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Re: Best Actor 1931/32
Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2016 12:23 pm
by Big Magilla
Here's something interesting.
In Wallace Beery's L.A. Times obituary dated April 17, 1949, his Oscar is referred to as a "special Academy Award" which makes sense because he actually received 1-3 votes less than Fredric March but this is not a reference I've seen before. I'm wondering now if Beery's win was originally recorded as something "special" but changed somewhere along the way to an actual win in the record books.
http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries ... story.html
Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 12:20 am
by anonymous1980
I haven't seen the other two so I'll refrain from voting but I have to comment here that I'm surprised by how far they went with Mr. Hyde in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in 1932. Fredric March definitely deserved that Oscar.
Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 2:40 am
by Damien
Alfred Lunt is just horrendous in The deplorable The Guardsman, playing to the back row of the balcony. (His wife of convenience is equally bad.)
In The Champ, Wallace Beery is beginning to show some of the Aw Shucks mannerisms that would pretty much define jis later career. He's still affecting in the shameless, The Champ, however.
Fredric March could also be very mannered but not her. He is charming and debonair, and later extremely convincingly anguished as Dr. Jekyll,and the sheer brutishness of his Mr. Hyde remains startling some 80 years later. Outstanding work, and highly deserving of the award.
Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 2:26 am
by Reza
March is an easy choice here. Beery is good and keeps the ham in check for the most part. Yes, the Lunt's reputation cannot be judged by this film alone........he is over-the-top here but it could be the part. What worked for them on stage appears quite hideous and artificial on camera.
My top picks of 1932:
Fredric March, Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde
Paul Muni, I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang
William Powell, One Way Passage
Maurice Chevalier, Love Me Tonight
John Barrymore, A Bill of Divorcement
Edited By Reza on 1295588757
Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 1:13 am
by Big Magilla
I have very warm memories of the Lunt-Fontanne version of The Magnificent Yankee but it was ages ago - well, 45 years ago, anyway.
It wasn't unitl much later that the saw the ghastly Guardsman, but it was the moth-eaten Molnar play which no one, not even Maggie Smith and Christopher Plummer in a more recent version called Lily in Love, could breathe life into.
Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 12:01 am
by Mister Tee
Only three nominees make the discussion brief.
I assume most would agree with Magilla, that Muni in Scarface is a major omission. But, truth be told, I've never been much able to warm up to Scarface (and I'm one who loves a good number of Hawks' films), and my limited love for Muni would be saved for the following year anyway.
It'd be nice to have more on-film record of the Lunts, to judge whether their lofty reputations are deserved. (I did see their TV version of The Magnificent Yankee, but it was back when I was in grade school, so my opinion is of no value). This ghastly, almost unwatchable film is all there is of their official cinema, and from this evidence you'd presume they stunk on ice. Fontanne isn't much, but Lunt is totally insufferable.
The Champ is shameless and dated, but it's put me away every time I've watched. Jackie Cooper is probably the better of the two actors, but Beery is quite good as well, and it's no outrage he shared this award.
But Fredric March was pretty clearly deserving here -- impressive both as Jekyll (pronounced GEE-KUL in this version) and the make-up-boosted Hyde. And the film is one of the earliest American sound films to really feel like it belongs to an art form -- Mamoulian's choices (beginning with that opening subjective-view shot) and the pre-Code sexiness of Miriam Hopkins' part of the story make it far more interesting than the other films contending for prizes that year. March gets my enthusiastic vote.
Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 11:26 pm
by Big Magilla
Just three nominees this year as well as the next two.
As far as I'm concerned you can toss out Alfred Lunt's stage-bound performance in The Guardsman.
As most of us know, the official tie between Wallace Beery in The Champ and Fredric March in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was actually a win by March, with Beery's supporters pushing for a declared tie since he lost by only three votes.
Since I previously voted for Beery, March, in one his best performances, is my easy pick here.
Others who should have been considered include Paul Muni in Scarface; Edward G. Robinson in Five Star Final; Lionel Barrymore in Broken Lullaby and Maurice Chevalier in One Hour With You and considering there was no supporting category to place them in, Jackie Cooper in The Champ and Boris Karloff in Frankenstein.