Hacker Cinema
42nd Street
1933 · Film · 89 min
Directed by Lloyd Bacon
Broadway director Julian Marsh needs just one more hit show so he can retire and recover his health. It looks like he just may pull it off until temperamental star Dorthy Brock breaks her ankle on the eve of the show's premiere and has to be replaced by her understudy Peggy.
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4 comments on Hacker News
(I know you didn't ask me.)
To pick a decade, the 1930's surprised me with a number of good films that I had not seen. It's also the first "modern" decade in a sense — the films are starting to have the kind of narrative you expect from a film (and have sound).
"Love Me Tonight" (1932), "Stella Dallas" (1937) were new to me and enjoyable.
It was the era of the classic big-spectacle Hollywood dance numbers that I knew of but had not seen. These greats from 1933 alone: "42nd Street", "Footlight Parade", "Gold Diggers of 1933".
Fritz Lang's "M" (1931) if you have not seen it. The infamous "Freaks" (1932) that, by its reputation, I thought would disturb me more than it did. "Captain Blood" and the "The Adventures of Robin Hood" are Errol Flynn in his prime…
Bonus link: Ginger Rogers in the classic opening to "Gold Diggers" — and her impromptu Pig Latin verse: https://youtu.be/UJOjTNuuEVw
1939? I suppose you have to pick a year and call that the cutoff.
But you're cutoff leaves to the "Dark Ages" the films Frankenstein (1931), Love Me Tonight (1931), 42nd Street (1933), Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), King Kong (1933), It Happened One Night (1934), The Thin Man (1934), My Man Godfrey (1936), Stella Dallas (1937), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) to name a few.
I agree with your choices (I've been working through "1001 Films to See Before you Die" and your choices are also represented in the list).
Nice that most (all?) of these are free on YouTube.
I confess though that films got a lot more interesting to me around 1932. Gotta love that when sound came along they went deep-dive into musicals, ha ha. (I was actually surprised at how many of the 30's films were entertaining to me — "Love Me Tonight", "Trouble in Paradise", "42nd Street"...)
Thanks for that! I count only about seventeen of those that I've seen, despite having seen old movies in the hundreds.
Funnily enough, my favourite old Hollywood genres are musicals and westerns.
I grew up only really being exposed to post 1960 movie musicals which I never really liked. About seven years ago I thought, "I've never really watched any old movie musicals", and just started watching them. It was a revelation to discover the (to me) amazing stuff from the 30s, 40s and 50s. My ideal movie musical was made in the 1930s, stars Fred Astaire, and has songs by the Gershwins, Cole Porter or Irving Berlin.
Some highlights for me would be:
42nd Street (1933) Not the first `backstage musical' but sets the template. One of the things I love about old movie musicals is that people don't randomly start singing and dancing: they sing and/or dance because they are singers or songwriters or dancers or choreographers creating or rehearsing or performing.
Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) More Busby Berkeley.
Footlight Parade (1933) More Busby Berkeley. James Cagney stars.
On the Avenue (1937)
Shall we Dance (1937)
Lady be Good (1941)
You Were Never Lovelier (1942)
The Gang's All Here (1943)
Anchors Aweigh (1945)
The Pirate (1948) Don't listen to the naysayers, this film to me is pretty much perfect.
An American in Paris (1951) Contains the amazing sequence in which Oscar Levant is portrayed conducting, playing every instrument, and being the audience of Gershwin's Concerto in F for Piano and Orchestra (which I think is much better than the more famous Rhapsody in Blue).
The Band Wagon (1953)
Daddy Long Legs (1955)
High Society (1956)
Funny Face (1957)
Gypsy (1962)
And then a couple of years ago, I asked myself: which film genres have I never really watched? Westerns (and Horror, still haven't gone there) being my answer. Turns out I really love westerns.
Some favourites:
Destry Rides Again (1939)
Stagecoach (1939)
Fort Apache (1948) To me, this is the best of John Ford's `cavalry trilogy'
Red River (1948)
Winchester '73 (1950) My favourite of the Anthony Mann / James Stewart westerns.
Vera Cruz (1954) Action movies weren't invented in the 1980s.
The Man from Laramie (1955)
Seven Men from Now (1956) The best of the Budd Boetticher / Randolph Scott westerns.
Man of the West (1958)
The Horse Soldiers (1959)
Last Train from Gun Hill (1959)
Two Rode Together (1961)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
El Dorado (1966) Rio Bravo gets all the love, but this is the more satisfying result for me.