Supporting Awards 1927-35

[srowley75]

Guess I'll try my hand again at creating a thread, despite the fact that I seem to have the distinction of being the "thread killer" for many of the discussions on the board.

If the Best Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress Oscar category had been in existence before 1936, who would your winners for each year have been?

If it helps, here's a form:

1927-28
Best Supporting Actor:
Best Supporting Actress:

1928-29:
Best Supporting Actor:
Best Supporting Actress:

1929-30:
Best Supporting Actor:
Best Supporting Actress:

1930-31:
Best Supporting Actor:
Best Supporting Actress:

1931-32:
Best Supporting Actor:
Best Supporting Actress:

1932-33:
Best Supporting Actor:
Best Supporting Actress:

1934:
Best Supporting Actor:
Best Supporting Actress:

1935:
Best Supporting Actor:
Best Supporting Actress:


I guess if you've got time to spare, you can also list nominees.

-Stephen

[P.S. - I hope no one has ever started a thread like this before - I searched and didn't find anything.]

[myrnaloyisdope]

1927-28
Best Supporting Actor: Bert Roach - The Crowd
Best Supporting Actress: Margaret Livingston - Sunrise

1928-29:
Best Supporting Actor: Henry Wadsworth - Applause
Best Supporting Actress: Joan Peers - Applause

1929-30:
Best Supporting Actor: Raymond Griffith - All Quiet On The Western Front
Best Supporting Actress: Myrna Loy - The Truth About Youth

1930-31:
Best Supporting Actor: John Qualen - Street Scene
Best Supporting Actress: Mae Clarke - The Front Page

1931-32:
Best Supporting Actor: Clarence Muse - Night World
Best Supporting Actress: Myrna Loy - Love Me Tonight

1932-33:
Best Supporting Actor: Edward Everett Horton - Design For Living
Best Supporting Actress: Aline McMahon - Heroes For Sale

1934:
Best Supporting Actor: Pat O'Brien - Gambling Lady
Best Supporting Actress: Ginger Rogers - Upperworld

1935:
Best Supporting Actor: Cary Grant - Sylvia Scarlett
Best Supporting Actress: Movita - The Mutiny on the Bounty

Admittedly my list a bit haphazard, and despite having seen about 130 pre-codes I feel like there is some things I'm missing. And as for the 1929 picks, I've only seen 2 good talkies from that year, Applause and Hallelujah!, so I went with the supporting cast of Applause

[Dewey1960]

I'm going to opt out of the 1927 - 1929 period, as I have a sadly underdeveloped knowledge and exposure to films of that period. However, these would be my choices for 1930 - 1935. Great thread idea, Stephen!

1930:
Supporting Actor: ROBERT MONTGOMERY (The Big House)
Supporting Actress: JEAN HARLOW (Hell's Angels)

1931:
Supporting Actor: DWIGHT FRYE (Dracula)
Supporting Actress: MIRIAM HOPKINS (Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde)

1932:
Supporting Actor: EDWARD ELLIS (I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang)
Supporting Actress: ANN DVORAK (Scarface)

1933:
Supporting Actor: EDWARD EVERETT HORTON (Design For Living)
Supporting Actress: THERESA HARRIS (Baby Face)

1934:
Supporting Actor: LYLE TALBOT (Fog Over Frisco)
Supporting Actress: MAUREEN O'SULLIVAN (The Thin Man)

1935:
Supporting Actor: ERIC BLORE (Top Hat)
Supporting Actress: MARGARET DUMONT (A Night at the Opera)

[myrnaloyisdope]

I'm not sure I would call Hopkins a supporting actress for Dr. Jekyll, she's pretty much the female lead, and gets equal billing with March.

[Dewey1960]

Hi Myrna--
Writer Mark Bourne, in an online review of the film, seems to agree with me on this one. So, with all due respect, I'll let it stand.

"The second standout performance here is Miriam Hopkins' dance hall singer/prostitute "Champagne Ivy," the trigger for Jekyll's release of Hyde and the chief victim of Hyde's sexually driven debasement and cruelty. While a likable and sympathetic character, Hopkins' saucy strumpet displays the busty, leggy, licentious wantonness that helped usher in the Code, and in what would pass as a "PG"-rated film today Hopkins and Ivy still raise eyebrows (at least). Once the Code choked the film industry in 1934, Ivy was considered so bold and risqué that much of her footage — particularly a screen-filling garter-belt striptease for Jekyll while she sits on her pulled-down bed, followed by the good doctor giving the garter a Freudian poke with his cane — was removed for the 1935 reissue and remained all but lost before this DVD restoration. (Short snippets of footage are still missing, and on this disc's outstanding commentary track film historian Greg Mank points out what's "new" and where the few gaps remain.) It's a shame that the Academy didn't give out Best Supporting Actress awards until later in the decade. Hopkins might have taken the prize, following March to the Oscar stage, where (we're given to believe from Mank's commentary) the temperamental actress might have done her best to upstage her costar."

[myrnaloyisdope]

Fair enough. It's a wonderful performance.

[Dewey1960]

Yes, it's an absolutely pitch-perfect performance. Hopkins delivers what could almost be thought of as the one truly "human" performance in the entire film which, for me at least, is one of the most exciting horror pictures of the 30s. Without her, though, the film would be little more than an exercise in style and shock effect.

[Jezebel38]

Well, this sounded like fun and off the top of my head I came up with a few of the same actors as Dewey. Then it became more challenging as I was researching films as I'm not really sure of the release dates of most of these fims and how that affects which year they belong in. Also, although some performances or billing might be thought of as co-star, I also took into consideration the amount of screen time. But as this is just for fun, here are my nominations:

1928 Douglass Fairbanks, Jr. – A Woman of Affairs
Marie Dressler – The Patsy

1929 Louis Wolheim – Condemned
Estelle Taylor – Where East is East

1930 Robert Montgomery – The Big House
Beryl Mercer – Outward Bound

1931 Clark Gable - A Free Soul
Miriam Hopkins – Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

1932 Charles Laughton – The Sign of the Cross
Ann Dvorak – Scarface

1933 Frank McHugh – One Way Passage
Una O’Connor – Cavalcade

1934 Sam Jaffe – The Scarlet Empress
Una Merkel – The Merry Widow

1935 Basil Rathbone – David Copperfield
Helen Broderick – Top Hat

[srowley75]

Wow, I'm having to reach for the smelling salts. I never expected anybody to reply...

MLID, you provided me with several that I'm either going to have to dig out of my archives and watch or seek out for my private collection - I have Night World, Upperworld, Gambling Lady and Heroes for Sale but haven't yet gotten around to viewing them, and I still need to get a hold of The Truth About Youth.

Dewey, some great choices here, but I'm so glad you included Dwight Frye from Dracula, which in my opinion is surely one of the most delectable horror film performances from the early 1930s.

J38, you named several more I haven't gotten to view yet: Outward Bound, Condemned, The Patsy, A Woman of Affairs (which I believe I just recorded this week).

I'll try to get to mine either this evening or tomorrow. I gave it some thought over the weekend while watching a few silents and I'm still not sure who to choose for a few of the years in question. I may need to do as Dewey did and start with 1930 or so...

-Stephen

[knitwit45]

Stephen, Woman of Affairs will blow you away. (IMHO) Keep in mind that even tho this was pre-code, it was sanitized from the book it was based on to the film. Some of the subjects not mentioned or just hinted at: Venereal Disease, Homosexual Love, Promiscuity, Adultery, Illegitimacy.
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. is so over the top, he is delicious!

[MichiganJ]

1927
Best Supporting Actor: Jean Hersholt--Student Prince of Old Heidelberg
Best Supporting Actress: Renée Adorée--Mr. Wu

1928
Best Supporting Actor: Lional Barrymore--Sadie Thompson
Best Supporting Actress: Anita Page--Our Dancing Daughters

1929
Best Supporting Actor: Ernest Torrence--Desert Nights
Best Supporting Actress: Seena Owen--Queen Kelly

1931:
Best Supporting Actor: Dwight Frye--Dracula/Frankenstein
Best Supporting Actress: Jean Harlow--The Public Enemy

1932:
Best Supporting Actor: Charles Laughton--The Old Dark House
Best Supporting Actress: Anna May Wong--Shanghai Express

1933:
Best Supporting Actor: Bruce Cabot--King Kong
Best Supporting Actress: Una O’Connor--The Invisible Man

1934:
Best Supporting Actor: Roscoe Karns--Twentieth Century
Best Supporting Actress: Maureen O’ Sullivan--The Thin Man

1935:
Best Supporting Actor: Edward Everett Horton--Top Hat
Best Supporting Actress: Elsa Lanchester--The Bride of Frankenstein

I went a bit crazy with the early dates, unsure as to when the “year” started and ended, so I just went with the year of release, skipping 1930 to keep things even. Tip of the hat to Dewey for Dwight Frye, who could have won for either Dracula or Frankenstein.

[Jezebel38]

MichiganJ - I liked your picks; you chose some of my runner ups, like Anita Page in Dancing Daughters and Anna May Wong in Shanghai Express. I thought of Raoul Walsh for Sadie Thompson, rather than Lionel, and as for Una O'Connor, well she is a gas in any of those Universal Horrors, but I liked her role in Cavalcade as it is a change of pace for her, straight dramatic, and somewhat unsympathetic in the end.
I don't know why I didn't start with 1927, but I'm with you for Jean Hersholt in Student Prince.

I aslo wanted to give an honorable mention to Lowell Sherman in What Price Hollywood (1932) - I couldn't decide if it was more a supporting or co-star role, but definitely memorable. I think the movie is coming up soon on TCM for anyone who hasn't seen it.

[MichiganJ]

Thanks, Jezebel38.

I love Una O’Connor, and just recently watched her (again) in The Adventures of Robin Hood. I actually have it in HD (yea, I backed the wrong horse, oh well), and her performance is comical, but also wonderfully heartfelt. Plus, she gets her man, too!. I have not yet seen Cavalcade but look forward to seeing it.

Been awhile since I’ve seen What Price Hollywood? I actually have it on laserdisc, so will have to pull it out again, soon.

I would have gone with Raoul Walsh in Sadie Thompson, but I see him as the male lead, although the film really belongs to Gloria Swanson.

Jean Hersholt is like Ernest Torrence for me. They can play anything and do it well. Just compare Hersholt’s performance in Greed to that in Student Prince. Amazing. Just goes to show that while Hollywood’s lead actors are the ones that people remember, it’s the character actors that make the films classics.

[srowley75]

Well, here are mine, along with an honorable mention or two. Like others, I'm just making an educated guess on where some of the years left off, based on some of the other nominations for awards during those years.

1927-28
Best Supporting Actor: Al Ernest Garcia, The Circus
Best Supporting Actress: Evelyn Brent, The Last Command

1928-29:
Best Supporting Actor: Montagu Love, The Wind
Best Supporting Actress: Anita Page, Our Dancing Daughters
(Honorable mention: Olga Baclanova, The Docks of New York)

1929-30:
Best Supporting Actor: Fritz Kortner, Pandora's Box
Best Supporting Actress: Margaret Dumont, Animal Crackers
(Honorable mention: Marie Dressler, Anna Christie)

1930-31:
Best Supporting Actor: Harry Myers, City Lights
(Honorable mention: Boris Karloff, The Criminal Code; Adolphe Menjou, Morocco)
Best Supporting Actress: Mary Astor, Holiday

1931-32:
Best Supporting Actor: Boris Karloff, Frankenstein
(Honorable mention: Brember Wills, The Old Dark House)
Best Supporting Actress: Miriam Hopkins, The Smiling Lieutenant and/or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
(Honorable mention: Anna May Wong, Shanghai Express)

1932-33:
Best Supporting Actor: Ned Sparks, 42nd Street and Lady for a Day
(Honorable mention: Edward Everett Horton, Trouble in Paradise and Design for Living; Charles Ruggles, Trouble in Paradise and If I Had a Million)
Best Supporting Actress: Marie Dressler, Dinner at Eight
(Honorable mention: Margaret Dumont, Duck Soup; Jean Harlow, Dinner at Eight; Una Merkel, 42nd Street and Bombshell)

1934:
Best Supporting Actor: Roscoe Karns, Twentieth Century
Best Supporting Actress: Louise Dresser, The Scarlet Empress
(Honorable mention: Una Merkel, The Merry Widow)

1935:
Best Supporting Actor: Frank Morgan, The Good Fairy
(Honorable mention: Basil Rathbone, Captain Blood and David Copperfield)
Best Supporting Actress: Edna May Oliver, David Copperfield
(Honorable mention: Helen Broderick, Top Hat)

-Stephen

[drednm]

1927-28
Best Supporting Actor: William Powell for THE LAST COMMAND
Best Supporting Actress: Eugenie Besserer for THE JAZZ SINGER

1928-29:
Best Supporting Actor: Johnny Mack Brown for COQUETTE
Best Supporting Actress: Anita Page for THE BROADWAY MELODY

1929-30:
Best Supporting Actor: Joe E. Brown for SALLY
Best Supporting Actress: Marie Dressler for ANNA CHRISTIE

1930-31:
Best Supporting Actor: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. for THE DAWN PATROL
Best Supporting Actress: Marjorie Rambeau for MIN AND BILL

1931-32:
Best Supporting Actor: Boris Karloff for FIVE STAR FINAL
Best Supporting Actress: Miriam Hopkins for THE SMILING LIEUTENANT

1932-33:
Best Supporting Actor: Onslow Stevens for PEG O' MY HEART
Best Supporting Actress: Ruby Keeler for 42nd STREET

1934:
Best Supporting Actor: Walter Connolly for IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT
Best Supporting Actress: Bette Davis for OF HUMAN BONDAGE

1935:
Best Supporting Actor: Edward Everett Horton for TOP HAT
Best Supporting Actress: Patsy Kelly for PAGE MISS GLORY