If I Picked the Winners: Best Actor 1935

     In this week's addition of "If I Picked the Winners", I thought I would go back into the furthest possible catacombs of Oscar history that I have fully explored, which happened to be Best Actor 1935. Now as much as I may be tempted to inflate my own cultural prowess by playing up the fact that I have seen all the nominated films in an Oscar category that took place a full 52 years before I was born, I feel obligated to point out that to the complete viewing of the filmography of Best Actor 1935 consists of watching all of two films. That's right, only two films are nominated in the four alloted slots the Academy gave to the category in 1935, and if you're an "old movie" buff such as my self, both films are relatively famous, so their viewing is expected and not something to point out proudly, like some difficult merit badge.

     The two films in question are 1935's Academy Award-winning Best Picture, Frank Lloyd's "Mutiny on the Bounty", which had an amazing three out of the four nominations, a feat that has rarely been repeated in an acting category (never again in Best Actor, and "The Godfather" and "The Godfather Part II" in Best Supporting Actor are the only other times I can think of off the top of my head), and John Ford's "The Informer". Both film's are considered classics of the era (an appraisal that I would whole heartedly agree with the former, but not quite the latter), and any frequent viewers of Turner Classic Movies (TCM) are likely to have at least caught a glimpse of the films at one point or another. Both films have had a lasting impact on cinema, as proved by the remaking of "Mutiny on the Bounty" in 1962 with Marlon Brando as the star (supposedly much inferior to the original, but since I haven't seen it I can render no judgement), and for "The Informer", influence on auteurs of later generations, such as Martin Scorsese who included a cameo appearance of the film in his only Best Picture winner, "The Departed" (the film's famous last scene makes a brief appearance on a television screen).

     Despite my fondness for Depression-era cinema, I have seen disappointingly few films from 1935. The means the choice of viable alternatives is sparse, with the only possible worthy alternative I can think of being Groucho Marx in "A Night at the Opera" (sorry Errol Flynn in "Captain Blood", your acting, as as well as the movie, are overrated). On the plus side though, this allows us to more quickly get to the actual nominees, so let's do that.

4. Victor McLaglen in "The Informer"

     The eventual winner of the award (probably in part due to a split in the vote between the three "Mutineers")  Victor McLaglen (like the film itself), while good at times, overplays his hand, weakening the crucial emotional tone the film tries to set. The story of "The Informer" takes place in Dublin, 1922. It follows the exploits of one Gypo Nolan, a poor working-class type Irishman (is there any other kind?), who, despite somewhat initial reluctance, decides to be an informer on the whereabouts of an important Irish rebel in order to receive the cash reward so that he and his girlfriend can find a better life in America. Being an Irishman with cold hard cash in his pocket though, the chances that he does anything other than drink it away about as strong as the combined chances that dinosaurs never walked the earth, JFK was killed by LBJ, the moon landing was completely staged, Elvis is still alive, 9/11 was an inside job, and Obama was actually born in Kenya (in other words, for you conspiracy theorists, infinitesimally small). The film than proceeds to chronicle the typical night in the life of an Irishman: a drunken walkabout from one source of alcohol to next, with a few hot tempered fista cuffs and loud mouth blabbering thrown in for good measure. Of course, a poor Irishman spending any large sums of money is inevitably going to draw suspicion, which combined with the ramblings of a man with a total lack of inhibition due to voluminous alcohol consumption, and the Irish rebels soon have their primary suspect as to who ratted them out. The film has a "impending sense of doom" vibe (befitting of a movie about the Irish), but despite the excellent art direction and camera work, it's hard to empathize when McLaglen's Gypo is such a caricature. At times the character can be very fun and affectionate, but far too often McLaglen is a prototype, the self-consciously Irish Irishman. At the time, the "large brush strokes" style acting often played well with the Academy, so it isn't that surprising McLaglen won, but today it comes off as trying way too hard to capture the essential "Irishness" of the Irish. It's not a terrible performance, but definitely a flawed one. (On a side note, I apologize to any offended Irish people, but with this movie, the jokes were far too tempting to resist).

3. Clark Gable in "Mutiny on the Bounty"

     The most famous male star of his day, Clark Gable was the original "man's man" (in the least homosexual connotation possible, seeing as that Gable was widely known in Hollywood for his homophobia). John Wayne, Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, and Russell Crowe (to name a few), could arguably, in a court of law, be forced to pay residual checks to the Gable estate. Gable originated the role and perfected it, and as the man who made famous the line, "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" (probably the most outwardly chauvinistic line up to Harrison Ford's "I know" in response to Carrie  Fisher's "I love you" in "The Empire Strikes Back"), he will always have a spot in the heart of male cinematistas everywhere. In "Mutiny on the Bounty", Gable plays Fletcher Christian, the first mate aboard the HMS Bounty. The Bounty's destination is Tahiti, but the voyage there is rather arduous thanks to the Bounty's task-master leader, Captain Bligh (Charles Laughton). After spending some time on the island paradise of Tahiti, on the voyage home many of the Bounty's crew, including and especially Christian, have a hard time adjusting back to the strenuous aboard the HMS Bounty. Fed up with Bligh's Nazi-like behavior, many of the men, led by Christian, mutiny against Captain Bligh, commandeering the ship and sending Bligh and his loyalists adrift. Gable plays his typical brash self, a individualistic man who takes guff from no one. It's pretty much a one-note performance and doesn't demand Gable to stretch his acting chops, which is ultimately why I decided to put him third among the his fellow nominated cast members, but Gable knows how to play the role to perfection, and does so here. Most importantly, it fits right along with movie, so even if the degree of difficulty for him was low, you couldn't ask anyone to do it better. It's always fun to watch Gable being Gable, but outside of Rhett Butler, this is one of his best roles, and a performance he should be proud of.

2. Franchot Tone in "Mutiny on the Bounty"

     In many rankings of this category, I wouldn't be surprised to see Franchot Tone placed last among the nominees, as his role is without a doubt the least flashy and most subdued of the four nominees. In "Mutiny on the Bounty", Tone plays Byam, a midshipman aboard the Bounty who strikes up a friendship with Gable's Christian. They both resent Bligh's harsh tactics, and when they land on Tahiti, they quickly fall in love with beautiful native women of the island. Although Byam despises Bligh's tyranny and love of the whip, unlike Christian, he can not condone mutiny and does not take an active role in Christian's uprising. Tone's Byam is the moral compass of the film, which, as an actor, is not an enviable role to play. It doesn't allow for glamorous scenery chewing, and success will not commonly lead to heaps and heaps of accolades, but it is an incredibly important role as the character basically assumes the role of the audience. We are meant to see things through his eyes, so it's important that we sympathize with, but not pity him (as that would logically lead to self-pity, an emotion that would shake the audience out of the world the movie has so painstakingly created). It's a difficult task, as the actor must be average enough for us to identify with him, but dynamic enough for us to care about him (a lesson 2010's Australian film "Animal Kingdom" could have learned). If the actor screw it up ever so slightly, it throws off every other part of the film, but luckily for Frank Lloyd and the rest of the crew on "Mutiny on the Bounty", Tone hits just the right tone (not to be redundant). My favorite scene with Tone comes at the film's end, after the jettisoned Bligh manages to find another ship and is able to chase and catch a few of the mutineers, including Byam. After being brought back to England, Byam is put on trial and forced to defend himself. In this scene, Tone almost enters Paul Scofield in "A Man for all Seasons" territory, and it's this sort of "quite strength" which Tone carries throughout the film that makes the performance so indelible.

1. Charles Laughton in "Mutiny on the Bounty"

     Charles Laughton as Captain Bligh is one of cinema's earliest classic villains. Playing a sadistic captain with a penchant for frequently using lashes as a motivational tool for his crew, Laughton uses every ounce of his Shakespearian training to create a larger-than-life character (one of the rare cinematic cases where the Shakespearian touch is exactly what's called for, although it appears much more frequently to my personal dismay). The film's Captain Bligh embodies everything we hate in a tyrannical  boss: smug, moralistic, hateful, yet somehow always alarming cool even when he's getting off on your pain. Aloof schadenfreude. The combination is frightening as hell and very close to my image of satan himself (if we assume his existence for a moment). Laughton, a known homosexual in Hollywood, was originally hired by producer Irving Thalberg due to Gable's aforementioned rampant homophobia. Thalberg figured (correctly) that Gable would despise Laughton as soon as he figured out Laughton was swishy (a more polite word than Gable used to describe Laughton, I'm sure), and their natural hate for each other would come across the screen, and that it does (in bundles). If you see the film now (or catch it again, which isn't a bad idea given it's high quality), remember, it's not all just "acting". Even for the more accepting among us, it's pretty hard not to hate Laughton's Captain Bligh, which just goes to show what a terrific job Laughton did. We are suppose to hate his character with all our might (and if you don't, I strongly suggest making an appointment with a good, good psychiatrist), and Laughton achieves this feet and them some. Great acting can be a very subjective thing, especially when we are arbitrarily trying to judge between accomplished performances (strangely, judging "bad" acting seems to be more objective), but for me, great acting should elicit great emotion. Using this method as a barometer, the enormous hate I felt for Captain Bligh would have guaranteed him my vote had I been a member of the Academy back in 1935.

     That's it for now, so until I'm back next week with a new category and a new year, leave any comments down below.