Top 10 Films of 1930

1. "Earth" (Aleksandr Dovzhenko, Soviet Union)

2. "L'Age d'Or" (Luis Bunuel, France)

3. "Animal Crackers" (Victor Heerman, Paramount)

4. "All Quiet On The Western Front" (Lewis Milestone, Universal)

5. "The Dawn Patrol" (Howard Hawks, Warner)

6. "That Night's Wife" (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan)

7. "King Of Jazz" (John Murray Anderson, Universal)

8. "The Blue Angel" (Josef von Sternberg, Germany)

9. "The Doorway To Hell" (Archie Mayo, Warner)

10. "Morocco" (Josef von Sternberg, Paramount)


Other great films:

The Big House
The Big Trail
La Canzone dell'amore (Italy)
Feet First

For Her Sake (Sweden)

Free And Easy
Hell's Angels
Holiday
I Flunked But (Japan)
Just Imagine
Laughter

Menschen am Sonntag (Germany)
Min And Bill
Monte Carlo
Murder (UK)
Na Sybir (Poland)
Paramount On Parade

Romance
Le Sang d'un poète (France)
Sous les toits de Paris (France)
Storm Over Mont Blanc (Germany)
Walk Cheerfully (Japan)
Whoopee
With Byrd At The South Pole

Short Top 10:

1. "À propos de Nice" (Jean Vigo, France)

2. "Aimless Walk" (Alexander Hackenschmied, Czechoslovakia)

3. "Another Fine Mess" (James Parrott, Roach, MGM)

4. "Below Zero" (James Parrott, Roach, MGM)

5. "Hog Wild" (James Parrott, Roach, MGM)

6. "Laughing Gravy" (James W. Horne, Roach, MGM)

7. "Brats" (James Parrott, Roach, MGM)

8. "Night Owls" (James Parrott, Roach, MGM)

9. "Meet The Boyfriend" (Norman Taurog, Paramount)

10. "Blotto" (James Parrott, Roach, MGM)

Other great shorts:

Massages (France)

Cartoons Top 10

1. "The Cactus Kid" (Walt Disney, Disney)

2. "Sinkin' In The Bathtub" (Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising, Warner)

3. "Winter" (Burt Gillett, Disney)

4. "The Chain Gang" (Burt Gillett, Disney)

5. "Dizzy Dishes" (Dave Fleischer, Paramount)

6. "Hash Shop" (Walter Lantz, Universal)

7. "Studie Nr 6" (Oskar Fischinger, Germany)

8. "Ship Ahoy" (John Foster, RKO)

9. "Studie Nr 5" (Oskar Fischinger, Germany)

10. "Arctic Antics" (Ub Iwerks, Disney)

Other great cartoons:

Cannibal Capers

Congo Jazz
The Fire Fighters
Hells Heels

Henpecked
In My Merry Oldsmobile
Monkey Melodies

Mysterious Mose
Night
Playful Pan

The Shindig

Weak films of 1930:

Anna Christie
The Devil's Holiday
The Divorcee
Half Shot At Sunrise
Kult ciala (Poland)
Party Girl
Raffles
Salt For Svanetia (Soviet Union)
Sarah And Son
Tojin Okichi (Japan)

What Made Her Do It? (Japan)

Weak shorts:

Bear Shooters
The Golf Specialist
The Laurel And Hardy Murder Case
Office Blues
Romance sentimentale (France)

Weak cartoons:

Africa
April Maze
Autumn
Barnacle Bill
The Barnyard Concert
Booze Hangs High
Cold Feet
Fiddlin' Around
Frolicking Fish
The Gorilla Mystery
Hold Anything
Kounty Fair
Midnight In A Toy Shop
The Museum
The Picnic
Pioneer Days
Puddle Pranks
Scotch Highball
Summer

Lost films:

The Case Of Sergeant Grischa

The Rogue Song
The Song Of The Flame

Top 3 Musicals of 1930

1. "King Of Jazz" (John Murray Anderson, Universal)

2. "Monte Carlo" (Ernst Lubitsch, Paramount)


5. "Whoopee" (Thornton Freeland, United Artists)

Earth (1930) *****

The Dawn Patrol (1930) ****

The best of all WWI warplanes dramas (like 1927's "Wings", 1930's "Hell's Angels" and 1938's "Dawn Patrol"), with terrific aerial combat footage and a tense, exciting, Oscar-nominated story.

All Quiet On The Western Front (1930) ****

That Night's Wife (1930) ****

A silent crime melodrama directed by Yasujiro Ozu. Absolutely unique in his filmography. A tense thriller that begans with an armed robbery, continues with a police dragnet and ends with a stand-off involving the criminal, his wife, his sick daughter and a police detective.

Holiday (1930) ***

Eclipsed by the 1938 remake starring Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant, this is the original movie adaptation. And a fine one too.

Murder (1930) ***

A juror (Herbert Marshall) comes to believe that a woman convicted of murder is actually innocent.

With Byrd At The South Pole (1930) ***

Documentary set in Antarctica.

The Doorway To Hell (1930) ***

Excellent early talkie gangster film starring Lew Ayres as a head of the organized crime who decides to retire from the business. A fascinating portrait of Chicago's gangland during the Prohibition.

The Big House (1930) ***

The granddaddy of all prison pictures, and still the most extreme one, with army tanks putting down a prison riot.

Walk Cheerfully (1930) ***

Ozu's gangster film about a small-time hood who wants to go straight for a good girl. Screenplay by Tadao Ikeda, based on a story by Hiroshi Shimizu.

Paramount On Parade (1930) ***

An all-star musical revue. Highlights include: George Bancroft attending the same party twice, Maurice Chevalier quarreling with Evelyn Brent, Mitzi Mayfair dancing "I'M In Training For You" and little Mitzi Green singing an encore of "All I Want Is Just One Girl". Several musical numbers are missing their soundtracks ("I'M Isadore The Toreador", "Nichavo" and "Let's Drink To The Girl Of My Dreams"; the last one directed by Edmund Goulding). Ernst Lubitsch directed all three Maurice Chevalier segments. Musical numbers:

"We're The Masters Of Ceremony" *
"Anytime's The Time To Fall In Love" **
"Come Back To Sorrento" **
"I'M In Training For You" **
"My Marine" *
"All I Want Is Just One Girl" **
"What Did Cleopatra Say ?" *
"Dancing To Save Your Sole" *
"I'M True To The Navy Now" *
"Sweeping The Clouds Away" **

I Flunked But (1930) ***

Schoolmates are trying to pass the exams by cheating. One of Ozu's early "student comedies".

Laughter (1930) ***

Fine comedy-drama about a young wife of stuffy millionaire.

Romance (1930) ***

Free And Easy (1930) ***

Buster Keaton's first, and best, "talkie". A bit uneven, but a fascinating peek behind the curtains of the MGM studio at the dawn of the sound era. Musical numbers include:

"It Must Be You" **

"Free And Easy" **

"It Must Be You" (reprise) *

For Her Sake (1930) ***

Min And Bill (1930) ***

Marie Dressler won a well-deserved Academy Award for Best Actress for her superlative performance as a tough saloon owner who tries to protect her adopted daughter from her evil biological mother. Wallace Beery is equally good as her best friend.

La Canzone dell'amore (1930) ***

One of the first Italian sound films.

Na Sybir (1930) ***

Patriotic drama about a Polish freedom fighter deported to Siberia. Set in 1905. Directed by Henryk Szaro ("Mocny czlowiek").

The Big Trail (1930) ***

Fine western set on the Oregon Trail circa 1840. John Wayne's first starring role.

Party Girl (1930) **

Pre-Code drama about prostitutes seducing businessmen.

The Devil's Holiday (1930) **

Old-fashioned, dated and uneven melodrama about a gold digger marrying a rich kid for his dough, but ending falling with love with him anyway. The ultimate “gold digger with a heart of gold” melodrama.

Kult ciala (1930) **

Polish silent film about a sculptor.

The Rogue Song (1930)

Only brief fragments of this film have survived.

Raffles (1930) **

Entertaining, if unexceptional film starring Ronald Coleman as a suave jewel thief.

Sarah And Son (1930) *

Dorothy Arzner directed this dated melodrama about an opera singer looking for her lost son.

What Made Her Do It? (1930) *

Simplistic, but visually impressive, Japanese social drama about a poor waif persecuted by one-dimensional villains.

Tojin Okichi (1930) *

Only a brief 4 min fragment suvives from this silent film by Kenji Mizoguchi.

Menschen am Sonntag (1930) ***

À propos de Nice (1930) *****

Aimless Walk (1930) ****

A classic of the Czech avant-garde.