1934

best film:  The Scarlet Empress from von Sternberg. Along with The Blue Angel and Morocco– this gives von Sternberg three masterpieces in five years.

von Sternberg is not only a central figure when it comes to the design of the mise-en-scene, but frame obstruction as well- shown here

von Sternberg’s attentiveness to the entire frame on display here in The Scarlet Empress

most underrated:   A Story of Floating Weeds from Ozu

• It’s far from his first film, and he’s had stronger narratives/characters before and more laughs before- but for me this is the beginning of Ozu as a high-level auteur with his use of editing—specifically cutaways to nature, trains, flags, clothes on laundry, etc—also known to cinema and Ozu-admirers as “pillow shots”
• Woven cloth background for his credit titles- uses throughout career
• Unlike most of his work prior this is a larger ensemble- you’re 3-4 minutes and there’s not forced attachment to any one character (or more appropriately you are connected to 5-6)—lots of cutaways to the town scenery
• Backstage drama- lots of prep montages for a theater show
• Slice of life drama—really it’s melodrama
• Ozu is clearly in love with these characters and it’s very infectious
• There’s a rhythm in the editing of the father and son fishing- quite beautiful
• Tracking shot, later than usual for him to introduce it, of the crowd at the show
• A story of a visiting acting trope and the town and people on both sides
• It’s a comedy—charming—it rains during the show and the trope puts out pots and pans—montage of rain is really well done
• Soapy in some narrative spots—the plot takes over in the ladder third and Ozu forgets the cutaways for the most part— which is a shame because there are spots of brilliance here and it’s a true breakthrough (for me and Ozu)- shots of a bicycle (like 5 times), laundry blowing, clocks, it’s rhythmic, formally perfect and quite beautiful
• Nostalgic in tone
• Open ending—final train shot cutaway

It’s far from his first film, and he’s had stronger narratives/characters before and more laughs before- but for me this is the beginning of Ozu as a high-level auteur with his use of editing—specifically cutaways to nature, trains, flags, clothes on laundry, etc—also known to cinema and Ozu-admirers as “pillow shots”

this shot makes for a great comparison with the 1959 remake, called simply Floating Weeds made by Ozu himself, a stunner in the rain where he reverses the position of the two characters (the 1959 version is in color)

most overrated:  It’s A Gift – the W.C. Fields vehicle. It is a fine little film- but not worthy of the top 1000 which is where the TSPDT consensus has it at #832.

gem I want to spotlight:  The Black Cat from Ulmer

• Great film for multiple reasons: Yes, we have Bela Legosi and Boris Karloff going head to head but to the more seasoned admirer of cinema we have Ulmer’s expressionist work with shadows and set design
• Universal vehicle after Dracula and Frankenstein
• The Edgar Allen Poe story has nothing to do with the film
• Legosi’s mannerisms are very strong—it’s a performances that walks the line of effective over-the-top-ness and campy—I think it’s the former
• Ulmer shows what he’d do 11 years later in Detour/noir- we have constant rain and shadows here
• The Karloff cult here in Austria hints at Nazism
• Great use of lighting- the bed Karloff gets up in—lots of wonderful shadow work
• All atmosphere- the narrative isn’t brilliant- we have some bad pauses and an overall weak cast outside of the two dynamic leads—Ulmer makes up for it with ominous house and architecture
• It’s pretty cool to see the two leads together like this- even if it’s not Pacino and De Niro in Heat or Stewart and Wayne in Liberty Valance (or really Fonda and Wayne in Fort Apache)
• Tremendous set piece—the spiral staircase in the basement
• There’s a good tracking shot right after through the basement as well
• An awful wide edit to signify day change half way through
• The musical cues are not always on and solid
• Occult, uniform and symbolism

Great film for multiple reasons: Yes, we have Bela Legosi and Boris Karloff going head to head but to the more seasoned admirer of cinema we have Ulmer’s expressionist work with shadows and set design

trends and notables:

• 1934 is the birth of screwball comedy- both It Happened One Night from Capra and Twentieth Century from Haws. Rapid-fire dialogue, brisk editing, creatively dancing around the stricter Hays’ code 1934 censors with innuendo
• The both the summit of his career and the tragic death of Jean Vigo – auteur of L’Atalante passes away at age 29 with just one feature film
• I mention it above but Ozu finding his signature pillow shot editing style is key—one of cinema’s greatest single artists sort of finding his rhythm feels like a landmark
• Busby Berkeley (archiveable debut as director with Dames) graduates from choreographer (with three top 10 films in 1933) to co-director – a great stretch run for him

from Busby Berkeley’s Dames— overhead long shot choreography– magnificent

• Our first Fred Astaire (his first) and Ginger Rogers (she’s been in some of these Berkeley archiveable films) in The Gay Divorcee
• Edgar G. Ulmer’s archiveable debut with The Black Cat
• You can’t make a film apparently without either William Powell or Dick Powell (unlike the Barrymores – who are also everywhere- these two aren’t related)- six combined archiveable films in 1933 and 1934 for the Powell’s
• Solid year for director and Hollywood journeyman W.S. Van Dyke with two top 10 films (Thin Man and Manhattan Melodrama)

The both the summit of his career and the tragic death of Jean Vigo – auteur of L’Atalante passes away at age 29 with just one feature film

best performance male:  Clark Gable gives the best male performance of the year in It Happened One Night.  He’s mesmerizing on screen and the perfect vehicle for the sharp dialogue and swift pace. Michel Simon, in support in L’Atalante, steals every scene he’s in. And Boris Karloff deserves recognition (he’ll get it here and not for the Frankenstein films or Hawks’ collaborations). He’s strong in two top 10 films: The Black Cat and The Lost Patrol.

Clark Gable gives the best male performance of the year in It Happened One Night.  He’s mesmerizing on screen and the perfect vehicle for the sharp dialogue and swift pace

best performance female: Claudette Colbert is every bit Gable’s equal in It Happened One Night and has no peer as far as female performances in 1934. Dietrich is imminently watchable and is lucky enough to be working with von Sternberg again in The Scarlett Empress and Dita Parlo is quite spectacular in L’Atalante.

the most memorable scene from the Capra classic- Claudette Colbert here

top 10

1. The Scarlet Empress
2. L’Atalante
3. It Happened One Night
4. A Story of Floating Weeds
5. Dames
6. The Thin Man
7. The Black Cat
8. Manhattan Melodrama
9. The Lost Patrol
10. Twentieth Century

certainly painterly images isn’t what Capra is known for- but a poetic shot here from It Happened One Night

Archives, Directors, and Grades

*MP is Masterpiece- top 1-3 quality of the year film

MS is Must-See- top 5-6 quality of the year film

HR is Highly Recommend- top 10 quality of the year film

R is Recommend- outside the top 10 of the year quality film but still in the archives