1937 - 10th Academy Awards

and the nominees were:

Charles Boyer, Conquest

Fredric March, A Star is Born

Robert Montgomery, Night Must Fall

Paul Muni, The Life of Emile Zola

Spencer Tracy, Captains Courageous

Irene Dunne, The Awful Truth

Janet Gaynor, A Star is Born

Greta Garbo, Camille

Luise Rainer, The Good Earth

Barbara Stanwyck, Stella Dallas

Oscar turns 10! And what better way for me to appreciate his first decade of life than watching a hokey movie starring a kid, two movies starring Greta Garbo, another biopic with Paul Muni playing another Frenchman, and a movie with Paul Muni and Luise Rainer playing my ethnicity in my honor </sarcasm>. I'll start off by saying that I'm only looking forward to seeing two of the Actor nominees and I'm actually not excited about any of the Best Actress nominees. Coming in with low expectations can only lead to a somewhat positive outcome, right? Let me know which one of these you've seen/are your favorite :)

Actress Round-up: 1936

Actor Round-up: 1936

Gladys George, Valiant is the Word for Carrie

as CARRIE SNYDER

Melodramatic is the word for Valiant is the Word for Carrie. In fact, it's probably one of the most melodramatic films the best actress category has ever seen--and that's a bold statement to make given all the thirties films I've seen up to this point! At times it feels as though the author of the original novel looked up the definition of "valiant" in the dictionary and then set off to write a story entirely around the adjective without any respect to narrative fluidity. The plot itself takes a ton of bizarre turns, but to star Gladys George's credit, she manages to do the best she can as waves and waves of ridiculous narrative crash onto her (and us).

Gary Cooper, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

as LONGFELLOW DEEDS

It is said that Gary Cooper was Frank Capra's "first, last and only choice" for the role of Mr. Deeds. I've been trying to figure out why that was, because my perception of Gary Cooper has always been that of a solemn and detached actor. So his casting as an eccentric and gentle man struck me as very strange, because surely there were naturally quirkier alternatives who'd have been more fitting for the role. But I can't fault Capra for knowing what he wanted, and so with that we have Cooper in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, a somewhat interesting yet not very gratifying performance in a somewhat interesting yet not very gratifying film.