Actress outshines leads

Unless you are a classic films nerd like me, Anne Baxter is probably the best actress of the mid-20th century that you do not know by name. Her career was not without leading roles, but all of the brilliant films she starred in featured her in impeccable supporting capacities. The following troika are some of her finest.

“The Razor’s Edge” (1946)

Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney were the Brad Pitt and Charlize Theron of their day, and this picture casts them as mutually antagonizing extremes of human nature in a brave, early attempt to tackle philosophical themes. The eponymous “razor’s edge” is a metaphor for the fine line we all tread in our individual attempts to realize success and find purpose in life. Baxter reinforces this premise with the paragon of meteoric falls from grace. After she survives an automobile accident that kills her husband and child, she descends into alcoholism and despair. To balance the corrupting influence of Tierney’s chicanery, Baxter gives a sincere and delicately careworn performance, for which she won her only Academy Award. Without her, this would be a merely respectable film that descended into obscurity within a decade, but Baxter lends it just the right touch of humanity to make it timeless.

“All about Eve” (1950)

In one of the most immaculate pictures of all time, Baxter plays opposite the always-phenomenal Bette Davis in the epitome of all actress movies. Both portray fussy entertainers — Davis the seasoned professional and Baxter the usurping upstart — and they are both perfect. The first time I saw Anne Baxter’s Eve Harrington, I admit that I was a bit annoyed; how could a purported “classic” have such amateurish performance exaggerations? The film’s unfolding demonstrates amply why this is appropriate. Baxter plays an actress pretending not to be an actress in order to manipulate yet another actress (Davis), and every bit of that complexity is manifested by the astounding manner which her character radiates. But that’s just Baxter, and she is just one of many excellent pieces of a film that is even better than the sum of its parts.

“The Ten Commandments” (1956)

Cecil B. DeMille cut his directing teeth on films with sacred themes during the silent era, and he returned to the genre decades later to crown his career with this classic. Almost everyone has seen this movie, but it will always be remembered far more for its dated special effects than for the quality of its performances. Such is largely forgivable — Yul Brynner is best known as Mongkut in “The King and I” (also from 1956), and it was only three years later that Charlton Heston delivered arguably the greatest recital of his career as Judah in “Ben-Hur.” However, Baxter shines here as Princess Nefretiri, whose character is essential to maintaining the link between Brynner’s Ramses and Heston’s Moses. Indeed, it is the underlying tension between them that becomes the film’s pivotal conflict. There are a dozen reasons to see this film, and Anne Baxter is a modest part of why it is a great movie.