1931: Top 10 and Year in Review

1931 was a definite improvement on the previous year.The two major classics were as good as advertised (City Lights, M) and there were some nice surprises (Miracle Woman, Platinum Blonde, Five Star Final, The Royal Bed). We also had some iconic stars make their mark (James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, and Barbara Stanwyck).

Favorite directors like Fritz Lang, Ernst Lubitsch, and Josef von Sternberg that populated prior top 10 lists make reappearances this year. Legendary director Frank Capra surprised with two great early films that both appear on the list.

The biggest disappointments were the mostly weak horror entries. Several of them are regarded as classics, but for the most part they were excruciatingly dry films with no life and spent an interminable amount of time on dull exposition. None matched the intensity and excitement of earlir horror entries I loved like The Cat and the Canary or The Unknown.

Very good films that didn't make this year's list include Mervyn LeRoy's scathing media indictment Five Star Final, Rene Clair's political comedy Freedom For Us, Norman Z. McLeod's Marc Bros. entry Monkey Business, and Yasujiro Ozu's delicate workplace dramedy Tokyo Chorus.

Click here for a full list of films I saw in 1931, including capsule reviews.

And now, the top 10 films of 1931...

10. The Royal Bed (Lowell Sherman)



9. Little Caesar (Mervyn LeRoy)



8. Platinum Blonde (Frank Capra)



7. The Public Enemy (William Wellman)



6. Dishonored (Josef von Sternberg)


5. An American Tragedy (Josef Von Sternberg)



4. Miracle Woman (Frank Capra)



3. The Smiling Lieutenant (Ernst Lubitsch)



2. City Lights (Charles Chaplin)



1. M (Fritz Lang)

Awards for 1931:

Director

Frank Capra, Miracle Woman
Charles Chaplin, City Lights
*Fritz Lang, M
Ernst Lubitsch, The Smiling Lieutenant
Josef von Sternberg, An American Tragedy

Actor

James Cagney, Public Enemy
Charles Chaplin, City Lights
Maurice Chevalier, The Smiling Lieutenant
*Peter Lorre, M
Edward G. Robinson, Little Caesar

Actress

Claudette Colbert, The Smiling Lieutenant
Marlene Dietrich, Dishonored
Sylvia Sidney, An American Tragedy
*Barbara Stanwyck, Miracle Woman
Loretta Young, Platinum Blonde

Supporting Actor

George Barbier, The Smiling Lieutenant
Rudolf Blumner, M
*Dwight Frye, Dracula
Boris Karloff, Five Star Final
David Manners, Miracle Woman

Supporting Actress

Virginia Cherrill, City Lights
Jean Harlow, Platinum Blonde
Jean Harlow, Public Enemy
*Miriam Hopkins, The Smiling Lieutenant
Aline McMahon, Five Star Final

Adapted Screenplay

An American Tragedy (Samuel Hoffenstein)
Miracle Woman (Jo Swerling)
Platinum Blonde (Jo Swerling)
The Public Enemy (Harvey Thew)
*The Smiling Lieutenant (Ernest Vajda, Sam Raphaelson)

Original Screenplay

*City Lights (Charles Chaplin)
Dishonored (Daniel Nathan Rubin, Josef Von Sternberg)
Freedom For Us (Rene Clair)
M (Thea von Harbou, Fritz Lang)
Monkey Business (SJ Perelman, Will B. Johnstone)

Editing

An American Tragedy
City Lights
*M
Miracle Woman
The Smiling Lieutenant

Cinematography

City Lights
*M
Miracle Woman
Tabu: A Story of the South Seas
Woman in the Moon

Art Direction

*City Lights
Dracula
M
Miracle Woman
Woman in the Moon

Costume Design

*Dishonored
Mata Hari
Miracle Woman
Platinum Blonde
The Smiling Lieutenant

Makeup

Dracula
*Frankenstein
Svengali

The Academy Awards - 1929

The very first Academy Awards took place in 1929 and were hosted by Douglas Fairbanks and William C. de Mille. The time period for qualification was August 1, 1927-August 1, 1928. This odd release period makes it difficult to have a side by side comparison of what I would've nominated, but that is something I plan to do once the Oscar years match calendar years.

The actual Academy winners are in bold:

Best Picture, Production

7th Heaven
The Racket
Wings

Thoughts: The Best Picture categories were split up this year, but this is the one that generally gets credit for the official recognition of Best Picture. That's a shame, because Wings is really an awful movie with a terrible script and even worse performances. It does prove the Academy was just as stupid back then as it is now. I have not had the chance to see The Racket yet, but 7th Heaven is a terrific melodrama from Frank Borzage and a more deserving winner than Wings.

Best Picture, Unique and Artistic Production

Chang: A Drama in the Wilderness
The Crowd
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

Thoughts: Not sure what the Oscars intended with this award or why it doesn't get full recognition, but this is a much, much better collection of films. The Crowd and Sunrise are the top two films of their individual years and Chang is a much better thrill pic than Wings. Sunrise is a fine choice, but it's annoying that it doesn't get proper recognition as a Best Picture winner.

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Emil Jannings, The Last Command
Richard Barthelmess, The Noose and The Patent Leather Kid

Thoughts: Neither of the Barthelmess films is available, but I have seen The Last Command and Jannings does give a terrific performance in it. It is a showy performance, the kind the Academy would come to love over the years. I would have preferred Lon Chaney to be nominated and win for either The Unknown or Laugh, Clown, Laugh. He is amazing in both films. It should be noted that Charlie Chaplin was originally nominated here for The Circus, but was taken out of the running and given a special award instead. He also would have been a better choice than Jannings.

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Louise Dresser, A Ship Comes In
Janet Gaynor, 7th Heaven, Sunrise: A song of Two Humans, and Street Angel
Gloria Swanson, Sadie Thompson

Thoughts: Once again I have only seen the films from the winner, but Gaynor is a brilliant dramatic actress that was working several steps ahead of her contemporaries at the time. She is particularly amazing in Sunrise. Maria Falconetti's performance for The Passion of Joan of Arc would have also been a great choice.

Best Director, Comedy Picture

Lewis Milestone, Two Arabian Knights
Ted Wilde, Speedy

Thoughts: This year the Oscars split up the directing awards for Drama and Comedy. I have not seen the Milestone film, but Speedy is one of my favorite silent films so I wish Wilde had won. Chaplin was also taken out of this category and would've been the best choice.

Best Director, Dramatic Picture

Frank Borzage, 7th Heaven
Herbert Brenon, Sorrell and Son
King Vidor, The Crowd

Thoughts: I have not seen Sorrell and Son, but I'll note that Brenon did a great job with the Lon Chaney drama Laugh, Clown, Laugh. 7th Heaven is probably Borzage's best film, but King Vidor's The Crowd is an outright masterpiece and he should have been the winner. The most glaring omission among nominees is FW Murnau for Sunrise (and Fritz Lang for Metropolis, but I doubt they wanted to honor foreign films at this point).

Best Writing, Original Story

Underworld - Ben Hecht
The Last Command - Lajos Biro

Thoughts: Wow, they really got this one right. Underworld is a fantastic screenplay with vivid characters and a fascinating moral dilemma. It is amusing that Hecht was originally unhappy with the film and wanted his name removed from it. The Last Command is also a good script, probably getting attention here for the dual narrative structure it employed.

Best Writing, Adaptation

7th Heaven - Benjamin Glazer
Glorious Betsy - Anthony Coldeway
The Jazz Singer - Aldred A. Cohn

Thoughts: Did not see Glorious Betsy, but I'm glad 7th Heaven won if this was the competition it faced. There is nothing remarkable about The Jazz Singer's screenplay. Sunrise ro The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg would have been my picks here.

Other Awards...

Cinematography: Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
Art Direction: The Tempest
Honorary Award: Charlie Chaplin, The Circus
Honorary Award: Warner Brothers, The Jazz Singer for technical excellenge

Thoughts: Sunrise is the obvious choice for Cinematography, so it's good they didn't screw that one up. I would have gone with 7th Heaven for Art Direction. If The Jazz Signer had to win an award, I'm glad that's the only one it won. It's nice for Chaplin to receive a special award, but he deserved to win one in a competitive category.


Conclusions: They got many of these categories perfect, but made a huge blunder with Best Picture. In fact, of all the Best Picture winners I have seen, Wings is clearly the worst. Sunrise (now in the AFI 100) should be duly recognized as a Best Picture winner.

Change of Plans

Unfortunately, I'll have to change this project up a bit if it is to continue. The original format of doing full recaps for each film I see was a little unrealistic given time constraints. Therefore, I'll just be posting the yearly wrapups, and maybe some occassional comments on certain films or actresses as I go through each year.

i also plan to start expanding my commentary on the Academy Awards as I'm now seeing pretty much every nominee and will have some posts up regarding that shortly.

1931 year in review will be coming up soon.

Mata Hari (George Fitzmaurice) ***

Director: George Fitzmaurice

Cast: Greta Garbo, Ramon Novarro, Lionel Barrymore

Background: Greta Garbo continued her successful transition into talkies, following double Oscar nominations the previous year. Ramon Novarro fills in for usual Garbo costar John Gilbert, whose career had begun to fall apart in 1929. Longtime film star Lionel Barrymore rounded out the cast.

Story: Very loosely based on a true story, Mata Hari (Garbo) is a legendary spy outwitting the secret police. She has seduced a Russian General (Barrymore), but problems arise when she develops feelings for the young Lieutenant (Novarro) who is the target of her latest mission.

Thoughts: This is a fairly straightforward film without a lot of depth, but it is nonetheless entertaining thanks to an interesting story and solid performances from the entire cast. Garbo had issues the previous year in Anna Christie, which was her first talkie, but they seem to have been fixed as she gives a confident, relaxed performance here. Lionel Barrymore is much better here than his hammy Oscar winning performance in A Free Soul. And it's nice to see the talented Ramon Novarro (so good in Lubitsch's The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg) in a talkie for the first time. The story unfolds at a nice pace as we gradually begin to like each of the characters, giving the film some emotional resonance. This is much, much better than Garbo's earlier spy film The Mysterious Lady, which included ridiculously idiotic mistakes by the supposedly great spies. None of the stupidity that doomed that film exists here. Instead, we get a fun story about a cool female spy and the men who love her.

Postscript: Barrymore's career was far from over. After winning an Oscar for A Free Soul, he would continue acting for another two decades, including a memorable turn in It's a Wonderful Life. Garbo would receive two more Oscar nominations (Camille, Ninotchka), but would retire in 1941.

M (Fritz Lang) ****

Director: Fritz Lang

Cast: Peter Lorre, Otto Wernicke, Gustaf Grundgens, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut, Rudulf Blumner

Background: This was Fritz Lang's first sound film, and like most of his earlier films, he co-wrote the screenplay with his wife Thea von Harbou. This was the first major role for theater actor Peter Lorre.

Story: Hans Beckert (Lorre) is a serial killer who murders young girls. The police have been unable to catch him, but the criminal underworld sets out to get the job done themselves.

Thoughts: Every modern filmmaker and moviegoer should be required to watch Fritz Lang's M. Maybe then we'd be spared the ADD crap of modern blockbusters. M shows how brilliant a film can be when it has the patience let the suspense slowly build throughout the story. The most notable sequence is a long, mostly silent passage where a blind man notices the killer's presence and the underworld network tracks him to a building, where he hides in the attic as they get closer and closer to finding him. But the film isn't just visually brilliant, it explores the story through multiple levels, with a fascinating sequence at the end showing how the criminal underworld ironically views defense attorneys in a much different light when the tables are turned. Peter Lorre's performance is far removed from the standard one note villain. He doesn't play Hans Beckert as a purely evil psycopath, but as someone who feels he does not have control of his own actions. M is a film that plays against your expectations, where the criminals are self-righteous and child murderers are human beings. It's a thoughtful and frightening movie, coming from a director who by this point was a complete master at his craft.

Postscript: Fritz Lang regarded this film as his finest work. He went on to direct for three more decades. Lorre would be typecast for a bit as villains, but still had a successful film career, including supporting roles in classics such as Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon.

Bad Girl (Frank Borzage) **1/2

Director: Frank Borzage

Cast: James Dunn, Sally Eilers, Minna Gombell

Background: Borzage was the master of melodrama, but here he took a departure from that concept for a more realistic exploration of love. In doing so, he cast two relative unknowns as his leads.

Story: A lower class young couple (Dunn, Eilers) falls in love and gets married, but a pregnancy threatens to doom their marriage.

Thoughts: This is the second time Borzage has attempted a departure from his usual style, and once again the result is merely an interesting failure. Here he doesn't necessarily abandon the melodrama, but the stark realism of the story is a contrast to the fanciful backdrops he's used for his previous films. The main problem here is the events move at an excruciatingly slow pace. The most interesting aspect of the film is the exploration of the difficulties of married life for people who don't have alot of money. Unfortunately, almost half the film is over before they even get married and it's quite a chore to make it to that point. It's interesting that the main problem between them was mostly a simple misunderstanding, which actually feels pretty authentic for the kind of troubles married couples go through. I just wish Borzage had gotten to that point a little sooner, because the first half of the film is almost a complete wash.

Postscript: Borzage won his second Best Director Oscar and the film also won for Best Screenplay. Dunn's most notable work after this would be Elia Kazan's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Sally Eilers made a pretty nice career of supporting roles through the late 40s.

A Free Soul (Robert Z. Leonard) *1/2

Director: Clarence Brown

Cast: Norma Shearer, Lionel Barrymore, Clark Gable, Leslie Howard, James Gleason

Background: Clarence Brown received an Oscar for directing Anna Christie, which was Greta Garbo's first talkie and also got her an Oscar nomination. Norma Shearer was coming off a Best Actress Oscar for The Divorcee. This is one of Gable's earliest major roles.

Story: Defense attorney Stephen Ashe (Barrymore) wins the acquittal of a gambler (Gable) on a murder charge, but is not happy to see that his daughter (Shearer) begins dating the man.

Thoughts: This is a movie that doesn't seem to know what it wants to be about. It alternates from love triangle to father-daughter drama about alcoholism to courtroom drama. Ultimately, it is not successful at any of them. The script doesn't seem to know what to do about the various characters. At one point in the third act, the film does a complete 180 on how we're supposed to view Gable's character. It's an abrupt and jarring twist that completely derails the movie. Once Barrymore wanders back into the film for a ridiculously contrived courtroom sequence, it's hard to take anything seriously. At the very least, we get confirmation on Norma Shearer's skill as an actress. She brings an astonishing elegance to her role and her wonderful presence makes the film somewhat bearable.

Postscript: Lionel Barrymore won the Best Actor Oscar for this film. The film also received nominations for Norma Shearer and Clarence Brown. Clark Gable and Leslie Howard would late appear together in Gone With the Wind.