1930s Hall of Fame

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Nice varied set of nominations.

Seen Pepe Le Moko & my own but I'll give them a rewatch for this. Everything else is up in the air.

Similar to Cosmic, I have not seen Gunga Din since I was a kid. Glad it was nommed as I don't think I would have rewatched before the countdown. Should be interesting...



Did you guys see I put the length of the films? That's in case you want to watch two shorties at one time, or just need to budget your time.
I noticed that, and thought it was a nice addition.

Luckily none of these films are particularly long, so I should be able to watch them on weekdays instead of waiting for my days off.



I'll post a review of my own nomination tomorrow. Watched it few days ago when I was trying to choose what to nominate. Wrote most the of the review then but will do some polishing when I wake up.



I think we've a cool bunch of noms! I'm excited to watch these. My initial thoughts.


The Scarlet Empress (1934)

I haven't seen it, but, I'm a big fan of Marlene Dietrich and I've seen her in a number of things including The Blue Angel, so this early film will be a treat.

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
I seen this long ago, and I love 30s sci-fi horror and this should be fun too.

Pepe Le Moko (1937)

Ed picks good ones and I'm interested in this as it has Jean Gabin from one of Ed's other noms, The Grand Illusion.

Gunga Din (1939)
Big fan of Cary Grant here, I mean who doesn't like Cary! I'm very curious as to what the potential racially insensitive material is. Hopefully we can have some good convos about it.

Bachelor Mother (1939)

My nom, and I decided to go with a comedy. Ginger Rogers is in my top 10 of favorite all time actress and this is a happy film, and it makes one ponder the changing social roles too.

Child Bride (1938)
This looks cool! It looks to be a wild ride. Very curious about this one, which I also hope makes some good convo.

Make Way For Tomorrow (1937)

I've not seen this before but I do know the work of some of the actors Victor Moore, Beulah Bondi, Fay Bainter, and all of them are worth watching!



Bride of Frankenstein

1 of less than 5 movies I've already seen that I was planning on watching again for the countdown. It used to be my favorite of the old monster movies, but it's been many years since I've seen it.

Pepe Le Moko

Never heard of it before. If I had, it would have been on my watchlist already. I like the lead actor.

Gunga Din

I know nothing about it but it was already on my watchlist due to it's inclusion on the top 100 Cheers list.

Make Way for Tomorrow

I know nothing about it but it was already on my watchlist due to it's inclusion on Ebert's great movies list.

Child Bride

This is a very controversial movie that I already knew about. I am uneasy having to watch it, but watch it I will.

Bachelor Mother

Never heard of it before and it would appear to be an underdog on my list. Ginger Rogers is definitely a plus though.

The Scarlet Empress

As most of you know, I do not care for historical films. That should tell you that this is not the typical historical film. I think it's pretty wild and unique and I love it. It's on the Ebert list and I forgot to check before if anyone had seen it. A couple of you have already but I still think it'll do well.






Child Bride (1938) yeah this was terrible....it's borderline child pornography. Also their is a subplot with a little person in it...for reasons I can't even begin to get into. Basically this is a exploitative film about Appalachian people the teacher wants to get rid of the child marriage but she's mostly the sub plot.

Really the main story is about how this family falls apart and how Jennie ends up married to Jake Bolby (the pedophile). I can see how Mystery Science Theater would want to tackle this because of all the hilarious domestic violence, misogyny, and how ridiculous they make Appalachian people look. However at the end of the day the film is garbage





Child Bride (1938) yeah this was terrible....it's borderline child pornography...I can see how Mystery Science Theater would want to tackle this because of all the hilarious domestic violence, misogyny, and how ridiculous they make Appalachian people look. However at the end of the day the film is garbage
Hmmm, I'll have to see if I can watch this one tonight. Seeing how it's a public domain movie it's easy to find....and only an hour too.



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
Pepe Le Moko was remade by Hollywood a year later as Algiers if that maybe rings more of a bell for those unaware of it. Glad to see it nominated in this as it means at least someone else here enjoys it
CORRECT-AMUNDO!!!!

The Scarlet Empress (1934) I have seen this when we did a serious Marlene Dietrich binge a few years back, and thought it was great, so looking forward to a rewatch. Which I had planned to do along with a couple others of hers. VERY happy to see her represented in this HoF.

Bride of Frankenstein (1935) An excellent choice for a horror flick of the 30s. When I saw someone picked a horror I was wondering if it was Frankenstein, or maybe Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde. . . but this is perfect! And it's been DECADES since watching it, so, YAY

Pepe Le Moko (1937) Chympunk IS correct, this was remade as Algiers with Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamar, which I love. Was actually going to go with that and then, this week, while looking up Algiers on youtube I came across a clip of this. THEN I researched it. It came out the year before, was loved all around the world and, either the director or the film studio in Hollywood bought the rights to it, kept it shelved in America until they made Algiers and redistributed it. The director practically shot it frame by frame, using the original stock footage from Algiers AND all the secondary actors. There is a minimal change in dialogue and how the final scene comes to be, but that's about it.
This IS the far better film with a much better leading actor that truly pulls off the role brilliantly and more convincing than Boyer. (Though don't get me wrong, I love Boyer).

This is about a French thief hiding out in the section of Algiers known as Casbah for the past 2 years to the local, and French authorities frustration. Then, along comes a beautiful woman from Paris that may change everything.

Gunga Din (1939) Have ALWAYS wanted to see this, and NOW I can!!

Bachelor Mother (1939) I may or may not have seen this. Ginger Rogers is excellent at comedy so, either way, very excited to watch this.

Child Bride (1938) Just read Siddon's review on this. Intrigued to see where they go with this.

Make Way For Tomorrow (1937) This is actually unknown to me, I think. so, should be pretty cool.
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Women will be your undoing, Pépé



Pépé le Moko

As I've stated, my original nom would have been the remake to this, BUT, once seeing THIS, AND with @Citizen Rules assistance in finding it online, (THANKS - YOU ROCK) there was NO WAY I'd have gone with the remake, Algiers, regardless of my past love of it.

There has been several references to this film as being one that could easily be tagged as noir BEFORE noir came into being. With not only the cinematic style, but with many of the story plots and characters that would become a staple of the genre.
There is also a belief that this character is the inspiration for the cartoon skunk, Pepe le Pew lol


Filmed partially in Algiers with some very well constructed, and detailed sets filmed in studios, we delve into the labyrinth of the Casbah. Home to the criminal element through out the world, with one, in particular, Pépé, who is beloved and feared by them all. Played with the charm and danger befitting the character by Jean Gabin.
Along with the police force that DARE NOT attempt to arrest him within the Casbah, is the clever and patient Inspecteur Slimane, who is both friend and enemy to le Moko.


This movie provides an excellent, and, at times, gritty look into their world and how the "chase" of the past becomes shifted and tossed about with the entrance of a gorgeous woman from Pépé's beloved Paris, his home, which he misses terribly.

I am thrilled that I came across this, for me, unknown original.
Hope you all enjoy it!



The Bride of Frankenstein


Like I said before, I was glad to see this nominated because it's been 30 plus years since I last saw it. I remembered it as my favorite of the old monster movies, but I also remembered it having a lighthearted element and I wasn't sure if I would still enjoy it.

I thought it started off great picking up where the first movie left off. The comedic element quickly reared it's ugly head, and I found it most noticeable with the music. It was a bit of a distraction as I wished for darker horror, but it actually worked a good amount of the time. I thought watching the monster drinking and smoking was a riot. In fact that whole scene was a great one. The horror part of the movie is pretty awesome and that is definitely the big appeal to me. The set design is a huge asset and Elsa Lanchester is a total babe. The iconic part when he screams "She's alive, alive!", I swear that is in one of my favorite movies, maybe someone watching a movie within a movie type of thing, but I can't think of which one. In closing, I wouldn't quite call this movie a favorite but it's a great watch.




I noticed that, and thought it was a nice addition.

Luckily none of these films are particularly long, so I should be able to watch them on weekdays instead of waiting for my days off.
I was thinking the same thing and it's pretty much what I've been doing with the average 30's movie being not very long.



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
great lil write up, @cricket, I actually just started watching this as well.

I agree about the shortness making them easier to slip into the weekday viewing.



Child Bride (1938) N

A controversial movie about the child marriages in the Ozarks that's often (and not completely without reason) labeled as an exploitation film.



Story revolves around the progressive teacher who's campaigning against child marriages, a group of local men who see no reason to change the local customs and young Jennie and her family. Jennie's father is already in bad terms with the leader of the group, Jake, and things escalate when he saves the teacher from tarring and feathering.

Jennie's father is no perfect though. When drunk he at times beats his wife. On such an occasion Jake kills him and frames the wife. In exchange for his silence he demands Jennie to become his wife. To prevent her hanging Jennie's mother agrees and Jennie marries Jake (for a very short time).

Film's notoriety came mostly from nudity by Shirley Mills who was 12 at the time. Being done in 1938 it was post-code but as an independent production and claiming to be educational it managed to bypass the restrictions. The nudity is rather mild but camera does like her butt during the swimming scene so exploitation reputation is somewhat deserved but in my opinion the scene was justified by the story.

Technically the film is a mixed bag. Some scenes (like the whole stormy night when Jennie's father is killed) look genuinely good and cinematography in general is decent. Script has its moments but especially the dialogue is pretty bad at times. Acting is generally quite bad but Jake and (for the most part) Jennie do okay. Jennie's friend Freddie is especially terribly acted.

I was positively surprised by the quality of this film. It's not great by any means but perfectly passable. It's notoriety as borderline child pornography is vastly exaggerated and to me it seems that most people are offended just in case.

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Women will be your undoing, Pépé



The Bride of Frankenstein


We belong dead.

This was a great little revisit to a film I don't think I've watched since my 20's if not late teens.
So much of it, beyond the iconic final scene, that I had forgotten, and so much of that made me think of Mel Brook's Young Frankenstein, since he did use this, along with Whale's first Frankenstein film as base material to create his comedy from, along with Gene Wilder.

Forgotten the wild, devilish demeanor of Dr. Pretorius, (Ernest Thesiger) whom I remember from my favorite A Christmas Carol (1953) when he played the Undertaker. There is also a great little cameo by John Carradine as one of the hunters that show up at the Old Blind Man's cottage. As well as the return of Dwight Fry, this time as one of the assistant murderers. And, of course, Clive Owen reprising his manic Dr. Frankenstein and his great reluctance to continue his experiments.

With a few comedic moments in this, it still remains a great old time monster film.
It's actually pretty amazing the body count The Monster runs up throughout this film. He does take out quite the number of villagers.

And, as the first film, the darkly lit castle and the bringing to life scene, is still pretty amazing. Along with those moments where Karloff gets to bring some emotion (genuine sadness, fear, longing) to the creature. Really love those moments.
And, of course, Elsa Lanchester was pretty d@mn incredible as The Bride. And, yes, @cricket, she is very much, a total babe!

Great choice in old horror, @Siddon! NICELY done!




Child Bride (1938)

Different, I'll say that...I did actually like the overall story premise of moon shiners, louts and dirt poor farmers, but the acting was mostly crummy. I read that many of the cast were non-actors, and it showed. Though the girl who played Jenny was pretty good.

Interesting trivia, the little person (Don Barrett), is Angelo Rossitto who was 'Master' in the Master-Blaster of Mad Maxx Beyond Thunder Dome.

So let's cut to the chase: Child Bride is notorious for having an underage girl topless. Now that's been done many times before in movies. In the 8th Hof, we had a Swedish film, My Life as a Dog (1985), that had underage nudity. In that Hof many people didn't have a problem with the 14 year old actress appearing topless. Here's what I wrote:

My Life as a Dog
While I liked the majority of the film, I did not like the scenes where a 12 year old girl (played by a 14 year old actresses) exposed her breast to the camera. Over 18 being topless, no problem!...but I don't want to see a little girl semi nude in a movie, yuk!

Maybe this is a cultural thing and in Sweden it was considered enduring and natural....
Luckily in Child Bride the video quality was so poor that I couldn't see any detail (thank goodness!)

What bugged me was knowing the real actress, who was a 12 year old girl at the time, appears to have been completely nude in front of a bunch of men (the film crew)...That's creepy to me and so sad. I have to wonder why this was shown in the film at all? If there had been no nudity it might have gotten a much broader release and made more money.

As it was made, it was a 'blue film' and might have been shown at 'smokers' which were all male gatherings where the guys smoked, drank and watched racy movies. But why in the hell would they want to see a naked 12 year old!

Interesting nom @pahaK I'm glad you nominated it.



Women will be your undoing, Pépé



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 in 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 - like any good royal story should.
F@ckin BRAVO @cricket for nominating it!!