“I’ll organize revolt, exact a death for a death, and I’ll never rest until every Saxon in this shire can stand up free men and strike a blow for Richard and England.” ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’, directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley in 1938, is an American historical drama starring Errol Flynn as…
Category: 1930s
Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931)
“I must go. Hitu is here and waits for me. You will die if I do not obey. I will go so that you may live. The tabu is upon us. I have been so happy with you far more than I deserved. The love you have given me, I will keep to the last…
Halloween Triple Bill
“Do you have to open graves to find ghosts to fall in love with?” In dark and eldritch celebration of Halloween I’ve made the sign of the Devil, summoned up the spirits of the dead, called on the services of Mephistopheles, raised the dread demon Pazuzu, supped with the Great God Pan and abandoned my…
Queen Christina (1933)
“I have grown up in a great man’s shadow. All my life I’ve been a symbol. A symbol as eternal, changeless. An abstraction. A human being is mortal and changeable – with desires and impulses, hopes and despairs. I’m tired of being a symbol, Chancellor. I long to be a human being. This longing I…
Dracula (1931)
“The spider spinning his web for the unwary fly… The blood is the life, Mr. Renfield.” ‘Dracula’, directed by Tod Browning in 1931, is an American horror movie based on the stage-play version of the novel by Bram Stoker. Renfield, played by Dwight Frye, is a solicitor who travels to rural Transylvania to complete the…
L’Age D’or (1930)
“I have waited for a long time. What joy to have our children murdered!” ‘L’Age D’or’, directed by Luis Buñuel in 1930, is a surrealist comedy that, through a sequence of strange and impenetrable vignettes, unpacks the tensions between sex and Catholicism. It’s the film that Buñuel directed after ‘Un Chien Andalou’ the year before,…
Pépé le Moko (1937)
“Blame it on the Casbah.” ‘Pépé le Moko’, directed by Julien Duvivier in 1937, is a French thriller set in the Casbah quarter of Algiers. The title character is a criminal played by Jean Gabin who has escaped from Paris and has hidden in the lawless labyrinth of the streets of Algiers. He slips from…
The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa
My experience of the films of Akira Kurosawa before I started this journey through international cinema was limited. I’d seen ‘Rashomon’, bits of ‘Seven Samurai’ and, because of the film’s connection with ‘Star Wars’, the beginning of ‘The Hidden Fortress’. As with Andrei Tarkovsy, it took a few films to adjust my expectations to what…
Scarface (1932)
“This picture is an indictment of gang rule in America and of the callous indifference of the government to this constantly increasing menace to our safety and our liberty. Every incident in this picture is the reproduction of an actual occurrence, and the purpose of this picture is to demand of the government: ‘What are…
My Problems with Folk Horror
“You must have patience, even while people die. Only thus can the whole evil be destroyed. You must let it grow.” I’m a happy member of the ‘Folk Horror Revival’ Facebook group. I bought the ‘Folk Horror Revival: Field Studies’ book and I’ve contributed a poem to the up-coming ‘Corpse Roads’ anthology, but I have…
À Nous la Liberté (1931)
“Liberty is the happy man’s due, he enjoys love and skies of blue, but then there are some who no worse crimes have done, it’s the sad story we tell from a prison cell” ‘À Nous la Liberté’, directed by René Clair in 1931, is a French comedy starring Henri Marchand and Raymond Cordy as…
Sons of the Desert (1933)
“Why don’t you pattern your life after mine? I go places and do things and then tell my wife. Every man should be the king in his own castle.” ‘Sons of the Desert’, directed by William A. Seiter in 1933, is an American comedy starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. The pair are a member…
Triumph of the Will (1935)
“It is our will that this state shall endure for a thousand years. We are happy to know that the future is ours entirely!” ‘Triumph of the Will’, directed by Leni Riefenstahl in 1935, is a German propaganda documentary and raises some challenges with this review. It’s almost impossible to set aside the knowledge of…
The Blue Angel (1930)
“Beware of blonde women, they’re special, every one. At first you may be unaware, but something is definitely there. A little hanky-panky can be fun, but from their clutches you’d better run.” ‘The Blue Angel’, directed by Josef von Sternberg in 1930, is a German tragicomedy starring Emil Jannings and Marlene Dietrich. Jannings plays an…
The Blood of a Poet (1930)
“Most of Aesop’s fables have many different levels and meanings. There are those who make myths of them by choosing some feature that fits in well with the fable. But for most of the fables this is only the first and most superficial aspect. There are others that are more vital, more essential and profound,…
L’Atalante (1934)
“He made jokes all the time. Spending a day with him was wonderful and gruelling, even a few weeks before his death. He was such a vivacious person.” ‘L’Atalante’, directed by Jean Vigo in 1934, is a simple love story focussing on a couple of newlyweds, Jean and Juliette, who make their home on a…
Zéro de Conduite (1933) and Jean Vigo’s short movies
“However paradoxical it may seem, the film studio’s ideal would be to produce only one film which would go on making money forever.” ‘Zéro de Conduite’, directed by Jean Vigo in 1933, is a short movie about a student rebellion in a boarding school. It’s an anarchic film that, after a sedate beginning, moves into…
Alexander Nevsky (1938)
“Go tell all in foreign lands that Russia lives! Those who come to us in peace will be welcome as a guest. But those who come to us sword in hand will die by the sword! On that Russia stands and forever will we stand!” ‘Alexander Nevsky’, directed by Sergei Eisenstein in 1938, is an…
A Day at the Races (1937)
Gil: Are you a man or a mouse? Dr. Hackenbush: You put a piece of cheese down there and you’ll find out. ‘A Day at the Races’, directed by Sam Wood in 1937, is the seventh Marx Brothers comedy. Groucho Marx plays a horse veterinarian, Hugo Z. Hackenbush, who pretends to be a doctor in…
Five Months In…
It is now five months since I finished watching Mark Cousins’ ‘Story of Film’ and decided to increase my knowledge of and exposure to more interesting movies (I’m aware all this makes it sound like a prison sentence). I’ve watched, thought about and written about 133 movies watched which means around 30,000 words or a…
La Bête Humaine (1938)
“Pecqueux, I have to tell you something. Don’t say a word and don’t move. I killed her. That’s right, I killed her. It’s all over. I’ll never see her again. It’ll be the death of me, I know it. I couldn’t bear to hold her anymore. I loved her, you know? I loved her little…
Film Ark 