Best Actor 1931: Results

5. Richard Dix in Cimarron- Well this was an easy choice. Dix really is just terrible, he is either incredibly dull, or very odd when he breifly over acts with a hoot and holler he does on occasion.

4. Adolphe Menjou in The Front Page- Menjou's performance overall is rather brief, but he gives a properly commanding and manipulative performance that works well enough.

3. Fredric March in The Royal Family of Broadway- March's performance is just about crazy as they get, and I really enjoyed his insane work here, I wish the film knew what it had though, since it certainly just does not give March enough to work with.

2. Jackie Cooper in Skippy- Jackie Cooper gives a very nice performance, that is filled with the right amount of charm, he is also emotionally effective, when tragedy strikes in the film.

1. Lionel Barrymore in A Free Soul- Lionel Barrymore's performance is a strong piece of work, even if dated in a few ways. Barrymore gives a strong portrait of an alcoholic lawyer, showing more to it that just drunkenness but rather a deep pain. Barrymore's performance only gets stronger as the film continues, and climaxes with a very powerful final speech.

Deserving Performances:
Peter Lorre in M
Edward G. Robinson in Little Caesar

Best Actor 1931: Richard Dix in Cimarron

Richard Dix received his only Oscar nomination for portraying Yancey Cravat in Cimarron.

Cimarron is quite a bad, and boring western. There is not anything interesting about it not even as a historical curiosity.

Richard Dix's performance possibly has to be seen to be believed at times, because it defies the conventions of every other performance that I have reviewed so far in the category, it certainly stands alone, which is not praise trust me. Richard Dix is not an actor I say i have seen before watching this film, but he has quite the bizarre acting tendencies.

Richard Dix's screen presence, or that lack thereof is quite an abnormality. He has this voice that almost sounds like a more relaxed Bing Crosby at times. His performance is quite hard to believe how just downright dull he is some of the time, as he either smiles very plainly, or talks through this very slow very boring speeches of his that he does not seem to put that much effort into.

He does not have a single bit of chemistry with a single member of the cast, and certainly does not have with his co-star Irene Dunne who portrays his wife. They do not really show the slightest bit of emotion to one another that seems at all human. They mostly just stare at one another not anything more than that.

Now the best and the worst part of his performance is his strong rooting and tooting he does sometimes during his performance. These are bizarre out of place with his dull characterization the rest of the time. Now the reason I said also best because they are rather unintentionally funny considering how odd these yells he does.

Dix is never charming, he never is commanding, he is never interesting, he just is there most of the time, even when he is talking loudly it is hard to pay attention to this performance, which defies almost every method usually used to create a good performance. He is never ever for a single moment up to the task of this performance.

This is just a terrible performance from beginning to end, it either bores one or causes one's mouth to become agape in reaction to his moments where he decides to cry out. This is an example of a bad old timey performance, the type of performance that gives other performances from this time a bad name, there is never one single second of this performance that is good for even a moment.

Best Actor 1931

And the Nominees Were:

Richard Dix in Cimarron

Adolphe Menjou in The Front Page

Lionel Barrymore in A Free Soul

Jackie Cooper in Skippy

Fredric March in The Royal Family of Broadway 

With the recent passing of Jackie Cooper, I thought I ought to take a look at at this year where he received his only Oscar nomination.