The 1930s List: Discussion and Suggestions (Decade Project Vol. 4)

An ongoing project to survey the best films of individual decades, genres, and filmmakers.
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Rayon Vert
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Re: The 1930s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#251 Post by Rayon Vert » Sat Feb 09, 2019 9:24 pm

Last stop.

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The Hound of the Baskervilles (Lanfield 1939). I’ve got nothing to compare it with, having neither read the book nor seen any of the other adaptations, but this is very likeable piece. Apparently it was the first film version to have the story set in its original Victorian setting. We go from foggy London to the foggier still moors. Basil Rathbone is Holmes in this very anglophile Fox production, the first in a long series of films where he would play the role. Nothing absolutely outstanding here, but no wrong notes either: enjoyable actors, handsome and atmospheric sets, and a successfully suspenseful ending.


Bachelor Mother (Kanin 1939). This was already written up in the SC list project thread. Maybe my criteria are too strict but I think it’s a bit of a stretch to call it a screwball - apart from the class difference (which isn’t made much of) and the whimsical premise. The rhythm is also anything but manic. This was slightly pleasant but very unremarkable for me – no laughs, not that much charm either.


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Wife Versus Secretary (Brown 1936). Purely by chance this happened to be the third film in a row I watched that was co-scripted by Norman Krasna (following Bachelor Mother and Hands Across the Table), and it’s the one I liked the best. Domino wrote this com-dram up earlier in the thread. It’s not the most original story but, apart from the ending, I found myself really liking the direction and acting here. I think domino is possibly making too much of one small moment where a drunken Gable has soft eyes towards his secretary “Whitey” (Harlow) - whereas she is revealed at the end to truly have developed feelings -, because he’s really presented as completely in love with his wife throughout, while still having a strong complicity with his smart (and beautiful) assistant. It felt refreshing to have such honorable characters in this type of scenario.

Meanwhile Whitey sticks up for herself and her job when her jealous boyfriend (Jimmy Stewart) pressures her to give it up to assume a traditional marriage role. But, yeah, the ending isn’t the greatest.


The Private Life of Don Juan (Korda 1934). Douglas Fairbanks in his last, self-satirizing role as an aging Don Juan who has to confront his faded charms once he’s believed to have been killed. Some enjoyable moments but on the whole rather forgettable.

---

Counting the 30s entries for the pre-Code, Renoir, Ford and screwball comedy list projects, that’s 149 thirties films I’ve seen in the last near-8 months. It’s been almost exclusively 30s films in that period for me. I agree with some of the other posters that it’s a great decade and one I could have hung out in longer. Trouble is I like the next four just as much!

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domino harvey
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Re: The 1930s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#252 Post by domino harvey » Sat Feb 09, 2019 10:20 pm

I'm just glad to hear someone else agrees Bachelor Mother is nothing special-- where did this recent groundswell of support on the forum come from??

As a Hollywood true believer, I certainly don't think the 30s are the best decade, but the next two more than make up for it and def are (and then world cinema in the 60s picks up the mantle and runs with it). The war really distilled everything already in motion into an inconceivably great production process of American cinema

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Shrew
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Re: The 1930s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#253 Post by Shrew » Sun Feb 10, 2019 8:51 pm

I submitted my list, and according to letterboxd, I've seen 375 films from the 1930s. The most "popular" film I haven't seen is Triumph of the Will, which I'm okay with. I do feel guilty about not watching more German films, but I can only watch what I can find; I did watch Der Kongress Tanzt, but the Conrad Veidt as Metternich/Lilian Harvey ratio was off (needs more dancing Metternich). My last minute "of course this should make my list why have I waited so long??" watch was La signora di tutti. And my list is, as ever, pretty American-centric (28 US films).

And weirdly enough, I felt that I had a much better handle on the 40s than the 30s, but letterboxd says I've only seen 190 films from the 40s, which is easily my lowest total for anything post 1920. I guess the relatively low output of most the world makes it feel like I've seen more than I have.
Rayon Vert wrote:
Sun Jan 20, 2019 12:28 am
Japanese Girls at the Harbor (Shimizu 1933). This felt promising, with those shots early on of twin, gnarled trees accompanying the two girls vowing to remain friends forever. The melodramatics that follow, starting with the shooting scene, don’t quite mesh with that poetry though. At the midway point, as everyone seems to be betraying everyone, I started not care about any of it. The Eclipse liner notes tell of the Western references in this film, but I was still left wondering why there’s a character called Henry (was the actor supposed to stand in for a Caucasian?) and why they’re all attending a Christian church.
Late reply, but... Henry (and Dora, one of the girls, and judging by the last name, Yoko Sheridan as well) are meant to be Anglo-Asian. I believe the actress playing Dora is biracial herself. The building with a cross that appears in several shots is their school (probably a missionary school). All the foreign stuff is a part of the Yokohama setting, which is where Perry landed and has thus long had more contact with the West than the rest of Japan--see also Imamura's Pigs and Battleships in the 60s). You can even see this is some of the set design, like Henry and Dora's wallpapered house or the wood paneling/layout of the bar where Sunako works (at least, it looks more Western to me than other sets seen in the 60s). So, like the Korean migrants in Mr. Thank You, this is another case of Shimizu working marginal communities into his films in an understated way. Of course, in both films he does this so subtlely that, for an uninformed audience, it's easy to miss that these are even marginal people in the first place.

Anyway, I was one of the people who put this in their top 10 last round (thus making it eligible for the All-Time List) based on being blown away in a last minute viewing, and I finally got around to revisiting it. I've moved it down several places, but it still made my list. During my first viewing, I was mainly hooked by the sudden shift in tone (in a sense, from one of Ozu's "student comedies" to one of Ozu's "gangster films"), and by Shimizu's style: the "zoom cuts" and the juxtaposition of close-ups and long shots. It interrupts the "poetry" of the early segment and final moments, but I think it should be jarring, given the content. I'd also argue that the film is exploring some "Christian" ideas of sin, forgiveness, and generosity. I wouldn't categorize the middle section as a series of "betrayals" so much as people trying to help each other, but also wary of each other for personal and social reasons.

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Re: The 1930s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#254 Post by Michael Kerpan » Sun Feb 10, 2019 9:18 pm

Imamura set his Pigs and Battleships (and Eejanaika) in Yokosuka, which is further south along Tokyo Bay than Yokohama. Yokosuka was also the location of the first (on-land) meeting with Commodore Perry.

Yokohama was probably the most western looking city in Japan during the period after its post-Kanto earthquake rebuilding and almost total demolition by bombing during WW2. It shows up in a number of Shochiku films calling for very Western looking settings. (On the other hand, Naruse's Every Night Dreams just might be set in Yokosuka).

I've liked Japanese Girls of the Port more and more with each re-watching. Not my favorite Shimizu film -- but it is ONE of them.

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Re: The 1930s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#255 Post by HinkyDinkyTruesmith » Mon Feb 11, 2019 2:52 am

I also happened to watch Japanese Girls of the Port and La signora di tutti in the final days. I liked both, but especially the latter (I too missed quite a bit from the former, although I was appreciated its stylistic expressiveness). The scene where Gaby cleans up the table while her father yells at the others behind closed doors affected me greatly as someone who grew up in a house with a lot of yelling. And Ophuls's camera was as usual stunningly articulate.

The big winner of my list was von Sternberg, who has like, five movies on my list (four of the Dietrich's and his Crime and Punishment), although Dietrich has six on my list. I felt a little guilty about this, but, I've been obsessed with him lately as both a film watcher and filmmaker. I watched The Scarlet Empress for the first time Friday night and felt it serves as an appropriate a companion piece it makes with Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln––they're both deeply offbeat propaganda pieces that argue for the greatness of famous individuals in two national histories. They also both, fittingly, deal entirely with their lives before their leadership. What struck me most about Empress was its humor, which is downright Marxian at times, such as Dietrich's incredible repeated haystraws in her mouth. Crime and Punishment managed to rival it in power because of its exact opposite approach: more stark, more lean, its humor more bitter and more witty than bawdy (Lorre's takedown of his sister's would-be fiance had me cracking up), and its approach distinctly humanistic against the former's more mythic lens.

The last film I watched was another big favorite of mine, Mädchen in Uniform. I had seen the Romy Schneider version many, many years ago and remembered the general gist, but I loved the tenderness of Leontine Sagan's depiction of the girls, the sweet romanticism, and the energy that the young women brought. I'm also partial to group scenes, as well, so a film like this always scores well with me. Bodies moving in and out of spaces, rearranging around themselves (it should surprise no one that Hail the Conquering Hero is an all-time favorite). It also struck me as one of the great meditations of Germany's drift into fascism: the film is, ideologically speaking, about the undercutting of the "wise" leaders, who repeatedly fail to properly care and guide their charges. It feels distinctly anti-fascist, only two years before Hitler's claiming of power.

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Re: The 1930s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#256 Post by movielocke » Mon Feb 11, 2019 4:21 am

glad I checked this before going to bed, otherwise I'd have missed submitting my list. I didn't get to nearly the 30s schedule I wanted, and as a result a lot of hazily remembered films from my last 30s list dropped off. Letterboxd certainly helps a lot, and claims with shorts I've seen like 559 of these damn films.

speaking of shorts the ones that made my list.

Mickey's Trailer - loved this cartoon as long as I can remember, just about my favorite one of all time. Pitch perfect timing, wonderful inventiveness, fantastic solos for all three characters, and just all around one of the very best Disney shorts the ever did.

On Ice - I've seen this so many times in the last few years that I've come to really love it ahead of all the more beloved shorts (like the Old Mill or the Band Concert). There's incredibl economy here, fantastic character beats for all of the main characters, and then a non existent plot you didn't know was forming pulls everything together complete with a seat of your pants crazy rescue sequence. It's brilliantly exciting and wonderfully entertaining and the animation is incredible.

The Music Box is still hands down one of the most perfectly funny things I have ever seen in my life, the timing, the progressions, the expressions, the entire thing is just utter comic bliss from the first step to the last.

Who Killed Cock Robin It almost didn't make my list, as I don't think it's quite as amazing as I did when I was so impressed/horrified at it's brazenness as a teen, but the mae west imitation, the racism, the gay cupid, the casual insanity of an obviously corrupt justice system, complete with the jury singing a jingle of "we're gonna hang em all, we're gonna hang em all, high ho the derry oh, we're gonna hang em all." It's kind of hard not to love it.

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Re: The 1930s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#257 Post by swo17 » Mon Feb 11, 2019 1:36 pm

Update: I got several lists in overnight and it's gonna be a bit before I have time to tabulate all of them. Stay strong everyone.

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Re: The 1930s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#258 Post by TMDaines » Mon Feb 11, 2019 1:48 pm

Trying to.

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domino harvey
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Re: The 1930s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#259 Post by domino harvey » Mon Feb 11, 2019 1:49 pm

Too late swo, you've already been overthrown and replaced with a tight-knit group of local revolutionaries who will release the list in alphabetical order only

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Re: The 1930s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#260 Post by swo17 » Mon Feb 11, 2019 1:51 pm

They met surprisingly little resistance

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Re: The 1930s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#261 Post by swo17 » Mon Feb 11, 2019 8:06 pm

ROUND 2: ORPHAN RESCUE

Thanks everyone for your participation so far! Below I will present some preliminary results from voting. If anything you see here prompts you to defend your picks, to watch some more films, and/or to revise your list in any way, go ahead and do that. If you did not submit a list yet and have since decided that you do want to participate, go ahead and do that. If you have no interest in revisiting your list or changing anything, go ahead and do nothing. I will count all lists submitted so far including any changes or new lists submitted over the next two weeks in the final tally.

Orphans (by director)

(EDIT: The number listed after each film is its ranking on the sole list it appeared on.)

Aerograd (Aleksandr Dovzhenko, 1935) 41

Resurrectio (Alessandro Blasetti, 1931) 21
Terra madre (Alessandro Blasetti, 1931) 30

Good Girls Go to Paris (Alexander Hall, 1939) 48

The Private Life of Henry VIII (Alexander Korda, 1933) 21
Rembrandt (Alexander Korda, 1936) 19

Colleen (Alfred Green, 1936) 17
Secret Agent (Alfred Hitchcock, 1936) 24
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Alfred Werker, 1939) 36
While Paris Sleeps (Allan Dwan, 1932) 20
L'équipage (Anatole Litvak, 1935) 43

The Petrified Forest (Archie Mayo, 1936) 36
It's Love I'm After (Archie Mayo, 1937) 39

Prix de beauté (Augusto Genina, 1930) 50
The Scoundrel (Ben Hecht & Charles MacArthur, 1935) 33

On Ice (Ben Sharpsteen, 1935) 8
Mickey's Trailer (Ben Sharpsteen, 1938) 6

L'idée (Berthold Bartosch, 1932) 48

The Girl with the Hat Box (Boris Barnet, 1930) 25
The Thaw (Boris Barnet, 1931) 38

Babes in Arms (Busby Berkeley, 1939) 41

Brand in der Oper (Carl Froelich, 1930) 34
Heimat (Carl Froelich, 1938) 35

Love in the Rough (Charles Reisner, 1930) 32
Spring Silkworms (Cheng Bugao, 1933) 49
Sequoia (Chester Franklin, 1934) 37
A Free Soul (Clarence Brown, 1931) 47
Man on the Flying Trapeze (Clyde Bruckman, 1935) 32
Jirokichi the Rat (Daisuke Itô, 1931) 27

Bimbo's Initiation (Dave Fleischer, 1931) 22
Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor (Dave Fleischer, 1936) 15

Who Killed Cock Robin? (David Hand, 1935) 46
Thru the Mirror (David Hand, 1936) 41

Jeune fille au jardin (Dimitri Kirsanoff, 1936) 50

Christopher Strong (Dorothy Arzner, 1933) 35
The Bride Wore Red (Dorothy Arzner, 1937) 14

Zu neuen Ufern (Douglas Sirk, 1937) 24
Glens Falls Sequence (Douglass Crockwell, 1937) 16
The Emperor Jones (Dudley Murphy, 1933) 2

Grand Hotel (Edmund Goulding, 1932) 21
Dark Victory (Edmund Goulding, 1939) 50

Afraid to Talk (Edward Cahn, 1932) 32
Radio Patrol (Edward Cahn, 1932) 45

Friends of Mr. Sweeney (Edward Ludwig, 1934) 37

A Christmas Carol (Edwin Marin, 1938) 47

Monte Carlo (Ernst Lubitsch, 1930) 31
Broken Lullaby (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932) 10
One Hour with You (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932) 34
Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (Ernst Lubitsch, 1938) 34

Monsieur Fantômas (Ernst Moerman, 1937) 38
Carmen (la de Triana) (Florián Rey, 1938) 46

Liliom (Frank Borzage, 1930) 37
Man's Castle (Frank Borzage, 1933) 38
No Greater Glory (Frank Borzage, 1934) 42
Three Comrades (Frank Borzage, 1938) 33
History Is Made at Night (Frank Borzage, 1939) 5

Platinum Blonde (Frank Capra, 1931) 44
Lady for a Day (Frank Capra, 1933) 31

Mutiny on the Bounty (Frank Lloyd, 1935) 12
Redes (Fred Zinnemann & Emilio Gómez Muriel, 1936) 40
Fighting Soldiers (Fumio Kamei, 1939) 9

Der Mörder Dimitri Karamasoff (Fyodor Otsep, 1931) 48
Mirages de Paris (Fyodor Otsep, 1933) 49

Bachelor Mother (Garson Kanin, 1939) 26
Pirate Party on Catalina Isle (Gene Burdette, 1935) 30
Min and Bill (George Hill, 1930) 42
The Face at the Window (George King, 1939) 49
My Dear Miss Aldrich (George Seitz, 1937) 4

Annie Oakley (George Stevens, 1935) 35
Alice Adams (George Stevens, 1935) 39
Gunga Din (George Stevens, 1939) 34

Zauber der Boheme (Géza von Bolváry, 1937) 31
5th Ave Girl (Gregory La Cava, 1939) 39
Alone (Grigori Kozintsev & Leonid Trauberg, 1931) 18
Dollar (Gustaf Molander, 1938) 43
Dante's Inferno (Harry Lachman, 1935) 48

The Lady Next Door and My Wife (Heinosuke Gosho, 1931) 37
Woman in the Mist (Heinosuke Gosho, 1936) 31

Legong: Dance of the Virgins (Henri de la Falaise, 1935) 50
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (Henry Hathaway, 1935) 16
Jesse James (Henry King, 1939) 38
Katharina, die Letzte (Henry Koster, 1936) 32

Seven Seas (Hiroshi Shimizu, 1931) 16
Japanese Girls at the Harbor (Hiroshi Shimizu, 1933) 21
Children in the Wind (Hiroshi Shimizu, 1937) 13
Forget Love for Now (Hiroshi Shimizu, 1937) 46
Four Seasons of Children (Hiroshi Shimizu, 1939) 46

The Dawn Patrol (Howard Hawks, 1930) 34
Skeleton on Horseback (Hugo Haas, 1937) 3
The Most Dangerous Game (Irving Pichel & Ernest Schoedsack, 1932) 45
Arsène Lupin (Jack Conway, 1932) 22
Arrest Bulldog Drummond (James Hogan, 1938) 29

Blotto (James Parrott, 1930) 28
The Chimp (James Parrott, 1932) 19

Tomatos Another Day (James Watson, 1930) 44
Lot in Sodom (James Watson & Melville Webber, 1933) 36

Journey's End (James Whale, 1930) 27
The Invisible Man (James Whale, 1933) 27

Mor'Vran (Jean Epstein, 1931) 47
La Marseillaise (Jean Renoir, 1938) 18

Woman Chases Man (John Blystone, 1937) 40
Swiss Miss (John Blystone, 1938) 31

Of Human Bondage (John Cromwell, 1934) 43
The Prisoner of Zenda (John Cromwell, 1937) 36
In Name Only (John Cromwell, 1939) 33

Pilgrimage (John Ford, 1933) 44
Steambout Round the Bend (John Ford, 1935) 29
The Informer (John Ford, 1935) 37
The Prisoner of Shark Island (John Ford, 1936) 35
The Hurricane (John Ford, 1937) 28
Drums Along the Mohawk (John Ford, 1939) 37

Granton Trawler (John Grierson, 1934) 36
Imitation of Life (John Stahl, 1934) 28
Vibración de Granada (José Val del Omar, 1935) 40
Crime and Punishment (Josef von Sternberg, 1935) 15
Jack's Dream (Joseph Cornell, 1938) 7
Blonde Cheat (Joseph Santley, 1938) 49
Cada loco con su tema (Juan Bustillo Oro, 1939) 41
With Byrd at the South Pole (Julian Johnson, 1930) 50

Poil de carotte (Julien Duvivier, 1932) 27
La Bandera (Julien Duvivier, 1935) 44
La Fin du jour (Julien Duvivier, 1939) 49

Tredowata (Juliusz Gardan, 1936) 18
Tonka Sibenice (Karl Anton, 1930) 49

So endete eine Liebe (Karl Hartl, 1934) 10
Ritt in die Freiheit (Karl Hartl, 1937) 47

Kadetten (Karl Ritter, 1939) 44

The Water Magician (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1933) 36
Sisters of the Gion (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1936) 19

Ein Lichtspiel schwarz-weiss-grau (László Moholy-Nagy, 1930) 26
Lobsters (László Moholy-Nagy & John Mathias, 1935) 34

Love Affair (Leo McCarey, 1939) 34
42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon, 1933) 42
La Cucaracha (Lloyd Corrigan, 1934) 44
The Man Who Could Work Miracles (Lothar Mendes, 1936) 22
Bulldog Drummond Comes Back (Louis King, 1937) 12
Walzerkrieg (Ludwig Berger, 1933) 29
Labor on the Douro River (Manoel de Oliveira, 1931) 22

Fanny (Marc Allégret, 1932) 23
Zouzou (Marc Allégret, 1934) 11

Hôtel du Nord (Marcel Carné, 1938) 31

César (Marcel Pagnol, 1936) 45
Le schpountz (Marcel Pagnol, 1938) 2

Gli uomini, che mascalzoni! (Mario Camerini, 1932) 14
T'amerò sempre (Mario Camerini, 1933) 27
Il signor Max (Mario Camerini, 1937) 12

Viento norte (Mario Soffici, 1937) 44

Workers, Let's Go! (Martin Frič, 1934) 5
Kristian (Martin Frič, 1939) 30

Die verkaufte Braut (Max Ophüls, 1932) 21
Komedie om geld (Max Ophüls, 1936) 33

Little Caesar (Mervyn LeRoy, 1931) 46
Heat Lightning (Mervyn LeRoy, 1934) 46

Captain Blood (Michael Curtiz, 1935) 14
The Charge of the Light Brigade (Michael Curtiz, 1936) 37
Kid Galahad (Michael Curtiz, 1937) 32
Four Daughters (Michael Curtiz, 1938) 40
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (Michael Curtiz, 1939) 23

Wife! Be Like a Rose! (Mikio Naruse, 1935) 3
Morning's Tree-Lined Street (Mikio Naruse, 1936) 42
Magokoro (Mikio Naruse, 1939) 38

The Challenge (Milton Rosmer, 1938) 46
Keep Your Seats, Please! (Monty Burns, 1936) 38
The Man They Could Not Hang (Nick Grinde, 1939) 47

Topper (Norman McLeod, 1937) 26
Merrily We Live (Norman McLeod, 1938) 32

Mad About Music (Norman Taurog, 1938) 39
Stolen Death (Nyrki Tapiovaara, 1938) 29
Komposition in Blau (Oskar Fischinger, 1935) 12
Ariane (Paul Czinner, 1931) 7
Ein blonder Traum (Paul Martin, 1932) 10
The Sin of Nora Moran (Phil Goldstone, 1933) 50
Berlin-Alexanderplatz (Phil Jutzi, 1931) 49
Dames (Ray Enright, 1934) 10
A Girl's Best Years (Reginald Le Borg, 1936) 32
Das Mädchen Irene (Reinhold Schünzel, 1936) 33
Der Fall Dreyfus (Richard Oswald, 1930) 43
What Price Porky (Robert Clampett, 1938) 50
Maytime (Robert Leonard, 1937) 46
Mollenard (Robert Siodmak, 1938) 38
The Song of Songs (Rouben Mamoulian, 1933) 17
Blood Money (Rowland Brown, 1933) 42

Employees' Entrance (Roy del Ruth, 1933) 41
The Mind Reader (Roy del Ruth, 1933) 41
Lady Killer (Roy del Ruth, 1933) 44

The Story of a Cheat (Sacha Guitry, 1936) 35

Hold Your Man (Sam Wood, 1933) 35
A Night at the Opera (Sam Wood, 1935) 38

Romance sentimentale (Sergei Eisenstein, 1930) 43

The Barretts of Wimpole Street (Sidney Franklin, 1934) 34
The Good Earth (Sidney Franklin, 1937) 42

White Woman (Stuart Walker, 1933) 33
The Eagle and the Hawk (Stuart Walker, 1933) 46

Wild Rose (Sun Yu, 1932) 26
China Seas (Tay Garnett, 1935) 29
The Divorce of Lady X (Tim Whelan, 1938) 39
Mud and Soldiers (Tomotaka Tasaka, 1939) 38
Captains Courageous (Victor Fleming, 1937) 27
Animal Crackers (Victor Heerman, 1930) 35
Evergreen (Victor Saville, 1934) 45
The Mikado (Victor Schertzinger, 1939) 13
Glass Eye (Vitaly Zhemchuzhny & Lily Brik, 1930) 33
The Thunderstorm (Vladimir Petrov, 1934) 19

After the Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke, 1936) 27
Marie Antoinette (W.S. Van Dyke, 1938) 24
Another Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke, 1939) 15

Razzia in St. Pauli (Werner Hochbaum, 1932) 30
Each Dawn I Die (William Keighley, 1939) 49
Sh! The Octopus (William McGann, 1937) 42

Other Men's Women (William Wellman, 1931) 15
Safe in Hell (William Wellman, 1931) 43
Night Nurse (William Wellman, 1932) 44

Counsellor at Law (William Wyler, 1933) 17
These Three (William Wyler, 1936) 48
Dead End (William Wyler, 1937) 49
Wuthering Heights (William Wyler, 1939) 50

Without Dowry (Yakov Protazanov, 1936) 39

Walk Cheerfully (Yasujirô Ozu, 1930) 30
Tokyo Chorus (Yasujirô Ozu, 1931) 18
The Lady and the Beard (Yasujirô Ozu, 1931) 40
Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth? (Yasujirô Ozu, 1932) 45
Woman of Tokyo (Yasujirô Ozu, 1933) 47

Our Neighbor, Miss Yae (Yasujirô Shimazu, 1934) 47
Portrait of Shunkin: Okoto and Sasuke (Yasujirô Shimazu, 1936) 50
A Brother and His Younger Sister (Yasujirô Shimazu, 1939) 31


New Votes

The following films received no votes during the last round of the lists project but currently have two or more votes. Perhaps they were not on your radar before...

À propos de Nice (Jean Vigo, 1930)
Dactylo (Wilhelm Thiele, 1931)
The Great Garrick (James Whale, 1937)
Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (Lewis Milestone, 1933)
Jewel Robbery (William Dieterle, 1932)
Outskirts (Boris Barnet, 1933)
The Rains Came (Clarence Brown, 1939)
Schlußakkord (Douglas Sirk, 1936)
Sylvia Scarlett (George Cukor, 1935)
Viktor und Viktoria (Reinhold Schünzel, 1935)

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swo17
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Re: The 1930s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#262 Post by swo17 » Mon Feb 11, 2019 8:12 pm

Allow me to start off Round 2 by pleading that you all watch these two sumptuous shorts:

Ein Lichtspiel schwarz-weiss-grau (László Moholy-Nagy, 1930)

Labor on the Douro River (Manoel de Oliveira, 1931)

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Re: The 1930s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#263 Post by Michael Kerpan » Mon Feb 11, 2019 8:19 pm

What do the superscript numbers mean?

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Re: The 1930s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#264 Post by DarkImbecile » Mon Feb 11, 2019 8:24 pm

I think it’s how high the orphans were ranked on the one list that included them

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Re: The 1930s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#265 Post by swo17 » Mon Feb 11, 2019 8:26 pm

Yes. So for instance, one person placed The Emperor Jones at #2 on their list, and someone else did the same with Le schpountz.

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Re: The 1930s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#266 Post by Cold Bishop » Mon Feb 11, 2019 8:32 pm

As someone who’s had a #1 orphan, am I correct that there is none in this list?

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Re: The 1930s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#267 Post by nitin » Mon Feb 11, 2019 8:34 pm

Sorry, first time participant, does orphan mean only one person voted for the listed films?

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Re: The 1930s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#268 Post by knives » Mon Feb 11, 2019 8:35 pm

Yes.

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swo17
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Re: The 1930s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#269 Post by swo17 » Mon Feb 11, 2019 8:50 pm

Cold Bishop wrote:
Mon Feb 11, 2019 8:32 pm
As someone who’s had a #1 orphan, am I correct that there is none in this list?
If you mean anyone's #1, yes, the highest ranked orphans are those two at #2.

If you mean your own orphans, I believe you have three.

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domino harvey
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Re: The 1930s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#270 Post by domino harvey » Mon Feb 11, 2019 9:14 pm

Well, I was one of the two votes for the Rains Came, a film I fully expected to be orphaned. So that’s cool I guess. A lot of these are unsurprisingly mine, but good lord people, what more can I possibly do to get those of you with access to back channels to check out My Dear Miss Aldrich? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that all the non-canonical works I really loved and listed were completely cold-shouldered for the same ol’ canon fodder, but it’s still kind of disheartening. Were there just not that many lists?

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swo17
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Re: The 1930s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#271 Post by swo17 » Mon Feb 11, 2019 9:27 pm

I've gotten 23 lists in. And I liked My Dear Miss Aldrich but couldn't quite make room for it myself. Certainly others should check it out if they haven't already.

Anyway, the hope with the orphan round is that people will give a lot of these films a fair shake over the next two weeks and maybe lessen some of the heartache you're feeling right now by the time we come to a final list. I view this approach as preferable to just immediately moving on to the next decade.

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domino harvey
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Re: The 1930s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#272 Post by domino harvey » Mon Feb 11, 2019 9:34 pm

There's a few spots at the bottom of my list I could live with reordering/changing. So. I will pledge to watch and consider voting for one orphaned film for each member who speaks out for it specifically, as long as it's not like five hours long. Keep in mind I may have already seen your orphan. I ask for nothing in return.

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movielocke
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Re: The 1930s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#273 Post by movielocke » Mon Feb 11, 2019 9:40 pm

domino harvey wrote:Well, I was one of the two votes for the Rains Came, a film I fully expected to be orphaned. So that’s cool I guess. A lot of these are unsurprisingly mine, but good lord people, what more can I possibly do to get those of you with access to back channels to check out My Dear Miss Aldrich? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that all the non-canonical works I really loved and listed were completely cold-shouldered for the same ol’ canon fodder, but it’s still kind of disheartening. Were there just not that many lists?
The rains came is airing Thursday feb 21 on TCm and I’m planning on recording it, it’s long been on my watch list since it was edited by the great Barbara McLean. Hopefully I love it.

I already posted my shorts plea above , the animated ones are orphans, I imagine you tube has them available.

I’m really the only one who voted for sisters of gion? I suppose I can swap it for Osaka Elegy, both were ones i badly needed to rewatch to feel confident about placing them. so I only included the one I remembered more clearly, but I’m surprised it wound up orphaned!

Merrily we live is a wondrously funny comedy, more screwy / zany than my man Godfrey but kind of in that vein of out of touch rich idiots. I’m not even sure if it’s available though, I watched it fifteen years ago when I borrowed a coworkers taped off tv vhs as I recall.

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domino harvey
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Re: The 1930s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#274 Post by domino harvey » Mon Feb 11, 2019 9:41 pm

ClassicFlix recently released Merrily We Live on Blu-ray. I like it too, but unfortunately it's in no danger of making my Screwball Comedies list, much less this one

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swo17
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Re: The 1930s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#275 Post by swo17 » Mon Feb 11, 2019 9:48 pm

movielocke wrote:
Mon Feb 11, 2019 9:40 pm
I’m really the only one who voted for sisters of gion? I suppose I can swap it for Osaka Elegy
This would be a little like abandoning one child that your spouse doesn't like as much as you do in exchange for a more popular baby, i.e. not recommended

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