The Best of 1929
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- DirectorGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsLouise BrooksJosef RovenskýFritz RaspAfter falling pregnant by a pharmacist and refusing to marry, a young woman is ejected from her home and sent to a strict girls' reform school.
- DirectorGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsLouise BrooksFritz KortnerFrancis LedererThe rise and inevitable fall of an amoral but naive young woman whose insouciant eroticism inspires lust and violence in those around her.
- DirectorFrank BorzageStarsJanet GaynorCharles FarrellGuinn 'Big Boy' WilliamsMary, a poor farm girl, meets Tim just as word comes that war has been declared.
- DirectorJoe MayStarsAlbert SteinrückElse HellerGustav FröhlichJoe May's sensual drama of life in the Berlin underworld is in many ways the perfect summation of German filmmaking in the silent era: a dazzling visual style, a psychological approach to its characters, and the ability to take a simple and essentially melodramatic story and turn it into something more complex and inherently cinematic.
- DirectorAleksandr DovzhenkoStarsSemyon SvashenkoGeorgi KhorkovAmvrosi BuchmaA soldier returns to Kyiv after surviving a train crash and encounters clashes between nationalists and collectivists.
- DirectorDziga VertovStarsMikhail KaufmanElizaveta SvilovaA man travels around a city with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsPierre BatcheffSimone MareuilLuis BuñuelLuis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí present 16 minutes of bizarre, surreal imagery.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsCharles BickfordRaymond HattonFred KohlerThree bank robbers on the run happen across a woman about to give birth in an abandoned covered wagon. Before she dies, she names the three bandits as her newborn son's godfathers.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsAnny OndraJohn LongdenSara AllgoodAfter killing a man in self-defense, a young woman is blackmailed by a witness to the killing.
- DirectorGrigoriy KozintsevLeonid TraubergStarsDavid GutmanYelena KuzminaAndrei KostrichkinIn the beginning of the industrial revolution, the Paris Commune was established in 1871 against the rich and the powerful, and violently repressed by the army that remained faithful to a tamer form of Republicanism. How could the love story between a young sales girl and a soldier unable to decide if he was pro or against the radical fashion? Two short months were needed for the answer to be found - in blood and tears, and under rain that washes all past memories. Any day, a New Babylon shop will open with frilly things for the bourgeois girls. The washerwomen will be there to wash them.
- DirectorAllan DwanStarsDouglas FairbanksBelle BennettMarguerite De La MotteKing Louis XIII of France is thrilled when his son is born--an heir to the throne. But his Queen has actually delivered twin boys. Cardinal Richelieu sees the second son as a potential for revolution, and has him sent off to Spain to be raised in secret to ensure a peaceful future for France. Alas, keeping the secret means sending Constance, lover of D'Artagnan, off to a convent. D'Artagnan hears of this and rallies the Musketeers in a bid to rescue her. Unfortunately, Richelieu outsmarts the Musketeers and banishes them forever. Richelieu enlists D'Artagnan to look after and protect the young prince. Meanwhile, de Rochefort learns of the twins and Richelieu's plans, and kidnaps the twin, raising him in secret. Many years later, with Richelieu dead and the young prince crowned King Louis XIV, Rochefort launches his plan. The king is kidnapped, replaced with his twin, put in an iron mask so as not to be recognized, and led off to a remote castle to be held prisoner. Louis XIV is able to alert D'Artagnan, who realizes that only his friends Athos, Porthos, and Aramis can help him, so he reunites the Musketeers to derail Rochefort's nefarious plot but at a heavy toll.
- DirectorKing VidorStarsDaniel L. HaynesNina Mae McKinneyWilliam FountaineA sharecropper decides to become a preacher after falling for a vamp from the city.
- DirectorFranz OstenStarsSeeta DeviHimanshu RaiCharu RoyTwo neighboring Indian kingdoms are ruled by cousins - King Ranjit and King Sohat. Unbeknownst to Ranjit, Sohat is plotting to seize control of his kingdom.
- DirectorEdward SedgwickBuster KeatonStarsBuster KeatonDorothy SebastianEdward EarleAn unimpressive but well intending man is given the chance to marry a popular actress, of whom he has been a hopeless fan. But what he doesn't realize is that he is being used to make the actress' old flame jealous.
- DirectorMarcel CarnéMichel SanvoisinIn his brilliant documentary study shot at 20 years old, Marcel Carné, while filming the ginguettes of the edges of Marne, sketches a poetic disenchanted of the laborious petty bourgeoisie of the large modern cities, of which one finds the elements at the same time in Germany in "People on Sunday" by Robert Siodmak or the United States in "Lonesome" by Paul Fejos.
- DirectorVictor FlemingStarsGary CooperWalter HustonMary BrianA good-natured cowboy who is romancing the new schoolmarm has a crisis of conscience when he discovers that his best friend is engaged in cattle rustling.
- DirectorHenry KingStarsEleanor BoardmanJohn HollandEdmund BurnsA young woman disguises herself as a man and follows her fiancéé into the trenches during World War I to find out what war is really like.
- DirectorTod BrowningStarsLon ChaneyLupe VelezEstelle TaylorWhen an animal trapper in Indo-China finds that his daughter's fiancé is being successfully seduced by her estranged mother, he takes appropriate action.
- DirectorWilliam NighStarsJohn GilbertErnest TorrenceMary NolanA con man and his beautiful accomplice kidnap a manager and steal $500,000 worth of diamonds, but end up stranded in the desert without water.
- DirectorSidney FranklinStarsGreta GarboLewis StoneNils AstherA prince in Java tries to seduce his visitor's wife, but he's discovered.
- DirectorJosef von SternbergStarsGeorge BancroftFay WrayRichard ArlenA criminal known as Thunderbolt is imprisoned and facing execution. Into the next cell is placed Bob Moran, an innocent man who has been framed and who is in love with Thunderbolt's girl. Thunderbolt hopes to stave off the execution long enough to kill young Moran for romancing his girl.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsWilly FritschGerda MaurusKlaus PohlA tenacious scientist blasts off for the moon in hopes of riches that may be found there.
- DirectorRobert FloreyJoseph SantleyStarsGroucho MarxHarpo MarxChico MarxDuring the Florida land boom, The Marx Brothers run a hotel, auction off some land, thwart a jewel robbery, and generally act like themselves.
- DirectorFyodor OtsepStarsVsevolod PudovkinMaria JacobiniViola GardenFjodor Protassow wants to divorce his wife, so that she can be happy with another man. But the church won't allow a divorce, so he fakes his own death, becoming a "living corpse".
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsMaurice ChevalierJeanette MacDonaldLupino LaneThe queen of mythical Sylvania marries a courtier, who finds his new life unsatisfying.
- DirectorJean GrémillonStarsPaul FrometGeymond VitalGenica AthanasiouTwo lighthouse keepers (the father and the son) are to spend one entire month in the middle of the sea near the coasts of Brittany; the young man is ill.
- DirectorVictor SchertzingerStarsRichard DixJulie CarterTully MarshallWing Foot (Richard Dix), a Navajo, is educated in an otherwise all-white school. In the course of the story, he experiences prejudice from both the whites because of his race and the Navajos, who disown him because of his upbringing. Thus, Wing Foot is looked upon as neither Indian nor white, but simply a "redskin."
- DirectorArthur RobisonStarsLya De PuttiLars HansonWarwick WardIn 1920s Ireland, an IRA man betrays his best friend to the police, mistakenly believing him to be his mistress's lover.
- DirectorJean EpsteinStarsGiboisJean-Marie LaotMalgornOn an island off the coast of Brittany four isolated men collect seaweed. Two young best friends have a quarrel and when one's thumb becomes infected his friend must risk his life on the ocean to bring him to the doctor.
- DirectorWilliam A. SeiterStarsColleen MooreNeil HamiltonBodil RosingA flapper with a dubious reputation enjoys a vivacious night of dancing and finds herself romantically linked to her boss.
- DirectorMillard WebbStarsWalter HustonKay FrancisCharles RugglesA driven newspaperman misses out on the joys and sorrows of ordinary life.
- DirectorArnold FanckGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsGustav DiesslLeni RiefenstahlErnst PetersenA man climbs a 12,000-foot mountain to search for his wife, who was lost on their honeymoon. Another couple makes the dangerous climb with him.
- DirectorJacques FeyderStarsGreta GarboConrad NagelAnders RandolfAn unhappily married woman is caught up in scandal and murder when her affection toward a young man is misinterpreted.
- DirectorFrank TuttleStarsWilliam PowellFlorence EldridgeUllrich HauptAt the end of each year, the extremely wealthy but odious Greene family gets together at the spooky old family castle to establish terms of a will, though they despise each other. This year, they start being mysteriously murdered one by one, and the police use Philo Vance to examine the clues and suspects.
- DirectorGrigoriy AleksandrovSergei EisensteinStarsMarfa LapkinaM. IvaninKonstantin Vasilyev100.000.000 peasants - illiterate, poor, hungry. There comes a day when one woman decides that she can live old life no longer. Using ways of new Soviet state and industrial progress she changes life and labor of her village.
- DirectorEdmund GouldingStarsGloria SwansonRobert AmesPurnell PrattThe trial and tribulations of a strong-willed woman who elopes and gives birth out of wedlock without telling her ex-husband.
- DirectorJohn S. RobertsonStarsGreta GarboNils AstherJohnny Mack BrownWealthy Arden Stuart is bored in a party. After refusing Tommy Hewlett's marriage proposal, she has her driver drive her to a lonely place, where they make love and return to the party, where she witnesses her chauffeur commit suicide after being fired by her brother. On a rainy day, Arden attends an art exhibition and meets painter and aspiring boxer Packy Cannon. They sail to the South Seas together in his boat, and she falls in love with him. A couple months later, Packy dumps her, brings her back to the city, and heads for China alone. Heartbroken, Arden accepts when Tommy proposes again, and they marry. Three years later, Arden meets Packy again and is torn between love for him and love for her son with Tommy.
- DirectorW.S. Van DykeStarsRamon NovarroRenée AdoréeDonald CrispA carefree South Seas native falls for the half-caste ward of a religious white man who desires her for himself.
- DirectorHobart HenleyStarsWalter HustonClaudette ColbertCharles RugglesMuch to the disapproval of his snooty children, a wealthy widowed attorney takes up with a beautiful but "lower-class" woman.
- DirectorGermaine DulacStarsMarie-Anne MallevilleVisual structure composed of variations on the arabesque: arcs of light, water spouts, spider webs, burgeoning trees, flowers and foliage, a woman's smile, arms stretching, an arm giving rhythm to a rocking chair.
- DirectorUb IwerksStarsWalt DisneyThe demons of hell play music for Satan, whose delight turns to wrath when an insubordinate refuses to become food for Cerberus.
- DirectorMerian C. CooperLothar MendesErnest B. SchoedsackStarsRichard ArlenFay WrayClive BrookWhen British officer Harry resigns from his regiment, he is labeled a coward by his family and friends. Harry receives four white feathers as a mark of a coward. In order to redeem himself and win the heart of his fiancé back and the love of his best friend, Harry sets out to return the feathers to the pockets they came from.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsJames MurrayBarbara KentGeorge KotsonarosDave Roberts is a professional boxer better at losing in fixed matches than in knocking out his opponents. He turns up in towns and is part of a group who sets up corrupt boxing matches. Dave's life on the margins changes after he meets a mother and son. As he begins to care for them, he ultimately has to decide whether to continue in his low-life ways or turn the tables on those who have been forcing him to participate in them.
- DirectorVictor FlemingStarsGary CooperLupe VelezLouis WolheimIn 1840, Sam Lash heads west for adventure. He meets up with some Mountain Men, and they head for the Rockies to trap beavers and cats. In Taos he meets Lola, a beautiful Mexican girl from a proud and rich family. They fall in love and he persuades her to elope with him. After they get married, Sam is torn between his love for Lola and his yearn for travelin'.
- DirectorLucie DerainDocumentary about Paris, beginning with views of Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, Les Invalides, Place de L'Opera, Louvre, the Paris Metro, traffic on the Seine, unloading coal and other forms of work, ending with shots of Pigalle-Montmartre at night.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsLaura La PlanteNeil HamiltonRobert EllisA chorus girl loses her job and thus the room she owes back rent on, and ends up being rescued from the street by a dashing rich man. But his family isn't over-accepting of chorus girls joining their family.
- DirectorCharles VidorStarsNicholas BelaCharles DarvasMarbeth WrightSoldiers march a condemned man through a rural area to a bridge high above a stream. While a boy plays a drum, one soldier puts a noose around the prisoner's neck and stand him on the bridge's parapet. He thinks of his wife and children, then falls. The rope breaks from his weight, and he stays under water until he's beneath some reeds on the surface. The soldiers fire at him and pursue, but he's able to leave the stream and run for his life. The sunshine, being alive, and thoughts of his wife and children propel him forward. Will he make it?
- DirectorChûzô AochiYasuji MurataAn old man with a huge lump on his face encounters a band of Tengu in the mountains.
- DirectorRalph SteinerA study on water, the reflections and motions of the liquid that accentuates its ethereality and metallic beauty.
- DirectorMannus FrankenJoris IvensRegen is an experimental documentary film directed by Joris Ivens in 1929. It can be defined as a cinematic-poem. In 2021 Breve Storia Del Cinema restored the film with a new score composed by Nikolas Labrinakos.
- DirectorHenri StorckBelgian director Henri Storck presents a tribute to one of the most well-known spots in Belgium: the Ostende beach. Filming from everyone and everything, gathering a small collection of eight short films made in the 1920's, Storck invites the audience to feel the beach, the port, the surf, the wind and the dunes, giving us more than what the real images can really evoke, reaching a surreal level.
- DirectorDimitri KirsanoffStarsNadia SibirskaïaA woman--a pained expression on her face--burns letters in a stove.
- DirectorDudley MurphyStarsBessie SmithJimmy MordecaiIsabel WashingtonIn her only known film appearance, legendary blues singer Bessie Smith witnesses her lover's betrayal, then sings a powerful rendition of the title song.
- DirectorEugene DeslawStarsLuis BuñuelFujitaFilippo Tommaso MarinettiCome take an avant-garde walk in the Montparnasse of the late 1920's. This district of Paris, filmed in a most unusual way, shows how dedicated it is to art. Visit its art galleries and exhibitions, take a glimpse of famous painter Fujita, of Luis Buñuel eying the legs of beautiful Parisian passing the terrace of the café where he is sitting, of three Italian futurists, Marinetti, Prampolini and Russolo. But besides being a cosmopolitan hub for creators, Montparnasse is also a popular quarter, busy with the lives of its ordinary inhabitants, with its markets and flea markets, with its brats looking at a street circus show. Don't miss the goats crossing the street for the unexpected is always possible. And complete the visit with a good cup of coffee at the Rotonde or at the Sélect on the Boulevard du Montparnasse.
- DirectorDudley MurphyStarsDuke EllingtonDuke Ellington OrchestraFredi WashingtonDuke Ellington in a jazz musical short with a tragic plotline.
- DirectorHal YatesStarsAnita GarvinMarion ByronEdgar KennedyTwo girls are invited to dinner by the tight boss of the boyfriend of one of them. On the way they stop for a cheap ice-cream, but swinging doors, ventilators, policemen, and a brat make getting the ice-cream even close to the car where the rest are waiting impossible.
- DirectorLewis R. FosterStarsCharley ChaseEugenia GilbertEdith FellowsA family goes on its weekly outing to the movies, but the evening is hampered by an attempt to pass the wife's brother off as a child, a crowded theater, and the daughter's apparently contagious case of the hiccups.
- DirectorBenjamin ChristensenStarsThelma ToddCreighton HaleSheldon LewisA young man of society wants to make an expedition to Africa, but his fiancée asks him for help with one of her father's guests shortly before his planned departure. Her suspicions about that guest are serious: this man tries to steal one of her father's rubies, and she and her fiance' are kidnapped and taken to a house where strange things happen. The whole thing becomes a nightmare under the direction of a mysterious Mr. Satan.
- DirectorHenri d' UrselStarsGeorges HugnetKissa KouprineRenee SavoyeA young man buys a pearl for his fiancée. He walks out of the jewelry store that opens onto...a forest. He counts the pearls and realizes one is missing so he gets back to the store. On entering he catches sight of an alluring saleslady sitting on...a showcase with her skirt lifted. On one of her stockings, close to the garter, another pearl necklace is tied. The young man takes it away from her. Outraged, the jeweler fires the assistant, who goes away with the man sitting on the handlebar of his bike. After this, the pearl is lost, found, lost again.
- DirectorKote MikaberidzeStarsAleksandre TakaishviliBella ChernovaEvgeniy OvanovThe protagonist, a lazy pen-pusher, gets the sack for his bureaucratic idleness, and learns that the way back into the job market depends on getting a letter of recommendation from a "grandmother".
- DirectorCurtis BernhardtStarsMarlene DietrichFritz KortnerFrida RichardOn his honeymoon with a bride he has wed for business reasons, a man falls for a woman who is in the clutches of a sinister character.After this woman begs him to help her escape, he plots to do so using the opportunity of a masked ball.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLupe VelezWilliam BoydJetta GoudalKarl, a German diplomat in Paris, discovers that his fiancee Diane has been cheating on him. He tells her that he would rather marry a "girl of the streets" than her. Outraged, Diane decides to grant him his wish, and enlists the services of a Spanish singer/dancer from a disreputable nightclub to pose as a sophisticated, convent-educated singer, and surreptitiously arranges for her to meet Karl.