Here are the three nominees: (Winner in Bold)
Clark Gable (It Happened One Night)
Frank Morgan (The Affairs of Cellini)
William Powell (The Thin Man)
William Powell (The Thin Man)
Biggest Snub:
George Arliss – The House of Rothschild
My Overall Thoughts:
This is a year where there were only 3 nominees and two are excellent and one is quite lackluster. This makes one believe that they had to “scrape the bottom of the barrel” to find a third nominee on par with the other two.
My Rankings:
Acting Performances
3. Frank Morgan
2. Clark Gable
1. William Powell
2. Clark Gable
1. William Powell
Movies
3. The Affairs of Cellini – Completely silly film that doesn’t work at all. Nice seeing March, Morgan and Wray in this film despite the fact that none do anything to make their characters or the story itself memorable at all. Very surprised that Morgan was somehow able to garner a Best Actor nomination at the Oscars for this role because it isn’t anything special at all.
2. It Happened One Night – Very good screwball rom-com, just doesn’t really age well. Gable and Colbert are both great here and were deserving of recognition by the Academy.
1. The Thin Man – Powell and Loy are great together and their banter makes this film so much fun. The mystery is done quite well and they do an amazing job keeping us guessing the whole way through.
2. It Happened One Night – Very good screwball rom-com, just doesn’t really age well. Gable and Colbert are both great here and were deserving of recognition by the Academy.
1. The Thin Man – Powell and Loy are great together and their banter makes this film so much fun. The mystery is done quite well and they do an amazing job keeping us guessing the whole way through.
Do I agree with the Oscar winner? – Yes and No! Gable and Powell both give great performances this year and it’s a bit difficult to choose between the two but the par between them and Morgan is so far apart that it seems quite absurd a sto how they all ended up on this list together.
Let me know what you think about these films and my rankings!
MovieRob 
Gable was great. So was the movie. Still is. One of my favorites. (And both stars had to be strong-armed into doing it. Colbert “slummed” at Columbia for a paycheck and Gable was “loaned out” by MGM as a punishment). Ages fine IMO. Both 1934 – not sure how one didn’t for you – and the other did.
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it’s amazing how nominations have changed. Only 3 nominations this year and in other years in the 1930’s there were more than 1 nomination for a film.
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