1935 Alternate Oscars

My choices are noted with a ★. A tie is indicated with a ✪. Historical Oscar winners are noted with a ✔. Best foreign-language picture winners are noted with an ƒ. A historical winner who won in a different category is noted with a ✱.

1935 Alternate Oscars

The British film historian David Thomson had this to say about Fred Astaire:

[I]s Astaire a movie actor? and what makes for great acting in the cinema? There is a good case for arguing that, in the event of a visit by creatures from a far universe, ignorant of the cinema, one would do best to show them some steps by Astaire as the clinching evidence of the medium's potential. Better that than the noble actors — Olivier, Jannings, Brando, Barrymore, et al. Astaire is the most refined human expression of pure cinema: the lifelike presentation of human beings in magical, dreamlike, and imaginary situations.

Or to quote another great film historian, the Mythical Monkey:

When I watch Astaire and Rogers dance, I reconsider the possibility that maybe there is a heaven after all.

Which is why I go to the movies instead of church. No, why I go to the movies as church.

Anyway, as always, my choices are noted with a ★. Historical Oscar winners are noted with a ✔.

Alternate Oscars: Vote For The Best Picture Of 1935

The Katie-Bar-The-Door Awards (1935)

You know, every once in a while you're faced with something so perfect—the Sistine Chapel, Secretariat at the Belmont, John Lennon's vocal on "Twist and Shout"—you can actually hear the music of the spheres as they move through the eternal ether.

When I watch Astaire and Rogers dance, I reconsider the possibility that maybe there is a heaven after all.

PICTURE (Drama)
winner: The 39 Steps (prod. Michael Balcon)
nominees: Bride Of Frankenstein (prod. Carl Laemmle, Jr. and James Whale); The Informer (prod. John Ford); Mutiny On The Bounty (prod. Frank Lloyd and Irving Thalberg)

PICTURE (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Top Hat (prod. Pandro S. Berman)
nominees: A Night At The Opera (prod. Irving Thalberg); Ruggles of Red Gap (Arthur Hornblow, Jr.)

PICTURE (Foreign Language)
winner: La kermesse héroïque (Carnival In Flanders) (prod. Pierre Guerlais)

ACTOR (Drama)
winner: Charles Laughton (Mutiny On The Bounty)
nominees: Ronald Colman (A Tale Of Two Cities); Robert Donat (The 39 Steps); Errol Flynn (Captain Blood); Boris Karloff (Bride Of Frankenstein)

ACTOR (Comedy/Musical)
winner: The Marx Brothers (A Night At The Opera)
nominees: Fred Astaire (Top Hat); W.C. Fields (The Man on the Flying Trapeze); Charles Laughton (Ruggles Of Red Gap)

ACTRESS (Drama)
winner: Katharine Hepburn (Alice Adams and Sylvia Scarlet)
nominees: Greta Garbo (Anna Karenina)

ACTRESS (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Ginger Rogers (Top Hat)
nominees: Margaret Sullavan (The Good Fairy); Shirley Temple (The Little Colonel, Our Little Girl, Curly Top and The Littlest Rebel)

DIRECTOR (Drama)
winner: Alfred Hitchcock (The 39 Steps)
nominees: John Ford (The Informer); James Whale (Bride Of Frankenstein)

DIRECTOR (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Sam Wood (A Night At The Opera)
nominees: Leo McCarey (Ruggles Of Red Gap); Mark Sandrich (Top Hat); William Wyler (The Good Fairy)

SUPPORTING ACTOR
winner: Edward Everett Horton (Top Hat)
nominees: W.C. Fields (David Copperfield); Charles Laughton (Les Miserables); Charlie Ruggles (Ruggles Of Red Gap); Franchot Tone (The Lives Of A Bengal Lancer and Mutiny On The Bounty); Ernest Thesiger (Bride of Frankenstein)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
winner: Elsa Lanchester (Bride Of Frankenstein)
nominees: Peggy Ashcroft (The 39 Steps); Mary Boland (Ruggles Of Red Gap); Una O'Connor (Bride Of Frankenstein and The Informer); Edna May Oliver (David Copperfield and A Tale Of Two Cities)

SCREENPLAY
winner: Dudley Nichols, from a story by Liam O'Flaherty (The Informer)
nominees: William Hurlbut (screenplay), adaptation by William Hurlbut and John L. Balderston (Bride Of Frankenstein); W.P. Lipscomb, from the novel by Victor Hugo (Les Misérables); George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, story by James Kevin McGuinness (A Night At The Opera); Charles Bennett (adaptation), Ian Hay (dialogue) and Alma Reville (continuity) (The 39 Steps)

SPECIAL AWARDS
John J. Mescall (Bride of Frankenstein) (Cinematography); Charles D. Hall (Bride of Frankenstein) (Art Direction-Set Decoration); Gilbert Kurland (Bride of Frankenstein) (Sound); Herbert Stothart (Mutiny on the Bounty) (Score); "Cheek To Cheek" (Top Hat) Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin (Song); Derek Twist (The 39 Steps) (Film Editing)