Top 10 Films of 1933

1. "King Kong" (Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack, USA)

2. "Duck Soup" (Leo McCarey, USA)

3. "Forty-Second Street" (Lloyd Bacon, USA)

4. "Counsellor-At-Law" (William Wyler, USA)

5. "Zero de conduite" (Jean Vigo, France)

6. "Footlight Parade" (Lloyd Bacon, USA)

7. "The Water Magician" (Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan)

8. "Gold Diggers Of 1933" (Mervyn LeRoy, USA)

9. "Woman Of Tokyo" (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan)

10. "Zoo In Budapest" (Rowland V. Lee, USA)

Other great films:

Acciaio (Italy)

The Barbarian
Blood Money
Bombshell

Chotard et Cie (France)
College Humor
Dancing Lady
Design For Living
Dinner At Eight
Dragnet Girl (Japan)

Ecstasy (Czechoslovakia)
Flying Down To Rio
Going Hollywood
Hallelujah, I'M A Bum
If I Had A Million
I'M No Angel
The Invisible Man
Jego ekscelencja subjekt (Poland)
Kazdemu wolno kochac (Poland)
Lady For A Day
Little Women
Melody Cruise
Okraina (Soviet Union)
Passing Fancy (Japan)
Penthouse
The Private Life Of Henry VIII (UK)
Queen Christina

Roman Scandals
Romeo i Julcia (Poland)
She Done Him Wrong
Sons Of The Desert
Szpieg w masce (Poland)
The Testament Of Dr Mabuse (Germany)
Turn Back The Clock
Victory Of The Faith (Germany)
When Ladies Meet

Short Top 3:

1. "Las Hurdes" (Luis Bunuel, Spain)

2. "Busy Bodies" (Lloyd French, Roach, USA)

3. "Lot In Sodom" (James Sibley Watson, Melville Webber, USA)

Other great shorts:

Borinage (Holland)
Dirty Work

Kun elohopea laskee (Finland)
Me And My Pal
Menu

So This Is Harris
Twice Two 

Cartoon Top 10

1. "Snow White" (Dave Fleischer, Paramount)

2. "Three Little Pigs" (Burt Gillett, Disney)

3. "The Mad Doctor" (David Hand, Disney)

4. "Building A Building" (David Hand, Disney)

5. "Stratos Fear" (Ub Iwerks, MGM)

6. "Mother Goose Land" (Dave Fleischer, Paramount)

7. "The Old Man Of The Mountain" (Dave Fleischer, Paramount)

8. "The Mail Pilot" (David Hand, Disney)

9. "Betty Boop's Big Boss" (Dave Fleischer, Paramount)

10. "Fox Versus Tanuki" (Japan)

Other great cartoons:

Betty Boop's May Party
Birds In The Spring
Bosko In Dutch

Buddy's Day Out
Chinaman's Chance
Confidence
Father Noah's Ark
Fetiche mascotte (France)
Funny Face
Giantland
Hook And Ladder Hokum
I Heard
I Like Mountain Music

Is My Palm Red
Kreise (Germany)
Lullaby Land
The Merry Old Soul
Mickey's Mechanical Man
Mickey's Pal Pluto
Morning Moon And Night
The Organ Grinder
Parade Of Wooden Soldiers
The Pet Store
The Pied Piper
The Plumber

Popeye The Sailor
Popular Melodies
Puppy Love
Ride Him Bosko
Shuffle Off To Buffalo
The Steeplechase
Three's Crowd
Ye Olden Days

Weak films of 1933:

Berkeley Square
The Bitter Tea Of General Yen

Boss' Son At College (Japan)
Cavalcade
Deserter (Soviet Union)
The Dude Bandit
Eskimo
Hitlerjunge Quex (Germany)
Japanese Girls At The Harbor (Japan)
Morning Glory
Pod Twoja obrone (Poland)
State Fair

Weak shorts:

The Fatal Glass Of Beer
Hi-De-Ho
Industrial Britain (UK)
The Midnight Patrol
Rhapsody In Two Languages (Canada)

Weak cartoons:

The Air Race
Beau Bosko
Betty Boop's Birthday Party
Betty Boop's Crazy Inventions
Betty Boop's Halloween Party
Betty Boop's Ker-Choo
Betty Boop's Penthouse
Blow Me Down
Bosko In Person
Bosko's Dizzy Date
Bosko's Knight-Mare
Bosko's Mechanical Man
Bosko's Picture Show
Bosko's Woodland Daze
Bosko The Drawback
Bosko The Musketeer
Bosko The Sheep-Herder
Bosko The Speed King 
Buddy's Beer Garden
Buddy's Show Boat
Carmen (Germany)
Coo Coo The Magician
The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon
In The Zoo
I've Got To Sing A Torch Song
Jack And The Beanstalk
Mickey's Gala Premiere
Mickey's Mellerdrammer  
The Night Before Christmas
Old King Cole
One Step Ahead Of My Shadow
Opening Night
Pals
Russian Dressing
The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives
Silvery Moon
Sittin' On A Backyard Fence
Soda Squirt
Techno-Cracked
Wake Up The Gypsy In Me
We're In The Money
Young And Healthy

Lost films:

Morze (Poland)

Top 3 Musicals of 1933

1. "Forty-Second Street" (Lloyd Bacon, Warner)


2. "Footlight Parade" (Lloyd Bacon, Warner)


3. "Gold Diggers Of 1933" (Mervyn LeRoy, Warner)

Duck Soup (1933) *****

Marx Brothers' greatest film, a hilarious and very subversive comedy that ridicules nationalism.

King Kong (1933) *****

Extraordinary adventure film set on a mysterious island, inhabited by prehistoric dinosaurs and a giant ape named King Kong. Fay Wray plays a young actress kidnapped by the ape.

Forty-Second Street (1933) *****

The first true "backstage" musical and therefore one of the most influential and most often imitated films of all times. It's credited with singlehandedly revitalizing the musical genre after its 1931-32 slump. Songs and musical numbers:

"It Must Be June" *
"You're Getting To Be A Habit With Me" ***
"Shuffle Off To Buffalo" ***
"Young And Healthy" **
"Forty-Second Street" ***

Woman Of Tokyo (1933) ****

Ozu's "hahamono" melodrama about a brother who commits suicide because his sister is a prostitute.

The Water Magician (1933) ****

When Ladies Meet (1933) ***

Pre-code drama about a meeting between a wife and her husband's mistress.

Melody Cruise (1933) ***

Modest musical directed by Mark Sandrich.

Ecstasy (1933) ***

Dragnet Girl (1933) ***

A crime melodrama by Yasujiro Ozu, with an exciting finale.

Passing Fancy (1933) ***

A family comedy from Ozu.

The Barbarian (1933) ***

Okraina (1933) ***

Directed by Boris Barnet.

Victory Of The Faith (1933) ***

A sort of dry run before "Triumph Of The Will" (1935), and with a zeppelin to boot. However, the film was banned by the Nazis after 1934 because Ernst Rohm can be seen in too many scenes.

Romeo i Julcia (1933) ***

Adolf Dymsza i piosenki Henryka Warsa:

"Ho! Ho!"  **
"Nie warto"  **
"To wszystko umiem ja"  **

Acciaio (1933) ***

Italian drama directed by Walter Ruttmann.

Roman Scandals (1933) ***

Kazdemu wolno kochac (1933) ***

Polish comedy starring Adolf Dymsza, but it's another Adolf (already famous, but not yet sufficiently infamous to make such jokes tasteless) who's being mocked here. Songs written by Emanuel Schlechter:

"Chcesz to mnie bierz"  **
"Kazdemu wolno kochac"  **

Szpieg w masce (1933) ***

Musical spy drama about a Polish Mata Hari.

Legendarne piosenki Henryka Warsa:

"Na pierwszy znak"  ***
"Milosc ci wszystko wybaczy"  ***

Chotard et Cie (1933) ***

Berkeley Square (1933) **

A 20th-century man (Leslie Howard) finds himself in the 18th century.

State Fair (1933) **

Quite similar to the 1945 version, but without any songs, and much poorer for it.

Eskimo (1933) **

Compelling, but flawed film about Eskimo life.

Boss' Son At College (1933) **

One of Hiroshi Shimizu's best silent films, but still a very conventional college drama. The screenplay was written by Masao Arata, based on a story by Shimizu.

The Bitter Tea Of General Yen (1933) **

Dated, moralistic and cynical melodrama about a cruel Chinese warlord falling in love with a beautiful Christian missionary (Barbara Stanwyck).

Pod Twoja obrone (1933) *

Preachy and dated Polish melodrama about a pilot who becomes an invalid.

Hitlerjunge Quex (1933) *

Nazi propaganda film based on the life of Herbert Norkus, a Hitler Youth in the Berlin working-class district Beuselkietz, who was killed by communist assailants while distributing Nazi leaflets during the election of January 1932. Manipulative and crude, without any artistic value whatsoever.

Japanese Girls At The Harbor (1933) *

Dreadful silent melodrama directed by Hiroshi Shimizu. Very different from his later, magnificent sound films.  Released on June 1, 1933, this film includes scenes that are almost identical to scenes in Yasujiro Ozu's far superior crime melodrama "Dragnet Girl", released more than a month earlier, on April 27, 1933. But the film's main problem is a weak script by Mitsu Suyama, adapted from a unremarkable story by Tôma Kitabayashi.