New Year, New Category

We've arrived yet again at the next pick for year and category. Time to pick them both from my foolproof random system.

Drumroll please...

It's Best Actor! 1930. Now, this is a bit of a problem because there is no Oscar year for 1930. Back then they doubled years up. There's a 1929-1930 year and a 1930-1931 year, so which to pick. Well, the actual year generator I use doesn't just give me a year, but also a date, and this time it gave me January 29, 1930, which makes me think I should lean toward the 1929-30 Oscars.

The Best Actor nominees that year were:

• George Arliss in Disraeli (the winner) and The Green Goddess
• Wallace Beery in The Big House
• Maurice Chevalier in The Big Pond and The Love Parade
• Ronald Colman in Bulldog Drummond and Condemned
• Lawrence Tibbett in The Rogue Song

You might have noticed that several of the actors above appear to have been nominated for two performances. That's how it worked in this, the third year of the Academy Awards' existence. Apparently you could be nominated for multiple performances, but outside of the first year, you only won for whichever performance received the most votes, or at least I assume that's how it worked. George Arliss won for Disraeli but was also nominated for The Green Goddess. Does that count as two nominations, or one nomination but only one winning performance? I'm not sure. To be honest, no one is alive today who knows why the nominees and winners were handled that way.

It's also a bit more of a challenge because only fragments exist of The Rogue Song. In fact, the farther back we go, the more "lost" films we'll encounter, and when we do, is there really any option but to kinda just skip them? I'll watch what there is of The Rogue Song but I'll decide if I can really judge it only after I see it.

We'll be back next post with The Big House.