1. Gold Diggers of 1933 (Mervyn LeRoy) — This movie captured my heart the first time I heard Ginger Rogers singing “We’re in the Money” in Pig Latin and I’m still loopy for it decades later.
Clip – “We’re in the Money”
2. The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (Fritz Lang) — I love the atmosphere of dread Lang creates in this movie and the wonderful performance by Oscar Wernicke as the crass but clever inspector Lohmann.
Clip – Intro in the counterfeiting press
3. Zero for Conduct (Jean Vigo) — This highly inventive short film is full of youthful anarchic energy and surrealist touches.
Clip – Dormitory rebellion/pillow fight
4. King Kong (Marien C. Cooper) — The granddaddy of all special effects films and still pretty amazing.
Re-release trailer
5. Design for Living (Ernst Lubitsch) This sly comedy about a menage a trois could only have been made in pre-Code Hollywood. The Ben Hecht screenplay sparkles as bright as the acting and direction.
Criterion DVD – Three Reasons
6. 42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon) — Warner Bros. backstage musical bliss.
Clip – “I’m Young and Healthy”
7. Japanese Girls at the Harbor (Hiroshi Shimizu) — The absolutely poetic outdoor shots of Yokohama were a revelation in this, my introduction to director Shimizu.
8. Dinner at Eight (George Cukor) — All the actors, including both the Barrymore brothers, do themselves proud but my favorite parts feature Jean Harlow and Wallace Beery as a bickering couple.
Clip – Jean Harlow and Wallace Beery argue
9. Counsellor at Law (William Wyler) — Truly the best performance I have seen by John Barrymore and the wisecracks fly around the law office about as fast as in The Front Page.
10. The Invisible Man (James Whale) — Claude Rains makes an unforgettable US film debut as the title character with his resonant voice. James Whale again shows his deft hand at mixing wit with violence and doing justice to both
Trailer
Just missed the Top 10: The Mayor of Hell, Little Women, Woman of Tokyo, Lady for a Day, Morning Glory and Sons of the Desert.
List of Shame (movies I wish I had seen): Alice in Wonderland, Ecstasy, Libelei, The Story of Temple Drake, Madame Bovary, Tugboat Annie, etc.
42nd Street
The grandaddy of the backstage musical with a cast to die for. I have to say, however, that Ruby Keeler is an acquired taste. Being an Irish step dancer rather than a straight tapper, she often looks really clumsy…….she couldn’t act either but she was so cute that you just overlooked those things. You wouldn’t believe that someone who looks so innocent and naive was really quite the gal about town, on the arm of gangsters, etc and finally marrying Al Jolson (she must have been drunk at the time,,,,,yuck!!) Warner Baxter probably gave his best performance in this film but won his Oscar for “In Old Arizona”….go figure. Another of my favorites in this film is little George E. Stone. He was ubiquitous throughout the 30s and 40s….he must have made hundreds of films. And he and Una Merkle were perfect together here. I could rave on and on and now I will be humming “42nd Street” all day!!!
I think Ruby would have agreed with your assessment of Al Jolson. She refused to let her name be used in The Al Jolson Story and this is what she had to say:
“I don’t like him. I don’t want my children to grow up someday and maybe see the picture and know I was married to a man like that.”
The Invisible Man
I think we have mentioned this before someplace else but I think that Claude Rains was one of the most elegant men in film. Certainly not classically handsome but very sophisticated and oooooh, that voice. I fell in love with him in this film and you only see his face at the very end.
BTW, Una O’Connor was at her shrillest in this film…..I guess it was her stock in trade. Whew!