Not Depressing

In 1930, sound was just coming in, though some filmmakers still made silents.  A time of transition, but it turned out to be a pretty cool year for movies anyway. Jesse Walker lists his favorites.  The top ten:

1. Earth
2. People on Sunday
3. Swing You Sinners!
4. Le Roman de Renard
5. Animal Crackers
6. L'Age d'Or
7. Under the Roofs of Paris
8. A Propos de Nice
9. Salt for Svanetia
10. Monte Carlo

An excellent top ten.  I haven't seen #4 and #9, but all the others would make my list.  I think #5 and #6 would fight for the top spot.

Here are his honorable mentions:

11. The Blue Angel
12. Blood of a Poet
13. Borderline
14. Romance Sentimentale
15. Crabes et Crevettes
16. Mechanical Principles
17. The Big House
18. All Quiet on the Western Front
19. It's a Bird
20. Night Owls

I haven't seen them all, but I like those I have.  The only one I feel a bit creaky is #18.

As for Night Owls, Laurel and Hardy (the only major silent comedians better in sound) made a bunch of fine messes in 1930.  It'd be hard to pick their top short of the year (especially since I haven't seen them in a while), but if I had to go for one, it'd probably be Hog Wild.

There are some other films from 1930 that I liked but didn't make Jesse's top 20.

First, where's the love for Walt Disney?  He was putting out a new cartoon every couple of weeks, many of them innovative and delightful.

I'm also a little surprised at no Morocco, which may not be as great as its reputation, but is still something.  (Sort of like The Blue Angel.)

Then there's The Dawn Patrol.  A little stiff, but it's worth it to have Howard Hawks teach us that dying in a plane crash isn't too bad as long as you don't whine about it.

Feet First is the film where Harold Lloyd figured out he hadn't figured out sound.  Still, some nice bits.  Then there's Buster Keaton.  Sure, Free And Easy and Doughboys are a huge drop from his silent work, and he'd lost a lot of control, but there are moments when he recaptures a bit of the magic.

By the way, have you ever seen Madam Satan?  I think it flopped in its day, but is fascinating to watch.

Other films of note (some of which I sort of like but need to see again):

Abraham Lincoln, Anna Christie (Garbo Talks), Below Zero, The Big Trail (the film that almost stopped John Wayne's career in its tracks), Charley's Aunt, The Divorcee, Dreyfus, The Florodora Girl, Good News, Goodbye Argentina, Hell's Angels, Hit the Deck, Holiday, Juno and the Paycock, Just Imagine (El Brendel has to be seen to be believed), King of Jazz, Kismet, Ladies of Leisure, Laughter, The Limejuice Mystery or Who Spat in Grandfather's Porridge?, Manslaughter, Men Without Women, Min and Bill, Murder!, No, No, Nanette, Not So Dumb, Oh Sailor Behave, Paramount on Parade, Puttin' on the Ritz, Raffles, Rain or Shine (we can see Frank Capra is a talented director and Joe Cook is not gonna make it as a top screen comedian), The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu, The Royal Family of Broadway, The Runaway Bride, School for Scandal, Sinkin' in the Bathtub, Soup to Nuts (Three Stooges so early it's Shemp before Curly), Sunny, Teacher's Pet, Tol'able David, Tom Sawyer, Too Many Crooks, The Unholy Three, Up The River, The Vagabond King, Whoopee! (if nothing else, we get a reasonably good approximation of what an Eddie Cantor Broadway hit looks like)

One final question.  Will there be a 1920 list?  The silent era can be difficult, with so many films lost, and others rarely shown.  But 1920 had D. W. Griffith, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Cecil B. DeMille, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and even Ernst Lubitsch working at the top of their game.