(Films released from August 1, 1931 through July 31, 1932 were eligible.)
The nominees were ...
(Adaptation)
- Edwin Burke, Bad Girl
- Percy Heath and Samuel Hoffenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
- Sidney Howard, Arrowsmith
(Original Story)
- Lucien Hubbard, The Star Witness
- Grover Jones and William Slavens McNutt, Lady and Gent
- Frances Marion, The Champ
- Adela Rogers St. Johns and Jane Murfin, What Price Hollywood?
... when they should have been ...
(Adaptation)
- Ben Hecht, Scarface
- Ernest Vajda and Samson Raphaelson, The Smiling Lieutenant
- Robert Lord and Byron Morgan, Five Star Final
(Original Story)
- René Clair, À Nous la Liberté
- Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Henry Myers, Million Dollar Legs
- Clarence Aaron "Tod" Robbins, Freaks
- Adela Rogers St. Johns and Jane Murfin, What Price Hollywood?
And the Oscar went to ...
(Adaptation)
Edwin Burke, Bad Girl. Burke had been an actor and a playwright, mostly writing skits for vaudeville. In 1928, when his full-length play This Thing Called Love was optioned by the movies (it was filmed in 1929 and remade in 1940), he moved to Hollywood and began contributing dialogue to films. His first memorable work was his Oscar-winning screenplay, an adaptation of a novel by Viña Delmar (the husband-and-wife team of Alvina and Eugene Delmar). Aside from two Shirley Temple films, Bright Eyes and The Littlest Rebel, most of his others are forgotten.
(Original Story)
Frances Marion, The Champ. After her second Oscar, Marion received only one more nomination, for the 1933 film The Prizefighter and the Lady, but the films Dinner at Eight in 1933 and Camille in 1936, for which she also wrote the screenplays, are perhaps better-known. The Champ was unnecessarily remade by director Franco Zeffirelli in 1979, with Jon Voight, Faye Dunaway, and Ricky Schroeder
... when it should have gone to ...
(Adaptation)
Ben Hecht, Scarface. Hecht and Howard Hawks were an almost inevitable pairing. In addition to Scarface, they also collaborated on Twentieth Century (1934), Barbary Coast (1935), and Monkey Business (1952). His Girl Friday (1940) was based on Hecht's play (with Charles MacArthur) The Front Page. Hawks was an uncredited writer on Josef von Sternberg's Underworld (1927), for which Hecht wrote the story, and on Jack Conway's Viva Villa! (1934) which had a screenplay by Hecht. (Hawks began as director of the latter film but bowed out.) And Hawks and Hecht were both uncredited writers on The Thing From Another World (1951), on which Hawks was producer -- and even credited director Christian Nyby, an experienced film editor but a novice director, said that Hawks did a lot of the actual directing.
(Original Story)
 |
| René Clair |
Clair both wrote and directed this generally sweet-natured satire on industrialized modern life, though much of the dialogue was improvised. Then, five years later, Charles Chaplin did another satire on industrialized modern life, Modern Times, and Clair's distributor, Tobis, filed suit. Clair protested, gracefully acknowledging Chaplin's genius, but was unable to stop the lawsuit. After World War II, Chaplin's lawyers finally agreed to a settlement, but Clair had no part in it. À Nous la Liberté was the first foreign-made film to receive a nomination -- for Lazare Meerson's art direction. (Ironically, it was nominated in the same year that the cinematographers' branch voted to exclude foreign-made films from consideration.)
