(Films released from August 1, 1932 through December 31, 1933 were eligible.)
This was the last year in which the eligibility period didn't coincide with the calendar year, and in preparation for that, the Academy extended the eligibility from the end of July 1933 to the end of the year. Which meant, for one thing, that 1933 was the only year without an Oscar ceremony. It also meant that there were more eligible films than ever, but since the Academy stuck to the practice of making only three nominations in most categories, a lot of good, even great films, went without nominations. I am trying to remedy that, in my own hindsighted way.
The nominees were ...
- Leslie Howard in Berkeley Square
- Charles Laughton in The Private Life of Henry VIII
- Paul Muni in I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang
- Gary Cooper in A Farewell to Arms
- Clark Gable in Red Dust
- Paul Muni in I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang
Charles Laughton in The Private Life of Henry VIII. More actors have received Oscar nominations for playing Henry VIII than any other figure in literature or history. There are Robert Shaw in A Man for All Seasons and Richard Burton in Anne of the Thousand Days, but Laughton's is the only one honored by the Academy. He plays Henry more for comedy than for history, permanently establishing the popular image of the monarch as a gluttonous lecher. The movie is entertaining if you're not looking for insight into Tudor statecraft. It established Laughton as a leading character actor, particularly in historical roles: In the 1930s he also appeared as Nero in The Sign of the Cross, Mr. Barrett in The Barretts of Wimpole Street, Javert in Les Misérables, Captain Bligh in The Mutiny on the Bounty, and Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. But he was a miserably insecure man, tormented by his need to conceal his homosexuality, and his later screen career is marked by highs and lows. One high is his sole movie directing effort, the critically acclaimed The Night of the Hunter in 1955, but it was unfortunately a box-office failure.
... when it should have gone to ...
Clark Gable in Red Dust:
 |
| Clark Gable in Red Dust |
 |
| Mary Astor and Clark Gable in Red Dust |
 |
| Jean Harlow and Clark Gable in Red Dust |
The Production Code was looming, and Red Dust is perhaps the last chance we get to see Gable at his sexiest, choosing between two women, Mary Astor and Jean Harlow. The film is terrifically entertaining, but the heat generated by Gable and his co-stars is unsurpassed. Red Dust was remade in 1953 as Mogambo, when Gable was twenty years older and coasting on his status as King of Hollywood, but even in that one, in which he barely tries to act at all, he has no trouble convincing us that Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly were falling over each other for him. It will be argued that, in comparison with Charles Laughton, Gable is hardly acting at all in this movie, but let us now recall that there are two types of Oscar-winning roles: those in which the acting shows, and those in which the star simply has to be a star. San Francisco film critic Mick LaSalle likes to distinguish between "chameleon" roles and "apotheosis" roles when talking about Oscar-winning performances: Laughton's in this case is a "chameleon" role, in which the pudgy British actor tries to convince us that he's the powerful and charismatic King Henry VIII. Gable's would be an "apotheosis" win: a star being a star.
No comments:
Post a Comment