The Young Victoria (2009)

Victoria is the only heir to the throne. Her mother,controlled by her lover, tries to make Victoria sign a regency act relinquishing her right to rule. Concurrently to that, a cousin from Belgium courts her. Although he is part of another plan to control her, the two sort of get along.

Yawn for the story, wow for the costumes and sets. It's dumbed down history, excised of interesting subplots for the sake of pleasing today's viewers.

Rating: 42

Little Man, What Now? (1934)

A couple expecting their first child struggles for survival in the Germany between wars.

Excellent film about the hardships of life, with hardly an unmemorable moment or performance. The type of realism displayed here should teach a lesson to young filmmakers who think that if you must film a house that's being painted, you must film the paint drying too.
This film is Dale Thomajan's third entry in his top ten of 1934.

Rating: 80
Number 6 among my favorites of 1934.

The Scarlet Empress (1934)

A fictional account of the rise of Catherine the Great, who was brought from Prussia to Russia to wed the idiot prince and produce an heir to the throne.

The plot's moral is very trivial and consists in that it doesn't take much brains to outsmart an idiot. As for the film's worth, it's all it's been said to be and more. I take it to be a representation of the essence of Russia, taken to be a balanced combination of West and East.
1st place in Dale Thomajan's top ten of 1934.

Rating: 95
1st among my favorites of 1934.

The Slender Thread (1965)

A woman swallows an overdose of sleeping pills and then dials to a suicide-prevention service.

This is a quite sophisticated film, with an inventively designed screenplay which plays out in non-chronological sequence. The opening credit sequence is also worthy of mention with a stunning view of some sites in the city of Seattle. This is my second viewing, with my rating slightly increased.

Rating: 61 (up from 56)

Footlight Parade (1933)

The film depicts a period in the life of a musical director turned "prologue" producer. Prologues were short musical films exhibited before features.

An interesting film, divided in two parts. First, we see a fairly realistic depiction of the troubles of producing musical films. Then we see their product, in the form of three Berkeley numbers.
Number 10 in Dale Thomajan's top ten of 1933.

Rating: 51

Dinner at Eight (1933)

The film depicts a few days in the lives of several characters who are linked by a dinner invitation.

The depression among the wealthy (or, mostly, formerly wealthy). Smart writing and superb acting makes this an engaging, albeit a little conventional, spectacle.
Number 9 in Dale Thomajan's Top Ten of 1933.

Rating: 59

Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

A new musical play gets financed by the hired songwriter, mysteriously. He doesn't agree to sing onstage, though, mysteriously. He is the leading lady's sweetheart.

The author of the play on which this is based was known as "Playboy Playwright", just to give an idea. The enigma of a final number about World War I is explained (probably) by the fact that the source play was written when the war was on (or just over, I do no know for sure). Berkeley's choreographies are dazzling as usual. Like much of pre-code stuff this occasionally operates on a pornographic level in which boldness walks hand in hand with puritanism (e.g. the musical number in which a promise of nudity is not fulfilled). The structure accomodates the musical parts in the extremities of the movie, framing the farce, which develops without interruptions. The plot is based on a misunderstanding, and the main thesis is that the rich are prudes and hypocrites (a recurring theme in thirties' cinema, it appears). The musical within the film is described by its producer as a depression story; it could have been Hallelujah I'm a Bum. Despite its frivolity, Gold Diggers of 1933 is quite watchable and well-done.
It's number 7 in Dale Thomajan's top ten list for 1933.

Rating: 54

Hallelujah I'm a Bum (1933)

A series of incidents involving a hobo, the mayor, and the latter's girlfriend.

As reviewer Charles Morrow (wmorrow) and others cleverly observed in the User Reviews section of IMDb, this has the looks of something previously designed to be a sort of cheering-up piece in times of depression, making poverty look charming, or at least bearable. If that was the case, it never achieved its goals. Take for example the bank sequence, which IMDb user Swift-12 described so well: this sequence is as fine an exposé of the contradictions of capitalism as any Marxist treatise. Finally, as IMDb user planetguy insightfully concluded, the initial set-up is gradually dismantled by the plot development until it becomes clear that being a hobo is no fun ride at all.
(This film is number 6 in Dale Thomajan's top ten list for 1933.)

Rating: 56

Zoo in Budapest (1933)

A zoo employee who steals the visitors' fur coats, a boarding school intern who is turning eighteen and is about to be "sold" as a cheap worker in a tannnery, a little boy who wants to ride the elephant, all three become fugitives hiding in a zoo.

Visually dazzling and genuinely romantic, this film comes to prove what an underrated director Lee was (he also made a very good The Count of Monte Cristo). On a deeper level, the plot and imagery have symbolic dimensions which are clearly Freudian. The zoo stands for the human mind, in a clever way. All those unleashed beasts are obviously expressing the fundamental drama of two young people who discover their sexuality after a history of confinement.
This film is number 5 in Dale Thomajan's top ten list for 1933.

Rating: 73
(Number 7 in my favorites list for 1933.)

Eskimo (1933)

The dramatic life of Mala the eskimo, how he lost his first wife to the perfidy of the white man, how the spirits granted him a new name and thus a new life.

A prodigy of realism, even with some fake superpositions in some walrus hunting scenes. The actors are reportedly all nonprofessional, and most of them do a perfect job. The film is entirely structured around oppositions such as superior/inferior, strong/weak, primitive/civilized. Mala is the "superior" eskimo, his hunting skills are unmatched, he is entitled to his friend's wives. The white man can't keep his word, and "a weak word makes for a weak man". The white man's moral code doesn't mean a thing to the huskies, they are "superior". And so on. As much a masterpiece as was possible in the circumstances.
This is Dale Thomajan's number four in his top ten list for 1933.

Rating: 81
(Number 4 in my list of favorites for 1933.)

Marius (1931)

Set in the coastal town of Marseille, the film is centered on the drama of Marius and Fanny, two childhood friends. He is a waiter in his father's bar and she works at her mother's cockle stand. She has been in love with Marius since the very beginning of their acquaintance. He'd rather sail away.

A very gripping and transcendent drama. It comes down to the fact that life cannot give you all, you have to choose, but in fact there isn't much of a choice at all, one's got to do what one's got to do. In other words boys will be boys, girls will be girls. The direction does a lot with very little. Most of it is a theatrical transposition and the inserts between the scenes are very eloquent images of the sea, etc. The performances are marvelous.
Dale Thomajan placed it on the top of his top ten list for 1933 (he must have taken into account the year of the film's U.S. release).

Rating: 80
(4th place in my favorites for 1931)

Red-Headed Woman (1932)

An unscrupled working class woman tries to snatch her married boss.

The gold digger woman seems to be one of the main themes of the pre-code era. This film bears resemblances to The Greeks Had a Word for Them, which I saw previous. This one is more of a melodrama, though, and the leading character is more of a villain. She has no likeable features whatsoever. As manicheistic as that may appear, one just has to add two and two to see the reverse of the medal, namely, that social injustice breeds moral monsters. Not to mention the impossibility of complying with moral standards which are incompatible with man's (and woman's) biology.

Rating: 57

The Greeks Had a Word for Them (1932)

Alternate Title: Three Broadway Girls.

Three friends who have no profession and no husband go through several adventures after one of them, an unscrupled manhunter, comes back from Europe without a dime.

Entertaining comedy whose plot doesn't live up to the cynicism which its initial caption implies; the different personalities of the main three female characters allow us to see the 'gold digger' through different angles. Only one of the characters is really embodying the gold digger in its stereotypical 'pure' state (that's 'Jean'); a second character, 'Schatzi', fits the pattern only partially since she does not resort to ethically questionable devices; and the third one, 'Polaire', is the farthest removed from the typical gold digger. Technically, though, they are all gold diggers, since all three are women who are financially dependent on men. The film poses the dilemma.
This is number nine in Dale Thomajan's top ten films for 1932.

Rating: 59

Jewel Robbery (1932)

A jewel thief and a rich woman fall in love with each other during a robbery on a jewel store.

Interesting movie. It's perhaps undecidable whether it is an indictment of capitalism or a celebration of it. In other words, it's hard or impossible to say whether it is an immoral film or a moral satire. Or, perhaps the right move is to steer away from Marx and to Freud; that way, the film would be construed as loaded with phallic symbology, viz., the act of forcing oneself into other people's property is tantamount to a display of male erotic power. Or, alas, maybe it's just a silly pre-code movie, a fossil of an era which lasted for a little while and never returned, for some reason. And here is where we should perhaps return to Marx, who said that history only repeats itself as farce, which, here, is probably the sixties.
It's number eight in Dale Thomajan's top ten list for 1932.
Obs.: I should watch it again if I want to understand better what the characters say.

Rating: 61

Virtue (1932)

A reformed prostitute meets a taxi driver and falls in love with him. He doesn't know about her past. He asks her to marry him.

Ingeniously plotted, psychologically realistic, morally relevant. It' a little dated though, except for places where they probably would not watch it anyway.
Number six in Dale Thomajan's top ten list for 1932.

Rating: 65

The Heart of New York (1932)

A poor inventor is pestered by his wife, who complains that he needs to be more realistic. They are always in financial troubles until one day...

Nice comedy, with a good dose of ruthlessness in its depiction of human egoism and what one might call the superior man's burden.
I didn't always keep up with the dialogue.
This film is number 4 in Dale Thomajan's top ten list for 1932.

Rating: 63

Obs.: There's a Brazilian novel by Orígenes Lessa called "The Bean and the Dream" ('O Feijão e o Sonho', 1938), which has a slightly similar premise, only it's about a poet instead of an inventor.

Love Me Tonight (1932)

A tailor gets involved with a bunch of nobles who live in a castle. He falls in love with one of them, a princess.

This is a fine example of collective work beautifully done. Everything is filled with the highest artistry, and one cannot look for more in a spectacle, except, perhaps, depth. Politically, it's still singing the glories of the French Revolution.
This is number three in Dale Thomajan's top ten list for 1932.

Rating: 83
(Number four in my favorites list for 1932.)

Two Seconds (1932)

A man with a pure heart gets involved with a morally corrupt woman.

Greatly poignant drama, a triumph of screenwriting and mise-en-scène on every count. Robinson's performance is one of the best performances ever given by a movie lead. And the truth of the matter is that the whole cast is brilliant.
The funny thing is, I was only yesterday reading an essay by Nabokov called "The Tragedy of Tragedy" where he exposes his thesis that the rules of tragedy dictate its structure in such a constraining way that they practically dictate its contents as well. One of the things that are written down "in advance", so to speak, is that it must end in suicide. Considering that among the films I recently saw two are tragedies that do not end in suicide but in execution (Dishonored and this Two Seconds), I tried to come up with an explanation for the fact that this possibility is never considered in Nabokov's essay, and the only thing that occurred to me is that perhaps it isn't becoming to a play, whereas in a movie it can satisfactorily be depicted.
Two Seconds is number one in Dale Thomajan's top ten list for 1932.

Rating: 88
Number two in my list of favorites for 1932.

Parlor, Bedroom and Bath (1931)

A sexually naive man is hit by a car and taken to a mansion where he is lovingly tended by the owner, whose younger sister won't marry until she does. The younger sister's fiancé has an idea.

Unappealing farce, with funny moments here and there. The younger-sister-won't-marry-until-older-sister-does part of the premise is from The Taming of the Shrew. (10th position in Dale Thomajan's top ten list for 1931.)

Rating: 40