Best Screenplay 1931/32

1927/28 through 1997
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What was the Best Adapted Screenplay of 1931/32?

Arrowsmith (Sidney Howard)
0
No votes
Bad Girl (Edwin J. Burke)
4
36%
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Percy Heath, Samuel Hoffenstein)
7
64%
 
Total votes: 11

Mister Tee
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Re: Best Screenplay 1931/32

Post by Mister Tee »

Once again, I don't know how the year-break fell for all titles, but, of films that are labeled as 1932 releases, I'd cite The Animal Kingdom, in addition to the ones BJ and Magilla have noted.

Bad Girl was something of a Holy Grail for me -- for decades, I couldn't find it anywhere: the last film or directing winner I'd failed to see. Then I finally found it on Netflix a few years back...and had the same "is that all there is?" reaction as you two. There's nothing bad about it, and it's hard to begrudge awards to a director as sensitive as Borzage. But it feels terribly banal, even in comparison to something like Grand Hotel.

Arrowsmith would have fit well with the nominees later in the decade: perfectly solid but un-thrilling adaptations of well-regarded novels. There's absolutely nothing special about it. And it's odd, given how much of a pet Ford would later become for the directing branch, that the film could score here but fail to get the directing nod.

Once you're back this far in Oscar history, most of the films are so creaky that it's hard to say you actively enjoy them (Grand Hotel and The Champ are the only two of the best picture choices I had much fun with). This makes Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde an especial pleasure: I had no expectation how exciting it would be from a filmmaking standpoint. A lot of that has to be credited to the directing -- the opening sequence alone makes Mamoulian's omission disgraceful. But, as BJ says, the characterizations and dialogue also play a huge part. In no other version of this story has the Miriam Hopkins character exuded such plain sex appeal; there's a sense of danger hanging over her first encounter with Jekyll, that makes the unfolding of the rest of the plot feel inevitable. This is an adult version of Stevenson's novel, one that brings across the deeper thematic aspects that are lost in remakes that concentrate on the horror.

Had it been possible, I'd have voted Dr. Jekyll best picture this year. Even this far back, the writers' branch was offering me the opportunity to at least provide my favorite with a consolation prize. An easy choice.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1931/32

Post by Big Magilla »

I've never quite understood the popularity of Bad Girl either, but it apparently spoke to the depression audiences who lived it. The novel was written by Vina Delmar who later wrote the screenplays for Make Way for Tomorrow and The Awful Truth and was then adapted into a play before it became a film, so there's that. Borzage, though, did much better work before and after.

Arrowsmith was popular in the day, but there have been lots of better films about doctors since. Either the last section of Sinclair Lewis' novel was not filmed or filmed and then cut, but Myrna Loy's character had much more to do in the book.

The superb adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was the best of the nominees and the best of the eligibility period. The other four I would have nominated are Broken Lullaby, An American Tragedy, Grand Hotel and Shanghai Express.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1931/32

Post by The Original BJ »

This one is a no-brainer.

As with a lot of these early years, you have to wonder why some of the better Best Picture nominees didn't place -- in this case, Grand Hotel and Shanghai Express, both of which juggle a lot of characters and plot lines effectively.

Though I'd never have endorsed its Director prize either, Frank Borzage is enough of an artist that Bad Girl feels humane in its sensibility toward the central marital conflict. But I just find the plot so mundane, like a more ho-hum version of The Crowd, that I struggle to understand how it won multiple major Oscars.

Arrowsmith falls into pretty much the same category -- Ford is a great director, and you can see evidence of his visual skill throughout. But the plot feels pretty standard for medical dramas of this era, and a lot of it plods along in a fairly dull manner.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is far and away the best choice. There's a lot of invention in the filmmaking, and of course Mamoulian deserves praise for the deftness of the camerawork, but the writers are responsible for a lot of what makes the film engaging as well. There are some genuinely unsettling moments, and a sense of sexuality that feels dangerous for the era, amidst a plot that grips from beginning to end. This is one of the best examples of its genre from the early decades of cinema.
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Best Screenplay 1931/32

Post by Big Magilla »

And the nominees are...
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