(Films released from August 1, 1930 through July 31, 1931 were eligible.)
The nominees were ...
- Lionel Barrymore in A Free Soul
- Jackie Cooper in Skippy
- Richard Dix in Cimarron
- Fredric March in The Royal Family of Broadway
- Adolphe Menjou in The Front Page
... when they should have been ...
- James Cagney in The Public Enemy
- Charles Chaplin in City Lights
- Gary Cooper in Morocco
- Adolphe Menjou in The Front Page
- Edward G. Robinson in Little Caesar
And the Oscar went to ...
Lionel Barrymore in A Free Soul. The oldest (and hammiest) of the three Barrymores, he began his career, like John and Ethel, on stage, but by 1923 was devoting himself entirely to the movies -- he made his first film in 1911. Virtually all his career was spent at MGM, except for an occasional loan-out like the one to RKO in 1946 for It's a Wonderful Life. He also directed several features, both silents and talkies, and was nominated for directing Madame X (1928-29). For that movie, he claims in his biography, We Barrymores, that he persuaded the sound engineers to rig a microphone to the end of a fishing pole, which could then track a moving actor around the set -- in short, that he invented the boom microphone. His claim to the innovation has been disputed. After 1938, he was confined to a wheelchair by steadily worsening arthritis, as well as a series of accidents in which he broke both hips. But he continued to make movies until 1952.
... when it should have gone to ...
 |
| Edward G. Robinson in Little Caesar |
Hard to believe, but Robinson never received an Oscar nomination, even for a supporting role. The Academy tried to make amends by giving him an honorary award in 1973, but he died before he could accept it at the Oscar ceremony. His Rico in Little Caesar made him a star -- and the object of caricature by impressionists everywhere -- and along with James Cagney's performance in The Public Enemy the same year and Paul Muni's in Scarface a year later, launched Warner Bros. on a profitable series of gangster films. It stereotyped Robinson for a while, but he was a strong enough actor to break free of the image and give memorable performances in Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity (1944), Fritz Lang's The Woman in the Window (1944) and Scarlet Street (1945), and John Huston's Key Largo (1948) -- all of which should have earned him notice from the Academy. He made his last film appearance in 1973's Soylent Green as the scientist who helps Charlton Heston uncover the truth: It's people.
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