Customer Reviews

Movies of the 30s

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If you love movies like I do, this is a must. It's got all the technical data you need on all the major movies of the 30's and is full of pictures, both black and white and color.

It's a hefty edition, high-quality and comprehensive. I don't know if it's got aaaall the movies made in the 30's but it includes European films.

A great reference for movie buffs and for movie enthusiasts who want to know more.

Using an extraordinary range of black-and-white stills (plus appropriately full-color photos for "Gone With The Wind", "Snow White", "The Wizard of Oz" and "Fantasia"), this massive picture book held me spellbound for hours. Most of the stills I'd never seen before in my life. The editor is to be congratulated for seeking out and finding such striking photos.

The book was originally published in Germany, which obviously enabled the editor to gain access to European collectors and archives. It also produced a selection of films that may strike many Americans as slightly unusual. Most of the premier Hollywood award-winners are here, of course, but there are also a number of German films which don't usually figure in "best" lists. For instance of the eleven films selected to represent the cinema masterpieces of 1931, five are German, one is French, and the remaining five are Hollywood productions. Of course no-one will argue with the inclusion of Fritz Lang's "M" (which really gets the full treatment with over 60 stills), or "Congress Dances", or perhaps even "The Blue Light" and "The Threepenny Opera". But "Berlin Alexanderplatz"? Admittedly, 1931 is not typical. Of the twelve films released in 1939, only one, Jean Renoir's "The Rules of the Game" is not American.

I found it interesting to compare the selections here with my own book, Award-Winning Films of the 1930s. While there was naturally a fair degree of correspondence, it was not as great as you might expect.

This is a futher volume of Taschen's Movies Series now covering seven decades up to the 90's.This volume like the others contains fine quality still photos from the films selected printed on good quality paper. It is a superb aide memoire to other film reference books in my collection....