Wait! First aren't you supposed to find & post free versions of each of these movies for my viewing & judging convenience? I know there's a rule about this somewhere ...
My favorites were Grand Hotel, City Lights and King Kong...I finally decided to vote for Grand Hotel, thinking that the other two would have a lot a votes...I was wrong. Interesting poll, interesting results so far.
I ended up landing the pointer on King Kong, but it's up there sharing an amorphous, sparkly love-cloud with Duck Soup and City Lights, while I simultaneously fondly salute the others as rewatchable faves. You got me itchin' to stack up up all those DVDs now for the weekend.
I love all of these movies -- well, okay, I respect The Jazz Singer, I love the others. I could have made the list twenty movies long or even longer. Once Hollywood figured out what to do with sound, they really made some great movies.
Ooh, I had so much trouble with this. Like the commenter above, I admire All Quiet - and Scarface - without actually wanting to hug them... ditto The Jazz Singer. My most loved films of all from the thirties are the Universal horrors and the Marx Brothers, but I couldn't join the Frankenstein (over Dracula) or Duck Soup (over the other four Paramounts) camps no matter how much I wanted to. I love Lubitsch, Hopkins and Francis, but Trouble In Paradise never quite conveys to me what it does to others; I'm always aware as I watch it that I'm not enjoying it as much as I should be. Fay Wray is my favourite star of all - your banner, sir, is a masterpiece - but King Kong is another admire-only: Wray is so gorgeous in it I could eat her with a spoon, but I find the film depressingly cruel in its attitudes. My wife would say Grand Hotel without any of this soul-searching... but I went for City Lights in the end, mainly for the last scene. The rest of the film is just the set-up for this transcendent moment which is, I think, my favourite in all cinema. So Charlie gets the gong. Course, I could have gone for 'other', but that would have meant many more hours of deliberation!
I went for City Lights in the end, mainly for the last scene. The rest of the film is just the set-up for this transcendent moment which is, I think, my favourite in all cinema.
I couldn't agree with you more -- the final scene of City Lights is the most exquisite in all of film.
Actually, I wrote about it here last year. Love that movie.
Named for Katie-Bar-The-Door, the Katies are "alternate Oscars"—who should have been nominated, who should have won—but really they're just an excuse to write a history of the movies from the Silent Era to the present day.
To see a list of nominees and winners by decade, as well as links to my essays about them, click the highlighted links:
Remember: There are no wrong answers, only movies you haven't seen yet.
The Silent Oscars
And don't forget to check out the Silent Oscars—my year-by-year choices for best picture, director and all four acting categories for the pre-Oscar years, 1902-1927.
Look at me—Joe College, with a touch of arthritis. Are my eyes really brown? Uh, no, they're green. Would we have the nerve to dive into the icy water and save a person from drowning? That's a key question. I, of course, can't swim, so I never have to face it. Say, haven't you anything better to do than to keep popping in here early every morning and asking a lot of fool questions?
11 comments:
Wait! First aren't you supposed to find & post free versions of each of these movies for my viewing & judging convenience? I know there's a rule about this somewhere ...
My favorites were Grand Hotel, City Lights and King Kong...I finally decided to vote for Grand Hotel, thinking that the other two would have a lot a votes...I was wrong. Interesting poll, interesting results so far.
It's a tricky question, because you asked favorite. I went with King Kong, but I definitely think All Quiet is the best film of the era.
Beck, you read well, and you follow through.
I always like to distinguish what I like from what I know is better -- and figure out why.
I fail miserably.
Why, for instance, is Kelly's heroes my favourite flick o' all times?
It's indefensible.
Like most of the women I've slept with over the years.
My faves were . . . all kindsa wrong.
btw, enjoying King Kong amd appreciating All Quiet makes a lot o' sense to me. . . .
I ended up landing the pointer on King Kong, but it's up there sharing an amorphous, sparkly love-cloud with Duck Soup and City Lights, while I simultaneously fondly salute the others as rewatchable faves. You got me itchin' to stack up up all those DVDs now for the weekend.
I love all of these movies -- well, okay, I respect The Jazz Singer, I love the others. I could have made the list twenty movies long or even longer. Once Hollywood figured out what to do with sound, they really made some great movies.
Ooh, I had so much trouble with this.
Like the commenter above, I admire All Quiet - and Scarface - without actually wanting to hug them... ditto The Jazz Singer.
My most loved films of all from the thirties are the Universal horrors and the Marx Brothers, but I couldn't join the Frankenstein (over Dracula) or Duck Soup (over the other four Paramounts) camps no matter how much I wanted to.
I love Lubitsch, Hopkins and Francis, but Trouble In Paradise never quite conveys to me what it does to others; I'm always aware as I watch it that I'm not enjoying it as much as I should be.
Fay Wray is my favourite star of all - your banner, sir, is a masterpiece - but King Kong is another admire-only: Wray is so gorgeous in it I could eat her with a spoon, but I find the film depressingly cruel in its attitudes.
My wife would say Grand Hotel without any of this soul-searching... but I went for City Lights in the end, mainly for the last scene. The rest of the film is just the set-up for this transcendent moment which is, I think, my favourite in all cinema. So Charlie gets the gong.
Course, I could have gone for 'other', but that would have meant many more hours of deliberation!
I cheated -- I voted thrice
word verification: falings
I cheated -- I voted thrice
Vote early, vote often, I always say!
Why didn't I think of that?
I went for City Lights in the end, mainly for the last scene. The rest of the film is just the set-up for this transcendent moment which is, I think, my favourite in all cinema.
I couldn't agree with you more -- the final scene of City Lights is the most exquisite in all of film.
Actually, I wrote about it here last year. Love that movie.
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