Van Fleet received the best supporting award for 1955’s “East of Eden” (Warner Home Video, $20), in which she gives a disturbing, riveting performance as James Dean’s errant mother.

Douglas Sirk directed Dorothy Malone to her best supporting award for 1956’s “Written on the Wind” (MCA/Universal, $15). Malone pulls out all the stops in her role as a nympho.

Shelley Winters received her second supporting actress award (she also won for 1959’s “The Diary of Anne Frank”) for her gutsy turn in 1965’s “A Patch of Blue” (MGM/UA, $20), as the shrewish mother of a young blind woman (Elizabeth Hartman) who has fallen in love with a black man (Sidney Poitier).

Eileen Heckart received her 1972 best supporting award for her multilayered performance in “Butterflies Are Free” (Columbia/TriStar, $15), as the overly protective mother of a young blind man (Edward Albert) determined to make a life for himself. Goldie Hawn also stars.

Maggie Smith copped a best supporting award for her hysterically funny performance in the 1978 Neil Simon comedy “California Suite” (Columbia TriStar, $15), as a neurotic actress up for an Oscar.

Dianne Wiest has won two best supporting Oscars under the direction of Woody Allen. She plays one of the siblings in Allen’s hit 1986 romantic comedy “Hannah and Her Sisters” (Orion, $15). In 1994’s “Bullets Over Broadway” (Miramax, $20), Wiest is delightfully over-the-top as a spoiled, demanding stage actress.

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Foreign Affair: “Scenes From a Marriage” (Home Vision, $40) is Ingmar Bergman’s riveting, masterfully acted 1973 film--originally a Swedish TV miniseries--chronicling a couple’s (Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson) marriage, divorce and subsequent relationship. To order call (800) 826-3456.

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Oldies and One Goodie: Hitting the video stores Tuesday are four additions to the “Universal Cinema Classics” line ($15 each). The best of the bunch is the nifty 1946 film noir “Blue Dahlia,” penned by Raymond Chandler and starring Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake and William Bendix. The 1947 melodrama “Singapore,” starring Ava Gardner and Fred MacMurray, is pure hokum. Its 1956 remake, “Istanbul,” with a bloated Errol Flynn and Cornell Borchers, is an enjoyably awful flick featuring Nat “King” Cole performing “When I Fall in Love.” The worst of the lot is 1967’s “The Countess From Hong Kong,” the last film Charlie Chaplin wrote and directed. Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren star.

Killer Bs: Kelly LeBrock, James Brolin and Wolf Larson star in “Tracks of a Killer” (Live), a goofy, sadistic thriller about an ambitious yuppie who, fearing he lost a big promotion, seeks revenge against his boss.

Arriving in stores Tuesday is the cheesy but kicky Roger Corman production “Unknown Origin” (New Horizons). Roddy McDowall, Alex Hyde-White and Melanie Shatner (William’s daughter) star as members of an underwater research team who encounter a mind-controlling alien.

Also new on Tuesday is the ho-hum murder mystery “A Little Death” (Polygram), starring a country singer Dwight Yoakam--minus his trademark hat--as a psycho photographer.

Coming Next Week: Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt star in the unsettling thriller “Seven” (New Line).

The 1977 Walt Disney animated feature “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” (Walt Disney, $27) stars the beloved silly old bear and his friends.

“Crumb” (Columbia TriStar) is Terry Zwigoff’s acclaimed, disturbing documentary on underground cartoonist Robert Crumb.

FoxVideo is releasing six episodes of the cult Fox series “The X-Files” ($15 each). Each tape includes two popular episodes. . . . Also new: “Theremin--An Electronic Odyssey” (Orion); “Mallrats” (MCA/Universal); “Kicking & Screaming” (Vidmark); “Delta of Venus” (New Line); “Last of the Dogmen” (HBO).