Top 10 Best Movies of 1936 - The Last Film of the Silent Era, and more...
Welcome to the Cinema of the Turbulent Thirties!
1936 is our time-machine's current stop, and we won't leave until the Top 10 Films of the year have been identified. However, in order to find and to fully appreciate the best movies of 1936, first we need to have a quick Cinematic look-around.
We are in the Turbulent Thirties right now, the first decade of the Golden Age of Cinema. These are the revolutionary times of sound and colour. Movies are beginning to concentrate on characters and stories more than ever.
Talkies are well on their way to find their true voice and style, while silent films and their legends are becoming fading pictures of the past. The Pre-Code Era ended two years ago, in 1934, so all Hollywood productions must comply with the moral guidelines of the Hays Code.
How on Earth did we end up in 1936 exactly?
No, its not a malfunction of our time-machine. Looking for the best films released in 1936 is actually part of a larger plan. Our year-by-year journey started with 1920 (sharp), and since then, we explored the Cinema of every single year and identified the top 10 movies of each. Now after more than a decade' worth of time-travelling, we are about to explore the best movies of 1936.
A Trip to the Cinema of 1936
While looking for the top movies of 1936, we will have the honour of meeting some of the most influential artists of Cinema.
Prominent people are sitting in the directors chair, like Alfred Hitchcock the Master of Suspense, Frank Capra the Winner of Three Academy Awards and Fritz Lang the Master of Darkness.
On the other side of the camera, we can see the performance of legends like Gary Cooper the Montana Mule, Humphrey Bogart the Iconic Movie Gangster and Spencer Tracy the Winner of Two Academy Awards.
But that's just the beginning, I'm sure we will bump into other great personalities too!
Surprisingly, one of the most popular movies of 1936 is a silent one. The last silent film of the era, actually. Movies began to talk in 1927, so 9 years later, by 1936, silents were almost completely forgotten.
However, that didn't stop Charlie Chaplin from producing the innovative slapstick masterpiece Modern Times, featuring his legendary Little Tramp persona. The movie is a superb satire of the Machine Age, presenting the downsides of modernisation and mass production.
However, Modern Times is just one of the great movies that came out in 1936. Lets dive deeper and explore the others.
The finest way to experience the Cinema of 1936 is to watch the best films of the year as a movie marathon. We will find them for you, so you just have to make those movie nights happen.
1936 has such an abundance of excellent motion pictures that its almost impossible to build a Top 10 list from them. Since there are only 10 spots, it's inevitable to leave some of the best movies of 1936 out of the spotlight. "Best" is relative anyway, but let's not go into that right now.
A good place to start would be to get familiar with the opinions of the greatest movie experts. Lets take a look at their choices first.
The Oscars Honouring the Best Films of 1936
Luise Rainer earned the Best Actress Award with her performance in The Great Ziegfeld; the movie that became Oscars Best Picture of the Year for 1936.
The Best Actor Award was given to Paul Muni for playing the pioneering French microbiologist in The Story of Louis Pasteur; this movie also earned the Academy Awards for Best Writing, Original Story and Best Writing, Screenplay.
Frank Capra did such a splendid job with directing Mr. Deeds Goes to Town that he became Oscars Best Director of the Year. This was Capra's second (of three) Academy Award.
There are various Top Films Lists composed by movie experts. Examples of these are the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die edited by Steven Jay Schneider or the Great Movies List of the legendary film critic Roger Ebert, but the picks of the National Film Preservation Board are also worthy of checking, and there are other lists too.
Sometimes their choices are in harmony, sometimes they aren't, but that's the beauty of it. As for the best movies released in 1936, most lists tend to agree that Modern Times, My Man Godfrey and Swing Time are among them.
Relying on cold numbers to decide whether a movie is great or not, is not a particularly good idea. However, the box office performance of a movie is usually a good indicator of popularity and watchability.
In the case of 1936, the three top grossing movies were San Francisco, The Great Ziegfeld and Modern Times.
Got the gist of our research? There are several other criteria we use to identify the best movies of 1936. However, going into further details would make this article far too long and possibly less enjoyable. Lets put it all together and see that Top 10 list!
So to cut the long story short, these are the factors we were chewing on while composing our Top 10 Movies of 1936 list:
- Critical Acclaim
- Audience feedback
- Box Office performance
- Awards & Nominations
- Iconic Status
- Popularity
- Watchability
The result? A countdown list, designed to serve you as a time-machine. If you watch the movies from Nr. 10 to Nr. 1, you'll find yourself on an uphill trek to the grand finale.
Ready? Buckle up then, and let the best movies of 1936 carry you to the Cinematic era they came from.
Mystery, Thriller
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
The story is loosely based on two stories from the classic spy story collection Ashenden: Or the British Agent, first published in 1928, written by the ex-British Intelligence member W. Somerset Maugham. Would you like to read the book?
It tells the tale of Edgar Brodie, a novelist-turned-soldier during the first world war. He is given a new identity and is sent to Switzerland to track down a German agent, with the help of a fake wife and an assassin called The General (Peter Lorre).
Drama, Romance
Starring William Powell and Myrna Loy
The story is based on the life and work of Florenz "Flo" Ziegfeld Jr., Broadway's greatest producer, who is often called the man who invented show business. Would you like to read his biography?
The movie starts the tale in 1893, with the 26 year old Ziegfield, a sideshow barker, who yearns to become a big name in show business. The film also presents sections of Ziegfeld's biggest and most spectacular shows.
Comedy, Crime, Mystery, Romance
Starring William Powell and Myrna Loy
Nick and Nora are back in San Francisco, visiting Nora's overwhelmingly aristocratic family. However, cousin Selma's husband is missing, so Nick's help is needed once again.
He reluctantly agrees to investigate, but the case takes a twist when the missing husband gets shot, and Selma is accused of the murder.
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Crime, Drama, Thriller
Directed by Fritz Lang
Starring Spencer Tracy
Joe Wilson is an honest, hard working man on his way to start his own business and get married. However, when he travels through a small town, he is mistaken for a wanted murderer. He gets jailed, waiting for a trial, but the impatient mob wants a lynching.
The sheriff cannot stop them from burning down the whole police station, and Joe is presumed dead. However, Joe managed to survive the fire and is so furious that instead of revealing himself, he plans revenge.
Comedy, Musical, Romance
Starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
Lucky Garnett, a dancer and gambler needs $25,000 to be allowed to marry his fiancee, Margaret. Lucky travels to New York, to raise the money, but when he meets Penny, the charming dancing instructor, he begins to have second thoughts about his commitment to Margaret.
Drama, Romance, Thriller
Starring Leslie Howard, Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart
Alan Squier, a world-weary British writer is on his way to see the pacific and perhaps drown in it. When he stops at a small diner out in the desert, he meets the owner's daughter, Gabrielle, who had enough of living and working there.
However, before they can really get to knoe each other, they become hostages of a gang led by the notorious killer Duke Mantee (Bogart).
Thriller
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
The story is loosely based on the classic spy novel The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale, first published in 1907, written by modernist author Joseph Conrad. Would you like to read the book?
Mr. Verloc manages a small cinema and lives an apparently peaceful life with his wife and her teenage brother in London. However, he is also part of a gang of saboteurs.
Soon after a Scotland Yard undercover detective starts to investigate him, the gang leader gives Mr. Verloc a mission to put a bomb in the metro.
Comedy, Drama, Romance
Directed by Frank Capra
Starring Gary Cooper
Longfellow Deeds is a simple, small town man, leading a small town kind of life - until he learns that he inherited a massive fortune from his uncle. He travels to the big city, where his 'out of the blue' fortune makes him an instant sensation.
Everyone thinks Deeds is just a country bumpkin, but his good old fashioned common sense proves to be a valuable asset even in that fast paced modern environment. However, when Deeds decides to give his money away, he finds himself in court, forced to defend his sanity.
Comedy, Drama, Romance
Starring William Powell
In the post-Great Depression New York, Irene Bullock, a scatterbrained socialite takes part in a strange game, where she has to find a "forgotten man". This is how she meets Godfrey Smith, a hobo from the city dump.
She has a crush on Godfrey and hires him as a family butler. The hobo's mysterious past begins to unfold, when a Harvard Investor salutes him during a party...
Silent | Comedy, Drama, Family, Romance
Starring, Written and Directed by Charlie Chaplin
The Little Tramp is a laborer in a factory’s assembly line. He is about to turn into a nervous wreck because of the job’s monotony.
Being used as a guinea pig for a new invention called the ‘automatic feeding machine’ is just making his condition worse, so he ends up in an asylum…
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If you want to take a look at the list of the movies above, without all that info between the titles, here's a recap:
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1. Modern Times
2. My Man Godfrey
3. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
4. Sabotage
5. The Petrified Forest
6. Swing Time
7. Fury
8. After the Thin Man
9. The Great Ziegfeld
10. Secret Agent
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