1930s
LAS HURDES (1933)
LAND WITHOUT BREAD
Spain (Ramón Acín) 27m BW
Language: Spanish
Director: Luis Buñuel
Producer: Ramón Acín, Luis Buñuel
Screenplay: Luis Buñuel, Rafael Sánchez Ventura
Photography: Eli Lotar
Music: Brahms
Cast: Abel Jacquin (voice)
An extraordinarily powerful yet wholly unsentimental account of poverty, disease, malnutrition, and ignorance allowed to exist in a supposedly civilized Christian nation, Luis Buñuels documentary Land Without Bread was shot in the remote mountainous region of Las Hurdesa small area just north of Extremadura, less than 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of the glories of the university city of Salamancain 1932. Physical, psychic, and social ills are all calmly observed by a dispassionate camera, Buñuel realizing that the images would speak volumes for themselves. Nonetheless, he juxtaposed shots of the riches to be found in Catholic churches and, it was learned later, was not above shooting a goat or smearing an ailing ass with honey (to attract a lethal swarm of bees) to emphasize his argument.
But what does all this have to do with a Surrealist? The horrors are not only on view but theyre also the stuff of nightmare; Buñuel also seems all too aware that the only true release from the Hurdanoss cruel sufferings (unless State and Church intervene, at least) is death itself, and certainly many of the actions taken to alleviate their hunger and pain seem informed by a perverse desire for extinction. Cruel, cool, strangely beautiful, and as pungent as sulfur. GA
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1930s
KING KONG (1933)
U.S. (RKO) 100m BW
Director: Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack
Producer: Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack, David O. Selznick
Screenplay: James Ashmore Creelman, Ruth Rose, Edgar Wallace
Photography: Edward Linden, J.O. Taylor, Vernon L. Walker, Kenneth Peach
Music: Max Steiner
Cast: Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot, Frank Reicher, Sam Hardy, Noble Johnson, Steve Clemente, James Flavin
The undisputed champ of all monster moviesand an early Hollywood high-water mark for special-effects workKing Kong remains one of the most lasting and beloved motion-picture masterpieces. Essentially a simian take on the Beauty and the Beast fable, told without the transformative happy ending and on a gargantuan scale, Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsacks film fuses groundbreaking model work and emotional resonance to a degree rarely replicated by the literally hundreds of imitators that inevitably followed in its wake.
The story essentially plays out like that age-old conflict between city and nature. An expedition team arrives on the ominously named Skull Island, attracted by the promise that a giant prehistoric gorilla, feared and worshipped by the natives, might be brought home to New York and exploited as a must-see attraction. But mighty Kong doesnt take well to being caged and escapes on a destructive spree through the Big Apple.
The scenes set on Skull Island remain impressive even to this day, from Kongs magnificent first appearance to the number of other prehistoric creatures he and the expedition face in protecting or seeking, respectively, the abducted Ann Darrow (Faye Wray). Indeed, Kong is intimidated by Anns beauty, and when he inevitably flees captivity and roams through New York City, the first thing he does is capture the young woman and retain her as his prisoner of love. Straddling the Empire State Building and swatting away pesky airplanes, King would ultimately rather sacrifice his own life than hurt Ann, which gives the film its famous, touching sign-off: Twas beauty killed the beast.
That the giant ape shifts from feared antagonist to sympathetic protagonist, with the former
of course the perspective of his pursuers, shows the success of Willis OBrians intricate and expressive stop-animation work (future stop-animation savant Ray Harryhausen worked as his assistant). Although it is a B-movie at heart, King Kong set Hollywoods special-effects fetish on fast forward, and a case could be made that thanks to Kong many of todays films focus far more on flash than story. But unlike contemporary special-effects exercises, the majesty of Kong is destined to endure, thanks in no small part to the performance of its giant lead. JKl
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1930s
THE BITTER TEA OF GENERAL YEN (1933)
U.S. (Columbia) 88m BW
Language: English / Mandarin / French
Director: Frank Capra
Producer: Walter Wanger
Screenplay: Edward E. Paramore Jr., Grace Zaring Stone
Photography: Joseph Walker
Music: W. Franke Harling
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Nils Asther, Toshia Mori, Walter Connolly, Gavin Gordon, Lucien Littlefield, Richard Loo, Helen Jerome Eddy, Emmett Corrigan
Frank Capras atypical melodrama concerns an American missionary (Barbara Stanwyck) in Shanghaia prim New England type named Megan Davis, engaged to another missionary, her childhood sweetheart. During an outbreak of civil war, shes taken prisoner by a Chinese warlord named Yen (Nils Asther). The unlikely love story that ensues is not only Capras unsung masterpiece but also one of the great Hollywood love stories of the 1930s: subtle, delicate, moody, mystical, and passionate. Joseph Walker shot it through filters and with textured shadows that suggest the work of Josef von Sternberg; Edward Paramore wrote the script, adapted from a story by Grace Zaring Stone. Oddly enough, this perverse and beautiful film was chosen to open Radio City Music Hall in 1933. It was not one of Capras commercial successes, but it arguably beats the rest of his films by miles, and both Stanwyck and Asther are extraordinary.