Top Ten Films of 1936 - flickchart: the blog (2024)

Previously in our “Best of the 6s” series we’ve looked at Flickchart’s Top Ten Movies from 1966, 1946, 1996, 1986, and 1916. Now it’s time to go forward in time from the distant past of silent shorts, but only a bit —we’re stopping our time machine in 1936, the height of screwball comedy, escapist musicals, and Depression-drenched dramas. We have early Hitchco*ck, early Bogart, late silent Chaplin, and prime Astaire–Rogers.

Europe was feeling the rumblings of war —the Spanish Civil War broke out in July, and Germany violated the Versailles Treaty by moving troops into the Rhineland. Jewish filmmakers were already fleeing Germany, fearing Hitler’s regime, and 1936 would see Fritz Lang’s first American film, Fury. Films like Hitchco*ck’s Sabotage, too, depicted European terrorism in London, foreshadowing the conflict just over the horizon.

The United States was recovering economically after the lean years of the Depression and the Dust Bowl, but glossy, escapist entertainment remained at an all-time high. Screwball comedy, musicals, and kiddies like Shirley Temple and Deanna Durbin ruled the box office. The top grosser of the year was the Jeanette MacDonald–Clark Gable vehicle San Francisco— both a musical and disaster film set before and during the famous 1906 earthquake —with the lavish biopic The Great Ziegfeld right behind. Ziegfeld also won big at the Oscars, but has to be content with a Blogger’s Pick on the Flickchart list. The Little Tramp struck a chord then and now, taking box office spot #3 and Flickchart Favorite #1. The enduring power of Chaplin’s anachronistic Modern Times can’t be underestimated.

Let’s see what else has stood the test of time to make Flickchart’s Top Ten.

10. The Petrified Forest

The Petrified Forest was a turning point for Humphrey Bogart‘s career, showing that he could carry a film almoston his own. He isn’t the star, exactly; he’s the heavy, a dangerous con-man on the run, and he’s holding a pair of young lover protagonists hostage. The male half of the romantic duo is Leslie Howard, three years before his role in Gone with the Wind but a big enough star to have successfully demanded that Bogart be cast opposite him. The young lady who loves Howard, but who is also fascinated by the criminal holding them at gunpoint, is Bette Davis, only 28 years old but already in her 30th film. The Petrified Forest, which is based on a stage play that also starred Bogart and Howard, is largely confined to a single room where a triangular war of wits and wills unfolds between Bogart, Howard, and Davis. Under such circ*mstances, perhaps it was inevitable that this would be Bogart’s big break; his character, after all, is the one with the gun, so when he speaks, Howard and Davis and the audience pay special attention. Bogart’s character, Duke Mantee, has a lot of the traits Bogie would explore throughout his acting career: desperation, violence, irony, a high intelligence perverted to destructive or self-destructive ends… Original audiences, of course, didn’t have that context, so it is fortunate that The Petrified Forest also stands alone as a tense, if verbose, crime drama. Flickchart users haven’t forgotten it, and neither did Bogart — he would later name his daughter Leslie Howard Bogart after the man who got him the life-changing part. —David Conrad

Global Ranking: #2227
Ranked 5661 times by 241 users
Wins 52% of its matchups
0 users have it at #1
4 users have it in their Top 20

9. Sabotage

When Alfred Hitchco*ck made Sabotage, he was at the height of his career as a British director. He’d released The 39 Steps the year before, and he was starting to look for opportunities to make the jump to Hollywood. First, though, he had at least two more great British films in him, and this is one of them (the other, The Lady Vanishes). Adapting Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent (to make matters confusing, Hitch also made an unrelated film called Secret Agent in 1936), Hitch tapped into some of the pre-WWII turmoil in Europe, with Oskar hom*olka playing a London cinema owner secretly working with terrorists from an unspecified European nation. In the film’s climactic scene, he plans to take a bomb to Piccadilly Circus, but is held up by discovering his wife (Sylvia Sidney) talking to an undercover Scotland Yard detective who’s been on his trail. He sends the concealed bomb with his wife’s young brother instead. Hitchco*ck would later regret the sequence, saying it violated his principles of suspense in favor of shock value, but perhaps BECAUSE of that, it works like gangbusters. Other elements are also surprising yet highly satisfying, like Sidney’s final dispatching of her husband. Sabotage isn’t mentioned among the top tier of Hitchco*ck films, but it’s certainly a fitting inclusion to his pantheon. —Jandy Hardesty

8. Dodsworth

Walter Huston could play anything. An old-time prospector, a Chinese patriarch, Abraham Lincoln, Satan. . .Those famous Huston roles are either well-known individuals or well-defined types, and Huston nailed the impressions. But he could freestyle, too, creating new and three-dimensional characters. His first of four Academy Award nominations was for the title role in Dodsworth, in which he plays a newly-retired business mogul facing a marriage crisis. Huston’s presence, a product of his hoary brow and rapid, crackling voice, is at once grandfatherly, emotional, tormented, optimistic, and vital. Yet somehow Mrs. Dodsworth (Ruth Chatterton) sees in him only what’s on the surface: an old man. While she gallivants around Europe with a stable of young men, Dodsworth’s cheerful spirit is dampened by the dawning realization that, instead of a pleasant and active retirement, his twilight years are taking the form of an unwanted second bachelorhood. A kind and beautiful expatriate (Mary Astor) offers the chance of a crowd-pleasing resolution, but does this Code-era film get away with characterizing divorce as a happy ending? It’s worth preserving the drama for those who haven’t seen it, but let’s just say Dodsworth doesn’t cheat. —David

Global Ranking: #1882
Ranked 3194 times by 163 users
Wins 53% of its matchups
0 users have it at #1
0 users have it in their Top 20

7. Libeled Lady

A plot that sounds made for the Pre-Code Era becomes, in 1936, instead one of the most delightful of all screwball comedies. It’s complicated, so pay attention. A newspaper accuses heiress Myrna Loy of homewrecking, which she didn’t, so she sues them for libel. The managing editor (Spencer Tracy) convinces his star reporter (William Powell) to go seduce Loy and put her in a compromising position so she actually will be a homewrecker and will have to drop the libel suit. The only problem is that Powell isn’t married, so, I mean, Loy wouldn’t be wrecking any homes. So Tracy further convinces his own fiancee (Jean Harlow) to be Powell’s wife. Predictably, Powell and Loy fall in love for real, but that’s far from the end of it. This was the fifth of a whopping thirteen movies Powell and Loy starred in together and their on-screen chemistry is legendary. Meanwhile, Powell and Harlow actually were a couple offscreen (and rumor has it that Tracy and Loy may have been, too). The fact is, there’s so much chemistry oozing every combination of this cast that the film can hardly help being enjoyable, and indeed, with a great script to back up the cast, it’s a sparkling reminder of the heights of screwball comedy. Many point to Dinner at Eight for proof of Harlow’s comedic chops, and they’re not wrong, but I’ll put Libeled Lady right alongside it any day. —Jandy

Global Ranking: #1847
Ranked 3127 times by 166 users
Wins 58% of its matchups
0 users have it at #1
5 users have it in their Top 20

6. Fury

The first American movie from Fritz Lang (Metropolis, M) is a terrific story of a mild-mannered man en route to his fiancee when he ends up being pursued by a lynch mob after being mistaken for a killer. The fact that the man is played by Spencer Tracy in a great early performance makes it all the more involving. The first half (which involves this setup) is so intriguing that when we see Tracy attempt to get his revenge on that mob in the second half, we are eager to see what happens next. It sets up the dilemma that many of us face: would we do the same as this man? When his fiancee (Sylvia Sidney) gets word of the situation, she becomes the conscience for both Tracy and the audience to decide what is the right thing to do. It works as well as it does because Tracy and Sidney both sell the story so well (one that is partially based on truth) that we get hooked in seeing how they ultimately decide to deal with this situation. Fury is not an easy watch (one famous sequence sees the lynch mob burning down the prison Tracy is being kept in as he quietly fears for his life as he holds a small terrier in his hands) but thanks to Lang’s immaculate direction, it makes a great and important statement about how the public has a tendency to judge people before all the facts are in. —Nicholas Vargo

Global Ranking: #1408
Ranked 4293 times by 216 users
Wins 56% of its matchups
1 users have it at #1
5 users have it in their Top 20

5. After the Thin Man

Each movie in the Thin Man series follows a certain formula. There is the murder, at least one night club scene at which our leads drink excessively, a moment when Nick Charles must prevent Nora from following him on the case, a scene of Nora getting around her husband and doing her own detecting, a sequence of Nick searching some ratty old apartment, and finally the moment when the great detective gathers all the suspects together and goes through the case one point at a time, until finally he announces the killer. Many of these ingredients are set up in the first film, but it is in After the Thin Man that the series really seem to grow comfortable with its style. Not only that, but it is probably the best in the set. It is much more lighthearted than the first film in the series, while still feeling fresh and new. As a mystery, it does what every great one should do and drops little hints along the way, just enough that on a second watch you enjoy the moments of ‘ah ha!’ as you catch them. William Powell and Myrna Loy are as wonderful, elegant, classy and fun as ever, while supported by none other than James Stewart who delivers, as usual, a stellar performance. —Naomi Laeuchli

Global Ranking: #1356
Ranked 5864 times by 388 users
Wins 53% of its matchups
1 users have it at #1
7 users have it in their Top 20

4. Swing Time

Most people will name either Top Hat or Swing Time as the best Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movie (out of the ten they made together). Interestingly enough, Top Hat also hit #4 on our Top Ten of 1935, though Top Hat is higher ranked globally. Swing Time has a more straight-forward but also sometimes hokier plot: Fred is a dancer with a gambling problem, but pretends to have two left feet when he gets a dance lesson from Ginger, a teacher at a dance academy. Incidentally, the number that eventually comes out of this, “Pick Yourself Up,” is an excellent choice when you need to cheer someone up. Fred’s due to be married, though, which causes problems, and then Ginger is engaged to a bandleader, which causes more problems, but of course it all works out in the end, though not without some unfortunate shrillness and overly broad comedy. However, you watch Fred and Ginger movies for the dancing, and though they have great numbers in all their movies, the ones here far surpass them all. Not only is there the lightly comedic “Pick Yourself Up,” but also the lovely “Waltz in Swing Time,” and the achingly beautiful “Never Gonna Dance,” which encapsulates in dance form the emotion that never quite imbues the plot. The one number that does tend to cause modern audiences consternation is Astaire’s tribute to Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, which he delivers in blackface. I fully understand the (rightful) anger people have about this, but Astaire meant to honor Bojangles, however wrongly he went about it, and blackface is alarmingly common in 1930s (and even early 1940s) movies. Consider that a racist-content warning so it doesn’t surprise you and hopefully doesn’t taint the rest of the film. —Jandy

Global Ranking: #832
Ranked 8964 times by 515 users
Wins 51% of its matchups
1 users have it at #1
13 users have it in their Top 20

3. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

Frank Capra is one of those directors that occasionally gets looked down in for being too simplistic or idealistic or sentimental in his work, but there’s something to be said about sitting down to watch a movie about someone so determined to change things for the better. It’s a refreshingly optimistic view of life, and something Capra does exceptionally well. His heroes, whether they are Gary Cooper‘s short-tempered philanthropist or James Stewart‘s idealistic politician in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, are people who have flaws and make mistakes but they believe that what they do *matters*. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town seems old-fashioned in 2016, the age of cynicism, but it also has the possibility of being tremendously inspirational. We don’t see these heroes much anymore, people who believe in what they’re doing and trying to make the world a better place without crippling self-doubt or a tragic past coming back to destroy their will to fight. Cooper comes across as idealistic and naive, but still admirable. Compare this to the dismal remake starring Adam Sandler, an actor who brings a sense of angry cynicism to the character, and Cooper shines much brighter in contrast. It’s the ultimate feel-good movie, one that encourages you to walk away not only feeling good about life, but feeling like maybe you have the possibility to make the world better in some way. —Hannah Keefer

Global Ranking: #544
Ranked 15396 times by 970 users
Wins 46% of its matchups
0 users have it at #1
23 users have it in their Top 20

2. My Man Godfrey

This movie tends to polarize its viewers. Half the people who watch it think it’s hilariously funny and one of the greatest screwball comedies in existence. The other half scratch their heads and proclaim the characters unlikable and far too quirky for their own good. It is an unusual cast, and the key to enjoying it is to just accept the relationships we’re being told exist and roll with the goofiness of it, just as Godfrey himself has to roll with the goofiness of the family when he finds himself unexpectedly working as their butler. William Powell is most noted for his Thin Man movies (one of which appears in this list), and while Godfrey and Nick Charles both have some excellent problem-solving abilities, Nick is typically totally unruffled by anything coming across his path, and in contrast, it’s fun to see Godfrey’s complete helplessness when faced with the persistence of Carole Lombard‘s Irene, who is determined to win over his heart. There’s little to no substance in this flick, but if you’re a fan of thoroughly zany comedies, this is a worthy one to add to the list. —Hannah

Global Ranking: #230
Ranked 16305 times by 1039 users
Wins 56% of its matchups
8 users have it at #1
40 users have it in their Top 20

1. Modern Times

“We’ll get along.” They’re the final words that Charlie Chaplin’s The Tramp says in the character’s last film appearance, Modern Times. For over twenty years, The Tramp has lived that mantra, surviving war, the Klondike, the tight rope and on multiple occasions, love. Yet despite how tough the world can be for a little tramp, he keeps getting along, with a smile on his face. The opening screen, which describes the film itself, could also describe The Tramp and Chaplin, when it calls Modern Times a story of “Individual enterprise —humanity crusading in the pursuit of happiness.”

Modern Times might be Chaplin’s flat-out funniest film, and his scope in terms of ideas, set pieces and ideology have never been greater. By 1936, silent film was long gone, yet Chaplin remained one of the most iconic filmmakers in the world. Much like the Tramp is seen as insane for not understanding the machines he uses (and use him, in the film’s most famous sequence), Chaplin must have seemed insane as well for his decision to give the Tramp a silent send-off, maintaining the outmoded techniques that made the Tramp and Chaplin a massive success despite the talkie revolution.

While Modern Times does have some of Chaplin’s biggest moments, it’s the beautiful way that he sends The Tramp off that resonates greatest. Throughout the film, every sound we hear comes from a machine of some sort, yet at the end of Modern Times, it is finally The Tramp that breaks the silence for the first time through Chaplin’s filmography, yet even then, the words he says is gibberish. In the film’s final moments, we see The Tramp uncertain of what comes next, yet heading into the sunset with his girl (Paulette Goddard), and the potential for happiness for The Tramp, finally.

Modern Times isn’t just a criticism of the machine age or of the sound pictures that threatened to put Chaplin out of business, it’s most importantly one of the most famous auteurs of all time saying farewell to one of cinema’s greatest characters. —Ross Bonaime

Global Ranking: #81
Ranked 69247 times by 4885 users
Wins 53% of its matchups
6 users have it at #1
249 users have it in their Top 20

Blogger’s Picks

The above list is Flickchart’s Global Top 10 for 1936, calculated based on the rankings of all users. We wanted to showcase some of our own personal favorites, so each of us picked a favorite film of 1936 NOT included in the Global Top 10.

Jandy —Follow the Fleet

Everyone knows about Swing Time and Top Hat, the two most iconic Astaire–Rogers films, and rightfully so. But releasing the same year as Swing Time, naval comedy Follow the Fleet slips in under the radar. Actually, Follow the Fleet was meant to be something of a follow-up to 1935’s Roberta, in which Fred and Ginger play second leads to Irene Dunne and Randolph Scott, but Irene Dunne didn’t want to come back for seconds and Harriet Hilliard (later much better known as Harriet Nelson of TV’s Here Come the Nelsons and Ricky Nelson’s mother) stepped into her shoes. Hilliard was a mere starlet compared with Dunne and Fred and Ginger had become superstars in the meantime, so the more serious Hilliard-Scott storyline was toned down in favor of the more comedic Fred-Ginger one, which works out better in the long run anyway. The two guys are sailors, Fred looking for his old flame Ginger, Randy looking for love —he finds it unexpectedly with Ginger’s buttoned-up sister Harriet. Though the story is as slight as any Fred-Ginger film, the Irving Berlin music is worth every penny, and Fred and Ginger get a chance to do some killer competitive tap dancing in addition to their lovely ballroom. Having them in an established and mostly amiable relationship is a nice break, too, as Hilliard and Scott take on all the drama. I suspect many casual classic movie fans check out Top Hat or Swing Time and then check off their “Astaire-Rogers” box, but for those who want to delve a little deeper, Follow the Fleet is quite a pleasure. Also look for future stars Betty Grable and Lucille Ball in tiny parts (Betty in a musical number, Lucy in Ginger’s dressing room).

Global Ranking: #4265
Ranked times 2047 by 116 users
Wins 47% of its matchups
0 users have it at #1
2 users have it in their Top 20

David —The Great Ziegfeld

The Best Picture winner of 1936 isn’t in Flickchart’s global top ten for the year, but it’s surely one of the best biopics of its decade. William Powell brings the same raffish charm from his Thin Man series to the role of showman Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., who cast a big shadow over Broadway in the early years of the last century. His Thin Man wife, Myrna Loy, is here too, adding to the crossover synergy. The movie characterizes Ziegfeld as a likable if unscrupulous opportunist, and traces his personal and professional ups and downs. His first wife, a Gallic chanteuse, is played by the intense Luise Rainer in her first of two back-to-back Oscar-winning performances. Enormous musical theater numbers, each a marvel of ephemeral architecture and momentary pageantry, are highlights of Ziegfeld, but a couple of well-chosen cameos from Broadway favorites Fanny Brice and Ray Bolger cement its status as a chronicle of an era. Ziegfeld is narratively similar to 1942’s Yankee Doodle Dandy, also about a popular Broadway impresario, but Ziegfeld has a wryer sensibility that’s aged well over the decades.

Global Ranking: #5072
Ranked 3751 times by 239 users
Wins 37% of its matchups
0 users have it at #1
3 users have it in their Top 20

Alex Lovendahl —The Only Son

When I began my sojourn into the extensive filmography of Yasujiro Ozu, I began with his first sound film, The Only Son. At the time, I wasn’t in the habit of beginning with a filmmaker’s early work; The Only Son encouraged that behavior thereon. At a cool 82 minutes, and with a simple story, The Only Son is a powerful introduction to the director’s work in the field of drama. Ozu’s signature framing style, also perceptible in his prior silent work, gives urgency to one of Ozu’s most complex emotional conflicts.

This conflict is found most in the quiet, reactive performance of Choko Iida, who plays Otsune as a woman both beaten by time and still strong enough to maintain decorum. Otsune is a mother who sacrifices much to give her son a shot at prosperity in the exacting city of Tokyo. The film centers upon a trip years later once her son, Ryosuke, has grown; upon arriving, she learns he has married, changed careers, and become a new man. Their inability to communicate, both long-distance and in person, illustrates a dissonance between the ideal of success and practical reality. That theme is expanded upon to also refer to Ryosuke’s emotional maturity rather than simply the context of the Great Depression and frustration with modernity.

One great scene places mother and son at a German pastoral film about Schubert; the son wants to share one of the few unique joys of a pre-war city, but mother can hardly stay awake. Another has Otsune and Ryosuke sitting in a decimated field, a factory in the background. Ryosuke nonchalantly expresses his sense of failure but seems apologetic. The film never vilifies either figure for this conflict the way Tokyo Story wants to show iniquity in the young, and The Only Son arrives at a poignant conflict.

The Only Son runs into a few structural mistakes; there are several time gaps and interstitials in the set-up, and a side character falls dramatically ill when they already felt more like a diversion than a unified part of the story. But even then, Ozu’s control of his characters, and his ability to capture intense emotion through posture and framing rather than Chaplin-esque expressions or dialogue, illustrate why Ozu is a unique master of his medium.

Global Ranking: #4608
Ranked 1582 times by 77 users
Wins 51% of its matchups
0 users have it at #1
3 users have it in their Top 20