Oscar Overview 1938

This is the posting I like the best. When I give my take on what should’ve and could’ve been at the Oscars. 1938 was a good year for movies and performances, and the Academy seemed to be on target with most of their nominations except that Bringing Up Baby was left by the wayside, along with it’s star, Cary Grant.

But though they were pretty good at their nominations, their choices for the winners was a wee bit off. Spencer Tracy is one of the greatest actors of our time, but was his perfomance Oscar worthy? Not really, but James Cagney’s was, and he should have gotten the award for Best Actor. As for the Best Actress award, Bette Davis was flawless in Jezebel. I actually like her performance here rather than her previous Oscar winning performance in 1935’s Dangerous. However, Norma Shearer should have won in ‘38 for her dynamic performance in Marie Antoinette, even if she was a little too old to play the famous Queen. And by the way, were was Katherine Hepburn in 1938 for her roles in Bringing Up Baby and Holiday? So how would my 1938 Oscar lineup looked? Here you go…

Best Picture: Boys Town
Actor: James Cagney in Angels With Dirty Faces
Actress: Norma Shearer in Marie Antionette
Supp Actor; James Garfield in Angels with Dirty Faces
Supp Actress: Fay Bainter in Jezebel
Director: Norman Tourog for Boys Town

1938 Best Picture ~ You Can’t Take It With You

With films like, Alexander’s Ragtime Band; The Citadel ; Boys Town and Jezebel on the list of contenders in 1938, You Can’t Take It With You, even though an outstanding film by Frank Capra was uninspired. And being a comedy not a likely Academy Award winner. But the light-hearted and wacky filmed-version of the popular Broadway comedy, with a great cast won not only the Best Picture, but a Best Director Oscar for Capra. It told the story about the eccentric, free-spirited, and madcap Vanderhof family living in a big house in an ethnic Manhattan neighborhood and the introduction of their grand-daughters boyfriend’s family when they are invited over for dinner. Nominated for 7 awards, the film only garnered two.

1938 Best Actor Category

Even though Cary Grant was omitted from the nominations, as well as the film he starred, “Bringing Up Baby“, the 1938 Best Actor category was chock full of Hollywood elite.

James Cagney was nominated with his first of three career nominations and his what many say is his career-greatest performance as convicted killer Rocky Sullivan in Michael Curtiz’ “Angels With Dirty Faces.”

Leslie Howard played the role of Professor Henry Higgins in his second nominated role. Many thought he would win this time as he had won the award at the Venice Film Festival that year.

The well loved Charles Boyer,with his second of four unsuccessful nominations as the thief Pepe Le Moko in Algiers was, unfortunately not a likely winner.

Robert Donat (with his first nomination) as a young British doctor named Andrew Manson in The Citadel was also well liked but not a likely winner either. Spencer Tracy had been nominated three times in a row, with already two wins under his belt, so this looked like a win for Cagney who rightfully deserved it. But in Academy fashion is was not to be.  Spencer Tracy was awarded the gold. However Spencer Tracy’s Oscar was incorrectly engraved “Dick Tracy.”

1938 Best Actress Category

 
For Best Actress in a leading role in 1938, the field was full of talent. Fay Bainter who was also nominated as Best Supporting Actress in her role in “Jezebel” would be named a nominee for her leading role in “White Banners.” Many thought Bainter would take home the Oscar for her leading role as co-nominee Bette Davis had won Best Actress the previous year for her work in “Dangerous“. Another talented star Margaret Sullavan had given an Academy Award caliber performance for her work as co-star Robert Taylor’s tubercular-ailing wife Pat Hollmann in post-war Germany, in director Frank Borzage’s film based on Erich Maria Remarque’s novel “Three Comrades“. Wendy Hiller would earn her first nomination as Eliza Doolittle in the British film, “Pygmalion”. But the odds on favorite at Oscar time in 1938 was not Bette Davis, but Norma Shearer, in the title role of Marie Antionette, many say she was a sure winner as her famous husband, Irving Thalberg had died the previous year and she had not won since 1930.

But as the envelope opened and Bette Davis was named as Best Actress of 1938, she would have won two Oscars, which were won back to back. Norma Shearer would make a few more movies, but retire in 1942.

Walter Brennan ~ Best Supporting Actor Winner 1938

Probably one, if not the best well known and most sucessful charecter actors in film history, Walter Brennan would win his second of three Academy Awards in 1938 for his role as Loretta Young’s father and scruffy horsebreeder Peter Goodwin, in “Kentucky” (the film’s sole nomination). It was Brennan’s second win in only a three year old category! The film was one of six films Brennan made in 1938.

He would go on to win two more nominations in the coming years and one more win. He would continue his work that would span six decades.

John Garfield ~ Best Supporting Actor Nominee 1938

John Garfield was producer Irene Mayer Selznick’s first choice to play Stanley Kowalski in the Broadway premiere of “A Streetcar Named Desire.” but was passed over. He went on to Hollywood and became one of the most handsome “roughnecks” in Hollywood.

His role as jaded and cynical songwriter Mickey Borden in Four Daughters, John would earn his first Oscar Nomination. He would receive another nomination until 1947 for his starring role in Body & Soul. Active in liberal political and social causes, and found himself embroiled in Communist scare of the late 1940s. Though he testified before Congress that he was never a Communist, his ability to get work declined. While separated from his wife, he succumbed to long-term heart problems, dying suddenly in the home of a woman friend at 39. His funeral was mobbed by thousands of fans, in the largest funeral attendance for an actor since Rudolph Valentino.

Gene Lockhart~Best Supporting Actor Nominee 1938

Gene Lockhart was trained in voice in England, and began his career in America singing and dancing on Broadway, both on the stage and behind the scenes as a playwright. His first and only nomination for an Academy Award came in 1938 for his role in “Algiers” as a police informant.

With 122 credited appearances on film and TV, Lockhart would marry actress Kathleen Lockhart and their daughter June Lockhart would become immortalized on TV as the mother of the Robinson Family in Lost in Space.

Robert Morley ~ Best Supporting Actor Nominee 1938

One of the most well known faces and character actors of the 1930’s and 40’s Robert Morley was nominated for Supporting Actor in is debut film, Marie Antoinette as King Louis XVI. Morley would go on to star in over 100 films and TV appearances in a career that would last 5 decades. He didn’t win in 1938 and was never again nominated for his work.

Basil Rathbone ~ Best Supporting Actor Nominee 1938

Today many Oscar and film buffs say that Basil Rathbone should have been nominated for Best Actor in 1938 for his role as Sir Guy in The Adventures of Robin Hood, instead of his nomination for Supporting Actor in If I Were King.Rathbone who is most commonly remembered for his role as Sherlock Holmes was a master of the stage and screen, winning a Tony Award in 1947 for his role in The Heiress. He was only nominated for an Oscar twice, never receiving the coveted award.

Miliza Korjus ~ Best Supporting Actress Nominee 1938

Miliza Korjus arrived in Hollywood in March of 1936 after Irving Thalberg heard her sing in Europe and cast her in his film, “The Great Waltz”. Thalberg’s death in September of that year delayed production of her first film, and it was not until May of 1938 that she started work on her first role.The film was well received and she was nominated for an Academy Award, one of the few singers of the period to be so honored. As a vehicle for her second picture, MGM bought the screen rights to the novel Sandor Rozsa, a story based on the outlaw of the early 19th century who ambushed the wealthy as they traveled between Budapest and Vienna (a kind of Hungarian Robin Hood). The working title of the picture was Guns and Fiddles with music derived from Liszt and arranged by Emmerich Kalman. Her co-stars were to be Robert Taylor (as Sandor Rozsa), Hedy Lamarr and Franchot Tone.On May 28, 1940, just two weeks before the scheduled production date of this new picture, she was seriously injured in an auto accident. Her left leg was so badly crushed that the doctors at first considered amputation. However, after several months in hospital, where she underwent numerous operations and bone grafts, she did recover use of the leg; but, she never made another film in Hollywood.