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Ranking 1929 Best Picture Nominees

The second year for The Academy Award for Best Picture was, unlike the first one, incredibly mediocre and one of the worst slates in the history of the award unfortunately. That’s because this was an odd year for Hollywood where they started the outpour of musicals to cash in on the new sound system and the storytelling and artistic qualities suffered as a result. None of these nominees are bad in my opinion, but none of them are particularly good either. It’s just a very forgettable, dated slate. I’m not going to include The Patriot for obvious reasons having in mind that’s it’s a lost film and I couldn’t possibly see it.

My Ranking of the Nominees:

4. The Hollywood Revue of 1929

The last place belongs to this dated musical experiment. Yes, The Hollywood Revue of 1929 is an odd experiment of its time with no plot or characters to it whatsoever as it’s basically just a giant revue of a movie filled with musical numbers and introductions to each number. Now, the movie is obviously very dated, it can get pretty boring throughout its long runtime and most of the music is forgettable, but some numbers are memorable with Singin’ in the Rain being so wonderfully presented. It’s also a fascinating star-studded time capsule.

3. In Old Arizona

In Old Arizona could have been a great early western film had the filmmakers made better choices. Unfortunately, they didn’t. I am talking about that entire middle section which is frustratingly boring and unappealing to watch as it’s overly focused on romance and that romance is rather weak and uninspired. The western elements, however, are pretty good with some memorable plot points and I wish that the whole film was as good as the first and third act are. Warner Baxter is pretty charismatic and memorable in his Oscar-winning performance.

2. The Broadway Melody

And the eventual winner turned out to be this melodramatic musical which is infamous for winning the award, but is actually not as terrible as most would state. Its love triangle is surely clichéd, the characters are mostly annoying and the movie is most certainly dated, but there are some redeeming qualities about it such as that strong sibling relationship which is the heart of the film and the character of Hank is great and so well acted by deservedly Oscar nominated Bessie Love. The titular number is also pretty fun and catchy.

1. Alibi

Chester Morris did not deserve his Oscar nomination in my opinion as he overplayed the role in terms of facial expressions, though others are admittedly much worse in this weakly acted film. The musical numbers are also entirely unnecessary and just put in the film to make use of the early sound technology. However, Alibi is still a pretty solid crime flick with a very memorable ending, a terrific main character who’s such a good villain and particularly inspired artistic touches here and there such as the close-ups and the overall memorable cinematography. It is thus the best Best Picture nominee out of this admittedly mediocre bunch.

Films That Should Have Been Nominated:

The Docks of New York – George Bancroft and Betty Compson are both wonderful in this masterpiece directed by Josef von Sternberg. It is such a stunningly shot, gorgeous looking movie which also features playful dialogue and simply a beautiful romance with a big heart to it. It’s an artistic, timeless classic and thus shamefully snubbed by the Academy.

Man with a Movie Camera – This seminal documentary work is lauded by critics to this day as one of the finest documentaries ever and I have to agree. It is a Soviet classic and one of their most artistic achievements. It features absolutely groundbreaking cinematography and techniques while being a truly mesmerizing time capsule.

Show People – This fun, brisk comedy is not only frequently very funny and amusing, but also incredibly charming and romantic with such a wonderful ending. It’s a great look at 1920s Hollywood stock full of great celebrity cameos. Marion Davies absolutely steals the show in one truly iconic comedic performance.