Best Films - 1934
by Andre Soares
The Merry Widow is not one of Ernst Lubitsch’s most discussed films. Critics generally tend to focus on his early Paramount talkies, such as One Hour with You (co-directed by George Cukor) and Trouble in Paradise, and his later comedies Ninotchka and To Be or Not to Be. Yet, The Merry Widow is a superior musical, boasting sumptuous sets, exquisite cinematography (courtesy of Oliver T. Marsh), a magnificently staged ballroom-dancing sequence, witty lines and situations (by Samson Raphaelson and Ernest Vajda, from Franz Lehár’s operetta), and charming performances by a surprisingly restrained Maurice Chevalier, and by an alternately hilarious and heartrending Jeanette MacDonald.
One of the most expensive productions of the 1930s, The Merry Widow failed to recover its cost despite solid revenues from around the world.
FILM
The Merry Widow
The Barretts of Wimpole Street
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Gay Divorcee
Hide-out
DIRECTOR
Ernst Lubitsch (The Merry Widow)
Lloyd Bacon (Here Comes the Navy)
Frank Capra (Broadway Bill)
Sidney Franklin (The Barretts of Wimpole Street)
Karl Hartl (Gold)
Rowland V. Lee (The Count of Monte Cristo)
Mark Sandrich (The Gay Divorcee)
W.S. Van Dyke (Hide-out)
ACTOR
Robert Donat (The Count of Monte Cristo)
Wallace Beery (Viva Villa!)
James Cagney (Here Comes the Navy)
Maurice Chevalier (The Merry Widow)
Fredric March (Death Takes a Holiday)
Robert Montgomery (Hide-out)
Ramon Novarro (The Cat and the Fiddle)
William Powell (The Thin Man)
Heinz Rühman (So ein Flegel / Such a Boor)
Anton Walbrook (Maskerade / Masquerade in Vienna)
ACTRESS
Jeanette MacDonald (The Merry Widow)
Jean Arthur (The Most Precious Thing in Life)
Constance Bennett (The Affairs of Cellini)
Claudette Colbert (Four Frightened People)
Claudette Colbert (It Happened One Night)
Myrna Loy (The Thin Man)
Jeanette MacDonald (The Cat and the Fiddle)
Marian Nixon (We’re Rich Again)
Ginger Rogers (The Gay Divorcee)
Genevieve Tobin (Easy to Love)
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Erik Rhodes (The Gay Divorcee)
Lionel Atwill (The Firebird)
Eric Blore (The Gay Divorcee)
Buster Crabbe (We’re Rich Again)
Etienne Girardot (Twentieth Century)
Alan Hale (Little Man, What Now?)
DeWitt Jennings (Little Man, What Now?)
Charles Laughton (The Barretts of Wimpole Street)
Peter Lorre (The Man Who Knew Too Much)
Alan Mowbray (Little Man, What Now?)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Louise Beavers (Imitation of Life)
Mary Astor (Easy to Love)
Mary Boland (Four Frightened People)
Alice Brady (The Gay Divorcee)
Catherine Doucet (Little Man, What Now?)
Helen Lowell (Side Streets)
Helen Lowell (Midnight Alibi)
Alice White (Jimmy the Gent)
Anna May Wong (Java Head)
Fay Wray (The Affairs of Cellini)
SCREENPLAY
Samson Raphaelson & Ernest Vajda (The Merry Widow)
Philip Dunne, Dan Totheroh & Rowland V. Lee (The Count of Monte Cristo)
Albert Hackett & Frances Goodrich (Hide-out)
Ray Harris (We’re Rich Again)
George Marion, Jr., Dorothy Yost & Edward Kaufman (The Gay Divorcee)
Ernest Vajda, Claudine West & Donald Ogden Stewart (The Barretts of Wimpole Street)
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Oliver T. Marsh (The Merry Widow)
Lucien Andriot (Anne of Green Gables)
William H. Daniels (The Barretts of Wimpole Street)
Arthur Edeson (Here Comes the Navy)
James Wong Howe & Charles G. Clarke (Viva Villa!)
Ray June (Riptide)
Ray June, Clyde de Vinna & Harold Rosson (Treasure Island)
Ray June & Sidney Wagner (Hide-out)
Franz Planer (Maskerade / Masquerade in Vienna)
Harold Wenstrom (The Lost Patrol)
ORIGINAL SCORE
Daniele Amfitheatrof (La Signora di tutti / Everybody’s Woman)
Willy Schmidt-Gentner (Maskerade / Masquerade in Vienna)
"Best Films of …" Annual List
Comments
Leave a Reply
Note: All comments are moderated. Different views and opinions are welcome, but abusive/bigoted/flaming comments will NOT be approved. Also, please be aware that the Alternative Film Guide has NO contact information for the talent mentioned in this blog or any information pertaining to or access to distributors'/producers' film prints.
