……………………………………………………….

Ranking 1930 Best Picture Nominees

The third year for the Academy Award for Best Picture was a big improvement over the previous one, though lacking in comparison to the first year. This is the first full sound film slate of nominees and the first year of the 1930s. It covers everything released in the second half of 1929 and the first half of 1930. I really liked this slate because only one of the five nominees is a weak film whereas three are quite good and one is magnificent. I also liked how this slate is diverse as it consists of a biopic, war film, a fun musical, prison flick and a feminist picture.

My Ranking of the Nominees:

5. Disraeli

I actually liked this film to some extent as a couple of sequences are really quite charming with playful dialogue and character interactions. And of course George Arliss gave a very memorable, strong performance in his Oscar-winning turn. However, the movie is still a very slight affair which acts as such a boring, uneventful and unenergetic historical lesson. It never becomes a feature film owing to its stale approach and early talkie status. That’s why it’s unfortunately the first biopic to influence countless other undeserved Oscar darlings.

4. The Divorcee

The Divorcee gets the second to last spot because the other films are better, but still this is a pretty good film and the jump in quality from the above entry to this one is very noticeable. I did find its happy ending frustratingly forced and it did come as a detriment to the plot that came before it, but still the dialogue is quite strong, the film is brave and mature in its themes for this period and it deals with sexism in a very important, groundbreaking manner. Norma Shearer is terrific in her deservedly Oscar-winning performance.

3. The Love Parade

The Love Parade is an intriguing film mainly because it is so different from all of the other films on this list and it acts as a palate cleanser as the only fun and carefree movie of the bunch. The plot is obviously slight, but Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier are undeniably a wonderful, appealing couple who share many great scenes here. This Ernst Lubitsch musical is tremendously shot and scored for 1929 and it features a pretty good soundtrack with the highlights being March of the Grenadiers and My Love Parade.

2. The Big House

I definitely found the ending in The Big House overly bombastic and action-oriented, but everything that came before is pretty much great. This is a very early and thus hugely influential, unfortunately underappreciated prison flick which established the genre literally thanks to its archetypal plot and characters. I found the dialogue particularly great and realistic, but the characters are also memorable and Wallace Beery and Chester Morris are particularly superb here. I loved the chemistry between the two.

1. All Quiet on the Western Front

This is it. The obvious number one for this year. All Quiet on the Western Front is not just the best of the bunch here, but also the finest war film ever made. The film looks and sounds truly magnificent for its time, Lew Ayres is wonderful in the main role and the story is consistently engaging, sophisticated and obviously tragic. It features many iconic scenes such as that moving ending and the speech that the protagonist gives to the teacher. Its anti-war statement is so strongly conveyed and the emotion is so overwhelming that it truly is the quintessential, ultimate anti-war movie. The Academy made one of the best choices ever by honoring it.

Films That Should Have Been Nominated:

Applause – This intriguing mix of musical, melodrama and romance is overly harsh in its ending, but still a very interesting movie. A highly underrated one too. It’s so well shot and particularly well recorded for its time while it features many charming as well as heartbreaking sequences. It’s an old-fashioned melodrama that really works.

The Blue Angel – The Blue Angel is a classic, famous German tragicomedy which isn’t as great as many would say, but it’s still a pretty good, memorable early sound film from Germany. It features an archaic, but very well told story and particularly memorable turns from sexy Marlene Dietrich and moving Emil Jannings.

Anna Christie – Anna Christie finds Greta Garbo overacting in her first sound role, but Marie Dressler is a revelation herself as she’s such a fun, funny and memorable presence throughout. The movie is much weaker in the second overly melodramatic half, but the first half is a lot of fun with great dialogue and strong humor.