The MoFo Top 100 of the 1930s: The Countdown

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The Young In Heart was one that was on my list to give an airing to but sadly I just never got round to it. I did however give Little Caesar a rewatch and whilst it's a good watch unfortunately it just wasn't quite a strong enough one to make my ballot.

Seen: 22/36
My list:
2. Stella Dallas (King Vidor, 1937) [#87]
3. La bête humaine [The Human Beast] (Jean Renoir, 1938) [#78]
4. Way Out West (James W. Horne, 1937) [#81]
8. Les Misérables [Les Miserables] (Richard Boleslawski, 1935) [#67]
16. Otona no miru ehon - Umarete wa mita keredo [I Was Born, But...] (Yasujirô Ozu, 1932) [#75]
19. A Star Is Born (William A. Wellman & Jack Conway, 1937) [#69]
25. Mädchen in Uniform [Girls In Uniform] (Leontine Sagan & Carl Froelich, 1931) [1 pointer]

Faildictions (streamline moderne vsn 2.01):
64. Hotel Du Nord
63. Judge Priest



Little Caesar (1931) is the #10 film on my entry. Chose this movie for a viewing response assignment in a film history class two years ago. Here's what I wrote.
In Little Caesar, the story follows Edward G. Robinson and Douglas Fairbanks Jr, the stars of the picture, and their rise through the ranks of the gangster underworld. Robinson plays Caesar Enrico Bandello, an ambitious young nobody who wants to do it big as a big-time gangster. Fairbanks Jr plays Joe Massara, Rico’s friend who increasingly wants to get away from the gangster lifestyle and settle down with his dancer girlfriend. The tension builds around their relationship as their distinct resolve drifts further and further apart. While the camera work is conventional and serviceable, the best aspects of the film are Ed G. Robinson’s powerhouse charisma and experiencing the grandeur of 1930’s gangster culture. Little Caesar belongs on the same tier with R̶e̶d̶a̶c̶t̶e̶d̶ and R̶e̶d̶a̶c̶t̶e̶d̶ (edited for this reading audience, they may both show up), clearly representing its time and the early gangster film movement.

The story starts with Rico and Joe in a diner reading about big-time gangster Diamond Pete Montana in the papers. They agree to head to the big town and join a gang, where they are initiated in an underworld of guns, gambling houses, women, and corruption. Rico, aka ‘Little Caesar,’ quickly gains the awe of the other mobster crooks with a fast trigger finger and a faster tongue. Rico enjoys a meteoric rise through the mob ranks. Meanwhile, Joe Massara is drifting further away from the gangster lifestyle, as he’s fallen in love with a dancer dame named Olga Stassoff (Glenda Farrell). Robinson keeps the film moving with snappy one-liners such as, ‘I don’t need a cannon to take care of guys like you,’ and, ‘You can dish it out, but you can’t take it!’ Robinson’s forceful performance gives the film life and makes it memorable.

Gangster films were hugely popular in the 1930’s, and studios had to toe a tricky line of displaying the appeal of gangsters, while not glorifying them too much by adhering to the Hays Production Code of 1930. These films usually start out with a charismatic young gangster fellow, and the talented lad rises to fame through bravado and violence, fascinating our ambitious natures. However, the gangster must pay for his crimes and so he generally becomes imprisoned or dies in humiliation. Little Caesar follows this pattern. One thing I noticed about the film is how sharp Rico is during his ascent through the mobster ranks. He does not drink alcohol so he can always be focused, on-time, and quick-witted with logistics. However, once his gang falls apart around him, he quickly deteriorates into an undisciplined alcoholic in the end, which leads to his death at the hands of the police. I found this rapid character change at the end to be a weakness of the film, however I still enjoyed Little Caesar quite a lot overall.



My Ballot:
2. SONS OF THE DESERT (1933)
10. LITTLE CAESAR (1931)
25. MONKEY BUSINESS (1931)
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The Young in Heart is quite a nice movie that I'm surprised isn't more highly regarded.

Liked Little Caesar but did not vote for it.

18. The Young in Heart (#65)
19. City Girl (#74)



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
enjoyed the write-up, @Nostromo87!
Been a while since I've seen Little Ceasar but it was one of the first films that introduced me to Edward G Robinson, though it did not make the list.
The Young in Heart looks rather appealing and even more so seeing how it made it to @cricket's list.

EDIT: I was wrong, I DID see The Young in Heart, after reading @mark f's write up. A wonderful film I completely forgot about when making my list. Funny, warm, with endearing characters. Mark REALLY sums it up beautifully, btw.
Young in Heart (1938)
A family of con artists meet up with an elderly woman and without realizing it, find themselves on the relatively straight and narrow. A great cast with Janet Gaynor, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Billie Burke (Glenda the Good Witch from Wizard Oz fame) and Roland Young are the family of scoundrels and all perform with a heartwarming aplomb.
Watched 20/36 (55.5%)
1)
2)
3)
4) Hell's Angels (#85)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10) The Charge of the Light Brigade (#97)
11)
12) Camille (#96)
13)
14)
15)
16)
17)
18)
19) Bachelor Mother (#86)
20)
21)
22)
23)
24)
25) Seventh Heaven (1 Pointer)
__________________
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- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes
~Mr Minio



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
A Douglas Fairbanks Jr. double feature! The Young in Heart is my #5.
The Young in Heart (dir: Richard Wallace; scr: Paul Osborn, pro: David O. Selznick, 1938)




This is a very modest, mostly-unknown film which also happens to be one of the most-perfectly constructed movies I've ever seen. It's a comedy about a family of con artists who get kicked off an ocean liner and thwarted from marrying into a millionaire's family, but somehow luckily, they immediately come across a lonely old rich woman, "Miss Fortune" (Minnie Dupree) who takes them to her heart aboard a train. This suits the family fine since they've never earned an honest living in their life, and they see a chance to engender themselves to the old woman so much that they might just make off with her inheritance when she dies. The family consists of "Sahib" (Roland Young in probably my fave performance of his), his absent-minded wife Marmy (Billie Burke, the Good Witch from The Wizard of Oz and Young's wife in the Topper films), their daughter George-Ann (Janet Gaynor) who's being courted by young Scotsman Duncan (Richard Carlson), and their son Richard (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.). Once the family gets to England and moves in with Miss Fortune, they begin to see things a little bit differently than they have in the past. Although they're still counting on supporting themselves with the old lady's "fortune", Sahib becomes a crackerjack salesman and Richard goes to work for the first time in his life to impress his American "boss" (Paulette Goddard).

The Young in Heart is a wonderful combo of hard-boiled cynicism and uplifting sentiment. It's rare to find a movie with so many bald-faced, common-sense emotions on its sleeves, especially concerning a group of cold-hearted takers confronted by one warm-hearted giver. Every time I watch the film (as I did tonight on TCM), I find myself with an enormous smile planted on my face for the entire 91 minutes, but it's occasionally broken by my smile cracking open loudly into hearty laughter or my tear ducts going into overdrive at the simple honesty of how good life can be if families and friends just found a way to "let it be". This film is crammed with so many memorable and original moments: the Flying Wombat, the penguins at the London Zoo, looking for the dog with the black eyebrow, Duncan completely hating George-Ann and her family but finding himself more attracted to her with each moment, the train wreck, Miss Fortune's lawyer (the awesome Henry Stephenson), Richard's hangover, Sahib "getting his head handed to him by his boss" (HA!), and many others. The cast is uniformly excellent, but the film would never work without the wonderful Minnie Dupree, who only made three other films. If you ever get a chance, watch this beautiful film, and remember to tell me what you think of it, even if you think I'm crazy! Thanks for reading.

WOW! Edit: Some automobile historian posted scenes from The Young in Heart because the awesome "Flying Wombat" was really the Phantom Corsair, which said historian says cost $24,000 to produce in 1938 ($400,000 in today's dollars!!)

Check the actual link at YouTube
to read what he said. Make sure you go to the right column, under the "Added: June 23, 2008" words and click on (more info) to learn more.

I love this movie!
Little Caesar contains one of Robinson's earliest and most-iconic roles, as well as an equally iconic closing line. It created many of the gangster films' basic characters and plot devices, as well as director LeRoy's use of sound where the silence is as important as the sudden bursts of violence. I didn't list it though.


__________________
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
Little Caesar is a good movie, but I'm not much of a fan of gangster movies, so it didn't make my list.

I watched The Young In Heart for this countdown because it was recommended by both Mark F and Cricket. I liked it a lot, and it was #19 on my list.


My List (so far):
9) Bachelor Mother (1939)
19) The Young in Heart (1938)



Although I love gangster movies, I've only seen one Eddie G. gangster flick and that is Key Largo from another decade. I have seen other movies with him, but again, no Little Caesar. The Young in Heart I have heard of but never seen. It sounds terrific. Neither on the list.

#8. Destry Rides Again (72)
__________________
"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."



Ahhhhh, good old Captains Courageous - source of many a 'have I ever seen it or have I not?' ponderation during my preps for this countdown, sadly though I never managed to locate a copy to find out once and for all. Did watch The Scarlet Empress and it was an ok watch overall but was never anywhere near to making my list.

Seen: 23/38
My list:
2. Stella Dallas (King Vidor, 1937) [#87]
3. La bête humaine [The Human Beast] (Jean Renoir, 1938) [#78]
4. Way Out West (James W. Horne, 1937) [#81]
8. Les Misérables [Les Miserables] (Richard Boleslawski, 1935) [#67]
16. Otona no miru ehon - Umarete wa mita keredo [I Was Born, But...] (Yasujirô Ozu, 1932) [#75]
19. A Star Is Born (William A. Wellman & Jack Conway, 1937) [#69]
25. Mädchen in Uniform [Girls In Uniform] (Leontine Sagan & Carl Froelich, 1931) [1 pointer]

Faildictions (streamline moderne vsn 2.01):
62. Angel
61. Vampyr



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
Not too much to say here and now about these worthy films. There are so many '30s films which deserve in-depth discussion or just plain-old viewing and sharing of feelings. I just hope that when this countdown is over that participants and frequenters of MoFo will continue to enjoy such movies in the future.




Women will be your undoing, Pépé
Captains Courageous is definitely a Must See! film, which is another one I haven't and truly should.

Scarlet Empress is the winner for the first 30s Hall of Fame which I had at #6.



The Scarlet Empress

One of a number of great films from Marlene Dietrich, and one very worth watching and enjoying.
It centers around the beginning years of Catherine the Great's life upon arrival to court in Russia and her marriage to Peter III, referred to in the film as Grand Duke Peter, who, with a nice little cross over to another film in this HoF, is played by Sam Jaffe, who also plays Gunga Din in the film of the same name. (Always do enjoy these little crossovers)

One of the things I love about this role is that we get to see Dietrich begin as a naive innocent upon her arrival to the Russian court. And, in time, we see the transference to the confident gamester that learns "how" to play to win and does just that. I just love watching her grow from a "child" to a knowledgeable and cunning woman who would rule Russia.


She also has a number of great individuals working along side her. Louise Dresser as the fiery Empress Elizabeth and the Romeo of the court, Alexi, played with sultry charm by John Lodge; both of which capture your attention every time they were on screen.

I can also not forget the morose statues and architecture of the palace that has such a tangible role in it all.



I think the only oddball comment I have is some of the things on the numerous placards at the beginning of the movie that get pretty catty about Russia.
This isn't a critique, simply an amusing side note that made me chuckle about.

Still, an epic film contained cleverly within small sets; rife with intrigue - as any good royal story should.
F@ckin BRAVO @cricket for nominating it!!


Watched 21/38 (55.2%)
1)
2)
3)
4) Hell's Angels (#85)
5)
6) The Scarlet Empress (#63)
7)
8)
9)
10) The Charge of the Light Brigade (#97)
11)
12) Camille (#96)
13)
14)
15)
16)
17)
18)
19) Bachelor Mother (#86)
20)
21)
22)
23)
24)
25) Seventh Heaven (1 Pointer)