1928-1937 Best Actor Winners

[Big Magilla]

I agree that Muni and Laughton's best roles of the decade were in I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang and Mutiny on the Bounty respectively, but they were good in the roles for which they won as were Beery and McLaglen. Jannings' best role as far as I'm concerned was in the German version of The Blue Angel. Gable was at his most comfortable in It Happened One Night, but, yeah, Fredric March in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was superb as both Jekyll and Hyde as Tracy 11 years later was not. Loved them together, though, in Inherit the Wind.

Voted for March who was equally unforgettable later in the decade in the 1937 version of A Star Is Born.

[Mister Tee]

This list is a lot better than its female counterpart -- only Warner Baxter is as bad as about half the best actress slate of the period.

But a problem, which we kind of covered when we re-voted these years in individual threads, is that many of the right actors won for the wrong movies. Muni should have won for I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, not that whiskers-and-posturing Pasteur. And Laughton's great role of the 30s was Captain Bligh, not Henry VIII. (I've given this Henry VIII multiple watches, and always find myself tuning out on it.)

Graded on the "they were just learning how to act for screen while talking" basis, George Arliss isn't bad. That's a far as I'll go for him.

Victor McLaglen and Wallace Beery are both pretty broad actors (in fact, Michael Gebert calls McLaglen's winning performance "the best performance of Wallace Beery's career"). I don't find their wins objectionable, but they're not my type.

Speaking of broad: Lionel Barrymore. I have enormous affection for the guy, but, god, he was a ham, and this role pushed it to the limit. Collapsing at the end of his courtroom oration: the original Oscar bait.

As with Janet Gaynor, I don't feel qualified to judge Janning's silent performance against the sound efforts. Jannings was certainly a highly-regarded actor, but he was also a Nazi, so I don't feel bad about passing him over.

Gable is fine, though maybe not quite as good as Colbert, and his competition here is stronger than Colbert's.

I know it's long been popular to knock Tracy for his accented role -- Tracy was so the opposite of a character actor that it seems weird he won his first Oscar for such a gimmicky role. But I think he's quite terrific in the film, and his final scene is just a killer.

By a small margin, though, my winner is March, for one of the best movies of the early sound era -- as much for his patrician Jekyll as his Gothic Hyde.

[Reza]

It's incredible how hammy every winning actor is during the first decade.

Except Gable. His performance remains fresh and he is a delight. Although I would rather cite him for GWTW and have Powell win in 1934.

I also like Emil Jannings. Whenever I think of him it reminds me of Faye Dunaway lashing out at William Holden (in Network) when he says he is leaving her and she compares him to Jannings' weak character in The Blue Angel. Holden's response to her was classic.

[mlrg]

Voted for Jannings in The Last Command.

[gunnar]

I gave the edge to Gable, though I really liked Jannings in The Last Command and Tracy in Captains Courageous. March, Beery, and Muni all gave nice performances. Laughton wasn't bad, but I wasn't a big fan of the movie, except for Elsa Lanchester as Anne of Cleves. She was hilarious. I didn't care that much for In Old Arizona, Disraeli, A Free Soul, or The Informer.

[Big Magilla]

Time hasn't been much kinder to some of these early winning actors than it was to their female counterparts.

Emil Jannings comes off fine in The Last Command but his later work in Nazi propaganda films has long since soured his reputation.

Warner Baxter would later give fine performances in 42nd Street and The Prisoner of Shark Island, but his Cisco Kid in In Old Arizona is almost as bad as Mary Pickford's in Coquette.

George Arliss' performance in Disraeli is a bit too stagebound.

Lionel Barrymore wasn't as good in A Free Soul as he was some of his classic performance including the following year's Grand Hotel.

Wallace Beery was fine in The Champ, but the real best actor of the year was his co-winner, Fredric March in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Charles Laughton is unforgettable in the first performance to win an Oscar for a non-Hollywood film.

Clark Gable is still fresh and unaffected in It Happened One Night.

Victor McLaglen huffs and puffs in The Informer but the anguish of the character comes through even if John Ford allegedly had to get him drunk to get the best out of him.

Paul Muni is distinguished as Louis Pasteur, and that's not a bad thing as some of his detractors would have you believe.

Spencer Tracy was moving in support of Freddie Bartholomew in Captains Courageous but that affected Portuguese accent is a bit much.

So, who was the best or most deserving among this group?