Bad Girl

13 Monday Jul 2015

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Directed: Frank Borzage

Year: 1931

Nominated: Best Film, Best Director – Frank Borzage

Won: Best Director – Frank Borzage

Plot in 25 Words: A very ordinary film about the very ordinary lives of very ordinary people. Lots of casual sexism and a terrifying insight into a 1930’s childbirth.

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1931/32

12 Sunday Jul 2015

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Best Picture:

  • Grand Hotel
  • Arrowsmith
  • Bad Girl
  • The Champ
  • Five Star Final
  • One Hour With You
  • Shanghai Express
  • The Smiling Lieutenant

Best Director:

  • Frank Borzage – Bad Girl
  • King Vidor – The Champ
  • Josef von Sternberg – Shanghai Express

Best Actor

  • Wallace Beery – The Champ
  • Fredric March – Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
  • Alfred Lunt – The Guardsman

Best Actress

  • Helen Hayes – The Sin of Madelon Claudet
  • Marie Dressler – Emma
  • Lynn Fontanne – The Guardsman

A very different sort of list to what I’ve had in the past. In the early years of the Oscars, there were no set parameters for the categories. Best Actor  for example, only has three nominees this year and was won and shared by two of them.

I’m very much looking forward to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It’s the first film to stray into sci-fi/horror territory, and I can’t wait to see how the era handles the ‘special’ effects. I loved Marie Dressler in Min and Bill so I’m also looking forward to Emma.

1930/31 – Review

07 Tuesday Jul 2015

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This was the shortest ‘set’ to date and the first one I’ve gotten finished inside a month. There was some epics and some classics. Sadly some incredibly dull films too! A couple couldn’t hold my attention and a couple I couldn’t take my eyes off.

The scope of films is gradually changing. All were basic dramas but the sheer scale is growing. Cimarron may not have been my favourite film but the scope of the production cannot be denied.

Favourite – Skippy.

Least Favourite – Royal Family of Broadway.

Both a close run thing! Min and Bill was equally excellent and Holiday was also shit!

1930/31 – Lost Films

07 Tuesday Jul 2015

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Only two films this year. I’m choosing to see this as an improvement. I found a new site to buy DVDs from, and I’m so glad I did as I got Skippy from there, fairly last minute. I’d more or less resigned it to be a lost film and so pleased I persevered.

East Lynne (1931) – I simply couldn’t find a trace of it anywhere.

Trader Horn (1931) – Again just not in existence.

I’m keeping a list of all my ‘lost films’ and I will continue to look for them. I might get lucky!