OVP: Best Actress (1931-32)
The Nominees Were...
My Thoughts: There are a lot of really terrific lineups that Oscar has pulled together through the years. Some, like 2001 Best Score, it's so good it still haunts my dreams over what I picked to win, while others (like 2007 Cinematography) I stand tall in my victor choice, but I am just in awe of how strong the quintet that Oscar picked is. Best Actress of 1931-32...is not one of those lineups. I currently have 121 Best Actress nominations left to see (I'll hit one more this week, so watch me on Letterboxd if you don't already as I post every film review there rather than just ones that fit our series here), but of the years that I have finished, this is easily the worst Best Actress lineup I've encountered. I don't even like any of these nominations (none of them will show up in my My Ballot later this week), but the rules of the OVP are simple-I gotta pick at least one of them to win, and so we shall proceed.
Marie Dressler is the best film actress of these three (the other two are such stage legends they both got Broadway theaters named after them but Dressler knew movies), and was coming off of an Oscar win the previous year with Emma. But this has none of the fight of Min and Bill, and Dressler is largely relegated to window dressing in Emma. The film plays out like a melodrama, and her broad-as-a-barn comedy style is a bad fit for a character that is meant to have some more tender feelings at the end of the picture that I don't think she connected with. Dressler is very watchable, it's worth noting, but she's not super good in this (and neither is the film itself).
Helen Hayes film was a mixed bag even when it came out (I cannot remember which film critic called it this, but they dubbed it The Sin of Maudlin Claudet) which is both bitchy & accurate. Hayes plays this character to the hilt, but unlike Dressler has a bit more fun with the camp. She's not as good of a movie star as Dressler, but she's probably a better actor underneath it all, and it shows as the film progresses, with her getting to scenery-chew, but generally in a way that doesn't make you want to click the remote. Neither of Hayes Oscar wins were for particularly good movies, which is a pity given how storied her acting legend was in her lifetime.
Speaking of storied acting legends, we have Lynn Fontanne. Some actresses of her era, like Jeanne Eagels, were able to get to the big screen and just nail their first roles in the cinema. Fontanne...does not. The performance probably would've worked on a stage, but we aren't watching on a stage-we're walking on a big-screen, and neither she nor her husband Alfred Lunt can sell this one-note, staid affair, and it feels like they neither make sense as romantic partners in the film, nor as sentient human beings given how stupid the premise of this picture is. Hard pass.
Other Precursor Contenders: I would assume that in fourth place was one of the women that had recently been nominated for Best Actress and were starring in Best Picture nominees, Marlene Dietrich (Shanghai Express) or Greta Garbo (Grand Hotel). Perhaps the two (who had a frosty real-life relationship) split the gorgeous European-goddess vote, but it's weird that neither of them got into this field, especially as Dressler & Hayes were their films only citations.
Actors I Would Have Nominated: Dietrich, without a doubt. The work she's doing in Shanghai Express is not the best she's ever done, but she looks so damned beautiful it's kind of another level of acting (and she is, for the record, terrific).
Oscar’s Choice: Oscar could not deny Helen Hayes playing a hooker (which would become a route that would work for everyone from Donna Reed to Elizabeth Taylor to Kim Basinger in the years that followed).
My Choice: I feel the need to point out that I give Oscars for the OVP in a vacuum. Marie Dressler, for example, is the better movie star and by far my favorite performer of these three...giving her a statue right now would mean I don't have to worry about her getting bumped for Min and Bill the previous year, which is a field I haven't yet completed so I don't know if she's safe. But that's not how this works, and of the three, based solely on what's in front of me, I think Hayes is more interesting and "deserves" the win in a field I don't like at all. Dressler follows, then Fontanne.
Those are my thoughts, but now I want to hear yours! Are you sticking with Oscar and I with Hayes, or do you want to strike out on your own? Am I alone in thinking that this is Oscar's worst Best Actress lineup? And why did Garbo & Dietrich not get layup nominations this year? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Also in 1931-32: Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Original Story, Art Direction, Cinematography, Previously in 1931-32
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