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"The HTF 100 Great Films of the 1930's Challenge" (1 Viewer)

Lew Crippen

Senior HTF Member
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May 19, 2002
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A Night at the Opera, which is just hilarious. I caught this on TCM and it was preceded by an interview with Kitty Carlisle, who plays the ingénue. Nothing great, but somewhat interesting.

Just sign here.
What’s that clause?
It’s all right, that’s in every contract. That’s what they call a sanity clause.
You can’t fool me. There ain’t no santy clause.


"Remeber men, you're fighting for this woman's honor (which is probably more than she ever did)."
Legend has it that Margret Dumont never understood why that line was funny.
 

Rob Willey

Screenwriter
Joined
Apr 10, 2000
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Real Name
Rob
Gagged my way through Swing Time on commercial TV last night. Not my cup o' tea.

Every time you think you've seen it all, then up pops Fred Astaire in blackface. Yecch.

78 down, 22 to go.

Rob
 

george kaplan

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2001
Messages
13,063
I was going to evaluate each of the films I hadn't seen, or was rewatching as deserving or not in my personal top 100 of the 30s. But frankly, when trying to come up with my top 100 I realized that there are far less films than that from the 30s that I think are great. A lot of films on such a list would be ones I didn't hold in very high regard. So instead, I came up with a top 40, and I will use that as my yardstick.

Just finished watching Charge of the Light Brigade. Well done, but typical and pedestrian 1930s 'British in India' adventure film. I've seen a few of these, and in almost all cases, they just don't do it for me.

Top 40 - Not for me.
 

Lew Crippen

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May 19, 2002
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12,060
I watched

Frankenstein over the weekend. It had been some time since I had seen it—what a treat to see it again with Boris, masterful as the monster. Really a fine performance. This, plus re-watching the Marx brothers films on TCM, made me realize that I did the right thing to just get all 100 in, regardless of whether I seen them or not—even if it was last year.
 

Brian Lawrence

Senior HTF Member
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Feb 28, 1998
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Brian
I think I have everyone udated now.
My 30's films seen during challenge
-42nd Street :star::star:1/2 12/19/02
-Adventures of Robin Hood :star::star::star: 11/09/03
-After the Thin Man :star::star::star::star:
-All Quiet on the Western Front :star::star::star::star::star: 3/16/04
-Another Thin Man :star::star::star::star:
-Awful Truth :star::star::star: 7/16/04
-Blue Angel :star::star::star::star::star: 3/11/04
-Bride of Frankenstein :star::star::star::star: 3/9/04
-Dodsworth :star::star: 3/27/04
-Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde :star::star::star::star:
-Dracula :star::star::star:1/2
-Dracula Spanish :star::star:1/2
-Frankenstein :star::star::star::star::star:
-Freaks :star::star::star: 10/30/03
-Gone With the Wind :star::star::star::star::star: (12/8/02)
-Gunga Din :star::star::star::star: 11/16/03
-Holiday :star::star:1/2 11/07/03
-Horse Feathers :star::star::star::star:
-Imitation of Life :star::star::star: (12/8/02)
-Invisible Man :star::star::star::star:1/2
-It Happened One Night :star::star::star::star:
-King Kong :star::star::star::star::star: (3/20/04)
-L' Atalante :star::star::star::star::star: 1/3/04
-Lady Vanishes, The :star::star::star::star: 11/02/03
-Life of Emile Zola :star::star::star::star::star: 1/16/03
-Little Women :star::star::star::star: 1/16/03
-Lost Horizon :star:1/2 7/21/04
-M :star::star::star::star:1/2
-Modern Times :star::star::star::star:1/2 7/07/03
-Mr. Deeds Goes to Town :star::star::star::star: 11/30/03
-Private Life of Henry VIII :star::star::star:
-Public Enemy :star::star::star::star: 3/21/04
-Rembrandt :star::star::star:
-Rules of the Game :star::star:1/2 3/15/04
-San Francisco :star::star::star::star:
-Scarlet Empress :star::star::star:1/2 3/25/04
-Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs :star::star::star::star::star: 3/16/04
-Stage Coach :star::star::star::star: 11/06/03
-Swing Time :star::star::star:1/2 5/15/03
-The Hunchback of Notre Dame :star::star::star::star::star:
-The Mummy :star::star::star::star:
-The Public Enemy :star::star::star::star:
-Thin Man :star::star::star:1/2 (Out of 5)
-Top Hat :star::star::star::star::star:
-Trouble in Paradise 11/15/03
-Wizard of Oz 3/9/04
-Women, The 11/30/03
 

Jeff Bannow

Agent
Joined
Mar 7, 1999
Messages
27
My Man Godfrey - :star: :star: :star: :star:
I have viewed this film before, but watching it again was a treat. Great movie ... I think I will probably grab the Criterion DVD of this.
4 viewed, 96 to go.
Up next - King Kong, and then All Quiet On The Western Front.
- Jeff
 

Lew Crippen

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 19, 2002
Messages
12,060
Watched

A Day at the Races, another of the Marx Brothers’ best. So many lines its hard to pick one, but:

Have you got a woman in there?

If I haven’t, I’ve wasted 30 minutes.
 

Eric Peterson

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 2, 2001
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2,959
Real Name
Eric Peterson
Twentieth Century - Excellent comedy about the theater. I'm a big Howard Hawks fan and am ashamed that I never saw this movie before. I thought Barrymore was incredible. :star: :star: :star: 1/2
Alexander Nevsky - Very engaging movie about Prince Alexander conquering the Germans. I really enjoyed this, although the battle scenes seemed to drag on a bit. Much of this movie seemed like a silent movie which I found interesting since it was made in 1938. This was my first Eisenstein movie, now I'm really looking forward to seeing "Battleship Potempkin". :star: :star: :star:
 

Lew Crippen

Senior HTF Member
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May 19, 2002
Messages
12,060
Rented the Spanish version of

Dracula, which I’d never seen. Very impressed. The copy I rented began with an interview with Lupita Tovar, who plays Eva. I found her commentary on how the movie (at the same time as the version in English) just fascinating. One group in the day and another (the Spanish-speaking actors) at night. It turns out that George Melford, the director did not speak Spanish, so he directed using an interrupter.

Lupita said that they were driven to produce a better picture than the English one. I will have to re-watch the English-speaking one quickly so I can fairly comment.

No quote, as my Español is not good enough to enable me to pick out a good one.
 

Brook K

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2000
Messages
9,467
Finally saw my 1st one for the challenge. Watched The Thin Man DVD last night and thought it was excellent. A well done Sherlock Holmes-esque detective story with a lot of laughs. William Powell and Myrna Loy play off each other wonderfully. Contained a surprising and enjoyable amount of sexual innuendo. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the Thin Man films.
 

Evan Case

Screenwriter
Joined
Jan 22, 2000
Messages
1,113
24 left after taking in Errol Flynn's star-making performance in Michael Curtiz's Captain Blood.
Not quite as action-packed as The Sea Hawk or The Adventures of Robin Hood (then again, few films from any era are) but nearly as good.
Flynn plays Peter Blood, an Irish doctor accused of treason by England's King James for assisting a wounded rebel. On a whim, James commutes the rebels' sentences from hanging to slavery in the Caribbean (it is interesting, and I'm sure not wholly accurate, that the vast majority of the slaves in this film are white men).
Luck intervenes in the form of an attacking Spanish galleon and Blood as his fellow slaves commandeer the vessel and start life anew as a quasi-Utopian pirate society. Thrown in for good measure are Flynn/Curtiz swashbuckler regulars Basil Rathbone as a French pirate captain and Olivia de Havilland as the niece of Blood's slavemaster and his eventual love interest.
The film unfolds like a good adventure novel, deftly weaving character-development with action, betrayals, and romance on the high seas. Also notable as the first film score from the great Erich Wolfgang Korngold.
Good stuff.
Evan
 

Lew Crippen

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 19, 2002
Messages
12,060
Hail, Hail Fredonia

I caught up again with old friend

Duck Soup and what a treat. I’ve always enjoyed this the most of all of the Marx Brothers and pretty much spent the hour laughing. Both the hat and the mirror business are just too funny.


Remember while you’re out there risking life and limb, we’ll be in here thinking what a sucker you are.
 

Lew Crippen

Senior HTF Member
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May 19, 2002
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12,060
I’ll never take that drug again!

Prophetic words indeed. I had not seen

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for many years, and had forgotten what a fine movie it is.
 

Jeff Bannow

Agent
Joined
Mar 7, 1999
Messages
27
King Kong - :star: :star: :star:
Pretty entertaining movie, if a bit of a stretch at times. Overall I liked it.
Dr. Jeckle & Mr. Hyde - :star: :star: :star:
Great performance and an interesting story.
6 viewed, 94 to go.
Up next - Halfway through Little Women, though I think TiVo missed the end of it!
- Jeff
 

Lew Crippen

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 19, 2002
Messages
12,060
Why you speak treason.

2, 3, 4

Fluently


Finally managed to view my time shift of

The Adventures of Robin Hood. Errol Flynn at his most dashing and a fun supporting cast, including Basil Rathbone and Claude Rains. Great fun, even if Flynn manages to dodge more arrows that a John Woo hero dodges bullets. And you have to love that early Technicolor.
 

Lew Crippen

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 19, 2002
Messages
12,060
I managed to catch up with

The Good Earth, a two-hour plus monument to Hollywood production values. It has everything that one would expect, large cast, locust plagues, poverty, riches, and a money-can’t-buy-happiness plot that telegraphs every move.
 

Evan Case

Screenwriter
Joined
Jan 22, 2000
Messages
1,113
Lew, you is flyin'! :eek:
I've been lagging due to 18 credits worth of mid-terms (thankfully, I'm nearly through that hell), but I should be back on track soon.
Even so, I think Lew's gonna beat me by a year or two. :)
Evan
 

george kaplan

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2001
Messages
13,063
Just finished rewatching King Kong which I hadn't seen for a long time. It's hard to be fair to this movie. The effects were spectacular for 1933, but dated today. As a matter of fact, I couldn't stop thinking of the Abominable Snowman from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer whenever I saw Kong. And the killer brontosaurus was pretty funny too.

However, it's still a pretty good movie, and I'd put it in my top 40 of the 30's, though pretty near the bottom of that list.
 

David Dennison

Second Unit
Joined
Sep 10, 2001
Messages
307
Dr. Jeckle & Mr. Hyde :star: :star: :star:
It started out a little slow, but it was a solid story with good performances. The film is a bit dated though.
27 down, 73 to go
Lew, you are my hero! I envy your rate of movie watching. :)
 

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