5. Gary Cooper, Sergeant York
4. Cary Grant, Penny Serenade
3. Walter Huston, The Devil and Daniel Webster
2. Orson Welles, Citizen Kane
1. ROBERT MONTGOMERY, HERE COMES MR. JORDAN
IN CONCLUSION: A pretty meh year for male actors, and a pretty unimaginative field of five. In regards to my #1 and #2, it all came down to enjoyability. I respect Orson Welles' performance more so than I flat-out enjoyed it...whereas I was totally delighted by Robert Montgomery and would happily sit through Here Comes Mr. Jordan over and over again just to watch him, and in the end I think that's worth more than a performance which is technically better with all its "acting moments". So congrats to Montgomery for becoming a two-time (Oscargasms) Oscar winner!! He joins my beloved Fredric March as being my only personal two-timers thus far, which is perfectly fitting as Montgomery is arguably my favorite actor second to March from the 1930s. So hurrah!! The placings of #3, #4, and #5 speak for themselves and I won't bother wasting more energy thinking or typing about them. I suppose the biggest and most obvious omission for 1941 was Humphrey Bogart for The Maltese Falcon (and to a lesser extent, High Sierra). There is also Gary Cooper for Ball of Fire (as much as I didn't like his Oscar-winning role, I admit he's much more enjoyable here) or Meet John Doe, Henry Fonda for The Lady Eve (who, given 1941's weak field, I would definitely nominate as I thought he was an utterly lovable hoot), Robert Montgomery again for Mr. and Mrs. Smith (who was pretty adorable), Charles Boyer in Hold Back the Dawn (enjoyed much more than his first two nominations), my main man for Best Picture nominee One Foot in Heaven, my least favorite man reprising my main man's Oscar-winning Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and I guess Roddy MacDowell in that goddamned How Green was My Valley. Ugh. Just typing the name of that film distresses me. Good riddance to 1941.
Bogart would be your winner if he'd been nominated?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure! It has been a really long time since I've watched The Maltese Falcon. I remember being okay on the movie but neither impressed or unimpressed by Bogie so I can't really say. Just a weakish year overall in my opinion.
DeleteThough I'd push him into the supporting category, Herbert Marshall has always been effective with Davis, his Horace Giddens included. He's the perfect counterpoint to Davis's flashy and nervous Regina, and he has several effective gentle scenes with Xan, Addie and David. Definitely I have to see fully, and outright study Mr. Jordan if you would raise him equivalent to Wells.
ReplyDeleteMarshall was great, though I definitely agree on putting him in Supporting. I don't want to overhype Montgomery in Here Comes Mr. Jordan though--if you really like Welles I'd wager that you may not take to Montgomery the way I did. I love Citizen Kane as a film, but Welles' performance doesn't evoke passion from me, and in the end I just loved that Here Comes Mr. Jordan and Montgomery primarily serve to entertain and not be too "serious"
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