by Allan Fish
again, straight to it…
Best Picture Modern Times, US (12 votes)
Best Director Charles Chaplin, Modern Times (10 votes)
Best Short I Love to Singa, US, Tex Avery & Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor, US, Dave Fleischer (2 votes each, TIE)
Best Actor Charles Chaplin, Modern Times (7 votes)
Best Actress Greta Garbo, Camille (6 votes)
Best Supp.Actor Humphrey Bogart, The Petrified Forest & Paul Robeson, Show Boat (4 votes each, TIE)
Best Supp.Actress Helen Morgan, Show Boat (5 votes)
Best Score Charles Chaplin, Modern Times (8 votes)
Can I just repeat how much I hate ties. LOL. At least in acting categories.
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and my choices
Best Picture MODERN TIMES, US
Best Short NIGHT MAIL, UK, Basil Wright, Harry Watt
Best Director Charles Chaplin, Modern Times
Best Actor Charles Laughton, Rembrandt
Best Actress Greta Garbo, Camille
Best Supporting Actor Jules Berry, Le Crime de Monsieur Lange
Best Supporting Actress Viviane Romance, La Belle Équipe
Best Musical Score Arthur Bliss, Things to Come
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And on to 1937…
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Best Picture/Director
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Abus de Confiance (France…Henri Decoin)
Angel (US…Ernst Lubitsch)
The Awful Truth (US…Leo McCarey)
Baltic Deputy (USSR…Alexander Zharki, Josef Heifits)
Black Legion (US…Archie Mayo)
Brief Ecstasy (UK…Edmond T.Gréville)
Un Carnet de Bal (France…Julien Duvivier)
Children in the Wind (Japan…Hiroshi Shimizu)
Confession (US…Joe May)
Crossroads (China…Shen Xiling)
A Damsel in Distress (US…George Stevens)
A Day at the Races (US…Sam Wood)
Dead End (US…William Wyler)
Désiré (France…Sacha Guitry)
Drôle de Drame (France…Marcel Carné)
The Dybbuk (Poland…Michal Waszynski)
Easy Living (US…Mitchell Leisen)
The Edge of the World (UK…Michael Powell)
Faisons un Rêve (France…Sacha Guitry)
Fire Over England (UK…William K.Howard)
Font Nor (Norway…Tancred Ibsen)
For Valour (UK…Tom Walls)
Forget Love for Now (Japan…Hiroshi Shimizu)
La Fuga (Argentina…Luis Saslovsky)
The Good Earth (US…Sidney Franklin, George Hill, Gustav Machaty)
La Grande Illusion (France…Jean Renoir)
Gueule d’Amour (France…Jean Grémillon)
Harvest (France…Marcel Pagnol)
History is Made at Night (US…Frank Borzage)
L’Homme du Nulle Part (France…Pierre Chenal)
Humanity and Paper Balloons (Japan…Sadao Yamanaka)
In Old Chicago (US…Henry King)
Juha (Finland…Nyrki Taviopaara)
Knight Without Armour (UK…Jacques Feyder)
Learn from Experience: Parts I & II (Japan…Mikio Naruse)
Lenin in October (USSR…Mikhail Romm)
The Life of Emile Zola (US…William Dieterle)
Lost Horizon (US…Frank Capra)
Make Way for Tomorrow (US…Leo McCarey)
Maytime (US…Norman Z.Leonard)
The Naked Town (Japan…Tomu Uchida)
Nameless People (Japan…Heinosuke Gosho)
Nothing Sacred (US…William A.Wellman)
Oh Mr Porter! (UK…Marcel Varnel)
On the Avenue (US…Roy del Ruth)
One Hundred Men and a Girl (US…Henry Koster)
Outlaw (Argentina…Manuel Romero)
Pépé le Moko (France…Julien Duvivier)
Les Perles de la Couronne (France…Sacha Guitry)
The Prisoner of Zenda (US…John Cromwell, George Cukor, W.S.Van Dyke II)
The Return of Maxim (Russia…Grigori Kozintsev, Leonid Trauberg)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (US…David Hand)
Song of Midnight (China…Ma-Xu Weibang)
The Spanish Earth (US…Joris Ivens)
Stage Door (US…Gregory la Cava)
A Star is Born (US…William A.Wellman)
Stella Dallas (US…King Vidor)
Straits of Love and Hate (Japan…Kenji Mizoguchi)
Street Angel (China…Yuan Muzhi)
Swing High Swing Low (US…Mitchell Leisen)
They Won’t Forget (US…Mervyn le Roy)
The Thirteen (USSR…Mikhail Romm)
Topper (US…Norman Z.McLeod)
True Confession (US…Wesley Ruggles)
Under the Red Robe (UK…Victor Sjöstrom)
Victoria the Great (UK…Herbert Wilcox)
Virginity (Czechoslovakia…Otakar Vavra)
Way Out West (US…James Horne)
A Woman’s Sorrows (Japan…Mikio Naruse)
You Only Live Once (US…Fritz Lang)
Young and Innocent (UK…Alfred Hitchcock)
Young People (Japan…Shiro Toyoda)
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Best Short
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Calling Mr Smith (UK…Stefan Themerson)
Clock Cleaners (US…Ben Sharpsteen)
Even – As You and I (US…Roger Barlow, Harry Hay, LeRoy Robbins)
Farewell Topsails (UK…Humphrey Jennings)
Grips, Grunts & Groans (US…Jack White)
The Old Mill (US…Wilfred Jackson)
An Optical Poem (US…Oskar Fischinger)
Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s 40 Thieves (US…Dave Fleischer)
Trade Tattoo (UK…Lenny Lye)
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Best Actor
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Brian Aherne The Great Garrick
Charles Boyer Conquest
Ronald Colman Lost Horizon
Ronald Colman The Prisoner of Zenda
Zhao Dan Street Angel
Robert Donat Knight Without Armour
Fernandel Harvest
Henry Fonda You Only Live Once
Pierre Fresnay La Grande Illusion
Jean Gabin La Grande Illusion
Jean Gabin Gueule d’Amour
Jean Gabin Pepé le Moko
The Awful Truth
Sacha Guitry Faisons un Rêve
Fredric March Nothing Sacred
Fredric March A Star is Born
Herbert Marshall Angel
Robert Montgomery Night Must Fall
Victor Moore Make Way for Tomorrow
Abraham Morewski The Dybbuk
Paul Muni The Life of Emile Zola
Kanemon Nakamura Humanity and Paper Balloons
Boris Shchukin Lenin in October
Michel Simon Drôle de Drame
Robert Taylor A Yank at Oxford
Spencer Tracy Captains Courageous
Anton Walbrook Victoria the Great
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Best Actress
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Annabella Wings of the Morning
Jean Arthur Easy Living
Mireille Balin Gueule d’Amour
Marie Bell Un Carnet de Bal
Beulah Bondi Make Way for Tomorrow
Marlene Dietrich Angel
Marlene Dietrich Knight Without Armour
Irene Dunne The Awful Truth
Kay Francis Confession
Janet Gaynor A Star is Born
Katharine Hepburn Stage Door
Takako Irie Learn from Experience: Parts I & II
Michiko Kuwano Forget Love For Now
Carole Lombard Nothing Sacred
Anna Neagle Victoria the Great
Ginger Rogers Stage Door
Luise Rainer The Good Earth
Françoise Rosay Drôle de Drame
Sylvia Sidney You Only Live Once
Barbara Stanwyck Stella Dallas
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Best Supp Actor
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Edward Arnold Easy Living
Jean-Louis Barrault Les Perles de la Couronne
John Barrymore Maytime
Pierre Blanchar Un Carnet de Bal
Humphrey Bogart Dead End
Leo Carrillo History is Made at Night
Walter Connolly Nothing Sacred
Douglas Fairbanks Jnr The Prisoner of Zenda
Fernandel Un Carnet de Bal
James Finlayson Way Out West
Alan Hale Stella Dallas
Edward Everett Horton Angel
Edward Everett Horton Lost Horizon
Allyn Joslyn They Won’t Forget
Louis Jouvet Drôle de Drame
John Laurie The Edge of the World
Raymond Massey The Prisoner of Zenda
Adolphe Menjou A Star is Born
Thomas Mitchell Lost Horizon
Alan Mowbray Topper
Raimu Un Carnet de Bal
Raimu Faisons un Rêve
Joseph Schildkraut The Life of Emile Zola
C.Aubrey Smith The Prisoner of Zenda
Lionel Stander A Star is Born
George E.Stone Alcatraz Island
Erich Von Stroheim La Grande Illusion
H.B.Warner Lost Horizon
H.B.Warner Victoria the Great
Roland Young Topper
Ermete Zacconi Les Perles de la Couronne
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Best Supp Actress
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Yumeko Aizome Learn from Experience
Eve Arden Stage Door
Arletty Désiré
Mary Astor The Hurricane
Alice Brady In Old Chicago
Billie Burke Topper
Dina Halpern The Dybbuk
Lucille la Verne Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (voice)
Andrea Leeds Stage Door
Sharon Lynne Way Out West
Gail Patrick Stage Door
Flora Robson Fire Over England
Anne Shirley Stella Dallas
Claire Trevor Dead End
May Whitty Night Must Fall
Xuan Zhou Street Angel
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Best Score
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Richard Addinsell Fire Over England
Alberto Colombo Portia on Trial
Maurice Jaubert Un Carnet de Bal
Maurice Jaubert Drôle de Drame
Erich Wolfgang Korngold The Prince and the Pauper
Joseph Kosma La Grande Illusion
Alfred Newman The Hurricane
Alfred Newman The Prisoner of Zenda
Hugo Riesenfeld Make a Wish
Max Steiner The Life of Emile Zola
Herbert Stothart The Good Earth
Dimitri Tiomkin Lost Horizon
Roy Webb Quality Street
Alan, I thought I was going out on a limb with Bliss; glad to see I had company. Anyway, this year:
Best Picture: La Grande Illusion
Best Director: Renoir, Grande Illusion
Best Actor: Gabin, Pepe Le Moko
Best Actress: Lombard, Nothing Sacred
Supporting Actor: Von Stroheim, Grande Illusion
Supporting Actress: Leeds, Stage Door
Best Score: Tiomkin, Lost Horizon
Short: Grips, Grunts and Groans — a Stooge apocalypse if ever there was one.
Not at all, Samuel, Bliss was a clear winner. Chaplin’s Modern Times score was good with Smile and all, but Bliss’ was like a symphony.
A clear winner for YOU, not for me, and not for the voters here thank you. Chaplin’s score is one of the greatest in film history.
Your usual, subtle, generous, self-effacing response, oh Lord Blunderbuss. Forgive me for having better taste.
What does “subtle” and “generous” have to do with the tone and tenor of my response here, even though it’s sarcastic? I do believe everyone is entitled to their own opinion, not the assertion that anyone who doesn’t agree is wrong. There is no right and no wrong, only opinion here. I’ve head Bliss’ score and I think Chaplin’s is better.
I have no choice but to give in to convention and vote for Lang and Sidney on “You Only Live Once”. It’s an underrated Lang, and one of my favorites of his American period.
Yes a very great Lang, Bob, and for me within a hair of the top spot.
It seems for Bob every Lang is great or at least deserving of the top spot lol.
Why not? He needs all the votes he can get.
Well he deservedly won in 1931 for M and should of probably picked up another victory in either 1927 (that year was a toss up with the equal Sunrise though) or 1933 (better than King Kong by a mile IMO). Other than those two possibilities Lang probably shouldn’t win again in these polls. He has The Big Heat in 53, but off the top of my head I can think of one definite superior film of that year… The Wages Of Fear.
In 1953, with Tokyo Story, Ugetsu, Where Chimneys are Seen from Japan alone, it has no chance.
I don’t even like “The Big Heat” at all. It’s Lang on studio-rush mode, and has nothing of real merit besides some gangster nastiness confronting Donna Reed Show-esque family bliss. His WWII output with “Man Hunt” and “Hangmen Also Die” is worth championing, and “Rancho Notorious” if you like kink with your Westerns, but beyond that I’m not as wholly invested.
Bob,
‘The 1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse’ still lies ahead.
Yeah, way ahead. And I like that movie, but 1960 saw plenty better.
Yeah, like ‘L’Avventura’ maybe?
Grand Illusion, History is Made at Night and Humanity and Paper Balloons get my votes. Too tough to say which is best, though. I guess Grand Illusion.
Great to see you in these parts again Matt!!!
Happy that “Modern Times”, Charles Chaplin as actor and his score for the movie have won in their categories in 1936.
I vote “An Optical Poem” as best short in 1937.
ou need to see more films from 1937. 1 is not good.
YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE, LOST HORIZON, MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW, OH MY PORTER, HUMANITY AND PAPER BALLOONS, SNOW WHITE and one or two others push very close but in the end Renoir can’t be denied.
Best Picture: La Grande Illusion
Best Director: Jean Renoir (La Grande Illusion)
Best Actor: Jean Gabin (Guele d’Armour)
Best Actress: Irene Dunne (The Awful Truth)
Best Supporting Actor: Erich Von Stroheim (La Grande Illusion)
Best Supporting Actress: Flora Robson (Fire Over England)
Best Short: The Old Mill
Best Score: Dmitri Tiomkin (Lost Horizon)
Dunne, Barbara Stanwyck and Janet Gaynor are neck and neck for actress, and depending on what day I am asked I will change my vote.
Sam They Drive by Night was 1938, hence not on the ballot list…choose again.
Best Picture: Pepe Le Moko
Best Director: Julian Duvivier
Best Actor: Jean Gabin (If I have to pick only one then The Grand Illusion)
Best Actress: Sylvia Sidney (You Only Live Once)
Best Supp Actor: Erich Von Stroheim (The Grand Illusion)
Best Supp Actress: Line Noro (Pepe Le Moko)
Top 5: 1. Pepe Le Moko 2. The Grand Illusion 3. You Only Live Once 4. Lost Horizon 5. Dead End
Picture: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (2nd: The Awful Truth)
Director: Jean Renoir, Le Grand Illusion (2nd: William Wellman, Nothing Sacred)
Actor: Cary Grant, The Awful Truth (This wasn’t on the list, which I can only assume was an oversight; 2nd: Victor Moore, Make Way For Tomorrow)
Actress: Irene Dunne, The Awful Truth (2nd: Beulah Bondi, Make Way For Tomorrow
Supporting Actor: H.B. Warner, Lost Horizon (2nd: Erich Von Stroheim, Le Grande Illusion)
Supporting Actress: Eve Arden, Stage Door (2nd: Billie Burke, Topper)
Short: The Old Mill
Score: Dimitri Tiompkin, Lost Horiizon
Indeed, Dean, he was on the masterlist, God knows how he was missed off the ballot. He’s on now.
Picture: La Grande Illusion
Director: Jean Renoir, La Grande Illusion
Actor: Fredric March, A Star Is Born
Actress: Irene Dunne, The Awful Truth
Sup. Actor: Roland Young, Topper
Sup. Actress: May Whitty, Night Must Fall
Out of competition–Best English Language Picture: The Awful Truth
Ok, here goes:
PICTURE: LA GRANDE ILLUSION
SHORT: THE OLD MILL (animated, Disney Silly Symphony)
DIRECTOR: Jean Renoir (LA GRANDE ILLUSION)
ACTOR: Frederic March (NOTHING SACRED)
ACTRESS: Carole Lombard (NOTHING SACRED)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Erich Von Stroheim (LE GRANDE ILLUSION)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Flora Robson (FIRE OVER ENGLAND)
PICTURE: Make Way for Tomorrow
DIRECTOR: Renoir for the Grand Illusion (though I’m tempted to go off list, for Detlef Sirk, for La Habenera)
LEAD ACTOR: Cary Grant, in the Awful Truth
LEAD ACTRESS: Barbara Stanwyck, Stella Dallas
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Erich von Stroheim, The Grand Illusion
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: I’d be remiss if I didn’t drop an Ozu film in here somewhere, so I’ll vote for Michiko Kuwano, the troublemaking niece in one of his funniest films, What Did the Lady Forget?
SHORT: I’m going to have to skip this one this year…
SCORE: not to restart this again, but isn’t the music, score, songs and all, in Shall We Dance credited to George Gershwin? you can’t take that away from me, can you?
And some unofficial picks:
Cinematography: I lean toward Karl Freund on The Good Earth
Script: The Awful Truth
Song: You Can’t Take that Away From Me, by the Gershwins
No I can’t. They have to credit the songwriters as otherwise there will be legal action. But for Amadeus they don’t need to put Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart because all music of that age is in the public domain.
Songs are a separate category to score, end of. Period. New chapter.
But this analogy doesn’t make sense – Mozart wrote the score for Amadeus 200 years earlier, and not for a movie. Gershwin wrote the score for Shall We Dance in 1937, SPECIFICALLY FOR THE MOVIE. If you don’t want songs/instrumental score to overlap because they serve different purposes (one is foregrounded, the other backgrounded – usually , anyway) that’s fair game – after all it’s your poll & you’re hardly the only one to make the distinction (the Academy has separate categories too), but the Gershwin songs belong to the Astaire-Rogers movie as much as, say, Bernard Herrmann’s Vertigo score belongs to Vertigo. Also, there is the instrumental score to consider; Shall We Dance has one (and Walking the Dog, sans lyrics or dance sequence is one of my favorite Gershwin ditties) – and weepingsam has a point there. Why not count his vote toward the instrumental passages in Shall We Dance, and leave out the songs?
Joel, were you born an awkward sod, of did you have to study? It’s still a musical, which cannot and will not count in terms of Best Score.
Best Pic: Grand Illusion
Runner-Ups: You Only Live Once, They Wont Forget, Life of Emile Zola
Best Dir: Renoir Grand Illusion
Best Actors: Muni–Emile Zola; Lombard–Nothing Sacred
Best Scr: Spaak & Renoir–Grand Illusion
Bes Cin: Karl Freund–Good Earth
Best Score: Tiompkin–Lost Horizon
Picture- La Grande Illusion
Director- Renoir, La Grande Illusion
Actor- Jean Gabin, Pepe Le Moko
Actress- Barbara Stanwyck, Stella Dallas
Supp Actor- Erich Von Stroheim, La Grande Illusion
Supp Actress- Eve Arden, Stage Door
Feature: Make Way for Tomorrow
Director: Fritz Lang, You Only Live Once
Short: The Old Mill
Actor: Henry Fonda, You Only Live Once
Actress: Beulah Bondi, Make Way for Tomorrow (though it pains me to rob Ginger for Stage Door)
Supp. Actor: Erich von Stroheim, Grand Illusion
Supp. Actress: Lucille la Verne (Snow White)
Screenplay: A Star is Born
Cinematography: You Only Live Once
Editing: Stage Door
Score: Snow White, instrumental passages only if necessary to qualify (yeah, I know for a while I’m probably going to be casting meaningless votes in this category, haha…)
honorable mention: Pepe le Moko
Finally, a no-brainer.
Film: ‘La Grande Illusion’
Director: Renoir
Actress: Bondi (‘Make Way for Tomorrow’)
Actor: Gabin (‘La Grande Illusion’)
S. Actress: Whitty (‘Night Must Fall’), though the ensemble of Arden, Leeds, Patrick and Lucille Ball for ‘Stage Door’ is tough to resist.
S. Actor: Stroheim (‘La Grande Illusion’)
Looking way ahead looms the conundrum of choosing Best of 1966. What a year. So many masterworks in a 12-month stretch: Persona; Au Hasard Balthazar; The Battle of Algiers; Andrei Rublev; Blow-Up; Masculin Feminin.
My head hurts already.
PS: At TCM Bob Osborne and Drew Barrymore will be hosting ‘Camille’ on the Essentials this Saturday night, so take a deep breath and be prepared to swoon over Garbo at the peak of her beauty and talent. To steal the words of Stroheim extolling Norma Desmond in ‘Sunset Boulevard’ and apply them to Greta, “She was the greatest of them all!!”
1966? You forgot Red Angel, Irezumi, Hunger, Daisies, Abschied von Gestern and La Religieuse among others. Ouch!
Yikes. I’ve only seen two out of the six.
Best actor for Hunger seems apt in 1966.
Leone’s TGTBATU, Cul De Sac, Le Deuxieme Souffle, and The Face Of Another also. Two or three probably making my top 5.
Allan, what year is Duvivier’s ‘Le Fin du Jour’?
Same year as ‘The Rules of the Game’, damn.
The 1960′s are going to be a nightmare when it comes to choosing Best Film. The entire decade.
Every year is a nightmare for Best Film, every year from 1913 has been a nightmare.
1939.
What? See above.
Yes, check out the Movie Timelines by decade on the side which I updated at the weekend.
This is the 1930s
http://wondersinthedark.wordpress.com/about/movie-timeline-3-1930s/
La Fin du Jour is an excellent film, but it probably wouldn’t make the top 10 for 1939.
For year of release check Allan’s Movie Timelines by decade in the sidebar.
Oh, Jesus — three Fords, a Mizoguchi and a Hawks, among others.
What fun! I wish I had voted in the earlier contests. My choices for 1937:
Film: Grand Illusion
Short: Grips, Grunts and Groan
Actor: Jean Gabin, Grand Illusion
Actress: Beulah Bondi, Make Way for Tomorrow
Supporting Actor: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. in Prisoner of Zenda
Supporting Actress: Eve Arden in Stage Door
Score: Erich Wolfgang Korngold forThe Prince and the Pauper
Doug Jnr. At last, sanity prevails.
Film: Grand Illusion
Director: Jean Renoir
Actor: Cary Grant, The Awful Truth
Actress: Irene Dunne, The Awful Truth
Supporting Actor: Erich Von Stroheim, Grand Illusion
Supporting Actress: Eve Arden, Stage Door
Best Picture: La Grande Illusion
Best Director: Jean Renoir (La Grande Illusion)
Best Actor: Jean Gabin (La Grande Illusion)
Best Actress: Irene Dunne (The Awful Truth)
Best Supporting Actor: Erich Von Stroheim (La Grande Illusion)
Best Supporting Actress: Eve Arden (Stage Door)
Best Score: Dmitri Tiomkin (Lost Horizon)
Film: Gueule d’Amour
Director: Jean Grémillon
Actor: Jean Gabin (Gueule d’Amour) (also fantastic in his other two nominated roles – a shame he has to compete with himself!)
Actress: Ginger Rogers (Stage Door) (I also like Mireille Balin in ‘Gueule d’Amour’ and Barbara Stanwyck in ‘Stella Dallas’)
Supporting actor: Erich von Stroheim (La Grande Illusion)
Supporting actress: Andrea Leeds (Stage Door) (I also like Line Noro in Pepé le Moko)