Category Archives: 1930

The Blue Angel (1930)

Posted on December 14, 2021 | 4 comments

The Blue Angel (Der blaue Engel)
Directed by Josef von Sternberg
Written by Carl Zuckmayer et al from a novel by Heinrich Mann
1930/Germany
UFA/Paramount
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental of Kino restoration

[singing] Lola Lola: Falling in love again, never wanted to. What’s a girl to do? I can’t help it. What choice do I have? That’s the way I’m made. Love is all I know, I can’t help it. Men swarm around me like moths ’round a flame. And if their wings are singed, surely I can’t be blamed.

I love this tawdry, erotic, tragicomic masterpiece.

Professor Immanuel Rath (Emil Jannings) is a pompous English teacher at a boy’s high school.  His students universally hate him, calling him Professor Unrat (Professor “rat shit” or “garbage”) both behind his back and in front of him.  And they have good reason.  He humiliates the boys during their English recitation and punishes them for visiting a local hot spot called “The Blue Angel” to leer at and flirt with star attraction Lola Lola (Marlene Dietrich).  The act is naughty in the extreme.

But when Rath shows up to ask the singer to stop corrupting his students, she seduces him in turn.  It’s all a big joke to her.  He stays the night and asks her to marry him in the morning.  She thinks this is the most hilarious thing she has ever heard and goes through with it as a lark.

Five years pass and the Professor is reduced to selling her naughty postcards and painting her nails.  When he has lost his dignity altogether, the management decides to take its show back to his home town and make the Professor its star.  He is forced to go through with it at the exact time that it is evident that he will lose Lola entirely to a strong man.

I’ve seen this several times before and find it imminently rewatchable. I am completely blown over by Emile Janning’s performance. You laugh at him and feel sorry for him at the same time.  His face is unbelievably expressive and he had this kind of humiliated character sharpened to a fine edge by this time. Dietrich is equally wonderful, really. She may not be acting to the same extent but she is so natural in front of the camera that who cares. The sets and costumes are wonderful.

Von Sternberg has given this film a wonderful rhythm. I loved the cock crow that begins the movie and then is echoed by Jannings during the wedding dinner and again during his humiliation at the end. There are so many other elements that repeat. None are obtrusive but all are a mark of masterful story telling.  Highly recommended.

Re-release trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbaRRDgTIkc

Dietrich’s screen test – a natural born movie star

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Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1930

Murder! (1930)

Posted on December 13, 2021 | Leave a comment

Murder!
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Written by Alfred Hitchcock, Walter Mycroft and Alma Reville from a play by Clemence Dane and Helen Simpson
1930/UK
British International Pictures
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant

Sir John Menier: I suppose you find the brandy helps steadying the nerves.
Handel Fane: Mine is very nervy work, you see, Sir John. You never know what may happen.

Hitchcock was still perfecting his craft but this movie, while not great, is growing on me.

As the story begins, we hear a woman scream.  When the police arrive they find Diana Baring (Norah Baring) in her flat catatonic with a poker by her side and a dead woman on the floor.  It develops that the two were actresses in the same play and had been feuding.  Much brandy had apparently been consumed.  Diana remembers nothing of incident.

She is arrested and tried for murder.  The jury makes short work of its deliberations with fellow thespian Sir John Menier (Herbert Marshall) being the last hold out before giving in and joining the others in a guilty verdict.  Diana is sentenced to the gallows.

It is not long before Sir John begins to have second thoughts so he starts his own investigation.  This movie has an unforgettable ending which I shall not reveal.

This is not Hitchcock at his best but I gave it another try and found a lot of humor I had never seen in it before.  There is a scene where Sir John is interviewing the cast and crew backstage during a performance and we see the various actors in the most outlandish costumes and entering the stage in the most outrageous.  One is left to guess what the play could possibly be about! Marshall is also very good.

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Posted in 1930

The Devil to Pay!

Posted on December 13, 2021 | 2 comments

The Devil to Pay!
Directed by George Fitzmaurice
Written by Frederick Lonsdale and Benjamin Glazer
1930/US
The Samuel Goldwyn Company
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Instant

Lord Leland: Now… now you’re blaming me for bringing you into the world!
Willie Hale: Heh, heh, I should be extremely mortified for your sake if I had to blame anyone else.

This is a pleasant romantic comedy made more pleasant by the dulcet tones of Ronald Colman.

The story begins in Africa where wastrel rogue Willie Hale (Colman) is auctioning off his house and possessions, which his father Lord Leland paid for, to pay his passage back to England.  Lord Leland is not too keen on accepting him back to the household but paternal love prevails and he is allowed to stay.  Willie then meets Dorothy Hope (Loretta Young), an heiress who is a friend of his sister and engaged to marry a Russian aristocrat. Their attraction is immediate.  But Colman has also met with ex-flame Mary (Myrna Loy), a sexy actress who would welcome a rekindling of their affair.

If you’ve seen many rom-coms of the era, you will have a pretty good idea where this is going.  There are the requisite number of misunderstandings before the requisite happy ending.

I enjoyed this for the stars and the witty script.  Loretta Young was only 17 when she made this film.  Colman was 38.

Clip – Colman negotiates for an Asta lookalike

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Posted in 1930, Pre-Code Reviews

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

Posted on December 10, 2021 | 2 comments

All Quiet on the Western Front
Directed by Lewis Milestone
Written by Maxwell Anderson, George Abbott, Del Andrews et al from a novel by Erich Maria Remarque
1930/US
Universal Pictures
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant

Paul Bäumer (speaking to a class of high school students): I shouldn’t have come on leave. Up at the front you’re alive or you’re dead and that’s all. You can’t fool anybody about that very long. And up there we know we’re lost and done for whether we’re dead or alive. Three years we’ve had of it, four years! And every day a year, and every night a century! And our bodies are earth, and our thoughts are clay, and we sleep and eat with death! And we’re done for because you *can’t* live that way and keep anything inside you! I shouldn’t have come on leave. I’ll go back tomorrow. I’ve got four days more, but I can’t stand it here! I’ll go back tomorrow! I’m sorry.

Now this is my idea of a timeless must-see classic.  Still one of the greatest anti-war films.

The film begins in a small German town filled with the excitement of men marching out to what everyone assumes will be a short war.  At the local high school, a professor preaches the glory of war.  When Paul Baumer (Lew Ayres), the class leader, agrees to sign up the rest of the class follows.

The boys are completely unprepared for the hunger and squalor that are awaiting them in the bunkers and trenches much less for the horrible combat, maiming, and death that are to follow very shortly. Disillusionment takes maybe a day to sink in.

Paul is soon befriended by Sergeant Katczinski (Louis Wolheim) a rough-hewn and hardened soldier.  He must watch as his buddies are killed one after another.  He feels even worse when he must kill the enemy himself.

Paul gets leave after being wounded and finds that his small town is still living in dreamland and the old men are full of strategies for winning what Paul knows cannot be won.  The local professor is still pushing out teenage recruits like links in a sausage factory.  Paul cuts his leave short to return to the front where at least he is understood.  The horror continues.

Brutal and poetic by turns, I cannot find a single thing wrong with this powerful film.  I often drift away at times when re-watching films but this had me riveted at all times.  The combat sequences are unbelievable for the era.  Most highly recommended.

All Quiet on the Western Front won the Best Picture and Best Director Oscar.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction.  I think Ayres deserved a Best Actor nomination.

Re-release trailer

Lew Ayres returns to the classroom from which he was recruited to fight to find absolutely nothing has changed.

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Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1930

Hook, Line and Sinker (1930)

Posted on December 3, 2021 | 2 comments

Hook, Line and Sinker
Directed by Edward F. Cline
Written by Tim Whelan and Ralph Spence
1930/US
RKO Radio Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube

Addington Ganzy: Why, do you realize that since nineteen-hundred-and-ten, they have discovered 52 new ways of dying?
Wilbur Boswell: Oh, and you don’t look well.
Addington Ganzy: Yes, why, uh, uh… People are dying this year that have never died before!

In the early thirties people went for a variety of clowns like Laurel and Hardy or the Marx Brothers.  Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey were a competing comedy duo at the time and they make me laugh the most consistently of all.

The plot, such as it is, has the duo playing Wilbur Boswell (Wheeler) and Addington Ganzy (Woolsey), insurance salesmen eager to con people out of their money.  They meet up with  Mary Marsh (Dorothy Lee), a sweet young thing who has recently inherited a hotel from her uncle.  Wilbur and Mary pair up immediately.  The hotel turns out to be very run down but the boys somehow figure out a way to renovate it and market it to VIPs.  This is quite inconvenient for some gangsters who had been using the place as a hideout.

It’s a throwaway plot used to place one gag after another.  The boys are good at physical humor but I also love the way they deliver their dialogue.  Some of the double entendres are quite risque and pre-Code.  I’ve seen several of their movies and am looking forward to more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIsdG9XGwfs

Couldn’t find many clips but YouTube has many of the complete films for free

 

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Posted in 1930, Pre-Code Reviews

Hell’s Angels (1930)

Posted on November 30, 2021 | 2 comments

Hell’s Angels
Directed by Howard Hughes (Edmund Goulding and James Whale uncredited)
Written by Howard Estabrook and Harry Behn from a story by Marshall Neilan and Joseph Moncure March
1930/US
The Caddo Company
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/YouTube (free)

Helen: Would you be shocked if I put on something more comfortable?

This movie shows what could be done at the dawn of cinema when unlimited amounts of time and money were thrown at one.

Two brothers, Monte (Ben Lyon) and Roy (James Hall), could not be more different.  Monte is worldly and cynical.  Roy is decent and honorable.  Roy is in love with Helen (Jean Harlow), whom he idealizes as a fine woman.  Jean prefers to wait for whomever next wants to show her a good time.  She starts off by seducing Monte.

Ben and Roy join the RAF and become pilots.  (Most of the characters in this are British but almost all speak with American accents.)  Helen follows them to France where she works at a canteen for pilots.

Who needs nudity when there are dresses like this and bodies to fill them?

Helen continues to break hearts.  Ben hates the war and is willing to do almost anything to avoid being killed.  Roy is brave and loyal.  Here is where the thrilling aerial combat starts.  When the brothers are captured, who will prevail?

The flying scenes and explosions are simply fantastic. Then throw in a super-sexy Jean Harlow in her Pre-Code break-out performance and you have one gripping film despite a little hoke once in awhile. I don’t know what I was expecting but this was a delightful surprise that held up perfectly on this re-watch. I saw the restored version with tinted sections.

The film was nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9rE1wkq4r0

 

 

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Posted in 1930, Pre-Code Reviews

The Big House (1930)

Posted on November 29, 2021 | 2 comments

The Big House
Directed by George W. Hill
Written by Frances Marion
1928/US
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube rental

John Morgan: You know it means the rope, Butch, if they catch you? Who’s in on it?
‘Machine Gun’ Butch Schmidt: Well, me and Olsen and Joe and the Hawk.
John Morgan: The Hawk? That means blood.
‘Machine Gun’ Butch Schmidt: No, he promised me he wouldn’t bump nobody off.
John Morgan: Why, he croaked his own mother.
‘Machine Gun’ Butch Schmidt: Sure he did. He cut her throat. He was sorry for it. He’s all right.

This forerunner of many better prison escape movies of the 30’s is made watchable by its actors.

Kent Marlowe (Robert Montgomery) is sent up to the “Big House” for 10 years for killing a person while drunk driving.  He is young, naive, and very nervous.  He is put in a cell with ‘Machine Gun’ Butch Schmidt (Wallace Beery) who is serving a life sentence for murder and John Morgan (Chester Morris), a thief also serving a ten-year sentence.  The two hardened criminals try to show Kent the ropes but he is a coward who would rather snitch than fight.

The story covers the planning and execution of an escape attempt.  Morgan falls in love with Kent’s sister (Leila Hyams) in a minor subplot.

The acting is good but I didn’t find too many thrills.  The main point of the movie seems to be to point out crowding and corruption in the prison system.

The Big House won Oscars for Best Writing and Best Sound.  It was nominated for Best Picture and Best Actor (Beery).  Amazing how Wallace Beery could be both so darn lovable and so damned menacing at the same time!

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Posted in 1930, Pre-Code Reviews

The Big Trail (1930)

Posted on November 26, 2021 | Leave a comment

The Big Trail
Directed by Raoul Walsh
Written by Hal G. Evarts, Marie Boyle, etc.
1930/US
Fox Film Corporation
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant

Breck Coleman, Wagon Train Scout: We can’t turn back! We’re blazing a trail that started in England. Not even the storms of the sea could turn back the first settlers. And they carried it on further. They blazed it on through the wilderness of Kentucky. Famine, hunger, not even massacres could stop them. And now we picked up the trail again. And nothing can stop us! Not even the snows of winter, nor the peaks of the highest mountain. We’re building a nation and we got to suffer! No great trail was ever built without hardship. And you got to fight! That’s right. And when you stop fighting, that’s death. What are you going to do, lay down and die? Not in a thousand years! You’re going on with me!

This ambitious tale of pioneers on the Oregon trail combines a simple plot, a cast of thousands, and the launch of a natural born star.

As the story begins, hundreds of settlers (here called pilgrims) are gathered in Missouri preparing to set off for new homes in Washington State on the Oregon Trail.  Young Indian Scout Breck Coleman is hanging around the camp preparing to set out for parts unknown.  Then he notices that Red Flack (Tyrone Power Sr.), whom he suspects of killing his friend is wagon master.  Breck is convinced to sign on.

He meets awkwardly with single beauty Ruth Cameron (Marguerite Churchill) and they spar for most of the rest of the film as she rejects his advances.  Ruth is also being courted by a fugitive con man who is more “civilized” than Brent but is really after her money.

The journey is beset by raging river crossings, indian attacks, torrential rain and mud, steep mountains, and finally snowstorms.  Meanwhile, our revenge and love triangle plots get sorted out satisfactorily.

The 23-year-old John Wayne went straight from the prop department to a leading role here and was oozing star quality right out of the box.  The other actors are OK but you can’t take your eyes off of Wayne.  The other outstanding aspect of the film is the awesome photography and choreography of the epic wagon train scenes and animal crossings.  Truly ahead of its time.

Unfortunately the high cost and technology adopted by this movie – it was shot simultaneously in 70 and 35 mm and in four separate language versions – ensured it would be a box office flop.  So Wayne would be relegated back to B movies until John Ford made a star of him with Stagecoach (1939).

 

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Posted in 1930, Pre-Code Reviews