Alternate Best Actor 1936: Results

5. Spencer Tracy in Fury - Tracy is charming and moving in his depiction of a man wrongly facing death, but he plays the second half too much like a villain.

Best Scene: Embracing Rainbow.

4. Jean Gabin in The Lower Depths - Gabin gives an enjoyable portrayal of a charismatic thief which effectively matches the tone of this version of the story.

Best Scene: His first meeting with the Baron.

3. Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times - Chaplin gives a very entertaining and rather wonderful sendoff to his most famous creation.

Best Scene: The Ending.

2. Charles Laughton in Rembrandt - Even with the film's rather swift pace Laughton gives a remarkable portrayal of the famous painter throughout his life's journey. 

Best Scene: Rembrandt attempts to paint his wife one last time.

1. Edward Arnold in Come And Get It - Good Predictions RatedRStar, Michael McCarthy and Luke. The underrated Edward Arnold is given the chance to depict the origins of one of his rich and powerful men, and does not waste that chance. He gives a heartbreaking performance that realizes what such a man might sacrifice to earn that power.

Best Scene:  The Ending.

Overall Rank:

1. Edward Arnold in Come And Get It 
2. Charles Laughton in Rembrandt
3. Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times
4. Walter Huston in Dodsworth 
5. William Powell in After The Thin Man
6. Jean Gabin in The Lower Depths 
7. William Powell in My Man Godfrey
8. William Powell in The Great Ziegfeld
9. Leslie Howard in The Petrified Forest
10. Clark Gable in San Francisco
11. Warner Baxter in The Prisoner of Shark Island
12. Errol Flynn in The Charge of the Light Brigade
13. Gary Cooper in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
14. James Cagney in Great Guy
15. Boris Karloff in The Invisible Ray
16. C. Aubrey Smith in Little Lord Fauntleroy
17. Oskar Homolka in Sabotage
18. Fred Astaire in Swing Time
19. Freddie Bartholomew in Little Lord Fauntleroy
20. Fred Astaire in Follow the Fleet
21. Paul Muni in The Story of Louis Pasteur 
22. John Gielgud in Secret Agent
23. Roland Young in The Man Who Could Work Miracles
24. Gary Cooper in The General Died At Dawn
25. Fred MacMurray in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine
26. Spencer Tracy in Fury
27. Jack Hayley in Pigskin Parade
28. Henry Fonda in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine
29. Fredric March in Anthony Adverse
30. Robert Taylor in Camille 
31. John Loder in Sabotage
32. Leslie Howard in Romeo and Juliet
33. Kenneth Craig in Reefer Madness

Next Year: 1936 Supporting

Alternate Best Actor 1936: Spencer Tracy in Fury

Spencer Tracy did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Joe Wilson in Fury.

Fury is a heavy handed although not entirely ineffective film about a man seeking revenge after almost being killed by a lynch mob for a crime he did not commit.

Spencer Tracy plays the role of Joe Wilson who in the first scenes of the film we just meet as a well average Joe. We meet him as Tracy is likable and charming enough in portraying Joe who just wants to live his life. He has a nice enough chemistry with Sylvia Sydney as his fiancee Katherine, and really his biggest issue is telling his brothers to stay a lawful course in passionate way. Eventually Joe is arrested on a misunderstanding and gossip spreads that he must behind a kidnapping. Tracy is effective enough in these scenes in simply portraying the simple confusion as Joe attempts to deal with accusations against him. Eventually things become even worse when the town gets riled up and the lynch mob decides to take justice into their own hands. Tracy is fairly moving in the simple scenes of him screaming for his life. There's an especially poignant moment from Tracy as he embraces his dog as though it is the last living thing he's going to interact with.

Well that's when everything takes a downturn as the police station burns down to the ground and apparently Joe along with it. Well that's not the case for Joe who manages to survive just barely although he only informs this fact to his brothers for them to prosecute the mob that tried to kill him. Well Tracy plays these scenes all wrong as though Joe is just really ticked off and wants the revenge as almost a maniacal villain. It would have been interesting for him to show Joe Wilson as having been scarred by the experience which propels him for revenge. The problem is Tracy way overplays the idea making Joe's, well, Fury seem more that of an evil man than a man seeking revenge out of something horrible that was done to him. Even when he hears that things are going his way Tracy plays it up with too much of a devious glee. It ends up just not making sense for the way he established the character in the first third. It's not a broken man that Tracy presents but a completely different man which really loses a great deal of the power behind his crusade.

As is oddly the case with many of Tracy's "lead" performances early on his career there's not a great deal of him. He's not simply supporting though like he was in his Oscar nomination for San Francisco but the film takes a great deal of time showing the court case against the mob where we only see the occasional cutaway to Joe. Eventually Joe is taken to task by Katherine about his plan of revenge which causes Joe to do some soul searching. This is pretty rushed although Tracy at least seems to bring back Joe anywhere near the character he established early on the film, and ends on a fine enough note as Joe makes his survival known to the court in order not to take revenge. This performance does have strong moments most notably just before Joe thinks he's going to die but the whole middle section of his work seems like a missed opportunity. Instead of portraying a decent man committing a vendetta over what has been done to him, he instead makes Joe into far too simplistic villain that really removes the heft of the needed dramatic weight for the film.

Alternate Best Actor 1936

And the Nominees Were Not:

Edward Arnold in Come and Get It

Charles Laughton in Rembrandt

Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times

Spencer Tracy in Fury

Jean Gabin in The Lower Depths

Best Actor 1960: Results

5. Trevor Howard in Sons and Lovers- I like that Trevor Howard tries to get something out of his fairly simplistic character, but he just is simply not given enough to do.

4. Spencer Tracy in Inherit the Wind- Tracy does a lot of big acting court room scenes, as well as believable mannerisms, he does both well, but not that well. And yes that's 9 losses to 0 wins for Tracy.

3. Jack Lemmon in The Apartment- Jack Lemmon gives a charming, and humorous performance, that simply is enjoyable to watch. He creates a character and performance that is just great to follow through on his corporate misadventures.

2. Burt Lancaster in Elmer Gantry- Lancaster's performance is a terrific one because of his fascinating creation of Elmer Gantry. His wild energy is just perfect for the wild Gantry. Lancaster completely throws himself into his role creating a compelling character, with a fascinating combination of sarcasm, and earnestness.

1. Laurence Olivier in The Entertainer- I will admit this one really was pretty easy for me to choose. Olivier stood out for me as the best with his outstanding portrait of the on his last legs Vaudevillian Archie Rice. Olivier portrait of Rice's facades he puts on to hide the truth are perfectly handled by Olivier, and his moments where he shows the real honest Rice are incredible.

Deserving Performances:
Anthony Perkins in Psycho

Best Actor 1960: Spencer Tracy in Inherit the Wind

Spencer Tracy received his seventh Oscar nomination for portraying Henry Drummond in Inherit the Wind.

The monkey scopes trial should make an interesting film, but the problem is they are made and based on Inherit the wind. It's historical inaccuracies would not be so bad I guess, if they did not create so many one dimensional characters, and obviously written scenes.

The problems of the characters of the film certainly carry on over to the performances. Fredric March I find overacts a bit by Brady especially with his mouth movements constantly, and is not able to create too much of character, because his character is written as a basically one dimensional religious dunderhead, as all religious people are portrayed in this film. On the other side though the scientific people are portrayed as almost perfect reasonable people (except Gene Kelly's overly cynical reporter), these are just as one dimensional though which include Tracy's Henry Drummond.

Spencer Tracy's character luckily for him is not required to do much more than espouse his belief in evolution, and attack the others beliefs. This allows plenty of scenes of Tracy giving loud speeches in the court room, and more quiet scenes of breaking apart particular witnesses. I will say that his performance is fine in showing his character's passion for his cause which is strong, and energetically portrayed by Tracy.

He is fine as well in breaking apart witnesses, as well as breaking up his opponents ideas as well, being properly quick, and adept in his manner. I think something quite lacking though is his lack of competition in the court room. I also think he was good in portraying Drummond with particular mannerisms with making them completely realistic, although I can't say that add that much to his performance on a whole. I think his performance could have been more interesting if the film allowed Drummond to really have to fight with a more intelligent Brady.

The film could have still portrayed Drummond as being in the right, but it could have allowed for far more interesting if the people Drummond was proving wrong weren't just portrayed as complete fools to begin with. This makes it so Tracy's passion, and persuasion in the role although good, it really did not really need Tracy to truly be persuasive or as powerful, which perhaps it could have if the film was written more intelligently.

Tracy is completely fine throughout his performance, and has some good moments, but I never felt it was much more than fine. He had his moments of big actory speeches which he handles well, but his performance is lacking because the film itself requires less of him than it might if it simply had been a better more fully written film. Overall his performance is good, but his character is lacking as are his scenes.

Best Actor 1960

And the Nominees:

Jack Lemmon in The Apartment

Laurence Olivier in The Entertainer

Burt Lancaster in Elmer Gantry

Trevor Howard in Sons and Lovers

Spencer Tracy in Inherit the Wind

Well it's Spencer Tracy's final chance, can he finally win, or is someone else the best?

Best Actor 1938: Results

5. Spencer Tracy in Boys Town- Spencer Tracy's performance is not really bad, but he is not required to do anything more than be nice.

4. Charles Boyer in Algiers- Although I liked what Boyer did with what he had. Boyer was properly smooth, but the character just did not have enough to it to create a really interesting performance.

3. Leslie Howard in Pygmalion- Leslie Howard is quite effective as Henry Higgins, not only in creating an entertaining portrait of the pompous professor, but also a more in-depth complex portrait of a cold man as well.

2. Robert Donat in The Citadel- Donat brings an effectiveness and believability of every single phase of his character. Donat's performance is powerful, charming, and very effective. 

1. James Cagney in Angels With Dirty Faces- Cagney does his usual gangster performance for part of the performance which is good, but the best part of the performance is showing the soft side of the gangster as he tried to help his old friend who is priest. Also his last scene is amazing.

Deserving Performances:

Best Actor 1938: Spencer Tracy in Boys Town

Spencer Tracy won his second Oscar from his third nomination for portraying Father Flanagan in Boys Town.

Boys Town tells the story of Father Flanagan who creates a home to help troubled boys, as well as the story of one their hard cases, Whitey Marsh played by Mickey Rooney.

Spencer Tracy's first three nominations and his two wins are quite strange that it is very easy is to argue that he is more of supporting in each film. Well I suppose his screen time grows from each film to film, since finally with this film he is sort of the co-lead, although he disappears during large portions of the film in the middle which focuses mainly on Mickey Rooney as Whitey. 

He is only really the lead at the beginning of the film, where he sees boys in needs, and decides to help them. There is not all that much to really say about Tracy's performance here. There really isn't. His character is exceedingly simple, just a nice priest who wants to help the boys out no matter what, he really is required to do very little.

This performance though I will say I did not think was bad, just unimpressive. He is properly nice, and welcoming in his performance. He is warm enough, and pleasant in the right manner. I guess he does show his character's quiet passion well enough I suppose. The want to help the boys is made genuine by Tracy, but it just does not amount to all that much.

He becomes even less really when he is barely in the film for awhile, pretty much just a background supporting character to the main story about Mickey Rooney. That is until the end of the film, where he questions the lack of a heart in Rooney's character, and then joins his boys, in a very silly scene, to attack gun touting gangsters. Tracy is believable as well in these sterner scenes, but again it really is not anything that needs to really mentioned. It is not a bad performance really, but it certainly is rather underwhelming.

Best Actor 1938

And the Nominees Were:

Robert Donat in The Citadel

Leslie Howard in Pygmalion

Spencer Tracy in Boys Town

James Cagney in Angels With Dirty Faces

Charles Boyer in Algiers

Best Actor 1961: Results

5. Charles Boyer in Fanny- Boyer is fine enough but his role is too small and simple for him to accomplish all that much.

4. Spencer Tracy in Judgment At Nuremberg- Tracy gives a quietly affecting portrayal of a man quietly coming to grips with a terrible situation. 

3. Maximilian Schell in Judgment At Nuremberg- Schell's performance is a triumph of so powerfully presenting on the wrong side of an issue.

2. Paul Newman in The Hustler- An absolutely terrific performance, where Newman really creates a fascinating original character in Fast Eddie Felson. Newman never goes the easy way with his character, always going for instead a complex and creative character.

1. Stuart Whitman in The Mark- This one was extremely close for me, and much harder to choose than I expected it to be, before I watched the Mark. Whitman though completely threw me off with his extremely powerful complex performance of a deeply troubled man trying to change his life. I will say I do not think Whitman is better Newman, they are both equally great, but the nature of the award is choosing one, and for the moment I will choose Whitman. This is a year though where I am sure my choice could easily go back forth, because both create such memorable and powerful portraits of two incredibly unique characters.

Deserving Performances:
Open to Suggestions.

Best Actor 1961: Spencer Tracy in Judgment At Nuremberg

Spencer Tracy received his eighth nomination for portraying Judge Dan Haywood in Judgment at Nuremberg.

Judge Judge Dan Haywood is an American Judge who is set as the chief justice of the tribunal who sits to judge the Judges of the Nazi regime. Tracy is the actual lead of the film, although he does not get to do all that pointing and yelling that co-nominee Schell gets to do (you can watch Inherit the Wind if you want to see Tracy do that) instead Tracy gives a quieter performance as the presiding Judge.

The film follows him through his time in the trial, and his path reaching basically to his verdict. It is rather interesting because most of the performances have the biggest moments inside the courtroom but Tracy is almost entirely reactive in the courtroom sequences. Tracy's performance is very minute in a lot of these moments though on subsequent rewatches it becomes all the more evident that what Tracy is doing in his performance is showing the way the judge is slowly coming to his final speech. And early on you see a man who is more so than an observer, sometimes frustrated by the hostility in the court, and at other moments the sense of the extreme nature of the horror he must preside over seems to weigh on him. 

Tracy's more active moments come outside of the courtroom. He is very reactive even then. His performance though I think is effective in terms of showing two sides of a man, one being a kind of tourist and the other being a man taking in the weight of the experience of Nazi Germany. His performance does balance this with slightly humorous moments, such as his quiet frustration when being called grandpa by a young German woman, with also the sense of understanding of it all that slowly seems to weigh more on him as the film proceeds. 

So what does his character come to, well he comes to that the men are guilty of their horrible crimes. He says it in a verdict strongly depicted by Tracy, and then reassured once again by Tracy directly to the repentant of Judge Ernest Janning (Burt Lancaster). Tracy does have the right forcefulness in showing the character's belief in justice, but this really just is what occurs at the end. On-rewatch these scenes have only become more powerful. The verdict scene is excellent work from Tracy where you do see the ideal Tracy where he says the words as fact, and in this case the facts have such tremendous power to them. The other being his moment of indignation is calm yet so piercing as he directly reprimands the judge for doing something he should've known was wrong. 

On-rewatch this is one of Tracy's better performances and one that works well within the expectations of the film. Tracy's performance is supposed to be this kind of bedrock foundational idea of someone who believes in the law and must try to comprehend this situation as best he can. He does so in a way that has a natural humanity in it, and for much of it is a man slightly lost in trying to find a way to figure out what all this madness contains. His realization is a calm one by Tracy, but in the end also a very potent and essential one for the film. 

Best Actor 1961

And the Nominees Were:

Paul Newman in The Hustler

Stuart Whitman in The Mark

Maximilian Schell in Judgment At Nuremberg

Spencer Tracy in Judgment At Nuremberg

Charles Boyer in Fanny

 Well here it is the most requested year. I frankly do not know how almost everyone was so interested in this year exactly, but I guess I'll see how it is.

Best Actor 1937: Results

5. Spencer Tracy in Captain Courageous- Tracy I just think is completely unbelievable in this role, I never was convinced by his accent or his performance.

4. Paul Muni in The Life of Emile Zola- Muni does do some overacting in some scenes, and Zola is portrayed rather simply in the film itself. Still though he handles the speeches of Zola pretty well, and his changes as Zola ages are very well done.

3. Charles Boyer in Conquest- Boyer is perfectly cast as Napoleon, but unfortunately napoleon is portrayed incredibly inconsistently. Still Boyer does have some strong moments, and shows if the film had been better than he probably could have been great.

2. Fredric March in A Star is Born- Like Boyer I do feel March is hurt a little by the film, but he still gives a very charming performance as Norman Maine. Then as Norman's stardom falls he gives a pretty effective portrait of a man who continues to drift downward, despite the fact the film rushes this far too much.

1. Robert Montgomery in Night Must Fall- Montgomery is absolutely brilliant in his performance here. He is both charming and incredibly chilling. His performance is truly great, giving the right hints of the true nature of the character throughout, and mixes his charm with his psychotic nature incredibly well. And his final look at himself in the mirror that is just a truly outstanding scene.

Deserving Performances:
Cary Grant in The Awful Truth
Stan Laurel in Way Out West
Oliver Hardy in Way Out West

Best Actor 1937: Spencer Tracy in Captain Couragoeus

Spencer Tract won his first Oscar from his second Oscar nomination for portraying Manuel Fidello a fisherman in Captain Courageous.

Captain Courageous I actually liked for the most part, I felt it was simply but well told story of a spoiled boy Harvey (Freddie Bartholomew) who learns what it really means to be a  man when he lives on a fisher boat for  awhile do following off a luxury liner.

Spencer Tracy is not actually the lead in Captain Courageous Freddie  Bartholomew is as Harvey. He is most certainly supporting. There is nothing all that special about this supporting performance. I will say the character of Manuel does have a heartwarming quality that note even a bad performance can mess up.

That is the only thing I can say that is positive about Tracy's simple and very poor performance. He never for a second is believable as the fisherman even less so than in the Old Man and the Sea, I suppose fishermen were not his forte. His accent he tries is strange, and incredibly inconsistent. A performance really is has a problem when the actor can not even keep a bad accent straight. Manuel dialogue is a tough sell I will say, and Tracy naturally is unable to sell it. He certainly smiles a lot, but so what there is nothing special about that.

There is never anything special about his performance at all. Whenever he tries something more with Manuel, or is required to do more he fails. This certainly just is not a high point for Tracy, after all even Tracy though lowly of it, well before people told him he was good, and won an award for it. This simply is not a good performance, almost everyone acted better than him in this movie, Freddie Bartholomew, Lionel Barrymore, Melvyn Douglas, even Mickey Rooney.

Best Actor 1937

And the Nominees Were:

Fredric March in A Star Was Born

Paul Muni in The Life of Emile Zola

Spencer Tracy in Captain Courageous 

Robert Montgomery in Night Must Fall

Charles Boyer in Conquest

Who do you pick, and predict? The drunken actor, Emile Zola, the guy who looks like he is drunk, the man who has more than smoking on his mind, or Napoleon Bonaparte.

Best Actor 1950: Results

5. Louis Calhern in The Magnificent Yankee- I will say it again that Calhern is just fine as Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, but only just fine.

4. Spencer Tracy in Father of the Bride- Spencer Tracy is very good in this film being both an interesting presence to follow through sometime purposely mundane situations, and fins the right amount of humor when he can.

3.Jose Ferrer in Cyrano De Bergerac- Ferrer is very strong in every speech he makes from his most explosively and overly dramatic ones to his more tender romantic ones. I do not think the film uses his performance particularly well, and Ferrer does not have anyone who can really act all that well with, but nonetheless gives a strong performance.

2.William Holden in Sunset Blvd.- William does an incredibly good job at being cynical, and finds the right if sometimes bizarre tone for his scenes with Gloria Swanson.

1. James Stewart in Harvey- I put him here because the film he is in and everything with in it would have been an absolute incredible failure if Stewart was not able to make Elwood such a likable, poignant, endearing, and most importantly believable character. Elwood is an incredible challenge and Stewart manages to meet it. 

Deserving Performances:
Toshiro Mifune in Rashomon