Taking a look at the history of the Oscars is important for a few reasons:
A) It can better help us understand tricky Academy tastes and the precedents that have been set
B) It can introduce us to fascinating movies we should watch
C) It gives us a long, long look at the surprises and egregious snubs...some of which are shocking.

So in this thread, we're going to go year-by-year, looking at major categories. We can give opinions on who should have won, who was ignored, how strange that one choice was, etc. I know, it may seem hard at first with the late 20s-early 30s that not a lot have seen, but just come in here and try. The thread's going to need momentum. We'll move onto a new year every 2-3 days.

Now, without further ado, the 1928 Oscars!

A few interesting notes:
This year, for the ONLY time, there were essentially two best picture awards given out. One for Best Picture (Production) and one for Unique and Artistic Picture. WINGS, the winner of that Best Picture (Production) award, is generally given the credit as the first BP winner, although I don't think that's necessarily accurate.
In sharp contrast to today, the winners knew they had won months in advance.
THE JAZZ SINGER, in many ways the most notable film from 1927, was ruled ineligible for both Best Picture categories because it was deemed unfair to place it up against all those silents.

Here's the awards!

Best Picture, Unique and Artistic Production
The Winner- SUNRISE: A SONG OF TWO HUMANS
CHANG: A DRAMA OF THE WILDERNESS
THE CROWD

F.W. Murnau's SUNRISE has been a classic from the day it was released, and with good reason. It's a marvelous, breathtaking, life-affirming movie. There's nothing else quite like it. Technically, it wasn';t quite silent, as there are quite a few sound effects in the film. Indeed, the major reviews when it came out mostly praised it as one of, if not the, greatest picture ever made. Well, most said that. Here's a great review from silent film fan magazine Photoplay, written when the movie was released in 1927:
The sort of picture that fools high-brows into hollering "Art!" Swell trick photography and fancy effects, but, boiled down, no story interest and only stilted, mannered acting.

F.W. Murnau can show Hollywood camera effects, but he could learn a lot about story-telling from local talent. The only American touch is a fine comedy sequence in a barber shop. The film has its moments. There is a love scene that smokes - literally. And there is a pathetic moment when the "hero" tries to drown his wife.

Janet Gaynor does good work but looks all wrong in a blonde wig which wouldn't fool anybody. George O'Brien acts like the Golem's little boy. Worth seeing for its technical excellence.

I love that review. Even then, some people were convinced that real critics are always full of shit. SUNRISE is a brilliant picture.

Best Picture (Production)
The Winner- WINGS
THE RACKET
SEVENTH HEAVEN

I have no real comment here. I haven't seen any of these.

Best Actor
The Winner- Emil Jannings, THE LAST COMMAND & THE WAY OF THE FLESH
Richard Barthelmess, THE NOOSE
Richard Barthelmess, THE PATENT LEATHER KID

Both actors came nominated for two films. Emil Jannings victory performance from THE LAST COMMAND (a marvelous movie) was utterly fantastic. So good choice, there.

Best Actress
The Winner- Janet Gaynor, SUNRISE & STREET ANGEL & SEVENTH HEAVEN
Gloria Swanson, SADIE THOMPSON
Louise Dresser, A SHIP COMES IN

Janet Caynor won for three, one of which was her very deserving role in the aforementinoed SUNRISE. I have a quote from Janet on her victory, taken from the insert in the SUNRISE DVD: "Had I known then what it would come to mean...I'm sure I'd have been overwhelmed. At the time, I think I was more thrilled over meeting Douglas Fairbanks." At the start, remember, the Oscar really didn't mean much. Take note of Gloria Swanson, who would be nominated two more times, most famously 22 years later in SUNSET BOULEVARD. Here, she was approaching the climax of her silent film stardom.

Best Direction, Comedy
The Winner- Lewis Milestone, TWO ARABIAN KNIGHTS
Ted Wilde, SPEEDY
I have not seen TWO ARABIAN KNIGHTS, but I have seen SPEEDY, a highly enjoyable Harold Lloyd comedy with great car stunts and marvelous sequences shot on location at Coney Island and around New York City. Chaplin's THE CIRCUS came out this year, and would have been a good choice. Indeed, Chaplin was nominated for Best Actor and Director, but was pulled from both categories in favor of giving him a special award.

Best Direction, Drama
The Winner- Frank Borzage, SEVENTH HEAVEN
King Vidor, THE CROWD
Herbert Brennon, SORRELL AND SON

Odd category. Where's Murnau for SUNRISE? Where's Von Sternberg for THE LAST COMMAND or THE DOCKS OF NEW YORK?

Honorary Awards:

-Charlie Chaplin for THE CIRCUS

-An award given to THE JAZZ SINGER for its special achievements


In looking at all this, the obvious "where-the-fuck-is-it" that sticks out is the complete lack of Buster Keaton's THE GENERAL in any of the nominations. THE GENERAL is, indeed, the best movie I have seen from 1927-28 and is easily one the greatest films ever made. But, on first release, while the reviews were warm if not glowing, it was a major, major Box office flop, and an expensive movie to boot. So the academy made a statement, right of the bat: "If the box office sucks, don't bother clearing your schedule come March." And they have, for the most part, stuck to that.

As you can see, from the messy, unfocused nature of these nominees, that the Oscars were very much a work in progress. Things would stay pretty goofy in a lot of ways until the late 30s-early 40s.

So that's 1927-28, in a nutshell. I won't go too far into technical categories yet- it's all very dry at this point. We'll focus on more of that stuff later on. So give this a read, and hopefully we can run through every ceremony up to the present. I think it will be fun.

Coming up....in 1929! Less confusing categories! The first talking picture/musical to win Best Picture! An Academy Award given to a fading superstar whose performance....kinda sucks! Stay tuned!

(FYI..even if you don't have anything to add yet, which would be ok...this is early...a simple "yes, yoshue, that was very interesting" would really make me happy. Thanks. )

Yes, yosue, that was pretty interesting.

LOL actually, I think this is great. Most of the focus in this forum has been the current races, not much towards the history of the Oscars or the ancient decades.

I have a question, was Comedy Direction only given this year? And they had a category for the title cards for the silent films, right?

Thanks, Valley Guy! I'm glad you find it interesting, and hopefully we can get some good discussion going about the history of the Oscars.

Yes, this was the only year the directing categories were separated.

There was, yes, a 'title card' award, along with two awards for writing, both original and adapted...much like now. I just avoided going into them because the year seemed dry enough already. The title writing award was only given out during this first ceremony. The next year, as silents were on their way out, all films were eligible for all categories, whether talkie or not. By '30, that wouldn't really be an issue anymore (moment of silence for the silent era....). You can see, starting in the next cermony, a real attempt to streamline the categories and lose all that separation (Artistic/Production, Comedy/Drama, Silent/Talkie, etc.)

What an interesting thread.

Great work Yoshue!

If people find Sound Mixing/Sound Editing confusing, I get confused what really is the difference between Best Unique and Artistic Production and Best Production. Some of the Oscar stuff I read do not even touch that. Or maybe there is a good source that says it all?

(I have the same issue with Best Story and Best Screenplay but I'll leave it at that, heh)

Oh, it is very confusing, Valley Guy. I don't even understand it, and I doubt the Academy really did. It's worth noting that WINGS, winner of "Best Production," was a massive, epic drama with a great deal of aerial effects, action, etc. It was also one of the most expensive films made to that point. So Best Production could be seen as an award to celebrate the massive, unprecedented scale the movie succeeded on. Meanwhile, despite its large "city" sets, SUNRISE is esentially a very intimate film, with some amazing, unique groundbreaking advances.

So I think the two categories were created to award:
1) The large-scale, populist films, made with great skill and craftsmanship
2) The smaller, more thoughtful, less mainstream, 'difficult' films that deserve kudos they will never get in BO receipts

Which, of course, is a debate we still see today, about "blockbusters" not getting any respect in comparison to the 'artsy' stuff. I'm sure this isn't the perfect anaylsis of the categories, but I think it's in the general area. They probably didn't really understand the differences in categories either, which is, I'm sure, why they ditched it the next year.

YOu know, I'm actually anticipating thoughts on The Broadway Melody.

1929 should be up later today.

Interesting read. Hurray for yoshue.

Bring on 1929.

Thanks to everyone who read/and or responded to the first part. Now, on with the show.

Well, 1928 was pretty interesting, what with being the first ceremony and all. The problem is...we're now into 1929. When you look at the nominees below, you're going to think "What the hell? I think I'm pretty well-versed in classic cinema, but I've never heard of these! Do prints of most of these movies still even exist?"

Which brings us to the problem with the films of 1929. Toward the end of the silent era, the films, predictably, became more and more groundbreaking and technically proficient. Take something like SUNRISE, one of the darlings of 1928. The camera techniques, sets, cinematography, etc. were far above anything created in the previous 2 decades of moviemaking. It's a tragedy, really; just as silents were beginning to disappear, the artform was reaching striking levels of quality and ingenuity.

But talkies came along, and with them came a giant step backward in film quality and technology. Sure, there was now sound, but the primitive early recording techniques resuled in still, immobile cameras, giving most of these early talkies a very 'stagey' feel. None of the funky camera movements of Murnau or Von Sternberg. Screenwriting was basically a new skill, so obviously most of these early talkies suffered from awkward pacing and worse dialogue. The acting, too, was stilted, with many performers new to spoken dialogue, and others, fresh from stage work, unaccustomed to movie acting. The result of all this is that the early talkies, for the most part, are just not very good, or memorable. 1929 was a real low point, in retrospect, for the movies. Luckily, things would soon get better. Indeed, it's quite entertaining how much more dated these early talkies seem than their latter-day silent counterparts. But, for now, we're left with the 1929 nominees which, for all the reasons I just mentioned, are barely remembered, if at all, and are most likely just not terribly good.

The 1929 Academy Awards

Notes:
- Gone are the categories of Title Writing, Unique & Artistic Production, Comedy Director; also, adapted screenplay and original screenplay are combined into one simple category: writing. It would not stay that way for long.
- A total of seven (!) categories this year
- Sound films are now eligible everywhere, as are silents (But most of the films nominated are talkies)
- First time the awards were broadcast live on radio
- The categories now may or may not have 5 nominees apiece (the imdb is telling me that there were no 'official nominees,' but I've never read that anywhere else...lets just assume these are correct)

The awards!


Best Picture
The Winner- BROADWAY MELODY
ALIBI
HOLLYWOOD MELODY
IN OLD ARIZONA
THE PATRIOT

I'm going to cut through giving long explanations for the 1929 categories, because, as I said, it's all pretty weak and I've seen very little. THE PATRIOT is, I believe, the only silent picture nominated above, thereby making it the last to be nominated for Best Picture. It's also a lost picture, with no prints known to exist. A shame. The rest are talkies including the winner, BROADWAY MELODY, the first musical that MGM, who would soon become famous for their musical prowess, ever made. BM is not a great movie, not by a long shot, but it carries a great deal of historical value. Furthermore, I would say it is reasonably entertaining and a very easy watch. But, it's more worthy today as a historical piece than as an actual movie. Still, it's clear why it won- nothing like it had ever been made, and it caused quite a sensation, and created the template for the musicals that would be prevalent throughout the early 30's: the 'backstage' musical. I'd personally give the award to the eternally overlooked Buster Keaton's last silent picture, STEAMBOAT BILL, JR., or maybe THE WIND, another wonderful silent picture.

IN OLD ARIZONA is a fairly shitty movie, most likely nominated because it, too, was a technical marvel for the time: the first talking picture to be shot outdoors.

Best Actor
The Winner- Warner Baxter, IN OLD ARIZONA
George Bancroft, THUNDERBOLT
Chester Morris, ALIBI
Paul Muni, THE VALIANT
Lewis Stone, THE PATRIOT

Warner Baxter is a good actor (famous for playing the intense director in one of my faves, 42ND STREET), as it Lewis Stone (Great old MGM contract player who brightened every movie he showed up in). But Baxter is unremarkable in IN OLD ARIZONA, and I haven't seen the rest.

Best Actress
The Winner- Mary Pickford, COQUETTE
Ruth Chatterton, MADAME X
Jeanne Eagles, THE LETTER
Betty Compson, THE BARKER
Corinne Griffith, THE DIVINE LADY
Bessie Love, BROADWAY MELODY

Note there are six nominees here. Anyway, the winner was "America's Sweetheart," Mary Pickford, arguably the most famous of silent film actresses and queen of Hollywood, for her first 'talking' performance. What's important to note about this is: Mary Pickford, as she was in all her talkies, is terrible in COQUETTE. Awful. The movie stinks too. This is the first example of the Academy giving major awards not for a performance, but as an acknowledgement of a wonderful career at its apex. Indeed, Mary Pickford's career in the movies would soon end; she made 3 or 4 more talkies and then retired from the screen. A documentary I saw on her a while back placed the reason for her departure from the screen as the result of "America's Changing Attitudes." I place the blame squarely on Pickford's shoulders: she was just not a 'sound' actress. Bessie Love is not too bad (high praise, I know) in BROADWAY MELODY and would have been a better choice. The unnominated pair of Lillian Gish in THE WIND or Greta Garbo in THE KISS (who has *much* better luck in '30) would also have been better. I haven't seen the other 4 nominees, but I imagine that they, too, would have been better.

Best Director
The Winner- Frank Lloyd, THE DIVINE LADY
Lionel Barrymore, MADAME X
Harry Beaumont, BROADWAY MELODY
Irving Cummings, IN OLD ARIZONA
Ernst Lubitsch, THE PATRIOT

I can offer no real insight here, except to say that Ernst Lubitsch, director of the lost PATRIOT, is one of my all-time favorite directors (TROUBLE IN PARADISE, NINOTCHKA, and TO BE OR NOT TO BE are among his classics), a real cinematic treasure, and a man who *never won an Oscar*. So I'm a tad biased, but I wish they'd have thrown a bone his way.

Best Writing
The Winner- Hans Kraly, THE PATRIOT
And a hodgepodge of nominees numbering around 10, many of whom have more than one nomination this year, including a second nomination for Mr. Kraly.

I never realized just what a shame the loss of THE PATRIOT is. God, I'd love to see that.

Best Cinematography
The Winner- Clyde de Vinna, WHITE SHADOWS IN THE SOUTH SEAS
George Barnes, OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS
Arthur Edeson, IN OLD ARIZONA
Ernest Palmer, FOUR DEVILS and STREET ANGEL
John Seitz, THE DIVINE LADY

Despite the groundbreaking nature of IN OLD ARIZONA's cinematography (which, as I said, was the first talkie shot outdoors), it's nothing special. I haven't seen the others.

Art (Interior) DecorationThe Winner- Cedric Gibbons, THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY
William Cameron Menzies, ALIBI
William Cameron Menzies, THE AWAKENING
Mitchell Leisen, DYNAMITE
Hans Drier, THE PATRIOT
Harry Oliver, STREET ANGEL


Those are all 7 categories from 1929. It's interesting to note that, while the nominees are all culled from a fairly narrow few, the winners vary greatly. No film wins one award. 'Sweeps' would be scarce for a long time (with some notable exceptions) but the highly divisive nature of these winners in rather rare. And that's 1929 in a nutshell, a rather uninteresting year, Oscar-wise.

Major snubs, as I mentioned, include STAMBOAT BILL, JR and THE WIND. And, while far from being their best (what with the lousy sound recording and overall awkwardness of the production) the Marx Brothers' THE COCONAUTS came out, and its far superior to the likes of IN OLD ARIZONA or even BROADWAY MELODY. But as we'll see throughout the 30s, the Marx Brothers will never recieve an academy award nomination.

Coming up in 1930! Finally, a movie wins both Picture and Director! And its a bonafide classic! Two family members, for the first time, win awards....and both are related to MGM Production Chief Irving Thalberg! How suspicious! And most of the nominees are still really obscure!

Honestly, 1930 is even less interesting than 1929. But we've got to look at every year, you know?

Thanks for reading.

Nice. Again an interesting read.

Another great read Yoshue. Your commentary on Mary Pickford ( ) is spot-on!!

Great read Yoshue. I feel terrible how little i can contribute early on. I agree with you that early sound film was tough to sit through. I've seen a few silent, and then really struggle to make it through the trnsition period. Alot of the actors and actresses that carried over just did not translate well. Silent film took completely different presence and body language and timing. There are people, even like Dietrich that went downhill once she had to go into "talkies." I feel Swanson was saved from it only by playing her old failing silent star self in Boulevard (later on).

I'll become alot more vocal in your later articles, so please keep it up. This is a fantastic thread and it will build monentum as the year progresses.

Truely a great read, yoshue.

Jeanne Eagels was great in The Letter! One of the first "bad girl" Oscar-nominated roles (recent examples are Kathy Bates' Annie Wilkes in Misery and Charlize Theron in Monster). She also had, I think, one of the most memorable final lines in any movie.

You have to add Yoshue, that this is the first ever posthumous nomination in the history of the Academy Awards. I believe Jeanne Eagels had some drug-related problems that led to her death.

Another interesting fact: Bette Davis (I think 1940?) starred in the remake of The Letter (playing Leslie, the Jeanne Eagels character) and was nominated for Best Actress as well. The remake fared better with 7 nominations.

Thanks to everyone for reading. I understand that not everybody has a hell of a lot to say about the awards of the late 20s/early 30s, but it's good to know everybody's reading. Things will pick up.

Now we reach 1930, a year with even weaker nominees than 1929; no small feat. The number of movies I've seen below is remarkably small. The trend we noticed in 1929 continues; the advent of the talkie brings about weaker, less imaginative films, and a group of nominees mostly forgotten by time.

I'll keep this all fairly brief, as there's just not much to say about 1930.

The 1930 Academy Awards

Notes:
-The two acting categories both have 7-8 categories, a phenomenon I cannot pretend to understand, except to point out that, as you will see, the Academy really enjoyed giving the same actors multiple nominations this year.
-MGM continues, despite not having the best picture winner this year, to dominate the nominations. There are major MGM stars like Wallace Beery, Norma Shearer, Greta Garbo. 2 of the directing nominees are two of MGM most prolific craftsmen: Clarence Brown (Garbo's favorite director; the movies they made together probably numbered close to ten), and King Vidor (who made such films as the silent megahit THE BIG PARADE). MGM chief Louis B. Mayer was, of course, one of the founders/heads of the Academy.
-Norma Shearer (Best Actress) and Douglas Shearer (the Sound winner) were brother/sister, and the first relatives to win in the same year. The family ties don't end there; Shearer is the wife of MGM production head, and No. 2 man at the studio, Irving Thalberg (who, of course, after his early death in '37, got the award named after him). Yeah, it's all more than a little shady.

Best Picture
The Winner- ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT
THE BIG HOUSE
THE DIVORCEE
DISRAELI
THE LOVE PARADE

Since I'm not sure whether or not to classify Sunrise as the first BP winner, let's just call ALL QUIET the first great, deserving film to win. And it did. AQOTWF is a masterpiece, a movie that has lost none of its power or importance in the 75 years since its release. It's anti-war, basically Pacifist theme resulted in the film falling out of favor after WW2, but it's regained its status as one of the great films. I mentioned 1930 as a weak year. It is, but AQOTWF shows no sign of the technical and other assorted problems that defined the year. I imagine that in 1930 they were well aware of how far this was ahead of any of the others.

THE BIG HOUSE has a reputation as the first, and most influential, 'prison' movie of its time. I've not seen it. Same goes for DIVORCEE and DISRAELI. LOVE PARADE, one of the many Maurice Chevalier/Ernst Lubitsch musical team-ups at Paramount (of which THE MERRY WIDOW is the best), is another one I have not seen, but my grandmother (how funny is that?) swears by. Regardless, there's no way any of them are superior to our winner. Time will show us many boneheaded decisions, easy choices missed, etc. This is not one of them.

Best Actor
The Winner- George Arliss, DISRAELI
George Arliss, THE GREEN GODDESS
Wallce Beery, THE BIG HOUSE
Maurice Chevalier, THE LOVE PARADE
Ronald Coleman, BULLDOG DRUMMOND
Ronald Coleman, CONDEMNED
Lawrence Tibbett, THE ROGUE SONG

I have seen none of these. Wallace Beery, who lost for his role in THE BIG HOUSE, win soon pick up a statue, under unique circumstances, as we'll see a little later. Maurice Chevalier was quite the charming screen presence, but he wasn't a great 'actor.' Not at all. From what I understand, George Arliss' DISRAELI performance was a fairly apt choice.

Best Actress
The Winner- Norma Shearer, THE DIVORCEE
Norma Shearer, THEIR OWN DESIRE
Nancy Carroll, THE DEVIL'S HOLIDAY
Ruth Chatterton, SARAH AND SON
Greta Garbo, ANNA CHRISTIE
Greta Garbo, ROMANCE
Gloria Swanson, THE TRESSPASSER

-Norma Shearer may have had an unfair advantage (see above) but she was a pretty wonderful actress (see THE WOMEN). However (even if I have not seen her winning performance in DIVORCEE) she is no Garbo, who, after last year's snub, picked up two nominations, inlcuding one for her first talkie, ANNA CHRISTIE. ANNA, sadly, is a prety unremarkable movie. Garbo's performance, however, while not her best (CAMILLE, NINOTCHKA), is really something. She emerges as an astonishingly commanding, confident presence, desptite her less-than-complete command of English. It's really something to see The Swedish beauty emerge as she does here. Again, not her best, but a perfectly deserving performance. Garbo would, as I've said, never win an Oscar. She did, however, get an honorary award in 1952. Long retired from the public eye, she refused to show up to collect it. Oh, that Garbo.

Gloria Swanson (AKA Norma Desmond) has another nomination this year. It would be her last (her acting roles would be quite scarce for the next two decades) until her iconic performance 20 years later in Billy Wilder's masterpiece SUNSET BOULEVARD.

Best Director
The Winner- Lewis Milestone, ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT
Clarence Brown, ANNA CHRISTIE
Robert Z. Leonard, THE DIVORCEE
Ernst Lubitsch, THE LOVE PARADE
King Vidor, HALLELUJAH

Unlike the previous two ceremonies, ALL QUIET is the clear 'winner' of the ceremonies, as it is the first movie to win both Picture and Director. Which, obviously, would eventually become the rule, not the exception, when it comes to Oscar ceremonies. Clarence Brown's direction of ANNA CHRISTIE is solid, especially the way he handles the build-up to Garbo's first words. He's let down by the script though. Note the second straight nomination for Lubitsch (I want to urge everyone, again, to see some of the man's movies). Lewis Milestone, the winner, was the best choice. Good call.

Best Writing
The Winner- Frances Marion, THE BIG HOUSE
George Abbott, Maxwell Anderson, Del Andrews, ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT
Julien Josephson, DISRAELI
John Meehan, THE DIVORCEE
Howard Estabrook, STREET OF CHANCE

Not much to add here, but Frances Marion, who won, was the first woman to win an award in a non-acting category.

Best Cinematography
The Winner- Joseph T. Rucker & Willard Van der Veer, WITH BYRD AT THE SOUTH POLE
Arthur Edeson, ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT
William H. Daniels, ANNA CHRISTIE
Tony Gaudio & Harry Perry, HELL'S ANGELS
Victor Milner, THE LOVE PARADE

BYRD is a rather interesting-sounding documentary about the South Pole that I have not seen, nor know much about. Sounds like a good choice though. Also, notice the nod for Howard Hughes' HELL'S ANGELS, the making of which was immortalized last year in THE AVIATOR.

Best Art Direction
The Winner- Herman Rosse, THE KING OF JAZZ
William Cameron Menzies, BULLDOG DRUMMOND
Hans Dreier, THE LOVE PARADE
Jack Okey, SALLY
Hans Dreier, THE VAGABOND KING

Losers Hans Drier and William Cameron Menzies were both nominees the year previous. Always a bridesmaid.

Best Sound (Recording)
The Winner- THE BIG HOUSE (Norma's brother, Douglas Shearer)
THE CASE OF SERGEANT GRISCHA
THE LOVE PARADE
RAFFLES
THE SONG OF THE FLAME

Those are the nominees! Winners still very divisive, but we finally had that consensus Best Picture: ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT.

Honorary Awards
-None, but Thomas Edison and George Eastman (of Eastman cameras) were both given honorary 'memberships' to the Academy.

I have overthought this to the point of hurting myself, but I just cannot think of any major snubs for 1930. It's a weak year, folks, what more can I say?

Coming up in 1931! A Best Picture winner often cited as 'the worst one ever' (no small feat if you've seen A BEAUTIFUL MIND or THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH)! An elderly character actress takes the statue over some of the most famous divas in Hollywood history! Chaplin gets a big 'fuck you!'

Thanks for reading.

Excellent! I had no idea!

So you've seen The Letter (1929)? How does it stack up, beside Eagels' performance? I've not seen either version.

Sadly, the direction and some dialogue come out as sort of clumsy, since they still are transitioning from silent to talkie, I guess. Oh, and the obvious racism (some plantation scenes, the Chinese brothel owner-cum-mistress). However, Eagels came out unscathed in this one (that final line delivery!!!). A mesmerizing presence, IMO. And I think the movie overall, while it ended kinda abruptly, was very straightforward, and compelling. (I don't think I made sense at all)

I've never seen the Bette Davis version though.

One of my goals of the year is to catch on the academy nominated movies from the way past.

I would loce that too, but over here most of those movies are almost impossible to get anywhere, except for the very well-known ones like Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, Ben Hur etc.

Great thread, by the way!

There's quite a bit of crap floating around the Oscar forum. Good to see some intelligent conversation and thought being poured into this thread.

I see some people are interested in maybe catching some of the movies above. Excellent. I'll start listing what and isn't available on DVD for each year.

To catch up:
1928
SUNRISE (Winner of 2: Best Picture (Unique and Artistic), Best Actress)
- Available on DVD, but only through Fox's "Best Picture" DVD Collection, also including GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT, HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY, and ALL ABOUT EVE (For a little over 20 bucks...great deal...I own that little set, and I recommend it highly). SUNRISE, sadly, is not available for purchase separately. It also does NOT appear to be available on Netflix.

SPEEDY (1 Nomination: Best Director, Comedy)
- Available in the new, massive Harold Lloyd Box Set, containing just about every silent film he ever made. I don't personally have it yet; that's what Christmas is for. Is available on Netflix.

The CIRCUS (Winner Special Academy Award)
- Available for purchase, as well as on Netflix.

1929
BROADWAY MELODY (Winner: Best Picture)
- Available for purchase, as well as on Netflix.

1930
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (Winner: Best Picture)
- Available for purchase, as well as on Netflix.

ANNA CHRISTIE (3 Nominations: Best Actress, Best Director, Best Cinematography)
- Available in Warner Bros.' new Greta Garbo Box Set, or separately. Is available on Netflix.

HELL'S ANGELS (1 Nomination: Best Cinematography)
- Available for purchase, as well as on Netflix.

WITH BYRD AT THE SOUTH POLE (Winner: Best Cinematography)
- Available for purchase in a region-free DVD, as well as on Netflix.

Those, to the best of my knowledge, are the availble DVD's from the first three years of Oscar. Pretty sad how few, eh?

If you're dying to see one of the others, my suggestion would be to check turnerclassicmovies.com's schedule; they air a lot of these things.

And probably about half of that is available in Germany...

And I believe Turner dedicates a night just for silents and just for Oscar nominees. (Do they still do that?)

Yes, Turner has what they call "Silent Sunday Nights," which means every Sunday night, at or around midnight, they show a silent movie. Usually just one. Silents can sometimes be found at other places on the schedule, but not often; Sunday night, however, is a constant.

They don't have an "Oscar night" per se, but they do have "30 Days of Oscar," where they show nothing but Oscar noiminees all month. It always happens during the month of the Oscar ceremony, so look for it come February.

And I just went to the website and saw that the aforementioned Bette Davis version of THE LETTER is on tonight at 2am. What a great channel.