Top 10 Films of 1938

1. "The Masseurs And A Woman" (Hiroshi Shimizu, Japan)

2. "Bringing Up Baby" (Howard Hawks, RKO)

3. "Alexander Nevsky" (Sergei Eisenstein, Soviet Union)

4. "The Adventures Of Robin Hood" (Michael Curtiz, Warner)

5. "The Lady Vanishes" (Alfred Hitchcock, UK)

6. "Hollywood Hotel" (Busby Berkeley, Warner)

7. "Quai des brumes" (Marcel Carné, France)

8. "La Femme du boulanger" (Marcel Pagnol, France)

9. "If I Were King" (Frank Lloyd, Paramount)

10. Angels With Dirty Faces (Michael Curtiz, Warner)

Other great films:

The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer
Alexander's Ragtime Band
Algiers
La Bete humaine (France)
Block-Heads
Bluebeard's Eighth Wife
Carefree

Child Bride
The Childhood Of Maxim Gorky (Soviet Union)
The Dawn Patrol
The Divorce Of Lady X (UK)
Four Daughters
Geniusz sceny (Poland)
The Girl Of The Golden West
Gold Diggers In Paris
The Goldwyn Follies

The Great Citizen Part 1 (Soviet Union)
The Great Waltz
Holiday
Jezebel
Just Around The Corner
Listen Darling
Little Miss Broadway
Love Finds Andy Hardy
Luciano Serra pilota (Italy)
Ludzie Wisly (Poland)
Mad About Music
The Merry Wives (Czechoslovakia)
Pawel i Gawel (Poland)
Pygmalion (UK)
Quadrille (France)
Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm
Robert i Bertrand (Poland)
Room Service
Sing, You Sinners

Stolen Death (Finland)

Sweethearts
Swiss Miss
Terror Of Tiny Town

Volga Volga (Soviet Union)
You Can't Take It With You
The Young In Heart
Zapomniana melodia (Poland)


Top 10 Guilty Pleasures of 1938:

1. "Olympia" (Leni Riefenstahl, Germany)

2. "Ettore Fieramosca" (Alessandro Blasetti, Italy)

3. "Uncle Si And The Sirens" (USA) - short

4. "The Exposé Of The Nudist Racket" (USA) - short

5. "Ateneum" (Finland) - short

6. South Sea Sweethearts (Holland) - cartoon

7. "Hollywood Script Girl" (USA) - short

8. "Verwehte Spuren" (Veit Harlan, Germany)

9. "Strachy" (Eugeniusz Cekalski, Karol Szolowski, Poland)

10. "Granica" (Jozef Lejtes, Poland)

Great shorts:

1. "N Or NW" (Len Lye, UK)

2. "That Mothers Might Live" (Fred Zinnemann, USA)

3. "Violent Is The Word For Curly" (Charley Chase, Columbia)

Other great shorts:

Swingtime In The Movies

Cartoon Top 10

1. "Mickey's Trailer" (Ben Sharpsteen, Disney)

2. "Porky In Wackyland" (Robert Clampett, Warner)

3. "Brave Little Tailor" (Bill Roberts, Disney)

4. "Katnip Kollege" (Cal Dalton, Cal Howard, Warner)

5. "Ferdinand The Bull" (Dick Rickard, Disney)

6. "Have You Got Any Castles ?" (Frank Tashlin, Warner)

7. "Cinderella Meets Fella" (Tex Avery, Warner)

8. "An Optical Poem" (Oskar Fischinger, MGM)

9. "The Daffy Doc" (Robert Clampett, Warner)

10. "Porky The Fireman" (Frank Tashlin, Warner)

Great cartoons:

A-Lad-In Bagdad
Boy Meets Dog
The Captain's Christmas
Cleaning House
Daffy Duck And Egghead
Daffy Duck In Hollywood
Donald's Nephews 
Doomsday
A Feud There Was
The Frog Pond
Gandy The Goose
Good Scouts
Injun Trouble
The Isle Of Pingo-Pongo
Johnny Smith and Poker-Huntas
Jungle Jitters

Merbabies

Mickey's Parrot
Midnight Frolics
Moth And The Flame
Mother Goose Goes Hollywood
Old Smokey

On With The New 

Porky At The Crocadero
Porky's Hare Hunt 
Porky's Party
Porky's Poppa
The Sneezing Weasel

The Whalers

Wynken Blynken And Nod

You're An Education

Weak films of 1938:

The Big Broacast of 1938
Boys Town
The Citadel (UK)
The Cowboy And The Lady
Family Diary (Japan)
Hôtel du Nord (France)
Kosciuszko pod Raclawicami (Polska)
Madreselva (Argentina)
Marie Antoinette
Merrily We Live
Sex Madness
Suez
Test Pilot
Vivacious Lady

Weak shorts:

Making Fashion (UK)
North Sea (UK)

Weak cartoons:

All's Fair At The Fair
Be Up To Date
Blue Monday
Boat Builders
Buried Treasure
The Captain's Pup
Count Me Out
Cracked Ice
A Day At The Beach
Donald's Better Self
Donald's Golf Game
Farmyard Symphony
The Fox Hunt
Heavenly Post Office (UK)
Honduras Hurricane
Hunky And Spunky
Little Ol' Bosko In Bagdad
The Little Bantamweight
Little Pancho Vanilla
Love And Curses
The Major Lied 'Til Dawn
The Mice Will Play
My Little Buckeroo
The Night Watchman
Now That Summer Is Gone
Out Of The Inkwell
The Penguin Parade
Pipe Dreams
Polar Trappers
Porky And Daffy
Porky In Egypt
Porky's Five And Ten
Porky's Naughty Nephew
Porky's Phoney Express 
Porky's Spring Planting
Porky The Gob
Poultry Pirates
Pudgy The Watchman
The Pygmy Hunt
Riding The Rails
Sally Swing
Self Control
A Star Is Hatched
Swing School
Thrills And Chills
What A Lion!
What Price Porky
Wholly Smoke
The Winning Ticket

Top 3 Musicals of 1938

1. "Hollywood Hotel" (Busby Berkeley, Warner)

2. "Alexander's Ragtime Band" (Henry King, 20th-Fox)

3. "Carefree" (Mark Sandrich, RKO)

The Masseurs And A Woman (1938) *****

A cinematic miracle written and directed by Hiroshi Shimizu. Arguably his greatest film, a very subtle narrative rollercoaster that constantly plays with its viewers' expectations. It begins like a comedy, but then slowly becomes a whodunit, before touching on some melodrama in order to finally settle for a touch of romance. One of the least predictable films ever made.

Hollywood Hotel (1938) ****

Busby Berkeley's last Warner Bros. musical. His best film, a possible inspiration for "Singin' In The Rain". Musical numbers:

"Hooray For Hollywood"  ***
"I'M Like A Fish Out Of Water"  **
"Silhouetted In The Moonlight"  *
"Let That Be A Lesson To You"  **
"House Hop"  ***
"I've Hitched My Wagon To A Star"  **
"Silhouetted In The Moonlight" (reprise)  **
"Dark Eyes"  **
"I've Hitched My Wagon To A Star"  (reprise)  **
"Sing You Son Of A Gun/Hooray For Hollywood"  **

Olympia (1938) ****

Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938) ***

The most memorable of all Andy Hardy comedies. Judy Garland sings three songs:

"In Between"  **
"It Never Rains But What It Pours"  *
"Meet The Beat Of My Heart"  **

Swiss Miss (1938) ***

Memorable feature film starring Laurel and Hardy.

The Merry Wives (1938) ***

Geniusz sceny (1938) ***

An homage to a great Polish theatre actor, Ludwik Solski, presenting some of his greatest acting triumphs. Winner of two awards at the Venice Film Festival, for acting and for screenplay.

The Young In Heart (1938) ***

Pleasant film about a family of fraud artists who befriend a lonely rich old woman.

Verwehte Spuren (1938) ***

Robert i Bertrand (1938) ***

Legendary pre-war Polish comedy because it united two greatest Polish comics of the era: Eugeniusz Bodo and Adolf Dymsza. Unfortunately, only about half of the film has survived the war. Ditto for the two comics: Bodo died in a Soviet gulag, while Dymsza joined the Communist party after the war.

Songs by Henryk Wars and Emanuel Schlechter:

"Robert i Bertrand"  **
"Zakochany zlodziej"  **
"Goralu czy ci nie zal"  *

Stolen Death (1938) ***

Algiers (1938) ***

Charles Boyer plays Pepe le Moko in this Hollywood remake of the classic French film starring Jean Gabin.

The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer (1938) ***

Classic adaptation of Mark Twain's immortal novel.

Sweethearts (1938) ***

Another fine musical starring Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy.

The Divorce Of Lady X (1938) ***

Two strangers of opposite sex (Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon) share the same room in a hotel. Chirpy, effervescent Oberon is the main reason to see this somewhat dated, but very pleasant screwball comedy about propriety and decorum.

Quadrille (1938) ***

Clever comedy of manners about an unfaithful mistress.

Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938) ***

A perfect example of the celebrated Lubitsch's Touch.

The Great Citizen Part 1 (1938) ***

The film is mostly set in 1925, during the preparations for the 14th Party Congress and the bitter conflict between Trotsky's supporters of an immediate worldwide revolution and Stalin's supporters of building socialism in one country.

Luciano Serra pilota (1938) ***

Italian fascist propaganda film, winner of the Mussolini Cup at the Venice Film Festival. Uneven. The first half is quite boring, but the second half is a fairly exciting war movie with Ethiopian troops attacking a train.

Strachy (1938) ***

Ettore Fieramosca (1938) ***

Granica (1938) ***