1928-1937 Best Actress Winners

[Mister Tee]

It's a lot easier to pinpoint the worst of these -- a tie between the hapless Pickford and the ever-awful Shearer -- than it is to find anyone who deserves the appellation "Best" in this group.

Helen Hayes has her moments in The Sin of Madelon Claudet, but the movie? I'll offer the faint praise that it's one of the better mother-sacrifices-all-for-child films that seemed to flood the best actress nomination list in that decade.

I can easily see why Hepburn won for Morning Glory -- people had to be thinking they'd never seen anything like this creature -- but she'd be so much more deserving for Alice Adams that it's hard to pull the lever for her.

I know a lot of people think the same about Davis vis a vis Dangerous/Of Human Bondage, but, honestly, I don't see a whole lot of difference between the two movies and performances. In each case, it's a fairly silly, overwrought melodrama given distinction by the raw power of Davis' persona. I wouldn't choose her for either, and I think it's weird how history seems to pretend there's a huge difference.

I love Marie Dressler much the way I love Lionel Barrymore -- for the shamelessness she displays. But Min and Bill is just too broad to cite.

The best film involved in any of these awards is of course Sunrise, and Janet Gaynor is fine there, as well as in Seventh Heaven...but I can't feel adequate to judging silent performances alongside sound work.

It's of course ridiculous that Luise Rainer won two Oscars, but I think she's a pretty good actress. She has early scenes in The Great Ziegfeld -- prior to her legendary telephone scene -- where you can see she's Method-trained, which stands in great contrast to most of the actors of the era. But neither performance is that special.

So, by default, I guess it's Colbert, who has the advantage of appearing in a movie that remains fresh all these years on, not least because of the spark she provides. It's not as enthusiastic a vote as I hope to cast in future decades, but a certain one.

[gunnar]

I went with Colbert for her excellent performance in one of my all time favorite films. I liked Gaynor in 7th Heaven and Shearer in The Divorcee as well, but they easily finish behind Colbert. Most of the other performances were decent enough, though not necessarily exceptional.

[Big Magilla]

I voted for Colbert, although she wouldn't have been my first choice in 1934. That would have been non-nominated Myrna Loy in The Thin Man. Gaynor was a close second for me.

Most deserving, though, was probably Marie Dressler whose astonishing late life comeback and sustained popularity until her death four years later has never been achieved to such a degree by anyone since.

[mlrg]

Voted for Colbert. The performance and the film have not dated at all unlike most of the other winners most of which are a chore to sit through.

Coquette and Dangerous are dreadful films.

[Big Magilla]

Voted for Hepburn in Morning Glory, a movie I like very much.

I always preferred Stage Struck, the 1958 remake with Susan Strasberg in the Hepburn role, Henry Fonda in Adolphe Menjou's, Christopher Plummer in Doug Fairbanks, Jr.'s, Herbert Marshall in C. Aubrey Smith's, and Joan Greenwood in Mary Duncan's.

I've always found Hepburn's aspiring actress affected in a way in which her similar performance in 1937's Stage Door wasn't. Strasberg, on the other hand, was totally believable as a would-be star, perhaps reflecting her own disappointing career that had started out so promisingly with Picnic and the original Broadway version of The Diary of Anne Frank.

[Reza]

Voted for Colbert. The performance and the film have not dated at all unlike most of the other winners most of which are a chore to sit through.

[mlrg]

Voted for Hepburn in Morning Glory, a movie I like very much.

[Big Magilla]

Oscar's first decade started out well with newcomer Janet Gaynor winning for three films, 7th Heaven, Street Angel, and Sunrise. Technically, Street Angel which didn't open until beyond the eligibility period in August 1928, should not have been included and didn't need to be because the other two films were more than enough to put her over, but it was.

Mary Pickford not only won because of her popularity as opposed to her performance, but that performance was so bad it shouldn't have been considered for anything other than a Razzie which unfortunately didn't exist at the time.

Norma Shearer's performance, though well received at the time, hasn't aged well.

Marie Dressler was the unlikeliest star of early talkies and Min and Bill was a hugely popular film as was her win, although it is her performances in Anna Christie and Dinner at Eight that have been more beloved at least since the 1970s.

Helen Hayes' performance in The Sin of Madelon Claudet is a strong one, but the film itself creaks.

Katharine Hepburn was better in A Bill of Divorcement and especially Little Women, both of which were eligible during the period, than she was in Morning Glory.

Claudette Colbert's performance in It Happened One Night remains a treasure to behold.

Bette Davis' award for Dangerous only makes sense if you are aware that it was a makeup award for not being nominated for Of Human Bondage the previous year.

Luise Rainer's first win was for a performance that was OK at best.

Rainer's second win remains one of biggest upsets in Oscar history considering that it won over acclaimed performances by fellow nominees Irene Dunne, Greta Garbo, Janet Gaynor, Barbara Stanwyck, and non-nominees Katharine Hepburn in Stage Door and Carole Lombard in Nothing Sacred.

So, which was the best or most deserving?