Carolyn Jones received her first Oscar nomination for her performance as The Existentialist in The Bachelor Party.
The Bachelor Party is a fine film about five friends who meet up for a fun night out to celebrate the forthcoming marriage of one of them. It's a beautifully written movie and Paddy Chayefsky's profound, realistic and delicate screenplay should have received a nomination for sure; the movie, though, leaves quite a lot to be desired in terms of visuals, as there is a stagey feeling that detracts a bit from the experience. Still, it's a good movie with an effective leading turn from Don Murray.
This nomination must have been quite a surprise back then: she was not a particularly well known actress starring in a not particularly successful movie, she had not received any recognition from the critic awards and the Golden Globes and she plays a very tiny role that is on-screen for about six minutes. It's one of the Academy's most unusual choices in this category, but it's also one of the very best as Carolyn Jones manages to give an astonishing characterization to her nameless character. She first appears in the movie about half-an-hour into it, when the friends approach her on street: Jones is absolutely terrific in this very brief moment as she brings a great amount of mystery and allure to her character, keeping her at distance from both the other characters and the viewer as well - her performance is purposefully detatched as she is first seen from the others as an almost unachievable object of desire. Despite this Jones never allows her character to become a passive presence: instead, she completely owns the screen switching effortlessly from passive-aggressiveness to annoyance to playful flirtiness.
We don't meet again "The Existentialist" until the final act of the movie, when Charlie (Murray) and two of the friends show up at the party she is attending. She and Charlie start talking and what follows is an absolutely outstanding moment that is played to perfection by Jones: it's a long, fast-paced monologue in which "The Existentialist" details the events of her day and it's simply astonishing to watch. Jones reveals so much about her character in just those few minutes - she gives us a full understanding of what her character's life is and shows that past her attractive looks there is an intelligent and educated person. She beautifully deconstructs the mysterious and distant image she gave in the beginning to uncover her character's aloofness and vulnerability. She at first refuses Charlie's offer to join him upstairs to find some privacy, but she eventually gives in: when he tries to kiss her, she pulls him away and tells him "Just say you love me. Say you love me you don't have to mean it". It's a heartbreaking moment made even more powerful by Jones' soft, simple delivery and in this very moment both Charlie and the viewer realize how lonely and miserable "The Existentialist" truly is - she knows Charlie does not love her, but she wants to believe it because she is unwilling to acknowledge the emptiness of her lifestyle. In her final moment when she tells Charlie to meet her later at the bar across the street because she "can't stand being alone at night", Jones again manages to convey her character's history of empty one-night stands that don't do anything to alleviate her desperation and you can see the longing and neediness in her eyes. Eventually Charlie decides not to meet her, and even if she's never seen her again her melancholic creation is what ultimately stays with you when the movie is over.
Carolyn Jones gives a simply astounding portrayal of a sad, haunting, unforgettable character: she beautifully swifts from the alluring distance of her first moments to the painful loneliness of her final ones and in six minutes she managed to convey her character's whole lifetime. It's a beautiful, stunning achievement that should be far more remembered than it is nowadays.
5/5
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