Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1940: Results

5. George Sanders in Foreign Correspondent - Sanders gives a very entertaining performance that finds just the right tone to both lighten the mood while still bringing the needed gravity for the thriller.

Best Scene: ffolliott saves Van Meer.

4. Frank Morgan in The Shop Around the Corner - Morgan gives a funny but also surprisingly nuanced depiction of a man whose vulnerabilities slowly get the better of him.

Best Scene: Matuschek apologizes to Alfred.

3. Herbert Marshall in Foreign Correspondent - Marshall gives a very effective performance that realizes the twist involving his character, but also never allows this to simplify his character. 

Best Scene: Fisher goes to see the captured Van Meer. 

2. George Sanders in Rebecca - Sanders gives a great performance by being just so enjoyably despicable as his selfish and vapid character.

Best Scene: Favell tries to blackmail Maxim. 

1. John Carradine in The Grapes of Wrath - I must not that this again is a year where I could go with any of my top four in any order. At the moment though my winner is John Carradine for his especially compelling and moving depiction of a former preacher attempting to find the truth again.

Best Scene: Tom meets Casy again. 

Overall Rank:

1. John Carradine in The Grapes of Wrath
2. Walter Brennan in The Westerner
3. George Sanders in Rebecca
4. Herbert Marshall in Foreign Correspondent
5. Frank Morgan in The Shop Around the Corner
6. George Sanders in Foreign Correspondent
7. John Qualen in The Grapes of Wrath
8. Joseph Schildkraut in The Shop Around the Corner 
9. Walter Catlett in Pinocchio
10. Cliff Edwards in Pinocchio 
11. Donald Crisp in Brother Orchid 
12. Edmund Gwenn in Foreign Correspondent
13. Frank Morgan in The Mortal Storm
14. Russell Simpson in The Grapes of Wrath
15. Ralph Bellamy in His Girl Friday
16. Edmund Gwenn in Pride and Prejudice
17. Robert Benchley in Foreign Correspondent 
18. Akim Tamiroff in The Great McGinty
19. Emlyn Williams in The Stars Look Down
20. Basil Rathbone in the Mark of Zorro 
21. Edward Rigby in The Stars Look Down
22. William Demarest in The Great McGinty
23. Christian Rub in Pinocchio 
24. Hay Petrie in Contraband
25. Eugene Pallette in The Mark of Zorro
26. Shemp Howard in The Bank Dick 
27. Ralph Bellamy in Brother Orchid
28. John Qualen in His Girl Friday
29. Thomas Mitchell in Our Town
30. Albert Bassermann in Foreign Correspondent
31. Randolph Scott in My Favorite Wife
32. John Carradine in The Return of Frank James
33. Claude Rains in The Sea Hawk 
34. Humphrey Bogart in Brother Orchid
35. Felix Bressart in The Shop Around The Corner
36. James Stephenson in The Letter
37. Henry Daniell in The Great Dictator 
38. Frankie Darro in Pinocchio
39. Leo G. Carroll in Rebecca
40. Herbert Marshall in The Letter
41. Charley Grapewin in The Grapes of Wrath 
42. Melville Cooper in Pride and Prejudice
43. Charles Judels in Pinocchio
44. Henry Daniell in The Sea Hawk
45. Jack Oakie in The Great Dictator 
46. Roland Young in The Philadelphia Story
47. Paul Hurst in The Westerner
48. C. Aubrey Smith in Rebecca
49. John Halliday in The Philadelphia Story 
50. J. Edward Bromberg in The Mark of Zorro
51.  Nigel Bruce in Rebecca
52. Bela Lugosi in Black Friday
53. Jackie Cooper in The Return of Frank James
54. Guy Kibbee in Our Town
55. Reginald Gardiner in The Great Dictator
56. Gene Lockhart in Abe Lincoln in Illinois
57. Reginald Denny in Rebecca
58. William Tracy in The Shop Around the Corner
59. Harry Davenport in Foreign Correspondent
60. William Tracy in Strike Up The Band
61. John Howard in The Philadelphia Story
62. Harry Carey in They Knew What They Wanted 
63. Edward Ashley-Cooper in Pride and Prejudice
64. Fred Stone in The Westerner
65. William Gargan in They Knew What They Wanted
66. Robert Young in The Mortal Storm
67. Robert Stack in The Mortal Storm
68. William T. Orr in The Mortal Storm

Next Year: 1995 Lead

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1940: John Carradine in The Grapes of Wrath

John Carradine did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Jim Casy in The Grapes of Wrath.

From what I've seen John Carradine had a certain chameleon quality about him. This was isn't necessarily about a change of accent or anything like that, as Carradine always had that great booming voice of his. Carradine rather just seemed to know how to wholly alter his presence that he seemed like a different man from film to film. This was even the case in his earlier films with Ford even though he mostly played the villain or the very least a pompous sort of character such as in The Prisoner of Shark Island, The Hurricane, and Stagecoach. Carradine here plays a role that's quite the distance from those roles as Casy one of the first people that Tom Joad (Henry Fonda) sees on his way home after being released from prison. In Carradine's first scene Casy explains to Tom how it became that he no longer is a preacher. Carradine as per usual does just makes himself seem wholly different this time without that imposing quality he brought in his earlier performances in Ford's role, instead he brings a whole different sort demeanor about himself that instantly suggests the history of the man even before we get to know much about him.

In the scene Carradine is rather outstanding in just how much insight he allows into the character as he shows both the past and the current state of the man. In the moments where Tom calls upon Casy's old days as a preacher Carradine suddenly realizes a man truly in his element as a man. In the way he moves so unusually it seems as though he is being motivated by the lord himself in his strange though quite spirited way he moves and speaks when reacting an old sermon. There is an extra bit of showmanship so to speak in this moment, as a memory of the past, because something that's so effective about Carradine's performance is the way he acts which is peculiar though works extremely well in realizing the character. That is that Carradine always portrays this certain quality that Casy has never stopped being a preacher exactly, in that he's just never lost the manner in the way he speaks and behaves. What's so remarkable is the way that Carradine is able to tread this fine line for the character that on one side his behavior seems like it could be that of a man whose half mad, or it is of a truly righteous man as there is something otherworldly in Carradine's portrayal of Casy. 

Carradine captures this certain way for the character that is essential in that he makes every line of his absolutely work no matter how stylistic it may be. Anything that Casy says seems wholly honest through Carradine's delivery. Carradine makes nothing one note about this and through this even is able to allude to what lead to Casy's loss of faith. In his early talk with Tom he discusses his relationship with women, and Carradine through the enthusiasm twists his state as a preacher as it is not a religious sort of pleasure he felt when causing these women's, ahem, spiritual awakening. Carradine is able to suggest this misuse as a weakening of sorts, as it was obvious not wisdom he was giving them, and with that as Casy explains he gave up preaching due to not knowing the answers there is a resigned melancholy about. Carradine presents to be a man who no longer has a place as he still has never lost the preacher's mindset, that to be looking for something else, something more perhaps, which keeps him a distance from being just man, while also being too unsure of himself to be what he was meant to be.

As the film progresses Casy ends up going with the Joads in their journey to California to find some sort of prosperity and everyone is stuck in a certain mindset looking for a better life except Casy who comes along as well. Casy says basically that something is calling for him, and Carradine begins to portrays a spiritual re-awakening as he begins the journey with the Joads. Carradine is not given considerable individual focus in these scenes, yet if you watch him within them he adds a great deal to the power of the them, even past simply the vibrancy of Casy due to Carradine's portrayal of him. As the Joads suffer hardships or hear of the troubles of others Carradine's reactions are tremendous in the way he shows Casy taking in each story, and in a way each seems to strengthen his faith once more as though he's beginning to see his path once again. Casy is eventually separated from the Joads though Tom finds him again being part of a group of men leading a labor strike. The end of Casy's journey is powerfully realized in this final scene as Carradine creates this sense of enlightenment as Casy seems to be preaching the truth again, though a different truth than he had known before. The quick exit of Casy is made especially heartbreaking as Carradine makes into a shining light being snuffed out in a instance. This is a great performance by John Carradine.

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1940

And the Nominees Were Not:

Frank Morgan in The Shop Around the Corner

John Carradine in The Grapes of Wrath

George Sanders in Rebecca

George Sanders in Foreign Correspondent

Herbert Marshall in Foreign Correspondent