Friday 3 April 2015

Alternate Best Actor 1941

And the Nominees Were Not:

Gary Cooper in Ball of Fire

William Powell in Love Crazy

Joel McCrea in Sullivan's Travels

Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon

Lon Chaney Jr. in The Wolfman

32 comments:

Luke Higham said...

1. Bogart
2. Powell
3. Chaney Jr.
4. Cooper
5. McCrea

GM said...

No Boyer? Come on!


1. McCrea
2. Bogart
3. Powell
4. Chaney
5. Cooper

Michael Patison said...

1. Humphrey Bogart
2. Joel McCrea
3. William Powell
4. Lon Chaney, Jr.
5. Gary Cooper

GetDonaldSutherlandAnOscar said...

Aw thanks Louis! Hm this is tough, especially with 3 screwball performances. McCrea, Powell, and Cooper are all great in their own ways. I'll give the edge to McCrea out of the three because he had a dramatic edge to his character which was very well done.

1. Bogart
2. McCrea
3. Chaney Jr.
4. Cooper
5. Powell (and he's still excellent, only reason I put him last is because it's pretty standard Powell whereas Cooper and Chaney Jr. really go out on a limb)

Luke Higham said...

1. Bogart
2. McCrea
3. Chaney Jr.
4. Powell
5. Cooper

Matt Mustin said...

1.Bogart
2.Chaney
3.Powell
4.Cooper
5.McCrea (I have a feeling you'll like the movie more than his performance)

Anonymous said...

Louis what are your thoughts/ratings on the cast of Captains Courageous?

Matt Mustin said...

Louis, could you explain why Birdman is your Best Original Screenplay win for 2014? Because as much as I liked the film, I thought the screenplay was it's biggest weakness.

GetDonaldSutherlandAnOscar said...

I'm just really glad The Drop was his number 2 :D

Anonymous said...

1. Bogart
2. Powell
3. McCrea
4. Chaney Jr.
5. Cooper

Matt Mustin said...

The Drop is Adapted.

GetDonaldSutherlandAnOscar said...

@Matt: Oh yes, I forgot about that. Well it was on his Adapted list from what I remember.

Maciej said...

1.Bogart
2.Powell
3.McCrea
4.Cooper
5.Chaney Jr.

moviefilm said...

1) Humphrey Bogart
2) William Powell
3) Lon Chaney Jr.
4) Joel McCrea
5) Gary Cooper

JackiBoyz said...

1.Bogart
2.Chaney
3.Powell
4.Cooper
5.McCrea

RatedRStar said...

1. Bogart
2. McCrea
3. Chaney Jr.
4. Cooper
5. Powell

Robert MacFarlane said...

1. Bogart
2. Powell
3. Cooper
4. Chaney
5. McCrea

Anonymous said...

Thoughts and rating on Roddy McDowall in How Green Was My Valley and Cleopatra?

Louis Morgan said...

Anonymous:

Bartholomew - 3.5(In a period where some truly dreadful child performances could be fine Bartholomew gives a nicely assured performance. I actually especially like him when he's the evil brat who manipulates his classmates. His change though is earned still though and I actually felt he out acted Tracy at every turn)

Barrymore - 3.5(Even though he's not suppose to be he is far more effective as the mentor helping the boy along to maturation than Tracy is. Barrymore combines the right sort of roughness though with a genuine warmth within his manner)

Carradine - 3(Small role but Carradine does a heavy well. Of course this is not really a heavy and he also reveals the character's softer side quite well too)

Douglas - 3(Douglas does fine enough work as the slightly distant yet still very much caring father. He brings enough of a sweetness within his naivety, and even the film rushes it a bit he rather nicely handles his final scenes where he finally really connects with his son)

Rooney - 2.5(Doesn't have much to do but he importantly avoids doing his usual Rooneyisms)

Matt:

Well I thought the writing behind the film was excellent as well. The whole meta 8 1/2 style can easily become too much but it treads the line beautifully. It manages to live up to its pretensions yet make fun of them all the same. The screenplay does not waste a single character, it helps to create its particularly world and concept brilliantly and I just thought it was wonderfully written to be honest.

Anonymous:

McDowall - How Green Was My Valley - 4(Although he technically probably should have been replaced at some point, since it seems his character is suppose to age, but obviously he never does. That's okay though because McDowall really turns the boy into an endearing character and his performance is really the most stable factor of a film that's structure is a bit too jumbled for its own good)

McDowall - 3.5(The only guy who really bothered to bring any life to that turgid affair. McDowall avoids the blandness of pretty much all the other performances in the film and gives a fairly effective portrait of a youthful ambition. Frankly the film would have benefited if it was only about him.)

Matt Mustin said...

I don't really disagree with anything you said about the Birdman script, but I kinda thought there were some moments of pretty weak dialogue. There was some good dialogue, too, but I thought some of it was really bad.

Luke Higham said...

Louis: What are your top ten Best/Worst Award Acceptance Speeches.

GetDonaldSutherlandAnOscar said...

James Cagney's AFI lifetime achievement award acceptance is my favourite of all time hands down.

Worst...I hate to be so rote and typical but George Clooney's Oscar win was particularly bad.

GetDonaldSutherlandAnOscar said...

Although don't get me wrong, I think Clooney's heart is definitely in the right place, he wasn't afraid to deal with David Douchebag O'Russell on Three Kings, and seems to have reasonably fair views on issues like sexual equality. I just wish he didn't use awards platforms to espouse his political beliefs.

Please never let David O'Russell win an Academy Award, his speech will be...gahh...

Luke Higham said...

GDSAO: My personal favourite is Michael Caine's Oscar winning speech for The Cider House Rules.

GetDonaldSutherlandAnOscar said...

@Luke: Yes that was a good one. Questionable win but oh well, I basically treated it as a replacement speech for his Hannah and her Sisters win

Luke Higham said...

GDSAO: Don't worry, I too thought, he was just fine in The Cider House Rules.

Have you seen Furious 7 yet.

Michael McCarthy said...

Hmmm...

1. Joel McCrea
2. Lon Chaney, Jr.
3. William Powell
4. Humphrey Bogart
5. Gary Cooper

I don't know if Louis will like McCrea as much as I did, but I really thought there were a lot of interesting subtleties to that performance.

RatedRStar said...

I think Birdman is the first best picture winner that was my favorite film of the year since The Return Of The King =D.

JackiBoyz said...

@RatedRRocker: Didnt you love The Artist, where would that rank?

RatedRStar said...

@JackiBoyz: Third, behind the film where a young man trys to commit suicide and a film where a man shows his dick off =D.

Louis Morgan said...

Luke:

I don't think I could make an exact ten

The types I like:

Lighthearted: Caine's Oscar win, Olivier's Bafta win.

Really putting the prestige into it:
Don Ameche's Oscar win.
Cagney's AFI Award.

Recognizing the snub in a dignified fashion:
William Hurt's Oscar win "I share this with Raul"

In terms of dislike just the ramblings of names in a particularly sloppy way, and often political ones especially if smug Clooney's being the absolute worst in that regard.

Louis Morgan said...

Matt:

I really did not have any problems with the dialogue. If I were to nitpick I'd say Riggan did not need to tell Jake that he's his best friend in that letting the audience know sort of way.