Best Film Editing, 1936

Awards presented March 4, 1937

The nominees were ... 

• Edward Curtiss, Come and Get It 
• Ralph Dawson, Anthony Adverse 
• William S. Gray, The Great Ziegfeld 
• Barbara McLean, Lloyd's of London 
• Otto Meyer, Theodora Goes Wild 
• Conrad A. Nervig, A Tale of Two Cities 

... when they should have been ... 

• Edward Curtiss, Come and Get It 
• Ralph Dawson, Anthony Adverse 
• William S. Gray, The Great Ziegfeld 
• Barbara McLean, Lloyd's of London 
• Tom Held, San Francisco 
• Conrad A. Nervig, A Tale of Two Cities 

And the Oscar went to ... 

Ralph Dawson, Anthony Adverse. 

Dawson had won an Oscar for film editing the previous year. He'll win another two years later, for The Adventures of Robin Hood.  

... when it should have gone to ... 

Tom Held, San Francisco. 

Held would normally get the nod from the Academy because he is the nominal film editor on San Francisco, and he would be nominated for two Oscars in 1939. Perhaps he missed out on this one, because the earthquake sequence, which is the editing tour de force in the film, was done by John Hoffman and especially Slavko Vorkapich, whose work with montage is ranked alongside that of Sergei Eisenstein in influence. See here for some visual evidence of Vorkapich's work on San Francisco. 

Slavko Vorkapich, seated, demonstrates the classic editing device, the Moviola, c. 1950.

Best Music, 1936

Awards presented March 4, 1937

The nominees were ... 
(Scoring) 

• Anthony Adverse,  Warner Bros. Studio Music Department, Leo Forbstein, head of department (Score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold)
• The Charge of the Light Brigade, Warner Bros. Studio Music Department, Leo Forbstein, head of department (Score by Max Steiner)
• The Garden of Allah, Selznick International Pictures Music Department, Max Steiner, head of department (Score by Max Steiner) 
• The General Died at Dawn, Paramount Studio Music Department, Boris Morros, head of department (Score by Werner Janssen) 
• Winterset, RKO Radio Studio Music Department, Nathaniel Shilkret, head of department (Score by Nathaniel Shilkret)

(Song) 

• "Did I Remember" from Suzy, Music by Walter Donaldson; Lyrics by Harold Adamson
• "I've Got You Under My Skin" from Born to Dance, Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter
• "A Melody from the Sky" from The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, Music by Louis Alter; Lyrics by Sidney Mitchell
• "Pennies from Heaven" from Pennies from Heaven, Music by Arthur Johnston; Lyrics by Johnny Burke
• "The Way You Look Tonight" from Swing Time, Music by Jerome Kern; Lyrics by Dorothy Fields
• "When Did You Leave Heaven" from Sing, Baby, Sing, Music by Richard A. Whiting; Lyrics by Walter Bullock

... when they should have been ... 
(Song) 

• "I've Got You Under My Skin" from Born to Dance, Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter
• "Let's Face the Music and Dance" from Follow the Fleet, Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin 
• "Pennies from Heaven" from Pennies from Heaven, Music by Arthur Johnston; Lyrics by Johnny Burke
• "San Francisco" from San Francisco, Music by Bronislau Kaper and Walter Jurmann; Lyrics by Gus Kahn 
• "The Way You Look Tonight" from Swing Time, Music by Jerome Kern; Lyrics by Dorothy Fields

And the Oscar went to ... 
(Scoring) 
Anthony Adverse, Warner Bros. Studio Music Department, Leo Forbstein, head of department (Score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold). 
Forbstein got the Oscar, but Korngold won it for him. 


(Song)
"The Way You Look Tonight" from Swing Time, Music by Jerome Kern; Lyrics by Dorothy Fields.
Kern, one of the greatest of American songwriters, won two Oscars -- the other was for "The Last Time I Saw Paris" from Lady Be Good -- and was nominated six more times. This was Fields's second nomination and her only win.

Jerome Kern, Dorothy Fields, and George Gershwin

Best Cinematography, 1936

Awards presented March 4, 1937

The nominees were ... 

• George Folsey, The Gorgeous Hussy 
• Gaetano Gaudio, Anthony Adverse 
• Victor Milner, The General Died at Dawn 

... when they should have been ... 

• Gaetano Gaudio, Anthony Adverse 
• Bert Glennon, The Prisoner of Shark Island 
• John J. Mescall, Show Boat 

And the Oscar went to ... 

Gaetano Gaudio, Anthony Adverse. 
Gaudio, usually billed as Tony Gaudio, and sometimes in the early years as Antonio, was a pioneering cameraman, making films as early as 1903 in his native Italy. He came to the United States in 1906 and became one of the most prolific cinematographers of the silent film era, shooting the early films of Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, among others. He spent most of his career at Warner Bros., and received five nominations in addition to the award for Anthony Adverse.  

... when it should have gone to ... 

Bert Glennon, The Prisoner of Shark Island. 

Bert Glennon

Glennon went into the movie business right out of Stanford, working as a camera operator starting in 1916. He was cinematographer on Cecil B. DeMille's 1924 version of The Ten Commandments, and shot several features with Josef von Sternberg. The Prisoner of Shark Island was the first of several collaborations with director John Ford, two of which, Stagecoach and Drums Along the Mohawk, earned him Oscar nominations. His work on The Prisoner of Shark Island shows his skill at lighting for atmosphere, both on closeups and on the shadow-haunted prison. In the sequence shown below, the death of Abraham Lincoln is filmed through a curtain; as Glennon gradually pulls the focus back, the curtain veils the dead president's face, an effect more dramatic than a standard fade-out. Shark Island is one of Ford's lesser-known films, no thanks to the Academy, which gave it no nominations, but its telling of the unjust imprisonment of Dr. Samuel Mudd (Warner Baxter), who set John Wilkes Booth's broken leg after the assassination, is well handled. Among other things, Baxter's performance almost justifies the Oscar he was rather prematurely given for In Old Arizona.  

Credit where it's due: The stills above are borrowed from an article comparing Robert Redford's 2010 film about the aftermath of Lincoln's assassination, The Conspirator, and The Prisoner of Shark Island. 

Best Supporting Actress, 1936

Awards presented March 4, 1937

For general comments on the new supporting player categories, go here. The supporting actress nominees were less diverse than the supporting actors. Bondi and Brady were established character players in movies, and while Ouspenskaya and Sondergaard were making their debuts, they would continue to play character roles. Granville was only fourteen at the time of the awards, and worked regularly as an actress for another decade and a half, then became producer of the "Lassie" TV series. 

The nominees were ... 

• Beulah Bondi in The Gorgeous Hussy 
• Alice Brady in My Man Godfrey 
• Bonita Granville in These Three 
• Maria Ouspenskaya in Dodsworth 
• Gale Sondergaard in Anthony Adverse 

... when they should have been ... 

• Alice Brady in My Man Godfrey 
• Judy Garland in Pigskin Parade 
• Hattie McDaniel in Show Boat 
• Edna May Oliver in Romeo and Juliet 
• Luise Rainer in The Great Ziegfeld  

And the Oscar went to ... 

Gale Sondergaard in Anthony Adverse. 

Sondergaard was not only the first person to win a supporting actress award, she was also the first to win an acting Oscar for a debut. She had been on the Broadway stage, but came to Hollywood with her husband, director Herbert Biberman. Her award-winning role as the conniving Faith Paleologus caused her to be typecast as a villain or malicious gossip throughout the 1930s and '40s -- she was, for example, the first to be cast as the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz, but withdrew from the role because she didn't want to wear the ugly makeup. Her career was interrupted in the 1950s by blacklisting after Biberman refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee and was jailed as one of the Hollywood Ten.   

... when it should have gone to ... 

Hattie McDaniel in Show Boat. 

Paul Robeson, Irene Dunne, Hattie McDaniel, and Helen Morgan in Show Boat 

Morgan, McDaniel, and Dunne 

Yes, another bandanna role: the cook aboard the Cotton Blossom. But as Queenie, McDaniel gets to do what she did very well: sing. She had started her career as a singer and made several recordings on the Okeh label, but the movies rarely gave her a chance to show that talent. Although the film version of the Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein musical omits one of Queenie's numbers, "C'mon Folks (Queenie's Ballyhoo)," Kern and Hammerstein added a duet for Queenie and Joe, played by Paul Robeson, "Ah Still Suits Me." McDaniel also sings in the ensemble version of "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man." She had been in movies since 1932, sometimes supplementing her income by working as a maid. As she said, "I'd rather play a maid than be one." So casual was Hollywood about its treatment of her that she was often billed as "Hattie McDaniels," but she endured and overcame its indifference.