1939 – Harry Carey
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
I have to say, Harry Carey did a fine job, but I don’t think he really deserved an Oscar nomination. Is role was pretty small, and he didn’t have too many lines. I know a big role with a lot of lines isn’t a requirement for recognition by the Academy, but it doesn’t hurt. The more screen time an actor has, the greater his chance to have a memorable part in the film, to have a noticeable impact on the movie’s story, as a whole. I was just underwhelmed by his competent performance. I felt like he did what was expected of him, but not much more.
He played the president of the U. S. Senate. He sat in his high seat, swore in Mr. Smith as a Senator, stopped Senators from speaking out of turn, and perfunctorily presided over the Senate meetings. He had one line in one scene near the end in which he said anything beyond his official capacity as the President of the Senate. He gave an opinion when Senators were arguing outside of the chamber. And that was it. Oh, he also smiled when Mr. Smith’s filibuster achieved its goal.
Aside from that, he just didn’t really do much. Granted, he looked the part of a stuffy old politician, but I feel that almost any character actor could have played his part. So what made him stand out above the pack? Why was he nominated for Best Supporting Actor? Well, I might be totally guessing, but I suspect that it may have been something like an honorary nomination for a character actor that had appeared in about two hundred forty films since his big screen career began in 1910. Imagine that, being involved in that many movies over the course of roughly thirty years. That would average out to about 8 films a year, every year, for thirty years. I would call that pretty darn impressive.
Yes, there’s no doubt, he was a trouper. And after playing the Senate President in this film, he still had another seventeen films over the next decade in which he would act. But if that wasn’t the reason for his nomination, then I can’t figure out what was. This is another case of an actor’s performance being just fine, but the role itself just didn’t seem worth the nomination. He just didn’t do much, and didn’t stand out to me as a better actor than any of his co-stars.