Screen Chronology: 1930 to 1935
Compiled by John Kenrick

• **** - Sensational
• *** - Good entertainment
• ** - Beats a finger in the eye
• * - You'd rather mow a lawn
• (NO stars) - Run for your life

Many of these films are hardly ever screened, and in some cases no complete prints survive. I include comments only on those I have seen.

1930

• Among the Millionaires
• Animal Crackers *** - Inspired insanity as the Marx Brothers attempt to thwart the theft of a painting. The songs (other than "Captain Spaulding") are superfluous, but this classic comedy provides preserves Groucho and company in one of their biggest Broadway hits.
• Are You There?
• Be Yourself! ** - Lousy story of a musical star romanced by a boxer is enlivened by Fanny Brice in the lead. Worth catching for Brice's renditions of several specialties.
• Big Boy ** - Jolson dons blackface in this clumsy screen adaptation of his stage hit about shenanigans at a racetrack.
• The Big Pond
• Big Party, The
• Bride of the Regiment
• Call of the Flesh
• Cameo Kirby
• Captain of the Guard
• Chasing Rainbows
• Cheer Up and Smile
• Children of Pleasure
• Cuckoos, The
• Dancing Sweeties
• Dangerous Nan McGrew
• Dixiana
• Follow the Leader
• Follow Thru
• Fox Movietone Follies of 1930
• Floradora Girl, The
• Free and Easy
• Golden Calf, The
• Golden Dawn (NO stars) - Legendary bomb about jungle natives rebelling against European rule during WW I. Moments of true camp.
• Good News
• Happy Days
• Heads Up
• High Society Blues
• Hit the Deck
• Hold Everything
• Honey
• In Gay Madrid
• It's a Great Life
• Just Imagine ** - A simpleton from the 1930s is medically revived in the 1980s and tries to play cupid for two 'modern' lovers. Silly, but this film's fanciful vision of a mechanized art deco future is occasionally interesting.
• King of Jazz, The ** - Massively overproduced spectacle, with Paul Whiteman's Band
• Kiss Me Again
• Lady's Morals, A
• Leathernecking
• Let's Go Native
• Let's Go Places
• Life of the Party, The
• Lottery Bride, The ** - A Canadian wins Jeanette MacDonald in a lottery. Lifeless score, and dull overall.
• Love in the Rough
• Madam Satan ** - Pitiful plot & songs, but the bizarre party aboard a Zeppelin has to be seen!
• Mammy ** - Jolson's musical numbers include "Let Me Sing and I'm Happy," and the minstrel show sequences are outstanding, but the plot is brain dead.
• Montana Moon
• Monte Carlo
• New Moon - Re-set in Czarist Russia, with Lawrence Tibbett and Grace Moore in the leads.
• No, No, Nanette
• Oh, For a Man
• Oh! Sailor Behave!
• One Mad Kiss
• Paramount on Parade * - Chevalier is among the few winners in this clunky all-star yawn-athon revue.
• Playboy of Paris
• Puttin' on the Ritz
• Queen High
• Roadhouse Nights
• Rogue Song, The
• Safety in Numbers
• She Couldn't Say No
• Showgirl in Hollywood
• So Long Letty
• Song O' My Heart
• Song of the Flame, The
• Song of the West
• Spring Is Here
• Sunny ** - Marilyn Miller appears in her stage hit about a British circus rider in love with an American millionaire. Not much except for Miller's sensational dancing.
• Sunny Skies
• Sweet Kitty Bellairs
• Sweethearts on Parade
• Swing High
• They Learned About Women
• Top Speed
• Vagabond King, The
• Viennese Nights
• Whoopee ** - Even the great Eddie Cantor cannot completely redeem this creaky version of the Broadway hit about a hypochondriac in the Wild West. Best moments: Cantor's renditions of the title song and "My Baby Just Cares for Me." The dance routines are Busby Berkeley's first screen efforts.

1931
After a glut of 79 mostly mediocre screen musicals in 1930, the public was turned off. 1931 saw no more than 11 Hollywood musicals go into release -- and just 10 the following year. How quickly the tide had turned!

• Bright Lights
• Children of Dreams
• Cuban Love Song, The
• Delicious ** - A Gershwin score is the main event in this tale of Scottish girl Janet Gaynor falling for Russian conductor Charles Farrell.
• Flying High ** - Bert Lahr yucks it up as an aviator, with Charlotte Greenwood and numbers staged by Busby Berkeley.
• Her Majesty, Love * - Marilyn Miller is a barmaid in old Berlin -- only pleasure comes from W.C. Fields as her father. 
• Hot Heiress, The - Rodgers & Hart musical about romance between a construction worker and a high society dame.
• One Heavenly Night ** - British stage star Evelyn Laye is a Budapest flower girl romanced by nobleman John Boles. Predictable.
• Palmy Days
• Prodigal, The
• Smiling Lieutenant, The *** - Director Ernst Lubitsch brings sexy sparkle to this loose adaptation of the Oscar Straus stage hit A Waltz Dream. Lieutenant Maurice Chevalier loves violinist Claudette Colbert but is forced to marry princess Miriam Hopkins -- neither lady can sing, but this is a witty charmer, often reminiscent of 1929's wonderful Love Parade.

1932

• Big Broadcast, The
• Blondie of the Follies
• Crooner
• Girl Crazy
• Kid From Spain, The
• Love Me Tonight *** - Princess Jeanette MacDonald is wooed by tailor Maurice Chevalier. Great Rodgers & Hart score and innovative direction by Rouben Mamoulian.
• Manhattan Parade
• One Hour With You
• Phantom President, The ** - George M. Cohan in his only screen musical, a clunky tale of a dull presidential candidate and his charismatic look-alike. Forgettable Rodgers & Hart score. Even sidekick Jimmy Durante has trouble winning laughs in this one.
• This Is the Night

1933
Musicals came back with a bang in 1933, with Hollywood releasing dozens.

• Adorable
• Bedtime Story, A ** - Playboy Maurice Chevalier plays papa to an abandoned baby.
• Bitter Sweet - Anna Neagle stars in this British adaptation of Noel Coward's stage operetta.
• Broadway Bad
• Broadway Through a Keyhole - This blatant (and dull) rip-off of the real life romance of Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler inspired Jolson to wallop author Walter Winchell in the kisser.
• Broadway to Hollywood
• College Coach
• Duck Soup **** - The Marx Brothers at their zany best in a merciless mock-operetta spoof of diplomacy and war. 
• Dancing Lady ** - Joan Crawford is ill at ease in this overblown vehicle. Fred Astaire makes his screen debut in one number, making Crawford's dancing look all the clunkier.
• Footlight Parade **** - Jimmy Cagney presents dancer Ruby Keeler in a lavish stage revue, with enough great songs and massive dance routines to make this one of Busby Berkeley's triumphs.
• 42nd Street **** - Busby Berkeley redefined musical film with the numbers in this backstage look at a Broadway-bound stage musical. Grand score, massive ensemble numbers, and delicious performances by Ruby Keller, Warner Baxter, Ginger Rogers and company.
• Flying Down to Rio ** - Dolores Del Rio must choose a boyfriend. The public chose supporting players Astaire & Rogers, who share their first screen dance duet, "The Carioca." The other high point: a sky full of biplanes with dancers on the wings. 
• Girl Without a Room
• Going Hollywood ** - Schoolteacher Marion Davies follows crooner Bing Crosby to Hollywood, competing for his affections with movie star Fifi D'Orsay. OK songs help weak story. Bing introduces "Temptation."
• Gold Diggers of 1933 **** - Busby Berkeley's dance routines are the whole show, including "Shadow Waltz," "We're In the Money" and other classics.
• Hallelujah I'm a Bum ** - Al Jolson is a bum who tries to reform so he can marry the heiress he loves. Rodgers & Hart score and rhyming dialogue provide some interesting moments, but overall effect is pretentious.
• I Like It That Way
• I'm No Angel *** - Mae West as a circus sideshow hussy. Loads of fun and a rare chance to see what the 1930s considered racy.
• International House
• It's Great to Be Alive
• Melody Cruise
• Moonlight and Pretzels
• My Lips Betray
• My Weakness
• Roman Scandals *** - Slave Eddie Cantor capers merrily about ancient Rome.
• She Done Him Wrong **** - Mae West in fun adaptation of her stage hit Diamond Lil, leading Salvation Army recruit Cary Grant astray. Flaunting the Production Code with style, this is arguably West's best film.
• Sitting Pretty ** - Easygoing fun with Jack Haley and Jack Oakie as NY songwriters who come to Hollywood finding success & romance. Ginger Rogers sings "Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?"
• Sweetheart of Sigma Chi
• Take A Chance * - Fine Broadway score cannot redeem this lousy tale of carnival hucksters on the make.
• Too Much Harmony
• Torch Singer, The ** - Claudette Colbert is a cabaret diva, but her effective performance can't redeem such flat material.
• Viktor und Viktoria (Germany)
• Way to Love, The ** - Chevalier as a Parisian tourist guide -- a weak entry.

1934

• Babes in Toyland *** - Laurel & Hardy fill this low budget operetta with laughs. Victor Herbert's score and the Wooden Soldiers make this an annual holiday favorite on TV.
• Belle of the Nineties
• Bolero
• Bottoms Up
• Caravan * - Charles Boyer and Loretta Young in an operetta? Chorus does the singing, you'll do the snoozing.
• Cat and the Fiddle, The
• Chu Chin Chow
• Cockeyed Cavaliers * - Two kleptomaniacs are mistaken as royal physicians in pre-revolutionary France. The vaudeville team of Wheeler & Woolsey do nothing to redeem this lavish but witless clunker.
• Dames **** - Great songs and some stunning Busby Berkeley dance routines make this silly backstage tale thoroughly enjoyable.
• Down to Their Last Yacht * - Former millionaires lease out their yacht to make ends meet. Beyond dumb.
• Flirtation Walk ** - West Point cadet Dick Powell loves officers daughter Ruby Keeler -- one of their weaker vehicles. 
• Gay Divorcee, The **** - Astaire and Rogers dazzle in the first of their mistaken identity musicals. Highlight: "Night and Day," the only remnant of Cole Porter's stage score.
• George White's Scandals
• Gift of Gab
• Evergreen - British screen version of Rodgers & Hart's London hit
• Happiness Ahead
• Harold Teen
• Here Is My Heart
• Hips, Hips, Hooray *** - Vaudeville vets Bert Wheeler & Robert Woolsey are lipstick salesmen out to help Thelma Todd save her cosmetics business. Ruth Etting, a fun score, a cross country race and a cyclone help make this amusing.
• Hollywood Party
• I Am Suzanne
• I Like It That Way
• Kid Millions
• Let's Fall in Love
• Little Miss Marker
• Many Happy Returns
• Melody in Spring
• Merry Widow, The **** - Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier reunite in MGM's lavish version of Lehar's romantic operetta. Little resemblance to the original, but delicious anyway. Lorenz Hart's lyrics are superb.
• Mister Cinders - British screen version of long running London stage musical
• Moulin Rouge ** - Constance Bennett poses as her own sister to seduce husband Franchot Tone.
• Murder at the Vanities *** - Backstage murder plagues a Broadway opening. Enjoyable film based on Earl Carroll's stage success.
• Music in the Air *** - Small town teacher brings his musical to the big, bad Vienna. Great Kern-Hammerstein score, and silent screen legend Gloria Swanson sing well and is hilarious as an egotistical stage star.
• Myrt and Marge
• One Night of Love *** - Grace Moore rises to opera stardom in Italy. Helped by hit title tune.
• Palooka
• She Loves Me Not
• Shoot the Works
• Stand Up and Cheer
• Strictly Dynamite
• Student Tour
• Transatlantic Merry Go Round
• Twenty Million Sweethearts
• Wake Up and Dream
• We're Not Dressing
• Wonder Bar *** - Al Jolson owns a popular cabaret, where many little dramas unfold. Okay film based on a so-so Broadway show.