Best Movies: 1937

The Ten Best Movies of 1937

1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Directed by Ben Sharpsteen and others. French director Jean Luc Godard calls this the greatest American film of all time. I won't go that far, but this Disney animated masterpiece is timeless, specially in the way it uses expressionism to convey terror. The entire scale of human behavior is portrayed -- from the absolute goodness of the heroine to the memorable evil of the Wicked Witch with the seven little men supplying the characteristics in between.

2.  Lost Horizon. Directed by Frank Capra. Starring Ronald Colman and Jane Wyatt. I call this anti-Capra, not his usual middle class drama, but an imaginatively visualized world of fantasy and adventure. Capra's vision of paradise became so entrenched it's what people think of when they hear the words "Shangri La."

3.  The Good Earth. Directed by Sidney Franklin. Starring Paul Muni and Luise Rainer. A superlative adaptation of Pearl Buck's novel featuring an overwhelming performance from Rainer who deservedly won her second Oscar in a row for her work. Features several great set pieces, but my favorite is invasion of the locusts.

4.  The Awful Truth. Directed by Leo McCarey. Starring Irene Dunne, Cary Grant and Ralph Bellamy. Another of the great 1930s screwball comedies and an improvement on the 1922 stage play because McCarey encouraged his stars to improvise around the moments they thought were the funniest.

5.  The Prisoner of Zenda. Directed by John Cromwell and George Cukor. Starring Ronald Colman, Madeleine Carroll, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Mary Astor. Oh, what a classy movie this is, superbly directed and featuring great performances from its entire cast, superb cinematography by the great James Wong Howe and one of Alfred Newman's most memorable score.

6.  Shall We Dance. Directed by Mark Sandrich. Starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. The seventh Astaire/Rogers film in four years is little more than a rehash of the formula, which by now was getting a little wearisome. Only one number, Let's Call the Whole Thing Off, is up to their usual standards and the climaxing ballet is a clumsy mess. But, then, there are those songs by the Gershwin brothers.

7.  The Life of Emile Zola. Directed by William Dieterle. Starring Paul Muni. Another one of Muni's portrayals of great men, this skillfully directed (Dieterle was one of Hollywood's most underrated directors) biopic skimps a little too much on the anti-Semitic nature of the story and is a tad dated, but still features great acting performances from everyone involved.

8.  Nothing Sacred. Directed by William A. Wellman. Starring Carole Lombard and Fredric March. Yet another marvelous entry in the screwball comedy genre. Today most folks may know of Lombard, but don't know why she was considered such a great comic actor. Watch this and learn for yourself.

9.  Way Out West. Directed by James W. Horne. Starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. This western spoof contains more laughs in its 65-minute running time than most of the comedies of this century put together.

10. A Day at the Races. Directed by Sam Wood. Starring the Marx Brothers. Dated with dull musical numbers, but it's so much fun to watch the Brothers poke fun at everything at society and the medical profession.