MovieChat Forums > American Graffiti (1973) Discussion > The Only Actor To Get Nominated for An O...

The Only Actor To Get Nominated for An Oscar for American Graffiti Was....

posted 2 years ago by ecarle (14979)
4 replies | jump to latest

Candy Clark.

For playing Debbie Dunham. (Though I don't recall if her last name is ever mentioned in the movie.)

There are interviews in print and on YouTube which show that Ms. Clark has spent a valuable part of her later life(between roles on movies and TV) attending hot rod shows all over America and sharing her experiences of making the movie. She also signs things for money, as many such celebrities do.

This is fitting for Candy Clark and in no way sad. One will suppose that the major stars of American Graffiti -- Richard Dreyfuss and Harrison Ford -- are "beneath" going to hot rod shows and signing autographs for money, but signature nostalgia appearances are a way of life for many people in TV and movies and they deserve to make the bread and encounter their fans. Who BETTER than Candy Clark -- the only person in American Graffiti to get an Oscar nomination --to be the diplomatic emissary for that great movie.

I think that other people (like her brothers) go out of their way to note that only Candy Clark got nominated. She is more proud to note that American Graffiti ended up on the century end(and legitimately prestigious) "American Film Institute's Top 100 Movies of All Time" list in the late 90s. As Clark noted "they make 100 movies a WEEK!"

So its all good, and Candy Clark looks good (she's 75 as I write this) and...good.

But what about that performance? How come she was nominated and nobody else?

Oscar winner Jack Palance said that acting Oscars "go to the character, not the performance." which makes a lot of sense. When an actor lucks into a role that is a great character, we want to remember them. Sometimes the name is in the title: Forrest Gump. Erin Brockovich. Sometimes not. Rooster Cogburn(well in the original True Grit.) Atticus Finch. Don Vito Corleone. Great characters.

The main "star" of American Graffiti is its overall "ambieance." The hot cars cruising the night streets. The incessant be-bop 50's/60's rock and roll. The feeling we ALL have about the last night of summer after the last year of high school: adulthood beckons.

Hence, Lucas and his writers didn't write their largely teenage characters with much real depth. Ron Howard and Cindy Williams weren't given characters of much depth -- even if their TYPE (young lovers about to be separated) was universal. Terry the Toad's insecure lies are perhaps too much in the "comedy relief" area.

Richard Dreyfuss has a role of some "meat" to play --introspective, self-aware, worried about his place in the outside world - and perhaps should have merited an award. Same with Paul LeMat's aging hot rod king watching his whole world shrink. But neither man gets all that many scenes to make his point.

Perhaps in the end, there was simply less competition over on the female side of the Oscars - Best Supporting Actress -- so Candy Clark could squeeze in where the guys in the cast could not.

Its a bit like how Kim Basinger got nominated for LA Confidential (1997) while all the great male actors(some of them with great male CHARACTERS to play) did not. Except Kim WON.

Which brings us to the performance itself.

I'd say its a mix of things. Part of it is what Candy Clark brings to the part to start with: a great smile and above all, a great VOICE.

Its been noted that since sound came in, all manner of movie stars got their fame (in the Golden Era at least) as much for their voices as for their faces.

James Stewart wasn't all that handsome but his voice was a wonder all its own. Cary Grant WAS all that handsome AND had a great voice. Henry Fonda had a great voice. James Cagney had a great voice. Edward G. Robinson had a great voice. People could imitate them.

The pickings were a little slimmer in terms of imitating the voices of actresses. Bette Davis could be imitated. Joan Crawford could not be.

But whether or not the voices can be imitated, great voices are noticed.

And Candy Clark in American Graffiti has a GREAT voice.

She's from Texas, so as a starting point, its a Texas accent. But one senses Clark trying to "control the twang" and to avoid regionality. So her voice in American Graffiti isn't really "of" Texas...its just DIFFERENT.

Like when the Toad first meets her -- she's outside his car window, he's trying to get her inside the car and he asks her her name.

Her response is desultory: "Debbie." (Sounds like "Debbuh.")

But now the script comes to her rescue and to the rescue of Toad -- about the borrowed great car he is passing off as his own. Debbie says: "You got the tuck n' roll upholstery. I just LOVE the feel of tuck n' roll." Toad cajoles her into the car to "feel it" and once she's in there with him she demands that he "peel out! I just love it when a guy peels out."

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

Thus Debbie is a character of interest for various reasons. She ties into the car culture that American Graffiti flaunts. Tuck n' roll. Peel out! This bitchin' car isn't really Toad's(its on loan from Ron Howard's Steve) but he is going to FAKE like its his car and its this car that just might get him Debbie. Because she just loves cars.

And she loves alcohol, too. Or as Debbie says in that great sultry hyper voice of hers: "I bet you're smart enough to get us some BREW!" A "loose" woman with a taste for booze and fast cars. Toad just COULD get lucky.

Its cute that before Toad can lure Debbie into his car(for innocent cruising reasons) he first FINALLY gets her to acknowledge him by saying she looks like Connie Stevens. She comes over to the car and mentions in passing that "I always felt I looked more like Sandra Dee" -- but she liked the compliment. And again how she SAYS the line "I always felt I looked more like SAHNDRA DEAH." That Texas drawl/slurring sound. Debbuh. Saundra DEAH.

As the night goes on, Toad finds himself in a conflicted place with Debbie. On the one hand, she's out of his league, at once very pretty AND somewhat "low rent sexy" -- dangerous. On the other hand, we sense some troubles in her life. Too many guys in her past(one, a tough, seems to have had her and dropped her.) Too much booze. Trouble, maybe in her home life? (When Toad first spots her, she is walking alone angrily the street.)

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

There's something "off" about Debbie's look. They put brown haired Candy Clark in a giant blonde wig with a flip in the front and its hard to tell if in the story line this is Debbie's REAL hair...or a wig itself. Clark said that in real life the hair felt like a "hat" but the key thing is this: look at Candy Clark in ANY movie after she played Debbie(The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Big Sleep, Blue Thunder) and you will NEVER see Debbie again. No wig, no character. Clark's ability to "disappear" her real self into that wig is perhaps another reason for her Oscar nom. All the other kids in AG just look like...real teenagers(if a bit old.) Debbie is a character. Indeed, get this: Candy Clark again played Debbie in "More American Graffiti" (in both 1964 and 1967 with different hairstyles) and she STILL doesn't look like the Debbie we know and love. No wig. Little accent.

So we've got the look(the big blonde wig, the blue dress with the spaghetti straps.) We've got the voice(Candy Clark's own, a gift through her career.) We've got the script writing dialogue("Tuck n' roll!") We've got the character (Toad WILL get llucky with this woman...all it took was the car, some lies, and buying her booze.)

And that was evidently enough.

It was complained that the female characters in American Graffiti didn't get "what happened next" cards like the guys did at the end of the movie. But the movie is really ABOUT the guys and their "arc." Its George Lucas story. Debbie doesn't seem to HAVE a story to follow. She may end up as a girlfriend to Toad(she asks him to call her) but she may just drift off as a night's fond memory.

This is for sure: Candy Clark as Debbie Dunham is AMERICA's fond memory, maybe the world's. She stuck out in that crowd. Being pretty helped, of course, but so did the voice, the stance, the attitude.

Miss Clark can remain justifiably proud of American Graffiti -- and her PERFORMANCE in American Graffiti -- indefinitely.

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

PS. Eventually in 1979, they made a sequel called More American Graffiti. Reviews weren't good and box office was worse. Most of the characters from American Graffiti couldn't really function as interesting once separated from each other across New Year's Eve day on four different years, each one darker than the last: 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967.

They gave Debbie an "afterlife." She IS Toad's girlfriend in 1964, sending him off to Vietnam (and MIA status) and not promising to wait. By 1966, she has moved West from the California Central Valley, to San Francisco, Flower Power and the Summer of Love. She works as a stripper(which was a big deal in SF in the 60s) which seems too "dead on" as a fate for Debbie. But she shifts away from the stripper persona into a "flower power hippie chick with eye make-up and hippie dude boyfriends" mode. Her story is not much of anything at all.

And the Debbie of American Graffitii is gone, gone, GONE. Talk about trashing a character. Without the big blonde wig and the overdone voice, Candy Clark comes dangerously close in More American Graffiti to being ...just Candy Clark.

[–] Lucia2016 (617) 2 years ago

I just watched this film and you're right there are no real stand out 'acting' performances it is just a great hang out film similar to Dazed and Confused, but when i googled the nominated Actress (i don't remember any of the names) i did think 'oh yeah she was quite good'

My favourite character though was the young kid who tagged along with the Cool guy, i liked their little story arc the most. Great film though it's so easy on the eye (and ear) and one to re visit every so often