Sunday, January 24, 2010

The Nominees For Best Supporting Actress, 1931-32

Joan Crawford (Grand Hotel)

Ann Dvorak (Scarface)

Miriam Hopkins (The Smiling Lieutenant and Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde)

Anna May Wong (Shanghai Express)

5 comments:

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KC said...

Love them all, but I thought Anna May was dynamite in Shanghai Express. I particularly like that scene where she deflect's Dietrich's attempt to thank her for saving her life. She responds--in a tone even cooler than Ms. D: "it is of no consequence. I didn't do it for you"

Mythical Monkey said...

Love them all, but I thought Anna May was dynamite in Shanghai Express.

I think supporting actress is the most fully loaded category of 1931-32. I could have also thrown in Emilia Unda (Mädchen In Uniform), Irene Rich (The Champ), Claudette Colbert (The Smiling Lieutenant), Anita Page (Skyscraper Souls) and Helen Hayes (Arrowsmith). Maybe more.

Anna May Wong is one of my favorites from the early days of film. Whether she wins for Shanghai Express I can't say (as I often do, I'll wind up deciding this one as I start to type the essay), but I'll definitely write about her when I do a series of posts this summer -- after I finish 1932-33, I'm going back and covering the silent years, 1915-1927, in a little more detail, one year a day for eighteen days. Anna May Wong is my pick for best actress of 1922 for The Toll Of The Sea, a silent version of the Madam Butterfly story. She starred in it right at the end of the moment when Asian actors like her and Sessue Hayakawa could still get a major part in a movie. Beautiful performance, well worth watching if you can dig it up.

Actually, you can dig it up on YouTube by searching for "The Toll of the Sea 1922" ...

It was one of the first technicolor movies ever made and the first which didn't require a special projector to be shown.

KC said...

She was great in Toll of the Sea, but what a bummer flick! I plan to write a little something about her for the Chinese New Year. The holiday gives me as good a reason as any to finally give her some attention.

Who Am Us Anyway? said...

Not qualified (yet!) (I'm working on it, i'm working on it!) to comment on who's the best supporting actress, but I think I am fully qualified to say, with regards to all 4 photographs: YOWZA!