Headlines about the death of Maggie Smith on Friday at age 89 have zeroed in on the more recent fame she enjoyed in the United States, as the acid-tongued dowager countess in “Downton Abbey” or Professor Minerva McGonagal in the “Harry Potter” franchise.
But Smith was one of the finest British stage and screen actors of her generation, receiving nominations or trophies for her performances in theater and in movies, going back to the 1960s. Like every British thespian, she did her share of Shakespeare, playing Desdemona opposite Laurence Olivier in the 1965 film adaptation of “Othello.”
Smith also received her first Academy Award nomination for “Othello.” She was nominated five more times for Oscars and won twice — for best actress for “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” in 1969 and for best supporting actress for the 1978 Neil Simon comedy “California Suite.” If anyone wants to deepen their appreciation for Smith’s towering talent as an actor, they could start with these two performances (“Miss Jean Brodie” is available on Roku; “California Suite” is available on Tubi).
Indeed, many critics and Oscars watchers regard Smith’s performance as Jean Brodie as one of the best ever by an actress in the movies. She plays a freethinking teacher at a Scottish girls school in the 1930s. Her Brodie is eccentric, brash, a bit deluded and proudly sexual. She often flouts the curriculum, romanticizes fascist leaders like Benito Mussolini and Francisco Franco and speaks openly about being in her sexual prime. The film focuses on Brodie she tries to mold girls in her select “Brodie” set to be as brilliant and amazing as she imagines herself to be.
In his New York Times review, Vincent Canby described her performance as “a staggering amalgam of counterpointed moods, switches in voice levels and obliquely stated emotions, all of which are precisely right.”
But Brodie’s machinations eventually catch up to her, and the school’s headmistresses asks her to resign. One particular clip from the movie has been circulating since Smith’s death and, as Daily Beast writer Kevin Fallon said, the scene “spellbinding” is to watch. It probably also won her the Oscar. Brodie unleashes on the headmistress, and people have taken to social media to share their admiration for Smith in this scene — for simultaneously demonstrating control and “unhinged” fury.
“So often I have watched this — every time I am absolutely riveted,” wrote one user on X. “Every cell in her body is this charismatic, dangerous mentor. This film, this performance is still resonant.”
“Such an amazing speech & delivery: spine-tingling,” another user wrote.
Many today may not remember the 1978 film “California Suite,” for which she won her second Oscar. They also might be surprised that this anthology comedy was a critical and box-office hit and featured an all-star cast, which included Smith and Michael Caine, as well as Richard Pryor, Alan Alda, Jane Fonda, Walter Matthau, Elaine May and, alas, Bill Cosby. There are four stories in the film, which is set at the posh Beverly Hills Hotel and is based on Neil Simon’s play of the same name.
In their portion of the movie, Smith and Caine appear as a London couple in town for the Academy Awards. Smith plays someone not unlike herself, a venerated British stage actor named Diana, who’s been nominated for a supporting actress Oscar. But Smith’s Diana is perhaps more haughty and full of herself than we’d imagine Smith to be in real life. Diana also is in denial about her marriage of convenience to Caine’s Sidney, an antiques dealer and closeted gay man.
Before and after the Oscars ceremony, at which Diana loses, she and Sidney trade clever verbal barbs — “wit and parry,” Smith’s Diana snipes at Sidney at one point. They also reveal some bitter truths, as they try to reconcile their troubled relationship. Smith and Caine are magical together and bring depths to their roles as their characters also enjoy moments of extraordinary love and tenderness.
When Smith accepted her Oscar for “California Suite,” wearing a gold and black dress, she humbly said, “I just really can’t believe it. I’m very very honored and very grateful.” After thanking Simon and director Herbert Ross, she also said, “I would very much like Michael Caine to be here, because believe you me, he was the most supporting actor in the world and it really should go right down the middle.”
youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRXmGJIlVRk?si=TWVoNWEMz2bW5ODW