Best 1930s films?
April 7, 2023 5:15 PM Subscribe
What are some of your favourite and best 1930s films? I have seen My Man Godfrey and City Lights, Showboat, which are probably some of the best and the Thin Man Series as well. I am open to comedy, drama, mystery, and all kinds as long as it is well done. I hear Greta Garbo is great too but I have only seen one of her films.
This list from Mubi is pretty good. The Women, It Happened One Night, Ninotchka, Swing Time. I had the pleasure of seeing Gold Diggers of 1933 on an enormous screen and it was intoxicating and ribald, though maybe a little uneven. Because I love Barbara Stanwyck: Baby Face, Mad Miss Manton (a dumb trifle in the Thin Man vein, but it's a gang of 10 Noras to 1 Nick; Stanwyck and Fonda have better material in 1941's The Lady Eve but god damn look at those outfits).
posted by bcwinters at 5:36 PM on April 7, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by bcwinters at 5:36 PM on April 7, 2023 [5 favorites]
“M” is fantastic.
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Death Takes A Holiday
Holiday
It Happened One Night
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
Baby Face
… and one lovely movie from a few years earlier — Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
posted by Silvery Fish at 5:39 PM on April 7, 2023 [6 favorites]
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Death Takes A Holiday
Holiday
It Happened One Night
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
Baby Face
… and one lovely movie from a few years earlier — Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
posted by Silvery Fish at 5:39 PM on April 7, 2023 [6 favorites]
It Happened One Night was enjoyable.
posted by Maxwell_Smart at 5:39 PM on April 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Maxwell_Smart at 5:39 PM on April 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
Best answer: The Rules of the Game
Bringing Up Baby
Modern Times
I Was Born, But..
Pepe Le Moko
Port of Shadows
Grand Illusion
Vampyr
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
Frankenstein
Bride of Frankenstein
The Lady Vanishes
The 39 Steps
The Man Who Knew Too Much
Sabotage
posted by crime online at 5:39 PM on April 7, 2023 [7 favorites]
Bringing Up Baby
Modern Times
I Was Born, But..
Pepe Le Moko
Port of Shadows
Grand Illusion
Vampyr
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
Frankenstein
Bride of Frankenstein
The Lady Vanishes
The 39 Steps
The Man Who Knew Too Much
Sabotage
posted by crime online at 5:39 PM on April 7, 2023 [7 favorites]
The Philadelphia Story (stage play 1939, film 1940) is delightful.
posted by baseballpajamas at 5:45 PM on April 7, 2023 [15 favorites]
posted by baseballpajamas at 5:45 PM on April 7, 2023 [15 favorites]
I checked out the Mubi list and I’m glad it had “Footlight Parade.” Cagney! Blondell!
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 6:06 PM on April 7, 2023
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 6:06 PM on April 7, 2023
The Marx Brothers!
posted by Rash at 6:13 PM on April 7, 2023 [10 favorites]
- Paramounts:
- Animal Crackers (1930)
- Monkey Business (1931)
- Horse Feathers (1932)*
- Duck Soup (1933)
- MGM/Irving Thalbergs:
- A Night At The Opera (1935)
- A Day At The Races (1937)
- and the RKO
- Room Service (1938)
posted by Rash at 6:13 PM on April 7, 2023 [10 favorites]
The 1931 version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a great classic horror film; Fredric March gives a fabulously twitchy performance when he transforms into Hyde, and the film is pre-Code so it's got some surprisingly creepy moments, along with one of the most sultry seduction scenes you'll find in a movie of that era between Jekyll and a lady of the night (starts about 30 seconds into the clip).
posted by mediareport at 6:16 PM on April 7, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by mediareport at 6:16 PM on April 7, 2023 [4 favorites]
Also, speaking of Joan Blondell, Gold-Diggers of 1933. "We're In The Money", sure; but have you ever experienced the concluding Remember My Forgotten Man? A companion Depression song to Bing Crosby's "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?"
posted by Rash at 6:19 PM on April 7, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by Rash at 6:19 PM on April 7, 2023 [8 favorites]
If you're down for musicals, the entire Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers and Dick Powell/Ruby Keeler oeuvres are a lot of fun.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:30 PM on April 7, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:30 PM on April 7, 2023 [8 favorites]
Little Caesar.
It Happened One Night.
It's obviously problematic, but if you're talking about 1930s films, it's hard to ignore Gone with the Wind.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 6:57 PM on April 7, 2023 [4 favorites]
It Happened One Night.
It's obviously problematic, but if you're talking about 1930s films, it's hard to ignore Gone with the Wind.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 6:57 PM on April 7, 2023 [4 favorites]
1939 was an annus mirabilis with many great films, including The Wizard of Oz, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Stagecoach, The Women, Wuthering Heights, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Destry Rides Again, Of Mice and Men, and many others, even including Gone With the Wind, a huge sensation in its time.
posted by JonJacky at 6:57 PM on April 7, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by JonJacky at 6:57 PM on April 7, 2023 [5 favorites]
You could also just start by watching all the Best Picture Nominees from 1939. It was quite a year.
Gone with the Wind (Winner)
Dark Victory
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Love Affair
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Ninotchka
Of Mice and Men
Stagecoach
The Wizard of Oz
Wuthering Heights
posted by Winnie the Proust at 7:03 PM on April 7, 2023 [4 favorites]
Gone with the Wind (Winner)
Dark Victory
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Love Affair
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Ninotchka
Of Mice and Men
Stagecoach
The Wizard of Oz
Wuthering Heights
posted by Winnie the Proust at 7:03 PM on April 7, 2023 [4 favorites]
Shirley Temple: Bright Eyes, The Little Colonel, and others.
posted by Melismata at 7:09 PM on April 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Melismata at 7:09 PM on April 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
Anybody with a spare 15 minutes should watch the Lullaby of Broadway sequence from Gold Diggers of 1935, because it rules: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
posted by bcwinters at 7:10 PM on April 7, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by bcwinters at 7:10 PM on April 7, 2023 [8 favorites]
Rain (1932), a pre-Code film with Joan Crawford.
posted by philfromhavelock at 7:10 PM on April 7, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by philfromhavelock at 7:10 PM on April 7, 2023 [4 favorites]
Ha, I was just typing up a recommendation for Busby Berkeley-choreographed musicals. The ones to start with are 42nd Street, from 1933, which really kicked Hollywood musicals into the stratosphere, then Footlight Parade, Gold Diggers of 1933, Gold Diggers of 1935 and 1934's Dames, which has probably my fave of all Berkeley's famously psychedelic dance routines - seriously, watch the first minute of that clip and you'll be sold.
You can't go wrong with any of films Busby Berkeley did choreography for in the early-mid 30s; he had an incredible run, creating amazing, hilarious and downright bizarre musical numbers unlike anything anyone had done before. Allmovie gives 42nd Street five stars and can't rave enough about its groundbreaking style:
It had gotten so bad that by 1932, theater owners were protecting their box office with signs announcing, for any "suspect" title, "NOT A MUSICAL!" It was into that environment in 1933 that Warner Bros. released 42nd Street, directed by Lloyd Bacon and choreographed by Busby Berkeley--and it revived and revolutionized the whole musical genre...
Berkeley and cinematographer Sol Polito took this notion to the next step by removing the camera from the studio floor. Under their direction, shots were done from overhead angles and other locations from which no person could ever actually observe in real life, and the dancers' motions were, in turn, designed to exploit those angles; in effect, they created the true movie musical, as opposed to a musical that happened to be on film.
Bacon's direction of the dialogue portions of the story, with both dramatic and comic content, was also very sure...the music by Harry Warren and Al Dubin was downright clever; and the acting, though a little broad by modern standards, was of first caliber, also unusual for a musical...The audience devoured it, and Warner Bros., Berkeley, and company rose to the occasion of delivering more and better musicals like it for much of the rest of the decade.
(On preview, loved the mention of Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler; their heyday together started and continued in these Busby Berkeley flicks.)
posted by mediareport at 7:11 PM on April 7, 2023 [7 favorites]
You can't go wrong with any of films Busby Berkeley did choreography for in the early-mid 30s; he had an incredible run, creating amazing, hilarious and downright bizarre musical numbers unlike anything anyone had done before. Allmovie gives 42nd Street five stars and can't rave enough about its groundbreaking style:
It had gotten so bad that by 1932, theater owners were protecting their box office with signs announcing, for any "suspect" title, "NOT A MUSICAL!" It was into that environment in 1933 that Warner Bros. released 42nd Street, directed by Lloyd Bacon and choreographed by Busby Berkeley--and it revived and revolutionized the whole musical genre...
Berkeley and cinematographer Sol Polito took this notion to the next step by removing the camera from the studio floor. Under their direction, shots were done from overhead angles and other locations from which no person could ever actually observe in real life, and the dancers' motions were, in turn, designed to exploit those angles; in effect, they created the true movie musical, as opposed to a musical that happened to be on film.
Bacon's direction of the dialogue portions of the story, with both dramatic and comic content, was also very sure...the music by Harry Warren and Al Dubin was downright clever; and the acting, though a little broad by modern standards, was of first caliber, also unusual for a musical...The audience devoured it, and Warner Bros., Berkeley, and company rose to the occasion of delivering more and better musicals like it for much of the rest of the decade.
(On preview, loved the mention of Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler; their heyday together started and continued in these Busby Berkeley flicks.)
posted by mediareport at 7:11 PM on April 7, 2023 [7 favorites]
Oh hi I have a classic movie blog.
My biggest recs from the 1930s:
* The Thin Man. It's about a husband-and-wife couple who try to solve a murder mystery - and are deliciously clever and urbane as they do. This was so ridiculously fun that only 20 minutes into the movie my then roommate was looking it up on his computer to verify the Rotten Tomatoes score was as good as he thought it was, and to check whether they made any sequels.
* Le Million. This is a quirky little French film, sort of half-a-musical (there are some songs, but not that many), about a starving artist who suddenly learns he's just won the lottery - only the lottery ticket is in the pocket of a jacket that his girlfriend kindheartedly loaned to an older man trying to disguise himself from the cops. They chase him and learn he's already donated the jacket to a thrift shop, and from there it got bought by an opera impresario who's making his debut at the opera house where the girlfriend performs, and...it sounds ridiculous when I describe it that way, but I was thoroughly charmed.
* Seconding Duck Soup, M, Bringing Up Baby, The Grand Illusion, Rules Of the Game, and A Night At The Opera.
* Make Way For Tomorrow is heartbreakingly sad - an older couple finds themselves bankrupt and have to throw themselves on the mercy of their four grown children to take them in - which doesn't work out for anybody. This is a movie which totally could be remade today.
* King Kong has some definite issues with racial stereotyping, but it's like the ur-special effects blockbuster and is MAD fun.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:15 PM on April 7, 2023 [8 favorites]
My biggest recs from the 1930s:
* The Thin Man. It's about a husband-and-wife couple who try to solve a murder mystery - and are deliciously clever and urbane as they do. This was so ridiculously fun that only 20 minutes into the movie my then roommate was looking it up on his computer to verify the Rotten Tomatoes score was as good as he thought it was, and to check whether they made any sequels.
* Le Million. This is a quirky little French film, sort of half-a-musical (there are some songs, but not that many), about a starving artist who suddenly learns he's just won the lottery - only the lottery ticket is in the pocket of a jacket that his girlfriend kindheartedly loaned to an older man trying to disguise himself from the cops. They chase him and learn he's already donated the jacket to a thrift shop, and from there it got bought by an opera impresario who's making his debut at the opera house where the girlfriend performs, and...it sounds ridiculous when I describe it that way, but I was thoroughly charmed.
* Seconding Duck Soup, M, Bringing Up Baby, The Grand Illusion, Rules Of the Game, and A Night At The Opera.
* Make Way For Tomorrow is heartbreakingly sad - an older couple finds themselves bankrupt and have to throw themselves on the mercy of their four grown children to take them in - which doesn't work out for anybody. This is a movie which totally could be remade today.
* King Kong has some definite issues with racial stereotyping, but it's like the ur-special effects blockbuster and is MAD fun.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:15 PM on April 7, 2023 [8 favorites]
If you are willing to reach into 1940 you can include The Grapes of Wrath which has to be the quintessential 1930s movie for its theme.
posted by JonJacky at 7:26 PM on April 7, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by JonJacky at 7:26 PM on April 7, 2023 [3 favorites]
I just noticed no one has mentioned The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn. That's one of the all-time greats.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 7:32 PM on April 7, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by Winnie the Proust at 7:32 PM on April 7, 2023 [7 favorites]
* Make Way For Tomorrow is heartbreakingly sad
Amazing film, about which Roger Ebert said "It could make a stone cry."
posted by Rash at 7:56 PM on April 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
Amazing film, about which Roger Ebert said "It could make a stone cry."
posted by Rash at 7:56 PM on April 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
Actually it's even better - Orson Welles was who said that Make Way For Tomorrow "could make a stone cry." (Roger Ebert was quoting Welles in his own review.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:04 PM on April 7, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:04 PM on April 7, 2023 [3 favorites]
Shirley Temple: Bright Eyes, The Little Colonel, and others.
Her breakthrough picture was 1934's Stand Up and Cheer where she sang "Baby, Take A Bow". It's actually a weird, inconsistent film with horrible stereotypes (Lincoln Perry AKA Stepin Fetchit's in the cast) but it has a couple other remarkable numbers worth experiencing, if you're into the Depression: I'm Laughing and the finale, We're Out of the Red. (I believe that singer is John Boles.) Those two links drop into the full movie so you can see it all there, if you're curious.
posted by Rash at 9:04 PM on April 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
Her breakthrough picture was 1934's Stand Up and Cheer where she sang "Baby, Take A Bow". It's actually a weird, inconsistent film with horrible stereotypes (Lincoln Perry AKA Stepin Fetchit's in the cast) but it has a couple other remarkable numbers worth experiencing, if you're into the Depression: I'm Laughing and the finale, We're Out of the Red. (I believe that singer is John Boles.) Those two links drop into the full movie so you can see it all there, if you're curious.
posted by Rash at 9:04 PM on April 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
You've heard of Frances Farmer? Here's her best film, Come And Get It, from 1936.
posted by Rash at 9:26 PM on April 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Rash at 9:26 PM on April 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
You can get two Barrymores for the price of one in Grand Hotel (1932) and Dinner at Eight (1933).
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:48 PM on April 7, 2023
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:48 PM on April 7, 2023
No mention of Trouble in Paradise???
Another Lubitsch, featuring Miriam Hopkins from Paradise: Design for Living.
Kay Francis, the other woman lead of Paradise, is charming in the trifle Jewel Robbery. She was a huge star in her time, now almost entirely forgotten.
posted by praemunire at 10:58 PM on April 7, 2023 [7 favorites]
Another Lubitsch, featuring Miriam Hopkins from Paradise: Design for Living.
Kay Francis, the other woman lead of Paradise, is charming in the trifle Jewel Robbery. She was a huge star in her time, now almost entirely forgotten.
posted by praemunire at 10:58 PM on April 7, 2023 [7 favorites]
Yeah, Trouble in Paradise is one of my favorite movies. Lubitsch Seems drunk in the possibilities of sound.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:40 AM on April 8, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:40 AM on April 8, 2023 [2 favorites]
Movies directed by Mervyn LeRoy: Little Caesar (prototypical gangster film), Three on a Match (very young Bette Davis), I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang. (Gold Diggers of 1933, mentioned above, is also him.)
If you like Alfred Hitchcock at all, seek out his pre-Hollywood movies from this period.
posted by staggernation at 3:10 AM on April 8, 2023 [4 favorites]
If you like Alfred Hitchcock at all, seek out his pre-Hollywood movies from this period.
posted by staggernation at 3:10 AM on April 8, 2023 [4 favorites]
Also, speaking of Joan Blondell, Gold-Diggers of 1933. "We're In The Money", sure; but have you ever experienced the concluding Remember My Forgotten Man ? A companion Depression song to Bing Crosby's "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?"
posted by Rash at 9:19 PM on April 7 [3 favorites +] [!]
which is echoed by the line of the silly girls, "We're looking for a forgotten man," in My Man Godfrey. Thanks, Rash!
posted by JimN2TAW at 4:02 AM on April 8, 2023
Libeled Lady. Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 5:13 AM on April 8, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by TWinbrook8 at 5:13 AM on April 8, 2023 [4 favorites]
Response by poster: @staggernation My username is my favourite Hitchcock film!
posted by RearWindow at 6:19 AM on April 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by RearWindow at 6:19 AM on April 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
Ooh I forgot to add, if you are interested in film history and are able to watch the series The Story Of Film, episode 4 covers a good chunk of the 1930s - it gives some great context of the era and might give you some inspiration of what to look into further based on your interests. I’ve been slowly watching one episode at a time and exploring directors and movements between each episode and it’s been great - but I’ve been going off and on for 2 years and am currently still stuck in the rabbit hole from episode 6!
posted by crime online at 7:16 AM on April 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by crime online at 7:16 AM on April 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
We went through all of the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers RKO dance films that we could find. They were all consistently entertaining, often with some fascinating scenes.
posted by ovvl at 10:19 AM on April 8, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by ovvl at 10:19 AM on April 8, 2023 [5 favorites]
Holiday
Trouble in Paradise
Rain
The Women
Grand Hotel (with Garbo)
I dunno, there are so many. The first couple of years of the 30s you get "pre-code" movies before the Hays code dictated that movies had to be moral in a boring, Catholic way so there's some surprising content like Design For Living which, unless you're really looking to ignore it, is about a MMF throuple.
posted by less-of-course at 5:51 PM on April 8, 2023 [2 favorites]
Trouble in Paradise
Rain
The Women
Grand Hotel (with Garbo)
I dunno, there are so many. The first couple of years of the 30s you get "pre-code" movies before the Hays code dictated that movies had to be moral in a boring, Catholic way so there's some surprising content like Design For Living which, unless you're really looking to ignore it, is about a MMF throuple.
posted by less-of-course at 5:51 PM on April 8, 2023 [2 favorites]
I'm surprised no one's mentioned His Girl Friday yet
posted by mojohand at 7:15 PM on April 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by mojohand at 7:15 PM on April 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
A throuple featuring young Gary Cooper, no less.
posted by praemunire at 8:44 PM on April 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by praemunire at 8:44 PM on April 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
What, no mention yet of The Maltese Falcon!
posted by Tim Bucktooth at 4:22 PM on April 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Tim Bucktooth at 4:22 PM on April 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
The 1934 version of Les Misérables - very non-Hollywood and French. Great sound-track, lighting and camera work. Long at over 3 hours - but you've seen how thick the book is. Sample clip
posted by rongorongo at 5:53 AM on April 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by rongorongo at 5:53 AM on April 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'm very lucky to live near the Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto, which shows many double features of classic and lesser-known movies from this era.
Here are a few program calendars from past screenings:
Films of 1939
Fox Studios 1915-1935
Paramount Pictures 1930-1935
Universal Pictures 1930-1935
Bette Davis early films 1931-1938
posted by JDC8 at 5:57 PM on April 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
Here are a few program calendars from past screenings:
Films of 1939
Fox Studios 1915-1935
Paramount Pictures 1930-1935
Universal Pictures 1930-1935
Bette Davis early films 1931-1938
posted by JDC8 at 5:57 PM on April 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
« Older Help me find the coldest mattress topper out there | Stuck on a birthday gathering decision due to... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by brookeb at 5:18 PM on April 7, 2023 [13 favorites]