Best Actress: Olivia de Havilland I

I know what you're thinking: what if your love interest and your son was played by the same actor? Could you win an Oscar from it?

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The answer is yes: Olivia de Havilland won her first actress playing opposite John Lund, in his film debut, as both his illicit love affair and the mother of his illegitimate child. 

Olivia de Havilland was famous for playing 'good girls' and had said that sometimes it was a harder job to play them than playing devilish ladies. With Jodie Norris in To Each His Own, she gets to play the ultimate good girl: one who falls in love quickly with a dashing First World War pilot, mourns his death, finds out she needs an important surgery, finds out she's pregnant, does what she can to carry her dead lover's child to term, fashions a plan to 'give him away' while still being able to keep him, fumbles the plan, throws herself into business, gets her son back, gives him away again when it's clear he misses his adopted family, moves to London, helps out with the war effort, and then gets rewarded for a lifetime of martyrdom with a brief encounter with her grown son on the day of his wedding. 

It's a lot to play, but Olivia handles it in such a believable manner. I think there's only a handful of actresses from the '40s who could have pulled this off (short list) without it being too overdone. Like, I don't think Bette Davis could have played Jodie as wide-eyed and yet realistic the way that her buddy Liv played her. Joan Crawford would have insisted on all the glamorous close-up framing. Jennifer Jones would've been too sweet. Ginger Rogers would've given Jodie an edge, à la Kitty Foyle, that she didn't need. Oddly... I think Joan Fontaine could've been a great Jodie. Don't haunt me, Liv!

As is the case with a lot of older movies, the makeup is a little unbelievable. Jodie's supposed to age over the course of the film to the point that John Lund plays her son at the end, but aside from some bags under her eyes, she doesn't really look all that aged. It's a baffling decision, in my opinion, that they couldn't find a younger actor who looked similarly to John Lund to play Liv's son. It kinda takes you out of the story when you first see him appear: my first thought, and I've seen this before, remember, was Did I forget that he survived the plane crash?!

Anyway.

Olivia was nominated against Celia Johnson (Brief Encounter), Jennifer Jones (Duel in the Sun), Rosalind Russell (Sister Kenny) and Jane Wyman (The Yearling). According to my notes, I've seen Sister Kenny but I have no memory of it, and it's the only other performance I've seen. 

If you're one for feuds: when Liv won, her sister was backstage waiting to shake her hand. Liv either snubbed her or didn't notice her (depends on who you believe, I guess) and there's a famous picture of the moment. Oh, to be a fly on that wall!

via Reddit

DID I LIKE TO EACH HIS OWN? Enh. Olivia's great, don't get me wrong, but this story is way too saccharine for my tastes. 
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Did you like To Each His Own? What are your thoughts on Olivia de Havilland's first Oscar win? 

Keep up with all my Rewatching the Best Actresses posts here.