A Spanish magazine “Miradas de Cine” has conducted a poll and asked Spanish and a few abroad critics to select their 15 favorite films from the glorious 1930s and also to pick five that supposed to be overrated films. I have nothing to do with the latter part because I don’t believe if overrating of the classic films, when the creatures of them are all gone, will do any harm to us. As long as overrating is concerned, the predictable record breaker of the poll in Gone with the wind. But in my view, if we are really looking for overblown titles we must take a look around ourselves and revise some internationally accepted names and films in contemporary cinema.
Selecting top films of the 1930s is an irresistible poll to participate in. For me, one of the most essential periods in history of motion pictures is thirties and those early efforts to make something decent and artistic out of the new technical inventions like sound and later, color, while economical depression and fascism were the most serious issues of the time and maybe the whole century.
My real mentor in thirties cinema of the United States is Mr. Andrew Sarris. Writings of this wise man have been my companion in the worst and hardest days of my life and I owe him much for unveiling so many names of that era to me. So I’m going to pick my top 15 films of decade (sticking to the rules of Miradas de Cine!), but meanwhile I’m going to add another 50 titles to my selection! I must admit that my knowledge of 1930s cinema in Spanish language countries, far eastern cinema and also Italy is very limited.
You can see the complete lists in “Miradas de Cine” site, but if you are only looking for critics who are well-known outside Spain, these are the names and their picks:
Nicole Brenez (Paris) - À Propos de Nice (Vigo) • Lot in Sodom (Watson & Webber) • Lichtspiel Schwarz-Weiss-Grau (Moholy-Nagy) • L’âge d’or (Buñuel) • Le fleuve Sumida (Amaya) • Limite (Peixoto) • Taris ou la natation (Vigo) • Les Berceaux (Kirsanoff) • Que viva Mexico (Eisenstein) • L’Or des mers (Epstein) • Vampyr - Der Traum des Allan Grey (Dreyer) • Le Bonheur (Medvedkine) • Rapt (Kirsanoff) • Rainbow Dance (Lye) • Early Abstractions (Smith)
Sergi Fabregat - City Lights (Chaplin) • L’Atalante (Vigo) • Vampyr - Der Traum des Allan Grey (Dreyer) • Modern Times (Chaplin) • M (Lang) • The Roaring Twenties (Walsh) • Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (Lang) • Aleksandr Nevskiy (Eisenstein) • A Night at the Opera (Wood) • La grande illusion (Renoir) • Bride of Frankenstein (Whale) • Freaks (Browning) • Duck Soup (McCarey) • Otona no miru ehon – Umarete wa mita keredo (Ozu) • White Zombie (Halperin)
Floreal Peleato (Paris) - Zemlya (Dovzhenko) • Ze soboty na nedeli (Machatý) • Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (Murnau) • City Lights (Chaplin) • La chienne (Renoir) • Liebelei (Ophüls) • Das testament des Dr. Mabuse (Lang) • Only Yesterday (Stahl) • L’Atalante (Vigo) • U samogo sinyego morya (Barnet) • Make Way for Tomorrow (McCarey) • La grande illusion (Renoir) • Only Angels Have Wings (Hawks) • Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Capra) • Remorques (Grémillon) • Zangiku monogatari (Mizoguchi)
Jonathan Rosenbaum (Chicago) - Laughter (d’Arrast) • City Lights (Chaplin) • M (Lang) • La nuit du carrefour (Renoir) • Ivan (Dovzhenko) • Otona no miru ehon - Umarete wa mita keredo (Ozu) • Love Me Tonight (Mamoulian) • Scarface (Hawks) • Trouble in Paradise (Lubitsch) • Hallelujah, I’m a Bum (Milestone) • L’Atalante (Vigo) • Judge Priest (Ford) • King Kong (Cooper & Schoedsack) • Make Way for Tomorrow (McCarey) • Zangiku monogatari (Mizoguchi)
Chris Fujiwara (United States) - La règle du jeu (Renoir) • Young Mr. Lincoln (Ford) • Only Angels Have Wings (Hawks) • Zemlya (Dovzhenko) • L’Atalante (Vigo) • You Only Live Once (Lang) • Naniwa erejî (Mizoguchi) • Stage Door (La Cava) • Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (Murnau) • Tsuma yo bara no yo ni (Naruse) • City Lights (Chaplin) • Les perles de la couronne (Guitry) • Otona no miru ehon – Umarete wa mita keredo (Ozu) • Me and My Gal (Walsh) • Design for Living (Lubitsch)
And here is my list of 15 (+50) films of the 1930s, dedicated to Andrew Sarris:
And the next 50, without any specific order:
| À nous la liberté | 1931 | Rene Clair | |
| Bete humaine,La | 1938 | Jean Renoir | |
| Grand Illusion | 1937 | Jean Renoir | |
| Boudu Saved from Drowning | 1932 | Jean Renoir | |
| Dead End | 1937 | William Wyler | |
| Holiday | 1938 | George Cukor | |
| Informer | 1935 | John Ford | |
| Propose de Nice, A | 1930 | Jean Vigo | |
| 1938 | Marcel Carne | |
| Young Mr.Lincoln | 1939 | John Ford | |
| Zéro de conduite | 1933 | Jean Vigo | |
| Alice Adams | 1935 | George Stevens | |
| All quiet on the western front | 1930 | Lewis Milestone | |
| I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang | 1932 | Mervyn LeRoy | |
| Judge Priest | 1934 | John Ford | |
| Little Caesar | 1930 | Mervyn LeRoy | |
| Night At The Opera, A | 1935 | Sam Wood | |
| Road to Glory | 1936 | Howard Hawks | |
| Scarlet Empress | 1934 | Joseph Von Sternberg | |
| Vampyr | 1932 | Carl Th. Dreyer | |
| Whole Towns Talking | 1935 | John Ford | |
| Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse | 1933 | Fritz Lang | |
| 39 Steps | 1935 | Alfred Hitchcock | |
| 42nd Street | 1933 | Lloyd Bacon | |
| Blonde Venus | 1932 | Josef Von Sternberg | |
| Blood of a Poet | 1930 | Jean Cocteau | |
| Bringing up baby | 1938 | Howard Hawks | |
| Day At The Races,A | 1937 | Sam Wood | |
| 1933 | George Cukor | |
| Dishonored | 1931 | Josef von Sternberg | |
| Gay Divorcee | 1934 | Mark Sandrich | |
| Invisible Man,The | 1933 | James Whale | |
| King Kong | 1933 | Ernest B.Schoedsack & M.Cooper | |
| L'Age D'or | 1930 | Luis Bunuel | |
| Modern Times | 1936 | Charlie Chaplin | |
| Mr. Deeds goes to town | 1936 | Frank Capra | |
| Mr. Smith goes to Washington | 1939 | Frank Capra | |
| Ninotchka | 1939 | Ernst Lubitsch | |
| Top Hat | 1935 | Mark Sandrich | |
| Twentieth century | 1934 | Howard Hawks | |
| Under the roofs of Paris | 1930 | Rene Clair | |
| Alexander Nevsky | 1938 | Sergei Eisenstein | |
| Black Cat | 1934 | Edgar G. Ulmer | |
| Frankenstein | 1931 | James Whale | |
| Design for living | 1933 | Ernst Lubitsch | |
| Devil Is a Woman | 1935 | Josef Von Sternberg | |
| Duck Soup | 1933 | Leo McCarey | |
| Fury | 1936 | Fritz Lang | |
| It happened one night | 1934 | Frank Capra | |
| Lady Vanishes | 1938 | Alfred Hitchcock | |
| Peter Ibbetson | 1935 | Henry Hathaway | |
| Petrified Forest, The | 1936 | Archie Mayo | |
| Public Enemy | 1931 | William Wellman | |
| Ruggles of Red Gap | 1935 | Leo McCarey | |
| Plainsman | 1936 | Cecil B.DeMille | |
| Tabu | 1931 | F.W.Murnau | |
| Triumph Of The Will | 1935 | Leni Riefentahl | |
| Women | 1939 | George Cukor | |
| You can't take it with you | 1938 | Frank Capra | |
| You Only Live Once | 1937 | Fritz Lang |
Thanks to Jonathan Rosenbaum for notifying me about the event.
