Oscargasms: July 2014

July 28, 2014

Best Actor 1930-1931

and the nominees were...

Lionel Barrymore, A Free Soul (previously reviewed)

Jackie Cooper, Skippy

Richard Dix, Cimarron (previously reviewed)

Fredric March, The Royal Family of Broadway

Adolphe Menjou, The Front Page

...and so we enter the 4th Academy Awards, where we've got three remaining Best Actor nominees left before my Special Summertime Sausage-Fest Blogathon ends and we jump back into 50/50 male-female blogging ratios. I wanted to do this year last because after a dry stretch of dull flicks, I figured it'd be best to end with three comedic pictures...for even if I end up not liking the performances very much, at least I can be assured a few laughs.

July 23, 2014

Best Actor: 1928-1929

and the nominees were:

George Bancroft, Thunderbolt

Warner Baxter, In Old Arizona (previously covered)

Chester Morris, Alibi

Paul Muni, The Valiant

and...

Lewis Stone, The Patriot

(which is presently a lost film and only exists in fragments. Oscargasms prays to the Movie Gods that someday the film will be found, but until then...RIP to what could have been.)

*I've opted not to do a round-up post for 1927-1928 as I don't like declaring someone my winner and potentially having to change that decision later on. For all I know, Richard Barthelmess in The Noose may knock my socks off...so until I get around to seeing him some day, there will be no official post, and Emil Jannings will be a tentative winner, (though not the official winner.)

July 11, 2014

Best Actor: 1927-1928

Oscargasms now turns to the very first batch of Best Actor nominees. I've already watched and reviewed Chaplin and Jannings sometime back in 2010, but I suppose that's an extended enough time to warrant some rewatches. Showing just how sloppy a mess they were back in the day, the Academy nominated Chaplin for Best Actor and then took away that nomination, instead giving him a special award "for versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing and producing The Circus." Because Oscargasms is a glutton for punishment, I'm just going to go ahead and honor it like a real nomination.

and the nominees were:

Richard Barthelmess, The Patent Leather Kid

Charlie Chaplin, The Circus

Emil Jannings, The Last Command

plus...

Richard Barthelmess, The Noose

The only print of The Noose apparently exists at MoMA in New York City. I'm actually going to be in New York City next month, and as luck would cruelly have it, August is also coincidentally the month that MoMA's film library is closed off from the public. So....I'll have to postpone this one and get around to him another day in the distant future.

and...

Emil Jannings, The Way of All Flesh

(which is presently a lost film. Oscargasms prays to the Movie Gods that someday the film will be found, but until then...RIP to what could have been.)