(Films released from August 1, 1932 through December 31, 1933 were eligible.)
A very odd choice of category for the Academy to add at this point, before it started giving Oscars for music or film editing or supporting players (not to mention the ones that came much later, costumes and makeup) or revived the special effects category that it had given at the first awards. Especially because "assistant director" is a kind of catch-all title. The AD does everything that the director doesn't have time to do (or in the case of a powerful director doesn't want to do). This can be everything from making sure everything is on schedule to kicking ass and taking names. Most films today have a multitude of ADs, and most of them have assistants. Sometimes the title "assistant director" is used for a "second-unit director," who directs crowd scenes, establishing shots of scenery, and sometimes retakes of scenes, especially when the director has moved on to another set or location. Obviously, this category doesn't give us much opportunity to comment on alternative nominations, especially since in this first of the only five years in which it was awarded, there were multiple winners -- seven of them, out of eighteen nominations -- and no specific films were cited. But it's interesting to take a closer look at what happened to them later in their careers.
The nominees were ...
- Al Alborn (Warner Bros.)
- Charles Barton (Paramount)
- Scott Beal (Universal)
- Sidney S. Brod (Paramount)
- Charles Dorian (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
- Bunny Dull (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
- Fred Fox (United Artists)
- Gordon Hollingshead (Warner Bros.)
- Percy Ikerd (Fox)
- Arthur Jacobson (Paramount)
- Eddie Killey (RKO Radio)
- Joe McDonough (Universal)
- W. J. Reiter (Universal)
- Frank X. Shaw (Warner Bros.)
- Benjamin Silvey (United Artists)
- Dewey Starkey (RKO Radio)
- William Tummel (Fox)
- John S. Waters (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
Charles Barton (Paramount).
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| Charles Barton |
Barton was AD on Horse Feathers (1932), the Marx Brothers' movie. He moved into the director's chair in 1934, mostly on B pictures. In 1945 he went to Universal, where he directed many of the Abbott and Costello movies. In the early 1950s he began a long career as a TV director.
Beal was AD on such 1932-33 films as Murders in the Rue Morgue, Back Street, and Only Yesterday. He began as an actor, and directed a few films, but most of his career was spent as an assistant director. He received another nomination in the category for Imitation of Life (1934).
A former actor in silent pictures, Dorian worked on such films as Red-Headed Woman and Night Flight during the eligibility period.
In addition to his work as AD, Fox, who was born in London, played small parts in movies in the 1940s, including Mrs. Parkington (1944) and Forever Amber (1947). The films that made him eligible for the 1932-33 Oscar include Baby Face, The Bowery, and Broadway Through a Keyhole.
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| Gordon Hollingshead |
The most successful of all of the 1932-33 AD winners, Hollingshead would go on to collect five more Oscars plus ten nominations as a producer of more than two hundred short films. The movies that qualified him for the 1932-33 AD win include 42nd Street, Footlight Parade, Picture Snatcher, and Tugboat Annie. In 1960 he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Starkey was AD on A Bill of Divorcement, The Silver Cord, and Professional Sweetheart. He remained an assistant director until 1944 when he switched to production manager, ending his career as a production supervisor on such TV series as "Gunsmoke" and "Perry Mason."
Tummel's work on the 1932-33 best picture winner, Cavalcade, put him in contention for the assistant director Oscar.
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