Best Supporting Actor 1936: Results

5. Mischa Auer in My Man Godfrey- Auer's whole purpose is to be funny, and I never found him to be so.

4. Stuart Erwin in Pigskin Parade- I sort of liked Erwin's performance as the hill billy football star because he did not go over the top, but he was not exactly amazing either.

3. Akim Tamiroff in The General Died at Dawn- Tamiroff at least does not go over the top with his Chinese general but he is so stiff that his performance never holds much interest.

2. Basil Rathbone in Romeo and Juliet- Rathbone is fine as Tybalt, although not great, but than again Tybalt is not much of a character. 

1. Walter Brennan in Come and Get It- Brennan accent is not perfect and his role becomes too reduced for most of the film, but he is incredibly strong in the early scenes when he needs to be.

Deserving Performances:
Frank Morgan in The Great Ziegfeld
Peter Lorre in Secret Agent
Robert Young in Secret Agent

Best Supporting Actor 1936: Basil Rathbone in Romeo and Juliet

Basil Rathbone received his first Oscar nomination for portraying Tybalt in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

Romeo and Juliet is a fairly poor adaptation of Shakespeare's plays because they fail to really make language work, and many of the performances are incredibly dull.

Basil Rathbone plays Tybalt who is hardly the greatest of Shakespeare's characters. In fact Tybalt does very little in the play therefore he does very little in this film. He is merely one of the Capulet's who want to get in a good fight with the Montagues. He does very little until he kills Mercutio and then is later killed by Romeo. He really is more of a plot catalyst than a real character. He lacks any big speeches, and his biggest scenes are sword fights. I hate to sound repetitive  but he is another nominee with very little to do.

Tybalt is no Hamlet, and Rathbone I suppose is no Olivier. He does not really make it come alive though but he handles it well enough. He never is really interesting though with his performance, but Tybalt himself is not a very interesting character anyways. He does just what about should be expected from Tybalt I suppose but that is very little. The biggest thing expected of him is to perform well in the sword fighting scenes. Rathbone excels at this I suppose, but then again maybe he is too good since it does not really look like Leslie Howard's Romeo really had a chance, and Rathbone losing seems a little forced. Rathbone is not bad as Tybalt, Tybalt just is not much of a character but someone still could have been better as Tybalt.

Best Supporting Actor 1936: Walter Brennan in Come and Get It

Walter Brennan won his first Oscar from his first nomination for portraying Swan Bostrom in Come and Get It.

I found Come and Get It to be a much better drama then I expected it would be with at least one very strong performance in the film by Edward Arnold as a man who gives up his true love for money.

Walter Brennan plays a swedish lumberjack and best friend to Arnold's character Barney. Swan also is the one who tells Barney's girlfriend (Frances Farmer) that Barney has left her for a more business oriented marriage. Brennan as Swan does do an accent for it although its clearly and old fashioned movie accent Brennan makes it work well with his performance since he never lets it control his performance. He still shows Swan as a man not just a stereotype and that helps Brennan's performance greatly.

The greatness in Brennan's performance is confined to his early scenes. His best scenes being when he questions Barney about his selfish actions. Brennan shows Swan's disappointment and sadness in Barney's actions perfectly with just his face and his eyes. He does not allows his slightly odd accent to stop from having an emotional presence in the film and that is shown perfectly in this scene. His greatest scene though is when he tells Farmer's character what Barney has done. Brennan perfectly shows Swan's struggle to try to get the words out, and his attempt to try to tell her the terrible news. Brennan is emotionally true in this scene and the scene where he is about to marry Farmer's character. Brennan strikes the right emotional note within these scenes, he shows Swan's kindness along with his sadness to great effect using his physical motions, and even with his slight hindrance of his voice.

Later after Farmer's character has died but they had a daughter also played by Farmer, Brennan unfortunately becomes regulated to the background of the film. This is not Brennan fault, he just he no longer really given anything to do for the rest of the film. Sure he is there, and a nice enough presence in the background, but the film never really allows him to do anything for the remainder of the film. I wish he was given more since I would think Swan would be concerned with his daughter's problems, but the film never shows him to be. Brennan never falters in these scenes and never fails to stand out when he could, because he is never given a chance to really. Still though I find this to be a strong performance despite, the only real important scenes being confined to a short time at the beginning of the film, and the swedish accent. Brennan still creates an interesting character even with the limits of the part and his accent, because Brennan is so effective with his key scenes.

Best Supporting Actor 1936: Stuart Erwin in The Pigskin Parade

Stuart Erwin recieved his only Oscar nomination for playing Amos Dodd the hillbilly quarterback in The Pigskin Parade.

I sort of enjoyed Pigskin Parade for its old fashioned quality, although today it is basically forgotten despite being the feature film debut of Judy Garland.

Stuart Erwin really actually has a pretty small role as the football star in this film. He mostly is just does what other tells him and he really never does anything himself. He plays the hillbilly as a hillbilly, although a quiet one. He does not go for the over the top hill billy instead a less over the top one although still a very stereotypical one. He really is fine at doing what he has to. Again nothing special about his performance here, I sort of liked his quiet approach to the hillbilly, since he was never annoying. He still does nothing amazing though and overall has very little to do. This is probably my shortest review ever, but there plainly is not very much to say about Erwin.

Best Supporting Actor 1936: Akim Tamiroff in The General Died at Dawn

Akim Tamiroff received his first Oscar nomination for portraying General Yang in The General Died at Dawn.

The General Died at Dawn is a strangely dull film despite having unique editing and a complicated story, although I will admit the version I watched really needed restored sound.

Akim Tamiroff portrays an evil Chinese warlord called General Yang. Now there were only a few ways non Asians generally played Asians. There was more offensive over the top way of say Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's or the stone faced way of Boris Karloff as Fu Manchu. Tamiroff plays Yang in the latter sort of way. He is always very stiff and very strict in his manner and his accent. The most he strives from this really is a sly smile now and again.

I will admit that its better that he did not go over the top, but at the same time he is a bit dull. He sticks too closely to his single way the whole time, and he never creates that interesting character in General Yang. He keeps in character though which is something, and he is never exactly bad, but never that good. His best scene is his last scene where he shows a little more emotion but still very little. He never creates more in his strict character than what is expected, causing his performance to be fine but never interesting.

Best Supporting Actor 1936: Mischa Auer in My Man Godfrey

Mischa Auer received his only Oscar nomination for playing Carlo the protege in My Man Godfrey.

Here is a performance that really is more of an act than really real acting. Carlo is not much of a character frankly and is just more of a thing in the background than a person. He never has a scene about him nor is there anything really that explains his strangeness. He is just there for no reason really and really lacks any influence on the film itself. He really is just there for only one reason.

That one reason, I would imagine is to be funny, the thing is though that he never ever is funny in the film. He certainly tries I will give him that but he never ever succeeds. He does a whole lot of mugging that's for sure, mugging to get laughs is a pretty bad attempt to get laughs and he does not get them. He is mostly just obnoxious particularly with his gorilla act. It is not funny he is just annoying. This is a complete failure of a performance because he does not create a character, which would be fine if he was funny, but he is not. This is a performance I barely ever noticed and when I did it was him being very annoying with his overacting.

Best Supporting Actor 1936

And the first ever nominees in this category were:

Mischa Auer in My Man Godfrey

Basil Rathbone in Romeo and Juliet

Akim Tamiroff in The General Died at Dawn

Stuart Erwin in The Pigskin Parade

Walter Brennan in Come and Get It

Who do you pick? What do you predict my ranking will be?