Top 10 Films of 1929

1. "The Man With A Movie Camera" (Dziga Vertov, Soviet Union)

2. "Pandora's Box" (G.W. Pabst, Germany)

3. "Arsenal" (Aleksandr Dovzhenko, Soviet Union)

4. "The Love Parade" (Ernst Lubitsch, USA)

5. "Spite Marriage" (Edward Sedgwick, USA)

6. "The Cocoanuts" (Robert Florey, Joseph Santley, USA)

7. "Hallelujah!" (King Vidor, USA)

8. "Queen Kelly" (Erich von Stroheim, USA)

9. "The New Babylone" (Grigori Kozintsev, Leonid Trauberg, Soviet Union)

10. "The White Hell Of Piz Palu" (Arnold Fanck, G.W. Pabst, Germany)

Other great films:

Alibi
Applause
Blackmail (UK)

The Blacksmith Of The Forest (Japan)
The Broadway Melody

Cagliostro (France)
Condemned
Days Of Youth (Japan)
Diary Of A Lost Girl (Germany)
The Divine Lady
Dynamite

Erotikon (Czechoslovakia)

Eternal Heart (Japan)

La Femme et le pantin (France)
Fighting Friends (Japan)

Glorifying The American Girl

The Godless Girl

Happy Days

The Hollywood Revue Of 1929
I Graduated But (Japan)
The Iron Mask

Laila (Norway)

The Leatherneck
The Letter
Mocny czlowiek (Poland)

My Grandmother (Soviet Union)
Old And New (Soviet Union)
Picadilly (UK)
Rio Rita

Rotaie (Italy)

Sally
The Show Of Shows
Sunnyside Up
Their Own Desire
Thunderbolt

The Valiant
The Virginian
Welcome Danger
The Wild Party

Short Top 10:

1. "Un Chien andalou" (Luis Bunuel, Salvador Dali, France)

2. "A Pair Of Tights" (Hal Yates, Roach, MGM)

3. "Big Business" (James W. Horne, Leo McCarey, Roach, MGM)

4. "Rain" (Joris Ivens, Holland)

5. "Liberty" (Leo McCarey, Roach, MGM)

6. "Black And Tan" (Dudley Murphy, RKO)

7. "Double Whoopee" (Lewis Foster, Roach, MGM)

8. "A Straightforward Boy" (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan)

9. "Wrong Again" (Leo McCarey, Roach, MGM)

10. "Movie Night" (Lewis Foster, Roach, MGM)

Other great shorts:

Angora Love
Bacon Grabbers
Favorite Melodies
Hoose Gow

Montparnasse (France)
A Perfect Day
That's My Wife
They Go Boom
Unaccustomed As We Are

Cartoon Top 10

1. "The Skeleton Dance" (Walt Disney, Disney)

2. "Mickey's Choo Choo" (Ub Iwerks, Disney)

3. "Tusalava" (Len Lye, UK)

4. "Hell's Bells" (Ub Iwerks, Disney)

5. "Wild Waves" (Walt Disney, Disney)

6. "Koko's Hot Ink" (Dave Fleischer, Paramount)

7. "Oil's Well" (Walter Lantz, Universal)

8. Koko's Conquest (Dave Fleischer, Paramount)

9. "Wooden Money" (Paul Terry, Pathé)

10. "Bosko The Talk-Ink Kid" (Hugh Harman, Warner)

Other great cartoons:

The Barnyard Battle

Buried Treasure
El Terrible Toreador
Homeless Homer

Hurdy Gurdy

The Karnival Kid
Kobutori (Japan)
Koko's Big Sale
Koko's Harum Scarum
The Plow Boy
Weary Willies
Yanky Clippers

Weak films of 1929:

Bulldog Drummond
Coquette
Disraeli
Drifters (UK)
The Last Of Mrs Cheyney
Madame X
In Old Arizona
Samurai Town: Story 2 (Japan)
The Single Standard
Tokyo March (Japan)
The Trespasser
Turksib (Soviet Union)
Woman In The Moon (Germany)

Weak shorts:

Berth Marks
Makers Of Melody
Men O' War
Only You
Radio Rhythm

Weak cartoons:

Barnyard Melody
Chemical Koko
Chinatown My Chinatown
The Haunted House
The Jazz Fool
Jungle Rhythm
Koko's Hypnotism
Koko's Reward
The Merry Dwarfs
Mickey's Follies
Opry House
Snapping The Whip
Springtime
The Water Cure
When The Cat's Away

Lost films:

Wonder Of Women

Top 3 Musicals of 1929

1. "The Love Parade" (Ernst Lubitsch, Paramount)


2. "Hallelujah!" (King Vidor, MGM)

3. "The Broadway Melody" (Harry Beaumont, MGM)

Pandora's Box (1929) *****

The Man With A Movie Camera (1929) *****

My Grandmother (1929) ****

Mocny czlowiek (1929) ****

Probably the best Polish film of the silent era, an expressionistic melodrama about greed, ambition and ruthlessness.

The New Babylone (1929) ****

Soviet drama about the Paris Commune. Superbly directed by Kozintzev and Trauberg.

The Love Parade (1929) ****

Excellent musical set in a Ruritanian kingdom of Sylvania, where the Queen (Jeanette MacDonald) is looking for a husband. Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Musical numbers:

"Paris, Stay The Same" **
"Dream Lover" ***
"Anything To Please The Queen" **
"My Love Parade" **
"Dream Lover" (reprise) **
"Let's Be Common" **
"March Of The Grenadiers" **
"Nobody's Using It Now" **
"The Queen Is Always Right" **
"Dream Lover" (reprise) *
"March Of The Grenadiers" (reprise) *

The White Hell Of Piz Palu (1929) ****

Co-directed with G.W. Pabst, this is among the best of Arnold Fanck's "mountain films" starring Leni Riefenstahl. Impressive cinematography.

Queen Kelly (1929) ****

Erich von Stroheim's most entertaining film, starring Gloria Swanson as a young schoolgirl seduced by a dashing officer and whipped by a jealous queen.

The Cocoanuts (1929) ****

Groucho is a hotel manager in Florida. His guests include Chico and Harpo, but the only paying guest is the incomparable Margaret Dumont. The funniest sequence is the legendary "why a duck" routine. The first reprise of "When My Dreams Come True" begins with an overhead kaleidoscopic pattern that certainly inspired Busby Berkeley. An excellent musical score by Irving Berlin includes:

"Florida By The Sea" **
"When My Dreams Come True" **
"Monkey-Doodle-Doo" **
"When My Dreams Come True" (reprise) **
"The Tale Of A Shirt" **
"When My Dreams Come True" (reprise) *

Spite Marriage (1929) ****

Fast-paced, hilarious, exciting and totally unpredictable comedy starring Buster Keaton.

Blackmail (1929) ***

Hitchcock's first "talkie" and of the first film to use sound in a creative and dramatically exciting way.

Welcome Danger (1929) ***

Uneven, but often impressive Harold Lloyd farce.

Condemned (1929) ***

Ronald Coleman stars as a convict on Devil's Island who falls in love with the warden's wife and tries to escape with her help.

The Broadway Melody (1929) ****

The first backstage musical, but also a good melodrama about two sisters in love with the same man. Acting is uneven, but the film has a rough edge. Musical numbers:

"Broadway Melody" **
"Harmony Babies" *
"Broadway Melody" (reprise) **
"Love Boat"
"You Were Meant For Me" **
"Truthful Parson Brown" *
"The Wedding Of The Painted Doll" **
"The Boy Friend" *
"Harmony Babies" (reprise) *

Diary Of A Lost Girl (1929) ***

A companion piece to "Pandora's Box" (1929), again starring Louise Brooks.

Hallelujah (1929) ****

King Vidor directed this all-black musical featuring many negro spirituals. Songs include:

"Swanee River" *
"At The End Of The Road" **
"Swanee Shuffle" **
"Old-Time Religion" *
"Going Home" *

The Iron Mask (1929) ***

Douglas Fairbanks' last silent film is a fast-paced adventure film about D'Artagnan saving the King of France from his evil twin.

The Hollywood Revue Of 1929 (1929) ***

The first all-talking, all-singing, all-dancing all-star musical revue, produced by MGM.

Their Own Desire (1929) ***

Excellent MGM melodrama starring Norma Shearer in an Oscar-nominated performance, probably the best of her career. It's not a musical, but among its highlights are two memorable musical numbers: an expressionistic dance sequence and a jazzy song:

"Blue Is the Night"  **
"She's Got The Boy Friend Blues"  **

Rotaie (1929) ***