1936 poll

[sally]

cesar

[greennui]

cesar

Right?

[sally]

state of things at the minute, i'm just not emotionally prepared to handle a happy ending.

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Unfortunately, life intervened, and I missed the first 3 weeks of '36 viewing. Happily, things have settled back down and I'm going to try to make a good showing at marathon's end.

Starting my '36 viewing with Postal Inspector on greg's recommendation, a B movie celebrating the post office, starring Bela Lugosi, and available to view on the PizzaFlix YouTube channel. Needless to say, I loved every second of it. My vintage trash fetishes aside, it's genuinely quite well-made and even brings to mind Only Angels Have Wings in stretches, what with its courier planes traversing fog and its nobly devoted group of professionals. Thanks for the rec, greg!

[Holdrüholoheuho]

https://letterboxd.com/film/headhunters-of-borneo/

[sally]

1. i would marry willy fritsch on sight also

2. i often forget that naruse is a genius because he's too busy torturing women for ahem art, but in tochuken kumoemon he just tortures everyone, including the guy busy torturing women for ahem art, so i can see it. no one can torture like naruse, the camera is a smooth garotte; the frame an exquisite vice; wow. *but squints and pretends not to see any nationalist allegoy, cuz so sick of that rn*

[rischka]

so...secret agent

https://twitter.com/rbgscfz/status/1308 ... 10656?s=20

peter lorre ruined this with his waaay OTT portrayal of a ...mexican? i am not sure what he was going for tbh



i did enjoy a more civilized world on the brink of war... briefly. lacks much of the charm of 39 steps and the lady vanishes tho

now i want to see the headhunters of borneo

[Lencho of the Apes]

I liked that performance, rischka, it's almost the only thing I remember about the movie... Lorre with that ridiculous perm, chasing after the chambermaids like Harpo Marx...A stray line of dialogue, a Hitchcock joke: "We call him the Mexican Hairless because he's not Mexican." It may be that you need to have seen pics of him in a steam room to get it; this isn't quite the one I was thinking of, but a look at his shoulder here will tell you what you need to know.

3 lorre.jpg (29.93 KiB) Viewed 2662 times

[rischka]

Ha! Yes I can believe its the most memorable thing in the film. For sure. Seemed like he had fun anyway

[sally]

you don't like that greasy hitchcock humour? think he interrogates some of the moral questions at the heart of the film not through subtle equivocations but contrasting gestures/false perceptions - lorre's grotesque vs (beautiful as fuck) refined gielgud....close up/far away (cf. father ted)

classic classic hitchcock, in a way that even 39 steps isn't. loved the dead guy on the organ yay for sound

always amazing that he was working in britain at a level SO far beyond what everyone else was doing

ps. i love hairy.

[rischka]

i did like the 'far away-close' thing but failed to get screenshots

[greennui]

I'm posting my final list a little early as I doubt I'll watch another one be4 the deadline.

1. César (Marcel Pagnol)

My Man Godfrey (Gregory La Cava)
Swing Time (George Stevens)
Craig's Wife (Dorothy Arzner)
Ceiling Zero (Howard Hawks)
Girls’ Club (Jacques Deval)
Dracula’s Daughter (Lambert Hillyer)
Ferryman Maria (Frank Wisbar)
Sisters of the Gion (Kenji Mizoguchi),
The Only Son (Yasujirō Ozu)
Show Boat (James Whale)
Follow the Fleet (Mark Sandrich)
Libeled Lady (Jack Conway)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (Frank Capra)
La Fontaine d'Aréthuse (Dimitri Kirsanoff)
Il caso Valdemar (Ubaldo Magnaghi/Gianni Hoepli)
Intermezzo (Gustaf Molander)
Mayerling (Anatole Litvak)
Let’s Go with Pancho Villa (Fernando de Fuentes)
To Spring (Various)

[kanafani]

I watched a whopping 2 movies for this poll: Ceiling Zero and Dodsworth . Both make the list.

By the Bluest of Seas (Boris Barnet, 1936)
Let's Go with Pancho Villa (Fernando de Fuentes, 1936)
Alla en el Rancho Grande (Fernando de Fuentes, 1936)
A Day in the Country (Jean Renoir, 1936)
Desire (Frank Borzage, 1936)
Mr. Thank You (Hiroshi Shimizu, 1936)
Ferryman Maria (Frank Wisbar, 1936)
Ceiling Zero (Howard Hawks, 1936)
Sabotage (Alfred Hitchcock, 1936)
Come and Get It (Howard Hawks, William Wyler, 1936)
Sisters of the Gion (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1936)
Dodsworth (William Wyler, 1936)
The Only Son (Yasujirō Ozu, 1936)
My Man Godfrey (Gregory La Cava, 1936)
Final Accord (Douglas Sirk, 1936)
Secret Agent (Alfred Hitchcock, 1936)
Osaka Elegy (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1936)
The Prisoner of Shark Island (John Ford, 1936)
The Crime of Monsieur Lange (Jean Renoir, 1936)
Cesar (Marcel Pagnol, 1936)

[sally]

lists? we're posting final lists already? i still have 97 movies to watch!!!

also pls ignore me ranting about movies, i'm in one of those kaleidoscope-eyes 'oh god isn't cinema great' phases

[greennui]

lists? we're posting final lists already? i still have 97 movies to watch!!!

also pls ignore me ranting about movies, i'm in one of those kaleidoscope-eyes 'oh god isn't cinema great' phases

I've reached 1930's fatigue after binging on 30's and 40's films in the last few weeks, now I need some colours, or a pause until the beginning of next month. plz do keep on watching and ranting.

[Lencho of the Apes]

false perceptions

Even the "mexican hairless" joke plugs into that "people not being what they seem/claim" thematic. Precious few people ever that have worked at that level of concentration; they talk about playing 3D chess...

"Hairy" seems to be a minority taste these days; good on ya.

[rischka]

thx guys, i'll hope to enjoy it more next time. lorre kept throwing me off with his harpo marx routine

[thoxans]

had lang made lorre look like that in m, his character would've been much much scarier

[rischka]

how can one get sick of the 30s. i really liked gypsy melody. it is a bit of a weird hybrid but this greville is a talented fellow



the music is good and lupe velez cute as a button

[sally]

mayerling is a well made film. however, the innocent virgin stuff is insufferable and grotesque and i watched the whole thing in disgust. i'm glad he dies, the inadequate moron.

i have got to the point where i'm really suffering about what will actually squeeze into a top 20, there are SO many good films this year (i take it all back karl). not a problem leaving mayerling off.

and then there's this....

(first pic is me, actually today, except in different shoes, and the wind was howling and the sky was gloomy and then i came home and watched something deliciously wonderful)





this woman is far too sexy for 1936. this film is a dream.

[rischka]

U forgot to tell us the name of the film love. Or have I stumbled into guess that movie

[---]

ferryman maria (as suggested by )

[greennui]

Sybille Schmitz has been sexy in everything I've seen her in (Ferryman Maria, Vampyr). Fassbinder's Veronika Voss was loosely based on her career.

[sally]

U forgot to tell us the name of the film love. Or have I stumbled into guess that movie

oh sorry! too excited (either that or the cold has frozen my brain, i'm watching movies under a blanket rn) if someone had told me to imagine a cross between sirks girl from the marsh croft and lang's destiny (with the teensiest smidgen of joao cesar monteiro myth magic) this is what i'd imagine.

i guess it's pointless editing my post now

she and frank have another 36 film which i found. so basically if i do nothing now but movies, sleep and loo breaks till thursday, i might get the last few 'essential' movies in before poll closes (unless lencho has chosen a shitty 2000+ year in which case i'll stay in 36 for a while)

wikipedia says she was bisexual. hey.

[rischka]

wow it's been so long i didn't recognize her. she's veronika voss!

oh damn greennui beat me to it maybe i'd watch that one again if i didn't still have several...

[sally]

Sybille Schmitz has been sexy in everything I've seen her in (Ferryman Maria, Vampyr). Fassbinder's Veronika Voss was loosely based on her career.

wow, this is like me not connecting anna sten with films i've seen starring anna sten. suddenly there's more depth to my loose memory of a fassbinder film

[sally]

wow it's been so long i didn't recognize her. she's veronika voss!

oh damn greennui beat me to it

was ferryman maria a cup film or something once? i have a vague memory of it being raised in some way

[rischka]

yes it's one of angel's dearly beloved

[greennui]

Just learned that Wisbar later remade it in the US as 'Strangler of the Swamp (1946)'. added to my horror watchlist.

[Angel]

she and frank have another 36 film which i found

She gets a lot of close-ups in Die Unbekannte. Unfortunately the last 8 minutes have only survived without any sound (but with subtitles).