The Blood of a Poet (Jean Cocteau) ***

Director: Jean Cocteau

Cast: Enrique Rivero

Background: Cocteau wasn't just a filmmaker. He also did poetry, playwrighting, novels, painting, and designing. He was friends with some of the most notable artists of the day, including Pablo Picasso. The Blood of a Poet was his first film.

Story: Four vignettes detailing the bizaare thoughts and visions of a poet (Rivero).

Thoughts: Not sure what to make of this one. There certainly is some fascinating imagery here. Cocteau does stuff with the camera that truly amazed me during the entire running time, and in that sense it is at times a compelling portrait of the mind of an artist. But much of it feels quite unnecessary, with repetitive shots and camera tricks that only serve to annoy. Cocteau is clearly an amazingly talented filmmaker and the images he produces here ignite a visceral thrill, but much like a big budget action movie with grand special effects but a weak plot, this film left me cold for the most part. But it would be stupid to deny how impressive the technique is and it is definitely a worthwhile and important film. I just wish it could've been in the service of something that made more emotional, if not logical sense, such as Dovzhenko's Earth.

Postscript: Cocteau continued directing films, including two more "sequels to this one (Orpheus, The Testament of Orpheus) which comprised the Orpheus trilogy. His most popular film is a 1946 adaptation of Beauty and the Beast.

All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone) ****

Director: Lewis Milestone

Cast: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray, Arnold Lucy, Ben Alexander, William Bakewell

Background: The film was based on the celebrated anti-war novel by Erich Maria Remarque. Lewis Milestone had already gained some notoriety for directing the films The Racket and Two Arabian Knights, the latter of which won him an Oscar for Best Comedy Direction.

Story: A group of German schoolboys are convinced by their teacher to enlist in World War I. The story follows one such soldier named Paul (Ayres) and how the war deeply affects him.

Thoughts: Simply put, this is among the greatest films ever made. Milestone does a terrific job in showing the horrors of war, managing to avoid the common hypocrisy found in war films where the action scenes are made to look exciting while at the same time decrying the very action they are showing. The battle scenes here are extremely unpleasant and show the true nature of trench warfare. There's a scene where German troops attack a trench and are picked off by machine gun fire that seems to have inspired Spielberg in Saving Private Ryan. However, the two scenes that really stick out to me are when Paul gets a furlough and returns home for a brief stay. He meets a group of civilians who attempt to tell him what needs to be done to win the war, and tell him he just doesn't see the big picture. Later, he goes back to see his old teacher who is giving a lecture to another group of kids, attempting to get them to enlist. When Paul explains the true nature of what the war is like, he is called a coward by the students. These two scenes really resonate because they eerily remind me of the chickenhawks that dominate current foreign policy debates. It's a shame that someone could ever be considered a coward for not wanting to kill people or be killed themselves and that to denounce a war could be considered unpatriotic. It's an incredible tragedy that 79 years later, we apparently haven't learned a damn thing.

Postscript: All Quiet on the Western Front won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director, and also received nominations for Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography. It was named on the first AFI top 100 list, although dropped off of the list in the 2nd edition.

Under the Roofs of Paris (Rene Clair) ***

Director: Rene Clair

Cast: Albert Prejean, Pola Illery, Edmond T. Greville, Bill Bocket, Gaston Modot

Background: Rene Clair had been directing movies since 1924 and this was his 6th film. and his first talkie. He preferred silents, but was forced to switch to sound for financial reasons.

Story: Albert (Prejean) is a street singer who falls in love with Lola (Illery), but their relationship is threatened when Albert is set up for a crime and gets arrested.

Thoughts: For the most part, this is a charming movie with romantic moments set against a nice musical backdrop. The problem is the lack of character development. The two leads are fine and have terrific chemistry, but supporting characters become important in the third act and the film does not properly develop them for us to swallow the ending it wants to sell us. The movie does have a strong mix of sound and visuals for an early talkie and a charming theme song sets the perfect mood . Clair is certainly a talented technical filmmaker, but there are too many holes in the plot for it to be completely successful. Still, it's paced well and has a light, breezy atmosphere that makes it a fun time.

Postscript: Clair continued directing movies through the 60s, including 1931's Liberty For Us and 1945's Agatha Christie adaptation And Then There Were None.

Min and Bill (George W. Hill) ***

Director: George W. Hill

Cast: Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, Dorothy Jordan, Marjorie Rambeau, Don Dillaway

Background: Marie Dressler was in a diner contemplating suicide when she was rediscovered by a producer that recommended her to King Vidor, who cast her in 1928's The Patsy. The role reignited her career, which was still strong enough to land her a lead role here. Veteran character actor Beery teamed up with director Hill earlier the same year in The Big House.

Story: Min (Dressler) runs a dockside hotel and has been raising Nancy (Jordan) since she took her in as a young child. Min is forced to make difficult decisions when a truant officer and the return of Nancy's mother (Rambeau) threaten the mother-daughter relationship she has developed. Min is supported by Bill (Beery), the captain of a fishing boat who lives in the hotel.

Thoughts: On the surface, this is the story of a woman who will do anything to protect the girl she raised from childhood. But the movie itself is so much more interesting than that. what really makes the movie work so well is the awkward, sad, carefully studied relationship between the two title characters. This works so well because of the nuanced performances of veterans Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery. Dressler, free from the one note drunk caricature that doomed her in Anna Christie, creates a fascinating character, torn between her desire to be a mother to this girl and the desire to protect the girl at all costs. Beery has been a pleasant surprise in both of his talkies I've seen to date. I felt he ruined the Louise Brooks silent vehicle Beggars of Life, but his cheerfully gruff performance here is a delight. No matter how many insults Bill throws Min's way, he is there to support her in the end. It's a touching and insightful relationship. There are a few flaws in the film, including uneven performances in the supporting cast and a poorly done scene on a runaway boat, but for the most part this is a solid character study.

Postscript: Marie Dressler would win the Oscar for this role and Wallace Beery would go on to win an Oscar hismelf for his role in King Vidor's The Champ.

The Divorcee (Robert Z. Leonard) ***

Director: Robert Z. Leonard

Cast: Norma Shearer, Chester Morris, Conrad Nagel, Robert Montgomer, Florence Eldridge

Background: Based on the novel "Ex-Wife" by Ursula Parrott. Robert Z. Leonard was a long time silent film director who made his first film in 1913. Norma Shearer had also been around for a while, with her most notable role being Ernst Lubitsch's The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg.

Story: Jerry (Shearer) finds out her husband Ted (Morris) has been cheating on her, so she decides to get revenge and have her own affair.

Thoughts: A sophisticated drama that works for the most part thanks to the willingness to explore realistic issues in adult relationships and the fantastic central performance of Norma Shearer. The story also mixes in a touch of melodramatic tragedy, but in so doing lays the groundwork to examine what happens when you don't end up with the person you always wanted. The film generally works along these grounds, but runs into some problems during the third act. The script places Shearer's character in a position that she does not deserve at all. The completely one sided view of the what happened between her and her husband reflects the sexist attitudes of the day. It's really unfortunate, because the film at times feels very advanced (for 1930) in its treatment of gender roles, but then completely obliterates that with an awful ending where only one character says what needs to be said. Shearer's compelling performance still makes this a worthwhile film.

Postscript: Norma Shearer went on to win an Oscar for this role. She would end up being nominated four more times. The film was also nominated for Best picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay.

Earth (Aleksandr Dovzhenko) ***1/2

Director: Aleksandr Dovzhenko

Cast: Stepan Shukrat, Semyon Svashenko, Yuliya Solntseva, Yelena Maksimova, Nikolai Nademsky

Background: This was the third film in Dovzhenko's Ukrainian trilogy, following up the celebrated Arsenal from 1929.

Story: Earth follows the experience of collective farming and the lives that those farmers lead, particularly highlighting their battle with wealthy landowners.

Thoughts: I wasn't a fan of Dovzhenko's previous film Arsenal, because I felt that the director squandered his considerable talent by showing off when it wasn't necessary and making an absurd argument that he could not possibly support with his style. What changes here is that he takes a simple story of poor vs. rich farmers and infuses it with a beautiful lyricism. The film's narrative does not always make logical sense, but it sure makes emotional sense. The long expansive shots of the collective farms are breathtaking, and the brilliant editing provides many tremendously exciting moments such as the buildup that accrues while the farmers await a tractor. And this time Dovzhenko has a powerful, timeless argument to make and he makes it with considerable flair.

Postscript: Earth is the most highly regarded of Dovzhenko's films. He would give up directing after only making 7 films and turn to other pursuits such as writing novels. He would become disillusioned with the totalitarian nature of Stalin's regime.

Billy the Kid (King Vidor) ****

Director: King Vidor

Cast: Johnny Mack Brown, Wallace Beery, Kay Johnson, Karl Dane

Background: King Vidor was a highly regarded silent film director (The Crowd, The Big Parade) who made an interesting, but unsuccessful departure with his first sound film, Hallelujah! He followed that up with the stagey comedy Not So Dumb. This would be his third sound film. In the cast are relative newcomer Johnny Mack Brown and veteran character actor Wallace Beery.

Story: Billy the Kid (Brown) seeks revenge for the coldblooded murders of two of his friends, but must deal with Sheriff Pat Garret (Beery), a man who likes Billy but is still determined to do his job.

Thoughts: Vidor's film is one of the biggest surprises since I started the project. This is a western that mixes many different elements to make a fantastically entertaining story. Instead of presenting the entire life of Billy the Kid, Vidor keeps the focus to a short period of time and his battle with Pat Garrett. This keeps the story in a nice, controlled situation making for very tense shootouts and standoffs. A scene where Garrett and his deputies have Billy and his friends cornered in a small cabin is incredibly suspenseful. But what really makes the film so great is the considerable wit displayed in both the dialogue and the way the events play out. It almost feels as if Ernst Lubitsch had directed a western. Take for example Billy's repeated attempts to escape from prison while playing poker with Garrett, just barely missing several opportunities in hilarious fashion. Johnny Mack Brown gives a surprisingly reserved and completely cheerful performance as Billy. He resists the temptation to overact and instead lets Wallace Beery steal the show with a memorable supporting turn as the gruff sherriff who also has his own touches of wit. And Vidor gives us a lovely ending that is straight out of Lubitsch, if not straight out of history. What a brilliant surprise and another reminder of what makes this project so much fun.

Postscript: The film hel;ped make Johnny Mack Brown a western star and helped Beery make the transition to sound films. Beery would go on to win the Best Actor Oscar for 1931's The Champ.

The Big Trail (Raoul Walsh) **

Director: Raoul Walsh

Cast: John Wayne, Marguerite Churchill, Tyrone Power Sr., El Brendel

Background: Marion Morrison had appeared in movies over the last several years in small bit parts, often in films directed by John Ford. It was director Raoul Walsh who gave him his first starring role here, and producer Winfield Sheehan who helped come up with the legendary name John Wayne.

Story: Breck Coleman (Wayne) joins a group of settlers heading west, suspecting that the person leading the group is responsible for the death of a friend. During the long journey, he falls in love with one of the settlers (Churchill) and works to protect her.

Thoughts: Even in 1930, John Wayne had it. The amazing screen presence that would go on to fascinate audiences for decades was evident in one of his earliest roles. Director Raoul Walsh does him some favors with some stunning showing the barren plains of the trail out west and the very long line of stagecoaches and horses making the perilous journey. There's a particularly brilliant shot when they attempt to navigate a steep hill. It certainly helps that the modern print of this film looks amazing, perhaps the cleanest print I've seen of a movie this old. The problem with the film is that there's not enough material to support the 120 minute running time. As great as Walsh does with the visuals, he has issues with pacing. Perhaps the idea was to give the audience a feeling of what it was like for the people who made this long, tedious journey. If so, then he was all too successful. This film feels like a long journey, but the destination just isn't worth it.

Postscript: Wayne would of course go on to be one of the most iconic stars in Hollywood history, but it didn't happen right away. Wayne toiled away for most of the 30s, until John Ford cast him in Stagecoach. That is the movie that would make Wayne a star. Raoul Walsh would continue a long directing career, making several films with Errol Flynn and James Cagney. His last film was 1964's A Distant Trumpet.

Abraham Lincoln (DW Griffith) *1/2

Director: DW Griffith

Cast: Walter Huston, Una Merkel, Ian Keith, Kay Hammond

Background: DW Griffith is one of the most notable filmmakers in history. He got his start as far back as 1908, and directed many classics during the silent era such as Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, Broken Blossoms, and Way Down East. This would be his first sound film.

Story: A biopic about the life of Abraham Lincoln (Huston), following his early romance with Ann Rutledge (Merkel) and his later Presidency and management of the Civil War.

Thoughts: Griffith was of course a legendary silent director able to paint considerable tragedy on to a large canvas and basically invented modern film structure. He was a director ahead of his time. That's why it's so shocking that here he appears to be a director way behind his time. This Lincoln biopic is told with little passion or wit. Hell, most of the second half of the movie is Lincoln sitting still waiting for battle reports. Sure, there are a few Civil War battle scenes at the end, but they certainly don't measure up to the fascinating large scale scenes Griffith has supplied us in the past. Aside from Griffith's uninspired direction, the biggest problem is Walter Huston's portrayal of the title character. Lincoln was one of the most charismatic presidents in history, but Huston plays him as a simple folksy guy thrust into a major role. He brings absolutely no gravitas to the role, and the considerable wit that Lincoln displayed throughout his Presidency is also missing.

Postscript: The film was not very successful and Griffith would only make one more sound film before retiring for good.