It may be a friendly-type monkey (think Cheetah from Tarzan films, not Caesar from the Planet of the Apes franchise ) but it’s a monkey none the less that I need to get off my back with this last blog entry on the 1930s…I began this series over a year ago starting off a with random assortment of historical and cultural goings on during that decade and continued with part one of a movie entry and now finally here is part two (providing I can still remember them, most of these films I watched months/years ago)
The last grouping of films mainly had an adventure bent to them; this time around it’s more of hodgepodge assortment of genres…drama, comedy, crime and the like.
I’ll start with the most recent one I watched: Fritz Lang’s masterpiece M. Not everyone’s idea of a good time is to kick back after work and settle in for a feature length black and white German film from 1931 but it’ll be worth your time if you’re so inclined. Pre-Hollywood Peter Lorre stars as a child murderer who is simultaneously hunted down by the police and the criminal underworld (the criminals’ logic in also searching for the culprit is what with all these coppers blanketing the city, a fella can’t make a dishonest buck anymore). It’s easy to see how this film practically created the template for thousands of other crime films to come: so many serial killer movies owe it a debt of gratitude as well as police procedurals which borrow heavily from M. For such an old film, it does not seem dated at all, except for the occasional quirky scene such as when someone wants to know the time so he picks up the phone and (I assume he’s calling the operator) and simply asks” What time is it?” He gets his answer immediately and hangs up without another word. What a service!
Also by Fritz Lang is 1936’s Fury starring one of my favourites Spencer Tracy. This was Lang’s first film in Hollywood after fleeing Germany. While not as sophisticated and nuanced as M, they share a lot in common. Tracy plays a regular Joe, good natured and kind hearted who is mistakenly taken for a murderer (admittedly the flimsy evidence used against him probably wouldn’t hold up in court – both he and the murderer shared a love of peanuts…incidentally, I also like peanuts so I hope I don’t get roused out of bed by the authorities any time soon) and runs into some serious grief at the hands of a mob (naturally of the unruly sort). Both Fury and M speak out eloquently against the dangers of mob mentality.
Next up is Frederich Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund otherwise known as Paul Muni, who in 1932 had two very different roles in two great movies Scarface and I am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang. He grew up speaking Yiddish, and he famously and expertly applied his own make up – he possessed an ability to transform himself into any character he was playing whether a vicious scarfaced gangster or Louis Pasteur. Muni was nominated a whopping 6 times for the Best Actor award which on its own is an incredible feat but considering he was only in 25 films  – that is better than a 1 in 5 ratio. I particularly like I am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang which has been a favourite since I was a teenager. In my opinion the final scene is among the most haunting of any film I can name and lingers long after you hit eject.     
Lighter in tone is the pre-Hays code romantic comedy Design For Living. Adapted from a Noel Coward play (so you know there will be some zingers flying fast and furious) directed by Ernst Lubitsch, it stars Gary Cooper, Fredric March and Miriam Hopkins. Even though it is from 1932, it seems modern and erudite , with a remarkably candid take on love and sex. , essentially the male leads fall for same woman and they all agree to try to live together, and it does not seem to appear scandalous at all to the actors that they fall in and out of relationships and bed with one another as the film goes on. The film is described on the back of the dvd as “Lubitsch at his sexiest, an entertainment at once debonair and racy, featuring three stars at the height of their allure.”

Speaking of debonair, The Thin Man (1934) certainly deserves that adjective. The first of many in a series, it may need little introduction but I won’t let that stop me. Based on a detective novel by Dashiell Hammet, it features two hard drinking, wise cracking (rare is the write up of this film that doesn’t use “wise cracking” so I’m just going to pile on here and use it too) sleuths Nick and Nora Charles. It’s really quite staggering how many martinis they drink in this film, morning, noon or night, they imbibe without hesitation. At one point, Nora meets Nick in a nightclub, immediately orders a martini then asks him “How many drinks have you had? Nick answers “This will make six martinis” Nora turns to the waiter and says “Will you bring me five more martinis and line them right up here” The chemistry between actors William Powell and Myrna Loy is the key, they are such a joy to watch interact. Over the next 13 years they made 5 more Thin Man films but unfortunately external pressures (read: prudish censors) made the duo cut down on their drinking and general carrying on. The less lubricated sequels while still great, never match the original. Another great William Powell comedy of the era is My Man Godfrey but due to the runaway length of this post so far, I’ll merely urge you to check it out.
The last title I’ll feature is The Petrified Forest, starring a Leslie Howard, Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart in his breakout role as the wonderfully named gangster-on-the-lam Duke Mantee. It is based on a play (both Howard and Bogart had performed the play together on stage, when casting for the film occurred Howard refused to sign on unless Bogart was also cast – Bogart was so grateful, years later when he and the recently departed Lauren Bacall had their second child, he honored his friend by naming her Leslie Howard Bogart) so it comes as no surprise that pretty much the entire film takes place in one setting –a desert café called Black Mesa Bar B-Q – and it really relies on sharp dialogue and great characterization to see the film through , there is plenty of tension in the air and social commentary in spades.
I think it’s high time I stop here before eyes start glazing over but will list some also-rans that I’d include in any overview of the 1930s – Frank Capra, The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind aside here is a by no means exhaustive selection (the only criteria is that I actually have seen these films at some point in my life, there are some great ones I have yet to watch so naturally will leave them off the list) Grand Hotel, Captains Courageous, Dracula, Frankenstein, Public Enemy, A Night at the Opera, Stagecoach and The Invisible Man and on and on…

PS: Just in case there are any sharp-eyed types out there, I do know that both Cheetah and Caesar are apes, not monkeys but what are you gonna do? Am I wrong or are all the best show business primates apes?