"The HTF 100 Great Films of the 1930's Challenge" - Page 8

It Happened one Night -

A very fun film, extremely well done, this seems to be the film that created the template for all future romantic comedies to follow. I never really found this to be terribly funny, it had a few great comedic moments, but by no means was it a laugh a minute riot (which was nice). Frank Capra's direction was excellent and Clark Gable gave an outstanding performance (and damn he has enormous ears!), as did the lead woman. Interesting that this won all the major five academy awards and was the first picture to do it, because if this were made today it would not even be nominated, except an outside chance at best screenplay. A vey charming film I really enjoyed, especially the iconic moments that made me go 'ahh that's where that came from' like in Casablanca--I also found it amusing how much Spaceballs owes to this film. :þ It also has probably the best ending I've seen since I am a fugitive... an uttelry perfect way to end the film.

Adam

I actually don't remember the specific painting either (I think we only get a glimpse of it over Laughton's shoulder).

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town - ½

A wonderful movie, I completely agree with Howard Hawks (quoted on the dvd cover) that this is better than It Happened one Night! For One, Gary Cooper is a leagues better actor than Clark Gable, and two the character of Deeds is much more sympathetic than any of the Characters of IHON. I saw "The Majestic" before I'd seen any Capra films and loved it, it's a great deal of fun now to see films like Mr. Deeds and see inspirations of much of that movie. Sadly, if the reception of "the Meajestic" is any indication, were Capra making these exact films today, he'd most likely be more reviled by so called cineastes than Micheal Bay, Nora Ephron, and Nia Vardalos combined. (end sarcasm)

Very enjoyable, touching, and funny film in all the right ways, not quite as perfect as It's a Wonderful Life, but still an outstanding film, with hardly any flaws I can think of.

Adam

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington -

Wow! I've heard of MSGTW but didn't actually know much about it, other than it was a simple guy who somehow got into the senate then chewed the whole body out when he uncovered their corruption. Slightly off, but essentially the roughest outline of the story you could manage. Jimmy Stewart continues to amaze me with every film I see for the first time that he's in--simply one of the all time greatest actors ever. I was riveted throughout the film as things fell together (although I expected the pigeons to come into use at the end when Taylor takes control of everything). I loved every moment of the film up until the very last when it ends so abruptly.
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

Claude Rains was again phenomenal, he's an amazing actor that disapears completely into every role I see him in, I have no idea what Claude Rains is like, but I know quite alot about his character, which is all we ever see--the best sort of acting there is. An impeccable piece, I love how Capra likes to turn the idea that urbanites are somehow superior (intellectually or otherwise) than from people not of the city on its head, that alone is one of my favorite aspects of Smith and Deeds. It did seem like there quite a few jump cuts though, where he didn't change the camera angle, but suddenly would leap forward to a closer position and then leap back, somewhat disconcerting, in its suddenness. A phenomenal and wonderful film.

Adam

Just caught

The Old Dark House

thanks to Netflixt, and was more impressed this time than when I’d seen it in the past. It is just too bad that Karloff is relegated to not doing much of anything. Otherwise an all-star cast, filmed with style.

Nothing Sacred - I agree that this is one of the weaker films on the list. It plays like a one joke film and it's hard to sustain this over the length of the film. I came waiting for them to go through the motions and get to the inevitable ending.

Ninotchka - Very enjoyable. I don't know why I have put off never seeing this, the title? wondering how funny can it really be? Well, this is a good film that is still fresh today. The jokes were still quite funny. I loved most of the interplay between the characters in the first part of the film especially when Garbo and Douglas first meet. The romance was far less predictable that in most romances (see above film).

I'd like to join the challenge.

I've seen 16 of the films:

Title
39 Steps, The (1935)
Awful Truth, The (1937)
Captains Courageous (1937)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
Frankenstein (1931)
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Invisible Man, The (1933)
It Happened One Night (1934)
Lady Vanishes, The (1938)
M (1931)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Mummy, The (1932)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Thin Man, The (1934)
Wizard of Oz, The (1939)

welcome Jeff! I've had a blast in this challenge already, and hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

Adam

Dodsworth

Couldn't have said it any better myself.

Evan

Lost Horizon -

Does anyone know what the dvd of this is like? I only had the vhs available to me, which was not only grainy and noisy but somewhat restored (by today's standards). I'm very glad they played the full 132 minutes of sound with stills replacing the segments they were unable to get video to, but you could often tell when certain sequences were duped in by the print wear and sudden explosion of grain. the very beginning said that the search was ongoing for more materials, so I'm wondering if the rest of the video has been found and/or if it has been further restored/repaired for the dvd release?

As to the actual movie, I enjoyed it thoroughly. I love that it took its time and never really bothered creating a conflict, but instead focused on making Shangrila tangible to audience, so that we could respect and understand its atmosphere instead of feeling bored or frustrated. So I only feel sadness and pity for the brother George who can't let go of his obsession with the material world and some sort of silly ideal of civilization as his white urban-obsessive society. There was more civilization in this representation of Shangrila in one minute than I've seen in the whole six months I've been in Los Angeles. Quite a wonderful and sedate film, I don't really find it a stretch for Capra at all, his other films have shown a scorn of urbanism, urbanites, and urbancentrism, Lost horizon is simply a more blatant and declarative statement about how much he prefers peace to so called civilization.

Very nice movie, I think its one I'd like to see again, hopefully in a more complete form.

Adam

Thanks, Evan. I'm on the road and don't have time to commnet--but I'm just so impressed.

And I could almost make the same comment about

Captains Courageous

Adam

I have the R2 dvd and the picture quality is actually quite good considering how old it is, there are only a few moments when they are on the airplane where the quality is bad, guess they couln't find better film elements. I never saw this film before I bought it, it's great movie and I'm glad to own it on dvd.

I recently saw Captains Courageous and I must say this is probably the best '30s movie I've seen from my list of unseens. I'd give it out of 5.

I've watched 4 more bringing my total to 20:

Little Caesar (1931)
Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)
Gunga Din (1939)
My Man Godfrey (1936)

The TCM schedule for April is up and here are the movies from the challenge that are on it:

Night at the Opera, A4/1/03 8:00 AM
Day at the Races, A4/1/03 9:30 AM
Black Cat, The4/3/03 10:30 PM
Adventures of Robin Hood, The4/4/03 5:00 PM
Stage Door 4/11/03 8:30 AM
Charge of the Light Brigade4/11/03 3:00 AM
Captain Blood 4/12/03 5:00 AM
Stagecoach4/13/03 5:00 PM
Lost Horizon4/20/03 6:30 AM
Wuthering Heights4/27/03 5:00 PM
San Francisco 4/29/03 5:00 AM

TIMES ARE CENTRAL

Starz Love channel is showing Twentieth Century at
Feb 18 - 3:00AM

Trouble In Paradise

What a great film. This is why I'm doing this to watch films I might never have gotten to. (However with this being on Criterion and an Ebert Great Movie I would have made it to this one.)

What a well written film delivered by actors that are fairly unknown by today's standards. I really enjoyed it and will revisit this film from time to time to catch lines I missed the first time.

I too saw Trouble in Paradise recently. The beginning was a bit garbled, but once it got going, classic Lubitsch!

I've been holding off posting until I watched my TCM copy of Red Dust, allowing me to post about a rather colorful trifecta of films (you can groan now ).

The Black Cat - I'd hoped for more from the director of Cat People and Detour. Though I'm not quite as down on it as Lew was, the fact remains that this film was a disappointment to me, with a plot only slightly more intriguing than some of the lesser Universal's I've recently been renting (Son of Dracula, Ghost of Frankenstein, etc.). It does manage to surpass those thanks to better photography and Karloff's performance. He's almost the sole reason to watch the film, and his shock of grey hair and sunken features are quite memorable. After long stretches of nothingness centered around some failed escape attempts we finally get to the good stuff... Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) Nevertheless, Karloff and a gloriously gruesome finale can only take you so far. Protagonists (not counting Lugosi) as non-entities really hurt. I've seen late-30s Marx Bros. films with better romantic pairs.

The Blue Angel - I think the word "seedy" was created with this film in mind. No nightclub I've ever seen in any film approaches the level of, well, seediness, as The Blue Angel, where Emil Jannings' professor first encounters Marlene Dietrich' Lola Lola while attempting to keep his students away from her. At first I was as naive as Jannings, wondering how Lola Lola could possibly show so much affection for him, even going so far as to marry him. Gradually it dawned on me, and unfortunately for Jannings he was too slow on the upkeep. She married him only to leech away his savings while having affairs with other men. Jannings' return to the Blue Angel and his hometown, now a clown where he was once an academic leader, is among the most tragic sights I've ever seen in a film. I rarely if ever cry at films, but I was damn near about to when Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) A very great, if very grim film.

Red Dust - A disappointment to me, as I was expecting a bit more sexual fireworks than what I got (what was there was pretty good/funny, at least, and I really liked the restrained way Gable dealt with paying Harlow for her "services"). Harlow was underused I thought. Frankly, the entire affair section with Mary Astor was by far the weakest portion of the film: A. I didn't buy that Astor would so quickly fall into Gable's arms. Not at all. She was practically a newlywed. B. I always picture Astor as more a mother type (which she plays to perfection in later films) than a lover type. Less or no Astor and husband, more Harlow/Gable sexual repartee and politics. On another note, what can be said about a film with Asian stereotypes so broad that they make the cook from King Kong look like Confucius in comparison? I guess nothing can be said, really, other than it's the 30s and you've just got to accept its existence.

I'm about to enter a rapid-fire section of the contest this upcoming spring break. I've got Twentieth Century sitting right beside me (I've been dying to see it for years now), then Nothing Sacred and Swing Time waiting for me at home. Following that, four more in five days on TCM, with Dr. Jekyll a few weeks later and then Stage Door and San Francisco[/b] in April.

I'm almost guaranteed to be at least down to three by May, and with some luck I should be able to locate three of the remaining five films and finish by May's end.

Evan

I’d agree with you Seth, that The Quiet American the is better Noyce/Doyle film. Of course the source material (Green’s novel) is very much more complex and compelling than is Rabbit Proof Fence, which suffers (in the story) from a bit of over-sentimentalizing—not something of which Greene was ever accused.

I thought that Noyce captured very well the moral ambiguity of Greene, a precursor to what would occur later.

My wife and I caught Talk to Her this weekend and were very impressed. I can only repeat what Brook wrote in his posting—a must see.

Coincidently, I’d just finished up with having caught Todo sobre mi madre, where I felt that Almodovar spent a bit too much time showing off. This film takes the chances (as Brook wrote), but we are rewarded in the end (I felt as Seth did in the end) in that the director steers the course and does not distract us with side pyrotechniques.


I just finished with The Hunchback of Notre Dame and while I enjoyed the film, it is reasonably typical of big Hollywood productions of this era: big sets, lots of extras, some name actors (in this case Charles Laughton), and a lot of action. Alfred Newman provides a fine score. Victor Hugo gives the tale its complexity and the studio had enough sense to allow a good deal of this to shine through, so that all of the bad guys are not entirely bad (though the good are pretty good—and at least in the case of the King, enlightened). Laughton is left alone to dominate the screen (and any other actors unfortunate enough to be present when he is onscreen) and if he does not get exactly to chew up the scenery, at least does a fair job of rearranging it. I found Maureen O’Hara, to be not all that believable, but her ‘husband’ was just a wimp---no wonder that she was attracted to the bad boy.

But those are some minor quibbles in an entertaining film.

Swing Time

I braced myself for the worst and it wasn't as bad at I thought it would be. It was enjoyable for one sitting but unlike the superior Top Hat I probably won't ever see it again.

At some mid-point the story line began to annoy me and I lost interest. It was redeamed by a enjoyable first half and some very nice dance numbers between Astaire & Rogers.

The Black Cat - I'm in agreement with the other people who have posted about this film. Not a bad one but not up to the high level of some of the great Universal monster movies.

Wonderful art direction and acting by Karloff. I even like Lugosi but I kept going "Martin Landau" every time he spoke. It did suffer from its bland romantic couple and the story even dragged at only 65 minutes.


The Lost Horizon - I really enjoyed this. This is proof that test screenings and audiences with low attention span is not just a current phenomenon. I was never bored during with this long version and liked how it unfolded at a leisurely pace.

I too recently saw The Black Cat. It was better than I expected and nowhere near as good as I had hoped. And so unmemorable that I completely forgot about it and wouldn't have remembered to post this if I hadn't seen Chris' post.

You Can't Take it With You -


WOWEE! What a movie, I prefer this to Mr. Smith, and probably even to It's a wonderful life. What an incredible and wonderful movie! Simply amazing! Lionel Barrymore is absolutely stellar, he completely disapeared into the role of Grampa. Jimmy Stewart was as magnetic as always, and while this performance doesn't hold a candle to Smith or Life, it's still an excellent supporting turn, much more satisfying than his bit part in After the Thin Man. The family was so perfectly eccentric, and the plot absolutely predictable, but the performances and the storytelling made it not only worth continuing, but downright riveting and spectacular to watch! I gave Holiday four stars because I loved how it dealt with the same issues against a delightfully comic background, however this film is much above Holiday in its handling of the same themes (oddly I've considered reranking two films, Holiday to three stars, and Stagecoach to four stars, I think YCTIWY just confirmed I'll be doing that!). Jean Arthur was absolutely a delight on the eyes and gave a fine performance as well, though not up to the caliber of Stewart and Barrymore. The man who played Stewarts father was exceptional as well. The humor was used perfectly, the film was exceedingly funny, but dealt with difficult issues as well without ever bogging the narrative or comedy down, a very difficult balance to achieve. I much preferred this to It Happened one night which was a more straight romantic comedy, while YCTIWY had much more going for it. I've seen six Capra films for the first time in the past three months having never seen any of his other films, he's quickly, quickly becoming a favorite director of mine, truly extrodinary films!


I may have to watch The Black Cat next, since everyone else seems to have caught it but me.

I'm so annoyed that I've missed seeing a thirties film for such a while, hopefully I will manage two or three a week from now on! Happily its movies like YCTIWY that make this challenge more than worth it and get me excited to see more and more!

Adam

n/m

Blood of a Poet - unrated

I was expecting and hoping the cinema-library would have the criterion cocteau box set, unfortunately they only had Blood of a Poet available on VHS. A VHS that is twenty years old and the most muddy, noisy, grey and horrific looking I've ever seen VHS look--it looked much worse than any SLP recording from tv I've seen. On top of that it wasn't translated. Luckily this title is only about 1/5 dialogue and a couple of intertitles, so I was fairly okay that I couldn't understand the dialogue, because about five minutes in it was pretty clear that I would understan the film only marginally more if it was translated. Certainly pretentious, but interesting, the visuals, despite the vhs were fantastic and compelling, I was intrigued by the film and really want to see the dvd now. This will be one of the first films I get from netflix when I return home in the summer and sign up. Right now I would rate this two stars, but don't feel I can accurately rate it given the condition of the film on vhs and that it wasn't translated.



Adam

The Black Cat -

I'm not sure why this is called The Black Cat other than the fact that the film needed an ominous title, which I suppose it is. The cat is the most unimportant and clumsily inserted aspects of the film in my opinion. Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff were fantastic together. The actual film was somewhat suspenseful. Extremely, delightfully moody, with incredible sets, marvelous liighting and a ridiculous--but fun--premise. unfortunately the filmi never really rises above, it's executed excellently, but the dialouge is occasionally banal, and the premise is only given surface considerations. Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

The film gets four stars for mood and atmosphere, but gets knocked down to two overall for not really doing anything with either. Enjoyable and fun, but nothing spectacular.

Adam, I don’t really think that you have missed anything in Blood of a Poet by not understating French.

For my money, your use of the word ‘pretentious’ pretty much sums up my feeling, especially if you add the word ‘boring’.

I can put up with a lot: long films where not much happens and ones that are heavy on symbolism and short on action (I’m talking about walking across the room here, not a sword fight), but this one really leaves me cold. Plus it is the obvious work of an amateur.

If it means anything, I think that his Beauty and the Beast is one of the finest movies ever made—just filled with magic from beginning to end. And it can be enjoyed on as many levels as one likes.