1930s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol. 3)

[tojoed]

I'd like to offer as a swapsie, Abel Gance's Un Grand Amour de Beethoven (1936). There are few, if any, good movies about the lives of great composers, but this is one of them. It's full of brilliant images and sequences and is reasonably accurate about the life. Gance has the taste to show Beethoven playing the lovely two movement sonata Opus 78, rather than the "Moonlight", as in Bernard Rose's appalling "Immortal Beloved".

But the thing to see is a great performance by the legendary Harry Baur. Heartbreaking.

There's a DVD from Image Entertainment (US), which is not the best, but will suffice if you are going to give the film a try.

[Wu.Qinghua]

30s cinema? Count me in ... And, in addition to Lubitsch's suggestions on Chinese films, let me point you to Sun Yu's movie Xiao Wanyi/Little Toys (1933) starring Ruan Lingyu. I accidentially stumbled across it on Youtube last night while looking for 'New Women'. I don't remember whether I liked it more than "Dalu/Big Road", but it's one of my favourite 30s movies anyway.

And another addition to Lubitsch's: SF Silent Film Festival has also released Sun Yu's "Wild Rose" (1932) on DVD last year - that has completely passed under my radars ...

[Tommaso]

I'd like to offer as a swapsie, Abel Gance's Un Grand Amour de Beethoven (1936). There are few, if any, good movies about the lives of great composers, but this is one of them. It's full of brilliant images and sequences and is reasonably accurate about the life. Gance has the taste to show Beethoven playing the lovely two movement sonata Opus 78, rather than the "Moonlight", as in Bernard Rose's appalling "Immortal Beloved".

But the thing to see is a great performance by the legendary Harry Baur. Heartbreaking.

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check it out. Talking of Baur, I've recently seen - or actually, haven't seen - a rather little known, but highly interesting film with him, Les cinq gentlemen maudits (Julien Duvivier, 1931), which is out on an unsubbed dvd in France. Which is the reason why I haven't actually seen Baur, as due to the language barrier I preferred to watch the German version of it called Die fünf verfluchten Gentlemen (also directed by Duvivier). As with many early European sound productions, the film was made in several languages and with different actors, so Baur's part is played by an actor called Hans Sternberg. The great advantage for me, however, is that the main character Petersen in the German version is played by the very young Adolf Wohlbrück, better known hereabouts as Anton Walbrook. Those early German Wohlbrück films are of varying quality, including some true masterpieces (Willi Forst's Maskerade and Arthur Robison's Der Student von Prag most of all) and some not so great films, but they all show the immense quality as an actor and that most impeccable dressing style that already were Wohlbrück's hallmark at that early stage of his career.

Die fünf verfluchten Gentlemen is a fine mystery thriller with a surprise ending. In Morocco, five friends become the victims of a mysterious curse which condemns all of them to die within a fortnight. When the fatal accidents begin to diminish the number of those gentlemen, Wohlbrück (who is supposed to be the last to die) sets out to solve the mystery and save his life... The film is exciting not just because of the plot, but also because of its fantastic - even though highly orientalist - depictions of the Moroccan people and street life. Gorgeous close-ups and editing, a general dreamy atmosphere, and truly beautiful to behold. In many respects this is clearly a forerunner of Pepe le Moko - which is the better film and perfects what Duvivier does here-, but I find it works very well on its own terms. I think I must clearly look for more Duvivier in the coming months.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

The film is exciting not just because of the plot, but also because of its fantastic - even though highly orientalist - depictions of the Moroccan people and street life. Gorgeous close-ups and editing, a general dreamy atmosphere, and truly beautiful to behold. In many respects this is clearly a forerunner of Pepe le Moko - which is the better film and perfects what Duvivier does here-, but I find it works very well on its own terms. I think I must clearly look for more Duvivier in the coming months.

Do do seek out La Belle Equipe as well.It will certainly be ranking high in my list. (The pessimistic ending version is Duviv approved by the way as opposed to the tacked on happy ending of some copies). La Bandera is of course another recommendation

[tojoed]

Talking of Duvivier, can anyone direct me to a copy of "Un Carnet de Bal"? I'd be most grateful. I haven't seen it for many years.

[swo17]

Un carnet de bal is available in backchannels but not with English subs that I'm aware. Though if anyone could prove me wrong, I'd be elated.

Charley Bowers made a few stop-mo shorts in the 1930s, It's a Bird! and Believe it or Don't. They're not even on IMDb so I don't know what's the rule.

I don't know if there's precedent for this, but I'm going to say that if it's not on IMDb but you can find another source that identifies it as a 1930s film, it's eligible. You might also bring these titles up here.

[RobertB]

I will follow this thread and maybe vote at the end, if I feel I've seen enough. There is so much to watch anyway! But I have some Ozu, Pabst and Feyder at home waiting to be watched, so that's a start. And I'm catching up on Chinese films, so I'll see what I can get hold of that's been mentioned by Wu.Qinghua and Lubitsch.

What I want to watch, but can't find, are the early films by Gustaf Molander. He did the scripts for Terje Vigen and Sir Arne's Treasure. How is he as a director? The only 30s film I can find is an expensive US DVD of Intermezzo. Is it worth getting? $40 with shipping! Nothing is available in Sweden. I don't need subs, and I would like to try a few of his films. Any useful ideas?

[Gregory]

^^ It looks like used copies of the Fox Lorber Intermezzo are available cheaply from Amazon sellers, some of whom ship internationally. I haven't seen the film in almost a decade and don't remember it well enough to comment, but I remember liking it so I just ordered one.

[RobertB]

Right you are! I was only looking at the "new" section, forgetting the used ones. Ordered!

[Landjorden]

Looks like Kino is going to release "En kvinnas ansikte" (A womans face) by Molander but it doesn´t state when, only "comming in 2011".

[serdar002]

Tommaso and Lubitsch have already paved the road for German and Austrian films, here are some more of my personal favorites not yet mentioned (all of them with subs, only one of them out on DVD and some in pretty low TV or VHS rip quality):

Der Fall Dreyfus (Oswald 1930)

episodes from the life of Frederic the Great:
Das Flötenkonzert von Sans-Souci ( Ucicky 1930)
Der Choral von Leuthen (Froelich 1933)

Luise, Königin von Preussen (Froelich 1931)

Das Mädchen Johanna (Ucicky 1935 - Joan of Arc)

So endete eine Liebe (Hartl 1934 - the Archduchess Marie Louise is forced to marry Napoleon)

Heimat (Froelich 1938 - a melodrama with Zarah Leander, that's why it's out on DVD, in Germany only some actors are awarded that honour - and for the 40s list Das Herz der Königin gets my vote)

Ritt in die Freiheit (Hartl 1938 - the Polish uprising of 1830)

edit 9.4.11 (since IMDB changed the date from 1941 to 1939)
Kadetten (Karl Ritter) about 100 Prussian cadets being taken hostage by the Russians in 1760

Der Schritt vom Wege (Gründgens 1939 - remade by Fassbinder as Fontane Effi Briest)


and as to Russian film, here are two classic adaptations of Ostrovsky plays (19th century, not a trace of propaganda, both with fan subs, get the versions with the original audio, not the 60s or 70s dub)

Groza AKA The Thunderstorm (Petrov 1934)

Bespridannitsa AKA Without Dowry (Protazanov 1936)

[zedz]

I don't know if there's precedent for this, but I'm going to say that if it's not on IMDb but you can find another source that identifies it as a 1930s film, it's eligible. You might also bring these titles up here.

IMDB should only be the arbiter of whether or not a film falls within the decade in question, not whether or not it exists. There were a number of instances from the last round of lists of nominated films that weren't listed on IMDB. Its coverage of experimental films is especially notorious in this respect. (Sure enough, they're still blithely unaware of the existence of Daniel Reeves' Obsessive Becoming.) In the past, if a voter nominated a non-IMDB film, I simply accepted the stated year of release at face value. In practical terms, films that obscure rarely attracted a second vote, so no votes or voters were harmed in the course of making this decision.

[Tommaso]

While I don't want to reveal all my secrets at this early point in the listmaking, I can wholeheartedly endorse all of Serdar's recommendations, which are almost all 'history films' (not my favourite genre normally). Serdar's post also reminds me that I totally forgot to name Karl Hartl and also Carl Froelich in my initial list of important 30s directors.

Hartl especially made some fantastic films, and it's a shame that he's virtually unknown today. He made, for instance, the great Sci-Fi films FP1 antwortet nicht (1932, which I think even exists on a US DVD) and Gold (1934). The former features the model for Fassbinder's Veronica Voss, Sybille Schmitz; the latter has Brigitte Helm of "Metropolis" fame, and both star Hans Albers in the main role. The Sherlock Holmes fans should also seek out Der Mann der Sherlock Holmes war, also available in the US I think. It's a great comedy about two guys pretending to be Holmes and Watson, played by Albers and everybody's darling (though not mine) Hans Rühmann.

As to Weimar history films, one further recommendation, newly available on DVD (though unsubbed): Elisabeth von Österreich (Adolf Trotz, 1931). Right, that's the story of 'Sissi' that even Visconti paid a little reverence to in his 1974 "Ludwig", not to speak of the 1950's tearjerker that is still extremely popular with audiences in Germany. But this film is a totally different affair; it gives a surprisingly realistic and unsentimental view of the Empress' life story, and Elisabeth is played fascinatingly by a very womanly, yet warm-hearted Lil Dagover. Forget about Romy Schneider, really.

[knives]

I don't know if there's precedent for this, but I'm going to say that if it's not on IMDb but you can find another source that identifies it as a 1930s film, it's eligible. You might also bring these titles up here.

IMDB should only be the arbiter of whether or not a film falls within the decade in question, not whether or not it exists. There were a number of instances from the last round of lists of nominated films that weren't listed on IMDB. Its coverage of experimental films is especially notorious in this respect. (Sure enough, they're still blithely unaware of the existence of Daniel Reeves' Obsessive Becoming.) In the past, if a voter nominated a non-IMDB film, I simply accepted the stated year of release at face value. In practical terms, films that obscure rarely attracted a second vote, so no votes or voters were harmed in the course of making this decision.

I've been trying to update some stuff since sienel seems to have gone away, but I am no where near as competent on this stuff. It would probably be easy for everyone to make suggestions there via this page.

[myrnaloyisdope]

Thanks swo17 for the great set-up and thanks lubitsch for the great viewing guide (as always) and thanks saturnome for the animation guide!

Well my main interest for the decade is pre-code film, it's so vibrant and alive and the films are usually 70 minutes or so, so it doesn't take much of a time commitment to get through them. I would of course like to check out any worthwhile pre-codes I haven't seen, but also I want to branch out to see some of the non-canonical non-Hollywood films of the decade.

I'm a massive proponent of William Wellman's pre-code work, where even the meh films (So Big!, The Purchase Price) have something to offer. The Forbidden Hollywood box is a must, but track down The Hatchet Man for some of the most atmospheric and moody film-making of the era.

The Story of Temple Drake is one of the notorious pre-codes of the era, though ironically one of the least seen. Based on William Faulkner's Sanctuary, the film boasts a marvellous lead performance by the underrated Miriam Hopkins.

I'm a huge Busby Berkeley guy, so I'd recommend everything up until Dames and then after that it's all down hill, although his musical numbers remain strong throughout the decade. Wonder Bar is so delightfully malevolent and weird, and the show-stopping Going to Heaven on a Mule is so un-PC, yet so spectacular that it leaves one dumbfounded and awestruck at the same time. Lullaby of Broadway from Gold Diggers of 1935 is probably the best short film I've ever seen and I think so highly of it that I am tempted to put it as my number 1 film of the decade, in spite of the general crumminess of the rest of the movie.

As for a swapsie, well how about William Dieterle's The Last Flight, which is about as close to the feel of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises as a film has ever gotten. The film tells the story of four distraught and damaged ex-pilots drinking their days away in 1920's Paris. What makes the film so wonderful is that it gives a real sense of the ennui and aimlessness of "the lost generation." This sense is heightened by the relative plotlessness of the film. Sure there is a love story (Richard Barthelmess and Helen Chandler), but it feels like a mere coincidence, and sure there is a villain (Walter Byron), but it's mere chance that he happens to be around.

[Cold Bishop]

I really like The Hatchet Man... One thing I find most surprising is that, despite being a yellow-face film that traffics in a stereotypical view of Chinatown, Wellman is constantly taking any chance he can to puncture and play against stereotypes: his casting of real Asian actors whenever possible; the focus on a modernized Chinatown that has evolved from the old traditions; Eddie G.'s reluctance to follow the old Tong codes of honor, marriage and revenge. One of the most striking moments is when two character go dancing at a nightclub, and the entire rest of the dancefloor seems to be populated entirely by mixed Asian male/white female couples, with nary a yellow-face in sight. The camera doesn't even linger on it in a sensationalistic manner which one would expect a pre-code film might; it just treats it as a natural matter of fact. And that entire opening shot (Am I misremembering or is it a single tracking shot?) where the parade erupts in a gang war, the camera zipping from building to building as banners of war are unfurled, is marvelous. And one of the coldest endings of the pre-code era that would be impossible for decades after.

And it is as key a film as Two Seconds and the Fritz Lang noirs in establishing Edward G. Robinson as the cinema's Eternal Cuckold.

[matrixschmatrix]

I watched Ruggles of Red Gap tonight, and while it was a lot of fun I think it's probably the least of the great 30's McCarey movies I've seen (the others being Duck Soup, Make Way for Tomorrow, and The Awful Truth.) All the elements were there, but I kept wanting the pace to be stepped up- the actual plot seemed largely a hook to hang various bits on, and there was a lot of air between the bits.

I think it would have worked better if it committed itself more fully to farce; I enjoyed Laughton's recitation of the Gettysburg Address, but trying to go from silly Wodehousian business about gambling with servants and goofy caricatures of the various nationalities to any kind of meaningful melodrama or commentary about class felt doomed to failure, and honestly any direction other than full wall to wall silly Wodehousian business seems like a loss to me.

That said- is there any other 30's McCarey I should check out? The only other one I own is Harold Lloyd's the Milky Way, which I've been avoiding out of general fear of silent stars gone talkie.

[knives]

The first thing that came to mind after watching Limite is the realization that despite this era being the ushering in of sound and ultimate death of silent cinema I'm going to have a large amount of those silents on my list(already six are essentially guaranteed).
Beyond that though Limite is just a truly great film. It earns it's reputation for me several fold. It honestly shocks me that this picture is still considered experimental. Have we really refused to go forward to the degree where such a lovely piece of grace as this is still considered dramatic experimentation. It seems absurd to me that we can't have this as the goal for telling stories. It does have a story, just one told like a Moore porn. It's so basic that I'm sort of flabbergasted at how cinema could get so low in comparison.
That rant though isn't this film though, which is legitimately great. It's one of the few anthology films that has a framing device as interesting if not more so than the stories it tells. Especially at the end of course there's this distant emotional effect at work that makes the stories being told almost a waste. It amounts to this funny little irony, but of course the joke's on the audience with that ending which subverts the subversion. A single shot manages to give purpose to at least a small section of the film that would otherwise be an emotional waste. I can't think of a better prank to give to the audience. Even then with the callback to the opening short it seems that the movie is playing keep away with the audience's hope and compassion. It would be so sad if it weren't so funny.

[Michael Kerpan]

While I enjoyed all the 1930s McCarey's I've seen (except Make Way), I doubt any will make my list (assumiong I make a list). Milky Way has some nice moments, but doesn't seem very well focused. Ruggles (originally a Broadway hit) has apparently been filmed many times -- including a version with Edward Everett Horton as Ruggles -- I'd love to see this out of curiosity. I love a number of moments of Duck Soup, but overall this strikes me as pretty hit or miss. Awful Truth was good -- but I never felt the slightest connection with any of the characters (nowhere near It Happened One Night or Palm Beach Story -- or even Libeled Lady, in terms of my affection).

[the preacher]

I have compiled a list of outstanding films in Spanish, mainly from Mexico, Spain and Argentina. El compadre Mendoza is the movie that I definitely recommend, although De Fuentes' Vámonos con Pancho Villa was voted by critics best Mexican of all time, above Los olvidados!

Wanted: Redes co-directed by Fred Zinnemann in Mexico.

[Arthur Bannister]

A remastered version of Redes is included with the recently published (and lavish) "Paul Strand in Mexico" from Aperture/Fundacion Televisa. List price is $75, but of course it can be had for less.

[the preacher]

A remastered version of Redes is included with the recently published (and lavish) "Paul Strand in Mexico" from Aperture/Fundacion Televisa. List price is $75, but of course it can be had for less.

Good news, thanks.

[Tommaso]

The first thing that came to mind after watching Limite is the realization that despite this era being the ushering in of sound and ultimate death of silent cinema I'm going to have a large amount of those silents on my list(already six are essentially guaranteed).

Indeed, I hope that the 'overlap' silents won't be forgotten. After all, some of them, made in 1930 or 1931, represent the silent film at its highpoint, whereas many sound films from the same years still show that the talkies were a newly invented medium then.

Anyhow, here's another silent for consideration: Salt for Svenetia (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1930). Fascinating portrayal of the hard daily life of a people in some mountainous region in Georgia, then of course a part of the USSR. This has some similarities to Vertov's "Sixth part of the world" thematically, and I was a little bit reminded of Dovzhenko's "Earth", too, but the style is somewhat more impressionistic, although you will find some great bits of Soviet montage here, too, of course. The first half was a little bit hampered by what seemed to me an excessive use of intertitles, especially as the film is only 50 minutes long, but they got less frequent later on, allowing the film to be the true visual poem that it wants to be. Archaic, and strangely beautiful in its own way.

[knives]

I've heard a little bit about that film and glad to hear it's something unique. I have to especially agree with you on how so many of these silents are the best of this sort that was made. I especially think the soviets did their best work here(in my limited experience with them). They got past all of the anniversaries and were able to just bury themselves in their theories. Even the propaganda aspects seem to be stifled a little in exchange for people pieces(not intimate enough for character). Has there been a DVD release for Salt for Svenetia or am I going to have to look down other avenues?

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

Has there been a DVD release for Salt for Svenetia or am I going to have to look down other avenues?

There was a Kino VHS coupling this with Turksib so it will have to be a rip for now.