1936 – Walter Huston
Dodsworth
The movie, as a whole, was fairly average. But there were a few stand-outs among the cast who distinguished themselves with their outstanding acting. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel that Walter Huston was one of them. I’m not saying he did a bad job. Far from it. He played the part of Sam Dodsworth competently. But for the most part, the roll just wasn’t worth the nomination. If I was to nominate any member of this cast for an Oscar, it would have been Mary Astor or Ruth Chatterton, neither of whom were honored with an Oscar nod.
You see, the character of Sam Dodsworth didn’t have very much of a character arch, he didn’t go through a very wide range of emotions, and I didn’t feel that Huston was stretched or really challenged as an actor. He only had two real emotional personas in the film, which he vacillated between. There was happy and annoyed. I know I’m oversimplifying his performance, but those were the two that stood out to me. Sometimes his happiness bordered on excited, and his annoyance touched on anger, but that might have just been part of his character. He wasn’t supposed to be emotionally erratic.
That being said, he played the part properly. He never got too overworked, whether he was discovering a new passion or confronting his wife about her infidelities. He was always on an even keel, where any normal man would have been much more animated. The problem is that this translated as a little passionless, and not terribly difficult for an actor to portray. But again, I don’t think this was Huston’s fault. It was just the role, itself, and the way it was written.
His scenes that stood out to me as his best were the ones in which he displayed a little more emotion than normal. There is one where he returns home from Europe alone, and is angered that his home doesn’t feel right without her in it. Another is where he returns to Europe to politely and calmly confront his wife and her lover. And yet another is where he finally declares his love for Edith. But even in these pivotal scenes, the emotions he displays are calm and subdued, and though I hate to use the word, a bit passionless. It’s too bad, because Huston was a fine actor.