A few years ago I ranked my top-five all-time greatest performances by an actress and Jennifer Jones’ Oscar-winning work in “The Song of Bernadette” was a no brainer. She’s a marvel in a role begging for cloying sentiment. Her performance is so believable and measured you actually have to make a conscious effort afterwards to process what an achievement it is.
That was the thing about these Golden-Age stars: you never caught them acting.
From there Jones’ career pretty much faltered. There was “Portrait of Jennie,” “Beat the Devil,” “Since You Went Away,” and the lusty dusty “Duel in the Sun,” but after an affair during the production of “Since You Went Away” broke up both their marriages (she was married to actor Robert Walker), legendary producer David O. Selznick wrapped all his hopes of achieving another “Gone With the Wind” triumph into Jones, which predictably resulted in a lot of bad decisions and the kind of meddling that kept directors who might have otherwise cast Jones from doing so.
The New York Times has a comprehensive obituary here and the invaluable TCM has already scheduled a four-film salute on January 4th, which unfortunately doesn’t include “Bernadette,” a must-see for any film lover, even you hell-bound non-believers.
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