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
posted by LAGuy @ 11:05 AM
4 Comments:
FWIW, Blood of a Poet would have made my top 20 but it appears not to have actually been publicly screened until 1932, so I'm letting that serve as its date of release.
Early talkies are interesting. They're still trying to figure how sound works, and don't have the technical ability they want. Though by 1931, certainly 1932, Hollywood had licked sound.
Quite a few of these films are at least worth watching. The revues like King Of Jazz and Paramount On Parade helped kill musicals, but still have some good acts.
The Big Trail didn't do well, preventing John Wayne's stardom, but holds up.
Charley's Aunt was a beloved comedy, made many times, and this is the first time with sound (and has Charles Ruggles).
Raffles shows Ronald Colman was made for sound.
Before Capra started using Jean Arthur, his favorite was Barbara Stanwyck, and Ladies Of Leisure was maybe their best. Capra's other film, Rain Or Shine, features some fancy camera movement.
Laughter is an early attempt at screwball comedy.
The Unholy Three, which is a Lon Chaney remake of an earlier hit of his, makes you think he could have made it in talkies.
Just Imagine is a bizarre sci-fi musical that gets by on its weirdness. Soup To Nuts is a weird comedy featuring the Three Stooges before they were the Three Stooges.
Due to the bad sound (though I'm not sure if it sounded so bad originally) it can be tough to watch these films, but they're worth it if you've got the time.
I'v seen the 1925 version of The Unholy Three (pretty good) but not the later one. Starting around 1932 and after for a few years there's some really interesting genre fare as it seems the transition to talkies induced a lot of experimentation. We're not there yet but I still saw some pretty good films from 1930 (even if my memories of more than half of my picks are somewhat dim).
As for 1920 I liked The Golem better than Caligari and yeah, most of the rest of my list would be Keaton and Lloyd shorts. Pretty sure the only 1910 film I've seen is the Edison Frankenstein.
1. Animal Crackers;
2. À propos de Nice;
3. Hell's Angels;
4. Salt for Svaneti;
5. All Quiet on the Western Front;
6. Feet First;
7. The Golf Specialist;
8. The Story of the Fox;
9. L'age D'Or;
10. The Bishop Murder Case;
I guess that's it so if you're still doing this for the 1s I'll see you next year (1991 is one of the best years for film IMO).
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