Monday 9 May 2011

Best Actor 1931: Results

5. Richard Dix in Cimarron- Well this was an easy choice. Dix really is just terrible, he is either incredibly dull, or very odd when he breifly over acts with a hoot and holler he does on occasion.
4. Adolphe Menjou in The Front Page- Menjou's performance overall is rather brief, but he gives a properly commanding and manipulative performance that works well enough.
3. Fredric March in The Royal Family of Broadway- March's performance is just about crazy as they get, and I really enjoyed his insane work here, I wish the film knew what it had though, since it certainly just does not give March enough to work with.
2. Jackie Cooper in Skippy- Jackie Cooper gives a very nice performance, that is filled with the right amount of charm, he is also emotionally effective, when tragedy strikes in the film.
1. Lionel Barrymore in A Free Soul- Lionel Barrymore's performance is a strong piece of work, even if dated in a few ways. Barrymore gives a strong portrait of an alcoholic lawyer, showing more to it that just drunkenness but rather a deep pain. Barrymore's performance only gets stronger as the film continues, and climaxes with a very powerful final speech.
Deserving Performances:
Peter Lorre in M
Edward G. Robinson in Little Caesar

9 comments:

dinasztie said...

It's ironic that March lost to a Barrymore. :D

dshultz said...

M is a great movie, better than any of these. What would you have given Lorre?

Fritz said...

Very interesting but I admit that I have only seen Dix.

Louis Morgan said...

Dinasztie: Supposedly Barrymore talked about the other nominees when he won, I wonder what he said about March.

dshultz: I have not watched it in awhile but Lorre would be at least a 4.5.

Anonymous said...

Peter Loree should have won! That's one of the best performances I've seen from the early years.

Anonymous said...

I'm very interested in this year, and every day I get more interested in watching Cimarron to see if it's really such an awful, terrible film in every aspect like you and Fritz say. Thanks for acknowledging Peter Lorre and Edward G. Robinson for their brilliant performances!

Louis Morgan said...

Your welcome, Lorre and Robinson are probably two of the best actors never to be nominated.

Anonymous said...

is there an actual reason why Lorre and Robinson were never nominated, because nearly every great actor (mostly) has been nominated at least once and they should have had at least 4 noms between them??

Louis Morgan said...

For some reason I think they both were just taken too much for granted.