Alexander Nevsky is a great film, but really creepy. One long paean to Stalin basically. Triumph of the Will always struck me as kitschy in comparison.
Apologies for forgetting so many worthy entries. (Especially Freaks!) Uh, should I put them up now, belatedly, or are you cool with just doing write-ins?
I thought of putting all the Universal monster movies together (like I did with the Marx Bros.), so fans wouldn’t have to divide their votes, but then King Kong was Universal too, and that one seems like a different animal (so to speak). So I just picked one.
I can appreciate Oz for what it is–a cheery musical that winks at adults in the audience–but the tone is completely different from the books. Anybody see Disney’s Return to Oz? I liked that one for at least being serious and dark. And I thought The Wiz was just as good, musically speaking. Of course this takes us well beyond the 1930’s…
I thought I would love Triumph of the Will, but when I finally saw it, I found it either boring or unintentionally funny. I quit halfway through, it was just too damn long.
Sometimes I just don’t get you forumosans. Many of you are teachers, but you never noticed that one of the best teacher-tales was released in 1939, won best actor for Robert Donat, and went on to be voted the 72nd greatest British film ever in the BFI Top 100 British films poll. Can you name the film?
Of course, the film is ‘Goodbye, Mr Chips’. The movie was based on a novel by James Hilton and is about an aging school teacher who nostalgically looks back on his 58-year career and all the boys he’s taught and known since beginning at Brookfield Public School in 1870. Upon arrival at Brookfield, ‘Chips’ becomes the target of many practical jokes, so is forced to impose discipline upon the students. However, as time passes, Chips relaxes the rules and the students come to love him. The scene where he enters a noisy classroom after hearing of the death of his wife whilst giving birth(she loses his child too) is just devastating. At that point a solitary tear rolls down my face and I reach for my trusty old hankerchief. If you haven’t seen it, please, oh please, buy it or rent it or ask the cable guy to install a satellite dish for you so that you can catch it on Turner Classic Movies!
I leave you with Chips on his deathbed, eavesdropping on a conversation his two friends are having about him. Chips responds: “I thought you said it was a pity… pity I never had children. But you’re wrong, I have. Thousands of them … thousands of them … and all boys.”
I looked around wikipedia for 1930s film lists and found in British film:
Chin Chin Chinaman.
Chinese Puzzle
Chinese mystery
and in US films:
Bitter Tea of General Yen, etc.
Charlie Chan series
I’m kinda surprised how many films used a Chinese/Asian backdrop for 1930s films.
and even with Daughter of Shanghai (US film) in which the leads were Asian roles played by Asian actors.
Fritz Lang’s “M” - (1931)
Duck Soup - The Four Marx Brothers
God, Wizard of Oz is awful. I voted for Modern Times (my favourite Chaplin - not that I’m a huge fan).
As someone mentioned, Grand Illusion and Rules of the Game, should be there, the latter probably being my favourite of the thirties. Other contenders would be:
Zero for Conduct (Jean Vigo)
or
L’Atalante (Jean Vigo rocks!)
(Good decade for French movies).
Brian
[quote=“elektronisk”]Fritz Lang’s “M” - (1931)
[/quote]
What he said.
[quote=“Dr. McCoy”]
I went the the theater to see Alice in Wonderland on shrooms.
I went to see Gone With the Wind on acid. I don’t understand that movie at all.[/quote]
Ok, here’s how stupid I was in my yoot.
In 1973 I saw The Exorcist in Lawrence, Kansas, while yes you guessed it (windowpane). It helped that I’d read the novel.
In fact, the only time I ever had an acid-induced problem Houston was at a Mott the Hoople concert in Kansas City the following year. Somehow Mick Ronson was a helluva lot scarier than Linda Blair (we were also like two rows back from the stage, and there was lots of pushing).
I was wondering when someone was going to mention “M”.
Also, no one’s mentioned “The Roaring Twenties” yet? James Cagney had quite a few quality gangster movies during the '30s: “Public Enemy #1” and “Dead End Street” (I think that’s the title, it’s the one with Bogey and Cagney where one kid grows up to be a priest and the other kid a gangster).
[quote] and “Dead End Street” (I think that’s the title, it’s the one with Bogey and Cagney where one kid grows up to be a priest and the other kid a gangster).
[/quote]
That’s ‘The Asphalt Jungle’.
They made movies 80 years ago?