Best Movies: 1936

The Ten Best Movies of 1936

1. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. Directed by Frank Capra. Starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur. A completely irresistible bit of froth that firmly defined the term Capricorn and a film that deservedly earned Capra his second Oscar.

2.  Swing Time. Directed by George Stevens. Starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Just a notch below Top Hat, but still a marvelous addition to the Astaire/Rogers collection, especially due to Astaire's unforgettable Mr. Bojangles production number.

3. Modern Times. Directed by Charlie Chaplin. Starring Chaplin and Paulette Goddard. Chaplin's indictment of the machine age and other social ills featuring a final shot that is among the most poignant in film history.

4.  Camille. Directed by George Cukor. Starring Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor. Another great MGM production featuring Garbo as the female version of the role Ronald Coleman played in the year before's Tale of Two Cities. Taylor is stiff but Henry Daniell makes a great villain.

5. Libeled Lady. Directed by Jack Conway. Starring Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy. Wonderful comedy with the four stars all at the top of their form.

6. My Man Godfrey. Directed by Gregory La Cava. Starring William Powell and Carole Lombard. Classic screwball comedy in which Lombard and her weird family hire Powell, who they think is a tramp, as their butler. Eugene Pallette, as the head of the family, is hilarious.

7. San Francisco. Directed by W.S. Van Dyke II. Starring Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald and Spencer Tracy. I never was a big MacDonald fan, but Tracy's performance and the great earthquake scenes more than make up for her.

8. Show Boat. Directed by James Whale. Starring Irene Dunne, Alan Jones and Helen Morgan. Sure, it's mostly hokey melodrama but I'm willing to pay the price for Whale's moody touches and to hear the great Paul Robeson sing Old Man River.

9. Fury. Directed by Fritz Lang. Starring Sylvia Sidney and Spencer Tracy. With the actions of today's Tea Party, it's fascinating to look at this movie to see the mob mentality working in a small town.

10. Follow the Fleet. Directed by Mark Sandrich. Starring Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Randolph Scott. I'm not as big a fan of this Astaire/Rogers film as others (notably Leonard Maltin), but it is, after all, Astaire and Rogers and that counts for something.