1937 – Paul Muni
The Life of Emile Zola
By this time, Paul Muni was no stranger to the honor of an acting nomination. In fact, this was his fourth nomination for Best Actor, and the Academy Awards had only been in existence for ten years. Clearly, he was one of the most celebrated actors of his age, and there was a reason. He was good. He was always good. However, I noticed something odd. On the film’s promotional poster, it shows a depiction of the actor, not the character he plays in the film. What that tells me is that the marketing team was banking on the actor, not the film. Strange.
Here, the chameleon-like actor took on the role of the famous French author Emile Zola. The first half of the film focuses on the rise of his esteemed career, and the second, on his involvement with the Dreyfus case. When he accuses the leaders of the French Army of knowingly condemning an innocent man to cover their own crimes and indiscretions, he is accused of libel, and sentenced to time in prison. He flees the country and only returns after Dreyfus’s innocence is proved. But he dies of carbon monoxide poisoning on the eve of Dreyfus’s re-commissioning ceremony.
At the beginning of the movie, Muni is almost unrecognizable as the young Zola, and even as the film progresses, and the character ages, he is still so made up to look like the real Zola, that it is sometimes hard to see Muni under all the makeup and the fat suits. But he was there, always acting appropriate to the progressing age of the character, which he consistently did quite well.
But I think what earned him this nomination for his acting was the speeches. There were several of them in the movie, but there are two that stood out to me. The first is the one where he makes his accusations, and the second is where he addresses the jury ad his libel trial, denouncing the court for its ridiculously unjust proceedings. He really knew how to sell those pivotal moments. His voice was confident and commanding, giving him an air of superiority and authority. Even though that second speech wasn’t enough to sway the jury to his own side, it was probably the speech that swayed the Academy voters. Once again, Muni proved why he was such a respected and well-loved actor.