SCFZ

Pick your favourite movies of 1931 (according to IMDB), up to 20 films.

20-film ballots must be ranked as follows (with point totals assigned):
Five tiers 5-4-3-2-1
Four tiers 4.5-3.5-2.5-1.5
Three tiers 5-3-1
Two tiers 4-2
One tier (aka unranked) 3

Ballot totals that aren't divisible by the number of tiers must be unranked. So 1, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19 film ballots are unranked.

Svengali 1931 Directed by Archie Mayo
Marius 1931 Directed by Alexander Korda
Frankenstein 1931 Directed by James Whale
Night Nurse 1931 Directed by William A. Wellman
The Elf King 1931 Le Roi des aulnes Directed by Marie-Louise Iribe

Mädchen in Uniform 1931 Directed by Leontine Sagan, Carl Froelich
Limite 1931 Directed by Mário Peixoto
Dracula 1931 Directed by Tod Browning
Dishonored 1931 Directed by Josef von Sternberg
The 3 Penny Opera 1931 Die 3 Groschen-Oper Directed by G.W. Pabst

Autumn Fire 1931 Directed by Herman G. Weinberg
In the Night 1931 In der Nacht Directed by Walter Ruttmann
Blonde Crazy 1931 Directed by Roy Del Ruth
Resurrection 1931 Resurrectio Directed by Alessandro Blasetti
Safe in Hell 1931 Directed by William A. Wellman

Portrait of a Young Man in Three Movements 1931 Directed by Henwar Rodakiewicz
One Night 1931 En natt Directed by Gustaf Molander
Study No. 7 1931 Studie Nr. 7 Directed by Oskar Fischinger
Woman 1931 Mulher Directed by Octávio Gabus Mendes
A Bronx Morning 1931 Directed by Jay Leyda

a nous la liberte - clair
kameradschaft - pabst
dishonored - sternberg
der kongress tanzt - charell
monkey business - mcleod

the smiling lieutenant - lubitsch
M - lang
resurrectio - blasetti
limite - peixoto
tabu - murnau

the last flight - dieterle
from saturday to sunday - machaty
taxi - del ruth
flunky, work hard! - naruse
the public enemy - wellman

frankenstein - whale
dr jekyll & mr hyde - mamoulian
girls about town - cukor
the miracle woman - capra
bad girl - borzage

the 3 penny opera - pabst
der mörder Dimitri Karamasoff - engels/otsep
city lights - chaplin
dracula - browning
marius - korda

Hitchcock's Rich and Strange won't make my list... but at very least has one of the funniest death scenes on film, in which a pirate gets his foot tangled in a rope and is slowly lowered headfirst into the water. It's so bleakly horrifying and physically so awkward and slow that its absurdity has remained in my mind ever since I first saw it.

Prelim is just a few

Frankenstein
M
Tabu
City Lights
3 Penny Opera

Intentionally ignoring Dracula which I genuinely find to be awful save Bela Lugosi's performance.

One of the greatest years in film history, obviously. Ballot for now, b/c I might not get a chance to watch anything for the poll:

The Smiling Lieutenant (Ernst Lubitsch)
Little Caesar (Mervyn LeRoy)
Dracula (Tod Browning)
Night Nurse (William A. Wellman)
Safe in Hell (William A. Wellman)

Der Kongress tanzt (Eric Charell)
Goldie (Benjamin Stoloff)
The Grand Dame (Arthur Hurley)
Mata Hari (George Fitzmaurice)
Monkey Business (Norman Z. McLeod)

City Streets (Rouben Mamoulian)
Guilty Hands (W.S. Van Dyke)
Gun Smoke (Edward Sloman)
Platinum Blonde (Frank Capra)
Resurrectio (Alessandro Blasetti)

The Bachelor Father (Robert Z. Leonard)
Branded (D. Ross Lederman)
Hot News Margie (Alfred J. Goulding)
Intimate Interviews: Bela Lugosi (Grace Elliott)
The Pajama Party (Hal Roach)

Watchlist (pray heaven I can find time to watch at least these 5!)

Bad Company (Tay Garnett)
Le Million (Rene Clair)
Madchen in Uniform (Leontine Sagan, Carl Froelich)
Svengali (Archie Mayo)
Working Girls (Dorothy Arzner)

always interested in vecchiali's pics for the '30s, here we get the otsep and gance which are more or less expected, and two films i've never heard of - raymond bernand's fauborg montmarte, and a fascinating looking zola adaptation by jacques de baroncelli called la reve that sadly doesn't seem to have any subs.

the year's other baroncelli, a musical comedy from a clouzot scenario (!) called Je serai seule après minuit looks pretty intriguing...

Stacked year... I'll start with these:


A Nous La Liberte
An American Tragedy - Sternberg
The Last Flight
M
Tabu

Bad Girl- Borzage
City Lights
Frankenstein
Kameradschaft
Monkey Business
The Murderer Dmitri Karamazov - Otsep
Rich And Strange - Hitchcock

Arrowsmith
Bimbo's Initiation - Fleischer
The Congress Dances
Dracula - Browning
Flunky Work Hard
Madchen In Uniform
Public Enemy
Street Scene - Vidor



Honorable Mentions:
Autumn Fire -Weinberg
Daphnis And Chloe - Orestes Laskos
The Front Page- Milestone
Mary - Hitchcock
Ten Cents A Dance - L. Barrymore
Tokyo Chorus- Ozu
Working On The Doulos River- de Oliveira

M (1931, Fritz Lang)
Limite (1931, Mario Peixoto)
À nous la liberté / Freedom for Us (1931, René Clair)
Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931, F.W. Murnau)

Der Kongreß tanzt / Congress Dances (1931, Erik Charell)
Der Hauptmann von Köpenick / The Captain from Köpenick (1931, Richard Oswald)
David Golder (1931, Julien Duvivier)
Marius (1931, Alexander Korda)

The Champ (1931, King Vidor)
Street Scene (1931, King Vidor)
City Light (1931, Charlie Chaplin)
Kameradschaft (1931, Georg Wilhelm Pabst)

Le million (1931, René Clair)
Wer nimmt die Liebe ernst... / Who takes love seriously? (1931, Erich Engel)
Nebyvalyj pohod / An Unprecedented Campaign (1931, Mikhail Kaufman)
Frankenstein (1931, James Whale)

Sorok serdets / Forty Hearts (1931, Lev Kuleshov)
Resurrectio (1931, Alessandro Blasetti)
Mädchen in Uniform (1931, Leontine Sagan & Carl Froelich)
Other Men's Women (1931, William A. Wellman)

Honourable mentions:

Lursmani cheqmashi / Nail in the Boot (1931, Mikhail Kalatozov)
City Streets (1931, Rouben Mamoulian)
Den store barnedåpen / The Big Christening (1931, Tancred Ibsen)
Safe in Hell (1931, William A. Wellman)
Ze soboty na nedeli / From Saturday to Sunday (1931, Gustav Machatý)
Ihre Majestät die Liebe / Her Majesty Love (1931, Joe May)
Portrait of a Young Man in Three Movements (1931, Henwar Rodakiewicz)
The Miracle Woman (1931, Frank Capra)
Hyppolit a lakáj / Hyppolit, the Butler (1931, Steve Sekely)
Night Nurse (1931, William A. Wellman)
Platinum Blonde (1931, Frank Capra)
Dracula (1931, Tod Browning)
Der Mörder Dimitri Karamasoff (1931, Erich Engels & Fyodor Otsep)

can't even list 20 for the year yet, maybe i'll watch a few more, edit - i did watch a few more, i can list 20 now:

Kameradschaft (GW Pabst)
Nail in the Boot (Mikhail Kalatozov)
Street Scene (King Vidor)
Safe in Hell (William Wellman)

Platinum Blonde (Frank Capra)
The Peach Girl (Bu Wancang)
Chances (Allan Dwan)
The Man in Search of His Murderer (Robert Siodmak)

Autumn Fire (Herman Weinberg)
Flunky, Work Hard! (Mikio Naruse)
Taris, Roi de l'Eau (Jean Vigo)
M (Fritz Lang)

A Nous la Liberte (Rene Clair)
Entuziazm (Dziga Vertov)
The Smiling Lieutenant (Ernst Lubitsch)
Egyptian Melodies (Wilfred Jackson)

Limite (Mario Peixoto)
Douro, Faina Fluvial (Manoel de Oliveira)
The Front Page (Lewis Milestone)
City Lights (Charlie Chaplin)

i'm for sure gonna watch nail in the boot. today a double feature of skin game and rich & strange

also captain from kopenick since i recently saw kautner's. i love the 30s

kudos to evelyn for listing ten films i've never heard of

Mary - Hitchcock

another one? hmm

1 down, 4 to go on the watchlist: I finally grew up and watched Mädchen in Uniform. Is this the greatest movie ever made? (Opinions from non-lesbians will be discounted ) Certainly, my new favourite of '31.

worst vacation ever! racist pet meme completely coincidental

Films seen: 50+


Films I Love

Night Nurse (William A. Wellman, USA)
Taxi! (Roy Del Ruth, USA)
Safe in Hell (William A. Wellman, USA)
City Lights (Charles Chaplin, USA)

Ihre Majestät die Liebe "Her Majesty Love" (Joe May, Germany)
Ihre Hoheit befiehlt "Her Grace Commands" (Hanns Schwarz, Germany)
Dishonored (Josef von Sternberg, USA)
Le Million "The Million" (René Clair, France)

The Maltese Falcon (Roy Del Ruth, USA)
Jeder fragt nach Erika "Everyone Asks for Erika" (Friedrich Zelnik, Germany)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian, USA)
The Cheat (George Abbott, USA)

Dracula (Tod Browning, USA)
Berlin-Alexanderplatz (Phil Jutzi, Germany)
Frankenstein (James Whale, USA)
Millie (John Francis Dillon, USA)

Bomben auf Monte Carlo "Bombs Over Monte Carlo" (Hanns Schwarz, Germany)
À Nous la Liberté "Liberty for Us" (René Clair, France)
The Bad Sister (Hobart Henley, USA)
Na Prazském hrade "The Prague Castle" (Alexander Hackenschmied, Czechoslovakia)


Honorable mentions:

La chienne "The Bitch" (Jean Renoir, France)
Kameradschaft "Comradeship" (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Germany/France)
Yinhe shuangxing "Two Stars in the Milky Way" (Dongshan Shi, China)
Bimbo’s Initiation (Dave Fleischer, USA)
M (Fritz Lang Germany)
...

A truly wonderful year for movies! ♥

i've not seen any version of Murder so WIN! thx

edit: enjoyed all the hitches but damned if he didn't have some of the worst problems with early sound

Lot of good movies, '31. Germans especially - and there are several of theirs I haven't seen. It's been awhile since I've seen some of these. Will narrow to 20 later.

City Lights (Chaplin)
M (Lang)
Tabu (Murnau)
David Golder (Duvivier)
La Chienne (Renoir)
Alone (Kozintsev & Trauberg)
Frankenstein (Whale)
À Nous la Liberté (Clair)
Le Million (Clair)
Marius (Korda)
The Congress Dances (Charell)
The Upright Sinner (Kortner)
Mädchen in Uniform (Sagan & Frolich)
The Captain from Köpenick (Oswald)
Jirokichi the Rat (Itō)
Emil and the Detectives (Lamprecht)
Safe in Hell (King)
The Public Enemy (Wellman)
Night Nurse (Wellman)
Tokyo Chorus (Ozu)
Resurrection (Blasetti)
Daybreak (Feyder)
Dishonored (Sternberg)
Flunky, Work Hard! (Naruse)
The Neighbor's Wife and Mine (Gosho)
A Free Soul (Brown)
Arianne (Czinner)
Monkey Business (McLeod)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Mamoulian)
Comradeship (Pabst)
The Last Flight (Dieterle)
Berlin Alexanderplatz (Jutzi)

Le roi des aulnes d. Marie-Louise Iribe







jason momoa's debut as aquaman



chris hemsworth as thor



very cool spooky little film i'm guessing there's a german language counterpart does anyone know if it's substantially the same

anyway this one is the best cuz this is the director

Never heard of it. Looks stunning!!

Business Under Distress AKA You Don't Know Hadimrška (Martin Frič, Karel Lamač)

unfortunately, i have been exposed to films with Vlasta Burian so many times (over and over) during my youth that i can't tell the difference between the individual films — within my head it is just one big amalgam of anything and everything with VB fooling around.
to restore the individual films (out of the aforementioned all-encompassing mess), i tried to rewatch this one because i had a vague memory that it might be the one that is more (than less) funny.
unfortunately, it is not...

believe it or not, my very first viewing of (everyone knows of what)...


oh yeah, i can only repeat, it's great!


i guess everything has already been stated about this classic
including the weird opinion that it needs more knife work or "cutting"

A Variety review said that the film was "a little too long. Without spoiling the effect—even bettering it—cutting could be done. There are a few repetitions and a few slow scenes."

Ins Blaue hinein (Schüfftan) this short is in the vein of Menschen am Sonntag and Schüfftan became a renowned cinematographer. this is mostly notable for it's variety of photogenic dogs. dialogue was sparse enough i convinced myself i can understand german. keine katzen??

Evelyn Library P.I. wrote: ↑Mon Sep 30, 2024 4:04 pm The Smiling Lieutenant (Ernst Lubitsch)

limite - mário peixoto
dracula - tod browning
the elf king - marie-louise iribe
from saturday to sunday - gustav machatý
the thaw - boris barnet
the congress dances - erik charell
the neighbour's wife and mine - heinosuke gosho
autumn fire - herman g. weinberg
safe in hell - william a. wellman
rich and strange - alfred hitchcock
the song of life - alexis granowsky
m - fritz lang
the man in search of his murderer - robert siodmak
resurrection - alessandro blasetti
daphnis and chloe - orestis laskos
tabu - f. w. murnau
the smiling lieutenant - ernst lubitsch
the lady and the beard - yasujirō ozu
cape forlorn - e. a. dupont
the wizard of athens - ahilleas madras

Der Hauptmann von Köpenick (oswald) ♥

Faubourg Montmartre (Raymond Bernard)

The title refers to the "street women" of Paris's Montmartre district.


The virtuous heroine is the sister of a dope-addicted whore who is attempting to force her sibling into a life of crime.


Despite the threats and entreaties of the various Montmartre pimps and hustlers,


the girl manages to escape her sordid surroundings and find happiness with a decent country squire.

SAVE HER!!

watched barnet's the thaw - a lot of didactic propaganda for him! and some stunning images













especially the ending where the shadows of peasants stream in to attack the kulaks in their houses. i did appreciate the woman's revenge

der kulterer wrote: ↑Wed Oct 09, 2024 8:47 pm Faubourg Montmartre (Raymond Bernard)

this was really good...ambiguous, unevenly toned, indistinct....the kind of film i really like, that i always appreciated in, for instance lewis milestone, only this was excessively french - shot through with all the novelistic stereotypes. some weird combination of tragedy/farce, absurdity/subtlety, realism/antonin artaud, silent/sound....in fact it was incredibly odd, i don't think i've seen something like it, at least recently.....this was exactly a silent film with sound, faintly astonishing since the coming of sound pretty much wrecked the silent style or just made them incredibly clunky....but somehow bernard managed a delicious fluidity....

as vecchiali puts it (via translate):

Great, beautiful cinema that is afraid of nothing and, skipping over possible ridicule, achieves the sublime.

Even when Lencho gives out a rare 4-star review (as for Limite), it reads like he hated it - I love it !!

Four-star movies are the worst things ever, youknowwhatI'msayin?