Awards presented November 10, 1931
(Films released from August 1, 1930 through July 31, 1931 were eligible.)
The nominees were ...
... when they should have been ...
... and the Oscar went to ...
Dressler's warmth and peerless comic timing made her a top box-office star in the early '30s, but she died at the peak of her success in 1934. She had been a Broadway star before the turn of the century and moved from vaudeville into movies, making her debut in 1914 opposite Charles Chaplin in
Tillie's Punctured Romance. But her career faded in the '20s, and she spent some time in France making comedy shorts before she was spotted by director Alan Dwan and cast in
The Joy Girl in 1927. It was screenwriter Frances Marion, however, who revived Dressler's career, writing roles specifically for her, including
Min and Bill. Nowhere is Dressler seen to better advantage than in the concluding moments of
Dinner at Eight (1933) when Jean Harlow tells her, "I was reading a book the other day." Sailing along like the
Queen Mary, Dressler comes to a stumbling halt, as if the ocean liner had suddenly jammed on the brakes, and in surprise asks, "Reading a book?" Yes, Harlow burbles, the author says that machinery is going to replace people in every profession. "Oh, my dear," Dressler replies, soothingly, "that's something you need never worry about."
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