Now that Academy Award season is approaching I'll be continuing my Oscar series where I left off earlier this year. So if you're ready let's take a look at the Academy Award winners, nominees and snubs for 1932-33.
BEST PICTURE:
Winner: Cavalcade, Nominees: A Farewell to Arms, 42nd Street, I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang, Lady for a Day, Little Women, The Private Life of Henry the VIII, She Done Him Wrong, Smilin Through, State Fair
ACTOR:
Winner: Charles Laughton in The Private Life of Henry the VIII, Nominees: Leslie Howard in Berkeley Square, Paul Muni in I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang
ACTRESS:
Winner: Katherine Hepburn in Morning Glory, Nominees: May Robson in Lady for a Day, Diana Wynyard in Cavalcade
BEST DIRECTOR:
Winner: Frank Lloyd for Cavalcade, Nominees: Frank Capra for Lady for a Day, George Cukor for Little Women
OSCAR SNUBS and OMISSIONS:
Alexander Korda for Directing The Private Life of Henry VIII
Ernst Lubitsch for Directing Trouble in Paradise
Ann Harding for her performance in The Animal Kingdom *un-nominated
Barbara Stanwyck for her role in Baby Face
Warner Baxter for his performance in 42nd Street
Fredric March for his performance in The Eagle and the Hawk
Mae West for her performance as Diamond Lil in She Done Him Wrong
The Marx Bro's for their screenplay Duck Soup
Laurel and Hardy for Son of the Desert
Helen Hayes and Gary Cooper for A Farewell to Arms
Greta Garbo for her performance in Queen Christina
FILM SNUBS:
Gold Diggers of 1933, Footlight Parade, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, The Bitter Tea of General Yen, Dinner at Eight, Duck Soup, King Kong, Queen Christina and Red Dust.
My Honorable Mentions go to:
The highly entertaining screenplay by the Marx Bro's, Duck Soup
Helen Hayes for her performance in A Farewell to Arms
and Claude Rains for his chilling performance in H.G. Wells, The Invisible Man
There was no award ceremony in 1933. The Oscars for 1932-33 were presented in March, 1934 at the Ambassador Hotel (A full 17 month period) This would be the last time the Academy voted on films over one full calendar year. Going forward the Awards would be voted on and given out annually.
Although a young 24 yr old Katherine Hepburn won her first Oscar for her performance in Morning Glory playing stage struck Eva Lovelace, it was an unpopular choice at the time. However, this would be the film that launched her very successful career, prompting eight more nominations and losses before winning her second Oscar 30 years later for her performance in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner 1967. Her two most shocking losses were for her performances in The African Queen and The Philadelphia Story.
Charles Laughton won his Best Actor Oscar for his first nomination, also the first British Actor to win an Oscar in a Foreign/British film. It would also be the first non-Hollywood (Foreign) film to be nominated for Best Picture. The part of Ann of Cleves was played by Laughton's real life wife, Elsa Lancaster. The character King Henry VIII has also been recognized by the Academy more than any other historical/literary figure. Robert Shaw was nominated for playing King Henry the VIII for A Man for all Seasons in 1966 then Richard Burton was nominated for playing the same character for Anne of the Thousand Days in 1966.
Let's dish about Cavalcade for a moment. A look at British life over 30 years, it was over produced and ranks among other Best Picture winners as easily forgotten. The adapted screenplay by noted playwright, Noel Coward, with it's all British cast giving us a glimpse into the lives of well-to-do Londoner's and the affects on their lives during Wartime, the loss of a son on the Titanic and the death of Queen Victoria. The lead roles being played by Diana Wynyard and Clive Brooks. Diana Wynyard, primarily a British stage actress, made her film debut just one year before, starring in Rasputin and the Empress 1932 (Rasputin is best known as the only film to feature all three of the Barrymore siblings). Frank Lloyd won for Best Director and it would be his last win of two. He also won the Best Director Oscar for "The Divine Lady in 1929. The film had major box office success and was re-leased in 1935 after it's three Oscar wins. It also won for Best Art Direction/Decoration and it was nominated for a fourth. (I'm curious to see what everyone else thought of this film)
Frank Capra's comedy, Lady for a Day was nominated for four Oscars but garnered no wins. During the Academy Award ceremony it did cause embarrassment for Frank Capra when emcee, Will Rogers yelled out "Come up and get it Frank", prompting Capra to leap to his feet and run towards the stage only to discover the award actually went to Frank Lloyd.
George Cukor's adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women was nominated for three awards and won only one, Best Adaptation. None of the leads were nominated which seems a bit odd looking back at the wonderful performances by Joan Bennett, Paul Lukas and Edna May Oliver. Perhaps since Kate Hepburn gave such a great performance in the lead as Jo, her win was an accumulation of her four performances on screen during that 17 months. She would also appear in two other films during that time, the first being her film debut in 1932, A Bill of Divorcement starring the great John Barrymore and the equally talented Billie Burke.
Walt Disney would win his second consecutive Academy Award in the Technical Short Subject category for the cartoon, The Three Little Pigs. The cartoon that would bring us the very popular song Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf. When Walt took the stage to give his acceptance speech he referred to the award as 'Oscar' for the very first time but the Academy wouldn't officially refer to the statuette as Oscar until 1939.
The category "Special Visual Effects" had not been introduced yet which would most likely have garnered King Kong at least one award. I'll give it an honorable mention here for it's groundbreaking special effects, changing the way films were made going forward.
An honorable mention to King Kong for it's groundbreaking special effects.
Page
All posters are from the Movie Poster Database which can be located HERE.
No comments:
Post a Comment