1934 – Frank Morgan
The Affairs of Cellini
This was a cute movie, and Frank Morgan was cute right along with it. But I wouldn’t go so far as to say that he stood out. You see, his role in this movie was only nominated for the Best Actor category because the Best Supporting Actor category had not yet been created. In order for a supporting actor to stand out in the Best Actor category, he has to give us something extraordinarily phenomenal. And while Frank Morgan did a fair enough job, he wasn’t as good as the nomination would suggest. The roll wasn’t worth it.
I’ve only seen a few films that had Frank Morgan as a part of the cast, and I’ve never seen him play a lead part. Sure, he portrayed the title role in The Wizard of Oz, but it was a supporting role. And I saw him playing a smaller part in The Great Ziegfeld. But as far as I can tell, he seemed to play the same character in those two films as he did in this one. He was a bumbling, yet loveable old man. I have a feeling he was really just playing himself, though I have no proof of that. For all I know, he was putting on an act, a façade that he knew the public liked. Either way, the nervous, slightly confused, somewhat timid man could have stepped right off the set of The Wizard of Oz.
Here, he played Alessandro, the Duke of Florence. He tries to make himself look competent, confident, and decisive, but he is easily confused, and even more easily swayed and manipulated by his ministers, his wife, and of course, Cellini. He was amusing and fun to watch, but he was a one trick pony. Yes, it was a good trick, but there was no variance to the performance, no spontaneity. There was a certain charm about him that was unmistakable, and he used that charm in the same way from the beginning of the film to the end. Would I have given him a Best Actor, or even a Best Supporting Actor nomination? I don’t think so.
And honestly, I can’t find a good reason for his nomination. Apparently, The Affairs of Cellini, was a disappointment at the box office. Even on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has mediocre reviews, at best, and an audience score of 25%. I’m not trying to say Morgan gave us a bad performance, just an unremarkable one.