Friday 1 October 2010

Best Actor 1939: Results

5. Mickey Rooney in Babes in Arms- Mickey Rooney I think he is just fine and functionally correct in his role. Not all that much, but I really thought he did what he had to.
4. Robert Donat in Goodbye, Mr. Chips-Robert Donat really is a strong winner showing his transition from a young man, to an old teacher brilliantly. He handles all of Chips changes throughout his years brilliantly, and gives a very memorable performance.
3. Laurence Olivier in Wuthering Heights- Heathcliff is a very dramatic character who certainly is an Archetype but Olivier does not stop this from giving a great performance. He is perfect at first as the romantic lead than his transitions brilliantly and truly effectively as the dark and cold Heathcliff.

2. James Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington- James Stewart using his charm which only has really gives a very strong performance. Stewart really is great in his way as the innocent Smith, to his transition to the lone man fighting for what is right.

1. Clark Gable in Gone With The Wind- Clark Gable gives a truly legendary performance as Rhett Butler. Rhett is made is into the extremely memorable character by Gable. Gable is able to stand out in this epic, and stand with Vivien Leigh which is an incredible achievement. An iconic performance that is truly a great performance. This whole year was a great year for acting performances, and each would have been deserving in any year, but I feel Gable happens to be the most powerful, most effective performance, and really was the most challenging character. For such achievement Gable becomes my second two time lead winner now tying with Walter Huston.
Deserving Performances:
John Wayne in Stagecoach

7 comments:

dinasztie said...

Well, I guess I have to re-watch Gone with the Wind and Mr Smith Goes to Washington, to see if I agree with you. Right now, my pick is Gable, because he's so legendary.

joe burns said...

I was surprised a little by this, but he's certainly worthy.

Brandon said...

Gable to me is like a Bogart -- just delivers "movie-star" performances -- although Gable was a much more expressive and capable performer.

Most of the time "movie-star" performances work perfectly; like George Clooney in "Michael Clayton" as an example. But Gable just doesn't make Rhett compelling enough to match the captivating spirit Leigh brings to Scarlett.

Louis Morgan said...

Well again I disagree, I really do not see the film working nearly as well without Gable's performance. And I certainly would not say any of George Clooney's performance compare at all to any of Clark Gable's performances.

Brandon said...

I'm talkin' about the slick, charismatic screen presence that they both have in common, and that Clooney displays in Michael Clayton.

Louis Morgan said...

I do not think Clooney's screen presence is anything that special actually.

Michael Patison said...

I totally disagree with your views on Clooney, but I've said that previously so I'll just leave it there. In my opinion: Charismatic? Absolutely. Overrated? Perhaps. Bad/Terrible Actor? Far/Incredibly far from it. But that's beside the point. My real question is, where would you have ranked Basil Rathbone if he had been nominated for The Hound of the Baskervilles?