Tweet 50 Most Deserving Oscar Winners

[Mike Gebert]

Magazines love lists, and as gimmicky ones go this isn't a bad one: The 50 Most Deserving Oscar Winners of All Time. (In other words, not who deserved it, but who actually deserved the one they got.)

Not surprisingly it gives short shrift to the first 25 years or so of Oscar history and is too kind to recent years (Scorsese deserving an Oscar, certainly, not so sure he deserves an Oscar for The Departed), but you can't feel entirely bad about a list that calls Sunrise's Most Artistic Production Oscar the second most deserved of all time. (On the other hand, George Arliss for Disraeli? C'mon, the old ham is always fun to watch, but sheesh, hardly the best performance of the 30s.)

So which actual Oscar winners would you add to the list of most deserved? I'll throw out three:

Preston Sturges for the screenplay of The Great McGinty
Erich Wolfgang Korngold for the score of The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Music Box for best short film

I'd put Chaplin's honorary Oscar in there....in the place occupied by the Best Picture for The Silence of the Lambs.....heck, that's not even the best picture in that franchise....

[silentfilm]

Bogart for The African Queen.

Marie Dressler for Min and Bill.

The consummate pro who could go from mugging comedy to tearjerking in the blink of an eye.

Marie Dressler for Min and Bill.

The consummate pro who could go from mugging comedy to tearjerking in the blink of an eye.

"Min and Bill" may be one of the most overlooked films I know. At a time when talkies were struggling to find stories to take advantage of the medium, it was a fresh combination of comedy and serious human nature that still has a lot of life today.

"Falling Slowly" -- Best Original Song (ONCE, 2007)

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova's brilliant songwriting and performances deserved every award they received.

George Arliss for Best Actor in DISRAELI (1929). He was also nominated for THE GREEN GODDESS so he remains the only actor in Academy history who competed against himself. I'm glad he won

Special Oscars to the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Edward G. Robinson, Myrna Loy, Lauren Bacall, Deborah Kerr, Lillian Gish, Harold Lloyd etc.

DICK TRACY (1990)

Winner of:
Best Art Direction
Best Makeup
Best Original Song
(and was nominated for four other Academy Awards).

This film, with its homage to the 1930s (in brilliant color), indirectly inspired my interest in classic cinema. I think it's a great film, and I don't understand its reputation as having been a box-office and critical disappointment at the time. Seven Oscar nominations (and three wins) are a lot more than most movies receive.

~Roger

SHANGHAI EXPRESS [1932] — Lee Garmes (Cinematography).

(Biggest theft—giving the same award to CLEOPATRA in 1934 when it ought to have gone to the infinitely more accomplished SCARLET EMPRESS. The best shot in CLEOPATRA is the title sequence. All downhill after that.)

[Mike Gebert]

George Arliss for Best Actor in DISRAELI (1929). He was also nominated for THE GREEN GODDESS so he remains the only actor in Academy history who competed against himself.

Not true. In the early Oscars they tended to nominate the individual, and then list everything he/she did during the eligible period after their name. So Janet Gaynor was nominated for Sunrise, Seventh Heaven and Street Angel, Norma Shearer for The Divorcee and Their Own Desire, etc. In most cases it was known which was the "real" nominee and so people spoke of Arliss winning for Disraeli, but technically that's not true-- Arliss won Best Actor of 1929, period, and the work during the year he won was Disraeli and The Green Goddess. After a couple of years they realized this made no sense*, so they changed to the modern system of nominations tied to specific roles.

* The obvious example of the confusion it caused was that both Karl Struss and Charles Rosher were jointly nominated for the cinematography of Sunrise, but every other movie they worked on, individually, five in all, wound up being listed, which clearly made no sense in terms of the intention to honor Sunrise.

Maurice Chevalier was also double nominated: for The Love Parade (1929) and The Big Pond (1930).

Also... the "nominations" were unofficial in the the few years so that the lists of nominees didn't really exist and the winner already knew he/she had won when they attend the banquet.

Historically the the 1930 awards for 1928/29 gave best actress to Mary Pickford for Coquette with nominees being Bessie Love for The Broadway Melody, Betty Compson for The Barker, Jeanne Eagels for The Letter, and Ruth Chatterton for Madame X.
Then in the 1990s Corinne Griffith started to appear on lists as a nominee for The Divine Lady. She never appeared on Oscar lists in anything published before this. But the footnote started to appear that there were no "official" nominees.

I think this was a move by AMPAS and/or Robert Osborne. But no one else has been appended to the Oscar nominee lists.

Hattie McDaniel in GWTW, apparently she and her escort did not sit with the many other GWTW nominees and I don't think she ever attended later ceremonies, much less actually present an Oscar herself (Hers was presented by Fay Bainter)

It seems that several of the Special Awards were specifically given to people like Edward G. Robinson and Myrna Loy who were NEVER nominated despite their long careers

Supporting actor nominees seem to be a mixed bag (people like Fred
Astaire, Lauren Bacall, Ann Sothern and Joan Blondell pop up in them for odd films, late in their careers) but two much deserved awards went in 1944 for Barry Fitzgerald in Going My Way and Ethel Barrymore in None But the Lonely Heart. I thought Fitzgerald captured a certain kind of crabbed old age that went beyond the usual cliches and Barrymore in her return to films and paired with Cary Grant gave probably her best film performance. Interesting that Fitzgerald was also nominated for Best Actor for same film. Irwin

George Arliss for Best Actor in DISRAELI (1929). He was also nominated for THE GREEN GODDESS so he remains the only actor in Academy history who competed against himself.

Not true. In the early Oscars they tended to nominate the individual, and then list everything he/she did during the eligible period after their name. So Janet Gaynor was nominated for Sunrise, Seventh Heaven and Street Angel, Norma Shearer for The Divorcee and Their Own Desire, etc. In most cases it was known which was the "real" nominee and so people spoke of Arliss winning for Disraeli, but technically that's not true-- Arliss won Best Actor of 1929, period, and the work during the year he won was Disraeli and The Green Goddess. After a couple of years they realized this made no sense*, so they changed to the modern system of nominations tied to specific roles.

* The obvious example of the confusion it caused was that both Karl Struss and Charles Rosher were jointly nominated for the cinematography of Sunrise, but every other movie they worked on, individually, five in all, wound up being listed, which clearly made no sense in terms of the intention to honor Sunrise.

According to info I obtained at the Academy website, Arliss was nominated for both films but the Award was returned only for DISRAELI. Admittedly, my tongue is in my cheek when I say that "that Arliss competed against himself" but the data I received suggest that somebody made a deliberate decision to honor him only for the one film. So you may be correct but somebody needs to tell the Academy - here's the blurb directly from the Academy website:

1929/30 (3rd)
ACTOR
*
George Arliss -- Disraeli {"Benjamin Disraeli"}
[NOTE: As allowed by the award rules for this year, a single nomination could honor work in one or more films. Though the final awards ballot listed both Disraeli and The Green Goddess in his nomination, the award was announced for only the Disraeli performance. It has never been established as to why this was, but it possibly could have been because the original report from the Acting Branch Board of Judges only listed the Disraeli performance in the results of the nominations voting, or it could have been because on some of the final ballots, the voters had indicated the Disraeli performance over the other.]

George Arliss -- The Green Goddess {"Oxonian, the Rajah of Rukh"}
[NOTE: As allowed by the award rules for this year, a single nomination could honor work in one or more films. Though the final awards ballot listed both Disraeli and The Green Goddess in his nomination, the award was announced for only the Disraeli performance. It has never been established as to why this was, but it possibly could have been because the original report from the Acting Branch Board of Judges only listed the Disraeli performance in the results of the nominations voting, or it could have been because on some of the final ballots, the voters had indicated the Disraeli performance over the other.]

[Mike Gebert]

Well, that's the thing-- nobody could keep the rules straight. Sometimes they said the person was nominated for everything, sometimes only for the more widely acclaimed movie; sometimes they were nominated for everything, but "everyone knew" they won only for one role, though that may or may not have been recognized officially. Particularly in the early years of the Board of Judges, they were pretty much just making it up as they went.

I don't recognize Corinne Griffith as an Oscar nominee whatever the confusion of the early years. They wouldn't have had six nominees for the 1928/29 season.

All of Ford's directing Oscars.

[Christopher Jacobs]

Well, having just seen them on BluRay a few nights ago, I'd say that both GREAT EXPECTATIONS and BLACK NARCISSUS heartily deserved their 1947 Oscars for Best B/W & Color Cinematography and Best B/W & Color Art Direction.

--Christopher Jacobs
http://hpr1.com/film
http://www.und.edu/instruct/cjacobs

The honorary awards to Henri Langlois and Jack Cardiff. And Roger Corman.

The Oscars are meaningless. We all know that!!

The Oscars are meaningless. We all know that!!

Pshaw, sir! Don't spoil our fun!

They're not meaningless if you are a recipient. (Not me)

They're not meaningless if you are a recipient. (Not me)

Oh...I believe they are.

It takes a look far more than 'gleaning'
To see today where Oscar's leaning;
It's past was HALF-peopled by adults,
Now it's dresses, jewelry, and shoe cults,
And it leaves us guessing its meaning.

It takes a look far more than 'gleaning'
To see where today Oscar's leaning;
It's past was HALF-peopled by adults,
Now it's dresses, jewelry, and shoe cults,
And it leaves us guessing its meaning.

You have a problem with shoes?

It takes a look far more than 'gleaning'
To see where today Oscar's leaning;
It's past was HALF-peopled by adults,
Now it's dresses, jewelry, and shoe cults,
And it leaves us guessing its meaning.

You have a problem with shoes?

That poem left me guessing ITS meaning.

Also: I believe Pola Negri and Gloria Swanson were in shoe cults. Then again, neither won an Oscar. . . . And not that there's anything wrong with that. Shoe cults or Oscars.

Yes but Swanson should have won for Sunset Boulevard. Even if she did wear platform shoes....

It takes a look far more than 'gleaning'
To see where today Oscar's leaning;
It's past was HALF-peopled by adults,
Now it's dresses, jewelry, and shoe cults,
And it leaves us guessing its meaning.

You have a problem with shoes?

No, I now wear them. Coming out of the jungle has been difficult, but I'm adapting.

I believe Pola Negri and Gloria Swanson were in shoe cults. Then again, neither won an Oscar. . . . And not that there's anything wrong with that. Shoe cults or Oscars.

I have a lovely 1965 desk calendar stamped "From the Library of Gloria Swanson" that came from Bally's Shoe Factories. The first dozen or so plates are of shoes and shoemakers from the Bally Schumuseum in Schoenenwerd. I'm not sure if that constitutes proof of shoe cult leanings, but I'm throwing it out there.