I've been thinking about this subject recently. Where do you have your greatest joy in cinema. What country, what time? Recently I debated the issue amongst myself and found that at least at the present I would give a vote for American cinema in that wonderful little time period of 1929-33. Sure there were great films from '28 but '29 was when sound officially became the mandate. In this period of time Hollywood learned to talk, and in many ways the whole industry had to be rethought. A fresh start, the old guard was out, and a new crew was in. In a few short years they would make silent films seem like fossils. The dialog was awkward, musical numbers were narrowly conceived, the camera could barely move, Universal didn't even use music in their films. However by the end of this period everything seemed right again. Unfortunately at this time the freedom and discovery suffered a serious blow when the studios actually decided to enforce the Hays Code.

Now why this period and country? Well I know more about Hollywood film than any other country by far. I am American, so I'm of course going to have some prejudice. But this era isn't just about getting away with making films about prostitutes and killers who actually get away with it, there's a lot more. After all in Abel Gance's Lucrezia Borgia (1935) there was full female nudity, and not the artistic underwater swimming found in Tarzan and His Mate, far more decadent. Foreign films could get away with a hell of a lot more with their language as well, but there was a quality to these American films. Some silent giants saw their stars fall, some left the industry refusing to adapt to the microphone, but others saw their popularity soar. Mary Pickford made her sound debut with the poorly received Coquette, won an Oscar and slowly backed out of the screen, maintaining her professional stake in the industry she helped create. Clara Bow, made a successful transition to sound, but with one too many scandals and a paralyzing fear of the microphone she withdrew for a life of solitude. 

John Gilbert one of the silent era's greatest romantic leads (he received top billing over Garbo in their silent films) quickly saw his career come to a screeching halt when people heard this heartthrob had a high pitched voice. The sad truth of the matter was that his voice wasn't that high, but a bad early sound recording had the ability to ruin things like this. In 1933, arguably the finest year in American cinema he was given one more chance opposite Greta Garbo in her finest role, Queen Christina. Garbo was one of those performers who saw her star rise to an unprecedented height. She soon earned the right to pick and choose her roles, and take an unheard of 18 months off, including a full two years before she even made a talking picture. Her MGM co-star in The Grand Hotel also saw a boost in her career at this time. Joan Crawford found that if the new talking pictures wanted singing and dancing she could comply quite easily, and saw her roles gradually expand from the plucky shopgirls she was forced to play for years on end. 

There were some casualties of the change over. D. W. Griffith made his last film in 1930, the flop Abraham Lincoln, and found himself penniless when he died a has been of a Victorian era. Erich Von Stroheim who seemed to reach a creative milestone with The Wedding March saw Queen Kelly completely taken from his hands, butchered in part by his temperamental star (Gloria Swanson, another casualty) and his directing career unceremoniously came to a close. Douglas Fairbanks and Lon Chaney both saw their careers cut short by health problems and neither man made it to see 1940. However they became the first generation of a Hollywood legacy as both Fairbanks and Chaney Jr. would have successful careers in acting.

Now for the winners. Hollywood no longer needed faces, they needed voices. Daredevil action stars and comedians now needed to be agile with their dancing. the most logical place was Broadway where a great number of talents came through. Comedy was affected immediately. Buster Keaton signed an ill advised MGM contract where despite a few decent efforts was vastly beneath his independent work. Harold Lloyd stayed busy, and immensely popular, but these physical geniuses were being replaced by witty, fast talking, jokesters. W. C. Fields made hating children funny, Mae West made censors irate, but no one had as much of an impact as the Marx Brothers. These four legends made their greatest films during this period, and no matter how much I might like A Night at the Opera or A Day at the Races, the two films cannot hold up to the free form anarchy they had at Paramount. MGM mandated a romantic subplot, musical interludes, and a much more controlled atmosphere. At Paramount, Harpo was free to tear up residents mail (Coconuts), shovel books into a fire (Horse Feathers), "sing" like Maurice Chevalier (Monkey Business), and make a peanut vender's life a living hell (Duck Soup).

Paramount not only had the Marx Brothers, Fields, and West but at this time they also had Ernst Lubitsch and the great team of Von Sternberg and Dietrich, all of which seemed at their peak. They could get away with a great deal pushing the envelope with sex and subtext. Lubitsch, along with Rouben Mamoulian (another Broadway import) took the musical out of the stage and into a mystical kingdom far far away. Mamoulian immediately came and was unintimidated by the monster of sound. He orchestrated his films for wall to wall music and action, including the famously conceived opening of Love Me Tonight. His camera never ceased to wander, and every trick in the book was utilized for his debut Applause. Mamoulian along with Universal Studios also helped to make a happy home and golden age for the American horror film. Mamoulian only made Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde but that was arguably the most critically respected film (at the time) from the genre. Universal however started the ball rolling, and in this time period produced Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy, The Old Dark House, The Invisible Man, Island of Lost Souls, and The Black Cat among others. 

Yet Universal studios greatest triumph of this era and in my opinion quite possibly the greatest film ever made was Lewis Milestone's Oscar winning All Quiet on the Western Front, a film that benefited rather than suffered by having no orchestral score. The film opened the doors wide for expression in the sound era. The camera could move, sounds could be layered on of each other, action could be staged on several planes, and films at this time could be violent. Of course the violence in Milestone's film wouldn't compare sensationally to the trio of gangster films released in this era. Say what you will about gangster films, and even how great later gems like Angels With Dirty Faces, High Sierra, and White Heat might be, but its really hard to top the trilogy of Little Caesar, The Public Enemy, and of course Scarface. These films lived by the production code rule that the killer be punished, but no one cared how they died, it was how they lived. Who can forget the childish glee Paul Muni's Tony has when he first discovers the Tommy Gun? Or James Cagney shoving that grapefruit in Mae Clarke's face (unfortunately the underrated Clarke would be remembered better for this than any of her lead acting work)? These films were the one's that got the ball rolling, and speaking of balls, none of the future gangster films even remotely came close to capturing the fire of these originals. 

How about the musical though? This was the first truly original genre to come in the sound era. After all despite Ernst Lubitsch filming silent versions of operettas, the whole idea of song and dance within film was impossible without sound. 1929 brought about the first all talking all singing all dancing crap usually in the form of a revue. This worked for Chuck Reisner's Hollywood Revue, and Harry Beaumont's Broadway Melody, but it wouldn't be long before these films would seem ridiculous. The fairy tale musicals of Lubitsch and Mamoulian showed that something can be done, but it wasn't until Busby Berkley choreographed 42nd Street that the show musical gave us something beyond what we would see on a stage. 42nd Street might be viewed by many as a historically significant film, but few people forget that its actually a pretty damn good picture. Along with Footlight Parade, Golddiggers of 1933, and Dames Berkley set a new standard in musical staging, one that probably never would be equaled. To Berkley people were props, and pretty girls seemed to grow on trees. Even Berkley couldn't top this in his future work and his films as a director pale in comparison to these original four. 

You may be able to offer a better response, but I just love this era of film. That small window when Hollywood learned to speak before it was told what it could say. An industry in crisis that quickly made itself stronger than ever, one that couldn't be beaten by sound or a world wide depression.