End Of The Line

Jesse Walker has gone back 90 years for his latest top ten list, and that's as far back as he'll go.

https://jessewalker.blogspot.com/2021/01/yes-depression-over-last-few-weeks-i.html

It's 1930.  Sound has just started (or hasn't yet). So let's get into it:

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.  Westfront 1918

Some shorts--good shorts, but I'll ignore them. Haven't seen Le Roman de Renard, Salt For Svanetia or Westfront 1918.

As for the rest, I would put Animal Crackers and L'Age d'Or on top, but Earth, People On Sunday and Under The Roofs Of Paris are all worthy. (You use French in three other titles, so why not call it Soit les toits de Paris?)

Honorable mentions.

11.  Monte Carlo

12.  The Blue Angel

13.  Borderline

14.  Romance Sentimentale

15.  The Essence Of The Fair

16.  Crabes et Crevettes

17.  Mechanical Principles

18.  The Big House

19.  All Quiet on the Western Front

20.  Le Petite Lise

Haven't seen most of these: 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 20.

11 would make my top ten (and almost made Jesse's).  18 is an early tough guy talkie that isn't bad.

12 and 19 are "classics" that I think are okay, but don't love.

As Jesse includes shorts, I might ask where's the Laurel And Hardy, where's the Disney--they were turning out a fair number of films in 1930.

(Jesse also mentions The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari as his fave from 1920, and Le Binettoscope for 1910.  I admit not that much from these years is readily available, but film was thriving in 1920, and just on shorts from Keaton and Lloyd alone you can fill up most of the list.)

Other films I like (at least in part):

Blood Of A Poet, The Dawn Patrol, Doughboys, Feet First, Free And Easy, Madame Satan, Morocco, Whoopee!

Other films of note:

Abraham Lincoln, Anna Christie (in English and German), Below Zero, The Big Trail, Charley's Aunt, The Cuckoos, The Divorcee, Dixiana, Dreyfus, The Florodora Girl, Good News, Goodbye Argentina, The Green Goddess, Half Shot At Sunrise, Hell's Angels, Hit The Deck, Holiday, Hook Line And Sinker, Juno And The Paycock, Just Imagine, King Of Jazz, Kismet, Ladies Of Leisure, Laughter, Manslaughter, Men Without Women, Min And Bill, Murder!, No No Nanette, Not So Dumb, Oh Sailor Behave, Old English, Paramount On Parade, Puttin' On The Ritz, Raffles, Rain Or Shine, The Return Of Dr. Fu Manchu, The Royal Family Of Broadway, The Runaway Bride, School For Scandal, Soup To Nuts, Sunny, Tol'able David, Tom Sawyer, Too Many Crooks, The Unholy Three, Up The River, The Vagabond King

New Year For The New Year

Our friend Jesse Walker has come up with his top ten film list for 1940. Good year for Hollywood, not so good for Europe.

https://jessewalker.blogspot.com/2021/01/rolling-down-decades-ive-posted-my.html

Here it is:

1.  The Philadelphia Story

2.  His Girl Friday

3.  The Bank Dick

4.  A Wild Hare

5.  They Drive By Night

6.  Rebecca

7.  Christmas In July

8.  Dance, Girl, Dance

9.  The Grapes Of Wrath

10.  Contraband

Without checking, I think this is Jesse's first top ten list with only English-language films (for understandable reasons).

Hard to argue with the top two (though I will, since I think an honorable mention should be on top).  Both are classic Cary Grant comedies made when Hollywood knew how to make them.

I'm not as big a fan of W. C. Fields as I am of the Marx Brothers, but The Bank Dick is one of his best--from his late, surreal period--and deserves a spot in the top ten.

A Wild Hare is an animated short.

They Drive By Night is a fun but minor drama (that has some trouble keeping the story under control). I'm surprised George Raft didn't turn it down, since that was his specialty at the time.

Rebecca won Best Picture at the Oscars but I consider it less interesting than much of Hitchcock.

Christmas In July practically defines minor Sturges, though I can see it making the top ten. I especially like Raymond Walburn.

Dance, Girl, Dance is okay, though I'm not sure what all the fus is about.

The Grapes Of Wrath is considered an all-time classic, but I've never warmed to it.  Seems to be trying too hard.

Contraband is okay Powell.  Haven't seen it in a long time.

Honorable Mentions:

11.  Foreign Correspondent

12.  The Shop Around The Corner

13.  The Thief Of Bagdad

14.  The Great McGinty

15.  Pinocchio

16.  Swinging The Lambeth Walk

17.  The Westerner

18.  Seven Sinners

19.  Tarantella

20.  The Ghost Breakers

11 is the better Hitchcock film of the year.  13 is the better Powell film of the year.  14 is the better Sturges film of the year.  So there.

And 12 is the best film of the year, indeed, one of the best of all time.

While we're at it, 15 may be Disney's best feature. Certainly the most technically impressive.

16 and 19 are shorts.

17 is a fascinating film, since the story is a western drama but a comedy keeps popping out. I don't recall 18 being that much.  20 is a nice early Bob Hope comedy.

Jesse notes he likes the shaving sequence in The Great Dictator. I know he's got an aversion to Chaplin, so we don't see Charlie's films on his lists.  Well, I've got an aversion to Chaplin talking, so I don't mind this film didn't make the list.  But it's almost perverse to note one scene from the film and it not be the one with the globe.

Other films I like, at least in part:

Broadway Melody Of 1940, Buck Benny Rides Again, A Chump At Oxford, Fantasia (some parts much better than others), Down Argentine Way, Gaslight (the original), Go West (even weak Marx Brothers is worth watching), Johnny Apollo, The Mark Of Zorro, My Favorite Wife (quite a year for Cary Grant), My Little Chickadee (though not great Fields), No Time For Comedy, Northwest Passage, Primrose Path, The Return Of Frank James, Road To Singapore (the first Road film, and they don't quite have it down yet), Strike Up The Band, Remember The Night, Tin Pan Alley,  Saps At Sea, The Sea Hawk, Second Chorus (though it's second-class Astaire)

Other films of note:

Abe Lincoln In Illinois, All This And Heaven Too, Andy Hardy Meets Debutante, Angels Over Broadway, Bitter Sweet, The Blue Bird, Boom Town (biggest hit of the year), The Boys From Syracuse, Brigham Young, Chad Hanna, Dr. Cyclops, The Eternal Jew, The Fighting 69th, The Howards Of Virginia (not every Cary Grant film is a gem), It's A Date, Kitty Foyle (Ginger leaves Fred and wins an Oscar), Knute Rockne All American, The Letter, Li'l Abner, Little Men, Little Nellie Kelly, The Long Voyage Home, Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet, The Mortal Storm, Night Train To Munich, North West Mounted Police, One Million B.C., Our Town, Pride And Prejudice, Star Dust, Strange Cargo, Swiss Family Robinson, They Knew What They Wanted, Too Many Husbands, Turnabout, Vigil In The Night, Young Tom Edison