Best Actor 1944: Results

5. Cary Grant in None But the Lonely Heart- Grant is not able to rise above, or even compensate for his miscasting in this role. Grant should have been nominated many more times than he was but this is not one of them.

4. Bing Crosby in Going My Way- Crosby role is not much of a challenge, it requires him to sing, and to be  charming, which he is, but he really does not do anything in his role that needed to be rewarded.

3. Alexander Knox in Wilson- Knox gives a strong passionate performance as Woodrow Wilson. He makes Wilson a likable and interesting character well keeping with the film's just about portrayal of Wilson as  just about perfect.

2. Barry Fitzgerald in Going My Way- Barry Fitzgerald's performance is indeed a supporting performance, but a great supporting performance. His performance, is an honest deeply effective piece of work. I do not mind not giving him the award here since he has his own proper category to win.

1. Charles Boyer in Gaslight- Charles Boyer gives an effectively mysterious performance in Gaslight. Boyer reveals carefully about his character, and his brutal control in the film is brilliantly done by Boyer, as is his terrific final scene where the tables finally turn on his character.

Deserving Performances:
Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity

Best Actor 1944: Charles Boyer in Gaslight

Charles Boyer received his third Oscar nomination for portraying Gregory Anton in Gaslight.

Gaslight is a quite effective film about a woman who is does not know if she is going, or if there really is something nefarious going on around her.

Like most films which are thrillers like this film, spoilers must be mentioned to be able to really speak of the details of Charles Boyer's performance in this film. Charles Boyer's performance is in the line of the many mysterious man roles, which not that much is known of the past, but he is certainly is hiding something. This type of role honestly can make cause an actor to turn out some great performances example including my personal winner of 37 Robert Montgomery in Night Must Fall, as well as the unnominated Joseph Cotton in Shadow of a Doubt.

Charles Boyer was cast apparently cast against his usual type which is interesting because Boyer, always has a certain coldness to all his performances even his romantic ones. His coldness comes well into play in this film, that is most certian. The film begins though as Gregory Anton is the mysterious suitor of Ingrid Bergman's Paula. Boyer in these earliest of scenes just suggest the more usual Boyer performance, of the commanding , and not all the lovey French romantic.Boyer as usual though is fully believable in his romantic prowess as he had also been in Algiers.

There is more to be revealed of Gregory though when he marries Paula and they move into her old home where her famous Aunt had been murdered. It is here that Gregory shows a much darker side to himself. I think Boyer is properly effective in just these earliest of the scenes, by suggesting that Gregory certainly is hiding something, but still keeps a good enough of his romantic facade so that Paula does not possibly catch on to his true motives.

I think one key moment Boyer has is one of the few scenes after he and Paula get married where they actually go out which is to the tower of London. Boyer again is good in always showing how Gregory always is hiding something, and has the proper anxiousness when he slips up. Also important is when he looks at the crown jewels, and he shows a true lust in his body over the special jewelry, this is an important character trait to the story that Boyer establishes quite well and with believability, without bringing two much attention to it.

Soon though more of Gregory comes out as he starts controlling Paula in rather brutal, and extremely cold fashions. He never allows her to go out of there home, and constantly tells here that she is losing her mind. Boyer is quite chilling in these scenes, and I think it is not only what he does to her but how he does it. Boyer always is perfect here because he makes Gregory always act like what he is doing for her own good, and tries to act like he still is being warm to her, even though he is in fact being terribly cruel to her.

These scenes are rather difficult to watch because of his terrible cruelty he has to her, but they as well strangely fascinating because Boyer shows that he has almost absolute sway over her due to his constant manipulations of her. Boyer holds so much power over her it certainly is striking to watch. His very best scene though probably comes with Ingrid Bergman's best scene at the very end of the film where their roles are reversed. It is amazing to see Boyer completely lose his grasp on the situation, and finally reveal the cowardly pathetic man behind his cruel exterior. Boyer whole performance is strong effective layered performance, that works exceedingly well with Ingrid Bergman's performance.

Best Actor 1944

And the Nominees Were:

Alexander Knox in Wilson

Charles Boyer in Gaslight

Bing Crosby in Going My Way

Barry Fitzgerald in Going My Way

Cary Grant in None But the Lonely Heart

Best Actor 1938: Results

5. Spencer Tracy in Boys Town- Spencer Tracy's performance is not really bad, but he is not required to do anything more than be nice.

4. Charles Boyer in Algiers- Although I liked what Boyer did with what he had. Boyer was properly smooth, but the character just did not have enough to it, to create a really interesting performance.

3. Leslie Howard in Pygmalion- Leslie Howard is quite effective as Henry Higgins, not only in creating an entertaining portrait of the pompous professor, but also a more in-depth complex portrait of a cold man as well.

2. James Cagney in Angels With Dirty Faces- Cagney does his usual gangster performance for part of the performance which is good, but the best part of the performance is showing the soft side of the gangster as he tried to help his old friend who is priest. Also his last scene is amazing.

1. Robert Donat in The Citadel- This was quite the difficult one to choose because of the strength of these top performances. I went with Donat though because of his long change his character undergoes and Donat's effectiveness and believability of every single phase of his character. Donat's performance is powerful, charming, and very effective. 

Deserving Performances:

Best Actor 1938: Charles Boyer in Algiers

Charles Boyer received his second Oscar nomination for portraying Pepe le Moko in Algiers.

Algiers tells of the police trying to catch jewel thief Pepe, Algiers begins interesting, but it slowly turns to very little.

Charles Boyer is Pepe Le Moko a theif who hides from the police by staying a complex section of the city called the Casbah. Boyer actually despite the film being entirely about him, strangely is not in the film as much as you may think he would be since much of the film is about how others try to catch him, or how they react to him.

Boyer though when he is on screen certianly instantly reflects exactly the type of character Pepe should be. He shows a complete understanding of his surroundings, and naturally has an entirely complete control of his situation. Boyer's whole manner is perfectly fitting of his intelligent and suave thief.

Boyer also has the right manner throughout his performance, and I find his romances in the film interesting, because he is not particularly warm with the women in the film. He shows this as a different kind of more commanding and control of them instead, that fits well for Pepe le Moko, much better than if he was overly lovey in his performance. 

Although I felt Boyer was technically with what he did, I felt there was something lacking about his entire character. Not because of Boyer's performance, but rather because there was simply lacking in Pepe as written. You just do not see enough of who Pepe le Moko is rather than being just a smooth criminal, and a smooth romantic. Boyer is indeed good at being quite smooth, and gets probably the most out of what he has, but I needed a little more.

Best Actor 1938

And the Nominees Were:

Robert Donat in The Citadel

Leslie Howard in Pygmalion

Spencer Tracy in Boys Town

James Cagney in Angels With Dirty Faces

Charles Boyer in Algiers

Best Actor 1961: Results

5. Charles Boyer in Fanny- Boyer is fine enough but his role is too small and simple for his to accomplish all that much.

4. Spencer Tracy in Judgment At Nuremberg- Tracy is functionally fine in the part, but fails to really find any real depth in his underwritten part.

3. Maximilian Schell in Judgment At Nuremberg- Schell's performance is ACTING most certianly, he does not have too much of a character, but he is an energetic and effective presence in the film.

2. Paul Newman in The Hustler- An absolutely terrific performance, where Newman really creates a fascinating original character in Fast Eddie Felson. Newman never goes the easy way with his character, always going for instead a complex and creative character.

1. Stuart Whitman in The Mark- This one was extremely close for me, and much harder to choose than I expected it to be, before I watched the Mark. Whitman though completely threw me off with his extremely powerful complex performance of a deeply troubled man trying to change his life. I will say I do not think Whitman is better Newman, they are both equally great, but the nature of the award is choosing one, and for the moment I will choose Whitman. This is a year though where I am sure my choice could easily go back forth, because both create such memorable and powerful portraits of two incredibly unique characters.

Deserving Performances:
Open to Suggestions.

Best Actor 1961: Charles Boyer in Fanny

Charles Boyer received his fourth and final Oscar nomination for portraying Cesar in Fanny.

Fanny is an odd one, because it seems like it should be a musical but it isn't. I mean colorful locale, a rather simple story with various colorful characters, and Maurice Chevalier, one would think that would equal to a musical, but it is not, even though apparently it was on stage.

I guess the Academy did not value many lead performances from this year since Maximilian Schell was really supporting, as is Charles Boyer in Fanny, especially in the first half of the film. Cesar is the father of the young man Marius (Horst Buchholz) who impregnates Fanny (Leslie Caron), but hops on a ship to get adventure in his life. Fanny to not be disgraced marries another older man Panisse (Maurice Chevalier).

Boyer's Cesar is one of the colorful characters, a nice bar owner, who loves his son, even though he does get very much disappointed by some of his decisions. Boyer is nice and colorful, enough, and is good at portraying an over the top character without being too over the top. Boyer early on is likable enough, but I really do not think he would stick out all that well, if not for the fact that I was always looking for him.

Boyer really does not do all that much, but show love for his son I guess, and and act happy or surprised I guess, and occasionally saddened as the situation involving his son changes. Cesar always wants to do the right thing, always even if that means stopping his son from breaking up the marriage between Panisse and Fanny. I suppose he is properly strict, and saddened by his son, but still it never is anything all that special, or anything that really needs to be noted.

Overall Boyer's performance really fulfills his role as well as it probably could be filled, but the role just demands far too little from him. He needs to be nice, somewhat charming, and also a good figure in the film, and he does all of these well enough, but the film gives him no time to do anything more than this. Boyer is perfectly fine throughout his performance I do believe that, but even for a supporting performance it is a very limited character.

Best Actor 1961

And the Nominees Were:

Paul Newman in The Hustler

Stuart Whitman in The Mark

Maximilian Schell in Judgment At Nuremberg

Spencer Tracy in Judgment At Nuremberg

Charles Boyer in Fanny

 Well here it is the most requested year. I frankly do not know how almost everyone was so interested in this year exactly, but I guess I'll see how it is.

Best Actor 1937: Results

5. Spencer Tracy in Captain Courageous- Tracy I just think is completely unbelievable in this role, I never was convinced by his accent or his performance.

4. Paul Muni in The Life of Emile Zola- Muni does do some overacting in some scenes, and Zola is portrayed rather simply in the film itself. Still though he handles the speeches of Zola pretty well, and his changes as Zola ages are very well done.

3. Charles Boyer in Conquest- Boyer is perfectly cast as Napoleon, but unfortunately napoleon is portrayed incredibly inconsistently. Still Boyer does have some strong moments, and shows if the film had been better than he probably could have been great.

2. Fredric March in A Star is Born- Like Boyer I do feel March is hurt a little by the film, but he still gives a very charming performance as Norman Maine. Then as Norman's stardom falls he gives a pretty effective portrait of a man who continues to drift downward, despite the fact the film rushes this far too much.

1. Robert Montgomery in Night Must Fall- Montgomery is absolutely brilliant in his performance here. He is both charming and incredibly chilling. His performance is truly great, giving the right hints of the true nature of the character throughout, and mixes his charm with his psychotic nature incredibly well. And his final look at himself in the mirror that is just a truly outstanding scene.

Deserving Performances:
Cary Grant in The Awful Truth
Stan Laurel in Way Out West
Oliver Hardy in Way Out West

Best Actor 1937: Charles Boyer in Conquest

Charles Boyer received his first Oscar nomination for portraying Napoleon Bonaparte in Conquest.

Conquest simply does not work because the film does not set its tone well nor does really know what it is trying to do. It is the bad type of biography picture because it does not lay out a time frame, and it just seems to go nowhere special. Also Greta Garbo is surprisingly unspectacular in this film, and is actually thoroughly up shown by her male co-star.

Charles Boyer I must first say that he seems the perfect choice to play Napoleon Bonaparte. He just seems to fit that part perfectly and is technically perfect cast as him. I really am rather annoyed by this film actually, because it seems Boyer could have been a fantastic Napoleon in another film, but unfortunately he is held back by this version of Napoleon. Napoleon is portrayed in such a artificial way, and baseless fashion that no character development can really be achieved by Boyer. It is not that his character is inconsistent just the script never really gets inside Napoleon very well, it always stays at an odd distance that is a huge failure of the film.

I will say the way Boyer presents Napoleon in the way he talks and walks is well handled. I believed him as Napoleon, as he has the right command and control in the part. Also something else I was glad to see was that Boyer plays him with a little light humor, which actually does work well. I think his best scene and the best scene in the film is when he plays cards with an old woman who does not know who he is and is not aware of who he is either. It certainly is a funny scene do to Boyer's comedic timing, unfortunately this is the only scene like this and does not really correspond with the rest of the film. I think possibly if it had been a light comedic romantic portrayal of Napoleon it could have worked but alas.

His scenes with Garbo are not all that special due to the script, even though I think Boyer does a fine job nonetheless. He is properly romantic in his sort of odd Boyer sort of way that I think does work well for Napoleon. I do not think Garbo actually reciprocates that well, but Boyer still remains good. Napoleon is incredibly random character here since the movie is so random. Boyer tries to do what he can to be consistent but the movie is just too poorly directed. Since it lacks a focus Boyer has nothing to focus on but when he has the chance to shine he actually does, such as a brief scene with a dying soldier, in which Boyer is very effective. His final scenes are also fine but Boyer cannot make up for the bad writing. This simply is a performance that could have been great with better material, but instead is just good.

Best Actor 1937

And the Nominees Were:

Fredric March in A Star Was Born

Paul Muni in The Life of Emile Zola

Spencer Tracy in Captain Courageous 

Robert Montgomery in Night Must Fall

Charles Boyer in Conquest

Who do you pick, and predict? The drunken actor, Emile Zola, the guy who looks like he is drunk, the man who has more than smoking on his mind, or Napoleon Bonaparte.