Best Supporting Actor 1937

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Best Supporting Actor 1937

Ralph Bellamy - The Awful Truth
11
65%
Thomas Mitchell - The Hurricane
0
No votes
Joseph Schildkraut - The Life of Émile Zola
4
24%
H.B. Warner - Lost Horizon
1
6%
Roland Young - Topper
1
6%
 
Total votes: 17

FilmFan720
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Re: Best Supporting Actor 1937

Post by FilmFan720 »

Finally voted here, but nothing much more to add to everyone else's thoughts: Ralph Bellamy for the win, with Joseph Schildkraut an honorable mention.

And how is Roland Young supporting? Category fraud is as old as this category.
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Re: Best Supporting Actor 1937

Post by Big Magilla »

Mister Tee wrote:
Big Magilla wrote:It's been quite some time since I've seen the original Lost Horizon but I don't recall H.B. Warner using makeup to make him appear Asian. Nor do I recall John Gielgud doing so in the 1973 remake which I just re-watched a couple of weeks ago.
I can understand watching a legendarily bad movie like the '73 version once, out of curiosity. But what could possibly compel you to re-watch it?
I hadn't seen it in nearly forty years. It's not as bad as it reputation would have it. It's an odd duck of a musical, though, with the first forty minutes or so following the original script with no songs. Once the singing starts it's intermediate, interrupted by the story, or is it the other way around? The songs themselves are not at all bad. Some of the actors, like Bobby Van and Sally Kellerman, could actually sing - Van's "Question Me an Answer" stays in your head for days. Gielgud and Boyer thankfully don't have any songs. Peter Finch and Liv Ullmann are obviously dubbed. The singers who dub them don't even attempt to match the actors' voices and the film stops dead in its tracks whenever either of them opens their mouths to lip sync, but then we're back to the movie, basically waiting for Olivia Hussey in Margo's old role to leave Shangri-La, leading to the film's shocking conclusion.
Reza
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Re: Best Supporting Actor 1937

Post by Reza »

Mister Tee wrote:
Big Magilla wrote:It's been quite some time since I've seen the original Lost Horizon but I don't recall H.B. Warner using makeup to make him appear Asian. Nor do I recall John Gielgud doing so in the 1973 remake which I just re-watched a couple of weeks ago.
I can understand watching a legendarily bad movie like the '73 version once, out of curiosity. But what could possibly compel you to re-watch it?
Watched the remake some 25 years ago. Would love to watch it again for that cast alone knowing what a crappy film it was.
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Re: Best Supporting Actor 1937

Post by Mister Tee »

Big Magilla wrote:It's been quite some time since I've seen the original Lost Horizon but I don't recall H.B. Warner using makeup to make him appear Asian. Nor do I recall John Gielgud doing so in the 1973 remake which I just re-watched a couple of weeks ago.
I can understand watching a legendarily bad movie like the '73 version once, out of curiosity. But what could possibly compel you to re-watch it?
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Re: Best Supporting Actor 1937

Post by Big Magilla »

It's been quite some time since I've seen the original Lost Horizon but I don't recall H.B. Warner using makeup to make him appear Asian. Nor do I recall John Gielgud doing so in the 1973 remake which I just re-watched a couple of weeks ago. If I thought about it I would probably have thought that his character was Eurasian. Nevertheless that character, along with that of the High Lama (Sam Jaffe in the original, Charles Boyer in the remake) is the moral conscince of the film, which could be what resonated with audiences of the day. Warner, who was reknown for playing Christ in DeMille's The King of Kings was a highly respected character actor, but for some reason Columbia's Sam Cohn didn't like him and fought Frank Capra over his casting. Maye his nomination was meant to be a middle finger salute to Cohn.

For those of you who still don't know who H.B. Warner was, he is better remembered today as the druggist in It's a Wonderful Life; one of the card players in Sunset Soulevard and the old man who collapses and dies in his last film, The Ten Commandments.
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Re: Best Supporting Actor 1937

Post by The Original BJ »

Every so often, especially in these early years, I settle down to watch a film with a supporting nominee and wonder "Which one was s/he?" That's precisely how I felt about H.B. Warner in Lost Horizon. I guess the white guy playing Asian trick really won over voters during this era, because I can't think of anything else notable about this performance.

I think The Life of Emile Zola is a biopic in the most snooze-worthy tradition, but I will say that I think Joseph Schildkraut gives the most fully human performance in it. Still, the part is small, and though the actor is touching in general, he lacks any superlative moment that would make me want to endorse his Oscar win.

Roland Young is quite entertaining in Topper, as the stuffy banker who learns to liven up his life for the better. But Damien is right -- as the title character, and the focus of the entire narrative, Young should be considered a lead.

Thomas Mitchell is one of the great character actors, and he had a solid character part in The Hurricane. But I liked him much more in Make Way for Tomorrow, not to mention two years on -- I'll cosign Magilla's statement that Mitchell's drunk doctor here feels more like a warm-up to his iconic Stagecoach performance.

My vote is definitely Ralph Bellamy. He wasn't an actor of tremendous range, but in this period he did one thing very well: play the screwball comedy cuckold with both lots of humor as well as human sympathy. So, for his work in the great The Awful Truth (as well as for his similar contribution to His Girl Friday), I grant him the Oscar.
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Re: Best Supporting Actor 1937

Post by Mister Tee »

I'm not as enthusiastic as most here about the group on offer, though I end up much the same place.

Lost Horizon is a somewhat disappointing film, given its fame. And H.B. Warner is a standard-issue exotic of the era.

I'll admit it's now been probably 20 years since I last saw The Life of Emile Zola, but I was old enough to, I believe, trust my impression (it also wasn't my first time seeing the film). And my take on the Joseph Schildkraut performance was, a smallish role without any particularly memorable element. I had come to the same conclusion Damien says he discarded: that the award was honoring the man himself, the personification of societal injustice. Perhaps I'll take another look some time and revise my opinion, but not today.

Shortly before seeing Topper, I had seen Roland Young's hilarious late-in-the-film scene in Ruggles of Red Gap, and I was prepared for a whole film's worth of that. The Topper performance was, by contrast, merely pleasantly amusing.

Thomas Mitchell, a dependably fine actor, was quite good in The Hurricane, as well as his other films that year. But there's so much better a chance to honor him just ahead that it's easy to hold back here.

Which of course leads to a vote for Ralph Bellamy, in McCarey's wonderful comedy. I think Damien pinpoints it pretty well: Bellamy creates a character who's enough of a buffoon that the audience has no problem seeing him cast aside, but not so ridiculous that he ceases to register as a human being. A fine balance is achieved, which is enough to get my Oscar vote this year.
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Re: Best Supporting Actor 1937

Post by Reza »

Voted for Ralph Bellamy.

My picks for 1937:

Edward Arnold, Easy Living
Ralph Bellamy, The Awful Truth
Joseph Schildkraut, The Life of Emile Zola
Douglas Fairbanks Jr, The Prisoner of Zenda
Thomas Mitchell, The Hurricane

The 6th Spot: Roland Young, Topper
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Re: Best Supporting Actor 1937

Post by Sabin »

Not voting. Only seen Bellamy in The Awful Truth. I don't remember Lost Horizon enough to know what part Warner played.
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Re: Best Supporting Actor 1937

Post by ITALIANO »

Another no-vote from me - I still have to see Topper and (though this is more surprising, because it should be easy to get in Italy or abroad) The Hurricane. Of the other three, it's obviously between Bellamy and Schildkraut, and I'd probably pick Schildkraut in the end. But it's a close race.
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Re: Best Supporting Actor 1937

Post by Big Magilla »

This was actually one of the best years for this category, far better than the previous year.

Thomas Mitchell was in six films this year, three of which are classics so we can at least understand why he was nominated for one of them, although his doctor who likes the sauce in a John Ford film was little more than a warm-up for his great Oscar winning Doc Boone in Stageocach two years later. He gave worthier performances this year in Lost Horizon and Make Way for Tomorrow and would have been a strong candidate for the latter. The best supporting actor in The Hurricane was C. Aubrey Smith as the island priest.

H.B. Warner's guide in Lost Horizon was authoritive, though it's a toss-up whether he or Sam Jaffe as the High Lama gave the better performance.

They were the marginal nominees. I slightly prefer Edward Arnold as the exasperated millionaire in Easy Living and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. as the evil Rupert in The Prisoner of Zenda, but they were good choices.

The remaining three were inspired ones. Roland Young as the stuffy banker visited upon by the ghosts of Cary Grant and Constance Bennett in Topper is at the top of his considerable game. It's a wonderful performance.

Ralph Bellamy established his early screen persona as a dumb hick in The Awful Truth and would be an excellent choice for the win, but I think the Academy picked the right one.

The heart of The Life of Emile Zola is the Dreyfus case and Schildkraut's stoic, yet sympathetic performance is a superb one by the former matineee idol of the silent screen whose roles in talkies were usually confined to villains. He would break out of the mold to great effect only twice more on screen as the out-of-work actor in The Cheaters and as Otto Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank.

A bit of trivia: as most film buffs know, H.B. Warner was a favoite of both Frank Capra and Cecil B. DeMille and his big starring role was in DeMille's The King of Kings ten years earlier in which he played Jesus. Schildkruat was his Judas. An omen, perhaps?
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Re: Best Supporting Actor 1937

Post by Damien »

What a vast improvement over the previous year in this category!

First to go is H.B. Warner, who seems to have been nominated because of the exotic quality of the role. It's just another Occidental playing Oriental and is not a particularly memorable example of this trope.

Roland Young was always amusing, but he always seemed to be the same in every movie, dramatic or comedy (with the exception of his Uriah Heep in David Copperfield). He's amusing in Topper but it was no stretch, plus he really is a lead in the picture. And for me, Leo G. Carroll will always be Topper because of the beloved 1950s TV series (which provided "Steve" Sondheim with his first writing credits).

Thomas Mitchell is one of my very favorite character actors. (I've written here before about driving in Beverly Hills and being so excited at seeing his house that I drove the car up on the sidewalk.) He's excellent in John Ford's wonderful The Hurricane (a disaster film in which the performances of such outstanding actors as Mary Astor, Raymond Massey, C. Aubrey Smith, John Carradine, marvelous Jerome Cowan and Mitchell are as memorable as the genuinely astounding special effects) in a role fairly similar to his Oscar-winning character two years later in Stagecoach. In '37, the actor was also in Lost Horizon and, most memorably, in Make Way For Tomorrow. A win for him here should cause no dissension.

Before I saw The Life of Emile Zola, I always assumed Joseph Schildkraut received the Oscar because voters wanted to acknowledge Captain Dreyfuss. But it turns out that the actor gives a memorably impassioned performance, one that adeptly welds a sense of pride with bewilderment and resignation. It's a very strong performance and one which in no way seems dated. One can't honestly quibble with his victory.

Still, the award should have gone to Ralph Bellamy in the prototypical Ralph Bellamy role. The Awful Truth is one of my absolute favorite movies (number 3, actually, after Breakfast At Tiffany's and Make Way For Tomorrow) and it wouldn't have been as successful without Bellamy's great comic work as the rich Oklahoma hayseed. It's a fearless performance with the actor willing to make himself seem like a dope. But both the actor and director Leo McCarey keep the character from being a total buffoon and, as funny as he is, there is also a genuine sweetness about him. It's just a wonderful performance and it gets my vote.

My Own Top 5:
1. Ralph Bellamy in The Awful Truth
2. Thomas Mitchell in Make Way For Tomorrow, et al
3. Louis Jouvet in The Lower Depths
4. Joseph Schildkraut in The Life of Emile Zola
5. Edward Arnold in Easy Living
Last edited by Damien on Mon Nov 14, 2011 4:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Best Supporting Actor 1937

Post by nightwingnova »

So glad I found you guys.

Your wealth of knowledge, experience, insight and judgment well surpasses that I've found on other film discussion boards.

Here, I feel the need to take the discussion and group consensus seriously. And, I have been educated and informed. You guys really care about film for art's sake. Rarely do I find the unconstrained and illogical film buff sentiments that mar even film critics' selection of their annual honorees.
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Best Supporting Actor 1937

Post by ksrymy »

The only film I haven't seen is Topper so I'm looking forward to hearing about Young's performance.

Of the men I have seen, I'd only keep Schildkraut and Bellamy.

But I don't know who I'd replace them with.

Schildkraut is very affecting as Dreyfus but I can't help but think that this was more a political win than an acting win. Bellamy is spot-on as the awkward tycoon trying to win Irene Dunne's heart. I enjoy both films. Schildkraut's role is deeper and he effectively does what he can with it. Bellamy has a very limited role but manages to make it fresh and original all throughout.

I guess I'll pick Bellamy in a terrible year for supporting actors.
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