Alternate Best Actor 1941: Results

5. Lon Chaney Jr. in The Wolfman - Chaney plays the title creature memorably enough but it's his emotional portrayal of the man's anguish over the creature's deeds that truly stands out.

Best Scene: The first wolf's funeral.

4. Gary Cooper in Ball of Fire - Cooper gives an entertaining and surprisingly believable portrayal of a meek professor.

Best Scene: The professor picks a fight.

3. William Powell in Love Crazy - Powell for the first third of his performance gives his usually enjoyable romantic comedy style of performance then proceeds to be hilarious once his character goes "nuts".

Best Scene: Steve's sister shows up.

2. Joel McCrea in Sullivan's Travels - McCrea gives an amusing portrayal of a pretensions director but he also manages to find the power of the film's more dramatic intentions.

Best Scene: Sullivan and the prisoners watch the cartoon.

1. Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon - Good Predictions koook160, RatedRStar, and Luke. Well I did not need to think twice of naming Bogart the winner here, although I'll admit being a bit surprised myself that he's a three time winner. This is quintessential Bogart as he just commands the film with such a considerable cool keeping it one compelling mystery from beginning to end.

Best Scene: Unveiling the Falcon.

Overall Rank:

1. Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon
2. Edward G. Robinson in The Sea Wolf
3. Joel McCrea in Sullivan's Travels
4. William Powell in Love Crazy
5. James Cagney in The Strawberry Blonde
6. Charles Coburn in The Devil and Miss Jones
   
7. Orson Welles in Citizen Kane
8. Gary Cooper in Ball of Fire
9. Leslie Howard in "Pimpernel" Smith
10. Humphrey Bogart in High Sierra
11. William Powell in Shadow of the Thin Man
12. Lon Chaney Jr. in The Wolfman
13. Cary Grant in Penny Serenade
14. Roddy McDowall in How Green Was My Valley
15. Charles Boyer in Hold Back The Dawn
16. Harry Carey in The Shepherd of the Hills 
17. Alexander Knox in The Sea Wolf
18. Laurence Olivier in That Hamilton Woman
19. Gary Cooper in Meet John Doe
20. Henry Fonda in The Lady Eve
21. John Garfield in The Sea Wolf
22. John Wayne in The Shepherd of the Hills
23. Robert Montgomery in Here Comes Mr. Jordan
24. Cary Grant in Suspicion
25. Eric Portman in 49th Parallel
26. Victor Mature in I Wake Up Screaming
27. James Craig in The Devil and Daniel Webster 
28. Robert Taylor in Johnny Eager
29. Gary Cooper in Sergeant York

Next Year: 1941 Supporting

Alternate Best Actor 1941: Lon Chaney Jr. in The Wolfman

Lon Chaney Jr. did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Larry Talbot as well as the titular character in The Wolfman.

The Wolfman is decent enough Universal horror film although one can't help but wish James Whale also would have directed this film.

Lon Chaney Jr., the son of perhaps the most famous performer of monsters in the silent era, is the last addition of the most famous of the Universal monsters. Of course the funny thing is the werewolf was already covered once in Werewolf of London played by Henry Hull, but this film and Chaney's rendition of the character is the best remembered now. It is interesting to note that he's ushered in by being supported by two other famous monsters the Invisible Man (Claude Rains) who plays Larry's father, and Dracula (Bela Lugosi) who has an curiously small role as the werewolf who infects Larry. The Wolfman offers a different sort of monster as he is both the least and most malicious of the Universal monsters. On the first end he's the least in that Larry is technically the victim himself by being cursed by becoming the werewolf, but the Wolfman himself does not even have the discretion of Dracula. The Wolfman in full monster mode just viciously looks for the next victim to kill as soon as possible nothing more.

We first meet Chaney as he returns home from a long journey away. Chaney in the early scenes is a very unassuming performer to be sure, but he makes Larry quite likable because of just how unassuming of a guy he is. Even when he spies on a woman with a telescope, and tries to steal her away from her fiancee Chaney does it in such aw shucks sort of way it's hard to ever lose sympathy for the guy. When he gets infected this becomes all the worse since Chaney is so good at being a sad sack. He's such an endearing lug that it's pretty hard to watch him undergo such stress. Chaney is quite good in portraying the devastation in Larry as its absolutely exudes the pain in Larry as he learns what to expect. Adding even more to it is that Chaney is quite moving in portraying such a powerful anguish as Larry realizes that he's been killing people, even for the original wolf when he realizes that he was a man after all. Chaney does well to always keep what the curse does to him past the transformation.

Speaking of the transformation though Chaney actually does not have that many scenes as the Wolfman. It's not surprising to learn that the screenplay originally was written that kept the supernatural element of the story ambiguous because the Wolfman does not have a lot of time on screen. These scenes though are memorable for the fog, the makeup effects on Chaney. Chaney wears them quite well and does manage to create the Wolf as a monster through his animal mannerisms. Really the monster could have been quite silly but Chaney movements are well done. Of course we don't get much as the monster though and in addition this film is not especially long. This leaves a bit of rushed pace for Chaney to portray the psychological decay of Larry before his physical decay as the wolf man. He does well in these confines still, but I feel with a little more time Chaney could have created an even more memorable tragedy in the character. Although the final moment of the film is rather heartbreaking still but a great deal of the credit for that must go to none other than The Invisible Man.

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