Best Ever Films of The 30's [List] - Games

badseed

Gender: Male
Age: 35
Location: FL

StreetSpirit wrote:

badseed, why does Stagecoach in the Top 10 surprise you? It's one of the finest Westerns ever made. And cinematically wonderful. Orson Welles cited it as his biggest influence when directing Citizen Kane.

First off I agree with pretty much everything else you said. I mean, 39 Steps is pretty great (though I'm also shocked it's so high) and O really like The Lady Vanishes but that's about the only two I'd even put in my top 25 Hitchcock. The rest of the decade are meh for the most part.

As for Stagecoach, I appreciate its historical importance and still think it's a fine film but I feel like it's (both in my opinion and commonly considered) both a notch below other Hollywood films of 1939 (namely GWTW, Wizard of Oz, Mr. Smith...) and a handful of Ford's later westerns (My Darling Clementine, Searchers, Liberty Valance). Again, no issue with it being there. In fact it makes me want to watch it again pretty badly. But yeah, it's above a lot of films I wouldn't have expected it to be so I'm pretty surprised.

CA Dreamin

Gender: Male
Location: LA

Norman Bates wrote:

Well, actually, amen. Sorry for the lame previous post. We simply don't see eye to eye when 30s Hitchcock is considered.

Hah, it's all good. Most people don't agree with me on '30s Hitchcock. Although here's one person who does:

badseed wrote:

I mean, 39 Steps is pretty great (though I'm also shocked it's so high) and I really like The Lady Vanishes but that's about the only two I'd even put in my top 25 Hitchcock. The rest of the decade are meh for the most part.

This is my opinion of '30s Hitchcock in a nutshell. 39 Steps and Lady Vanishes were the only Hitchcock films that made my personal '30s list, though I considered Sabotage.

Something feels off in his '30s films. The Master of Suspense still had some 'mastering' to do before he hit his stride in the '40s. In many of his '30s films, I don't particularly like the pacing, acting, and writing. There are perfectly timed peaks and lulls in the action of Strangers on a Train, Vertigo, Shadow of a Doubt, Psycho, etc. that simultaneously feel natural and heighten our suspense. Besides Sabotage, the pacing of his other '30s films often feels too even and too forced, and for me it chokes the life from the films. Especially in Young and Innocent, a film that moves along like an assembly line. It has a good story, but so predictable you know how it will end within the first 10 minutes. Some of Hitchcock's other '30s films lack well-written characters. For example, off the top your head, how many of you can name Robert Donat's female companion in 39 Steps, or one line of good dialogue she said in the film? The rest of the movie was awesome but her character was not very well-acted, uninteresting, and mostly served to add more obstacles to Robert Donat's chase all over England. Oh and one other thing missing from '30s Hitchcock...Bernard Hermann.

badseed

Gender: Male
Age: 35
Location: FL

Agreed. I love Hitchcock (I believe he was #3 on my directors list) but he didn't become the master of suspense from his early British films. I think he pretty much hit his stride as soon as he switched over to the US in 1940 (though Herrmann didn't work with him until 1955). Although Vertigo and Psycho are his two true masterpieces in my eyes I think the 40s was my favorite decade for Hitchcock overall.

CA Dreamin

Gender: Male
Location: LA

'40s Hitchcock vs. '50s Hitchcock? Man. I have to to go with '50s but that's really tough. But '30s Hitchcock doesn't come close. There were good films in that bunch, and some average to crappy films. But even in his best '30s films, imo 39 Steps, Sabotage, and Lady Vanishes, we get sequences of his genius, but never for an entire film. I love the bus explosion and the knife murder scenes in Sabotage, two of the most brilliant scenes in his filmography, but I wasn't feeling totally invested in the story and characters surrounding them. I need to revisit though. I need to revisit a couple other '30s Hitchcock films too. Still, if my opinion of '30s Hitchcock improves, I doubt I can ever hold it the same regard as the two following decades. 39 Steps, good film for sure, came in at #6 for the entire decade...how many of you would honestly place it among your Top 6 films from that director?

badseed

Gender: Male
Age: 35
Location: FL

It's #9 on my Hitchcock list, though I could reasonably drop it a couple spots I don't think it could touch the top 8.

Hayden

Norman Bates wrote:

Cool list. Thanks again, Hayden!

Quote:

Cool list, thanks, Hayden!

Quote:

Hey I'm late to saying bravo and thanks again, Hayden.

Thanks guys Smile

Glad to see it had an interesting turnout. This is my least familiar list so far... plenty to check out, particularly in the bottom half.

I'm totally up for going another poll, but right now I'm suuuper open to suggestions because I'm not particularly feeling like doing at Pre-1930's list next. Some ideas rattling around my brain as of now are TV Shows/Miniseries, Actors, Asian films, or an all-time list (which I know someone else conducted at some point, but that must have been at least 2.5 years ago).

Open to anything though.
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CA Dreamin

Gender: Male
Location: LA

Hayden wrote:

I'm not particularly feeling like doing a Pre-1930's list next.

I love silent movies and I'm really looking forward to doing this one. If not next, we've got to do one soon. If you don't want to host it, I will.

Hayden wrote:

Some ideas rattling around my brain as of now are TV Shows/Miniseries, Actors, Asian films, or an all-time list.

No, maybe?, no, and no.

Hayden wrote:

right now I'm suuuper open to suggestions. Open to anything though.

Best of 2016? We did a 2015 poll around this time last year. Another idea is to do another genre poll. I recall Mercury suggesting rom-coms back when we did horror films. That'd be cool. After all, Valentine's Day is in a few weeks. Other than that, I remember badseed suggesting documentaries which would be interesting but I don't how many of y'all watch them.

AwaitingAndrew

Gender: Male

Hayden wrote:

I'm totally up for going another poll, but right now I'm suuuper open to suggestions because I'm not particularly feeling like doing at Pre-1930's list next. Some ideas rattling around my brain as of now are TV Shows/Miniseries, Actors, Asian films, or an all-time list (which I know someone else conducted at some point, but that must have been at least 2.5 years ago).

TV Shows/Miniseries would be interesting IMO. Assuming you meant the general term "actors" we may run into a gender representation issue but I'm otherwise down, and I wasn't on BEA the last time you guys did an all-time list.

I'd also be down for romantic comedies. Definitely a more substantial submission from me than the horror genre got.

Also working on getting through 2016 releases if we want to do one of those - though Moonlight and Nocturnal Animals are both high on my watchlist, but didn't come local and don't get a home release until probably late next month. I absolutely hate resorting to low quality videos so that's not an option for something I'm really interested in.

Mercury
Turn your back on the pay-you-back last call

Gender: Male
Location: St. Louis

Hayden wrote:

Quote:

Cool list, thanks, Hayden!

Quote:

Hey I'm late to saying bravo and thanks again, Hayden.

Thanks guys Smile

Glad to see it had an interesting turnout. This is my least familiar list so far... plenty to check out, particularly in the bottom half.

I'm totally up for going another poll, but right now I'm suuuper open to suggestions because I'm not particularly feeling like doing at Pre-1930's list next. Some ideas rattling around my brain as of now are TV Shows/Miniseries, Actors, Asian films, or an all-time list (which I know someone else conducted at some point, but that must have been at least 2.5 years ago).

Open to anything though.

I was thinking we'd do silent era followed by a new overall best films list. I imagine now that so many people have discovered great films from the last 100 years, that overall list may have changed quite a bit.

But of the ones mentioned, obviously I'm am all for rom-cons list or tv/miniseries list.
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Hayden

From now until February 13th I would def be up for a rom-com list. Three weeks or so would probably suffice for that one.

But yeah, there are plenty of options. Definitely open to more ideas though... but if nothing else comes up, a best ever rom-com poll will open on Saturday Smile

Also, there's no way the next list will be a 2016 tally. I wouldn't do that until at least March. There was a pretty large amount of films released in 2016, and a lot of them are still unavailable to the masses. Many '2016' films come out in January as well Laughing

There's still probably around 30 films from last year that I still want to see. I'd be up for people hyping a 2016 poll though, sporting recs and whatnot. That'd be cool.

But yeah, as it stands, rom-com list will be next Smile

I still think TV shows/Miniseries would be a pretty epic undertaking.

(Silent era and overall are inevitable to happen eventually, just gotta be patient Mr. Green

)
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