markbeckuaf Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 Ok, THE BROADWAY MELODY was on this week and ALIBI is coming up!!! Those are two to start off with but I love lots more, but wanna see what you all think!!! Go for it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrinceSaliano Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 THE LAST WARNING (Universal) COCOANUTS (Paramount) THE MYSTERIOUS DR. FU MANCHU (Paramount) SEVEN FOOTPRINTS TO SATAN (First National) THE THIRTEENTH CHAIR (MGM) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PFriedman Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 I certainly like two Paramount films called "The Love Parade" with Jeanette McDonald and Maurice Chevalier, Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Another one of great merit is "Applause" starring Helen Morgan and directed by Rouben Mamoulien. Other 1929 films I like include: 1) The Kiss (MGM Greta Garbo Silent) 2) Our Modern Maidens (MGM Joan Crawford/Douglas Fairbanks Jr Silent) 3) The Virginian (Paramount Gary Cooper/Walter Brennan film) 4) Hallelujah! (fascinating MGM King Vidor film) 5) The Last of Mrs. Cheyney & The Trial of Mary Dugan (MGM Norma Shearer films are extremely static in their early talkie way, but very interesting films to experience just the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredCDobbs Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 TCM aired "Behind this Curtain" several years ago. I recorded it and I love it. It's a good mystery movie and a love story. The sound is good, and the actors are great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markbeckuaf Posted February 9, 2008 Author Share Posted February 9, 2008 Awesome choices from this vintage year you guys!!! How about: THE HOLLYWOOD REVUE OF 1929 GLORIFYING THE AMERICAN GIRL Man, I love early talkies, they rock!!! More faves from this seminal year??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottman1932 Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 CITY GIRL THE IDLE RICH THE TAMING OF THE SHREW ASPHALT THE IRON MASK THE LOVE TRAP THE PAGAN RIO RITA DESERT NIGHTS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoTek Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 I've seen Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis' incorrectly (1929) cited. It's my 'personal' favorite, particularly 'earliest' sci-fi, so I hope you'll make allowances for a couple 'years' deviation. The corporations are opposed by the LoTeks, a resistance movement risen from the streets: hackers, data-pirates, guerilla-fighters in the info-wars - William Gibson's 'Johnny Mnemonic' (85-95) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markbeckuaf Posted February 10, 2008 Author Share Posted February 10, 2008 Oh yeah, RIO RITA rocks!!! I love Wheeler and Woolsey!!! Great choices everyone! How about Eddie G in THE HOLE IN THE WALL, that kind of rocked! I also really dug Hitch's early talkie/silent blend, BLACKMAIL! Any others out there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LsDoorMat Posted February 10, 2008 Share Posted February 10, 2008 My lengthy list of favorites, not necessarily in order: 1. Hollywood Revue - MGM showing off its stable of stars in talking roles. The only problem is, within four years almost all of them would be out of work. 2. Gold Diggers of Broadway - All that's left is two reels, but what's left shows what is great about those early talkie musicals - the two-strip Technicolor, the tinny music, the patchwork plots. 3. Gentlemen of the Press - Introduced the world to Kay Francis. 4. The Love Parade - So much better than any other musical of this era. 5. The Great Gabbo - Shows just how bizarre some of these early talkies could get. The musical numbers are a hoot. 6. Disraeli - George Arliss did a wonderful job at playing the historic figure, and its too bad he's basically forgotten today. 7. Blackmail - Great early Hitchcock. 8. Bulldog Drummond - Ronald Coleman is wonderful in the title role. 9. The Canary Murder Case - Not a great film, but it gives you a preview of William Powell as sleuth. Powell was one of the few to make the silent/talkie transition. 10. Show of Shows - Actually a guilty pleasure. One of the worst of the studio musical revues, it is a vaudeville-like hodge-podge that has no continuity. The decapitation of H.B. Warner followed by Rin-Tin-Tin followed by John Barrymore doing Shakespeare followed by flapper Winnie Lightner in a spoof of "Singin in the Rain" and so on. 11. Welcome Danger - Buster Keaton wasn't the only silent comedian having trouble making the transition to sound. Harold Lloyd is just plain annoying in his first talkie, and that's part of the fun. 12. Coquette - Mary Pickford's debut in talking pictures. She plays a southern belle in this one. The picture is quite cheesy, yet she won a Best Actress Oscar for her performance. 13. Broadway - I've only seen excerpts of this early talkie musical, but what I've seen is very odd. Directed by a professional bacteriologist, it looks like Faust combined with Lights of New York with musical numbers added in. The director shot sequences of silent film and then dubbed those sequences with sound recording to get more fluid motion into his picture. It gives the film a disembodied and surreal quality. 14. Mysterious Island - An undersea adventure that is a part-talkie or "goat-gland" movie starring Lionel Barrymore. More a curiosity than anything. 15. The Cocoanuts - The movie premiere of the Marx Bros. with musical numbers by Mary Eaton who soon fades from films forever and dies young. 16. A Night in a Dormitory - A short film in which a brunette Ginger Rogers sings accompaniment to a line of the most uncoordinated chorus girls ever. Busby Berkeley where were you when we needed you! A must see. 17. Spite Marriage - The beginning of the end for Buster Keaton. His last silent film and the first in which MGM begins to seriously interfere in Buster's movies. It's good, but not as good as his previous works, plus it is sad knowing his career is downhill from here. 18. The Thirteenth Chair - Bela Lugosi's first talkie has great ambiance for a horror movie, and his performance is great. Everyone else is still annunciating oh so slowly and can't seem to grasp the concept that the audience can hear them - those wild gestures are not necessary to convey what's going on. 19. Syncopation - RKO's first film is a musical that features some really cheap production values. The furniture looks like it's made of cardboard, but Morton Downey's singing will blow the wax right out of your ears. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottman1932 Posted February 10, 2008 Share Posted February 10, 2008 I would add a couple of short films from 1929 to the list as well: BIG BUSINESS (Laurel & Hardy) BACON GRABBERS (Laurel & Hardy) THE BIG SQUAK (Charley Chase) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coder1953 Posted February 10, 2008 Share Posted February 10, 2008 Sally It's A Great Life Street Girl On With The Show! Broadway Babies All of the preceding films have aired on TCM years ago (many years.) Seems they don't show musicals from 1929 anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
webestang Posted February 10, 2008 Share Posted February 10, 2008 Mine has to be "Blackmail". Hitchcock (listed 2nd in my top 5) and Britain's first talky. The use of speech during the dinner scene with the word "Knife" was chilling and incredible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markbeckuaf Posted February 10, 2008 Author Share Posted February 10, 2008 Wow, that's a great list of early musicals from 1929!!! I've had TCM since 02, and never seen any of them? I may have missed them, but they didn't even air that month a few years ago when they featured musicals all month. Man, let's ask if TCM will pull all of them out of mothballs!!! Personally, I'd love to see TCM feature a year each month, and either during the day or evening a couple times each week (maybe even 3 times), just show a marathon of films from that year! I think that would be GREAT and I'd love to see them start off with 1929!!! Thanks to everyone for the great posts here, love reading them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coder1953 Posted February 10, 2008 Share Posted February 10, 2008 Here's an additional list of interesting films from 1929 ... TCM has aired these films once or twice (many years ago): Devil May Care Show Girl in Hollywood (released in early 1930; however filmed in 1929) The Ship From Shanghai So Long Letty The Delightful Rogue Love Comes Along (released in early January 1930) If I had to choose one film from 1929 that I'd like to see it's the restored version of "Glorifying the American Girl" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hlywdkjk Posted February 11, 2008 Share Posted February 11, 2008 Well, I can't say that I have seen any films from that year other than The Broadway Melody (It's "On Demand" this month.) But looking at a list of Academy Award nominees for the year, I would like to see The Patriot - directed by Ernst Lubitsch The Valiant - starring Paul Muni and The Bridge Of San Luis Rey Isn't there a Show Boat with Helen Morgan from 1929 also? I hear the earliest version is a hybrid silent/singing version. Is the 1929 version that one? Kyle In Hollywood markbeckhuaf - I think it was December that had three Wheeler and Woolsey films scattered throughout the schedule that month. I caught part of one. But I have seen Rio Rita inthe past and thought they were very funny. Message was edited by: hlywdkjk to change November to December. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregory1965 Posted February 11, 2008 Share Posted February 11, 2008 My favs are: Wild Orchids The Vagabond Lover Disraeli Bulldog Drummond Madame X Rio Rita Queen Kelly A Woman of Affairs Our Modern Maidens They Had to See Paris Marianne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogpaddle Posted February 11, 2008 Share Posted February 11, 2008 Above all, I'd love to see Jeanne Eagels in THE LETTER. I never have. It was announced as a bonus feature on Warners' DVD of the Bette Davis version a couple of years ago. Then cancelled at the last minute. Some kind of rights problem I think. But details were sketchy. I HAVE seen Eagels in MAN WOMAN AND SIN(1927) with John Gilbert - and she was terrific. A great beauty and a great actress. A showing of THE LETTER, an early talkie, would give us a rare opportunity to see and HEAR this famous Broadway legend. Eagels was Oscar nominated for the role. One of her co-stars in the film is Herbert Marshall, who also appeared in the 40's version. It's really too bad the actress never had the opportunity to do a screen recreation of her most famous stage role - Sadie Thompson in "Rain". She was still in her 30's when she died in 1929. Things I HAVE seen and enjoyed from '29 include: PICCADILLY (with fine performances from the forgotten Jameson Thomas and the still revered Anna May Wong) BULLDOG DRUMMOND (notable for Ronald Colman's amazing talkie debut; when the public heard him speak, they immediately elevated him from star to superstar ) THE VIKING (rarely discussed - but highly entertaining - swashbuckler with a nearly forgotten lead pair (LeRoy Mason and Pauline Starke) THE WILD PARTY (one of several charming talkie performances from Clara Bow: it's too bad her career didn't extend through the 30's. She still had plenty of IT) Message was edited by: dogpaddle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markbeckuaf Posted February 11, 2008 Author Share Posted February 11, 2008 Hey Kyle, Yes, the 1929 SHOW BOAT is the hybrid, with Helen Morgan, and starring the lovely Laura LaPlante! If you haven't seen many 1929 films, then I say it's time for TCM to bring them out of the vault (the ones they can anyway)!!! Let's see more from this year!!! Glad to hear that you dug the W+W team in RIO RITA!! I totally love those two dudes!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hlywdkjk Posted February 11, 2008 Share Posted February 11, 2008 "Glad to hear that you dug the W+W team in RIO RITA!! I totally love those two dudes!!!" - markbeckhuaf It was part of Kentucky Kernels that I caught the other month. The other titles were Hips, Hps. Hooray and (I think) Cracked Nuts. All three of those films were also part of TCM's "April Fools" Festival a few years back. That month they also presented The Cuckoos, Girl Crazy and High Flyers. http://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article/?cid=92571&mainArticleId=92499 (Keep scrolling down to find links to articles about each of the titles. It's a long list of "Fools" they saluted that month.) Kyle In Hollywood Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThelmaTodd Posted February 11, 2008 Share Posted February 11, 2008 The films of 1929 are a special category of film preservation, because in that year a very large number of musicals were made, along with technicolor inserts. All black and white versions do survive, but the technicolor portions are to a large extent gone or missing. (The very expensive color film was recycled). Much money and effort will be needed to find and restore this precious legacy. I do believe that some of it will turn up (often in places like India, where they never throw away an old thing!) These musicals are a historic record of the music, dance, stage design, style and broadway tastes of that era. Also, my experience with sound films of the 1920's shows a very different feel, humor and attitude from 1930's films. The country was in a more optimistic, almost dippy frame of mind. (example: Animal Crackers was a broadway play featuring the Marx Bros. The main character, Capt Jeffery T Spaulding, played by Groucho, was named after a real life US Army captain who was caught importing two and a half tons of cocaine into the country! This is the sort of thing that passed for the big Ha Ha among broadway sophisticates of the late 20's!) Most of the films of this year have not yet seen DVD release. Two of them, Braodway Melody and Applause are out and highly recommended. I wish they would release Hollywood Revue of 1929, which had a lot of MGM stars, technicolor and the song "Singing in the Rain". I hope that others here will share my interest and love for this fabulous bygone decade. Go 1920's! Thelma Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackFavell Posted February 11, 2008 Share Posted February 11, 2008 I guess my favorite would be The Cocoanuts with the equally forgettable Oscar Shaw..... Un Chien Andalou was made in 1929 If I could choose the movies from 1929 that I would most like to see they would be: Hallelujah! Applause Show Boat Pandora's Box and.... Sunny Side Up Queen Kelly The Vagabond Lover Sally Rio Rita The Canary Murder Case Evangeline A crazy year for movies- very free seeming in some ways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChelseaRialtoStudios Posted February 11, 2008 Share Posted February 11, 2008 STREET GIRL with Betty Compson and Jack Oakie. One of several RKO features from '29 that I have C&C Movietime prints of. This one is particularly good. Almost as interesting (but not as good) is JAZZ HEAVEN with John(ny) Mack Brown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markbeckuaf Posted February 12, 2008 Author Share Posted February 12, 2008 Kyle, my man!!! KENTUCKY KERNELS is a hoot, but you HAVE to catch HIPS, HIPS HOORAY and CRACKED NUTS, if you have a chance!!! I totally dug that April month a couple years ago, I was totally grooving!!! Not only W+W, but they had the full array of Marx Bros, had tons of Laurel and Hardy, lots of early shorts, Abbott and Costello, just tons and tons of cool stuff!!! I think it was featured 3 nights per week in prime-time and man, I wish they'd do that again, it was a total hoot!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazykatclassics Posted February 12, 2008 Share Posted February 12, 2008 I do like this topic very much, considering TCM has not shown some more rare 1929 titles in a very long time.I remember a member posting the 1929 Alice White musical, "BROADWAY BABIES" and TCM has not shown that film in almost nine or ten years, which thank god, I managed to tape when it last aired a very long time ago.TCM always had this policy that it would take three years to show their entire library and now it seems that TCM is showing less rare films and showing more and more repeats every single month.I do enjoy seeing sound films from 1929 and I would hope that TCM gives these neglected features a chance to be seen again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeBSG Posted February 12, 2008 Share Posted February 12, 2008 I saw "Alibi" in a theater about 18 years ago and liked it. It was interesting to see that the cop movie was around before the gangster movie (in a manner of speaking.) I think "Alibi" is now available on DVD. "Sight and Sound" had a review of it, but that DVD might be available only in Britain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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