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| Luise Rainer: Best Actress for The Good Earth |
THE VIENNESE TEARDROP
STRIKES AGAIN!!
"One shouldn't take them so seriously. After all, they gave two of them to Luise Rainer".
So said once-blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo about the Academy Awards, and he used the two-time Oscar winner as his reason for thinking as much.
The Tenth Academy Awards has that historic footnote: it was the first time someone won back-to-back competitive Oscars. Not satisfied with giving a highly mannered performance as Anna Held in The Great Ziegfeld, the world's oldest living Oscar winner was awarded an acting prize for playing a poor, demure Chinese peasant in The Good Earth. If the idea of an Austrian playing a Chinese woman doesn't already strike one as odd, her Chinese peasant husband was played by Yiddish theater star Paul Muni!
Well, so much for multiculturalism at the Oscars.
A decade into the Oscars, they are now taking the shape that has remained relatively unaltered since. Dramas, particularly biopics, are the Academy's catnip, while comedies are generally relegated to second-tier films. Sometimes the popular choice of the time is not the one that has stood the test of time.
As always this is just for fun and should not be taken as my final decision. I should like to watch all the nominees and winners before making my final, FINAL choice. Now, on to cataloging the official winners (in bold) and my selections (in red). Also, my substitutions (in green).
THE 1937 ACADEMY AWARD WINNERS
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Alice Brady (In Old Chicago)
Andrea Leeds (Stage Door)
Anne Shirley (Stella Dallas)
Claire Trevor (Dead End)
Dame May Whitty (Night Must Fall)
Brady has lost the year previous for My Man Godfrey, so I cannot say for certain this is a case of a 'retroactive Oscar', where a performer is given the prize for having been denied earlier. In what can only be called a case of continuing to deny Brady her Oscar, the Best Supporting Actress prize became the center of one of the strangest moments in Oscar history.
Brady was not present to accept her prize, so an unknown man leaped up to accept on her behalf. No one knew who the mysterious man was, and once he had the Oscar plaque in his hands (as Best Supporting Actor and Actress did not receive actual statuettes until much later) he and the Oscar disappeared, never to be seen again.
Alice Brady (In Old Chicago)
Andrea Leeds (Stage Door)
Anne Shirley (Stella Dallas)
Claire Trevor (Dead End)
Dame May Whitty (Night Must Fall)
For the moment, while I don't see much reason to change the official results until we see all the films, I'm going to pick the woman who got Katharine Hepburn to wax rhapsodic about calla lilies.
Alice Brady (In Old Chicago)
Billie Burke (Topper)
Margaret Dumont (A Day at the Races)
Andrea Leeds (Stage Door)
Flora Robson (Fire over England)
Given how personally popular Billie Burke was in Hollywood, it is surprising that she was nominated for an Academy Award only once. Burke's fluttery but loveable wife who must endure the strange actions of her husband (who claims to be haunted by friendly ghosts) is a pitch-perfect example of comedy at its highest. She isn't dumb, just incredulous, genuinely loves her Topper but can't believe the nonsense her fussy banker husband is telling her.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Ralph Bellamy (The Awful Truth)
Thomas Mitchell (The Hurricane)
Joseph Schildkraut (The Life of Emile Zola)
H.B. Warner (Lost Horizon)
Roland Young (Topper)
Schildkraut came and went in terms of movies. It is curious to me that for a movie called The Life of Emile Zola, a major chunk of it revolves around the Dreyfus Affair, and the man who plays Captain Alfred Dreyfus, the French officer falsely accused of espionage and treason whose persecution was motivated more by anti-Semitism than anything else justifiably received special attention. Schildkraut gives an excellent performance as Captain Dreyfus, and it is impossible not to be moved when he is stripped of his rank or when he is finally released from prison.
Ralph Bellamy (The Awful Truth)
Thomas Mitchell (The Hurricane)
Joseph Schildkraut (The Life of Emile Zola)
H.B. Warner (Lost Horizon)
Roland Young (Topper)
Having said that, I think it took an enormous amount of talent to play the fussy, stuffy banker who finds himself haunted by friendly ghosts, much to his irritation. His constant frustration at having to endure the benevolent aid of the happy-go-lucky Cary Grant and Constance Bennett is hilarious, his incessant struggle to maintain himself while the Kirbys are wrecking havoc on his life. His interpretation of Cosmo Topper was so good it brought two sequels: Topper Takes a Trip and Topper Returns.
Sadly, when it comes to comedy, neither Young or Ralph Bellamy had a ghost of a chance of winning.
No Substitutions.
BEST ACTRESS
Irene Dunne (The Awful Truth)
Greta Garbo (Camille)
Janet Gaynor (A Star is Born)
Luise Rainer (The Good Earth)
Barbara Stanwyck (Stella Dallas)
Lordy, Lordy were they nuts.
First, due to an error I put Greta Garbo's performance in Camille in last year's list, and I am frankly too lazy to make changes. Now, we have not one or two or even three but FOUR, mark them, FOUR iconic performances. You have Dunne's pitch-perfect comic performance in an essential screwball comedy. You have Garbo looking gorgeous and heartbreaking even as she is dying. You have Gaynor in the first take on a lurid tale of how Hollywood eats its own. Finally, you have the tough and brassy working-class woman who sacrifices so much so her daughter could have a place in society.
Out of all of those, they pick the one in yellowface.
Maybe it was because Rainer was more popular than the other nominees or that people were highly impressed with an Austrian playing a Chinese. Be that as it may, while I think her performance here is better than the fluttering one in The Great Ziegfeld, I think people don't remember it as much as they do the others.
Irene Dunne (The Awful Truth)
Greta Garbo (Camille)
Janet Gaynor (A Star is Born)
Luise Rainer (The Good Earth)
Barbara Stanwyck (Stella Dallas)
With the possible exception of Rainer, I don't think there is a single bad performance among the nominees. Picking just one therefore, is a bit of a task. However, out of all of them I think Dunne's comedic one as the wife who finds herself but suspecting and being suspected of infidelity still holds a high mark when it comes to screwball.
Constance Bennett (Topper)
Irene Dunne (The Awful Truth)
Greta Garbo (Camille)
Janet Gaynor (A Star is Born)
Barbara Stanwyck (Stella Dallas)
I think that Rainer is the odd duck out. Again the Academy preferred drama over laughs, which is a shame because we had some good mix of comedy and drama throughout the years. For the moment I am standing behind Dunne.
BEST ACTOR
Charles Boyer (Captive)
Fredric March (A Star is Born)
Robert Montgomery (Night Must Fall)
Paul Muni (The Life of Emile Zola)
Spencer Tracy (Captains Courageous)
This is a curious year for ethnically dubious casting. Who else could play a Portuguese sailor than the very Irish Spencer Tracy? At least it wasn't as bizarre as having a European playing an Asian. I haven't seen the performances, but I am not predisposed to like Tracy in this film only because the accent is a bit much. Not a deal-breaker by any stretch, but not a plus either.
Charles Boyer (Captive)
Fredric March (A Star is Born)
Robert Montgomery (Night Must Fall)
Paul Muni (The Life of Emile Zola)
Spencer Tracy (Captains Courageous)
March originated the role of Norman Maine, the former matinee idol whose career crashes and burns while his wife's rises. While I think highly of James Mason's version in the first remake (with another one on the way last I read), I think March's acceptance that his career is over is a fine turn.
Cary Grant (The Awful Truth)
Fredric March (A Star is Born)
Laurence Olivier (Fire over England)
Robert Montgomery (Night Must Fall)
Paul Muni (The Life of Emile Zola)
Grant is another performer who simply made it all look too easy, as if he weren't actually acting, just being. He is the midst of his comedy phase in this period, and while he never stopped making comedies his persona would go through a subtle shift to where we could see the darkness beneath the suave manner in the future. It is surprising that while his costars were nominated for The Awful Truth, he himself was not.
BEST SONG
Remember Me (Mr. Dodd Takes the Air)
Sweet Leilani (Waikiki Wedding)
That Old Feeling (Walter Wanger's Vogues of 1938)
They Can't Take That Away from Me (Shall We Dance)
Whispers in the Dark (Artists and Models)
Again we have a case of what was popular at the time winning over what has stood the test of time. Who remembers Sweet Leilani (let alone Waikiki Wedding)? I've heard the song. It's pretty, inoffensive, but utterly forgettable. I defy people to whistle it without looking it up.
There is one song that is now a standard, which has stood the test of time and is part of the Great American Songbook. The fact that its composer, George Gershwin, died two months after Shall We Dance premiered, making this his final film work, lends his brother Ira's lyrics a special significance.
I'm sure contemporary audiences went for the hokey Sweet Leilani and its dreams of Hawaiian romance, but there's no doubt now that it made the first of several bad choices.
As a side note, its most recent bad choice...Skyfall from Skyfall.
My Choice: from Shall We Dance, They Can't Take That Away from Me, music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin.
However, I'm going to throw a wrench into the proceedings when I say that I would have selected ANOTHER song from my list of nominees. It's amazing that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs lost Best Original Score to One Hundred Men and a Girl (which sounds rather perverse if you ask me). It is even more surprising that not one of its songs was nominated for Best Song. Given how so many of Snow White's songs (Whistle While You Work, Heigh-Ho), especially compared to the totally obscure Sweet Leilani, its absence from the nominees is more bizarre. Having said all that, I'm picking as my choice for Best Original Song...
From Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Some Day My Prince Will Come, music and lyrics by Frank Churchill and Leigh Harline.
BEST DIRECTOR
William Dieterle (The Life of Emile Zola)
Sydney Franklin (The Good Earth)
Gregory La Cava (Stage Door)
Leo McCarey (The Awful Truth)
William Wellman (A Star is Born)
In this situation, it is surprise that the Academy went for a comedy rather than the prestige biopic or the more serious drama. I want to speculate that it might be a case of spreading the wealth around, but in this case, I think the Academy might have had a soft spot for screwball. It's curious that in the Academy's first ten years, not counting when there was a Best Comedy Directing Oscar, the AMPAS chose a comedy in the Directing category four times.
William Dieterle (The Life of Emile Zola)
Sydney Franklin (The Good Earth)
Gregory La Cava (Stage Door)
Leo McCarey (The Awful Truth)
William Wellman (A Star is Born)
So far, I find no cause to disagree with the official choice...
George Cukor (Camille)
William Dieterle (The Life of Emile Zola)
Leo McCarey (The Awful Truth)
Norman Z. McLeod (Topper)
William Wellman (A Star is Born)
Even with a few minor alterations.
BEST PICTURE
The Awful Truth
Captains Courageous
Dead End
The Good Earth
In Old Chicago
The Life of Emile Zola
Lost Horizon
One Hundred Men and a Girl
Stage Door
A Star is Born
It is no surprise that the Academy went for the "important biopic" for the Best Picture prize. This category leans heavily towards dramatic films. There are some signs of things to come. A Star is Born was the first color film to be nominated for Best Picture, and the dramatic Lost Horizon got a nod despite its financial failure. Adding insult to injury, the original cut of Lost Horizon is itself lost, which is a loss to cinema history. It is interesting though that this is the second biopic in as many years we have gone from the lavish and frothy The Great Ziegfeld to the self-consciously serious The Life of Emile Zola.
The Awful Truth
Captains Courageous
Dead End
The Good Earth
In Old Chicago
The Life of Emile Zola
Lost Horizon
One Hundred Men and a Girl
Stage Door
A Star is Born
However, out of all the films on the list, only a few still manage to rise to long-lasting. Seriously, One Hundred Men and a Girl? It might be a good film, but when was the last time someone saw it? Having said all that, I think only one is still remembered, still watched and loved. What can I say...it's not awful, and that's the truth.
Now, as for my choice from my list of nominees for the Best Picture of 1937...
The Awful Truth
A Day at the Races
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
A Star is Born
Topper
1937 certainly wasn't spoiled for choice when it came to great movies. Again perhaps its a reflection of my own tastes that we have three comedies nominated for Best Picture to go along with one drama. However, as much as I may love the films I think the technical and historic achievement (not to mention the actual quality) of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs puts it over the top to make it my personal choice.
Next time, the 1938 Oscars.
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| You're a very nice lady, but you don't deserve either of them. |
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