1934 Alternate Oscars

Best Picture of 1934

L'Atalante

The Black Cat

The Gay Divorcee

★ ✔ It Happened One Night

It's A Gift

The Merry Widow

Queen Christina

The Scarlet Empress

The Thin Man

Twentieth Century

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Best Actor of 1934

John Barrymore (Twentieth Century)

W.C. Fields (It's A Gift)

★ ✔ Clark Gable (It Happened One Night)

Leslie Howard (Of Human Bondage and The Scarlet Pimpernel)

William Powell (The Thin Man)

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Best Actress of 1934

✔ Claudette Colbert (It Happened One Night, Imitation of Life and Cleopatra)

★ Bette Davis (Of Human Bondage)

Greta Garbo (Queen Christina)

Myrna Loy (Manhattan Melodrama and The Thin Man)

Dita Parlo (L'Atalante)

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Best Director of 1934

★ ✔ Frank Capra (It Happened One Night)

Howard Hawks (Twentieth Century)

Josef von Sternberg (The Scarlet Empress)

W.S. Van Dyke (The Thin Man)

Jean Vigo (L'Atalante)

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Best Supporting Actor of 1934

Walter Connolly (It Happened One Night and Twentieth Century)

Sam Jaffe (The Scarlet Empress)

Frank Morgan (Affairs of Cellini)

Erik Rhodes (The Gay Divorcee)

★ Michel Simon (L'Atalante)

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Best Supporting Actress of 1934

★ Louise Beavers (Imitation Of Life)

Alice Brady (The Gay Divorcee)

Louise Dresser (The Scarlet Empress)

Merle Oberon (The Private Life Of Don Juan and The Scarlet Pimpernel)

Fredi Washington (Imitation of Life)

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Special Award

Asta (lifetime achievement)

Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man series) (best on-screen marriage ever)

Hans Dreier (The Scarlet Empress) (art direction-set decoration)

Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, from the novel by Dashiell Hammett (The Thin Man) (screenplay)

"Night and Day" (The Gay Divorcee) (music and lyrics by Cole Porter) (song)

Sergei Prokofiev (Lieutenant Kije) (score)

Joseph Walker (It Happened One Night) (cinematography)

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My choices are noted with a ★. Historical Oscar winners are noted with a ✔.

Note: I picked Bette Davis over Claudette Colbert and Myrna Loy because her blistering performance in Of Human Bondage pretty much finished the job James Cagney started in The Public Enemy, putting a fork in the genteel British stage style that had dominated the early sound era. I'll concede, though, that Davis gave better performances in her career, especially once she started working with director William Wyler in 1938 who stripped away the last of her actorly pretenses. Your call.