The 1930s

What can be said about the films of the 30s? This was the era of the classic monster movies of Universal Studios, sweeping romantic epics like Gone with the Wind and Wuthering Heights, and it was the era where Disney and Warner Brothers delighted audiences with their animated shorts... until 1937 when Walt Disney released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

With the Great Depression making reality hard to endure, movie audiences longed for the escapism of films like The Wizard of Oz or to laugh at the antics of the Marx brothers as they turned the rich and famous on their ears...

It's Alive! (1929-1939)

12. "The Skeleton Dance" (1929)
13.. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
14. Svengali (1931)
15. Dracula (1931)
16. Frankenstein (1931)
17. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932)
18. Freaks (1932)
19. The Most Dangerous Game (1932)
20. The Mummy (1932)
21. Duck Soup (1933)
22. The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933)
23. King Kong (1933)
24. 42nd Street (1933)
25. The Invisible Man (1933)
26. It Happened One Night (1934)
27. Imitation of Life (1934)
28. The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)
29. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
30. Top Hat (1935)
31. A Midsummer's Night's Dream (1935)
32. A Night at the Opera (1935)
33. Annie Oakley (1935)
34. A Tale of Two Cities (1935)
35. Modern Times (1936)
36. Show Boat (1936)
37. San Francisco (1936)
38. My Man Godfrey (1936)
40. The Awful Truth (1937)
41. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
42. A Day at the Races (1937)
43. The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
44. Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
45. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
46. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
47. You Can't Take It with You (1938)
48. Pygmalion (1938)
49. "Ferdinand the Bull" (1938)

50. Holiday (1938)
51. Wuthering Heights (1939)
52. Dark Victory (1939)
53. In Name Only (1939)
54. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
55. Intermezzo: A Love Story (1939)
56. The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)
57. Ninotchka (1939)
58. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
59. Gone with the Wind (1939)
60. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)

We didn't need words... we had FACES!

We begin this kooky quest with the era of the silent films. Silent movies hold a special place in my heart because the restored 1925 film The Phantom of the Opera, starring the brilliant Lon Chaney, was one of the first versions of the Phantom story that I had ever seen (touching off a life-long obsession), and I shall never forget Chaney's heartrending mix of maudlin and menace as Erik, the Opera Ghost.






Since then, I have seen many other silents, including the comedies of Chaplin, epic tales, and the dark expressionism of directors like Fritz Lang. Silents are unique to me because I view them as a true test of the camera, where visuals and incredible pantomime (often alone) pull an audience into the story. The fact that these movies can still transport me to other worlds is a credit to the universal themes and motifs of these classics: The Gold Rush is still funny, just as there is something that remains deeply disturbing about The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

(The List 1900-1928)
Silence is Golden

1. Le Voyage Dans la Lune- A Trip to the Moon (1902)
2. The Birth of a Nation (1915)
3. Broken Blossoms (1919)
4. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
5. Nosferatu: Eine Symphonie Des Grauens (1922)
6. Battleship Potemkin (1925)
7. The Gold Rush (1925)
8. Greed (1925)
9. The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
10. Metropolis (1927)
11. The Man Who Laughs (1928)