Oooh... I have to check out that version then, thanks!!!

Yoshue are you watching The Letter on TCM?

Sorry, Christian, but I couldn't catch this Saturday night. Should have taped it. I was forced to attend a rather lame party, and when I returned it was almost 3am...and, no matter how drunk I am, watching a movie from the half-way point is just not good form.

Did you watch it?

Yes, hehe. The good thing is that I have satellite so I get the Eastern feeds 3 hours earlier.

While I admit, this is a more polished and well-directed version, Bette Davis' performance was only "good," notably lacking is the intensity of the character (a lovelorn adulteress who just killed her lover)- she's too well-mannered.

At least the Chinese brothel lady isn't in gaudy, horrible, stereotypical make-up like in the original. She's still pretty darned weird. There was a scene in the original that showed her insulting the main actress. I don't think it happened here.

Unless the Pinot that I guzzled kicked in at that point.

Damn, I wish I had watched it. I know what you're talking about with Bette Davis tendency (especially early in her career) to play too 'well-mannered'; while that works in, say, Dark Victory, I can understand why it would be lackluster in something like The Letter.

I went and used the Turner Classic Movies website, and found that two of the major 1930 nominees will indeed be playing soon:

THE BIG HOUSE (Best Picture Nominee)
1/09/06 10:00PM
1/25/06 6:00AM
2/13/06 8:00AM

THE DIVORCEE (Best Picture Nominee, Best Actress Winner)
1/09/06 11:30PM

So January 9th is a good day if you want to do a little catching up.

1931 will hopefully be up later today or tomorrow.

And we're back, because Christian wouldn't have it any other way. Our look at the early Oscar doldrums continues, because 1931 continues the tradition we've established of a weak nominee lineup. It's a better group of films, however, than 1930's, even if the winner is far weaker. Ironic, no?

The 1931 Academy Awards

Notes:
-This is the first year that the writing category is split into the two we know of today: Original and Adaptation
-Rather than a sound award given to a particular film, they start simply being handed out to one outstanding studio. This year, it went to Paramount Pictures.

Best Picture
The Winner- CIMARRON
EAST LYNNE
THE FRONT PAGE
SKIPPY
TRADER HORN

I have not seen it, but I've heard that CIMARRON is the worst Best Picture winner so many times that I believe it simply HAS to be true. I really need to see it. But the other nominees are not impressive, either. FRONT PAGE is a decent, unspectacular newspaper drama that later was remade into Howard Hawks' classic HIS GIRL FRIDAY. TRADER HORN is a jungle adventure film famous for being shot on location in Africa. Sure, that footage is great, but the movie is far too long and not very interesting (Much of the footage they shot was later used in the Johnny Weissmuller TARZAN films; they weren't high art, but they were better than TRADER HORN). I know little about SKIPPY (a children's film with Jackie Cooper) and nothing about EAST LYNNE.

1931 saw lots of great movies ignored here. FRANENSTEIN, PUBLIC ENEMY. But the biggest snub, not recieving a single nomination (possibly the most egregious snub in Oscar history), was Charlie Chaplin's CITY LIGHTS. One of my favorite films, CL should have been a lock for Picture, Actor, Director-especially against this sorry lot. Why was it snubbed? I have to believe that it was a big 'fuck you' to Chaplin, who had refused to go with the grain and made CITY LIGHTS essentially a silent film, save an original score and a few sound effects. Hollywood had moved completely into the talkie era; they weren't going to 'go back in time' to award Chaplin's masterpiece.

No matter. CITY LIGHTS will outlive every single film mentioned on this page, awards or no.

Best Director
The Winner- Norman Taurog, SKIPPY
Clarence Brown, A FREE SOUL
Lewis Milestone, THE FRONT PAGE
Wesley Ruggles, CIMARRON
Josef von Sternberg, MOROCCO

Taurog is the winner for SKIPPY, based on the child's comic strip. I can't pretend to know anything about the quality. Lewis Milestone, last year's winner for ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN front is nominated again, as is Clarence Brown, who lost for his work on ANNA CHRISTIE in '30. Josef von Sternberg, the brilliant madman, is nominated for MOROCCO, a movie high on my need-to-see-immediately list. So in lieu of a nom for Chaplin, von Sternberg would have been my choice. A genius, von Sternberg never won an Oscar.


Best Actor
The Winner- Lionel Barrymore, A FREE SOUL
Jackie Cooper, SKIPPY
Richard Dix, CIMARRON
Fredric March, THE ROYAL FAMILY OF BROADWAY
Adolphe Menjou, THE FRONT PAGE

Lionel Barrymore, the winner, was actually nominated for Best Director two years ago for MADAME X. I have not seen A FREE SOUL, but Lionel (not to be confused with John) was a wonderful actor, and I have to assume this was a good choice. Fredric March, nominated for THE ROYAL FAMILY OF BROADWAY, would not remain a bridesmaid for long.

Best Actress
The Winner- Marie Dressler, MIN AND BILL
Marlene Dietrich, MOROCCO
Irene Dunne, CIMARRON
Ann Harding, HOLIDAY
Norma Shearer, A FREE SOUL

Marie Dressler was a 60-something year old character actress who rose to popularity quickly with the rise of talkies. Her persona was funny and enearing, although it must be admitted that her particular brand of acting has not aged perfectly. It must have been a shock when she pulled off a victory against three of Hollywood's classic goddesses: Irene Dunne, Norma Shearer (Last year's winner) and Marlene Dietrich.

Neither Irene Dunne not Marlene Dietrich would ever win Oscars. Dunne would be nominated 4 more times. Dietrich never again. Both would have made better choices than Dressler.

Dressler, interestingly, died of cancer three years later. There's that old chestnut about Oscar 'liking to award those who they think will die soon'....perhaps its accurate?

Best Writing (Original)
The Winner- John Monk Saunders, THE DAWN PATROL
Rowland Brown, THE DOORWAY TO HELL
Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast, Douglas Z. Doty, & Donald Ogden Stewart, LAUGHTER
John Bright & Kubec Glasmon, THE PUBLIC ENEMY
Lucien Hubbard & Joseph Jackson, SMART MONEY

I've only seen PUBLIC ENEMY from here. A classic, it would have made a good choice. DAWN PATROL is an early Howard Hawks airplane drama.

Best Writing (Adaptation)
The Winner- Howard Estabrook, CIMARRON
Seton I. Miller & Fred Niblo Jr., THE CRIMINAL CODE
Horace Jackson, HOLIDAY
Francis Edward Faragoh & Robert N. Lee, LITTLE CAESAR
Joseph L. Mankiewicz & Sam Mintz, SKIPPY

CIMARRON's apparently crappy screenplay is the winner. LITTLE CAESAR, another mob drama like PUBLIC ENEMY, is excellent. While awarding both screenplay awards to mob flicks would have been overkill, they could have lauded one!

Best Cinematography
The Winner- Floyd Crosby, TABU
Edward Cronjager, CIMARRON
Lee Garmes, MOROCCO
Charles Lang, THE RIGHT TO LOVE
Barney McGill, SVENGALI

If MOROCCO is like any of the other von Sternberg/Dietrich collaborations, its cinematography was almost certainly worthy.

TABU, however, is a wonderful-sounding F.W. Murnau (director of '29's SUNRISE) picture. Murnau is one of the premier visual artists in film history. I'm assuming, for the moment, that TABU was a great, thoughtul, worthy winner.

Best Art Direction
The Winner- Max Ree, CIMARRON
Stephen Goosson & Ralph Hammeras, JUST IMAGINE
Hans Dreier, MOROCCO
Anton Grot, SVENGALI
Richard Day, WHOOPIE!

CIMARRON wins. Quality issues aside, it's an epic, so winning a technical category like this is no surprise.


Those are the awards! CIMARRON was the winner of three (Picture, Adaptation, and Art Direction).

Coming up in 1932! The academy begins awarding short films, and 73 years later the public still doesn't care! The number of Best Picture nominees almost double! Best Actor....is a tie!

Thanks for reading.

Gotta hand it to Yoshue for squeezing this in despite his busy sked!

I shall absorb all info momentarily...

Hmmm. I think Marty is worse.

Again, I haven't seen it, so perhaps my declaring CIMARRON as some kind of afront to cinema is wrong. But I didn't think MARTY was bad! It was small, to be sure, but I thought it was sweet and kinda moving.

That said, I'm not chomping at the bit to see it again.

But I think stuff like AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS and A BEAUTIFUL MIND, among others, are much worse.

And, you know, had MYSTIC RIVER won....

Nice read again.

I dunno. It was showy in the worst respects.


Actually, of the modern era, I think Braveheart is the worst winner.

But has the priviledge of being the smallest budget for an Oscar Winner ever, I believe. Made for less than a million.

I don't hate BRAVEHEART, but I agree its win was rather....uncalled for.

I 100% agree with you.

Nice read, but I'm afraid I can only join the conversation in some later years, hehe.

The unfortunate result of starting at the beginning. It'll take a while, but I just thought it would be fun to go through every year. Just join in whenever you can.

Now that life has stopped intervening, I can return to the message boards, and thus, this thread.

I will update ASAP.

Cool. I miss this thread. This should be a sticky.

YAY!

And I agree with Andaroo, sticky this bad boy!

After a long, long hiatus, the Oscar history thread now continues. 1932....it's got some good films.

The 1932 Academy Awards

Notes:
- The Best Picture category is beefed up to a whopping 8 nominees, and it's only going to get bigger
- Meanwhile, the other categories are greatly pared down; there are just 3 nominees in most other categories.
- The award for short film is added for the first time.

Best Picture
The Winner- GRAND HOTEL
ARROWSMITH
BAD GIRL
THE CHAMP
FIVE STAR FINAL
ONE HOUR WITH YOU
SHANGHAI EXPRESS
THE SMILING LIEUTENANT

GRAND HOTEL is sterling entertainment, a smashing movie, and a fine choice. That amazing cast, littered with Oscar nominees/winners like John Barrymore, Garbo, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery, and Lewis Stone. Indeed, the movie is most famous for containing Garbo's signature, iconic moment: "I want to be alone." It's worth mentioning that not only is this the only award GRAND HOTEL won...it's the only award it was nominated for (The only time this has ever happened.). Only a few years after this, such a feat is unthinkable. (Although, as we'll see, in a few years the Best Picture winner is also the recipient of no other awards...but it had plenty of nominations, unlike HOTEL).

There are other wonderful nominees as well. Von Sternberg's SHANGHAI EXPRESS, as good a collaboration with Marlene Dietrich as he ever did. Ernst Lubitsch's THE SIMILING LIEUTENANT, another fun Maurice Chevalier musical...this time with Claudette Colbert. (Hmm...A Von Sternberg/Dietrich and a Lubitsch/Chevalier team-up....if you think this all sounds familiar....that's because it does.). FIVE STAR FINAL is a decent newspaper drama, nothing spectacular, but a good watch when it hits TCM. Which is rather often.

One major snub is a movie who's classic status has only been attained recently: Ernst Lubitsch's (What a genius) TROUBLE IN PARADISE, a wonderful, blatantly pre-code comedy available on Criterion DVD. It's one of my favorites, but, as I understand it, was relatively ignored upon release. (Actually, it may have been eligible for the NEXT ceremony, I'm not sure, but it hardly matters; it didn't recieve any then, either).

Best Actor
The Winner- TIE -Fredric March, DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE & Wallace Beery, THE CHAMP
Alfred Lunt, THE GUARDSMAN

Yes, a tie. This would happen once more, many years later, in the Best Actress race (and if you know the answer...and you probably do...please don't shout it out )

I've seen none of the nominated films, but have seen Fredric March and Wallace Beery onscreen many a time. And March was by far the better performer, not that it really means anything.

Best Actress
The Winner- Helen Hayes, THE SIN OF MADELON CLAUDET
Marie Dressler, EMMA
Lynn Fontaine, THE GUARDSMAN

I've seen none of the three. Marie Dressler was 1931's winner. Joan Crawford is probably the "lead" actress in GRAND HOTEL's ensemble, and would have been a decent choice (although I'm not a terribly big Crawford fan.) Where Dietrich's nomination for SHANGHAI EXPRESS is, I'll never know, but it's a crime.

Best Writing (Original)
The Winner- Frances Marion, THE CHAMP
Grover Jones & William Slavens McNutt, LADY AND GENT
Lucien Hubbard, THE STAR WITNESS
Adela Rogers St. Johns & Jane Murfin, WHAT PRICE HOLLYWOOD

I haven't seen it (I saw the wretched remake), but the schmaltz-fest of THE CHAMP takes the victory over those other three nominees, about whom I know nothing.

Best Writing (Adaptation)
The Winner- Edwin J. Burke, BAD GIRL
Sidney Howard, ARROWSMITH
Percy Heath & Samuel Hoffenstein, DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE

I have seen none of these. Sidney Howard, nominated for ARROWSMITH, would win posthumously 7 years later for his GONE WITH THE WIND screenplay.

Best Cinematography
The Winner- Lee Garmes, SHANGHAI EXPRESS
Ray June, ARROWSMITH
Karl Struss, DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE

SHANGHAI EXPRESS? Cinematography? Fucking YES. Bravo, AMPAS.

Best Art Direction
The Winner- Gordon Wiles, TRANSATLANTIC
Richard Day, ARROWSMITH
Lazare Meerson, A NOUS LA LIBERTE

Nominee A NOUS LA LIBERTE, directed by Rene Clair (of the brilliant LE MILLION...also released this year and completely snubbed by Oscar) is available on Criterion DVD. It is generally considered a classic, although I, lamentably, have not seen it.

Best Sound Recording (Once again given to a studio)
This year, the award went to out friends at PARAMOUNT.

Best Short
Cartoon- FLOWERS AND TREES

From Walt Disney. I've seen this, as I'm sure have many others. It's rather famous, and quite good.

Comedy- THE MUSIC BOX

Novelty- WRESTLING SWORDFISH

Honorary Award
An honorary award was given to WALT DISNEY, to go along with his win for FLOWERS AND TREES. What did he recieve it for? Officially, "The creation of Mickey Mouse." Seems as good a reason as any.

Those are the awards!

Coming up in 1933! Two of our greatest actors step into the winners' circle! A disgusting number of snubs! The Best Picture nominees hit double digits!

Thanks for reading.

So I guess Frederic March wins the first acting Oscar in a horror movie. Or was Dr. Jekyll classified as horror? And if it is, this makes Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter second.

I've never seen ANY of the movies in this year (nope, not even Grand Hotel nor Shanghai Express, whom I've heard lots of accolades) - and the remake of The Champ (manipulative!!!) doesn't count. lol

But I bet Helen Hayes' win here is much more praised than her win for Airport in 1970. Is this her first Hollywood role?

Yoshue, I think you forgot the Director category which was awarded to Bad Girl.... WTF? lol The title alone sounds icky.

1933. Soon, we get into some more famous stuff. Which is good. I may not have time to write out all the categories, but I want to get this updated. We'll see. So onward, to...

The 1933 Academy Awards

Notes:
- As predicted, the number of Best Picture nominees hits double digits: 10, to be exact.
- There was an award given out for Best Assistant Director. It would be only be given out for the next 5 years. There were 7 (!) winners this year.
- Walt Disney won the animated Short category again, this time for "Three Little Pigs." He is now 2 for 2.

Best Picture
The Winner- CAVALCADE
42ND STREET
A FAREWELL TO ARMS
I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG
LADY FOR A DAY
LITTLE WOMEN
THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY VIII
SHE DONE HIM WRONG
SMILIN' THROUGH

Whew. CAVALCADE is the winner, a movie I forgot I hadn't seen. I don't know much about it; it was a Fox production, based on a Noel Coward play. You really don't hear about it much.

LITTLE WOMEN, with Katharine Hepburn, is, IMO, the best film version of the book. It's moving and literate, and I highly recommend it.

That said, 42ND STREET, which created quite a stir and essentially kicked off the Busky Berkeley musical, should have won. I love it. Endlessly entertaining, it revels in it's just-under-the-wire-of-the-production-code dialogue and costumes. It's a classic, and it should have won.

Snubs here abound, most egregiously the Marx Brothers' DUCK SOUP. It's snub is no surprise; the movie notoriously flopped upon release, ending the Brothers' tenure at Paramount. But this ahead-of-its-time comedy is one of the greatest movies ever made.

Best Director
The Winner- Frank Lloyd, CAVALCADE
Frank Capra, LADY FOR A DAY
George Cukor, LITTLE WOMEN

CAVALCADE's Lloyd takes director. Notice the first nominations for George Cukor and Frank Capra, both of whom would soon enough be awarded plenty by AMPAS. Lloyd Bacon should have been recognized for his work on 42ND STREET.

Best Actor
The Winner- Charles Laughton, THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY VIII
Leslie Howard, BERKELEY SQUARE
Paul Muni, I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG

I've read a lot of criticism of Laughton lately for being a grade-A ham. And yes, it's true that he never met a piece of scenery he didn't want to chew. That said, he's a towering presence and I love his work dearly. His perf here isn't as iconic as his role as Captain Bligh in MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY or his role in WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION, but damnit, it's good. A good call by the Academy.

BERKELEY SQUARE is a pretty good time-travel movie, and Leslie Howard is less bland in it than usual.

Best Actress
Katharine Hepburn, MORNING GLORY
May Robson, LADY FOR A DAY
Diana Wynyard, CAVALCADE

The first win by Oscar's reigning Queen, for a relatively underseen performance. I can call it underseen because I haven't even seen the damn thing. I'm glad they refrained from nominating Ruby Keeler, Al Jolson's wife and star of 42ND STREET. As much as I love the movie, she is, you know, terrible.

Where's Greta Garbo's nomination for Queen Christina, one of her two or three best performances? The hell?

Best Writing (Original)
The Winner- Robert Lor Kayd, ONE WAY PASSAGE
Frances Marion, THE PRIZEFIGHTER AND THE LADY
Charles MacArthur, RASPUTIN AND THE EMPRESS

I've seen the winner, ONE WAY PASSAGE, a romantic melodrama starring William Powell and Kay Francis. It's pretty effective if you can get past the initial contrivance (The movie is about a cruise ship-based love affair between a woman with a terminal illness and a criminal being transported back to America to be hanged- neither know the truth about the other). Pretty high concept, no? If that sound like it's up your alley, it probably is. William Powell is his usual charming self, but his character is a bonehead. It's a good, not great movie.

DUCK SOUP, obviously, should have been nominated and won.

Best Writing (Adaptation)
The Winner- Victor Heerman & Sarah Y. Mason, LITTLE WOMEN
Robert Riskin, LADY FOR A DAY
Paul Green & Sonya Levien, STATE FAIR

Good call.

I'll just list the remaining winners, rather than all the nominees:

Best Cinematography- A FAREWELL TO ARMS
Best Art Direction- CAVALCADE (I would have nominated KING KONG, but to each his own, Academy!)
Sound- A FAREWELL TO ARMS
Cartoon Short- THREE LITTLE PIUGS
Short, Comedy- SO THIS IS HARRIS!
Short, Novelty- KRAKATOA

KING KONG, like DUCK SOUP, is another classic that did not recieve a single nomination.

And those are the nominees!

Coming up in 1934! A movie wins the "big 5" (Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, Screenplay), a feat which would only be duplicated by 2 others! The most famous child star of all time gets a 'miniature' statue! The Picture nominees increase to 12, and we are left asking "When will this madness cease?!?!"

Thank you for reading.

*shouts*

I KNOW THE ANSWER!!!!

[spoil]Barbara Striesand and...Elizabeth Taylor?[/spoil]

Great reads as usual, nice to see it back. Shocking that King Kong didn't get anything. Cool to see when Walt Disney was up-and-coming.

Close, Shack. Reeeeeal close. But not quite.

Argh. I looked up the answer...

[spoil]Barbara Streisand and Katherine Hepburn.[/spoil]

I knew it was one of those ultra-actresses, I just got them mixed up.