First National (Warner)
Michael Curtiz’s tough Depression-era melodrama, based on a screenplay by Abem Finkel and Carl Erickosn, stars Paul Muni as an angry, committed coal miner fighting union corruption.
Oscar Nominations: 1 (Write-In)
Actor: Paul Muni (write-in-candidate)
Oscar Awards: None
Oscar Context
MGM’s Mutiny on the Bounty won the Best Picture in a contest that included Alice Adams, Broadway Melody of 1936, Captain Blood, David Copperfield, The Informer, Les Miserables, Lives of a Bengal Lancer, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Naughty Marietta, Ruggles of Red Gap, and Top Hat.
Victor McLaglen won the Best Actor for John Ford’s period drama, The Informer.
Paul Muni would win the Actor Oscar for the biopic The Story of Louis Pasteur, in 1936.
In the same year, cinematographer Hal Mohr actually won the Oscar, also as a write-in candidate, for his stylized imagery in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”