by Allan Fish
As always, straight to it.
Best Picture The General, US (10 votes)
Best Director Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman, The General (9 votes)
Best Short Menilmontant, Dimitri Kirsanoff, France (5 votes)
Best Actor Buster Keaton, The General (12 votes)
Best Actress Vera Baranovskaya, Mother (5 votes)
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and my own choices
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Best Picture The General, US
Best Director Teinosuke Kinugasa, A Page of Madness
Best Short Menilmontant, Dimitri Kirsanoff, France
Best Actor Emil Jannings, Faust
Best Actress Vera Baranovskaya, Mother
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And now on to 1927
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Best Picture/Director
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Barbed Wire (US…Rowland V.Lee)
Bed and Sofa (USSR…Abram Room)
The Beloved Rogue (US…Alan Crosland)
Berlin, Symphony of a Great City (Germany…Walter Ruttmann)
Café Elektric (Germany…Gustav Uchiky)
Casanova (France…Alexander Volkoff)
The Cat and the Canary (US…Paul Leni)
Chang (US…Merian C.Cooper, Ernest B.Schoedsack)
The Chess Player (France…Raymond Bernard)
Chicago (US…Frank Urson, Cecil B.de Mille)
College (US…James W.Horne)
A Diary of Chuji’s Travels (Japan…Daisuke Ito) PARTIALLY LOST
En Rade (France…Alberto Cavalcanti)
The End of St Petersburg (USSR…Vsevelod I.Pudovkin)
The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty (USSR…Esfir Shub)
The Forty-First (USSR…Yakov Protazanov)
The Girl With the Hatbox (USSR…Boris Barnet)
La Glace à Trois Faces (France…Jean Epstein)
The Great Way (USSR…Esfir Shub)
Hindle Wakes (UK…Maurice Elvey)
Hula (US…Victor Fleming)
It (US…Clarence Badger)
An Italian Straw Hat (France…René Clair)
The Jazz Singer (US…Alan Crosland)
The Kid Brother (US…J.A.Howe, Lewis Milestone, Ted Wilde)
King of Kings (US…Cecil B.de Mille)
Love (US…Edmund Goulding)
The Love of Jeanne Ney (Germany…G.W.Pabst)
Metropolis (Germany…Fritz Lang)
My Best Girl (US…Sam Taylor)
Le Mystère de la Tour Eiffel (France…Julien Duvivier)
Napoleon (France…Abel Gance)
Prostitute (USSR…Oleg Froelich)
The Ring (UK…Alfred Hitchcock)
Seventh Heaven (US…Frank Borzage)
Stark Love (US…Karl Brown)
The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (US…Ernst Lubitsch)
Sunrise (US…Friedrich W.Murnau)
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (US…Harry J.Pollard)
Underworld (US…Josef Von Sternberg)
The Unknown (US…Tod Browning)
Wings (US…William A.Wellman)
Women of Ryazan (USSR…Olga Preobrazhenskaya)
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Best Short
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The Battle of the Century (US…Clyde Bruckman)
Charleston Parade (France…Jean Renoir)
Invitation to a Journey (France…Germaine Dulac)
Johann the Coffin Maker (US…Robert Florey)
The Life and Death of 9713 a Hollywood Extra (US…Robert Florey, Slavko Vorkapich)
Marche des Machines (France…Eugene Deslaw)
Putting Pants on Philip (US…Clyde Bruckman)
24 Dollar Island (US…Robert J.Flaherty)
Uberfall (Germany…Adolf Trotz)
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Best Actor
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George Bancroft Underworld
John Barrymore The Beloved Rogue
Pierre Blanchar The Chess Player
Lon Chaney The Unknown
Albert Dieudonné Napoleon
Charles Dullin The Chess Player
Charles Farrell Seventh Heaven
Al Jolson The Jazz Singer
Harold Lloyd The Kid Brother
Ivan Mosjoukine Casanova
Ramon Novarro The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg
H.B.Warner King of Kings
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Best Actress
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Clara Bow It
Evelyn Brent Underworld
Janet Gaynor Seventh Heaven
Janet Gaynor Sunrise
Phyllis Haver Chicago
Brigitte Helm The Love of Jeanne Ney
Brigitte Helm Metropolis
Edith Jehanne The Chess Player
Pola Negri Barbed Wire
Mary Pickford My Best Girl
Lyudmila Semyanova Bed and Sofa
Norma Shearer The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg
Anna Sten The Girl With a Hatbox
Please add my actress to the roll call!
Feature: Sunrise
Short: The Life and Death of 9713 a Hollywood Extra
Director: F.W. Murnau (Sunrise)
Actor: Lon Chaney (The Unknown)
Actress: Lyudmila Semyonova (Bed and Sofa)
and if anyone else wants to join in, I’m taking the selections from Allan’s film list…
Screenplay: Bed and Sofa
Cinematography: Sunrise
Editing: Bed and Sofa
Editing’s tough; I suspect that on re-viewing End of St. Petersburg and The Chess Player might win me back (I retain a vague impression of excellent montage, but can’t recall the specifics), but for now I’m going to go with the surprising subtlety of Bed and Sofa, employing a rare focus on shot-reverse shot in silent Soviet cinema to illustrate the dynamics of its menage a trois (seldom do you see all three in one shot, so the cutting between characters creates their relationships).
honorable mention (non-eligible, just a shout-out to a favorite film that slipped through the cracks on my ballot each week): The Kid Brother
If I were to join in Joel, I would surely second your choice of SUNRISE for Best Cinematography (Rosher’s work there is among the most rightly celebrated in all of the cinema). I am less certain with BED AND SOFA however, but fair enough.
Editing if there had to be a choice would be a no brainer, Gance for Napoleon, for those who have seen the full thing Coppola won’t let you see. The Chess Player comes closest, but not close enough. Cinematography would be Sunrise. Art direction would be Hunte, Kettelhut and Vollbrecht for Metropolis. Costumes would be tough, but I’d go for Mitchell Leisen’s work for King of Kings. Scenario would be the team for The Kid Brother.
That’s a tricky pick for me. On the one hand, based on individual sequences undoubtedly tops or close to it (love the snowball fight). On the other hand, the overall film has not really satisfied me, and shaping the whole is a definite part of Best Editing.
I have the Brownlow version in my possession but have yet to watch it. I will try to get to it before I abandon my DVD collection in the next few days. Maybe I should watch it today and change my vote? 😉
Hope these suggestions from you & Sam mean they’ll be tabulated!
It’s Allan’s call, but I would vote for tabulation, even if the weekly offerings won’t openly encourage the induction of more categories for understandable reasons. But if they are cast, there shouldn’t be a problem.
But again this is Allan’s project and he may well feel otherwise.
All in for “Metropolis”.
Picture: Sunrise
Director: F.W. Murnau (Sunrise)
Actor: Albert Dieudonne (Napoleon)
Actress: Janet Gaynor (Sunrise)
Short: Johann the Coffin Maker
What a list to select from! Here goes….
Feature: Metropolis
Director: Lang
Actor: Barrymore
Actress: Helm, Metropolis
Short: 9713.
Call it an accident of timing or taste, but Sunrise and Napoleon are shut out! I thought about making Murnau Best Director but Metropolis is not the Best Film if not for Lang. Just to clarify where this year stands with me right now…
1. Metropolis
2. Sunrise
3. Napoleon
4. The Kid Brother
5. The Beloved Rogue
6. An Italian Straw Hat
7. Wings
8. Underworld
9. The Love of Jeanne Ney
10. The End of St. Petersburg
Tremendous presentation here Samuel, though a given of course.
Damn how do I choose between Sunrise, Metropolis, Berlin: Symphony Of A Great City, The Unknown, The Love Of Jeanne Ney, or Napolean among a few other treasures from this year…. very tough.
Best Picture: Metropolis
Best Director: Fritz Lang
Best Actor: Albert Dieudonne (Napoleon)
Best Actress: Janet Gaynor (Sunrise)
Best Short: 9713 A Hollywood Extra (Florey)
Picture / Sunrise
Director / F.W. Murnau / Sunrise
Actor / Lon Chaney / The Unknown
Actress / Evelyn Brent / Underworld
Short / The Life and Death of 9713
With METROPOLIS and NAPOLEON, two gargantuans of the silent era, in the running, one would have thought my choosing in the respective categories would have been exceedingly difficult. METROPOLIS is, after all, one of the most influential of all the silents and it’s quaking still shivers film-makers to this day. Gance’s NAPOLEON is just, well… It just leaves you in AWE…
But, this is really a no-brainer, and I think Allan will back me up, as I’m sure Sam will, when I say that once I saw that Murnau and his SUNRISE were in the running the other two slipped out of view for consideration.
NAPOLEON came VERY close to taking it for picture and director and, who knows, if I could ever get the chance to see it on the big screen with Carl Davis’s famous score and the triptyche finale I may HAVE to change my tune.
BUT…
As it stands, SUNRISE is just one of those films that takes you away and envelopes you completely. You lose yourself in this film and for a brief 130 minutes you forget your watching a movie at all and believe you’ve been transported to this place where your part of the situation.
One thing though…. I’d have thought George O’Brien would have been in the running for BEST ACTOR for his fine work in SUNRISE… As it is I will only choose from the nominations Allan has laid out here… And, with what is laid out in BEST ACTOR, I really think there is only one obvious choice…
So, here they are. My choices…
PICTURE: SUNRISE
DIRECTOR: FRIEDRICH WILHELM MURNAU (SUNRISE)
ACTOR:ALBERT DIEUDONNE (NAPOLEON)
ACTRESS: JANET GAYNOR (SUNRISE)
Well? I’ll say –
PICTURE: Metropolis
DIRECTOR: Lang
ACTOR: Lon Chaney, I think…
ACTRESS: Gaynor
If I were extending the categories – I’m tempted to say that screenplay should be The Girl With the Hat Box – I have to say something about it, cause it sure is wonderful. Editing – Berlin Symphony of a Great City. Cinematography is Sunrise…
Like MovieMan I’m going for an unlisted actress.
Best Picture : Sunrise
Best Actor : Albert Dieudonne (Napoleon)
Best Actress : Anna Sten (The Girl With the Hatbox)
“Sunrise” over “Metropolis”? That’s it, Stephen. I don’t care if we agree on Lucas, Godard and anime. Nobody disses Lang and gets away with it. The Rubicon has been crossed!
Ha Bob! Love it! Of course I am with Stephen on this!
Alea Iacta Est, Bob. I’m sorry it had to end this way.
I was considering having Sunrise as best film and Lang as best director. I know it’s a little odd, but…in the end I forgot to nominate anyone for best director.
Well, you kinda just did, didn’t you? I’d like to think that could count.
And to an extent, I can see the logic of that distribution. “Metropolis” isn’t the greatest of Lang’s films– too syrupy, too preachy, too much of Von Harbou’s blind idealism in the script– but his work there is among the best in his career. It’s one of my oldest favorite films– meaning it’s been a favorite of mine longer than almost any other movies out there, from when I was a child– so I’ll always vote for it.
Yeah, I agree that the material isn’t top notch..OK then:
BEST DIRECTOR : Fritz Lang (Metropolis)
(The rest of my choices are above)
Stephen, welcome to the side of sanity. For however brief a time.
I love Metropolis but Sunrise is the best of the 20’s.
Best Picture: Sunrise
Best Director: F.W. Murnau (Sunrise)
Best Actor: Albert Dieudonne (Napoleon)
Best Actress: Janet Gaynor (Sunrise)
I vote “Underworld” for best film in 1927.
I vote Josef von Sternberg for best director (“Underworld”) in 1927.
I vote George Bancroft for best actor in “Underworld” in 1927.
I vote Evelyn Brent for best actress in “Underworld” in 1927.
I love Underworld too. I mean, not that much, but it’s a great little film, perhaps even better than Scarface or The Public Enemy.
At least it’s not a vote for “Sunrise”.
Yes, Sunrise doesn’t have many ewoks and is a piece of arty shit.
Bob, I hope that harsh tone is just partisanship for Metropolis. For me the only reason not to vote for Sunrise is that Metropolis exists, but the Murnau is an honorable choice for anyone else to make.
It is partisanship. Lang’s film is practically a lifetime favorite. The only movie that I have liked that much for longer would be “Star Wars”, and only by a few years.
I think Jaime just votes if he’s seen a film in a given year. In 1927 he’s seen Underworld and nothing else.
Jeez, if even the horror buff isn’t going to go with Chanery for The Unknown it’s a lost cause. Bummer – I know he’s won for Phantom but I think may be his best, albeit underrated, performance. The film itself is less visually rich than most of Chaney’s others, but the character and situation is both poignant and ambiguous.
Excellent point Joel.
Actually my own favorite of all his performances is the one he gave in HE WHO WAS SLAPPED.
That’s another one where I love certain scenes and characters, but found the overall film unsatisfying. I can’t remember why particularly, except that I think it had to do with some of the developments in the screenplay. At any rate, I was a bit disappointed – there are other Sjostrom’s and Chaney’s I prefer. But I would definitely like to watch it again.
Pic Metropolis
Dir Lang
Act Bancroft
Actress Gaynor (Sunrise)
Best Film – Sunrise
Best Director – Murnau
Best Actor – Lon Chaney
Best Actress – Janet Gaynor
Sunrise
Murnau
Barrymore
Bow
Film: ‘Sunrise’
Director: Murnau
Actor: Barrymore
Actress: Gaynor (‘Sunrise’)
Film: Napoleon
Director: Gance
Actor: Barrymore
Actress: Gaynor (Sunrise)
Film: Metropolis
Director: Murnau
Actor: Chaney in The Unknown
Actress: Helm
If anybody heard a blood curdling scream around the time this comment was put up, that’d be me.