The Informer

John Ford, 1935, bw (8.8*)
Possibly the best John Ford film, this one is not a western but a political film in which Victor McLaglen plays an alcoholic member of the IRA in the 20's, in an Oscar®-winning performance for best actor (the best of his long career), who can't decide if he's fighting a revolution or looking for his next drink. Intelligence personnel know his weakness for alcohol and he becomes a target of those seeking information for the British side.

Winner of four Oscars, for best actor, director, music score, and screenplay - it lost best picture to Mutiny on the Bounty. This is still a riveting, politically-charged story 75 years later.

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Triumph of the Will

[Our 600th film reviewed]Leni Reifenstahl, Germany, 1935 (8.2*)
This is a hard film to recommend, but an important documentary for both historical events covered as well as pioneering film techniques. Leni is a former actress turned filmmaker as Hitler's chosen film propagandist. In her first major film here, she documents the rise of the Nazi party in Germany.

She later apologized for the film, but it's so eerie to watch today that it's effective as anti-propaganda as well, likely scaring far more people than it inspires. She went on to direct the documentary of the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin, in Olympia, also a classic of film technique. She buried a camera in the earth to get a shot of the starting line of the 100 meter dash. In Triumph, she uses striking geometric compositions to amplify the impact of crowd scenes, into what could rightfully be called, in Clockwork Orange vernacular, real 'horrorshow', something so terrifying that you have to watch it.

Down a point or so in the rating for being blatant propaganda, but it's still cinematic art, and influenced many other directors.

Note: posted on Pearl Harbor day, as this film shows the seeds of war being sown in the 30's

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A Night at the Opera

Sam Wood, 1935, bw (7.5*)
This Marx Brothers gem features probably their most famous scene: the stateroom on the ocean liner that is a phone booth to begin with (Groucho’s line) and they cram about 15 people in, from stowaways to maids to waiters, who fall out when Margaret Dumont (yes, she's on hand, thankfully) opens the door. However, like kissing scenes in your Saturday westerns growing up (when kids would actually boo in the theater!), this has some lengthy and pointless musical numbers to wait out before the comedic pace returns. Admitted that Chico had a humorous style on the piano and did his numbers in one take, but Harpo on harp is always tedious, and this also has some operetta-like songs and dances that do nothing for the Marx style except slow it down. In the better Duck Soup, the musical numbers were zany and made sense to the plot, “Hooray for Captain Spalding” was actually nominated for an Oscar. Still, one of their best in the comedy parts.
Quote: “That’s the sanity clause” – “You can’t a-foola me, there ain’t no sanity clause!”

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The 39 Steps

Alfred Hitchcock, 1935, bw (8.5*)
This is one of the early British films of Hitchcock before he developed a more formulaic approach for Hollywood , so it's really one that put him on the map early in his career. 39 Steps fits with this month's obvious spy theme, as its a pre-WW2 foreign spy film. Robert Donat stars as the common man discovering a possible plot, a theme often repeated later by Hitch. Features nice use of black and white to create an ominous mood, almost expressionistic. This has remained my favorite Hitchcock film, much preferred over more famous technicolor releases two decades later (well, except maybe for Vertigo, his most serious and successful color film), especially in its use of suspense, and is an early classic of the espionage and mystery genres.

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My Man Godfrey

Gregory La Cava, 1935, bw (8.1*)
Fun and lovable screwball comedy starts with rich girl Carole Lombard, in perhaps her best film, going on a scavenger hunt with her aristocratic friends, when she finds street bum William Powell (of the Thin Man Series), whom she brings home to find that he's a well-mannered gentleman with a heart of gold, so she hires him as a butler. Original and unexpected 30's comedy that is the type that makes us say "they don't make comedies like this any more".

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