Alternate Best Actor 1942: Results

5. Tim Holt in The Magnificent Ambersons -  Holt's character is an unlikable boring brat, and Holt in no way makes him compelling in any of that.

Best Scene: Fanny's revelation... I guess.

4. Noel Coward in In Which We Serve - Coward obviously had a very specific purpose for his film and his performance which is to give a passionate message for World War II. Well he accomplishes that well leaving other elements of his performance a bit simple.

Best Scene: The Captain delivers a speech to his troops.

3. Alan Ladd in This Gun For Hire - Ladd his the right notes in his portrayal of a brutal assassin, but just never quite seems to go the extra distance with his performance.

Best Scene:  Raven talks about his past.

2. Joel McCrea in The Palm Beach Story - McCrea gets kinda the short end of the stick in terms of screen time but he still gives an enjoyable portrayal of a husband exasperated by his wife's odd behavior.

Best Scene: Tom hears about his "sister's" idea.

1. Pierre Fresnay in The Murderer Lives At Number 21- Easily my favorite out of these five. Fresnay as is a great charmer here giving a highly entertaining portrayal that makes his film one enjoyable mystery to watch.

Best Scene: Inspector Wens stalls the killer.

Overall Rank:

1. Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca
2. Pierre Fresnay in The Murderer Lives At Number 21
3. Chishū Ryū in There Was A Father
   
4. James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy
5. Monty Woolley in The Pied Piper
6. Ronald Colman in Random Harvest
7. Joel McCrea in The Palm Beach Story
8. Erroll Flynn in Gentleman Jim
   
9. Monty Woolley in The Man Who Came to Dinner 
   
10. James Mason in The Night Has Eyes
11. Leslie Howard in The First of Few
12. Ronald Colman in The Talk of the Town
    
13. Spencer Tracy in Woman of the Year
    
14. George Sanders in The Moon and Sixpence
    
15. Ronald Reagan in Kings Row 
    
16. Alan Ladd in This Gun For Hire
17. Robert Cummings in Saboteur  
18. Edward G. Robinson in Larceny, Inc. 
    
19. Michael Redgrave in Thunder Rock
20. Edward Arnold in Eyes in the Night
    
21. Jack Benny in To Be or Not To Be 
22. Fredric March in I Married A Witch
    
23. Cary Grant in The Talk of the Town
    
24. Ray Milland in The Major and the Minor 
25. Herbert Marshall in The Moon and Sixpence
    
26. Jean Gabin in Moontide
27. Bob Hope in Road to Morocco  
28. Tyrone Power in This Above All   
29. Robert Cummings in Kings Row
30. Noel Coward in In Which We Serve 
31. John Mills in In Which We Serve  
32. Alan Ladd in The Glass Key
    
33. Fred Astaire in Holiday Inn 
34. Walter Pidgeon in Mrs. Miniver
35. Tyrone Power in The Black Swan
36. Gary Cooper in The Pride of the Yankees
37. Bing Crosby in Holiday Inn
38. Bing Crosby in Road to Morocco
39. Tim Holt in The Magnificent Ambersons
40. Spencer Tracy in Tortilla Flat
41. John Garfield in Tortilla Flat

Next Year: 1942 Supporting

Alternate Best Actor 1942: Tim Holt in The Magnificent Ambersons

Tim Holt did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying George in The Magnificent Ambersons.

The Magnificent Ambersons is a decent enough followup to Citizen Kane by Orson Welles about a fading prominent family, although the fact that is was severely cut by the studio is quite noticeable.

Tim Holt, best known as the far less greedy miner in the Treasure of Sierra Madre, once again plays a role that seems thankless to the showier roles given to much of the cast. Holt plays George who will inherit what is left of the Amberson fortune. Holt in the early scenes plays George extremely straight as the lead character in a family drama like this, really in pretty much the way these sorts of characters are portrayed in parodies. Holt speaks every line as to the point as possible, and in all honesty is quite bland as George seems to just enjoy his status in life as well as the fact that he seems primed to marry his romantic interest Lucy (Anne Baxter). Although I think this was a purposeful directing choice on Welles part, Holt does not find any wiggle room to do something special within his restriction like say the way Daniel Day-Lewis eventually would in A Room With A View.

The reason George just seems the romantic hero is that Welles obviously wanted to give us this golden age appearance for the family of the Ambersons as well as for the life of George. This is torn down rather quickly though when a scandal arises surrounding George's mother and Lucy's father. This leaves George to confront it in a particularly selfish and fairly extreme way showing him to be actually just really a spoiled brat more that anything. Holt again keeps it incredibly straight to almost the point of parody as he plays George's reaction as basically just a temper tantrum. Again I think this does fit the character, and Welles's intent but Holt's performance does it in a particularly standard fashion. His George is just extremely likable Holt suggest no real substance to this, he does it with no style, and never attempts to do it in cleverly humorous fashion either.

Eventually, well rather quickly due to the brevity of the film, George falls on some hard times himself losing Lucy, having to get a job and eventually getting an automobile accident. Again Holt just stays quite bland and very uninteresting. Holt still keeps George as a man of no depth even when distraught, but I suppose that is true to form. Nevertheless George is still one boring man who I could care less about, and Holt does not even turn that into some sort of compelling anti-charisma. Holt's performance and George as a character just seems there to facilitate the more interesting characters who are performed by the likes of Agnes Moorehead and Joseph Cotten. This not a truly bad performance as I do think technically Holt fulfills his duty in a certain way, but that way is particularly forgettable.

Alternate Best Actor 1942

And the Nominees Were Not:

Alan Ladd in This Gun For Hire

Joel McCrea in The Palm Beach Story

Noel Coward in In Which We Serve

Tim Holt in The Magnificent Ambersons

Pierre Fresnay in The Murderer Lives At Number 21