Best Movies: 1935

The 10 Best Movies of 1935

1.  Mutiny on the Bounty. Directed by Frank Lloyd. Starring Charles Laughton, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone. To this day, this remains one of the all-time great adventure films. Laughton is superb in his creation of an utterly dispicable Captain Bligh.

2.  A Tale of Two Cities. Directed by Jack Conway. Starring Ronald Colman. A lavish MGM production brings Dickens to roaring life and, as good as Colman is as the man who makes the ultimate sacrifice for the woman he loves, the movie is stolen by Blanche Yurka making her screen debut as Madame Defarge.

3.  Top Hat. Directed by Mark Sandrich. Starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. The best of the Astaire/Rogers films featuring such great musical moments as Cheek to Cheek and Top Hat, White Tie and Tails as well as the great production number Picolino.

4. David Copperfield. Directed by George Cukor. Starring Freddie Bartholomew. This was indeed Dickens' year at the movies with another top notch adaptation and superb characterizations.

5.  A Night at the Opera. Directed by Sam Wood. Starring the Marx Brothers. This is not as good as Duck Soup mainly because of the unnecessary insertion of a love story, but the stateroom scene is still a classic.

6. Ruggles of Red Gap. Directed by Leo McCarey. Starring Charles Laughton. This movie doesn't get the chops today that it should, but it earns this spot on the list because of Laughton's marvelous performance as a butler won in a poker game by an uncouth semi-cowboy and his ambitious wife.

7.  The Bride of Frankenstein. Directed by James Whale. Starring Boris Karloff. One of the few sequels that surpassed the original mainly because it contained a touch of humor amid the horror.

8.  Captain Blood. Directed by Michael Curtiz. Starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. The film in which Flynn first swashed some buckles and the one that deservedly made him a star.

9.  The 39 Steps. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Starring Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll. This one established a lot of Hitchcock's trademarks: the innocent man caught in a mysterious criminal web, the sophisticated banter between the two stars.

10. Anna Karenina. Directed by Clarence Brown. Starring Greta Garbo and Fredric March. It's really nothing more than a vehicle for Garbo, but Garbo is just so watchable.