The Greatest Decade in Film - The 1930's

This is the first in a series of posts in which I will look at each decade in detail to decided which decade was the best in terms of the quality of films produced. I will be starting with the 1930's.

The 1930's brought about the widespread use of sound in film. After the introduction of speaking in films by "The Jazz Singer" in 1927 "talkies" became more and more popular, and the 1930's was the decade that saw them become the dominant film type. The decade began with "All Quiet on the Western Front", Best Picture winner in 1930 and first talkie to win the prestigious award. Fritz Lang's disturbingly brilliant film "M", featuring Peter Lorre in one of his most celebrated roles as a deranged child murderer, came out the next year.

Charlie Chaplin's two films of the decade stand out as two of the great comedies of all time - "City Lights" and "Modern Times". Adding to the comedic greatness of the decade was "Duck Soup", the pinnacle of Marx brothers' careers. Monster films such as "Frankenstein" and the original "King Kong" set the standard for horror films to come.

1934 saw "It Happened One Night", the first film to take home the five major Academy Awards (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Screenplay). The film was also the first of three that won Best Director for Frank Capra in a five year span (the next to being "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" and "You Can't Take It With You"). 1938 brought "Bringing Up Baby", a collaboration of Howard Hawks with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant that is on AFI's Top 100 films. And of course, the banner year of 1939 is considered by many to be the greatest year in film. "Gone With the Wind", "The Wizard of Oz", "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" - the names speak for themselves. Throw in "Stagecoach" and "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" and the decade ended with a bang.

However, the 1930's cannot be considered the greatest decade in film for the reason that great films were not coming out consistently. The yearly output of classics is lower than the decades the come after it. While we have been given many great films from the 1930's I would argue that this decade is not the greatest in film.