Top 10 Films of 1937

1. "Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs" (David Hand, Disney)

2. "La Grande Illusion" (Jean Renoir, France)

3. "A Star Athlete" (Hiroshi Shimizu, Japan)

4. "Easy Living" (Mitchell Leisen, Paramount)

5. "The Awful Truth" (Leo McCarey, Columbia)

6. "Drôle de drame" (Marcel Carné, France)

7. "Lost Horizon" (Frank Capra, Columbia)

8. "A Damsel In Distress" (George Stevens, RKO)

9. "Shall We Dance" (Mark Sandrich, RKO)

10. "Nothing Sacred" (William Wellman, United Artists)



Other great films:

Artists And Models
Blazen purymowy (Poland)
Broadway Melody Of 1938
Camille

Un Carnet de bal (France)

Children In The Wind (Japan)

A Day At The Races
Désiré (France)
Dybuk (Poland)
Dziewczeta z Nowolipek (Poland)
Elephant Boy (UK)
The Firefly
The Good Earth
La Habanera (Germany)
Halka (Poland)
High Wide And Handsome
History Is Made At Night
Humanity And Paper Balloons (Japan)
Hurricane
In Old Chicago

Juha (Finland)

Kliou: The Killer

The Lash Of The Penitentes

Make A Wish
Maytime
Niedorajda (Poland)
Night Must Fall
One Hundred Men And A Girl
On The Avenue
Pani minister tanczy (Poland)
Parametta (Germany)
Pepe le Moko (France)
Pietro wyzej (Poland)
Portia On Trial
Quality Street
Ready Willing And Able
The Return Of Maxim (Soviet Union)
Rosalie

Scipione l'africano (Italy)

Il Signor Max (Italy)
The Singing Marine
Something To Sing About
Souls At Sea
The Spanish Earth (Spain)
Stage Door
A Star Is Born
Stella Dallas
Thin Ice
Topper
Trojka hultajska (Poland)
Varsity Show
Waikiki Wedding
Wake Up And Live

Walter Wanger's Vogues Of 1938
Way Out West
What Did The Lady Forget (Japan)

The White Lady Is Missing (Czechoslovakia)

Young And Innocent (UK)

Zamboanga (Philippines)

Short Top 3:

1. "Bezhin Meadow" (Sergei Eisenstein, Soviet Union)

2. "The River" (Pare Lorentz, USA)

3. "Romance Of Radium" (Jacques Tourneur, MGM)

Other great shorts:

Penny Wisdom
Song Of Ruthenia (Czechoslovakia)

Cartoon Top 10

1. "Porky's Double Trouble" (Frank Tashlin, Warner)


2. "Porky's Romance" (Frank Tashlin, Warner)


3. "The Case Of The Stuttering Pig" (Frank Tashlin, Warner)


4. "The Old Mill" (Wilfred Jackson, Disney)

5. "Popeye Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves" (Dave Fleischer, Paramount)

6. "Porky's Duck Hunt" (Tex Avery, Warner)

7. "Clock Cleaners" (Ben Sharpsteen, Disney)

8. "Colour Flight" (Len Lye, UK)

9. "Philips Broadcast Of 1938" (George Pal, Holland)

10. "Trade Tattoo" (Len Lye, UK)

Other great cartoons:

Clean Pastures
Educated Fish
The Foxy Hunter
Hawaiian Holiday
The Impractical Joker
I Wanna Be A Sailor
Kiko's Cleaning Day
Little Buck Cheeser
Little Hiawatha
The Little Match Girl
Little Ol' Bosko And The Cannibals
Little Red Walking Hood
Magician Mickey
The Moose Hunters
The Paneless Window Washer
Pink Elephants
Pluto's Quinpuplets
Porky And Gabby
Porky's Badtime Story
Porky's Railroad
Skeleton Frolics
Speaking Of The Weather
Swing Wedding
Uncle Tom's Bungalow
The Wayward Pups
Woodland Cafe
The Worm Turns

Weak films of 1937:

Ali Baba Goes To Town
Black Legion
Captains Courageous
Conquest
Crossroads (China)
Dead End

Forget Love For Now (Japan)

The Golden Demon (Japan)
Heidi
Hitting A New High
Knight Without Armor
The Life Of Emile Zola
The Marijuana Menace
Never Too Late (UK)
Les Perles de la couronne (France)
Plomienne serca (Poland)
The Prisoner Of Zenda
Sklamalam (Poland)
Slaves In Bondage

The Straits Of Love And Hate (Japan)
Swing High, Swing Low
They Won't Forget
Wee Willie Winkie
Wells Fargo
Znachor (Poland)

Weak cartoons:

Ain't We Got Fun
Bosko's Easter Eggs
Bunny Mooning
The Candid Candidate
A Cartune Portrait
Chicken à la King
Circus Daze
Ding Dong Doggie
Dog Daze
Don Donald
Donald's Ostrich
Egghead Rides Again
The Fella With A Fiddle
Get Rich Quick Porky
He Was Her Man
The Hot Air Salesman
The Hound And The Rabbit
House Cleaning Blues
I Only Have Eyes For You  
Little Ol' Bosko And The Pirates
Lonesome Ghosts
The Lying Mouse
Mickey's Amateurs
Modern Inventions
The New Deal Show
Peeping Penguins
Picador Porky
Pigs Is Pigs
Plenty Of Money And You
Porky's Building
Porky's Garden
Porky's Hero Agency
Porky's Road Race
Porky's Super Service
Porky The Wrestler
Pudgy Picks A Fight
Pudgy Takes A Bow-Wow
Rover's Rival
September In The Rain
Service With A Smile
She Was An Acrobat's Daughter
Streamlined Greta Green
A Sunbonnet Blue
Sweet Sioux
What Ho She Bumps (Holland)
Whoops I'M A Cowboy
The Woods Are Full Of Cuckoos
Zula Hula

Top 3 Musicals of 1937

1. "A Damsel In Distress" (George Stevens, RKO)


2. "Shall We Dance" (Mark Sandrich, RKO)


3. "One Hundred Men And A Girl" (Henry Koster, Universal)

Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (1937) *****

This timeless classic is not only a great animated film, but also a superb musical. Great songs include:

"I'M Wishing" **
"One Song" **
"With A Smile And A Song" **
"Whistle While You Work" **
"Heigh-Ho" ***
"The Washing Song" *
"Isn't This A Silly Song ?" **
"Some Day My Prince Will Come" ***

La Grande Illusion (1937) *****

One of the greatest French films, set in a German POW camp during World War I.

Lost Horizon (1937) ****

Humanity And Paper Balloons (1937) ****

Sadao Yamanaka's last film.

Drôle de drame (1937) ****

The Awful Truth (1937) ****

Cary Grand and Irene Dunne in a sparkling screwball comedy about a divorcing couple fighting for the custody of their dog.

Easy Living (1937) ****

Rollicking farce written by Preston Sturges, starring Jean Arthur, Jack Arnold and Ray Milland. A masterpiece of screwball comedy.

A Star Athlete (1937) *****

People like me and Ozu get films made by hard work, but Shimizu is a genius... - Kenji Mizoguchi

Quirky and very original little film about a group of college boys in the countryside conducting a series of military style exercises. The first half is surprising and easy-going, while the final segment is truly hilarious. An amazing script by Tobei Kujiraya and Masao Arata (who wrote some of Yasujiro Ozu's best films, including "An Inn In Tokyo"). Superbly directed by Hiroshi Shimizu.

Shall We Dance (1937) ****

Hilarious Fred and Ginger comedy with a superb Gershwin score. Musical numbers include:

"Beginner's Luck"
"Slap That Bass" **
"They All Laughed" ***
"Let's Call The Whole Thing Off" ***
"They Can't Take That Away From Me" ***
"Shall We Dance" **

Make A Wish (1937) ***

Pleasant musical starring Bobby Breen. Musical numbers:

"Birchlake Forever"  **
"Campfire Dreams"  **
"Make A Wish"  **
"Polly Wolly Doodle"  **
"Old Man Rip"  **
"Music In My Heart"  **
"Birchlake Forever" (reprise)  **
"Music In My Heart" (reprise)  **
"Make A Wish" (reprise)  *

Rosalie (1937) ***

Long, uneven musical starring Eleonor Powell as a Ruritanian princess marrying a football-playing West Point cadet (Nelson Eddy). Superb musical score by Cole Porter includes many memorable tunes:

"The Caissons Go Rolling Along" **
"Who Knows ?" **
"I've A Strange New Rhythm In My Heart" ***
"Rosalie" (song) ***
"Why Should I Care ?" **
"Spring Love Is In The Air" *
"Rosalie" (dance) **
"In The Still Of The Night" ***
"It's All Over But The Shouting"
"To Love Or Not To Love" *

Kliou: The Killer (1937) ***

Dziewczeta z Nowolipek (1937) ***

Fine melodrama about four young girls growing up in the same tenament house. Directed by Jozef Lejtes. Based on a novel by Pola Gojawiczynska.

A Day At The Races (1937) ***

Marx Brother's second film for MGM is almost as good as the first (1935's "A Night At The Opera"), with many classic scenes (Chico selling "tutsy frutsy" ice-cream, Groucho seducing Margaret Dumont). Only Harpo's antics seem to be loosing their edge. The wild satyr of the previous films gives way to a child-like innocent.

Varsity Show (1937) ***

Most memorable for Busby Berkeley's "The Finale" musical extravaganza (his last spectacular number of the 1930's and his last Oscar-nomination for choreography).

Artists And Models (1937) ***

Musical numbers:

"Sasha Pasha"  ***
"Pop Goes The Bubble"  **
"Whispers In The Dark"  **
"Stop You're Breaking My Heart"  **
"Mister Esquire"  *
"Jesse James"  *
"Public Melody #1"  **

The Return Of Maxim (1937) ***

A sequel to "The Youth Of Maxim" (1935). It focuses on the struggle between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks in 1917.

Stella Dallas (1937) ***

Classy melodrama. Great, Oscar-nominated performance by Barbara Stanwyck. The first half is uneven, but stick with it because the second half is flawless (or as close to flawless as a Hollywood soap opera has ever got).

Pietro wyzej (1937) ****

Rywalizacja dwoch sasiadow, pana Henryka Paczka (mlodego spikera radiowego) i pana Hipolita Paczka (starszego wlasciciela kamienicy w ktorej obaj mieszkaja). Prawdopodobnie najlepsza polska komedia przedwojenna, ze wspanialymi przebojami muzycznymi, zabawnymi dialogami i znakomita obsada (Eugeniusz Bodo, Helena Grossowna). Swietne piosenki Henryka Warsa i Emanuela Schlechtera:

"Sexappeal to nasza bron kobieca" ***
"Dzisiaj ta i jutro ta" **
"Umowilem sie z nia na dziewiata" ***
"Sexappeal to nasza bron kobieca" (powtorka) ***

Pepe le Moko (1937) ***

Jean Gabin comes to the Casbah to escape from the cops. This French film was remade three times in Hollywood - as "Algiers" (1938) with Charles Boyer, as a musical "Casbah" (1948) with Tony Martin, and as an animated short "Cat's Bah" (1954) with Pepe le Pew.

Portia On Trial (1937) ***

Courtroom drama about murder and motherhood.

On The Avenue (1937) ***

A musical comedy starring Madeleine Carroll as a rich heiress dating an actor (Dick Powell). Songs include:

"He Ain't Got Rhythm" **
"Girl On The Police Gazete"
"You're Laughing At Me"
"This Year's Kisses" *
"I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm" *
"Slumming On Park Avenue" *

Night Must Fall (1937) ***

Fine Hitchcockian thriller actually predates "Suspicion" (1941) by a couple of years.

One Hundred Men And A Girl (1937) ***

Deanna Durbin is as delightful as ever in this modest film about unemployed musicians. Songs:

"It's Raining Sunbeams" **
"A Heart That's Free" **
"Alleluia" *
"La Traviata" **

Nothing Sacred (1937) ***

The noble profession of journalism is throughly trashed in this very amusing farce about a newspaper fraud involving a small town girl (Carole Lombard) allegedly dying of radium poisoning.

Niedorajda (1937) ***

Adolf Dymsza musi przebrac sie za kobiete w tej typowej polskiej komedii przedwojennej w rezyserii Mieczyslawa Krawicza. Piosenka Henryka Warsa:

"Florek gdzie twoj humorek"  **

La Habanera (1937) ***

Douglas Sirk's first important film, made in Nazi Germany and shot in the Canary Islands during the Spanish Civil War.

Maytime (1937) ***

Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy's most sumptuous and romantic film, set in turn-of-the-century Vienna.

Hurricane (1937) ***

A disaster pic set in the South Pacific.

The Good Earth (1937) ***

Epic film about the tribulations of a Chinese family.

Camille (1937) ***

Greta Garbo gives the most memorable performance of her career in this adaptation of Alexandre Dumas fils' famous novel.

Broadway Melody Of 1938 (1937) ***

Eleonor Powell, Robert Taylor, George Murphy, Buddy Ebsen and Judy Garland star in this big musical extravaganza. Songs include:

"Follow In My Footsteps" *
"Yours And Mine" *
"Everybody Sing" **
"I'M Feeling Like A Million" *
"Dear Mr.Gable" ***

The Firefly (1937) ***

Jeanette McDonald briefly parted company with Nelson Eddy for this one film. Here, her co-star is Allen Jones.

Elephant Boy (1937) ***

Robert Flaherty shot some beautiful documentary footage about India. Zoltan Korda shot some exciting adventure scenes. The finished film is a little schizophrenic, but quite interesting.

Un Carnet de bal (1937) ***