1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die
by ElNapalmo | created - 01 Jan 2021 | updated - 01 Jan 2021 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. A Trip to the Moon (1902)
TV-G | 13 min | Short, Action, Adventure
A group of astronomers go on an expedition to the Moon.
Director: Georges Méliès | Stars: Georges Méliès, Victor André, Bleuette Bernon, Brunnet
Votes: 55,826
I thought I’d catch up on some past 1001 Movie Blog Club selections. What more natural place to start than with the first movie on the list? As an added bonus, I finally got to see the restored hand-colored version with some additional footage I had never seen. The restoration, music, and added footage only add to the film’s charm. I had always thought of this movie as a landmark of early cinema but this viewing had me laughing out loud at some of the ridiculous antics Méliès presents.
Our story begins at a meeting of astronomers. Their president proposes a trip to the moon. He gets a generally enthusiastic reception but one of the astronomers objects and the president pelts the culprit with books and papers. Four astronomers are selected to join the president on the voyage. The group goes to inspect the spacecraft, which is shaped like a giant bullet. It will be launched from a cannon and we see the gun being casted. A bevy of beauties in tights serve as gunners for the launch. (Méliès uses every opportunity to feature shapely ladies throughout.)
The spaceship is successfully launched. In one of the most iconic images in film history, it pierces the eye of the moon. The astronauts are tired from their journey and stretch out on the moon’s surface for a nap. They dream that women in the stars are scolding them for violating the moon. Phoebus in the form of a lady in the crescent moon sends snow to show the displeasure of the cosmos. The astronauts are cold and foolishly decide to descend into a crater. There they find a grotto filled with giant mushrooms. A vengeful group of moon dwellers called Selenites attack our heroes. Fortunately, these disappear into a puff of smoke when struck by an umbrella. Nonetheless, the a mob of Selenites chase the astronauts into the presence of their king but he also is despatched with an umbrella. The president sacrifices his life to save the other astronauts by staying behind to push the spacecraft off the edge of the moon. The spacecraft lands in the ocean, where it floats, and is rescued by a steamer.
This is where the film ended in previous versions I watched. The restored version continues on with a couple of very charming scenes showing the heroic welcome greeting the astronauts. I am crazy about the monument built in their honor.
The restoration I watched was based on an original hand-colored print of A Trip to the Moon rediscovered in 1993 by the Filmoteca de Catalunya. Technicolor Lab of Los Angeles launched a frame-by-frame restoration of the almost totally decomposed print in 1999 and completed it in 2010. Afterwards, West Wing Digital Studios replaced missing frames by hand painting frames from a black and white print. The restored version finally premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, with a new soundtrack by the French band Air. It was released in 2012 by Flicker Alley in a 2-disc Blu-Ray/DVD edition, which included the documentary The Extraordinary Voyage about its restoration. I’d like to see that DVD edition sometime. Alas, it is not available for rent on Netflix. However, the restoration itself is available on YouTube or on the Wikipedia site for the film.
2. The Great Train Robbery (1903)
TV-G | 11 min | Short, Action, Adventure
A group of bandits stage a brazen train hold-up, only to find a determined posse hot on their heels.
Director: Edwin S. Porter | Stars: Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, A.C. Abadie, George Barnes, Justus D. Barnes
Votes: 21,004
3. The Birth of a Nation (1915)
TV-PG | 195 min | Drama, History, War
The Stoneman family finds its friendship with the Camerons affected by the Civil War, both fighting in opposite armies. The development of the war in their lives plays through to Lincoln's assassination and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan.
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall, Miriam Cooper
Votes: 26,351 | Gross: $10.00M
4. Les vampires (1915)
Not Rated | 421 min | Action, Adventure, Crime
An intrepid reporter and his loyal friend battle a bizarre secret society of criminals known as The Vampires.
Director: Louis Feuillade | Stars: Musidora, Édouard Mathé, Marcel Lévesque, Jean Aymé
Votes: 5,433
5. Intolerance (1916)
Passed | 163 min | Drama, History
The story of a poor young woman separated by prejudice from her husband and baby is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Lillian Gish, Robert Harron, Mae Marsh, F.A. Turner
Votes: 16,729 | Gross: $2.18M
6. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Not Rated | 67 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Hypnotist Dr. Caligari uses a somnambulist, Cesare, to commit murders.
Director: Robert Wiene | Stars: Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Feher, Lil Dagover
Votes: 70,097
7. Broken Blossoms or the Yellow Man and the Girl (1919)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama, Romance
A frail waif, abused by her brutal boxer father in London's seedy Limehouse District, is befriended by a sensitive Chinese immigrant with tragic consequences.
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Donald Crisp, Arthur Howard
Votes: 11,064
8. Way Down East (1920)
Passed | 145 min | Drama, Romance
A naive country girl is tricked into a sham marriage by a wealthy womanizer, then must rebuild her life despite the taint of having borne a child out of wedlock.
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Mrs. David Landau, Lowell Sherman
Votes: 5,902 | Gross: $4.50M
9. Within Our Gates (1920)
Not Rated | 79 min | Drama, Romance
Abandoned by her fiancé, an educated black woman with a shocking past dedicates herself to helping a near bankrupt school for impoverished black youths.
Director: Oscar Micheaux | Stars: Evelyn Preer, Flo Clements, James D. Ruffin, Jack Chenault
Votes: 3,633
10. The Phantom Carriage (1921)
Not Rated | 107 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
On New Year's Eve, the driver of a ghostly carriage forces a drunken man to reflect on his selfish, wasted life.
Director: Victor Sjöström | Stars: Victor Sjöström, Hilda Borgström, Tore Svennberg, Astrid Holm
Votes: 14,095
11. Orphans of the Storm (1921)
Not Rated | 150 min | Drama, History, Romance
Two orphaned sisters are caught up in the turmoil of the French Revolution, encountering misery and love along the way.
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Joseph Schildkraut, Frank Losee
Votes: 5,480 | Gross: $0.79M
12. The Smiling Madame Beudet (1923)
26 min | Short, Drama
An unhappily married woman devises a scheme to get rid of her husband.
Director: Germaine Dulac | Stars: Germaine Dermoz, Madeleine Guitty, Jean d'Yd, Yvette Grisier
Votes: 2,948
13. Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922)
Not Rated | 242 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Arch-criminal Dr. Mabuse sets out to make a fortune and run Berlin. Detective Wenk sets out to stop him.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Aud Egede-Nissen, Gertrude Welcker, Alfred Abel
Votes: 9,175
14. Nanook of the North (1922)
Passed | 78 min | Documentary
In this silent predecessor to the modern documentary, film-maker Robert J. Flaherty spends one year following the lives of Nanook and his family, Inuits living in the Arctic Circle.
Director: Robert J. Flaherty | Stars: Allakariallak, Alice Nevalinga, Cunayou, Allegoo
Votes: 13,459
15. Nosferatu (1922)
Not Rated | 94 min | Fantasy, Horror
Vampire Count Orlok expresses interest in a new residence and real estate agent Hutter's wife.
Director: F.W. Murnau | Stars: Max Schreck, Alexander Granach, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schröder
Votes: 105,507
16. Häxan (1922)
Not Rated | 91 min | Documentary, Fantasy, Horror
Fictionalized documentary showing the evolution of witchcraft, from its pagan roots to its confusion with hysteria in Eastern Europe.
Director: Benjamin Christensen | Stars: Benjamin Christensen, Elisabeth Christensen, Maren Pedersen, Clara Pontoppidan
Votes: 16,740
17. Foolish Wives (1922)
Not Rated | 117 min | Drama, Thriller
A con artist masquerades as Russian nobility and attempts to seduce the wife of an American diplomat.
Director: Erich von Stroheim | Stars: Rudolph Christians, Miss DuPont, Maude George, Mae Busch
Votes: 4,023 | Gross: $0.40M
18. Our Hospitality (1923)
Passed | 65 min | Comedy, Romance, Thriller
A man returns to his Appalachian homestead. On the trip, he falls for a young woman. The only problem is her family has vowed to kill every member of his family.
Directors: John G. Blystone, Buster Keaton | Stars: Buster Keaton, Natalie Talmadge, Joe Keaton, Joe Roberts
Votes: 12,497 | Gross: $1.17M
19. The Wheel (1923)
Not Rated | 417 min | Drama
A railway engineer adopts a young girl orphaned by a train crash. Years later when she starts getting suitors, he grapples with whether or not to tell her the truth about her parentage.
Director: Abel Gance | Stars: Gabriel de Gravone, Pierre Magnier, Georges Térof, Séverin-Mars
Votes: 2,563
20. The Thief of Bagdad (1924)
Not Rated | 155 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
A recalcitrant thief vies with a duplicitous Mongol ruler for the hand of a beautiful princess.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Douglas Fairbanks, Julanne Johnston, Snitz Edwards, Charles Belcher
Votes: 6,976 | Gross: $4.36M
21. Strike (1925)
Not Rated | 82 min | Drama
A group of oppressed factory workers go on strike in pre-revolutionary Russia.
Director: Sergei Eisenstein | Stars: Grigoriy Aleksandrov, Maksim Shtraukh, Mikhail Gomorov, I. Ivanov
Votes: 8,632
22. Greed (1924)
Not Rated | 140 min | Drama, Thriller, Western
The sudden fortune won from a lottery fans such destructive greed that it ruins the lives of the three people involved.
Director: Erich von Stroheim | Stars: Gibson Gowland, Zasu Pitts, Jean Hersholt, Dale Fuller
Votes: 10,766 | Gross: $0.16M
23. Sherlock Jr. (1924)
Passed | 45 min | Action, Comedy, Romance
A film projectionist longs to be a detective, and puts his meagre skills to work when he is framed by a rival for stealing his girlfriend's father's pocketwatch.
Director: Buster Keaton | Stars: Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Joe Keaton, Erwin Connelly
Votes: 57,079 | Gross: $0.98M
24. The Last Laugh (1924)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama
An aging doorman is forced to face the scorn of his friends, neighbors and society after being fired from his prestigious job at a luxurious hotel.
Director: F.W. Murnau | Stars: Emil Jannings, Maly Delschaft, Max Hiller, Emilie Kurz
Votes: 15,214 | Gross: $0.09M
25. Seven Chances (1925)
Passed | 56 min | Comedy, Romance
A man learns that he will inherit a fortune if he marries by 7PM that evening.
Director: Buster Keaton | Stars: Buster Keaton, Ruth Dwyer, T. Roy Barnes, Snitz Edwards
Votes: 11,739 | Gross: $1.30M
26. The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
Passed | 93 min | Horror
A mad, disfigured composer seeks love with a lovely young opera singer.
Directors: Rupert Julian, Lon Chaney, Ernst Laemmle, Edward Sedgwick | Stars: Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry, Arthur Edmund Carewe
Votes: 20,118 | Gross: $3.75M
Erik (Lon Chaney), a self-taught musician and disfigured, criminally insane fugitive, has taken refuge in the cavernous cellars of the Paris Opera House. There he has been taken for a phantom that haunts the opera house. He develops a passion for rising opera singer Christine and promotes her career by writing threatening letters to keep the star diva from singing and by killing the audience with a chandelier when that doesn’t work. Eventually, he lures Christine to his realm where she soon learns of the hideous countenance hidden by his mask. He agrees to allow Christine to return to the opera on the condition that she stay away from her lover. Naturally, Christine cannot resist and all hell breaks loose.
I must say that this is much creepier and more gripping than the 1943 Claude Rains version. The print I saw had quite a bit of tinting, two-strip Technicolor sequences, and a specially composed score that heightened the effects. Chaney was spectacular and, while I could have lived without some of Mary Philbin’s posturing, I really enjoyed it.
27. Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Not Rated | 66 min | Drama, History, Thriller
In the midst of the Russian Revolution of 1905, the crew of the battleship Potemkin mutiny against the brutal, tyrannical regime of the vessel's officers. The resulting street demonstration in Odessa brings on a police massacre.
Director: Sergei Eisenstein | Stars: Aleksandr Antonov, Vladimir Barskiy, Grigoriy Aleksandrov, Ivan Bobrov
Votes: 61,474 | Gross: $0.05M
The sailors of the Battleship Potemkin are fed up with their diet of rotten, maggoty meat and refuse to eat their borscht. The officers threaten to kill them for insubordination and the sailors revolt. The citizens of Odessa rise up in support of the rebel sailors and are slaughtered on the Odessa steps by tsarist soldiers. The rest of the squadron closes in on the Potemkin and the crew gets ready to fight. At the last minute, victory! The sailors on the other ships allow the Potemkin to pass safely.
While this movie does not exactly make my heart sing, there is no arguing that it taught the world a lot about how to tell a story and manipulate audience emotions through editing. The famous Odessa steps sequence is still one of the most powerfully horrific scenes in film history. This time around I noticed some pretty exquisite cinematography in this film at well. The restored print brought out the ethereal ships in the harbor when Vakulinchuk’s body is brought by boat to the docks at dawn. The sequence of the fleet of little sailing boats taking provisions to the battleship is also lyrical and quite lovely. It is easy to forget such interludes in a film that seems to determined to brand shocking images on the brain.
28. The Gold Rush (1925)
Passed | 95 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
A prospector goes to the Klondike during the 1890s gold rush in hopes of making his fortune, and is smitten with a girl he sees in a dance hall.
Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Mack Swain, Tom Murray, Henry Bergman
Votes: 118,710 | Gross: $5.45M
29. The Big Parade (1925)
Not Rated | 151 min | Drama, Romance, War
A young American soldier witnesses the horrors of the Great War.
Directors: King Vidor, George W. Hill | Stars: John Gilbert, Renée Adorée, Hobart Bosworth, Claire McDowell
Votes: 7,285 | Gross: $11.00M
30. Metropolis (1927)
Not Rated | 153 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
In a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working-class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge
Votes: 185,625 | Gross: $1.24M
31. Sunrise (1927)
Passed | 94 min | Drama, Romance
A sophisticated city woman seduces a farmer and convinces him to murder his wife and join her in the city, but he ends up rekindling his romance with his wife when he changes his mind at the last moment.
Director: F.W. Murnau | Stars: George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston, Bodil Rosing
Votes: 53,867 | Gross: $0.54M
32. The General (1926)
Passed | 78 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
After being rejected by the Confederate military, not realizing it was due to his crucial civilian role, an engineer must single-handedly recapture his beloved locomotive after it is seized by Union spies and return it through enemy lines.
Directors: Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton | Stars: Buster Keaton, Marion Mack, Glen Cavender, Jim Farley
Votes: 98,209 | Gross: $1.03M
33. The Unknown (1927)
Unrated | 68 min | Drama, Horror, Romance
A criminal on the run hides in a circus and seeks to possess the daughter of the ringmaster at any cost.
Director: Tod Browning | Stars: Lon Chaney, Norman Kerry, Joan Crawford, Nick De Ruiz
Votes: 9,169 | Gross: $0.41M
34. October (Ten Days that Shook the World) (1927)
95 min | Drama, History
A large-scale view on the events of 1917 in Russia, when the monarchy was overthrown.
Directors: Grigoriy Aleksandrov, Sergei Eisenstein | Stars: Boris Livanov, Nikolay Popov, Vasili Nikandrov, Layaschenko
Votes: 8,454
35. The Jazz Singer (1927)
Passed | 88 min | Drama, Music, Musical
The son of a Jewish Cantor must defy the traditions of his religious father in order to pursue his dream of becoming a jazz singer.
Director: Alan Crosland | Stars: Al Jolson, May McAvoy, Warner Oland, Eugenie Besserer
Votes: 11,080 | Gross: $7.63M
36. Napoleon (1927)
330 min | Biography, Drama, History
A film about the French general's youth and early military career.
Director: Abel Gance | Stars: Albert Dieudonné, Vladimir Roudenko, Edmond Van Daële, Alexandre Koubitzky
Votes: 8,798
37. The Kid Brother (1927)
Passed | 82 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
A sheriff's milquetoast son has a chance to prove himself when a medicine show run by con artists comes into town.
Directors: Ted Wilde, Harold Lloyd, Lewis Milestone, J.A. Howe | Stars: Harold Lloyd, Jobyna Ralston, Walter James, Leo Willis
Votes: 4,825 | Gross: $1.55M
38. The Crowd (1928)
Not Rated | 98 min | Drama, Romance
The life of a man and woman together in a large, impersonal metropolis through their hopes, struggles, and downfalls.
Director: King Vidor | Stars: Eleanor Boardman, James Murray, Bert Roach, Estelle Clark
Votes: 9,176
39. The Docks of New York (1928)
Not Rated | 76 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A blue-collar worker on New York's depressed waterfront finds his life changed after he saves a woman attempting suicide.
Director: Josef von Sternberg | Stars: George Bancroft, Betty Compson, Olga Baclanova, Clyde Cook
Votes: 5,034
40. Un chien andalou (1929)
Not Rated | 16 min | Short, Fantasy, Horror
Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí present 16 minutes of bizarre, surreal imagery.
Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Pierre Batcheff, Simone Mareuil, Luis Buñuel, Pancho Cossío
Votes: 53,821
41. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
Passed | 114 min | Biography, Drama, History
In 1431, Jeanne d'Arc is placed on trial on charges of heresy. The ecclesiastical jurists attempt to force Jeanne to recant her claims of holy visions.
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer | Stars: Maria Falconetti, Eugene Silvain, André Berley, Maurice Schutz
Votes: 60,712 | Gross: $0.02M
42. Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)
Not Rated | 70 min | Action, Comedy, Drama
The effete son of a cantankerous riverboat captain comes to join his father's crew.
Directors: Charles Reisner, Buster Keaton | Stars: Buster Keaton, Tom McGuire, Ernest Torrence, Tom Lewis
Votes: 16,196
43. Storm Over Asia (1928)
74 min | Drama, War
After a run-in with the law, a Mongolian man becomes a fugitive and joins the Russian Civil War.
Director: Vsevolod Pudovkin | Stars: I. Inkizhinov, I. Dedintsev, Valéry Inkijinoff, Aleksandr Chistyakov
Votes: 2,311
44. Blackmail (1929)
Not Rated | 85 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
After killing a man in self-defense, a young woman is blackmailed by a witness to the killing.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Anny Ondra, John Longden, Sara Allgood, Charles Paton
Votes: 11,975
45. Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
Not Rated | 68 min | Documentary
A man travels around a city with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention.
Director: Dziga Vertov | Stars: Mikhail Kaufman, Elizaveta Svilova
Votes: 28,006
46. Pandora's Box (1929)
Not Rated | 109 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
The rise and inevitable fall of an amoral but naive young woman whose insouciant eroticism inspires lust and violence in those around her.
Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst | Stars: Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Francis Lederer, Carl Goetz
Votes: 11,862 | Gross: $0.01M
47. Der blaue Engel (1930)
Passed | 104 min | Drama, Music, Romance
An elderly professor's ordered life spins dangerously out of control when he falls for a nightclub singer.
Director: Josef von Sternberg | Stars: Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich, Kurt Gerron, Rosa Valetti
Votes: 16,303 | Gross: $0.08M
48. L'Age d'Or (1930)
Not Rated | 63 min | Comedy, Drama
A surrealist tale of a man and a woman who are passionately in love with each other, but their attempts to consummate that passion are constantly thwarted by their families, the Church, and bourgeois society.
Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Gaston Modot, Lya Lys, Caridad de Laberdesque, Max Ernst
Votes: 14,816 | Gross: $0.03M
49. Earth (1930)
Unrated | 75 min | Drama
In the peaceful countryside, Vassily opposes the rich kulaks over the coming of collective farming.
Director: Aleksandr Dovzhenko | Stars: Stepan Shkurat, Semyon Svashenko, Yuliya Solntseva, Yelena Maksimova
Votes: 6,405
50. Little Caesar (1931)
Not Rated | 79 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A small-time criminal moves to a big city to seek bigger fortune.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Glenda Farrell, William Collier Jr.
Votes: 14,545
51. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Passed | 152 min | Drama, War
A German youth eagerly enters World War I, but his enthusiasm wanes as he gets a firsthand view of the horror.
Director: Lewis Milestone | Stars: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray, Arnold Lucy
Votes: 67,716 | Gross: $3.27M
52. À Nous la Liberté (1931)
Not Rated | 83 min | Comedy, Musical
Seeking better life, two convicts escape from prison.
Director: René Clair | Stars: Raymond Cordy, Henri Marchand, Rolla France, Paul Ollivier
Votes: 4,969
53. Le Million (1931)
Not Rated | 91 min | Comedy, Musical
An impoverished painter and his rival engage in a race across Paris to recover a jacket concealing a winning lottery ticket.
Director: René Clair | Stars: Annabella, René Lefèvre, Jean-Louis Allibert, Paul Ollivier
Votes: 3,844
54. Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931)
TV-PG | 86 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
On the South Pacific island of Bora Bora, a young couple's love is threatened when the tribal chief declares the girl a sacred virgin.
Director: F.W. Murnau | Stars: Anne Chevalier, Matahi, Hitu, Bill Bambridge
Votes: 6,389
55. Dracula (1931)
Passed | 75 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Transylvanian vampire Count Dracula bends a naive real estate agent to his will, then takes up residence at a London estate where he sleeps in his coffin by day and searches for potential victims by night.
Directors: Tod Browning, Karl Freund | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Helen Chandler, David Manners, Dwight Frye
Votes: 58,665
56. Frankenstein (1931)
Passed | 70 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Dr Henry Frankenstein is obsessed with assembling a living being from parts of several exhumed corpses.
Director: James Whale | Stars: Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, Boris Karloff, John Boles
Votes: 79,755
57. City Lights (1931)
G | 87 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
With the aid of a wealthy erratic tippler, a dewy-eyed tramp who has fallen in love with a sightless flower girl accumulates money to be able to help her medically.
Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Florence Lee, Harry Myers
Votes: 196,151 | Gross: $0.02M
58. The Public Enemy (1931)
Passed | 83 min | Crime, Drama
An Irish-American street punk tries to make it big in the world of organized crime.
Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Edward Woods, Joan Blondell
Votes: 23,030 | Gross: $1.01M
59. M (1931)
Passed | 99 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
When the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut, Otto Wernicke
Votes: 168,549 | Gross: $0.03M
60. La Chienne (1931)
Not Rated | 95 min | Crime, Drama
Maurice Legrand, a meek cashier married to a nagging wife, has a secret passion: he's a Sunday painter. He falls in love with Lulu, a young woman dominated by Dédé, the pimp who she works for. Dédé pushes Lulu into a relationship with him.
Director: Jean Renoir | Stars: Michel Simon, Janie Marèse, Georges Flamant, Roger Gaillard
Votes: 4,839
61. Vampyr (1932)
Not Rated | 75 min | Fantasy, Horror
A drifter obsessed with the supernatural stumbles upon an inn where a severely ill adolescent girl is slowly becoming a vampire.
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer | Stars: Julian West, Maurice Schutz, Rena Mandel, Sybille Schmitz
Votes: 20,531
62. Love Me Tonight (1932)
Passed | 104 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
A Parisian tailor finds himself posing as a baron in order to collect a sizeable bill from an aristocrat, only to fall in love with an aloof young princess.
Director: Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Charles Ruggles, Charles Butterworth
Votes: 4,627
63. Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932)
Not Rated | 85 min | Comedy
A bookseller saves a tramp from drowning and shelters him, but the tramp's odd behavior starts to wear everyone down.
Director: Jean Renoir | Stars: Michel Simon, Marcelle Hainia, Sévérine Lerczinska, Jean Gehret
Votes: 6,208
64. I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
Passed | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Wrongly convicted James Allen serves in the intolerable conditions of a Southern chain gang, which later comes back to haunt him.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell, Helen Vinson, Noel Francis
Votes: 14,446 | Gross: $1.42M
65. Trouble in Paradise (1932)
Passed | 83 min | Comedy, Crime, Romance
A gentleman thief and a lady pickpocket join forces to con a beautiful perfume company owner. Romantic entanglements and jealousies confuse the scheme.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis, Herbert Marshall, Charles Ruggles
Votes: 16,205 | Gross: $1.04M
66. Scarface (1932)
PG | 93 min | Action, Crime, Drama
An ambitious and nearly insane violent gangster climbs the ladder of success in the mob, but his weaknesses prove to be his downfall.
Directors: Howard Hawks, Richard Rosson | Stars: Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, Karen Morley, Osgood Perkins
Votes: 30,329
67. Shanghai Express (1932)
Approved | 82 min | Adventure, Drama, Film-Noir
A notorious woman rides a train through a dangerous situation with a British captain she loved.
Director: Josef von Sternberg | Stars: Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brook, Anna May Wong, Warner Oland
Votes: 10,342
68. Freaks (1932)
Not Rated | 64 min | Drama, Horror
A circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.
Director: Tod Browning | Stars: Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Olga Baclanova, Roscoe Ates
Votes: 50,633 | Gross: $0.63M
69. Me and My Gal (1932)
Passed | 79 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Young New York cop Dan falls in love with waterfront waitress Helen. Helen's sister Kate falls for gangster Duke. Dan must do in Duke.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, Marion Burns, George Walsh
Votes: 1,393
70. Zero for Conduct (1933)
Not Rated | 47 min | Drama
In a repressive boarding school with rigid rules of behavior, four boys decide to rebel against the direction on a celebration day.
Director: Jean Vigo | Stars: Jean Dasté, Robert le Flon, Louis Lefebvre, Du Verron
Votes: 9,369
71. 42nd Street (1933)
Passed | 89 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
When the leading lady of a Broadway musical breaks her ankle, she is replaced by a young unknown actress, who becomes the star of the show.
Director: Lloyd Bacon | Stars: Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, George Brent, Ruby Keeler
Votes: 13,042 | Gross: $2.30M
72. Footlight Parade (1933)
Passed | 104 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
Chester Kent struggles against time, romance, and a rival's spy to produce spectacular live "prologues" for movie houses.
Director: Lloyd Bacon | Stars: James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell
Votes: 6,096 | Gross: $3.49M
73. Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)
Passed | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
A wealthy composer rescues unemployed Broadway performers with a new play, but insists on remaining anonymous.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Warren William, Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon, Ruby Keeler
Votes: 9,149 | Gross: $4.80M
74. She Done Him Wrong (1933)
Passed | 66 min | Comedy, Drama, History
In the Gay Nineties, a seductive nightclub singer contends with several suitors, including a jealous escaped convict and a handsome temperance league member.
Director: Lowell Sherman | Stars: Mae West, Cary Grant, Owen Moore, Gilbert Roland
Votes: 7,044 | Gross: $4.80M
75. Duck Soup (1933)
Not Rated | 69 min | Comedy, Musical
Rufus T. Firefly is named the dictator of bankrupt Freedonia and declares war on neighboring Sylvania over the love of his wealthy backer Mrs. Teasdale, contending with two inept spies who can't seem to keep straight which side they're on.
Director: Leo McCarey | Stars: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx
Votes: 62,761
76. Queen Christina (1933)
Approved | 99 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
Queen Christina of Sweden is a popular monarch who is loyal to her country. However, when she falls in love with a Spanish envoy, she must choose between the throne and the man she loves.
Director: Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Ian Keith, Lewis Stone
Votes: 8,623 | Gross: $0.77M
77. Las Hurdes (1933)
30 min | Documentary, Short
A surrealist film, a pseudo-documentary portrait of Las Hurdes, a remote region of Spain where civilisation has barely developed, showing how the local peasants try to survive without even the most basic utilities and skills.
Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Abel Jacquin, Alexandre O'Neill
Votes: 6,264
78. King Kong (1933)
Passed | 100 min | Adventure, Horror
A film crew goes to a tropical island for a location shoot, where they capture a colossal ape who takes a shine to their blonde starlet, and bring him back to New York City.
Directors: Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack | Stars: Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot, Frank Reicher
Votes: 91,018 | Gross: $10.00M
79. The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1932)
Approved | 88 min | Drama, Romance, War
A Chinese warlord and an engaged Christian missionary fall in love.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Nils Asther, Toshia Mori, Walter Connolly
Votes: 4,302
80. Sons of the Desert (1933)
Passed | 68 min | Comedy, Family
When Stan and Ollie trick their wives into thinking that they are taking a medicinal cruise while they're actually going to a convention, the wives find out the truth the hard way.
Director: William A. Seiter | Stars: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Charley Chase, Mae Busch
Votes: 9,590
81. It's a Gift (1934)
Passed | 68 min | Comedy
A henpecked New Jersey grocer makes plans to move to California to grow oranges, despite the resistance of his overbearing wife.
Director: Norman Z. McLeod | Stars: W.C. Fields, Kathleen Howard, Jean Rouverol, Julian Madison
Votes: 5,762
W.C. Fields plays Harold Bisonette (that’s Biso-NAY when his wife’s around). The hen-pecked Bisonette owns a corner grocery but dreams of moving to California and running an orange ranch. His uncle dies and leaves him the money to move his family West, much to their disgust. The orange grove turns out to be a bust but there is always a happy ending in a W.C. Fields movie.
I have been trying to figure out why Fields just isn’t funny to me. I think he lets each of his gags run on too long and telegraphs them too obviously. Also much of the humor relies on destruction, irritating noises, etc., which I find more annoying than comic. Finally this movie has a scene of food humor toward the end. I can’t help it, I just find anything involving making a mess with food more disgusting than anything else.
This is one of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. The only reason I can find is that W.C. Fields is a name everybody has probably heard of. I now have seen this film twice and that’s more than enough for one lifetime.
82. Triumph of the Will (1935)
Not Rated | 110 min | Documentary, History
The infamous propaganda film of the 1934 Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, Germany.
Director: Leni Riefenstahl | Stars: Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring, Max Amann, Martin Bormann
Votes: 18,332
This is a propaganda film documenting the 1934 Nazi Party rally in Nuremburg, Germany. It features many mass demonstrations and parades as well as speeches by Hitler and other Nazi party leaders.
It is of course impossible to view this film outside the context of history. I kept thinking throughout of the fates that would befall the people pictured and their victims. From this distance, a lot of the Nazi rituals would have looked comic if they had not been carried out with such deadly seriousness. Obviously, I could not possibly feel the emotions the film makers intended to evoke in the audience. Only someone viewing around the time of its production could judge whether the film did achieve its intentions. Hitler was reportedly pleased and the movie played in cinemas almost until the end of the “1000-year” Reich, ten years later.
No one, I think, could deny that the film is very artfully photographed and edited. True, Riefenstahl had an unlimited budget and lot of help from whoever choreographed the ceremonies and the settings provided by Albert Speer. Nevertheless, many of the shots could only have been achieved by a master. They are especially impressive considering the state of technology at the time.
83. L'Atalante (1934)
Not Rated | 89 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Newly married couple Juliette and a ship captain Jean struggle through marriage as they travel on the L'atalante along with the captain's first mate Le père Jules and a cabin boy.
Director: Jean Vigo | Stars: Dita Parlo, Jean Dasté, Gilles Margaritis, Louis Lefebvre
Votes: 17,479
A young skipper brings his new bride (Dita Parlo) aboard his small barge to live with his eccentric first mate (Michel Simon), a boy, and too many rambunctious cats. We witness the couple’s initial passion, the wife’s boredom, the husband’s jealousy, and then the cycle begins again. The slight plot is told in vivid images that insinuate themselves in the memory. Dita Parlo brings an enchanting sense of wonder to her character. This is a totally original, funny, and erotic story that engaged me throughout. The last of Jean Vigo’s four films before his death at age 29 and a masterpiece.
84. The Black Cat (1934)
Not Rated | 65 min | Crime, Horror, Romance
American honeymooners in Hungary become trapped in the home of a Satan-worshipping priest when the bride is taken there for medical help following a road accident.
Director: Edgar G. Ulmer | Stars: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, David Manners, Julie Bishop
Votes: 13,005 | Gross: $0.51M
Dr. Vitus Vendergast (Bela Lugosi) meets honeymooners Peter (David Manners) and Joan (Julie Bishop/Jacqueline Wells) on a train and hitches a ride with them to their ultimate destination. On the way, the car goes off the road, the driver is killed and the party is forced to take refuge in the creepy modernist castle of Hjalmar Poelzig (Boris Karloff). This suits Vendergast just fine as he is on a mission to make Poelzig, his sworn enemy, suffer slowly. Poelzig left Vendergast to rot in prison for 15 years then told Vendergast’s wife she was a widow and took her for his own. The movie is basically a duel of wits between Vendergast and Poelzig, who also has plans to use Joan as the sacrifice in a Black Mass. Lugosi, while definitely menacing and creepy, plays the good guy here. As for a black cat, well one wanders around, but it’s basically just an excuse to use the Edgar Allen Poe title.
This is the kind of thing I just eat up. Sure it can be a little campy in places and Lugosi over-emotes furiously but that is part of the fun. The Expressionist cinematography and art direction are quite wonderful. Recommended for lovers of classic Universal horror.
85. Judge Priest (1934)
Passed | 80 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Judge Priest, a proud Confederate veteran, uses common sense and considerable humanity to dispense justice in a small town in the Post-Bellum Kentucky.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Will Rogers, Tom Brown, Anita Louise, Henry B. Walthall
Votes: 2,520
This is essentially a love letter to a simpler time – in this case 1890′s Kentucky, where folks still remember the glories of the antebellum South vividly. Judge Priest (Will Rogers) presides over the court in his small town dispensing justice and folksy wisdom. His nephew returns to town, having just graduated from law school, and is courting a local belle. His mother objects due to the girl’s lack of breeding; her father’s identity is unknown. The nephew’s first client is a mysterious loner who is charged with assault for defending the girl’s honor. Judge Priest is forced to recuse himself from the case, which enables him to assist his nephew at the trial. With Hattie McDaniel as Judge Priest’s cook/maid and Stepin Fetchit as his errand boy.
Well, I have to admit that this was much better than Doctor Bull, the 1933 Will Rogers/John Ford movie I saw. There is a sort of small town charm to the storytelling. On the other hand, there is also much too much of Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry, better known in his Stepin Fetchit persona. His shtick just makes my skin crawl. I can’t help it. Many people would also be offended by Hattie McDaniel’s character but that does not rub me so much the wrong way.
Setting the racial stereotyping questions aside, I do not understand why this pleasant but unremarkable film should be rated a “must see.” It is an introduction to Will Rogers, who I suppose is a major personality of early 20th Century American pop culture but not more than some others we don’t meet in our journey through The List. Will Rogers worked with Stepin Fetchit many times so it may be hard to pick a decent Rogers film that doesn’t include that character.
86. It Happened One Night (1934)
Passed | 105 min | Comedy, Romance
A rogue reporter trailing a runaway heiress for a big story joins her on a bus heading from Florida to New York and they end up stuck with each other when the bus leaves them behind at one of the stops along the way.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns
Votes: 112,341 | Gross: $4.36M
This is my idea of cinematic perfection as produced by Hollywood in 1934. There is not one single thing I would change. Of course, the leads are fabulous but every character actor was the best possible that could have been found. Once seen, Roscoe Karns’ annoying Shapley, Alan Hale’s larcenous flivver driver Danker, and Walter Connelly’s autocratic but loving father will become old friends. Capra, too, had a light touch which he was never again to entirely replicate. My favorite part is “The Man on the Flying Trapeze” scene on the bus.
87. The Thin Man (1934)
TV-PG | 91 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
Former detective Nick Charles and his wealthy wife Nora investigate a murder case, mostly for the fun of it.
Director: W.S. Van Dyke | Stars: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan, Nat Pendleton
Votes: 32,558
An inventor mysteriously disappears and is blamed for the murder of his girlfriend and her possible paramour. His daughter (Margaret O’Sullivan) appeals to retired detective Nick Charles (William Powell). Charles would prefer to enjoy the high life with his rich, beautiful, and witty wife Nora (Myrna Loy) but she thinks it would be exciting for him to pursue the case.
I have seen this many times and I always forget who the murderer is. That is because the mystery is just a vehicle to showcase the fantastic repartee of Loy and Powell. They make the perfect married couple, playfully bickering but obviously in love. It is also the ideal escapist fare when one has, say, spent a whole day watching a manhunt in Boston and thinking about people who have lost their lives and limbs.
88. Captain Blood (1935)
Passed | 119 min | Action, Adventure, History
After treating a Monmouth rebel against King James II in 1680s England, a young Irish doctor is exiled as a slave to Jamaica where he captures a Spanish galleon and becomes the most feared pirate of the Caribbean.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Lionel Atwill, Basil Rathbone
Votes: 16,104 | Gross: $2.96M
Captain Peter Blood (Errol Flynn) is living peacefully as a physician when he is called on to tend a wounded rebel. For his trouble, he is convicted of treason and transported to Jamaica as a slave. Arabella (Olivia de Havilland), the niece of a wealthy landowner (Lionel Atwill), admires Blood’s defiant spirit and buys him. Blood mightily resents this. His medical skills make him a favorite of the gouty Governor of the island and allow him to plan his escape and that of his comrades. The men soon turn pirate but Arabella and her uncle seem part of Blood’s fate. Also starring Basil Rathbone as the French pirate Levasseur and a host of Warner Brothers character actors.
This movie was the first pairing of Errol Flynn and the 18-year-old Olivia de Havilland and made them both stars. It drags a bit in spots but basically is an exciting romantic adventure with thrilling sword fights and sea battles and dynamite chemistry between the two leads. The magnificent score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold adds to the fun.
89. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
Passed | 132 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
First mate Fletcher Christian leads a revolt against his sadistic commander, Captain Bligh, in this classic seafaring adventure, based on the real-life 1789 mutiny.
Director: Frank Lloyd | Stars: Charles Laughton, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone, Herbert Mundin
Votes: 24,867
In 1787, the HMS Bounty departs Portsmouth for Tahiti, carrying a crew largely composed of impressed sailors. The ship is helmed by Captain William Bligh (Charles Laughton). His second in command is Fletcher Christian (Clark Gable) . Christian befriends a first-voyage midshipman Roger Byam (Franchot Tone). Bligh’s idea of enforcing discipline is with the lash and he also keeps his men on tight rations to line his own pockets. When Christian takes Bligh to task for this, Bligh plots revenge. Bligh’s cruelty only increases on the return journey from Tahiti. Christian then takes matters into his own hands and casts Bligh and the men loyal to him adrift in a launch, but Bligh refuses to admit defeat. As soon as I heard Herbert Stothart’s rousing score coming up under the credits of this big-budget MGM production, I had that comforting feeling that this movie would be, if nothing else, entertaining and I was right. The script moves along at a good pace and the production values are first-rate. We are even treated to location shots in French Polynesia. Kudos must go to Charles Laughton for one of his very best performances. I always enjoy his work but usually feel like I am watching an actor wink at the audience. Here, he plays it very straight and is excellent. Highly enjoyable.
90. A Night at the Opera (1935)
Passed | 96 min | Comedy, Music, Musical
A sly business manager and the wacky friends of two opera singers in Italy help them achieve success in America while humiliating their stuffy and snobbish enemies.
Directors: Sam Wood, Edmund Goulding | Stars: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Kitty Carlisle
Votes: 34,775 | Gross: $2.54M
Let’s see, is there a plot? Well, Mrs. Claypool (Margaret Dumont) has hired Otis B. Driftwood (Groucho Marx) to get her into high society, an unlikely proposition if ever there was one. His brilliant idea is for her to invest in the New York Opera. In the meantime, Fiorello (Chico Marx) and Tomasino (Harpo Marx) are promoting a tenor (Allan Jones) who is in love with a soprano played by Kitty Carlisle. They all end up on a ship at some point and hilarity ensues.
This is the one with the “sanity clause” contract bit and the stateroom scene. There are a lot of laughs but perhaps a little too much singing. As usual, my favorite part of any Marx Brothers movie is when Chico plays the piano. Here he does a rendition of “All I Do Is Dream of You” to a group of enthralled children.
91. The 39 Steps (1935)
Approved | 86 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
A man in London tries to help a counter-espionage agent, but when the agent is killed and the man stands accused, he must go on the run to save himself and stop a spy ring that is trying to steal top-secret information.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Lucie Mannheim, Godfrey Tearle
Votes: 61,581
The 39 Steps showcases Hitchcock as a master craftsman relatively early in his career. If the definition of a classic is a work that remains entertaining and surprising over time and repeated exposure, this film certainly deserves to be called one.
I revisited The Thirty-Nine Steps with the Blu-Ray disc from the Criterion Collection, which can be rented from Netflix. The film has probably never looked more beautiful and is packaged with a number of extras including a commentary, a documentary on Hitchcock’s British films, a video interview with Hitchcock, a visual essay on the film by Leonard Leff, and audio excerpts about the film from François Truffaut’s 1962 interviews with Hitchcock.
The story should be familiar to any Hitchcock lover, if not from this film, from many that follow such as Saboteur and North by Northwest. In this classic plot, a man is falsely accused of a crime and must flee both the police and the true criminals while attempting to clear his name.
Here our story begins when Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) visits a musical hall and catches the act of Mr. Memory, a man with reams of trivia at his disposal. The way Hitchcock builds suspense by quick cuts between audience members shouting out questions in this scene is stunning. The scene ends with a scuffle and gunshots.
Hannay meets a woman as he is exiting the music hall. She says she needs protection so he takes her to his apartment. The woman is a spy on the trail of “The 39 Steps” and tells Hannay she has little time to prevent a valuable secret from leaving the country. She is promptly murdered in the apartment and Hannay is the prime suspect. Thus, begins his desperate flight from the police and quest to stop the spy ring.
Hannay heads for Scotland based on a map he finds in the woman’s dead hand. On his way, he spends the night with a crofter and his wife. This scene is like its own short film about a jealous farmer (John Lurie), his much younger wife (Peggy Ashcroft), and a dashing young traveller. It is a short scene but Hitchcock manages to pack in quite a bit of pathos and psychological depth to the predicament of a woman trapped in a bad marriage.
With the police hot on his heels, Hannay meets The Professor and barely escapes with his life. On the run again, Hannay finds himself the main speaker at a political rally and must improvise. This scene would be copied many times, most notably in The Third Man. He meets Pamela (Madeleine Carroll) and they are both abducted by bad guys who eventually handcuff them together.
The third act plays as a sort of romantic comedy with the two sparring mightily before they fall in love. Hitchcock is able to work in some slightly racy material when the two are forced to share a bedroom. I hate to give away the ending of a 78-year-old movie so I will stop here.
I’ve seen this one many times. The famous set pieces (Mr. Memory, the little finger, the handcuff scene in the inn) are indelibly imprinted in my memory. Yet I was surprised how fresh the story remains. It is also a pleasure to enjoy the performance of Robert Donat, a consummate movie actor. He said the secret of his success was his ability to be still and watching him just listen and think is a treat. I prefer The Lady Vanishes among Hitchcock’s British films (why did that one not make The List?), but this ranks just behind it. It remains a witty and stylish suspense thriller.
92. Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Not Rated | 75 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Mary Shelley reveals the main characters of her novel survived: Baron Henry Frankenstein, goaded by an even madder scientist, builds his monster a mate.
Director: James Whale | Stars: Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchester, Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson
Votes: 53,290 | Gross: $4.36M
Neither Frankenstein nor his Monster were killed at the end of Frankenstein. The Monster is only looking for a friend but meets with terror everywhere he turns. Is the solution to build him a Bride from dead body parts? The nutty Dr. Pretorius thinks so! With Boris Karloff as the Monster, Colin Clive as Frankenstein, Valerie Hobson as Elizabeth, Ernest Thesinger as Dr. Pretorius, Dwight Frye as miscellaneous ghouls, and Una O’Connor as Minnie.
I may be in the minority in preferring the 1931 original to this sequel. This one is just a little bit too arch for me and the original didn’t have all that shreeking by Una O’Connor. That said, Karloff is wonderful despite the ill-advised decision to have him speak, the lighting and sets are atmospheric, and the special effects are first-rate for their time. I can have fun every time I come back to this classic.
93. Top Hat (1935)
Not Rated | 101 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
An American dancer comes to Britain and falls for a model whom he initially annoyed, but she mistakes him for his goofy producer.
Director: Mark Sandrich | Stars: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton, Erik Rhodes
Votes: 20,718 | Gross: $3.88M
Jerry Travers (Fred Astaire) is a famous song and dance man who is scheduled to star in a show produced by Horace Hardwick (Edward Everett Horton) in London. Fashion designer Alberto Beddini (Erik Rhodes) has hired lovely Dale Tremont (Ginger Rogers) as a sort of social mannequin to show off his gowns. Jerry and Dale meet and Jerry is immediately smitten. Horace’s wife Madge (Helen Broderick) is in Venice and wants to try her hand at a little matchmaking. The sparks fly when Dale mistakes Jerry for Madge’s husband and the two arrive in Venice.
The silly comedy of errors is a structure on which to hang some glorious dancing, art deco sets, gorgeous gowns, and snappy dialogue. Most of the cast of The Gay Divorcee comes back and is funnier than ever. I particularly like Erik Rhodes’s conceited Beddini, who always refers to himself in the third person.
Fred Astaire was Irving Berlin’s favorite interpreter of his songs and he sings plenty of them here. ”Cheek to Cheek” is the standard coming from this film but I have a huge soft spot for “Isn’t This a Lovely Day”. The dance to that one, in which Rogers starts out by mimicking Astaire’s movements, is the essence of joy. In my view, a practically perfect picture.
94. A Day in the Country (1946)
Not Rated | 40 min | Short, Comedy, Drama
The family of a Parisian shop-owner spends a day in the country. The daughter falls in love with a man at the inn, where they spend the day.
Director: Jean Renoir | Stars: Sylvia Bataille, Jane Marken, Georges D'Arnoux, André Gabriello
Votes: 7,102
95. Modern Times (1936)
G | 87 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The Tramp struggles to live in modern industrial society with the help of a young homeless woman.
Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Henry Bergman, Tiny Sandford
Votes: 259,631 | Gross: $0.16M
96. Swing Time (1936)
Passed | 103 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
Roguish gambler/dancer "Lucky" Garnett is challenged by his fiance's father to come up with $25,000 to prove he's worthy of her hand. But after he falls in love with a dance instructor, Lucky'll do anything to keep from earning the bucks.
Director: George Stevens | Stars: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Victor Moore, Helen Broderick
Votes: 14,591
97. My Man Godfrey (1936)
Approved | 94 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A scatterbrained socialite hires a vagrant as a family butler - but there's more to Godfrey than meets the eye.
Director: Gregory La Cava | Stars: William Powell, Carole Lombard, Alice Brady, Gail Patrick
Votes: 26,463
98. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
Not Rated | 115 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A unassuming greeting card poet from a small town in Vermont heads to New York City upon inheriting a massive fortune and is immediately hounded by those who wish to take advantage of him.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, George Bancroft, Lionel Stander
Votes: 23,231
99. Camille (1936)
Passed | 109 min | Drama, Romance
A Parisian courtesan must choose between the young man who loves her and the callous baron who wants her, even as her own health begins to fail.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allan
Votes: 8,752 | Gross: $1.15M
100. Sabotage (1936)
Not Rated | 76 min | Crime, Thriller
A Scotland Yard undercover detective is on the trail of a saboteur who is part of a plot to set off a bomb in London. But when the detective's cover is blown, the plot begins to unravel.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Sylvia Sidney, Oscar Homolka, Desmond Tester, John Loder
Votes: 18,754
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