Luise Rainer humble Chinese peasant subservient to her husband and speaking little during the entire film. Her comparative muteness, stated historian Andrew Sarris, was "an astounding tour de force after her hysterically chattering telephone scene in "The Great Ziegfeld"", and contributed to her winning her second Best Actress Oscar. The award made her the first actress to win two consecutive Oscars, a feat not matched until Katharine Hepburn's two wins thirty years later. In later years, however, Rainer felt that winning the two Oscars so early may have been the "worst possible thing" to befall her career. She said that it made
Actress in the House Actress in the House Actress in the House is Joseph McElroy's eighth novel. Lawyer Bill Daley follows up an unusual phone call from stage actress Becca Lang by attending her show. Daley is appalled when Becca is slugged rather brutally in what was clearly supposed to have been a stage slap. He stays afterwards, and she moves into his life. The novel is told in three portions, "First Night", "First Week", "First Love", and a short epilogue, "Extend". Several time frames are included in the novel, mostly told using the present tense, frequently with no direct indication that the present