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48

WILL YOU MARRY ME?

DID HE LEAVE YOU ANY
MONEY? ANSWER THE
SECOND QUESTION FIRST
DUCK SOUP / 1933

L
ike so many
IN CONTEXT movies now
regarded as
GENRE
classics, the Marx
Musical comedy
Brothers’ Duck Soup
DIRECTOR received a mixed reception
Leo McCarey from critics when it opened
in 1933. Now it’s seen for
WRITERS what it is: a sharp, anarchic,
Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, and above all hilarious
Arthur Sheekman, political satire (even if the
Nat Perrin brothers themselves denied
doing anything but trying to
STARS
be funny). The movie is a From the left, Groucho, Chico,
Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, riot of the brothers’ trademark Harpo, and Zeppo Marx were real-life
Harpo Marx, Zeppo Marx, puns and visual gags, including brothers, who honed their comic
Margaret Dumont the famous mirror scene, in which, personas in vaudeville theater.

BEFORE after breaking a mirror, Harpo

1921 The Marx Brothers’ first mimics Groucho’s every move neighboring Sylvania. With Chico
movie, a short, Humor Risk, is to avoid detection. and Harpo working as Trentino’s
made. It is now believed lost. spies, war breaks out between the
Absurd plot two countries, leading to some of
1929 The first full-length movie Groucho plays Rufus T. Firefly, invited the most bizarre battle scenes in
to star them, The Cocoanuts, is for reasons that never become clear cinema history. Amid the madcap
a musical comedy. to become dictator of Fredonia by the encounters, Groucho veers between
wealthy Mrs. Teasdale, played by the flirts, insults, and some of his finest
AFTER brothers’ regular straight woman, ever quips: “If you can’t get a taxi,
1935 A Night at the Opera, the Margaret Dumont. Firefly only wants you can leave in a huff.” If that’s
first Marx Brothers’ movie not Mrs. Teasdale for her money. But he too soon you can leave in a minute
to feature Zeppo, is a hit. has a rival, Trentino, ambassador to and a huff.” ■
1937 The Marx Brothers’
seventh movie, A Day at the What else to watch: Animal Crackers (1930) ■ Monkey Business (1931) ■

Races, is their biggest hit. A Night at the Opera (1935) ■ A Day at the Races (1937)
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A GOLDEN AGE IN BLACK AND WHITE 49

DON’T BE ALARMED
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
THOSE CHAINS ARE MADE
OF CHROME STEEL
KING KONG / 1933

K
ing Kong was probably the movie is full of iconic scenes,
IN CONTEXT first true special-effects including a memorable climax in
blockbuster. It is the simple which Kong bats away a biplane as
GENRE
story of a huge ape discovered on he clings to the top of the Empire
Monster movie
an uncharted island, which he State Building.
DIRECTORS shares with other giant creatures, The movie’s secret was to portray
Merian C. Cooper, including dinosaurs. The ape Kong the ape sympathetically. Kong is
Ernest B. Schoedsack is captured and brought to New protective of his female captive, and
York for people to stare at, only for only attacks when provoked. Kong’s
WRITERS him to break free from his chains tormentor, Carl Denham (Robert
James Ashmore Creelman, and go on a rampage. Armstrong), who exhibits Kong as
Ruth Rose, Edgar Wallace The stop-motion effects look the “Eighth Wonder of the World,” is
creaky today. Yet such is the power the movie’s villain. And when Kong
STARS
of the storytelling that it can move finally tumbles from the skyscraper,
Fay Wray, Robert the viewer in a way that is beyond it is a moment of tragedy—the
Armstrong, Bruce Cabot many slicker modern movies. The audience is on his side. ■
BEFORE Ann (Fay Wray)
1925 An adaptation of Arthur is terrified of Kong
Conan Doyle’s novel, The Lost at first, but later
World features humans tries to save him.
battling with dinosaurs. In New York, he
escapes to look
AFTER for her, leading his
captor Denham to
1949 Cooper and Schoedsack say, “It was beauty
team up for another adventure killed the beast.”
featuring a giant ape with
Mighty Joe Young.
1963 Inspired by King Kong,
animator Ray Harryhausen
works on stop-motion classic
Jason and the Argonauts. What else to watch: The Lost World (1925) ■ Mighty Joe Young (1949) ■

Clash of the Titans (1981) ■ Jurassic Park (1993) ■ King Kong (2005)
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50

WAR IS DECLARED!
DOWN WITH MONITORS
AND PUNISHMENT!
ZERO DE CONDUITE / 1933

J
ean Vigo’s On its release,
IN CONTEXT 41-minute Zero de Conduite
Zero de provoked strong
GENRE reactions against
Conduite (Zero for
Surrealist comedy its irreverence
Conduct) caused for conventional
DIRECTOR both outrage and sensibilities. It
Jean Vigo delight when it was banned in
premiered in Paris France until 1946.
WRITER in April 1933. But
Jean Vigo although its anarchic
STARS spirit was deplored Zero de Conduite
Jean Dasté, Louis Lefebvre, by the Establishment is perhaps best
Coco Golstein (it was banned by seen in the context
the French Ministry of French Surrealist
BEFORE of the Interior until cinema, following
1924 René Clair’s Surrealist 1946), with hindsight in the tradition of
short, Entr’acte, plays with the movie isn’t really all that René Clair and Luis Buñuel, who
the frame rate to produce a political, at least not in the way that threw narrative sense out the
spooky slow-motion effect. the authorities first perceived it. window, juxtaposed random images,
and often morphed into strange
1929 Director Luis Buñuel scenarios with bizarre dialogue.
teams up with artist Salvador These were serious works of art,
Dalí to make the Surrealist aiming to explore the subconscious,
movie Un Chien Andalou. yet also simply irreverent.
AFTER
1934 Vigo’s only full-length One of the most poetic A child’s-eye view
movie, L’Atalante, tells the films ever made, and one The movie was funded by a private
poetic story of a newly married of the most influential. patron, who paid Vigo to create
couple living on a barge. Pauline Kael a story based on his childhood
experiences of boarding school. This
1968 Lindsay Anderson’s If… was not to be a nostalgic trip down
depicts a rebellion in a British memory lane for the director, but an
public school. attempt to recreate the state of being
a child. Some of the movie’s rough
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A GOLDEN AGE IN BLACK AND WHITE 51

See also: Entr’acte (1924) ■ Un Chien Andalou (1929, pp.330–31) ■ À propos de Nice (1930) ■ L’Age d’Or (1930) ■

Jean Taris, Swimming Champion (1931) ■ L’Atalante (1934) ■ The 400 Blows (1959, pp.150–55) ■ If… (1968)

The boys’ revolution against the

school’s stuffed-shirt authorities
takes the form of an anarchic pillow
fight—for Vigo, the essence of the
spirit of childhood.

sequence, he takes them all with

him as he follows a young woman
who has caught his eye.
The boys themselves are all
serial offenders who seem to spend
every Sunday in detention (hence
the “zero marks for conduct” implied
by the movie’s title). Throughout the
movie, they plot their revenge, but
when it comes, the revolution starts
not with a grand dramatic gesture
but with a long pillow fight. Taking
to the school’s rooftop, they hurl
objects down at the school board,
a row of mannequins lined up for
the annual “commemoration day”
celebration. The joy of Vigo’s movie
is that the boys don’t really try to
edges can be attributed to Vigo’s (Delphin), a tiny, ridiculous-looking beat the system—they want to rise
inexperience as a director, but there man with a bushy beard, is also above it, as gallant rebels driven by
are many deliberately eccentric pitted against them. On the boys’ the irrepressible spirit of childhood.
flourishes—such as a cartoon side is the young teacher Huguet Vigo did not live to see his
sketch that suddenly comes to life. (Jean Dasté), who indulges his movie achieve recognition, but his
charges with impersonations of legacy went on to inform the works
Diving straight in Charlie Chaplin and plays soccer of directors including François
The beginning of the movie with them. In one especially odd Truffaut and Lindsay Anderson. ■
dispenses with any sense of
buildup—a simple title card reads, Jean Vigo Director
“After the holidays, back to school.”
A boy, Causset (Louis Lefebvre), on Jean Vigo was born in 1905, on to inspire the founders of the
a train with only a sleeping adult for the son of an anarchist. His French New Wave. An ill man
company, welcomes his old friend father spent most of his life on throughout his life, Vigo died of
Bruel (Coco Golstein) as they the run and was murdered in tuberculosis at just 29. As his
prepare to return to the boredom prison when Jean was 12, but work gained fame in France, the
of boarding school. The journey he cast a long shadow over the Prix Jean Vigo was set up in
is filled with a sense of freedom, director’s short but influential 1951 for first-time directors.
curtailed when they arrive at the career. After a series of shorts,
Vigo made his lone feature, Key movies
station, to be confronted by an
L’Atalante, in 1934. Although
aloof prefect, played by an adult. 1930 À propos de Nice
initially cut to ribbons by
In the battle to control the boys, distributors, the movie’s poetry 1933 Zero de Conduite
the prefect is revealed as a spy who found favor in the 1940s, going 1934 L’Atalante
steals their things. The housemaster
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52

TO A NEW WORLD OF GODS

AND MONSTERS!
THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN / 1935

T
hrough the 1930s, Universal life, only for armed villagers to
IN CONTEXT Studios made a string of drag him away. He learns to speak,
hits adapting classic horror saying, “I want friend like me,” but
GENRE
literature into mainstream movies. even Dr. Frankenstein’s efforts to
Horror
What separates James Whale’s provide him with a bride backfire,
DIRECTOR Frankenstein movies from the other when the bride also rejects him. In
James Whale horror movies in the universal the end, The Bride of Frankenstein
canon is its empathy for its monster. feels as much a morality tale as
WRITERS This is never more apparent than a horror movie, suggesting that
William Hurlbut, John L. in The Bride of Frankenstein, in monstrousness might be no more
Balderston (screenplay); which the monster implores Dr. than skin deep. ■
Mary Wollstonecraft Frankenstein to build him a mate.
Shelley (novel)
Morality tale
STARS Much of the movie’s narrative
Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, presents Frankenstein’s monster
Valerie Hobson, Elsa as lost in a world to which he
Lanchester does not belong. He longs for
BEFORE friendship, but is rejected at
1931 James Whale adapts every turn. At one point, a
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. blind man introduces him to
Karloff stars as the monster. the pleasures of domestic

1933 Whale films H. G. Wells’s

story The Invisible Man, about An excited monster
a scientist who finds a way to (Boris Karloff)
steadies his bride
become invisible. (Elsa Lanchester) as
AFTER she comes to life in
Dr Frankenstein’s
1936 Whale moves away from laboratory.
the horror genre, directing a
musical adaptation of the play What else to watch: Metropolis (1927, pp.32–33) ■ Frankenstein (1931) ■

Show Boat. Dracula (1931) ■ The Mummy (1932) ■ Gods and Monsters (1998)