This is a year of amazing firsts for Hollywood. Universal unleashed a new genre on Hollywood this year: the monster movie, showcasing some legendary screen monsters. Gangsters and crime thrillers really became a talkie thing this year, with Edward “MRRAWWW See” G. Robinson leading the charge. And we’ve got our first little international talkies from Germany and France, making the scope of storytelling a little bigger.
Let’s enjoy some of the results of progressive storytelling.
Robert March won an Oscar for portraying the pair from Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel. The transformation is pretty hideous and still holds up mostly, with March dialing it up to get the point across in tragic and scary ways.
Jean Renoir’s first speaking feature is a hell of a swing. The title translates to “The Bitch”! The movie is pretty adult in nature too, about an aging married painter (Michel Simon) striking up a friendship with a prostitute (Janie Pelletier), and all the romantic and emotional complications entailed in that relationship.
Edward G. Robinson created a stereotype with this awesome portrayal of an Al Capone like gangster with a hot head and lust for power. In between the” MWRAWW, SEE!!! lines is your classic mob story about absolute power corrupting absolutely, and Machiavellian themes. However, what makes this one special is that you actually HEAR bullets this time, which must have been terrifying at the time.
Matching Edward G. Robinson is James Cagney, also putting his mark on the gangster genre. Like Little Caesar, Cagney’s antihero rises up through the ranks of the bootlegging scene, gets to the top, and precipitously has a fall because he’s become far too lustful. It’s short. It’s powerful. It’s a classic.
James Whale, the horror director legend, captures the essence of Mary Shelley’s novel to great effect. While the movie has its share of jaw dropping moments (everyone knows “It’s Alive!” for example), the movie is also a wonderful study of genius and madness, surface and underneath, with Boris Karloff becoming the monster people will never forget.
One part of an all time monster year for Universal. Bela Lugosi created a vampire stereotype with his portrayal of the famous count. Unlike the other monster this year, Lugosi’s performance is engaging and eerily charismatic, the Freddy Krueger of his day.
In a year of classic monsters, Peter Lorre plays perhaps the only one that is truly, terrifyingly, scary. Fritz Lang’s twisted thriller revolves around a pedophile/child murder who’s actions force the police and criminals to find this evildoer and bring him to justice. Just thinking about Lorre’s performance here puts a chill down my spine, as will it yours.
In a year of evil, darkness, and transition into the future, Charlie Chaplin delivers one of the silent eras great masterpieces. His lovable scamp dilly dallies about the world making ends meet where he can. But the movie’s power lies in the scamp’s adorable relationship with the blind Virginia Cherrill, leading to one of cinemas all time great endings.
