In 1929:
Mother Theresa arrived in India;
Popeye debuted;
Erich Maria Remarque published All Quiet on the Western Front;
The Lateran Treaty established Vatican City as an independent sovereign nation;
Five gangsters were murdered in the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre;
Herbert Hoover became the thirty-first President of the United States;
Wings won the award for Best Picture at the inaugural Academy Awards;
The first color television was demonstrated;
The Geneva Convention established parameters for the treatment of prisoners of war;
The Museum of Modern Art in New York City opened;
Sergio Leone, Martin Luther King Jr., Jerry Goldsmith, Vic Morrow, Roman Polanski, Frank Gehry, Sir Roger Bannister, Nigel Hawthorne, Max von Sydow, Link Wray, Audrey Hepburn, Adrienne Rich, Beverly Sills, Chuck Barris, June Carter Cash, Eric Carle, Imelda Marcos, Peter Yates, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Don Murray, Don Larsen, Francis Gary Power, Bob Newhart, Anne Meara, Barbara Walters, Ursula K. Le Guin, Grace Kelly, Fred Phelps, Jimmy Piersall, Ed Asner, Dick Clark, Berry Gordy, and Christopher Plummer were born;
While Wyatt Earp, Karl Benz, and Segundo de Chomon died.
The following is a list of my ten favorite movies released in 1929:
10) The Virginian
The unnamed Virginian (Gary Cooper) migrates to Wyoming where he competes with his childhood friend Steve for the affection of Molly Wood. She chooses Steve, but he falls in with the unscrupulous cattle rustler Trampas (Walter Huston) with tragic results.
As the title character reluctantly executes his childhood friend, it‘s a brutal reminder of the reality of life in the American West.
One of the first sound westerns, this film solidified the genre and Cooper’s career. While his name recognition has diminished, Cooper’s influence continues to resonate. Movies like this established an ideal of masculinity which still carries a lot of culture currency.
9) Hands
This short film begins with a male and female hand finding each other and forming a beautiful, symbiotic relationship. When a group of other hands joins to help hold a bowl, the film morphs into a hypnotic and spellbinding rumination on the merits of the collective versus the individual. It’s the kind of conceptual film which sounds good on paper, but usually fails to deliver in practice. However, this film works.
After a series of scandals, rakish Count Alfred (Maurice Chevalier) is recalled to court and falls in love with Queen Louise (Jeannette MacDonald), but his reluctance to subdue himself to the Queen’s will causes tension.
The first sound picture from Ernest Lubitsch shows every bit of his wit. He understood how people viewed romance and brilliantly subverted these assumptions.
Maurice Chevalier was the epitome of French urbanity and sophistication in the first half of the twentieth century.
Jeannette MacDonald was one cinema’s first musical stars. Her soprano voice and affinity for opera exposed the art form to the masses.
In a testament to Lubitsch’s enormous talent, ninety years later, the film still seems fresh and modern.
7) Lambchops
In this early sound short, George Burns and Gracie Allen record one of their vaudeville routines.
Their infectious energy and wit is evident. No one has played a hapless innocent better than Gracie Allen; few have played the straight man better than Burns.
Their simple routine is a perfect encapsulation of their enormous, comedic talents.
The first entry in Disney’s Silly Symphony series is a macabre marriage of skeletal imagery and music.
This funny short illustrates what a perfect team Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney were; modern animation owes them an almost insurmountable debt.
The Marx Brothers first foray into film established most of their cinematic tropes. Groucho is in charge. Chico and Harpo are unscrupulous grifters. Zeppo is superfluous. Margaret Dumont is frumpy. Harp plays the harp. Chico plays piano. There’s at least one lavish musical number. Groucho and Chico have difficulty understanding each other. There’s a meaningless love story.
From the beginning, the Marx Brothers were clearly different from other comedic groups. Groucho was going a mile a minute, Harpo was one of the great silent mimes of all time, and Chico was a walking ethnic joke when it was still acceptable.
Four gangsters rob a bank. In the subsequent shootout, a cashier and one of the gangsters are murdered. During their escape, the remaining three perpetrators encounter a pregnant woman. She dies during childbirth and asks the trio to take her son to his father (who happens to be the cashier they murdered). Tormented by their part in killing the boy’s father, the three reluctantly take the newborn back to town.
William Wyler’s first sound picture is a wonderful ode to responsibility, redemption, purpose, fate, and chance.
3) Hallelujah
Black sharecroppers Zeke and Spunk Johnson are swindled out of their money by the seductive Chick (Nina Mae McKinney) and her nefarious boyfriend, Hot Shot. After Spunk is murdered in the ensuing confrontation, Zeke runs away and turns to religion.
Newly minted Zekiel returns to preach the gospel to his home community, but once again encounters Chick, who convinces him to throw away his religion for a life with her. However, her refusal to give up her relationship with Hot Shot leads to another deadly confrontation.
Lavish and well-choreographed, this feels like a working prototype for Porgy and Bess. While most filmmakers were learning the limitations and boundaries of new sound technology, King Vidor was pushing them as hard and far as he could.
To modern sensibilities there are problems with the film’s portrayal of black people as immoral and sex-craved, but the film deserves praise for being among the first to feature an all-black cast.
The ending points towards a reconciliation between Zeke and his family; reminding us strong family bonds sustained African American communities through centuries of unimaginable suffering and humiliation.
Lulu (Louise Brooks) convinces her paramour, newspaper publisher Ludwig Schon, to marry her, but accidentally kills him after he comes and discovers her with her “first patron.”
Convicted of manslaughter, Lulu flees. When her limited money runs out, she turns to prostitution, and her life ends tragically at the hands of Jack the Ripper.
Remarkable for its era, this melodrama features an unrepentantly independent and sexually liberated woman. The film works because Brooks is captivating, possessing a rare ability to be overtly sexual without being slutty. We want her to find happiness despite her selfish, abhorrent behavior. We’d like for her to escape her tragic fate, but we don’t pity her because she earned her demise.
1) Applause
Burlesque star Kitty Darling (Helen Morgan) sends her infant daughter, April, to a convent, hoping a first-rate education in a religious environment will give her a chance for a better life.
Years later, an older, alcoholic Kitty struggles to find work. When her unfaithful boyfriend, Hitch, discovers she’s been sending money to care for her daughter, he demands she bring April home.
After lecherous Hitch tries to force himself on her, a despondent April runs away with a young sailor.
Unable to abandon her mother, she ends the relationship and takes her sick mother’s place in the chorus line while a humiliated Kitty commits suicide with a bottle of sleeping pills.
April is disturbed by the crowd’s lusty reaction and flees in tears. She reunites with her boyfriend who promises to take care of her.
This feels at least a decade ahead of its time. Director Robert Mamoulian demonstrated how sound technology freed the camera, opening up the world of film to new artistic possibilities.
It’s an excellent examination of the dark side of show business, a reminder of how it has always objectified, dehumanized, and sexualized women, made all the more poignant by parallels to Helen Morgan’s career.