Mike’s Top Tens of the Decade (1930-1939)
Oh man, it’s the 30s.
Sadly, I think this is going to be my last decades list. It was fun while it lasted. I guess I could do the 20s if I wanted to, but… I don’t really want to. ’27 started the sound era, and 1930 is good enough for me. Plus I have another series of “top tens” I’m in the middle of (by director), and I really want to focus on those. That said, these lists have been so much fun for me, and they got me to see so many movies that I’d never seen (to the point where I’ve actually now seen about 80% of all the major releases of the 40s, 50s and 60s).
For those who don’t know, the way these lists have worked is, I go and list my ten favorite movies from each year. I also try to list ten more from each year as an 11-20. Originally I said I did it to give myself more options for when I revisited the lists a year, five years, whatever down the road, in case I decided I didn’t like a certain film as much anymore, the alternatives would be right there. Though mostly it’s become about sharing as many great films from these years as possible. I also, underneath the 11-20, created the “fun” lists, which would be extra recommendations (or, not, in the case of one decade) that were related to that specific decade. The 2000s, I actually had a list of what I thought the worst films of those years were, the Terrible Tens. The 1990s, I had the “Films of My Childhood.” The 1980s, I had the “Awesomely 80s Movies.” The 1970s were just great 70s movies, the “70s Recommendations.” The 1960s had “Out with the Old, In with the New,” with all the films representing “old” Hollywood and “new” Hollywood. The 1950s had the “Gems of the Studio System,” forgotten films of (mostly) major directors. The 1940s had “More Great 40s Films,” since people generally don’t delve too deeply into the 40s anyway unless they’re someone like me. This decade, I’m gonna keep it simple, like I’ve been doing. Just more great 30s gems. No need to get complicated.
All right friends. Once more, unto the breach:
My Top Ten of 1939
Another Thin Man
Gone With the Wind
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Jesse James
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Ninotchka
Only Angels Have Wings
Stagecoach
The Wizard of Oz
Wuthering Heights
11-20: Dark Victory, Destry Rides Again, Dodge City, Drums Along the Mohawk, The Four Feathers, It’s a Wonderful World, Love Affair, Of Mice and Men, The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, Young Mr. Lincoln
More 30s Gems: Babes in Arms, Bachelor Mother, Each Dawn I Die, Gulliver’s Travels, Juarez, The Oklahoma Kid, On Borrowed Time, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, Union Pacific, The Women
More Gems from ‘The Golden Year”: Beau Geste, Confessions of a Nazi Spy, 5th Ave. Girl, Gunga Din, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Intermezzo: A Love Story, Made for Each Other, The Rains Came, The Return of Doctor X, They Made Me a Criminal
My Top Ten of 1938
The Adventures of Robin Hood
Angels with Dirty Faces
Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife
Bringing Up Baby
Carefree
Holiday
Marie Antoinette
Pygmalion
Vivacious Lady
You Can’t Take It With You
11-20: The Amazing Doctor Clitterhouse, Boy Meets Girl, Fools for Scandal, If I Were King, Jezebel, The Mad Miss Manton, Of Human Hearts, Test Pilot, White Banners, The Young in Heart
More 30s Gems: Alexander Nevsky, Algiers, The Beachcomber, Boys Town, The Citadel, Kentucky, The Lady Vanishes, Merrily We Live, Racket Busters, Three on a Weekend (aka Bank Holiday)
My Top Ten of 1937
The Awful Truth
Captains Courageous
Grand Illusion
It’s Love I’m After
The Life of Emile Zola
Lost Horizon
Make Way for Tomorrow
Shall We Dance
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
A Star Is Born
11-20: Dead End, Double Wedding, The Good Earth, In Old Chicago, Nothing Sacred, Stage Door, Stella Dallas, Swing High Swing Low, Topper, Wee Willie Winkie
More 30s Gems: Angel, A Damsel in Distress, Dark Journey, Easy Living, Fire Over England, I Met Him in Paris, Kid Galahad, Night Must Fall, The Prisoner of Zenda, Saratoga
My Top Ten of 1936
After the Thin Man
Dodsworth
The Great Ziegfeld
Libeled Lady
Modern Times
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
My Man Godfrey
The Petrified Forest
San Francisco
Swing Time
11-20: Anthony Adverse, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Come and Get It, The Devil Doll, The Ex-Mrs. Bradford, The Prisoner of Shark Island, The Story of Louis Pasteur, These Three, The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, Wife vs. Secretary
More 30s Gems: Anything Goes, Desire, Follow the Fleet, The Plainsman, The Princess Comes Across, Romeo and Juliet, Satan Met a Lady, Show Boat, Theodora Goes Wild, Things to Come
+ Honorable Mention to: Reefer Madness (Oh, that marijuana…)
My Top Ten of 1935
Alice Adams
Bride of Frankenstein
Hands Across the Table
The Informer
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Les Misérables
Mutiny on the Bounty
A Night at the Opera
Ruggles of Red Gap
Top Hat
11-20: Becky Sharp, The Call of the Wild, Captain Blood, The Gilded Lily, The Good Fairy, Magnificent Obsession, Roberta, She Married Her Boss, The 39 Steps, The Whole Town’s Talking
More 30s Gems: Annie Oakley, Barbary Coast, Black Fury, ‘G’ Men, If Only You Could Cook, The Last Days of Pompeii, Naughty Marietta, Peter Ibbetson, Triumph of the Will, Whipsaw
My Top Ten of 1934
The Affairs of Cellini
L’Atalante
Cleopatra
Death Takes a Holiday
The Gay Divorcee
It Happened One Night
Little Miss Marker
Manhattan Melodrama
The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Thin Man
11-20: The Count of Monte Cristo, Four Frightened People, The Gay Bride, Here Comes the Navy, Imitation of Life, The Lost Patrol, The Merry Widow, Sadie McKee, Treasure Island, Twentieth Century
More 30s Gems: The Barretts of Wimpole Street, Broadway Bill, The Captain Hates the Sea, Chained, Fashions of 1934, The House of Rothschild, It’s a Gift, Jimmy the Gent, Little Man What Now, Murder at the Vanities, The Scarlet Empress
My Top Ten of 1933
42nd Street
Cavalcade
Dancing Lady
Design for Living
Duck Soup
Footlight Parade
Gold Diggers of 1933
King Kong
Little Women
State Fair
11-20: Alice in Wonderland, Baby Face, The Invisible Man, Lady for a Day, The Mayor of Hell, Midnight Mary, Mystery at the Wax Museum, Penthouse, The Prizefighter and the Lady, Wild Boys of the Road
More 30s Gems: Deluge, Dinner at Eight, Female, Flying Down to Rio, From Hell to Heaven, Morning Glory, Night Flight, She Done Him Wrong, Topaze, Torch Singer
My Top Ten of 1932
A Farewell to Arms
Doctor X
Freaks
Grand Hotel
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
Merrily We Go to Hell
The Most Dangerous Game
One Hour with You
Red Dust
Scarface
11-20: After Tomorrow, A Bill of Divorcement, Blonde Venus, If I Had a Million, Love Me Tonight, No Man of Her Own, Shanghai Express, Trouble in Paradise, Vampyr, Young America
More 30s Gems: American Madness, Hot Saturday, The Mummy, One Way Passage, Red-Headed Woman, Tarzan the Ape Man, Three on a Match, Virtue, The Wet Parade, What Price Hollywood?
My Top Ten of 1931
Bad Girl
The Champ
Cimarron
City Lights
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Frankenstein
M
The Maltese Falcon
The Public Enemy
The Smiling Lieutenant
11-20: The Criminal Code, Dracula, Five Star Final, A Free Soul, The Front Page, Horse Feathers, Little Caesar, Monkey Business, The Sin of Madelon Claudet, Street Scene
More 30s Gems: Arrowsmith, Mata Hari, Le Million, Night Nurse, Platinum Blonde, Possessed, Smart Money, Tabu: A Story of the South Seas, Tonight or Never, Waterloo Bridge
My Top Ten of 1930
All Quiet on the Western Front
The Big House
The Big Pond
The Big Trail
The Blue Angel
City Girl
The Divorcee
Hell’s Angels
King of Jazz
People on Sunday
11-20: Anna Christie, Animal Crackers, The Dawn Patrol, Holiday, Journey’s End, L’Age d’Or, Min and Bill, Morocco, Show Girl in Hollywood, Street of Chance
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