Daily Archives: March 16, 2013

My Top 10 for 1930

Posted on March 16, 2013 | 2 comments

I saw 26 movies that were released in 1930 and these were my 10 favorites.  The complete list with my reviews is available here:  http://www.imdb.com/list/gHnKv0802xI/ .

1.  The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg)

Blue Angel

This masterfully told story of how a pompous and proud professor is slowly brought low by his infatuation with a free-spirited music hall singer made Marlene Dietrich a star but I always come back for Emil Jannings.

Marlene Dietrich sings “Falling in Love Again”

2.  All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone)

All Quiet on the Western Front

The horrors of war told from the perspective of the enemy in what is still one of the most moving anti-war films ever made.

Re-release trailer

3.  Á propos de Nice (Jean Vigo)

A propos de Nice

I love the way Jean Vigo’s films are so full of life and this city symphony is no exception.

Clip

4. City Girl (F. W. Murnau)

City Girl

I had not heard of this film before beginning my review of 1930.  Now I think it is the near equal of F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise</em.. I wonder if those shots in the fields inspired Days of Heaven.

Gorgeous tracking shot of lovers running through wheat fields

5.  Under the Roofs of Paris (René Clair)

Under the Roofs of Paris

Another captivating musical souffle from René Clair.  I am crazy about these.

6.  Hell’s Angels (Howard Hughes)

Hell's Angels

The flight and battle scenes are simply fantastic, especially when you consider the technology of the time.

Clip – “You fools!”

7.  Animal Crackers (Victor Heerman)

Animal Crackers

The Marx Brothers make me laugh.

“Hello, I Must Be Going/Hurray for Captain Spaulding”

8.  Salt for Svanetia (Mikhail Kalatozov)

Salt for Svanetia

Propaganda “documentary” about how the Bolsheviks rescue a Georgian village from ïgnorance and salt depravation by building a road.   The cinematography is so beautiful that I forgave it everything.

Clip

9.  Anna Christie (Clarence Brown)

Anna Christie

 

Garbo gives a fine performance in her first talkie but my favorite performance was by Marie Dressler as her father’s boozy pal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8Rvqm5XR7E

the whiskey scene

10.  Walk Cheerfully (Yasujiro Ozu)

Walk Cheerfully

A gentle early comedy by one of my favorite directors with an uncharacteristic gangland backdrop.

Excerpt

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The Rise of Catherine the Great

Posted on March 16, 2013 | Leave a comment

The Rise of Catherine the GreatCatherine DVD
Directed by Paul Czinner
UK, 1934
London Films Production
First viewing

 

Catherine: “I am a woman like your mother and your sisters. I know that it is a bad wife who leaves her husband because he has been cruel. But it is a good mother who will fight everyone to save her children. You are my children. I come to you as the mother of all Russia.”

Empress Elizabeth of Russia (Flora Robson) is determined that her indolent, debauched nephew Grand Duke Peter (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) should wed a German princess. He resists this idea until he meets the lady in question (Elisabeth Bergner), who has loved him dearly since childhood. Upon their marriage, she is renamed Catherine. Sadly, Peter descends slowly into madness but Catherine stands by her man until his public humiliations become too much to bear. It is not giving too much away to say she goes on to become Catherine the Great but in this version the death of Peter is strictly against her orders. All poor Catherine was ever looking for was a little love.

"Can anyone love someone like me?"

“Can anyone love someone like me?”

It is impossible to watch this film without comparing it to Josef von Sternberg’s weird but wonderful The Scarlet Empress released the same year. That is definitely the superior of the two films primarily because Bergner cannot hold a candle to Marlene Dietrich.

However, if taken alone, The Rise of Catherine the Great is not half bad. Flora Robson is excellent as the randy but principled Elizabeth and, while Fairbanks, Jr. struck me as too bland at the beginning of the film, he really grew on me. Bergner, the wife of director Czinner, was a famous Austrian actress and this was her first English speaking role. She is competent but unfortunately her sometimes wide-eyed coquettishness and petite stature make her look like she’s playing dress-up in those period costumes. Speaking of costumes, they and the sets are lavish and wonderful.

Ending

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