Two By Four Many times in Academy Award history, the same character has led to more than one Best Actor nomination. Who was nominated for playing the self-destructive actor in the 1937 version of A Star Is Born before James Mason turned the same trick in the 1954 version?
Oscar Mosts Which movie, a 1972 musical set in Berlin, won the most Oscars (eight) without winning Best Picture?
I mentioned that Greta Garbo contemplated a comeback after World War II, a comeback that obviously never happened. She settled on the Balzac novel La Duchess de Langelais, with Walter Wanger producing and James Mason tentatively set to co-star, and the project got as far as three screen tests, one photographed by Joseph Valentine on May 5, 1949, and by James Wong Howe and William Daniels, both on May 25, 1949.
The only problem was, nobody in Hollywood wanted to finance the film. Wanger negotiated a shaky partnership with Italian financier Angelo Rizzoli, but Rizzoli and Garbo did not hit it off and after long delays pushed the project into 1950, Rizzoli finally pulled out. No other investors were forthcoming and Garbo rejected the suggestion that she invest her own money in the film. Garbo's comeback was effectively over.
Long thought lost, a snippet of the test footage turned up in 1989. Here it is for your viewing pleasure:
Two By Four Many times in Academy Award history, the same character has led to more than one Best Actor nomination. Who was nominated for playing the self-destructive actor in the 1937 version of A Star Is Born before James Mason turned the same trick in the 1954 version?
