8th Academy Awards: choose your alternate nominees (1935)
-
Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Classic Film
sheetsadam1 — 2 months ago(January 12, 2026 08:48 PM)
The idea is this: what if the nominees for Best Picture each year weren't nominated? Which films should have taken their place in that scenario? Pick your alternate selections for Best Picture and, if you wish, mention anybody who you feel was overlooked in any other category. No need to confine yourself to the types of films which typically get nominated or to English-language cinema. If you missed the previous years, they can be found on the classic film board.
All films released in 1935 are eligible.
The nominees were:
Mutiny on the Bounty- Frank Lloyd
Alice Adams - George Stevens
Broadway Melody of 1936 - Roy Del Ruth
Captain Blood - Michael Curtiz
David Copperfield - George Cukor
The Informer - John Ford
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer - Henry Hathaway
A Midsummer Night's Dream - Max Reinhardt & William Dieterle
Les Misérables - Richard Boleslawski
Naughty Marietta - W. S. Van Dyke
Ruggles of Red Gap - Leo McCarey
Top Hat - Mark Sandrich
My alternate picks:
Bride of Frankenstein - James Whale
The 39 Steps - Alfred Hitchcock
Black Fury - Michael Curtiz
Mad Love - Karl Freund
She - Lansing C. Holden and Irving Pichel
The Whole Town's Talking - John Ford
Scrooge - Henry Edwards
The Devil is a Woman - Josef von Sternberg
A Night at the Opera - Sam Wood
And since a best documentary category didn't exist yet, I'll make special note of Leni Riefenstahl's
Triumph of the Will
. Odious ideology aside, it's an absolutely brilliant piece of filmmaking on a technical level.
"Praise be to Allah." - President Donald J. Trump, Easter Sunday 04/05/2026
- Frank Lloyd
-
PygmyLion — 2 months ago(January 13, 2026 02:57 PM)
I might add:
The Good Fairy
William Wyler
Kind Lady
George Seitz
So Red the Rose
King Vidor
The 39 Steps
,
A Night at the Opera
, and
The Good Fairy
are movies that I would definitely push into the nominee list.
I guess
Captain Blood
and
The 39 Steps
seem like the top 2 movies here. I think I would go with
Captain Blood
with its iconic sword fight scene between Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone as the top picture.
Mutiny on the Bounty
is a good movie though, and not a terrible pick for best picture. -
PygmyLion — 2 months ago(January 19, 2026 04:11 PM)
I caught
The Whole Town's Talking
over the weekend. It's a good movie, perhaps worthy of the nominaions list. Of course, you have Edward G. Robinson playing dual roles as a meek clerk and his usual gangster role. Probably, the technique of getting Robinson as both characters into the same picture was a little trickier in 1935, then it was in later years.
I also watched another 1935 movie,
Public Hero No 1
over the past week. A fairly good movie, perhaps not quite up to the nominee list. Chester Morris gets the lead role, with Lionel Barrymore and Jean Arthur in supporting roles. Joseph Calleia does a nice job as the leader of the purple gang.
Another movie from 1935 that can be fun to watch is
Call of the Wild
with Clark Gable and Lorretta Young. Not a great rendition of Jack London's book, but still entertaining. -
sheetsadam1 — 2 months ago(January 20, 2026 08:41 PM)
I haven't watched that one. I'm typically not big on musicals, but I can appreciate the work that goes into them on a technical level.
"Praise be to Allah." - President Donald J. Trump, Easter Sunday 04/05/2026 -
sheetsadam1 — 2 months ago(January 20, 2026 10:13 PM)
Good one!
Mad Love
is a great Universal horror film too… Pauline Kael even accused Orson Welles of copying elements of it for
Citizen Kane
!
"Praise be to Allah." - President Donald J. Trump, Easter Sunday 04/05/2026