Recently (December 2003) I've watched a number of movies from the 30s. Together with what I watched before, there are about 50. I had little impression about some of the films I watched in the past. I saw them together with films from other periods, and could not set myself in the mood of the film makers and the audience from the 30s. It is a good project to watch films from the same period all together, and put them in proper context of the day.
French films
The French film The Human Beast (1938), directed by Renoir, is adapted from a novel by Zola. This film already has some of the traits of the later French films¡ªpsychological twists, of murder and adultery. It¡¯s set in a small community of railway engineers and workers. A station master, after finding out that his beautiful young wife was having affairs with her rich patron, kills him on the train. He uses his wife as an accomplice of the crime so the two of them would be bonded together. A train engineer witnesses the murder and decides to keep quite, because he is also in love with the beautiful wife. The engineer and the wife start an affair and decide to kill the husband, but the engineer failed to carry it out at the last moment. The wife abandons the engineer and starts to flirt with other men. The engineer wants her badly, so he attempts the murder again. However, in a fit of illness, the engineer kills the wife instead, and in the end he jumps off a moving train himself. The lead actor Jean Gabin gives a solid performance as a loyal, caring, loving engineer. This is a tragic story of the working class people. In addition, the long opening scene of the fast moving train is superbly done.
Jean Gabin is in two other French films from the same decade. One is Le Jour se Leve or Daybreak (1939) by Carne, also a great film of character study, and deals with mature subjects such as unusual relationship and murder. The plot: a young innocent working girl meets an honest working man and they become lovers. He finds out that she has a secret lover who is a magician, much older, and appears to belong to a higher class. He takes (?) the richer man¡¯s mistress, and confounds him, only to be ridiculed. In the middle of a heated argument and raged with jealousy, the antagonist accidentally kills the magician. Now he must face the hundreds of policemen waiting for him outside his door. The actor portraits a working class man, sincere, honest and caring, but without money to keep his lover, is doomed in destruction.
In Pepe le Moko (1937) by Duvivier, Jean Gabin is a master criminal living in the crowded streets in Monaco, hiding from the French police who have been looking for him for two years. He is a James Bond type of character¡ªwitty, clever, smooth, and commanding. But when he fells in love with a traveler from Paris, he wants to get back to his old life. He risks his life to be with her. Unlike most slow, deep French psychological drama, this film is a modern day thriller or crime drama. Charming.
Grand Illusion (1937) by Renoir has Jean Gabin as the lead. I remember it as an adventure film about WWI.
Screwball Comedies
Most of the American films from the period are screwball comedies. My Man Godfrey (1936) by La Cava is silly and pretentious. A Harvard graduate decides to taste the life of the low class, and ends up a butler in a spoiled rich family. Everyone in the movie learns a lesson about being rich. The spoiled younger daughter in the rich family is hysterical, senseless, and annoying. I don¡¯t understand why she is supposed to be the charming girl that the lead man is destined to end up with, although in the film it never indicates that he is in love with her¡ªin the end she merely marries herself to him before we ever know what he thinks about her.
Twentieth Century (1934) by Hawks is silly and hysterical. A theater producer helps a sales girl to become a successful actor, and they get married. When she became famous, she leaves him for her lovers, and goes to Hollywood. They meet again on a train, he broke and she with a new lover. He and his friends try to trick her back to help with his production. I have a hard time sympathizing with both characters. Her transition from a timid girl to a hysterical and egocentric actress is most surprising. For example, in one scene they first embrace each other to indicate their falling in love, and immediately the next scene shows her screaming at him to get lost.
Another film (not a screwball comedy) also suffers similar abrupt transition. In I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) by LeRoy, one second the women who rents the room to the main character is helpful and caring, and the next second she becomes his wife, screaming and laughing at him, pushing him all around. Is it common that women from that period would change so much after they got married to successful husbands?! I will comment on the Fugitive film. It is a serious drama about the unjust of society. It is too political and the characters are stereotyped.
One other Hawks's comedy is Bring Up Baby (1938), with Carey Grant and Catherine Hepburn as the leads. This film basically defines screwball comedy. It is extremely silly, with many subplots of mix-ups, yet if one accepts it, it is much more fun to watch than Twentieth Century and My Man Gofrey. Perhaps it is because this film deals with less extraordinary people; as we watch the film, we are laughing with the characters we can relate to, not just the rich and the successful people. Is it possible that because the earlier two films are made in the worse period of the depression, the film makers tried harder to portrait the rich and the success, to make the audience temporarily forget about their unfortunate circumstances?
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) by Frank Capra is charming and enjoyable. I highly recommend! It is a precursor to the later and grander film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), both about a small town man goes to a big city and reminds the city dwellers of the great American values. Mr. Smith wants to see Lincoln¡¯s memorial; Mr. Deeds wants to see General Grant¡¯s tomb (did they just finished building this expensive, largest, but otherwise not noteworthy memorial?). They both draw inspiration from the giants who represent American ideology. Mr. Deeds is less preaching, and deals with not the value of politics but the value of wealth. Both antagonists are innocent, charming, idealistic, intelligent, witty, and with integrity. Capra¡¯s direction gives the characters more than the stereotypical role we expect, so the characters are more real and have depths. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town is a good social commentary and moral story. It brings me pleasant surprises and genuine smile. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a true classic; I am especially moved with the scene of Mr. Smith ¡°still standing¡± on the floor of the congress. These two films even share the same female lead, Jean Arthur.
Ninotchka (1939), directly by Lubitsch, is a plain comedy, not a screwball type. The plot has limitation of the era. It's about a Soviet official, the beautiful Garbo, who comes to Paris to negotiate the sales of some jewelry for her country. She is stern, studious, proper, and a perfect communist. When she met an aristocratic Parisian, they fall in love and she learns the delightful things in life. When she is in Paris, she stays in the most luxurious hotel. When she goes back to her own country, she is in poor living condition again. She shares a dorm room with seven other women, and the men comrades must walk through their room to go to the shared bathroom. Although loyal to her country and ideals, Garbo is in the end rescued out of her country by her lover and they re-unite. In the film, the three incompetent soviet officials are supposed to be hilarious but I find their characters exaggerated and annoying. The French lover is supposed to be charming? I find him too smooth, too sweet, to trust. He has no occupation, and is a parasite of the society. Garbo is great to watch. I love her deep voice, and her expressive eyes.
Garbo gives a great performance in Anna Christie (1930) as the innocent looking girl with a very complex past. Directed by Brown, Anna Christie is adapted from a play by Eugene O¡¯Neill. Garbo is also in Grand Hotel (1932) by Goulding. I saw that film many years ago and was not ready to appreciate the old films from the 30s. It's time to revisit.
Other screwball comedies includes
- The Thin Man (1934) by Van Dyke
- It Happened One Night (1934) by Capra
- You Can¡¯t Take it With You (1938) by Capra
- Duck Soup (1933) by McCarey, or the Marx Brothers
- The Awful Truth (1937) by McCarey
- Ruggles of Red Gap (1935) by McCarey
Grand Scale American Films, Historical and Biographical
- All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) by Milestone
- Cavalcade (1933) by Lloyd
- Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) by Lloyd
- A Tale of Two Cities (1935) by Conway and Leonard
- Life of Emile Zola (1937) by Dieterle
- The Great Ziegfeld (1936) by Leonard
- Gone with the Wind (1939) by Fleming
- Grand Hotel (1932) by Goulding
- A Star Is Born (1937) by Wellman, Conway
- A Night at the Opera (1935) by Wood, not Oscar winner
- Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) by LeRoy, broadway scenes are great to watch
- Dodsworth (1936) by Wyler, based on Sinclair Lewis novel, main actor is good.
- Wuthering Heights (1939) by Wyler, classics.
- Emperor Jones (1933) by Murphy, adapted from O¡¯Neil¡¯s play.
- Cimarron (1931) by Ruggles
- Stagecoach (1939) by Ford
- The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) by Curtiz, Keighley
- Frankenstein (1931) by Whale
- King Kong (1933) by Cooper, Schoedsack
- Wizard of Oz (1939) by Fleming
- Betty Boops (1931-34) by Fleischer
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) by Hand
- The Lady Vanishes (1938) by Hitchcock
- The 39 Steps (1935) by Hitchcock
- Modern Times (1936) by Chaplin
- City Lights (1931) by Chaplin
- Aleksandr Nevsky (1938) by Eisenstein and Vasilyev ,Soviet Union, music by Prokofiev. Both music and film are full of life and vigor.
- M (1931) by Lang, Germany. Masterpiece.
- The Threepenny Opera (1931) by Pabst, Germany
Le Jour se leve (Daybreak) | 1939 | Carne | France |
Pepe le Moko | 1937 | Duvivier | France |
Grand Illusion | 1937 | Renoir | France |
Bete humaine, La (The Human Beast) | 1938 | Renoir | France |
M | 1931 | Lang | Germany |
Threepenny Opera, The (3groschenoper, Die) | 1931 | Pabst | Germany |
Aleksandr Nevsky | 1938 | Eisenstein, Vasilyev | Soviet Union |
39 Steps, The | 1935 | Hitchcock | UK |
Lady Vanishes, The | 1938 | Hitchcock | UK |
Anna Christie | 1930 | Brown | USA |
It Happened One Night | 1934 | Capra | USA |
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town | 1936 | Capra | USA |
You Can't Take It With You | 1938 | Capra | USA |
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington | 1939 | Capra | USA |
City Lights | 1931 | Chaplin | USA |
Modern Times | 1936 | Chaplin | USA |
Tale of Two Cities, A | 1935 | Conway, Leonard | USA |
Kong Kong | 1933 | Cooper, Schoedsack | USA |
Adventures of Robin Hood, The | 1938 | Curtiz, Keighley | USA |
Life of Emile Zola | 1937 | Dieterle | USA |
Betty Boop | 1931 | Fleischer | USA |
Gone with the Wind | 1939 | Fleming | USA |
Wizard of Oz | 1939 | Fleming | USA |
Stagecoach | 1939 | Ford | USA |
Grand Hotel | 1932 | Goulding | USA |
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | 1937 | Hand | USA |
Twentieth Century | 1934 | Hawks | USA |
Brining Up Baby | 1938 | Hawks | USA |
My Man Godfrey | 1936 | La Cava | USA |
Great Ziegfeld, The | 1936 | Leonard | USA |
I Am a Fugutive from a Chain Gang | 1932 | LeRoy | USA |
Gold Diggers of 1933 | 1933 | LeRoy | USA |
Cavalcade | 1933 | Lloyd | USA |
Mutiny on the Bounty | 1935 | Lloyd | USA |
Ninotchka | 1939 | Lubitsch | USA |
Duck Soup | 1933 | McCarey | USA |
Ruggles of Red Gap | 1935 | McCarey | USA |
Awful Truth, The | 1937 | McCarey | USA |
All Quiet on the Western Front | 1930 | Milestone | USA |
Emperor Jones | 1933 | Murphy | USA |
Cimarron | 1931 | Ruggles | USA |
Thin Man, The | 1934 | Van Dyke | USA |
Star Is Born, A | 1937 | Wellman, Conway | USA |
Frankenstein | 1931 | Whale | USA |
Night at the Opera, A | 1935 | Wood | USA |
Dodsworth | 1936 | Wyler | USA |
Wuthering Heights | 1939 | Wyler | USA |
10/29/2005 (final)