Is it a horror movie or “one of the most compassionate movies ever made?” Or somehow both? A career-destroying flop that has gradually become director Tod Browning’s most acclaimed film.
Category Archives: 1930s movies
MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1935)
I spent most of this classic Best Picture winner checking to see how much time it had left. You may like it more if you are more into shirtless Clark Gable than I am.
MAN OF ARAN (1934)
A documentary so early it doesn’t know the rules about documentaries, about life at the edge of human existence.
THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939)
Estimated to be the most-watched movie of all-time, it somehow works just as well 82 years later.
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930)
Perhaps the ultimate anti-War movie, its battle scenes represented a quantum leap for movies. Some of the smaller things may not hold up, but the message does.
IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934)
Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert predictably fall for each other in this gleefully larger-than-life early road trip romantic comedy
DUCK SOUP (1933)
The Marx Brothers got the most freedom of their careers and used it to skewer patriotism, fascism, and war as bum deals for suckers.
KING KONG (1933)
The original monster movie continues to thrill when it comes to its giant gorilla. The rest of the movie has not aged as well.
A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (1935)
The Marx Brothers reinvented comedy for the sound era, but had to tone down their sheer anarchy (a little) to score their biggest hit.
LA REGLE DE JEU (1939)
A French masterpiece about upper-class romantic games, played blithely as the world teeters on disaster.
