Links to the Hollywood movie collections for the periods covered in this section:
1920s 1930s 1920s & 1930s (All) 1920s & 1930s GEMs
Commentary:
The 1920s represented the period when Hollywood movies transitioned from the Silent Era to the “talkies”. A side effect of this transition was that many actors who had made their careers in silent films were not able to maintain their stardom, as they often had bad voices or could not remember their lines. The first film with synchronized voices was The Jazz Singer, released in 1927. Shortly thereafter, the Great Depression started (in 1929), marking the end of the Roaring Twenties. This had a significant impact on the subject matter of many of the movies in the 1930s.
One of the biggest stars of the silent era was Charlie Chaplin, who created the “Little Tramp” persona which he portrayed in most of his films such as The Gold Rush. Chaplin continued making successful silent movies well into the talkies era. The biggest female star of the Silent Era was Clara Bow, who starred in Wings, the first movie to win the Oscar for Best Film. Several great movies were also made in Europe during this period, such as the amazing Metropolis, a visually beautiful and powerful film that was way ahead of its time with its stunning futuristic special effects.
The first movie to use pioneering stop-motion special effects to depict dinosaurs and other creatures was The Lost World, written and introduced by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who had achieved fame for his Sherlock Holmes stories. Finally, the great Alfred Hitchcock made his debut in the 1920s and directed many British movie thrillers, with the best of the lot being Blackmail (also Hitchcock’s first sound movie). Three other great directors who made their debut in the 1920s and made some amazing films in the 1930s (and beyond) were Frank Capra, Howard Hawks and William Wyler.
The 1930s saw the beginning of the studio system in Hollywood, along with the emergence of many big movie stars such as:
- Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, Spencer Tracy
- Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, Katharine Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich, Olivia de Havilland, Vivien Leigh.
Another major milestone of the 1930s was the very first full-length animated feature film: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was made by Walt Disney and started a long string of Disney animated feature films which continues to this day.
By the end of the 1930s, another big advancement was the prevalence of color in many movies, such as The Adventures of Robin Hood. The quality of films reached its pinnacle in 1939, a watershed year for the movie industry with releases such as Gone with the Wind, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Stagecoach, The Wizard of Oz and Wuthering Heights.