Tommaso wrote:It even contains some sort of viewing guide written by Lubitsch
There's not much point in throwing it into the trash basket having written it to 90%, so here it is. Use it or just scroll ahead.
Let‘s start with the monumental US industry, each and every one of the mentioned films is floating around on the net and found with more or less effort, most are available on DVD.
Charlie Chaplin has two films, City Lights and Modern Times, to offer.
Laurel & Hardy have a long string of shorts and features like Way out west or The Music Box throughout the decade while
Harold Lloyd remained popular with films like The Milky Way, but there were also genuine sound comedians. The
Marx Brothers have a long run of films with Duck Soup and Night at the Opera being the most famous ones, while
Mae West rocketed to stardom with Belle of the Nineties and She done him wrong.
W.C. Fields needed the sound film to fully expand his talents in films like Million Dollar Legs, It’s a Gift and You can’t cheat an honest Man as well as some remarkable comic shorth like The Dentist.
But comics aren’t the only silent era survivors,
Josef von Sternberg directed a series of Dietrich films like Morocco, Shanghai Express, Scarlet Empress and Devil is a Woman, his other films like Crime and Punishment are however quite forgotten and more difficult to find.
F.W Murnau provided world cinema with City Girl and Tabu before his untimely death.
Frank Borzage‘s early output like Liliom or Bad Girl is accessible thanks to the big Fox box and Farewell to Arms is available in a good PD edition, but other films of him like No greater Glory, Man’s Castle or History is made at Night have less luck, only Desire as a Dietrich film has made it to regular DVD.
King Vidor struggled valiantly throughout the decade with films like The Champ, Street Scene or Stella Dallas or the famous Our daily Bread and slightly more forgotten titles like The Citadel or The Wedding Night.
Ernst Lubitsch on the contrary rolled merrily along with operettas like The Smiling Lieutenant or The Merry Widow and stylish comedies like Trouble in Paradise and Design for Living rebounding from a mid 30s slump with Ninotchka.
Cecil B. DeMille decided to play the „monumental epic“ card after some failures, Sign of the Cross, Cleopatra, The Plainsman or Union Pacific are the results.
John Ford finally got a bit surer in his directing style, Arrowsmith, Pilgrimage, The Lost Patrol or Judge Priest hinted at things to come, he had quite an critical success with The Informer before beginning in 1939 a remarkable run with Young Mr. Lincoln and naturally Stagecoach the most famous of the 1939 westerns which also included his Drums along the Mohawk, Jesse James and Destry rides again. Another silent legend represents the progressively more important emigre influx,
Fritz Lang called attention to himself with Fury and You only live once.
Schoedsack & Cooper switched to fictional filmmaking with the unforgettable King Kong as well as The Most Dangerous Game. Similarily
W. S. Van Dyke continued to film exotic stories like Tarzan and the unusual Eskimo.
Raoul Walsh on the other hand had considerable problems after participating in the early 30s superwestern trend (e.g. Cimarron) with his The Big Trail and except for Me and my Gal he only reappeared back at the top in 1939 with The Roaring Twenties.
Among those who had a breakthrough in early sound films
Lewis Milestone is known for his legendary All Quiet on the Western Front, but Of Mice and Men, Rain, The General died at Dawn or Hallelujah I’m a Bum are also easily available as is the PD Front Page.
Rouben Mamoulian had a pretty impressive run with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Queen Christina and Love Me Tonight though many of his films languish in obscurity, some despite a DVD release like We live again, the technicolor pioneer film Becky Sharp suffers from PD status.
The genre film blossomed now, the horror cycle saw
Tod Browning make Dracula, Mark of the Vampire, The Devil-Doll and Freaks, while
James Whale turned out Frankenstein, The Old dark House, The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein (as well as some lesser known but remarkable films like Waterloo Bridge, Show Boat or The Great Garrick) not to forget
Karl Freund’s The Mummy and Mad Love as well as Edgar Ulmer’s Black Cat, other efforts include White Zombie, Island of Lost Souls, The Raven or Son of Frankenstein. The gangster film kicked in with Little Caesar by
Mervyn LeRoy followed by
William Wellman‘s Public Enemy, both director‘s proved a sure hand for rough social dramas, LeRoy scoring big with the bleak I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, the moralistic Five Star Final and the powerful They won’t forget which ended up inexplicably in the Warner Archive line while Wellman supplied Wild Boys of the Road or Heroes for Sale but also turned out later in the decade A Star is born and Nothing Sacred capping it with Beau Geste. Lloyd Bacon provided a melo gangster film with Marked Woman while parodying the genre next year with A Slight Case of Murder. William Keighley’s G-Men and Bullets or Ballots are representative of the thematic shift in the genre towards police detectives, while Each Dawn I die was a late classic example. Archie Mayo threw The Petrified Forest and Black Legion in the ring. Generally the early 30s are full of snappy little films take e.g.
Roy del Ruth who made The Maltese Falcon, Blonde Crazy, Lady Killer and Employees Entrance or LeRoy’s Hard to handle or Three on a Match and Alfred Green’s notorious Baby Face.
The musical got very bold with
Busby Berkeley’s crazy choreographies, 42nd Street, Gold Diggers of 1933 and Footlight Parade are the best known films. The other 30s phenomenon were
Rogers & Astaire dancing at RKO especially in Top Hat and Swing Time.
The comedy blossomed especially from 1934 on also in the hands of lesser directors, notice the famous The Thin Man series, Bachelor Mother, Vivacious Lady, The Young in Heart, It's a wonderful World, Topper, Theodora goes wild or Libeled Lady. The trend allowed instable talents like
Gregory LaCava to turn out classics like My Man Godfrey and Stage Door after his earlier the Half-Naked Truth had shown promise.
Mitchell Leisen also focused on the genre with Hands across the Table, Easy Living and Midnight.
Leo McCarey tried his hand with pretty much every comic figure of importance, but had special success with Ruggles of Red Gap, Love Affair and The Awful Truth (and something completely different and unique for this decade, the tragic Make Way for Tomorrow). The opposite genre, the melodrama, found its leading director in
John Stahl with Back Street, Imitation of Life and Magnificent Obsession.
In the mid30s some new directors finally got a big break.
Frank Capra had made fine films like American Madness, Lady for a Day or The bitter Tea of General Yen but his career took off with It happened one Night followed by Mr. Deeds, Lost Horizon, You can’t take it with you and Mr. Smith goes to Washington. After promising early films like 20000 Years in Sing Sing Mic
hael Curtiz emerged as Warner‘s top director with the Flynn vehicles Captain Blood, Dodge City and Adventures of Robin Hood, but also horror films like The Walking Dead, dramas like Four Daughters or gangster films like Kid Galahad and Angels with Dirty Faces.
William Dieterle found another spot at Warner after his breakthrough with A Midsummer Night's Dream with his biopics like The Story of Louis Pasteur, The Life of Emile Zola and Juarez, his best known film is The Hunchback of Notredame, but his early The Last Flight and Jewel Robbery are also worth a look. After smaller films like Dawn Patrol (remade to greater effect in 1938) and Tiger Shark
Howard Hawks emerged with Scarface as a major director and mixed comedies like Twentieth Century and Bringing up Baby with adventure films like Ceiling Zero and Only Angels have Wings.
Henry Hathaway also churned out adventure films after his success with Lives of a Bengal Lancer and the early Technicolor Trail of the Lonesome Pine, but notice also the unusual melodrama Peter Ibbetson. On the other spectre of cultural prestige worked
George Cukor who starting with Dinner at Eight signed literary classics like Little Women, David Copperfield, Romeo and Juliet or Camille but also other comedies like Holiday and The Women or the eccentric Sylvia Scarlet.
George Stevens also specialized in films with a more American touch like Alice Adams or Annie Oakley and closed the decade with the adventurous Gunga Din. The ultimate prestige director became
William Wyler after early efforts like Counsellor at Law he scored with These Three, Dodsworth, Dead End, Jezebel and Wuthering Heights a series of successes.
Stars got vehicles tailored - often at the expense of creativity.
Greta Garbo fared well with vehicles like Anna Karenina, Mata Hari or Grand Hotel and
Bette Davis evolved into a superstar (Of Human Bondage, Old Maid, Dark Victory). MGM tried to handle
Jean Harlow (Red Dust, Red Headed Woman, Bombshell),
Clark Gable (China Seas, Manhattan Melodrama, Test Pilot) or
Spencer Tracy (Captains Courageous), Warner mostly mishandled Kay Francis (One Way Passage) and this goes up (or rather down?) to Deanna Durbin (Three Smart Girls) or even Shirley Temple. Beyond star vehicles there were the usual superproductions (mostly of literary classics and mostly by MGM) like Hell's Angels, A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities, The Prisoner of Zenda, The Count of Monte Cristo, Treasure Island, The Great Ziegfeld, The Prince and the Pauper, Cavalcade, Mutiny on the Bounty, Marie Antoinette, Les Miserables, The Good Earth, The Barretts of Wimpole Street with the two 1939 biggies the Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind finishing the decade in grand style. San Francisco started a little desaster movie series also including In Old Chicago, The Hurricane or The Rains came.
Ambitious films like The Power and the Glory or Hecht‘s The Scoundrel got rarer as the decade marched on and the last female Hollywood director Dorothy Arzner whose Craig‘s Wife is worth a look neared the end of her career while representing another “minority” Paul Robeson struggled along (Emperor Jones). There are always unclassifiable films so I put On Borrowed Time, the Borzagesque Zoo in Budapest and Night must fall here.
Serial storytelling also played a role, most famous are The Hound of Baskerville and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes kicking in a string of films. The Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto series also started in the 30s. The most famous genuine serial is Flash Gordon.
The Animation film legend is obviously Snow White far ahead of the Fleischer's Gulliver's Travels.
Walt Disney also pretty much dominated the decade with his Silly Symphonies like Three Little Pigs, Flowers and Trees and The Old Mill or Mickey films like The Band Concert. The Looney Tunes only came late into the game with films like Porky in Wackyland, while the Fleischer brothers turned out Betty Boop, Superman and Popeye films. The most famous documentaries are
Pare Lorentz' The Plow that broke the plains and the River, experimental cinema sees Joseph Cornell's Rose Hobart, Watson & Webber's Lot in Sodom, Weinberg's Autumn Fire and Leyda's Bronx Morning.
Next is the French film industry which hummed throughout the decade.
Obviously
Jean Renoir is the most famous director with
La Grande Illusion,
La Regle du Jeu,
Une Partie de Campagne,
La Bete Humaine,
Boudu,
Toni,
La Marseillaise,
Les Bas-fonds and
Le Crime du Mr. Lange.
La Chienne or
La Nuit de Carrefour need subtitled DVDs, but subs are around for almost all of his films of this era.
Rene Clair's early trio
La Million,
Sous les toits de Paris and
A nous la Liberte is easily available, for
Le Quatorze Juillet and
Le dernier Milliardaire at least subs exist.
Jean Vigo's small output with
L'Atalante and
Zero de Conduite is also no problem, while
Raymond Bernard was saved by Criterion, but beyond
Les Miserables and
Les Croix du Bois there's also a English subbed DVD of
Les Otages. The more experimental
L'Age d'or by
Luis Bunuel and
Le sang d'un Poete by
Jean Cocteau are also easily accessible as are films by animation legend
Ladislaw Starewicz, his
Fetiche is on the DVD short film collection, while
Le Roman du Renard has a French DVD with English subs.
Alexandre Alexeieff's
Une Nuit sur le Mont Chauve is also available from multiple sources not the least one being a DVD devoted to the director.
Berthold Bartosch'
L'Idee is also a pretty unique animation film and easily found on the net.
Marcel Pagnol's
Fanny Trilogie is out on DVD and there are some French DVD with English subtitles like
Le Schpountz or
Merlusse, unfortunately
La Femme du Boulanger was only released once on tape with subs.
Sacha Guitry has a Criterion Eclipse set devoted to him with
Le Roman d'un Tricheur, but there's also a larger french set with English subs that features all films from 1936-38. Finally
Marcel Carné's moody trio of
Le Quai des brumes,
Hotel du Nord and
Le Jour se leve is as easily available as is the funny
Drole du Drame, his early
Jenny is around in a subbed copy.
Jacques Feyder had a sojourn in Hollywood in the early 30s making
Daybreak, but is most known for his films of the mid 30s of which
Le Grand Jeu and
La Kermesse heroique are available on subbed DVDs while for
Pension Mimosas there are no subtitles made yet.
Fritz Lang's
Liliom is a bonus on the State Fair DVD. Louise Brooks afficionados shouldn't forget
Prix de Beaute by Augusto Genina, while
Josephine Baker fans might be interested in
Zouzou and
Billy Wilder fans in his debut
Mauvaise Graine (there's the nice animation
La joie du Vivre as bonus).
Abel Gance'
Beethoven film was released on DVD and there are subs for his
J'accuse.
G.W. Pabst's
Don Quixote is also out in a subbed DVD and there are subs for his neglected 30s French oeuvre with
L'Atlantide,
Du haut en bas,
Le Drame de Shanghai,
Mademoiselle Docteur and
Jeunes Filles en Detresse.
Anatole Litvak's
Mayerling also is available thanks to Criterion's Arthouse line. There was also a BFI tape of Jacques Deval's
Club de Femmes.
Beyond the auteurs things look more bleak on DVD, but there exist subtitles for a few films which are very much worth exploring and in need of a proper English friendly DVD release. The great
Julien Duvivier is badly off as DVDs go except for
Pepe le Moko and the spectacular
Au bonheur des Dames which was also released with English subs. There are subtitles for
Poil de carotte (as well as an old US tape),
La Tete d'un homme,
Maria Chapdelaine,
La Bandera,
Golgotha,
La Belle Equipe,
Le Golem,
La Fin du Jour and
La Charette Fantome, only the outstanding
Un Carnet de Bal and the funny
Hallo Berlin ici Paris are in dire need of them.
Jean Gremillon is elusive in every decade, subs are there for
Gueule d'amour and
La Petite Lise, but his third great film of the decade,
L'etrange Monsieur Victor still has none.
Paul Fejös made a Hungarian French film
Marie Legende Hongroise which is a must see and also a
Fantomas adaptation.
Jean Benoit-Levy & Marie Epstein made the touching
La Maternelle and
Dmitri Kirsanoff the curious
Rapt.
Entree des Artistes de
Marc Allegret also merits attention as do
L'Homme de Nulle Part and
Le Dernier Tournant by
Pierre Chenal, the latter an early The Postman always rings twice version, subtitles exist for all these films. The old warhorse Maurice Tourneur also has three subbed films with
Obsession,
Justin de Marseille and
Samson while Marcel L'Herbier struggled along in commercial cinema, maybe his
Mystere de la Chambre Jaune is best known today.Also worth a look is
Christian-Jaque's
Les Disparus de Saint-Agil, a pretty unique crime drama at a school with Erich von Stroheim. Pierre Prevert directed the grotesque comedy
L'affaire est dans le sac.
For the German emigres
Max Ophüls and
Robert Siodmak France proved a stepping stone for greater things, but
Divine,
La Tendre Ennemie,
Yoshiwara,
Werther and
Sans Lendemain are all subbed, while with Siodmak only
Pieges and
Mollenard got subs.
Fedor Otsep made the moody
Amok recently subbed, too.
The German film saw a stunning run from 1930-1933 before declining obviously during the Third Reich. None of the major film countries of the 30s is as badly represented on DVDs (even in Germany itself), even the once notoriously unaccessible Japanese output is more widely represented and despite massive fan-subtitling, quite a few classics still await their subs.
Essentially a handful of films on DVD has to come represent the output of the whole decade. These are
M and
Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse by
Fritz Lang,
Der blaue Engel by
Josef von Sternberg,
The Three Penny Opera by
G.W. Pabst,
People on Sunday by
Robert Siodmak and
Leni Riefenstahl's films
The Blue Light,
Triumph of the Will and
Olympia as well as
Arnold Fanck's
Storm over Montblanc and
SOS Iceberg with her plus Dreyer's French-German film
Vampyr.
Already the top Weimar classics
Mädchen in Uniform by Leontine Sagan,
Westfront 1918 and
Kameradschaft by Pabst,
Kuhle Wampe with a script from Brecht and
Liebelei by
Max Ophüls didn't make it beyond the tape stage, subs are floating around for all of these films. However there's a limited DVD box Deutsche Tonfilmklassiker apparently intended for the Goethe Institute around the world which contained 10 films and had English subtitles, therefore you should be able to find the essential early sound operettas
Der Kongreß tanzt,
Die Drei von der Tankstelle and
Reinhold Schünzel's
Amphitryon,
Luis Trenker's western-like
Der Kaiser von Kalifornien,
Douglas Sirk's
La Habanera (also on DVD from Kino) and the only turkey in the set and Ophüls probably worst film,
Lachende Erben. Edition Filmmuseum released
Ludwig II and especially
Curt Goetz'
Napoleon ist an allem schuld. There's also a DVD with
Oskar Fischinger films.
Piel Jutzi's 1931 version of
Berlin Alexanderplatz is a bonus on the Fassbinder Criterion set.
Hitler Youth Quex is out from IHF.
However it's worth to dig in the internet for the rest which can be classified in various ways. There are first the Weimar sound film operettas which feature prominently in the Tonfilmklassiker box and for a good reason since they are a major contribution of the early German sound film. The wittily self reflexive
Ich bei Tag und Du bei Nacht, the melancholic
Das Lied ist aus, the realistic
Ein blonder Traum, the joyfully silly
Walzerkrieg and
Ich und die Kaiserin have already subs. A special case is the first film opera adaptation,
Max Ophüls Die verkaufte Braut. There are a few subbed comedies starring Willi Forst or Heinz Rühmann like
Einbrecher,
Der Herr auf Bestellung,
Der brave Sünder,
Bomben in Monte Carlo,
Saison in Kairo,
So ein Mädel vergißt man nicht and especially
Die Koffer des Herrn OF for the Weimar era while the classic
Der zerbrochene Krug and especially the ultra popular “It happened one Night”-influenced
Glückskinder and the no less liked
Der Mann, der Sherlock Holmes war represent Third Reich comedy aptly. There are many, many interesting dramas in the Weimar years,
Robert Siodmak made
Abschied,
Voruntersuchung and especially the sensitive
Brennendes Geheimnis.
Werner Hochbaum made a stunning trio with
Razzia in St. Pauli,
Morgen beginnt das Leben and
Schleppzug M 17.
Fedor Otsep continued his visit with
Der Mörder Dmitri Karamasoff.
Paul Czinner made with his wife Elisabeth Bergner the chamber dramas
Ariane and
Der träumende Mund. While these directors went into exile, others came to the surface continuing Weimar traditions deep into the 30s,
Reinhold Schünzel's comedies are one example, in the dramatic department
Frank Wysbar excelled with the mystic classics
Anna und Elisabeth and especially
Fährmann Maria.
Arthur Robison turned out a very moody remake of
Der Student von Prag, while
Douglas Sirk warmed up with all the other melodramas like
Das Mädchen vom Moorhof,
Stützen der Gesellschaft,
Schlußakkord and
Zu neuen Ufern. With
Veit Harlan another talent took the torch directing
Der Herrscher and especially
Reise nach Tilsit.
These films all have subs, but a lot haven't, should be nevertheless mentioned.
Robert Siodmak's
Der Mann der seinen Mörder sucht survives in a extremely cut version which makes the film even crazier than it already would have been, together with
Zwei Herzen im Dreivierteltakt ,
Ihre Majestät Liebe,
Helmut Käutner's
Kitty und die Weltkonferenz and a wave of
Reinhold Schünzel films (
Land der Liebe,
Die englische Heirat and most of all
Viktor und Viktoria) it's the prime candidate for subs.
Luis Trenker's action mountain dramas like
Berge in Flammen,
Der Rebell,
Der verlorene Sohn and
Der Berg ruft are noticeable. The children classic
Emil und die Detektive, the antiwar dramas
Die andere Seite and especially
Niemandsland, the submarine classic
Morgenrot,
Willi Forst's
Mazurka and finally a batch of
Veit Harlan films like
Die Kreutzersonate,
Jugend,
Verwehte Spuren and
Das unsterbliche Herz are the most famous unsubbed dramas. Some films with more of an underground reputation are the realist
Das Leben kann so schön sein, the 30s versions of
Der Tiger von Eschnapur and
Das Indische Grabmal, Werner Hochbaum's
Man spricht über Jacqueline and
Ein Mädchen geht an Land, Carl Junghans'
Altes Herz geht auf Reise and Reinhold Schünzel's
Das Mädchen Irene.
The small Austrian film industry can be treated here because the country ceased to exist and merged with Germany 1938. The most famous director is of cause
Willi Forst and
Maskerade and
Burgtheater are the only film for which subtitles exist at the moment (plus the German classic
Bel Ami),
Leise flehen meine Lieder needs them badly.
Paul Fejös made the remarkable
Sonnenstrahl there, subs recently finished.
Gustav Machaty visited for the noirish
Nocturno but it lacks subtitles as well as the Austrian films of
Werner Hochbaum who made them when Austria was a kind of haven for refugees most noticeable are
Vorstadtvariete,
Schatten der Vergangenheit and a co-production with Switzerland the psychedelic
Die ewige Maske.
The once unknown Japanese film industry of the 30s steadily gains more attraction especially the golden years between 1933-1937.
Yasujiro Ozu is obviously pretty well represented on DVD. Criterion released in the Eclipse line
I was born but,
Tokyo Chorus and
Passing Fancy and in the main line
The Only Son and
Floating Weeds, many other titles were released by Panorama (
An Inn in Tokyo,
Dragnet Girl,
A Mother must be loved,
What did the Lady forget) and will appear now in superior BFI editions. At the moment only the early
A Woman of Tokyo,
Where are the Dreams of Youth,
I flunked but,
My Wife that Night,
Walk cheerfully and
The Lady and the Beard are unreleased, but around in subbed versions.
Kenji Mizoguchi has two Eclipse titles with
Sisters of the Gion and
Naniwa Elegy as well as
Orizuru Osen and
Taki no shiraito in the Japanese Talking Silents series, all his other extant 30s films like
Oyuki the Virgin,
Straits of Love and Hate or
Poppies are subtitled as is
Story of Late Chrysanthemum which will be released by Artificial Eye.
Sadao Yamanaka's
Humanity and Paper Balloons has a MoC release, for his only two other surviving films
Tange Sazen and
Priest of Darkness subtitles exist.
Hiroshi Shimizu also sees the light of DVD releases, Criterion took a on an Eclipse set (originally a Shochiku release that also had English subs), so
Mr. Thank you,
The Masseurs and a Woman and
Japanese Girls at the Harbor are easily available, while the second Shochiku set contains
Children in the Wind and
Four Seasons of Children, it's English subbed and can be bought on ebay.
A Star Athlete and
Forget Love for now also float around in subbed copies.
Mikio Naruse's entire surviving silent output has now an Eclipse set, but there's massive fan subtitling going on in his case and twelve of his 30s films are available and just to give you an example what I mean with floating around you can find them
here. Among them the famous
Wife be like a Rose. There are a few 30s films more on DVD with subtitles in the Talking Silents line among them
Daisuke Ito's
Jirokichi the Rat. Also there's one of the few surviving left wing films of the early 30s, Shigeyoshi Suzuki's
What made her do it on a DVD with English subs.
Less known masters
Yasujiro Shimazu (
Our Neighbor Miss Yae,
The Fiance Trio) and
Heinosuke Gosho (
The Dancing Girl of Izu,
Burden of Life,
Madame and Wife and
Woman in the Mist) have the named films also subtitled and
Tomu Uchida's
Tsuchi is also a fine closing point to this decade despite its battered survival status.
The Soviet industry started out lively but went into a heavy decline from 1934 onward with formal experimentation being phased out.
We all know about
Alexander Nevsky,
Sergei Eisenstein's solo entry.
Alexander Dovzhenko's poetic
Earth is easily obtained, his other films lesser known films of the decade like
Ivan,
Aerograd and
Shchors are all around with (mediocre) English subs thanks to an unofficial DVD set. Ruscico is a good starting point for further explorations like
Aleksandr Medvedkin's bizarre comedy
Happiness (his
New Moscow is floating around), the acclaimed
Lev Kuleshov film
The Great Consoler, the very popular Gorky Trilogy by
Mark Donskoi or
Wassilissa the Weaver by
Alexander Rou. The huge popular success
Chapayev was also released in a subtitled DVD and there are US DVDs for
Vsevolod Pudovkin's
Deserter,
Boris Barnet's
Okraina and
Dsiga Vertov's
Three Songs of Lenin. Edition Filmmuseum complements the Vertov viewing with
Entuziazm while we all hope that Barnet's
By the Bluest of Seas will finally see the light from them though subs for the French DVD are around as well as for a TV recording of his film
Thaw. And not to make the same mistake twice: the German DVD of
Kozintsev/Trauberg's
Odna has English subtitles while
Joris Ivens'
Komsomolsk is available in the box.
Grigori Aleksandrov's 30s comedies like
Jolly Fellows or
Circus were released on tape as was
Mikhail Kalatosov's stunning docu
Salt for Svanetia (his
Nail in the Boots is floating around). Many other films are floating around in subbed versions and worth exploring. Among them are
Nikolai Ekk's
Road to Life a film comparable to Boys Town, an early version of
The Quiet Don, Pudovkin's
A Simple Case,
Mikhail Romm's aggressively satiric
Pyshka, the funny
Lieutenant Kije, Petrov's realistic
Thunderstorm and
Abram Room's
A Severe Young Man, all these films retain a liveliness that will be crushed in the next years. Subs for the other 30s trilogy, the
Maxim films by
Kozintsev/Trauberg are also done.
Genre afficionados might be quite interested in the animation film
The New Gulliver by
Aleksandr Ptushko and the Sci-fi films
Loss of Feeling and
Cosmic Journey, these also exist subbed.
The later bombastic, schematic propaganda films have mostly no subs and few interest today, films like
Lenin in October,
Peter the First,
The Man with the Gun,
Baltic Deputy or
Komsomolsk have receded far into the background,
The Party Card is a rare subtitled (and nasty) example of Stalinist propaganda, but there are also a few films like the
Thirteen by Romm or
We from Kronstadt which are not bad and could use subs as could the earlier
Counterplan being a model for the later social realism movies.
The British film industry had a few commercial successes but few truly great directors during this decade. There's at least no language barrier and a plethora of DVDs.
Obviously
Alfred Hitchcock dominates the reception, we all know the six thrillers
The 39 Steps,
The Lady vanishes,
Sabotage,
Secret Agent,
The Man who knew too much and
Young and Innocent but he made also films like
Murder or
Rich and Strange, all are easily found.
Anthony Asquith had a rough time but scored big towards the end of the decade with
Pygmalion.
William Cameron Menzies directed the monumental sci-fi epic
Things to Come while the
Korda brothers produced spectacular films en masse after the huge success of
The Private Life of Henry VIII, there's an Eclipse set which also contains the well done
Rembrandt while Zoltan's efforts like
The Four Feathers ,
Elephant Boy and
The Drum are also well documented,
Robert Stevenson's
King Solomon's Mines also belongs to this group of colonial adventures. In a similar vein is the popular adventure classic
The Scarlet Pimpernel and it fits the picture that late in the 30s Hollywood joined the party producing films like
Goodbye Mr. Chips and
The Citadel there,
Jacques Feyder visited with Marlene Dietrich for
Knight without Armour ,
Rene Clair made
The Ghost goes West while Boris Karloff made
The Man who changed his mind.
Will Hay is supposed to be the most popular comedian with
Oh Mr. Porter and
Ask a Policeman while
Jessie Matthews starred in
Evergreen and
First a Girl and fittingly
The Mikado is honored as a Criterion.
Genuine directing talent is rare,
Michael Powell emerged after zillions of quote quickies as a major director with
The Edge of the World continuing with
The Spy in Black,
Carol Reed still was involved in smaller films of which
Bank Holiday should be noted. Unusual films like
Borderline by
Kenneth MacPherson or the nutty
Robber Symphony are rare but they are out on DVD,
Paul Robeson starred in quite a few British films of this decade beyond Borderline you'll find some on the Criterion set.
The Man who could work Miracles was another
H.G. Wells adaptation, while
Vivien Leigh starred in some popular films like the all star costumer
Fire over England, the spy drama
Dark Journey or
Sidewalks of London.
However there's still the documentary to save the day with
Robert Flaherty's
Man of Aran not necessarily a representative effort, but a remarkable one. The most famous of all the documentaries is obviously
Night Mail, but there are many other remarkable films like
Coal Face,
Song of Ceylon,
Industrial Britain or
Housing Problems which can be explored on all these wonderful BFI editions.
Humphrey Jennings' first major film
Spare Time belongs here, too. Even some experimental film could blossom in the shadow of the docus and
Len Lye made important films like
A Colour Box,
Rainbow Dance and
Trade Tattoo while
Norman McLaren got his start with films like
Love on the Wings.
The sixth big industry is the Czechoslovakian one, it started with artistic and ambitious films in the decade and maintained throughout commercial power. It also has the advantage that there are dozens of English subtitled Czech DVDs you can buy.
The most famous film is obviously by a wide margin
Gustav Machaty's
Ecstasy (notice that the German Edition Filmmuseum has a superior picture but features the recut post war German version), unfortunately highly acclaimed film of his,
From Sunday to Monday isn't released on DVD yet though it exists in a subbed version on the net. The same bad luck have
Karl Anton's intense
Tonka of the Gallows and
Carl Junghans German-Czech co production
Such is Life but these silents should be searched for on the net the same goes for some early experimentation, most famous are
Alexander Hammid's
Aimless Walk and
The Prague Castle. There exist however DVDs for
Josef Rovensky's
Reka,
Martin Fric's bizarre comedy
Hej-rup and
Vladislav Vancura's
Marijka Nevernice and
Pred Maturitou all poetic and inventive films, Vancura's
On the sunny Side needs subtitles. Later in the decade
Hugo Haas made a political parable with
The White Disease and
Otakar Vavra started a long, long career (he's still alive) with the bitter
Virginity and continued with the acclaimed
The Guild of the Kutna Hora Virgins, his drama
Turbina is 1939 per imdb though in fact rather 1941.
Beyond that there are zillions of comedies on DVD pretty much all films of the legendary
Vlasta Burian, but also Hugo Haas and Oldrich Novy should be mentioned, for example
Kristian is a cleverly constructed comedy. Most of the films were directed by Karel Lamac and
Martin Fric who had an epic 40 year career, they also feature female stars like Adina Mandlova or Lida Baarova.
Then finally there are the smaller producing countries.
While the Chinese film industry can't compete with the big six countries it nevertheless had a Golden Age - ironically during the same years as the Japanese film.
The San Francisco film Festival released the best known film
Shen Nu with a book on its star
Ruan Ling-yu and repeated the feat with
The Peach Girl and a book on its male star. Koch released a handful of DVDs of the most famous classic Chinese films among them
Street Angel,
Song at Midnight - a Phantom of the Opera version,
The Big Road,
Daybreak and
Crossroads. The rest floats around in copies from Video CDs, nevertheless
Little Toys,
New Woman and
Song of the Fishermen deserve some attention. One classic is still unsubtitled and that's
Spring Silkworms.
Mexico's film industry started to build momentum and there exist a few English subtitled DVDs. The most famous is
Fernando de Fuentes Revolution trilogy with
Vamonos con Pancho Villa,
El Compadre Mendoza and
Prisoner 13. The same man is however also responsible for the notorious ranchera genre with
Alla en el Rancho Grande, while
La Mujer del puerto is the defning Mexican melodrama. Beyond these DVDs there are subtitles for
Santa, the first Mexican sound film and
Dos Monjes.
Brazil contributed films by
Humberto Mauro especially
Ganga Bruta and
Sangue Mineiro though the most famous film is the experimental
Limite by
Mario Peixoto, no DVDs just subs so you have to search around. India's single contribution is
Sant Tukaram available in mediocre DVDs as is so often the case with this country. Spain's most famous film is naturally Bunuel's harsh documentary
Land without Bread, beyond this only
La aldea maldita has any reputation and subs. Hungary's popular classic is
Hippolyt a lakaj available in a subbed DVD,
Cancao a Lisboa holds an equally legendary position within the Portugisian film history. The most famous Polish films are in fact Yiddish ones like
Dybbuk. For the Netherlands
Joris Ivens submits a strong trio of films with
Borinage,
The New Land and
Philips Radio all in the DVD box, for
Max Ophüls'
Komoedie om Geld subtitles are around. The once proud Swedish film industry has only to offer
Ingrid Bergman films with
Intermezzo and
A Woman's Face being the most famous, both were remaked in the USA. The Finnish director
Nyrko Tapiovaara was a promising talent with
Juha and
Varastettu kuolema before he died in the Winter War, his films have yet to be subbed, surprisingly instead the melodrama director
Teuvo Tulio got two DVD boxes with English subtitles devoted to him so you can check his 30s films like
Song of the Scarlet Flower. Norway has
Fant to contribute in a subbed DVD.
Finally the Italian film industry offers us the MoC DVD of
La Signora di Tutti,
Alessandro Blasetti's
1860 in a subbed Italian DVD and the propagandistic
Scipione l'Africano also was released by IHF. Beyond this there are subtitles for a few early interesting films like
Resurrectio by Blasetti,
Rafaele Matarazzo's poetic
Treno Popolare and
Mario Camerini's
Gli uomini che mascalzone. With Camerini there are also subs for later films like
Signor Max and
Grandi Magazzini but despite a sharp rise in production the second half of the decade is terra incognita and looks pretty bland.
