Marie Dressler: Emma
Lynn Fontanne: The Guardsman
Helen Hayes: The Sin of Madelon (winner)
What’s Missing
There are a couple more Oscar categories where I have seen all of the entrants; this category from the fifth Oscar ceremony is one of the last. It’s also one of those strange early years that bridges two calendar years and opens this category up to only three entrants. I didn’t love Shanghai Express, but Marlene Dietrich seems like a missed nomination. Foreign films got little play in this era, which is going to leave out Janie Marese and La Chienne. Sally Eilers didn’t really get a lot asked of her in Bad Girl, but it’s a very sweet movie nicely made. The same could be said of Jeanette MacDonald in One Hour With You. My love of Barbara Stanwyck will force me to mention Night Nurse, even though it probably doesn’t really deserve a mention. Finally, most of the roles in Grand Hotel were essentially supporting, but Greta Garbo was the closest it had to a lead, and I’d love to see her here.
Weeding through the Nominees
3. I think there’s a lot of evidence that Helen Hayes won this Oscar because of her reputation, not because of the performance. At the time, Hayes was universally acclaimed as the queen of the American stage, and this was a chance for the world to see her at the height of her powers. The movie, though, is pure melodramatic pablum and is a desperate struggle to get through. Hayes would be the only possible reason to watch it, and even then, only if you’re a completist or something of a masochist.
2. That’s not the case with Lynn Fontanne and The Guardsman. While the movie itself is pre-Code screwball fluff, it’s very entertaining fluff. The problem with Fontaine is not specifically her performance, but what she is asked to do in the role. Basically, she has to look pretty, wear some slinky clothes, and be aware that her husband is attempting to get her to stray from their marriage, or at least testing her loyalty. It’s a fun little movie and worth seeing, but Fontanne isn’t really asked to do much.
My Choice
1. Like many movies of the time, Emma is melodramatic to the extreme and hasn’t translated well to the modern era. However, Marie Dressler is absolutely magnificent and 1,000% better than everything and everyone else in this film. Dressler is someone who had that rare quality of being immediately sympathetic, and she proves it with this film that is otherwise not worth your time. She is literally the only reason to see it, and in lesser hands it would be immediately forgotten tripe. Dressler deserved this, no question.
Final Analysis
