Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

Directed by Frank Lloyd

Starring Clark Gable, Charles Laughton, Franchot Tone, Herbert Mundin, Eddie Quillan, Dudley Digges, Donald Crisp, Henry Stephenson, Francis Lister, Spring Byington, Movita, Mamo Clark, Byron Russell, Percy Waram, and David Torrence

A well done adventure on the high seas, Mutiny on the Bounty has remained more popular than most early Best Picture winners, with the exception of its predecessor, It Happened One Night. Charles Laughton eats up the role of maniacal Captain Bligh, and it's hard to imagine anyone else in the role, even though this has been remade several times. Adventure films from the 1930s tend to look a little overblown these days, and this is no exception. Most of the actors are really hamming it up, and it is perhaps a bit overlong, but it's still a fun watch every once in a while.

Other nominees: Alice Adams (George Stevens), Broadway Melody of 1936 (Roy Del Ruth and W.S. Van Dyke), Captain Blood (Michael Curtiz), David Copperfield (George Cukor), The Informer (John Ford), Les Miserables (Richard Boleslawski), The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (Henry Hathaway), A Midsummer Night's Dream (William Dieterle and Max Reinhardt), Naughty Marietta (Robert Z. Leonard and W.S. Van Dyke), Ruggles of Red Gap (Leo McCarey), and Top Hat (Mark Sandrich)