1930s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol. 3)

[Sloper]

Much as I admire the Whale films (Invisible Man would have to be my favourite, for the witty special effects and Rains' charismatic, malevolent vocal perfromance), Son of Frankenstein is easily my favourite Frankenstein film. It is a shame the way Karloff is sidelined (have to just quickly mention his sublime performance in The Mummy, a masterclass in subtle, scary, romantic, heartbreaking acting, and it's just a gorgeous film all round), but the film is really a miracle of ensemble work between him, Rathbone, Atwill and Lugosi. They complement each other so perfectly, and make even the corniest dialogue seem to crackle with menace. And yes, it does help that they're surrounded by such spectacularly gloomy sets - it's a gleeful wallow in shadows and lowering arches, and yes - that wonderful staircase. I thought the lightning effects were pretty cool as well.

It may seem a hackneyed excuse for a sequel, but everyone involved enters into the story with such gusto that it becomes utterly compelling: the atmosphere of angst and hatred that fills the town, the hostility towards Frankenstein, the way his resentment gradually transforms into this crazed urge to avenge his father, the thickening of the plot as we realise Ygor has his own agenda...and it's so nice to see a good guy (Atwill) who isn't just a wet sponge, but rather another physically and mentally damaged person, quietly seeking his revenge on the monster. Take out the kid (who should have been hurled straight into that sulphur) and the ridiculous happy ending (which can only be meant ironically), and it's a more or less perfect film.

The Bitter Tea of General Yen will definitely come near the top of my list, but I'd also recommend Capra's previous Stanwyck film, The Miracle Woman. It's too long since I last saw it for me to comment in any detail, but it's beautifully made, and pretty scathing in places in its depiction of religious charlatanism.

Another film that will be very near the top of my list, and which I don't think has been mentioned yet except in lubitsch's viewing guide, is I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang. Hopefully this is famous enough that it doesn't need to be recommended. It has that magical combination of relentless, uncompromising bleakness and a brilliantly suspenseful plot; I've seen it countless times and it always leaves me trembling afterwards. A particular highlight is the escape sequence where Muni tries to outrun the bloodhounds: the sound of their mournful barking becomes unbearably oppressive within seconds, and no matter how many times I see the film this scene always turns my knuckles white. Nice underwater photography as well. But in a film full of great moments, the greatest of all has to be the ending:

Spoiler

apparently the lights weren't all supposed to go out at this moment, but you can see why they kept this effect in; the sordid pitch darkness we're suddenly plunged into, the sound of Allen's feet scuttling away after he delivers that killer final line... If only they'd left the closing fanfare out and just left the audience in silence, as in some versions of All Quiet. Still, one of my all-time favourite endings.

[Tommaso]

Less adventurously, what films from these pre-code sets come most highly recommended (other than Waterloo Bridge)?

Well, let's go through them. The weakest by far is the Universal set. Some people seem to like the extremely dull Search for Beauty for its depiction of the sportsmen/women's bodies, but if you're into that, better try Riefenstahl's Olympia. Most of the other films are equally forgettable, with the remake of DeMille's silent The Cheat, directed here by George Abbott, being somewhat acceptable and containing that one singularly outrageous moment that I won't give away here (it's pretty crass even today). However, there's one standout film in the set which is worth buying the whole thing for if you can get it at a reasonable price, and that is the astonishing Merrily we go to hell (Dorothy Arzner, 1932). A very intense portrayal of alcoholism destroying love, all set in a glittering high class world with set designs that wouldn't have been in the wrong place in Lubitsch's "Trouble in Paradise". Fantastic performances by Fredric Marsh and Sylvia Sidney.

Much better is the first Forbidden Hollywood set, and Waterloo Bridge and Baby Face have already been praised here. The latter is a favourite of mine, too, but actually that goes for almost any early film with Barbara Stanwyck. Red-Headed Woman with Jean Harlow (extremely sexy) isn't bad either, so this whole set should be a no-brainer.

But the same is true for Vol.2, which contains three of my favourite pre-code films ever (plus two others I don't care too much for, though they aren't bad at all). First, the two Norma Shearer films, The Divorcee (Robert Z. Leonard, 1930) and A Free Soul (Clarence Brown, 1931). In both films, Shearer plays young women shocking society by demanding sexual independence, and while the plots aren't much, Shearer is simply fascinating and a far cry from her later much more conventional performances. That lady really had style. The absolute highlight in the set, however, is Night Nurse (William Wellmann, 1932), again starring Stanwyck together with Joan Blondell. They become nurses to two sickly children, and suddenly find themselves in a world of darkest crime and mystery. Extremely well written, very intense and captivating, and sexy on top of it, this film must find a place on my list somehow.

As to Vol.3: six Wellman films on which I can't comment yet, because the whole set is still lying on my kevyip... But talking about Wellman: I've at least finally seen The Public Enemy (1930), the film that defined Cagney's screen persona apparently, and it's fantastic indeed. A very tough gangster film, which does well enough to give some psychological depth to Cagney's character, but without blurring the fact that he's really a bad guy. Truly intense and somewhat shocking even today, and especially the ending must have been a true stunner in its day. Great direction on top of it.

[Tommaso]

And now on to what you other guys wrote...

Of course, the early sound Pabsts...

Righto. An absolute no-brainer and rather high on my list is of course Die Dreigroschenoper. Incredible performances and wonderful cinematography, which of course is absolutely helped by the stunning restoration and the transfer on the CC disc. The German version features the great, great Fritz Rasp and is far 'darker', less playful than the alternate French version and should be preferred of course. However, do yourself a favour and give the French version a spin, too, if only for the performance of 'Pirate Jenny'. The German version of course has Lotte Lenya, and who would have thought anyone could top it. But well, the wonderful Margo Lion does it. Margo was a very popular cabaret singer in Germany and France at the time, a very lavish performer, and what she does to this song here is a treat indeed. Great voice and body language, and the most incredible nose that ever graced an actress ( I really don't know whether I love her because or in spite of it...).

As to the other early sound Pabsts: I always found Kameradschaft and Die Herrin von Atlantis slightly overrated (I think I clearly prefer Feyder's silent version of the latter), but a truly fine film is his 1933 French production Du haut en bas with the very young Jean Gabin. The film is almost plotless, showing the going-ons and small incidents in a block of houses in Paris. The myriad stories all go parallel, sometimes coming closer and sometimes drifting apart, but the end result is a fine and touching society portrait. This also has Margo Lion, btw.

Further Pabst sound films include his sole US production, A Modern Hero (1934), which somehow left me underwhelmed, and the fine Mme Docteur (1936), a well-made spy thriller set in Greece, which isn't Top 50 material, but is worth a look or two.

Christ, I could go on and on... there could be no end. Mamoulian's City Streets and Jekyll/Hyde... Busby Berkley, all the Sternbergs including An American Tragedy and the Lorre Crime & Punishment, which I love. A bunch of Dieterle's.

Oh yes, yes. I think I'll have to say something more detailed about some of these later on, but for now let me say that Crime & Punishment should be sought out by everyone. Absolutely amazing how Sternberg crams the 1000 pages of Dostoevsky's novel into an 80 minute film in which you miss nothing, and featuring probably the greatest performance by Peter Lorre ever. Fantastic cinematography and direction, I think I prefer this to every other Sternberg sound film with the exception of "The Scarlet Empress". Talking about Dostoevsky adaptations: equally fine is Otsep's Der Mörder Dimitri Karamasoff (1931), about which later.

Though I don't know that it will appear on my (or anyone's) list, Liliom is another 30s Lang worth checking out, if only from an auteurist perspective- it's a really interesting gateway between German and American Lang, and also sort of noteworthy as a plot most people know from Rogers and Hammerstein's Carousel. Apparently, it was also one Lang himself was really fond of at the end of his life.

Recommendation seconded. The film is also somewhat of a blueprint for P&P's "A matter of life and death" in the 'heaven' scenes. But if it comes to Liliom, there is no way around the 1930 Borzage version for me. Decidely eerie (I think we discussed the very strange line delivery of the actors elsewhere; I still think it's intentional), and the imagination of heaven is more far-out than Lang's (there's a fantastic 'train ride' to the otherworld here). Borzage's most avantgardistic film probably, and definitely on my list.

And I also second Sloper's recommendation for The Miracle Woman, another too little known Capra which I find much more engaging than many of his most celebrated films. Of course, this might again be due to Stanwyck...

[matrixschmatrix]

And now on to what you other guys wrote...

Of course, the early sound Pabsts...

Righto. An absolute no-brainer and rather high on my list is of course Die Dreigroschenoper. Incredible performances and wonderful cinematography, which of course is absolutely helped by the stunning restoration and the transfer on the CC disc. The German version features the great, great Fritz Rasp and is far 'darker', less playful than the alternate French version and should be preferred of course. However, do yourself a favour and give the French version a spin, too, if only for the performance of 'Pirate Jenny'. The German version of course has Lotte Lenya, and who would have thought anyone could top it. But well, the wonderful Margo Lion does it. Margo was a very popular cabaret singer in Germany and France at the time, a very lavish performer, and what she does to this song here is a treat indeed. Great voice and body language, and the most incredible nose that ever graced an actress ( I really don't know whether I love her because or in spite of it...).

The Criterion of this is one of my favorite of their releases- the commentary is an amazing entry point for Brecht himself, and the movie is probably my favorite Pabst. As I recall, this, Maedchen in Uniform, M and Testament of Mabuse were specifically mentioned as exceptional early German sound films in Lotte Eisner's book.

[knives]

On the subject of Pabst I've only seen the two Criterions and the MOC of which I've only liked Diary of a Lost Girl. Are there anymore in that vein available?

[colinr0380]

All the UK Tod Slaughter films (particularly with George King), most especially Murder In The Red Barn, Crimes of Stephen Hawke, the nasty Never Too Late To Mend, and--my fave of the bunch-- The Face At The Window.

Those are fantastic grand guignol films, often jawdropping in their antics, and kind of similar to the murderous characters Karloff played in a number of films though without that Karloff sense of wronged pathos, which gets replaced by the purely joyful twinkle of playing an unhinged, irredeemable maniac (I get the impression that if Slaughter were around now he'd be doing versions of John Christie's crimes, or enjoying the bodies under the patio antics of Fred and Rosemary West, maybe crowning this new cycle off with a masterfully unhinged Harold Shipman!) Crimes of Stephen Hawke is astounding and I also quite liked The Curse of the Wraydons and Crimes At The Dark House.

Have you seen his version of Sweeney Todd, Schreck? It's probably the best of all the adaptations of that tale. Although compared to some of the films surrounding it, it might seem rather unsurprising in its nastiness!

[Tommaso]

The Criterion of this is one of my favorite of their releases- the commentary is an amazing entry point for Brecht himself, and the movie is probably my favorite Pabst. As I recall, this, Maedchen in Uniform, M and Testament of Mabuse were specifically mentioned as exceptional early German sound films in Lotte Eisner's book.

Of course these films are exceptional, but there are so many other early German and Austrian talkies that deserve similar praise, and which indeed are currently being re-discovered by some devoted fans and even writers about film; lots of publications on the late Weimar cinema in the last few years. The diversity and quality of the films produced especially in the late Weimar era, but sometimes also even in the early years of the Nazi regime is amazing and their complete neglect internationally (and mostly even in Germany) in comparison to other leading filmmaking countries of the time is both a surprise and a shame. I will begin to sing the praises very soon in this thread (I actually see this as some sort of private mission, like with "Nina Petrowna" the last time around... ), but for a start, be sure to check out Maedchen in Uniform indeed, if only as a preparation for something even more mindblowing from the same team of actresses, Hertha Thiele and Dorothea Wieck...

[subliminac]

but for a start, be sure to check out Maedchen in Uniform...

Are there any legit DVD releases of this, or do I need to start searching the back channels?

[knives]

There's an unsubtitled German version. Though there seems to be two different movies by that title.

[Michael Kerpan]

A different side of 1930s German cinema -- any love for the 1931 Emil and the Detectives?

[Tommaso]

There's an unsubtitled German version. Though there seems to be two different movies by that title.

Mädchen in Uniform: the second version is by Geza von Radvanyi, 1958, starring Romy Schneider. Not bad for its time (the most prudish era in Germany in the 20th century), but it is a far cry from the 1931 original by Leontine Sagan which is in question here. The original German dvd of it is indeed unsubbed, but there's a custom-subbed version floating around; and the subs should be available on their own, too. An incredible film for its time: as I said elsewhere, some of its imagery even reminds me of Bergman, and in any case it's an extremely daring film with its portrayal of a semi-spiritual love affair between a young girl and her female teacher. Hertha Thiele as the pupil immediately became a star after this film and she went on to make a few more great (and one even greater) films before her career ended in 1934, because she absolutely refused to collaborate with the nazis. A great damsel. Her partner here, Dorothea Wieck, is equally impressive though.

A different side of 1930s German cinema -- any love for the 1931 Emil and the Detectives?

Not so different, I'd say, but MUCH love for it here. Emil und die Detektive (Gerhard Lamprecht, 1931) is nominally a film for children or youths, but it has all you expect from a great Weimar film, including a fascinating hallucinatory sequence coming straight from silent era expressionism, and fabulous images of Berlin. The story is about a group of adventurous children who together track down a criminal, played by Fritz Rasp, and it might actually be Rasp's greatest role. He is simply so unbelievably sneering and evil, even more so than in many of his similar roles in other films (to do him justice: in real life he was apparently a really nice character and a true gentleman). Visually very striking, and the sequence in which all the kids follow Rasp through the streets is absolutely magnificent (you must see it, it loses in any attempt at describing it). Certainly on my list, and probably even in the upper half.

[Michael Kerpan]

Well Emil and the Detectives does have some links to darker films of the era -- but I remember it as being much more a "daylight" film. I must confess that I did forget that Rasp was the villain in this.

I got this film as part of an inexpensive (albeit unsubtitled) set that included a later re-make of Emil, The Two Lottes and Flying Classroom. Two Lottes (the source for Parent Trap) might make my 50s list. ;~}

[matrixschmatrix]

Has Fritz Rasp ever been less than great in anything? One of my favorite things about the newly recovered parts of Metropolis was getting to see his Thin Man, who I think becomes sinister largely through being played by Rasp.

Have you seen the 1931 Karamazov Rasp was in, Tommaso? I've heard good things about both that and the 1930 Dreyfus Case.

[Tommaso]

Yes, I've seen Der Mörder Dmitri Karamasoff and actually briefly mentioned it a few posts earlier;). Rasp plays only a small part in it (sinister as always), and the film is really carried by the performances of Fritz Kortner and Anna Sten, and even more so by Otsep's direction - Erich Engels, who is credited by imdb as main director, actually wrote the script; the film credits clearly give Otsep as sole director! -, which is influenced in equal parts by the German and Russian silent film; and the film is so visual that you can hardly believe it was made in a time when cinematography was allegedly hindered by the newly developed, heavy sound equipment. A brooding, dark and intense film, and a must see in my view.

I've never been much of a fan of courtroom dramas, or of the films of Richard Oswald in general, and so Die Affäre Dreyfus did not do too much for me, I'm afraid. But many people praise the acting (Kortner again, at the side of Grete Mosheim) and the script, so you might want to check it out. I simply think that the film is rather static and that it shows a lot of the problems with the coming of sound that I just mentioned above.

This same static feeling can be found in Oswald's Alraune from the same year, but there it is less of a shortcoming for me because that film in general has a certain 'chamber play' character and thus is an interesting alternative to the better known silent version by Galeen, especially as in both films Brigitte Helm plays the central character. Still, I prefer the Galeen version all in all, though Helm performing a Marlene Dietrich-style cabaret song at the beginning of the Oswald version is a true sight to see.

[matrixschmatrix]

Haha, whoops, title translations catch me again. I'll definitely check out the Otsep- it sounds like the Dreyfus is relatively pedestrian, and the main reason I was interested in it was its status as one of the first movies banned by the Nazis, which is enough to pique my interest but not necessarily enough to make something worth watching.

[lubitsch]

[As I recall, this, Maedchen in Uniform, M and Testament of Mabuse were specifically mentioned as exceptional early German sound films in Lotte Eisner's book.

Don't waste your life on Lotte Eisner's remarks on German sound films. The chapter on early sound film is titled "Decline of the German film art" which is a remarkably dumb attitude towards the era 1929-1933 (arguably the pinnacle of german film art) where she only accepts a few films and trashes Pabst's sound films, Anna und Elisabeth by Wysbar, all sound operettas, Hanns Schwarz' silent films including Nina Petrowna, Jenseits der Straße, the realist So ist das Leben, Otsep's Lebende Leichnam and Karamazov and Granovsky's Koffer des Herrn OF. It's less an evaluation than a lamento on the decline of a once great art which is always a pretty silly take on film history.

There's an unsubtitled German version. Though there seems to be two different movies by that title.

Mädchen in Uniform: the second version is by Geza von Radvanyi, 1958, starring Romy Schneider. Not bad for its time (the most prudish era in Germany in the 20th century), but it is a far cry from the 1931 original by Leontine Sagan which is in question here.

This doesn't really belong here, but obviously I disagree again, Radvanyi's version elaborates and clears up different story points and tries for a cool, detached Dreyeresque approach. Schneider and Palmer are not bad either though they don' have the eerie chemistry of Wieck and Thiele, but you'd have to think long and hard before you find a comparable female team in film history.

[Tommaso]

Don't waste your life on Lotte Eisner's remarks on German sound films. The chapter on early sound film is titled "Decline of the German film art" which is a remarkably dumb attitude towards the era 1929-1933 (arguably the pinnacle of german film art) where she only accepts a few films and trashes Pabst's sound films, Anna und Elisabeth by Wysbar, all sound operettas, Hanns Schwarz' silent films including Nina Petrowna, Jenseits der Straße, the realist So ist das Leben, Otsep's Lebende Leichnam and Karamazov and Granovsky's Koffer des Herrn OF. It's less an evaluation than a lamento on the decline of a once great art which is always a pretty silly take on film history.

I totally agree, of course, and this comment reminds me of something I forgot to reply to two days ago:

Well Emil and the Detectives does have some links to darker films of the era -- but I remember it as being much more a "daylight" film.

What I forgot to say is that the idea that the German cinema of the time was basically a 'nighttime cinema' if it comes to the most important films is a popular misconception very much furthered by what is being commercially available internationally and of course by such books as Eisner's (I'm not necessarily referring to you, Michael, but am speaking about my general impression). Think about reducing the American cinema of the 30s and 40s to gangster films and noirs, and you know what I mean. And the great and disturbing thing about Emil is that the darkness does happen in daytime and doesn't even stop when children are involved. Rasp steals the poor kid's money by giving him some drugged sweets...

So indeed a lot of great films from the period 1929-33 and after have nothing to do with 'the haunted screen', but they nevertheless show an individuality and sheer cinematic quality that was hardly surpassed by anything else in a similar vein at the same time in other filmmaking countries. This is especially true for the sound film operettas/musicals, which not only were far more developed than their US counterparts (with Lubitsch's musicals being the sole exception; I'm really talking 1930-32 here) and often show a surprising complexity and multi-layeredness, often commenting ironically on themselves and the seemingly purely escapist dream world they present. Der Kongress tanzt (Eric Charell, 1931), Ein blonder Traum (Paul Martin, 1932) and especially Ich bei Tag und du bei Nacht (Ludwig Berger, 1932) are highly significant in this respect. I'll say something detailed about each of these and some others later on, but let me say already that you can't do wrong in checking them out, and I might also already say that one of these will be my No.1 on the list

This doesn't really belong here, but obviously I disagree again, Radvanyi's version elaborates and clears up different story points and tries for a cool, detached Dreyeresque approach. Schneider and Palmer are not bad either though they don' have the eerie chemistry of Wieck and Thiele, but you'd have to think long and hard before you find a comparable female team in film history.

Well, you said it yourself: why remake this film if you cannot find a team that would equal Wieck and Thiele? And yes, that would indeed have been an impossible task. The 1958 version of course isn't a bad film, and it's certainly much, much better than the horrible attempt at remaking "Die drei von der Tankstelle" for instance, but while the 1958 film may indeed take a detached approach, I can't see much of Dreyer there, I'm afraid. If Dreyer must be thrown into the discussion, I would rather claim a similarity in terms of images (those close-ups!) for the 1931 version, which however may not be as distanced as you'd expect from the Danish master (but Dreyer and detachment is another cinematic cliché not always completely true). But that's why I initially used Bergman as a comparison, rather.

[myrnaloyisdope]

I watched Victor Fleming's The Wet Parade, not expecting much more than an anti-alcohol screed and ended up being very impressed by the nuanced take on prohibition. The film tracks the impact of alcohol and prohibition on the lives of two families from pre-WWI to the tail end of prohibition. Essentially the film argues that though alcoholism is bad, the downside of prohibition is deeply problematic, namely the rise of organized crime and the potential health risks of the quality of bootleg alcohol.

Robert Young gives a really strong performance in the lead role. He has a youthful earnestness and shows a lot more vulnerability than you'd expect from a male lead. Walter Huston is also good as Young's drunken blowhard of a father and Jimmy Durante shows up in the film's second half, for no particularly good reason, but he is fun if you can deal with the Durante (I certainly can).

The highlight of the film, aside for the nuance of the story and Myrna Loy's brief and delightfully bitchy role as Neil Hamilton's lover is a sequence in which a distraught Hamilton gets bellhop to get him "some quality, pre-War" booze and Fleming cuts to shot of the label being printed for the bottle, followed by a series of shots depicting the production, manufacturing and shipping of the bootleg booze, which ends up in Hamilton's hands. It's a really brilliant and effective sequence.

[myrnaloyisdope]

I did a Peter Lorre double-header yesterday with Crime and Punishment and Mad Love and was very impressed with each. I really enjoyed the re-envisioning of Crime and Punishment as a crime procedural. It's fast and brisk and almost noir-ish at times, and Lorre of course is tremendous. I've found this film and An American Tragedy to be very atypical films for von Sternberg, and it's really interesting to see him take on someone else's material. I find he sacrifices some of his trademark dense foreground mise-en-scene for a more conventional style, but it doesn't really detract, even if each film doesn't feel particularly like a von Sternberg film.

Anyone with any comments on Seargeant Madden or The King Steps Out?

Mad Love is a fun romp with a surprising amount of heart to it. I think it's one that would get better with more viewings as there seems to be a lot going on underneath the surface.

[swo17]

I did a Peter Lorre double-header yesterday with Crime and Punishment and Mad Love and was very impressed with each.

Weird, so did I, and he was perfect in both. Re: Mad Love, I'm usually hesitant to embrace remakes (Wiene's The Hands of Orlac already told this story very well), but I thought this version brought more than enough new ideas to the table to completely justify its existence. Another thing that struck me was that George Lucas probably stole from a certain costumed character in this to come up with the idea for Darth Vader.

Also (and my apologies for these superficial observations but) Claude Rains in The Adventures of Robin Hood looks distractingly like Murray from Flight of the Conchords.

[HerrSchreck]

I love the lesser known stuff like The INvisible Ray, Werewolf of London, Tower of London, Son of Frankenstein, Drac's Daughter.

I'll pimp Son of Frankenstein (...)there's this grotesquely overlarge and oddly-shaped wooden stair case planted in the middle of a mostly empty room that I'll never forget
(...)Lugosi is deliciously phlegm-throated as the broken-necked Slav, Ygor. His dialogue is pretty cracked, too: "they die...dead! He dies...live!" The other stand-out is the always reliable Lionel Atwill, this time playing a one-armed police detective who, when playing darts, keeps the extras stuck in his wooden arm. .

For quite a time in my adulthood (I never paid attention to it as a kid) that staircase was like a zen koan that I could never figure out. It seemed so oddly plunked down in the middle of nowhere, and sat there as an utter impossibility that I could never quite work through.

But it merely adds to all the other leaning, cramped, geometric angles and impossibilities in the castle (as well as the "ruined lab" out back)... it's like a child's imagining of a Frankenstein's castle, complete with childlike naivete and lack of perspective (a la Dreyer's JOAN's castles via old paintings) and sense of shadowy horror around every corner. I adore everything about that film-- I find it the most rewatchable-on-a-rainy-afternoon of the three, even though in terms of cinematic achievement the other two take the lions share of blue ribbons.

And Lugosi's Ygor is rightfully cited by many critics as perhaps the greatest acting turn the legendary Hungarian ever turned in for Universal. I can't argue with that one iota.

As for Der Mörder Dimitri Karamasoff, am I the only one to come out of this a touch underwhelmed? For all the glory of its visual flair and relentless sense of invention humming on the surface, the film seems to stumble rhythmically over and over again, and cannot seem to find its footing. There are indeed many tour de force moments, and the film is brimming with ambition, but over and above all, the film lacks a narrative cohesion for me-- one of those projects that are lost in the gulf between silents and sound. After being sent an unsubbed copy about four or five years ago, I had finally seen a subbed version about a year or so ago and was just a touch disappointed.

[matrixschmatrix]

I'm rewatching The Awful Truth, and while I was underwhelmed the last time I saw it (which was long enough ago that I think I may still have been in middle school) but I'm enjoying it tremendously this time around- normally one of the aspects of romantic comedy I find immensely irritating are the ridiculous plot contrivances, the silly misunderstandings that artificially keep the couple apart. Here, those are used deliberately, to show how foolish the assumptions based on those situations are.

More importantly, both Grant and Dunne's delight in screwing with each other is fall down hilarious. It's familiar from Grant, but I wasn't expecting how delightful Dunne would be, and it was broadly nice to see a romance from the 30s whose sexual politics didn't seem overtly repellent.

This will probably wind up on my list, in part because it feels like an iconic 30s genre, and in part because I think there's a special quality to a movie you enjoy much more than you expect you will. I do feel bad for poor Ralph Bellamy, though.

[serdar002]

here are two more Soviet recommendations: Garmon AKA The Accordion (Savchenko 1934) this has come out on DVD too, I'd call it an experimental musical set in a village

Pyat nevest AKA Five Brides (Aleksandr Solovyov 1930) this is a silent of 1929 (but IMDB says 1930), only a fragment of 57 min, about a Jewish village community during the Civil War, five girls having to be chosen as brides for the White officers

[Tommaso]

And now for something almost completely unknown, a film from Poland made in 1936, which I just had the pleasure to see: Tredowata (Juliusz Gardan). I was practically unable to find anything on this film on the net, apart from it being based on a novel and that it was remade in 1976 another director. Be that as it may, I think it's worth a discovery.

The film tells the story of a young girl who comes as a teacher into an aristocratic family and falls in love with the squire; however, a marriage is opposed by the family for reasons of ' social class' (the title means 'pariah', 'leper' or 'outcast'), and when the marriage is nevertheless about to take place, the forces that be work against it and it all ends tragically. Put as bluntly as I just did it, this sounds like standard melodrama fare, but only the ending to a certain degree is, although even this is played comparatively 'quietly'. And I'm afraid my description doesn't do much justice to the film, as the handling of that material by the director is very convincing.

The film seems to combine influences from Renoir (very beautiful rural landscapes), Ophuls (great light and shade, wonderful dresses and a fine ball scene) and probably also in general the German film of the time into a unity that doesn't feel derivative to me; the actors are all fine, especially Elzbieta Barszczewska in the main role. Those who like Sjöberg's "Miss Julie" (for instance) should definitely give it a try, even though the version that's floating around (with English subs) seems to be proof that not only the Japanese had no idea how to preserve their older films. But even the very scratchy print made it clear that this is a very beautiful and impressive film.

[lubitsch]

even though the version that's floating around (with English subs) seems to be proof that not only the Japanese had no idea how to preserve their older films.

I could give you a small hint why the Polish film heritage is a bit damaged, it has something to do with some events starting three years after the film was made. After 1945 there were attempts to find as many films as possible and 70% of the sound films were retrieved plus 5% of the silents.
I have bypassed the Polish film output in the viewing guide because it has a low reputation even in Poland though it's not surprising that the Socialist system had no interest in bourgeois filmmaking of earlier eras comparable to the Soviet Union's neglect of Czarist cinema. Even though Polish cinema never had even remotely the power of the Chechoslovak film production it's likely that a few well made films languis in undeserved obscurity.
And there's certainly no lack of available films, a lot of tapes http://www.polishmoviesonline.com/movie ... 76_87.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and a few DVDs http://www.polishmoviesonline.com/movie ... 0_100.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; only Strachy is missing here, but around on the net. For further reading you can check the chapters in Marek Haltof's Polish Cinema on Google books, the pre WWII chapters are free.