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

[Steve_Ch]

Vickie_M:

Theme from Magnificient Seven, it was extremely popular, may have been used in various TV comercials, skids, whatever, not at all surprised that it sounded familiar.

How "faithful" to Seven Samurai ?? Fairly close, on a very superficial level. Kind of like the plot is just about identical, you can "map" character by character, it's pretty much all there. EXCEPT, Seven Samurai is truely one of the greatest example of "master film making", IMO, superb in every single respect.

And yes, just like your Star Wars recording, my friend's old "Dollar" theme cassette pretty much ran non stop.

 

[Brian Lawrence]

Huh?

 

[Lew Crippen]

Back to the 30s—I rented

Freaks

and have no idea what to make of this film. Very strange indeed. A couple of scenes are truly disturbing, especially as the freaks advance through the mud towards the strongman.

I’m still trying to figure out the point of the film, or indeed if it has a point. I can’t tell if it’s an exploitation film or a serious comment on man’s inhumanity.

 

[Rob Willey]

Saw Animal Crackers the other day. Not among the Marx Bros. best.

21 to go.

Rob

 

[Lew Crippen]

Why you’re one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever met—and that’s not saying much for you.

I time-shifted

Animal Crackers

and as usual laughed at most of the lines. But overall, I found this early Marx Brothers to not be as good an effort as their later Paramount movies.

 

[Bill Street]

Wow.... Here I call myself a "film buff" and this list really took me back to school. I'm ashamed to say I've only seen 19 of the 100 films (20 if you count the Spanish Language Dracula.) I'll sign up for the challenge, though, I love movies!

Bill S.

 

[Chris_Richard]

I Rented You Can't Take It With You over the weekend. Hey, it crosses off a film in two lists I'm working through: this one and Oscar winners.

Not great screwball comedy or great Capra but still a good film that was fairly entertaining.

I also watched Cimeron. A 30s film that is not on the list and I can see why. It was painful to watch.


30s Top hundred left: 74. Last film: You Can't Take It With You

 

[Brian Lawrence]

List finally updated again.

 

[Brian Lawrence]

Both the Master List and the Printable schedule in the first 2 posts of this thread have been updated with all of the TCM showtimes through the end of March
March will see a few flicks that have not been aired since this thing started, such as - The Good Earth, The Lost Patrol, Fury, The Informer, and a few more

 

[Chris_Richard]

Rented San Francisco. A fairly entertaining big-budget MGM film of the era. The acting and the earthquake at the end made up for having to sit through the pedestrian story.


30s Top hundred, left: 73. Last film: San Francisco

 

[Lew Crippen]

To Niagara in a Sleeper,
There’s no honeymoon that’s cheaper;
And the train goes slow—
We’re gonna’ shuffle,
Shuffle off to Buffalo.

This number is for me, the highlight of

42nd Street,

which I rented over the weekend. One of the more restrained (and therefore better) Berkely-choreographed, MGM musicals.

Matrimony is baloney,
She’ll be wanting alimony;
In a year or so—
Still they go and shuffle
Shuffle off to Buffalo.


A lot of fun, with a plot that was never meant to be believed.

 

[Tommy G]

I saw "The Women" over the weekend. Good movie but not great. I don't know if I'd put it in the top 100. I'd have to think about that a while. Very funny moments. Great performances by Crawford, Shearer and Russell.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Bring me a bromide, dear—with a little gin
I time-shifted
The Women
and enjoyed the dialogue very much. An interesting film, as the only male characters are (way) off-stage. Very hard to pull off for a film ostensibly about male/female relations and how it impacts marriage. This worked better for me than my wife, who was interested in the costumes and set design (especially the fashion show), but otherwise thought it not a particularly good film. The ending I think very much to the demands of the day. I’m not at all familiar with the play by Clare Booth, so it’s possible that she wrote an ending with less of a ‘love conquers all’ perspective, but in any case I’d be really interested to know how she would have ended the film if she had revisited it in the 50s when she was Clare Booth Luce.
All in all, enjoyable, especially for some of the very witty dialogue, but a film not at the top of my list.
He almost stood me up for his wife

 

[Lew Crippen]

You can dish it out, but you can’t take it—you’re through!

Another time-shift, again thanks to TCM. This time it was the Edward G. Robinson classic,

Little Caesar.

While the portrayal of Rico by Robinson is rightly considered a model for hard-bitten gangsters that followed, he must have gagged on some of the dialogue, which had to be corny, even at the time. Overall pretty uneven, but enjoyable enough.

 

[Tommy G]

Got to see Boys Town this weekend on TCM. I have to say I almost shut this one off because it seemed to take a long time to get started. After the first half hour or so the plot finally grabbed me. This was a good film...not great. I thought both Tracy and Rooney did an exceptional job as well.
I've seen 4 out of the 45 so far that I needed to see in this challenge. I'm not doing as well as I thought I could. Oh well, demands of wife and kids I guess.

 

[george kaplan]

Dr. "Jeekyll" & Mr. Hyde.

I did not like this movie. Aside from the irritating pronounciation of Jekyll, I think my problem is mostly with the source material, though I can't say for sure not having read the book.

Basically, Hyde is supposed to be Jekyll's evil side, if you could split him into his pure essence of good and his pure essence of evil. And yet, what we get isn't the essence of evil, it's a ill-mannered, ill-tempered, drunken redneck. I'm not saying Hyde was a nice guy, but he was hardly the personification of evil. I think Mother Teresa has a more evil dark side than Hyde.

I've seen (and also didn't like) the later version with Tracy, though I'll give that one the nod for not Jeekyll-ing me to death.

 

[Adam_S]

I'm entering this challenge!
I'm still kicking myself for not doing the AFI challenge, I could of done had I not been so lazy, so I want to do this one just for the hell of it. I've not seen many films only:
City Lights
Grand Illusion
King Kong
Little Caesar
M
Modern Times
Scarface
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Wizard of Oz, The
That's only 9 of a hundred. To fully commit myself to the challenge I've already started it. I watched I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang tonight--it blew me away.
I considered Paul Muni amazing in Scarface (and consider that one of the best gangster films ever), but he knocked me on my ass with this performance. I was mesmorized from his speech to his father at the dinner table--explaining his dreams and desires, his frustrations at his mundane life. It's an absolutely incredible film. I'm not sure what I expected, I knew it was a film that was often banned (for it's less than glowing portrayal of the chain gang system and especially the unfair justice system.
The Cinematography was especially compelling, it was so incredible to look it that I could care less if they reused the chain gang sets and guards. I loved the passage of time, with the calenders falling away to the beat of sledgehammers. And the final shot elevated the film to an even higher plane of achievment. Extremely gutsy to end the film on the line I steal
as Paul Muni backs into shadow, beautifully done, a perfect ending.
Next up will probably be Stagecoach
10 down 90 to go.
Adam

 

[Adam_S]

edited to reflect COMPLETION of challenge on Feb 15, 2004


having read through the entire thread now, I've decided I'll be rewatching all the films I haven't seen in the last 18 months, luckily that only includes Modern Times, so I'll rewatch that later: in the mean time here are my rankings of the films I've seen (bear in mind many of these are some of my all time favorite films.

Definitive List of films seen:

1. Seen Previously:

[*]City Lights - :star::star::star::star: rewatched on film
[*]Grand Illusion - :star::star::star::star:
[*]King Kong - :star::star::star::star:
[*]Little Caesar - :star::star:½
[*]M - :star::star::star::star:
[*]Modern Times - :star::star::star:
[*]Scarface - :star::star::star:½
[*]Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs :star::star::star:½/ :star::star::star::star:
[*]Wizard of Oz, The :star::star::star: rewatched

Newly seen
[*]I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang - :star::star::star::star: (12/29/2002)
[*]Stagecoach - :star::star::star::star: (12/31/2002) - revised to 4stars on 03/01
[*]42nd St. - :star::star:� (01/03/2003)
[*]The Public Enemy - :star::star::star: (01/05/2003)
[*]The Thin Man - :star::star::star::star: (01/07/2003)
[*]Gone With the Wind - :star::star::star:� (01/08/2003)
[*]After the Thin Man - :star::star: (01/08/2003)
[*]Little Women - :star::star::star::star: (01/09/2003)
[*]Another Thin Man - :star::star::star: (01/12/2003)
[*]Dracula - :star::star:� (01/13/2003)
[*]Freaks - :star:� (01/15/2003)
[*]L'�ge d'Or - :star::star::star: (01/22/2003)
[*]Dinner at Eight - :star::star::star::star: (01/24/2003)
[*]The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, & Observation of David Copperfield the Younger - :star: (01/26/2002)
[*]Holiday - :star::star::star: (01/27/2002) revised to 3stars on 03/01
[*]The Women - :star::star::star: (02/02/2003)
[*] It Happened One Night - :star::star::star: (02/06/2004)
[*]Mr. Deeds Goes to Town - :star::star::star:� (02/08/2003)
[*]Mr. Smith Goes to Washington - :star::star::star::star: (02/09/2003
[*]Lost Horizon - :star::star::star: (02/12/2003)
[*]You Can't Take it With You - :star::star::star::star: (03/01/2003)
[*]Blood of a Poet - unrated - (03/02/2003)
[*]The Black Cat - :star::star: - (03/02/2003)
[*]The Informer - :star::star::star:� - (03/09/2003)
[*]The Lost Patrol - :star::star::star: - (03/18/2003)
[*]Captain Blood - :star::star: - (05/01/2003)
[*]Charge of the Light Brigade - :star: - (05/03/2003)
[*]Angels with Dirty Faces - :star::star: - (05/05/2003)
[*]The Adventures of Robin Hood - :star::star::star::star: - (05/06/2003)
[*]Olympia 2 - :star::star::star: - (05/07/2003)
[*]Drac�la - :star::star::star:� - (05/09/2003)
[*]Olympia 1. Teil - Fest der V�lker (Festival of the Nations) - :star::star::star:� - (05/10/2003)
[*]La Regle du Jue (The Rules of the Game) - :star::star::star::star: - (05/11/2003)
[*]Alexander Nevsky - :star::star: - (05/13/2003)
[*]The Blue Angel - :star::star::star:� - (05/20/2003)
[*]Boys Town - :star::star: - (05/21/2003)
[*]The Awful Truth - :star::star:� - (05/24/2003)
[*]Duck Soup - :star::star::star: - (05/26/2003)
[*]Dodsworth - :star::star::star:� - (05/27/2003)
[*]All Quiet on the Western Front - :star::star::star::star: - (05/28/2003)
[*]Frankenstein - :star::star::star: - (06/03/2003)
[*]Fury - :star::star::star::star: - (06/04/2003)
[*]My Man Godfrey - :star::star::star::star: - (06/05/2003)
[*]The Good Earth - :star::star::star::star: - (06/06/2003)
[*]Horse Feathers - :star::star: - (06/08/2003)
[*]The Hunchback of Notre Dame - :star::star::star: - (06/08/2003)
[*]Goodbye Mr. Chips - :star::star:� - (06/10/2003)
[*]The Invisible Man - :star:� - (06/11/2003)
[*]Bringing up Baby - :star::star::star::star: - (06/18/2003)
[*]Grand Hotel - :star::star: - (06/20/2003)
[*]Topper - :star::star: - (07/15/2003)
[*]It's a Gift - :star:� - (07/22/2003)
[*]Island of Lost Souls - :star::star::star: - (07/22/2003)
[*]Bride of Frankenstein - :star::star::star:� - (07/23/2003)
[*]Monkey Business - :star::star: - (07/24/2003)
[*]Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde - :star: - (07/26/2003)
[*]Mutiny on the Bounty - :star::star::star: - (07/28/2003)
[*]A Night at the Opera - :star::star::star: - (07/29/2003)
[*]Ninotchka - :star::star::star::star: - (07/29/2003)
[*]The Private Life of Henry VIII. - :star::star:� - (08/11/2003)
[*]Swing Time - :star::star:� - (08/12/2003)
[*]San Francisco - :star::star::star:� - (08/15/2003)
[*]Animal Crackers - :star:� - (08/25/2003)
[*]The 39 Steps - :star::star::star:� - (09/04/2003)
[*]The Music Box - :star::star::star: - (09/04/2003)
[*]The Mummy - :star::star::star: - (09/05/2003)
[*]Way Out West - :star::star: - (09/06/2003)
[*]Sons of the Desert - :star::star: - (09/08/2003)
[*]L'Atalante - :star::star:� - (09/10/2003)
[*]Trouble in Paradise - :star::star::star::star: - (09/11/2003)
[*]Captains Courageous - :star::star::star:� - (09/20/2003)
[*]A Day at the Races - :star::star::star: - (09/22/2003)
[*]Destry Rides Again - :star::star::star:� - (09/24/2003)
[*]Wuthering Heights - :star::star::star: - (09/25/2003)
[*]The Four Feathers - :star::star: - (10/06/2003)
[*]Twentieth Century - :star::star::star: - (10/09/2003)
[*]'G' Men - :star::star::star: - (10/15/2003)
[*]Triumph of the Will - :star: - (10/16/2003)
[*]Gunga Din - :star::star::star:� - (10/22/2003)
[*]Top Hat - :star::star::star:� - (10/23/2003)
[*]The Hound of the Baskervilles - :star::star: - (10/27/2003)
[*]Stage Door - :star::star::star::star: - (10/29/2003)
[*]Rembrandt - :star::star::star: - (10/30/2003)
[*]Mad Love - :star::star:� - (10/31/2003)
[*]The Life of Emile Zola - :star::star::star: - (11/01/2003)
[*]Red Dust - :star::star::star: - (11/06/03)
[*]The Lady Vanishes - :star::star::star::star: - (11/13/03)
[*]The Old Dark House - :star::star:� - (11/14/03)
[*]A Midsummer Night's Dream - :star:� - (11/15/03)
[*]Umarete wa mita karedo (I was born but...) - :star::star::star::star: - (11/17/2003)
[*]Of Mice and Men - :star::star::star::star: - (12/4/2003)
[*]Nothing Sacred - :star::star: - (12/29/2003)
[*]Imitation of Life - :star:� (02/15/2003)

Films not on the list:
[*]Confessions of a Nazi Spy - :star::star::star: - 10/28/2004 -
[*]Alice Adams - :star::star:� (02/23/2004)
[*]She Done Him Wrong - :star::star::star: (02/26/2004)
[*]Dark Victory - :star:� (03/08/2004)
[*]Vampyr - :star::star::star:� - (03/14/2004)
[*]Earth - :star::star::star:� - (03/14/2004)
[*]The Scarlett Empress - :star::star::star: - (03/15/2004)
[*]Only Angels have Wings - :star::star::star::star: - (03/20/2004)
[*]The Shanghai Express - :star::star::star:� - (03/24/2004)
[*]Jezebel - :star::star::star: - (03/29/2004)
[*]Le Million - :star::star::star:� (04/03/2004)
[*]Osaka Elegy - :star::star::star::star: (05/04/2004)
[*]Gold Diggers of 1933 - :star::star::star::star: (05/06/2004)
[*]The Man Who Knew Too Much - :star::star::star:½ (05/23/2004)
[*]� Nous la Libert� - :star::star::star: (05/29/2004)
[*]The Testament of Dr. Mabuse - :star::star::star::star: (06/05/2004)
The Most Dangerous Game - :star:

 

[Adam_S]

Stagecoach - :star::star::star::star: - revised to 4stars on 03/01
I really want to rate this four stars, but feel I've already got too many four star films and I can't think of any other good reason to bring it down (other than a few minor quibbles with the film). John Ford is one of my three all time favorite directors, and I find it amazing that I haven't seen more of his films (such as stagecoach). Once again I was blown away by the casual technical mastery he displays, it's easy to see how this film was very influential on Welles and his decisions on how he wanted Toland to shoot the film. There are many scenes with interior low angles, you see the cieling, the use of shadow and the black and white pallate is nothing short of breathtaking, and the multiplane compositions (and often deep focus) are outstanding as well. I love the iconic track in on John Wayne in the beginning (I thought to myself "that single shot created the greatest on screen legend yet met"), and the restrained camera movement, so that each time it does move its impact is all the greater (Ford's philosophy was that you shouldn't move the camera around unless there was damn good reason to). I love the tilt down of the whore(?) throwing Luke another shotgun, beautiful composition here especially in the final high angle of the shot, looking down at Luke in the near background with the streetlight in the foreground. I also think the way the final shootout was handled was great, John Wayne diving, gets off one shot, cut to Dallas we hear THREE more shots, and assume the worst, Then luke comes walking into the bar... and so on; brilliant editing. The part I liked least was the Indian attack, simply because it seemed out of place in what had been a hundred percent ensemble character drama up until that point, but I still think it was beautifully done (curious did Wayne or a stunt man do the jumping up to the front horse, because this was Wayne's first 'real' role, and before he had been a stunt man?). At times it seems as though ford's swan song to the western "the Man Who Shot Liberty Valence" is a sequel to Stagecoach, it picks up what happened to these rough riders as they settled down and got families; however this is patently ridiculous since the only 'real' similarity is Andy Devine being married to a mexican girl Juliette.
Anyway I thoroughly enjoyed this film, an absolutely amazing piece of work, it lalternately had me tense and laughing in a perfect balance, and ultimately I cared about all the characters you should care for.

I guess you can't break out of prison and into society in the same week

Adam

 

[Robert Crawford]

That was the great Yakima Canutt doing those stunts and he was the second-unit director in charge of filming the action sequences.




Crawdaddy