Your Favourite Performances from 1930 to present are...

[Bogie56]

Hi everyone.  This thread is a follow-up of sorts to LawrenceA’s Top Ten Films thread in that is meant to develop lists of films that are recommended to see, this time because of the performances in them.  We can all probably think of a few mediocre films that are worth seeing because of some good performances.

 

I am going to start again with 1930 then after a one week’s time I will change the name of the thread to 1931 and so on.  IF THERE IS INTEREST, THAT IS!  I ask only a few things of participants.  

First, to wait until I have posted the list of Oscar nominated performances for the given year before clocking in with your own choices.  

Second, to go by the generally accepted theatrical release date of a film rather than the year it was nominated for an Oscar.  In other words, Casablanca would compete in 1942, not 1943 for our purposes.

Third, is to try to group your performances into 5 categories: Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress and Juvenile.    Again, I would ignore what the Oscars did in terms of categories and put the actor in the category you think most appropriate.  For example, I would put Rooney Mara from Carol (2015) in the lead actress category.  Foreign language performances are most welcome too.  Juvenile performances can be listed in the four acting categories as well if you think they are the best.

 

You can post your lists all at once or bit by bit over the coarse of the week.  eg, Supporting Actress for 1930 one day and Best Actor another.  You can list just one performance or make like you are determining the nominations or an even longer short list. 

 

If you can, listing character names will help too especially with performers who are not as well known to us all, like …

 

HARRY C. MYERS ("An Eccentric Millionaire"), City Lights

 

Feel free to discuss choices but let’s not get too mean.  Everyone has an opinion.

 

If someone wishes to add what the Golden Globes or SAG nominees and winners were that would be good too.  I’ll try to dig up the Cannes and New York Film Critics Winners and post them too.

 

If you are like me and like to second guess the Oscars this might be a fun thread you will enjoy.  Hopefully we will get some recommendations for films we have not seen based on some good performances.  My pre-code viewing is on the thin side so the first few years are difficult for me.

[LawrenceA]

So you'll list the Oscar nominations from 1930 and then we list our 1930 choices or the other way around?

[Bogie56]

So you'll list the Oscar nominations from 1930 and then we list our 1930 choices or the other way around?

 

I'll list the Oscar nominated performances to kick things off each time.

 

Note that until 1934, the Oscars were operating on a non-calendar year.  We won't do that.

 

And you don't have to pick one of the Oscar nominees as your favourite.  You can list as many as you like in each acting category and put them in order of preference if you like.

[Bogie56]

As everyone is probably aware the first few years of the Oscars were not awarded by the calendar year.  We had 1930-1931, 1931-1932 etc.  Also there were not any supporting actor awards until 1936.  Let’s correct all of that in this thread.

 

Here are the choices of the Academy Awards.  The winner is listed first.  I’m adding X’s to the ones that were not released in 1930.

 

1929-1930 Oscars

 

Best Actor

 

George Arliss, Disraeli   X (29)

George Arliss, The Green Goddess

Wallace Beery, The Big House

Maurice Chevalier, The Love Parade X  (29)

Maurice Chevalier, The Big Pond

Ronald Colman, Bulldog Drummond   X (29)

Ronald Colman, Condemned  X  (29)

Laurence Tibbett, The Rogue Song  (film is lost)

 

Best Actress

 

Norma Shearer, The Divorcee

Nancy Carroll, The Devil's Holiday

Ruth Chatterton, Sarah and Son

Greta Garbo, Anna Christie

Greta Garbo, Romance

Norma Shearer, Their Own Desire  X  (29)

Gloria Swanson, The Trespasser  X  (29)

 

 

 

1930-1931 Oscars

 

Best Actor

 

Lionel Barrymore, A Free Soul   X (31)

Jackie Cooper, Skippy   X (31)

Richard Dix, Cimarron   X  (31)

Fredric March, The Royal Family of Broadway  X (31)

Adolphe Menjou, The Front Page   X (31)

 

Best Actress

 

Marie Dressler, Min and Bill  (30)

Marlene Dietrich, Morocco  (30)

Irene Dunne, Cimarron   X (31)

Ann Harding, Holiday    X (31)

Norma Shearer, A Free Soul   X (31)

[Bogie56]

I’ve only seen 24 films from 1930 so my choices are a bit limited.  Here are my supporting choices.

 

Best Supporting Actor

 

1.  LOUIS WOLHEIM (Katczinsky), All Quiet on the Western Front

2.  ARNOLD LUCY (Kantorek), All Quiet on the Western Front

3.  SLIM SUMMERVILLE (Tjaden), All Quiet on the Western Front

4.  JOHN WRAY (Himmelstoss), All Quiet on the Western Front

5.  FRITZ KAMPERS (Bruno/"the Bavarian"), Westfront 1918

 

6.  BEN ALEXANDER (Kemmerick), All Quiet on the Western Front

7.  CONRAD NAGEL (Paul), The Divorcee

8.  HANS JOACHIM MOBEIS (Rolf/"the Student"/"Kid"), Westfront 1918

9.  ADOLPHE MENJOU (Monsieur La Bessiere), Morocco

10. ROBERT MONTGOMERY (Don), The Divorcee

 

Best Supporting Actress

 

1.  MARIE DRESSLER (Marthy Owen), Anna Christie

2.  HANNA HOESSRICH ("Karl's Wife"), Westfront 1918

3.  MARJORIE RAMBEAU (Bella Pringle), Min and Bill

4.  LEILA HYAMS (Anne Marlowe), The Big House

5.  MARGARET DUMONT (Mrs. Rittenhouse), Animal Crackers

 

6.  FLORENCE ELDRIDGE (Helen), The Divorcee

7.  ELSE HELLER ("Karl's Mother"), Westfront 1918

8.  HENRIETTA CROSMAN (Fanny Cavendish), The Royal Family of Broadway

9.  JACKIE MONNIER (Jacqueline/"Yvonne, die Franzosin"),  Westfront 1918

10. PHYLLIS KONSTAM (Doucie Markham), Murder!

 

and ..

KAY FRANCIS (Kitty Parker), Behind the Make-Up

[LawrenceA]

Best Actor - 1930

 

Lew Ayres  -  Paul in All Quiet on the Western Front

Wallace Beery  -  Butch in The Big House

Charles Bickford  -  Matt in Anna Christie

Lon Chaney  -  Echo in The Unholy Three

Emil Jannings  -  Professor Rath in The Blue Angel *

 

 

 

I'm listing mine the way I have my Oscar lists laid out. The performers are listed alphabetically by last name, and there is an asterisk beside the one I feel should be the winner. I'll also limit myself to 5 in each category to maintain the Oscar format.

[GregoryPeckfan]

Sounds like fun.  1930 this week.  Okay, I have seen a lot of movies from the 1930s, so that means I'll be able to take part as time goes on.  Great!

 

Here are my choices:  I'll do no more than 5 per category just for me, but some I will just list a winner

 

 

Best Picture:

All Quiet on the Western Front - really the best for sure

 

Best Director:

Lewis Milestone for All Quiet on the Waterfront -winner for me

 

Best Actor Choices:

Lew Ayres for All Quiet on the Western Front -winner for me

Wallace Beery for The Big House

Ronald Colman for Raffles

Chester Morris for The Big House

Robert Montgomery or The Big House

 

Best Actress Choices:

Greta Garbo for Anna Christie

Kay Francis for Raffles

Norma Shearer for The Divorcee -winner for me

 

all the others for Best Actress are the same women, so I won't list more.

[film lover 293]

1930: All winners will have an asterisk by their name: Best Actor:

 

Lawrence Tibbett as Lieutenant Michael Petroff in New Moon

Lew Ayres as Paul Baumer in All Quiet On The Western Front

Gary Cooper as Tom Brown in Morocco

Groucho Marx as Captain Spaulding in Animal Crackers

Emil Jannings as Professor Immanuel Rath in The Blue Angel*

 

Best Actress:

 

Greta Garbo as Anna Christie in Anna Christie*

Norma Shearer as Jerry Martin in The Divorcee

Marlene Dietrich as Lola-Lola in The Blue Angel

Marie Dressler as Min in Min and Bill

Ann Harding as Linda Seton in Holiday

 

Best Supporting Actor:

 

Esme Percy as Handel Fane in Murder!*

David Manners as 2nd Lt. Raleigh in Journey's End*

Roland Young as Jimmy Wade in Madame Satan

Bing Crosby in King of Jazz

 

Best Supporting Actress:

 

Margaret Dumont as Mrs. Rittenhouse in Animal Crackers

Marie Dressler as Marthy Owens in Anna Christie*

Barbara Stanwyck as Kay Arnold in Ladies of Leisure

Florence Eldridge as Helen Baldwin in The Divorcee

Mary Astor as Julia Seton in Holiday

 

Double asterisk in BSActor category isn't a typo--we start with a tie.

[kingrat]

Cool idea for a thread, Bogie. My choices would probably be:

 

Best Picture: ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

Best Director, Lewis Milestone, ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

Best Actor: Lew Ayres, ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

Best Actress: Greta Garbo, ANNA CHRISTIE

 

Although Groucho Marx and Margaret Dumont have given me so many hours of laughter, it's hard not to reward them.

[speedracer5]

Great idea for a thread Bogie! My viewing for pre-1934 films is really thin, so I'll do the best I can. Right now I can only think of one film that I've seen from 1930.

[Bogie56]

I have a handy little reference pocket book called The Encyclopedia of Movie Awards by Michael Gerbert.  My edition goes up to 1994.

At the end of each year, Gerbert offers his 'Golden Armchair' awards which are often quite interesting.

For this split Academy year he chose:

Ronald Colman, Bulldog Drummond (1929)

Marlene Dietrich, The Blue Angel (1930)

 

[Bogie56]

My pick for the juvenile performance of 1930 is the one and only Jackie Coogan in Tom Sawyer (1930).

Coogan, of course was the star of Chaplin's The Kid (1921) and much later appeared as Uncle Fester in The Addams Family television series.

Coogan's work in Tom Sawyer proves that The Kid was no accident.  It is a shame that this film has all but disappeared.  It used to be show on weekend tv matinees quite regularly way-back-when.

[film lover 293]

Bogie56--I looked at tomorrows' schedule. 1928's "Our Dancing Daughters was included among the first A Awards nominees.  Does this mean we can include 1928 performances??  If so, I have to amend my post for 1930.

[Bogie56]

Bogie56--I looked at tomorrows' schedule. 1928's "Our Dancing Daughters was included among the first A Awards nominees.  Does this mean we can include 1928 performances??  If so, I have to amend my post for 1930.

 

The Oscars started in 1927 but like LawrenceA's Top Ten thread I chose to start with 1930 as I hadn't seen that many films prior to that date to make it worthwhile plus a lot of the films are lost forever.  So, for now it is just films released in 1930.

I would prefer that we ignore the Oscars with regard which years they choose to have a film compete for their awards.  It is the Los Angeles film festival in some regard for their rules stipulate that a film has to play in that city to qualify for the Oscars.  If you follow that rule you get Casablanca which was released in New York in 1942 in the 1943 awards and much worse when it comes to foreign films.  If you go by the Oscars look what happened to Limelight (1952).  It won an Oscar in 1973 because it hadn't been released in LA for almost 20 years.  That is just ridiculous.

So, lets just go by the year the film was released to the public.  The imdb or wikipedia is usually pretty good at providing those dates although there are some mistakes.

In Lawrence's Top Ten thread I said I personally would make exception for films that were banned for a great many years.  This happened in the Soviet block all of the time.  So, in some cases if a film was completed in 1982 but didn't see the light of day until 8 years later I would chose the 1982 release date.

I hope this all makes sense.

[LawrenceA]

I'm not sure if I'm doing this way you intended, Bogie, since everyone seems to be doing this in different formats, but here's my second list.

 

 

Best Actress

 

Marlene Dietrich - Lola-Lola in The Blue Angel*

Greta Garbo - Anna Christie in Anna Christie

Norma Shearer - Jerry Martin in The Divorcee

 

I haven't seen any other performances I would nominate.

[GregoryPeckfan]

What is this Golden Armchair award?

[Bogie56]

What is this Golden Armchair award?

 

It is just a title that Michael Gerbert, the author of a pocket book called The Encyclopedia of Movie Awards gave to his own choices for each year.  Given the freedom to choose anyone, not just an Oscar nominee some of Gerbert's choices are interesting.

[GregoryPeckfan]

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Choice for Winner:

 

Robert Montgomery for The Divorcee

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS  Choice for Winner:

 

Florence Eldridge (Helen) in The Divorcee.

[LawrenceA]

I'll go ahead and post my other choices, since they are not substantial at all.

 

Best Supporting Actor of 1930

 

James Cagney  -  Mileaway in The Doorway to Hell

Louis Wolheim  -  Kat in All Quiet on the Western Front*

 

 

Best Supporting Actress of 1930

 

I don't recall anything extraordinary.

 

same with Juvenile roles. 

[kingrat]

I'm not sure if I'm doing this way you intended, Bogie, since everyone seems to be doing this in different formats, but here's my second list.

 

 

Best Actress

 

Marlene Dietrich - Lola-Lola in The Blue Angel*

Greta Garbo - Anna Christie in Anna Christie

Norma Shearer - Jerry Martin in The Divorcee

 

I haven't seen any other performances I would nominate.

Lawrence, I'm not sure if I just haven't seen enough movies from 1930, but those are the three that stood out to me, too.

[GregoryPeckfan]

I've seen The Kid several times.  Of course, the true story of Jackie Coogan's life and financial status led to the Jackie Coogan

law.

 

As to an award for juveniles in this particular year of 1930:

I have not seen enough of actual 1930 movies to pick a juvenile award for 1930.

[GregoryPeckfan]

Here is a question Bogie:

 

When did the Academy Awards stop having a special Juvenile Award?

[TomJH]

1930 is a tough year for me to rate performances because 1. I have seen a limited number of films from that year and 2. What I have seen, by and large, hasn't impressed me very much. From what I've seen, it was the weakest year of the decade for films and performances.That's the reason why in most cases here I don't have five top performances named (my favourite being the first in bold).

 

Anyway, here goes:

 

BEST ACTOR

 

Lew Ayres, All Quiet on the Western Front

Emil Jannings, The Blue Angel

Lon Chaney, The Unholy Three

Edward G. Robinson, Little Caesar

George Arliss, The Green Goddess

Fredric March, Royal Family of Broadway

 

BEST ACTRESS

 

Marlene Dietrich, The Blue Angel

Greta Garbo, Anna Christie

Marie Dressler, Min and Bill

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

 

Louis Wolheim, All Quiet on the Western Front

Adolphe Menjou, Morocco

James Cagney, Sinners Holiday

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

 

Marie Dressler, Anna Christie

(not much competition for Marie with my awards)

[Bogie56]

Here is a question Bogie:

 

When did the Academy Awards stop having a special Juvenile Award?

 

It may have been around 1953 when they gave statues to the two little boys of The Little Kidnappers.

[Bogie56]

I think it was around 1972 that I bought a pocket book on the Oscars that listed all of the nominations.  It had The French Connection on the cover.  I used it to note which films I had seen and from there my weird hobby of making lists of what to look for and what I had already seen really took off.

This combined with my outrage..OUTRAGE!..in 1967 when my favourite actor, Steve McQueen lost the Academy award to someone I had never even heard of inspired me to start my own list of favourites year-by-year.

In 1994 i picked up a book called Alternate Oscars by Danny Peary.  It was a book I fancied that I might try to write myself one day so it was initially a bit deflating.  Anyway, this book provided me with yet more films to try to see.  I thought I would list Perry's choices for Alternate Oscars as there are a few good surprises through the years.

To begin with, Perry followed the Academy split year format so I have put X's beside the films that were not released in 1930.

 

Peary's Alternate Oscars for 1930 ...

 

1929-1930 Best Actor

Wallace Beery, The Big House*

George Arliss, Disraeli  X (29)

Maurice Chevalier, The Love Parade  X (29)

 

1929-1930 Best Actress

Louise Brooks, Pandora's Box*  X (29)

Louise Brooks, Diary of a Lost Girl  X (29)

Helen Morgan, Applause  X (29)

 

1930-1931 Best Actor

Edward G. Robinson, Little Caesar*  X (31)

James Cagney,  The Public Enemy  X (31)

Charles Chaplin, City Lights  X (31)

Fredric March, The Royal Family of Broadway

Adolphe Menjou, The Front Page  X (31)

 

1930-1931 Best Actress

Marlene Dietrich, Morocco*

Joan Crawford, Dance, Fools, Dance  X (31)

Marie Dressler, Min and Bill

Sylvia Sidney, An American Tragedy  X (31)