OVP: Best Actor (1931-32)
The Nominees Were...
Wallace Beery, The Champ
Alfred Lunt, The Guardsman
Fredric March, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
My Thoughts: We are moving next into the Best Actor field, which in 1931-32 was a bit different than what we'd expect today for said field. For starters, there were no supporting performances nominated in their own category. This didn't always mean, though, that there were no supporting performances in general. Oftentimes, we'd see performances (such as Franchot Tone in Mutiny on the Bounty) that would've been supporting in a normal year still get into lead. In fact, Tone's nomination against his costars Clark Gable & Charles Laughton in much bigger roles, became one of the principle reasons that Oscar created the supporting categories. But for this field, we've got three actors very much taking the lead...and in a first-and-only case for this category, more than one of them won the category.
We'll start with the guy that didn't win, Alfred Lunt. Lunt was a major star on the boards, eventually having a Broadway theater named after he and his wife Lynn Fontanne. They rarely worked together on screen, and after seeing The Guardsman, I kind of get why. The two do not modulate well (at all) to the movies, playing to the back of the rafters, and it's too hammy. Lunt plays dual roles, but only an idiot would ever be convinced they aren't the same person, to the point where you spend much of the movie wondering why the character's marriage works. It's a total waste, and the only good thing about this nomination is that it provides a decent amount of trivia given how strange a married couple getting nominated for the same film is.
The other two films are better, and Fredric March is a good reminder as to how someone can be theatrical and still marvelous onscreen. His work as both the kindly Dr. Jekyll and the notorious Mr. Hyde are fantastic. I love the ways that he plays them so differently, when notes of each character play in the other, it feels like it's almost the character breaking through, and not just because it's the same actor playing the part. Kudos have to go to the terrific makeup & visual effects teams responsible here, but it wouldn't work if you weren't properly terrified of March on the big screen.
Wallace Beery is our final nominee. Beery's work in The Champ is widely celebrated now, perhaps more so than even fellow winner March, because it's such a textbook example of a father-and-son sports movie. I will own that I think Jackie Cooper is actually better in this movie than Beery is (I think he lands some of the bigger moments at the end, and unlike Beery, he doesn't have a clear back story that we're skipping over & making the film feel thinner), but this is a fine, if two-dimensional look at the way our crushed dreams never truly leave us.
Other Precursor Contenders: I think if we are looking for the fourth place here, it's going to be one of two people. The first would be Jackie Cooper, who had to have just missed for his child star turn in The Champ...I wonder if a year after he was nominated for Skippy if the Academy didn't think it was appropriate to nominate a child actor for back-to-back statues. The other option would be Ronald Colman, whose staid work in Arrowsmith isn't nearly as good as Cooper's, but given his decent run at the Oscars (four nominations and one statue in total), he was probably on their radar.
Actors I Would Have Nominated: Lionel and Ethel Barrymore both won Oscars at some point in their careers, but their brother John (the tragic Barrymore sibling) never got nominated, and it's a damned shame as he was one of the most consistent presences in early sound film. Surely there was room for him for Grand Hotel?
Oscar’s Choice: Oscar's choice was Fredric March, but thanks to a strange anomaly in the Oscar bylaws which resulted in a tie if you were separated by three or less votes (this would be changed afterward), Wallace Beery was also honored for Best Actor having lost by only one vote to March, so both of them won the statue.
My Choice: First off, if I get only one year to give out a tie for Best Actor, it's going to go to something like 1962 or 1974, not this year, which I'll happily hand to March. Beery follows, then Lunt...which is the first time I can say with absolute certainty that Oscar & I matched exactly.
Those are my thoughts-what are yours? What do you think of Oscar's tie rule-do you wish they'd bring it back (and invite more ties)? Am I alone in thinking that Alfred Lunt is not strong in The Guardsman? And between Cooper & Colman, who do you think just missed this lineup? Share your thoughts below in the comments!
Also in 1931-32: Adapted Screenplay, Original Story, Art Direction, Cinematography, Previously in 1931-32
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