1929-30 – Wallace Beery
The Big House
This isn’t the first movie with Wallace Beery that I’ve seen. In fact, it’s the third, and every time, he turns in an outstanding performance. I would have no problem with the fact that he was nominated, except that this was the Best Actor category. Beery’s part in the film wasn’t the lead actor. But I have to keep in mind that this was only the third Academy Awards. The Best Supporting Actor category had not yet been created. If it had, I have no doubt he would have taken home that Oscar.
The character he played could have been so one dimensional, but Frances Marion, the screenwriter who wrote the story and dialogue, gave him some depth, some layers. She made the violent criminal Butch a sympathetic character, and Beery really brought that out. There was a touching little scene where, while in prison, Butch learns that his mother has died. He fondly remembers the woman and even gets a little emotional in front of his cellmate, Morgan. Beery did a fantastic job.
But he also played the hardened criminal part perfectly, as well. When he started the row in the mess hall, Beery showed some real anger and sold the scene. You see, Butch may not have been the main character of the story, but he was the main antagonist. The main character was actually Morgan, played by Chester Morris, who had been nominated for Best Actor only a year earlier. Most of the conflict inherent in the plot was instigated by Butch
But Butch’s death scene also stood out to me. He gets shot by Morgan, and shoots Morgan in return before falling. Then the two men crawl across the floor to each other. An inmate shouts that Morgan had not been the one to rat Butch out. The two men apologize for shooting each other. Beery then brought out Butch’s softer side again, revealing his true feelings of friendship for Morgan before dying. Beery made the death scene almost touching.
Even though I cannot now find the Oscar winning performance of George Arliss in Disraeli, I have seen that film, and based on my memory, I actually think Beery’s performance was more nuanced, and more worthy of the coveted award.