Renegades (1930)

IMDb plot summary: Four one-for-all and all-for-one privates in the French Foreign Legion are all in jail for disorderly conduct, but they break out and rejoin their regiment and fight off a band of marauding Arabs, and are soon in Casablanca getting decorated by the French Minister of War.

Directed by Victor Fleming. Stars Warner Baxter, Myrna Loy, and Noah Beery.

Renegades tells the story of four French Legionnaires who desert and form a renegade army in the deserts of Morocco. To be honest, though, I had to go to Wikipedia to discover that much about it because this movie was such a snooze. None of these characters set themselves apart enough to have any stakes in what they go through. It was fun to see a young Myrna Loy again -- the second time I've seen her in my 1930 project -- but her character isn't very exciting either. There may be some aspects of this that other viewers may find interesting, but the film lost me entirely by about the 1/3 mark and never regained my interest.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Renegades (1930)

lost to Triangle of Sadness (#1986 → #1982)

beat A Month by the Lake (#2976 → #2978)

lost to Harry and the Hendersons (#2481 → #2472)

beat Happy Christmas (#2728 → #2733)

lost to V/H/S (#2604 → #2605)

beat The Dirty Dozen (#2666 → #2710)

lost to The Ascent (#2635 → #2623)

beat The Dark Knight Rises (#2650 → #2655)

lost to A Time to Kill (#2642 → #2639)

beat National Velvet (#2646 → #2647)

beat Red Notice (#2644 → #2648)

lost to The Hot Rock (#2643 → #2640)

Final spot: Ranked #2645/3976 on my Flickchart, 34%.

The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu (1930)

IMDb plot summary: The villainous master criminal Dr. Fu Manchu sets out to destroy the people he holds responsible for the death of his family.

Directed by Rowland V. Lee. Stars Warner Oland, O.P. Heggie, and Jean Arthur.

The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu begins with the evil Dr. Fu Manchu's funeral, only for it to turn out he faked his death and is still bent on getting revenge against his enemies. I have never seen anything else in this series, so I have no concept of the story. It could be a pretty fun one if it wasn't so horrifically racist! Swedish actor Warner Oland plays Fu Manchu here (by far not the only yellow face acting he did), and the story is rife with upsetting stereotypes about Asian mysticism. It's too bad, because the pacing of the story is a lot more exciting than most of the 1930 adventure films have been, and it was fun to see a young Jean Arthur as the damsel in distress. There are quite a few of these I've come across in this project, where it'd be a perfectly fine movie if it didn't age so very badly.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu (1930)

lost to Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles (#1983 → #1987)

lost to Falling in Love (#2972 → #2970)

lost to The Proposal (#3471 → #3468)

beat VeggieTales: Sheerluck Holmes and the Golden Ruler (#3720 → #3721)

beat Captain January (#3595 → #3598)

beat Wilde (#3533 → #3534)

beat Class Reunion (#3501 → #3503)

beat Baby Mama (#3488 → #3495)

lost to North (#3479 → #3476)

lost to Miracle on 34th Street (held at #3482)

beat A Thief in the Night (#3485 → #3491)

beat Fist of Legend (#3484 → #3490)

Final spot: Ranked #3485/3975 on my Flickchart, 13%.

Trap (2024)

IMDb plot summary: A father and his teen daughter attend a pop concert only to realize they've entered the center of a dark and sinister event.

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, and Saleka Shyamalan.

Trap stars Josh Hartnett as a devoted father taking his tween daughter to see her favorite artist in concert, but their calm dad-daughter night out ends up overlapping with an enormous sting operation to catch a serial killer at large. I was a big fan of Shyamalan's previous film, Knock at the Cabin, but wow, did this one NOT work for me. Its fascination with criminal profiling tries too hard to be deep and instead just spits out a bunch of stereotypes and psychobabble that are already wildly overdone. It takes a fun premise and weighs it down with bland moralizing, the kind that was extremely common in the early 2000s and late 90s, but this is significantly less interesting. The one positive in here is Josh Hartnett, who truly is giving his all in this movie when it doesn't deserve it. The level of fun he's having with his role at least brings some measure of enjoyability to what is otherwise a tedious slog.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Trap (2024)

lost to Cypher (#1987 → #1976)

beat A Month by the Lake (#2974 → #2977)

lost to My Blueberry Nights (#2480 → #2479)

beat The Exorcism of Emily Rose (#2729 → #2764)

beat Flypaper (#2603 → #2604)

beat Liz & Dick (#2540 → #2547)

beat Chimes at Midnight (#2514 → #2513)

lost to La Condesa (#2494 → #2486)

lost to Guarding Tess (#2502 → #2500)

lost to Pacific Rim (#2507 → #2497)

beat No Country for Old Men (#2504 → #2510)

beat Streets of Fire (#2508 → #2509)

Final spot: Ranked #2504/3974 on my Flickchart, 37%.

Officer O'Brien (1930)

IMDb plot summary: Bill O'Brien is promoted to lieutenant in the police department for his arrest of Mike Patello, gang leader and racketeer, for murder. Meanwhile, Captain Antrim informs Bill that his father has just been released from prison.

Directed by Tay Garnett. Stars William Boyd, Ernest Torrence, and Dorothy Sebastian.

Officer O'Brien is the story of an honorable police officer trying to help his newly-released convict father go straight, but it proves more difficult than he anticipated. This is a very straightforward story that is certainly a little dated in its telling but the story is a compelling one. The father in particular has an old-fashioned style of acting that you have to acclimate to, but his character motivations are more complex than I'd have expected in a character borne out of that tropey acting. The story is well-paced, and the final scenes are narratively satisfying. There are quite a few unnecessary subplots that could have been cut, but overall it's a pretty solid film with interesting character arcs.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Officer O'Brien (1930)

lost to Mad Max (#1984 → #1983)

beat The Pajama Game (#2974 → #2982)

lost to Harry and the Hendersons (#2479 → #2475)

lost to Ghost (#2726 → #2709)

beat Fame (#2850 → #2853)

beat The Unsinkable Molly Brown (#2788 → #2787)

lost to Saboteur (#2756 → #2750)

beat Burning Annie (#2771 → #2786)

beat Resident Evil (held at #2763)

beat Brainscan (#2759 → #2792)

beat Willow (#2757 → #2758)

Final spot: #2775/3973 on my Flickchart, or 30%.

The Benson Murder Case (1930)

IMDb plot summary: A ruthless, crooked stockbroker is murdered at his luxurious country estate, and detective Philo Vance just happens to be there. He decides to find out who killed him.

Directed by Frank Tuttle. Starring William Powell, William 'Stage' Boyd, and Eugene Pallette.

The Benson Murder Case is a classic murder mystery featuring William Powell's detective character Philo Vance trying to figure out who  murdered a wealthy man in his own home. Philo Vance showed up as part of a sketch in one of my very first 1930 films, structured as a variety show, so it was kind of fun to see an actual example of Vance on film, but other than that, there really wasn't much to separate this from the oodles of other similar stories being told in the 30s. I enjoy the gimmick of every plausible subject just happening to show up on the victim's doorstep the night of the murder, but I couldn't keep most of them straight with their very minimal back stories. The clues that led to the final answer did not capture my attention in any way. Philo Vance also didn't seem to have much going for him as a detective, so I definitely don't see the appeal. Overall a pretty bland entry into my 1930 project collection, and one I'm likely to forget immediately after watching it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Benson Murder Case (1930)

lost to It's Kind of a Funny Story (#1983 → #1985)

lost to Try Seventeen (#2973 → #2975)

beat Johnny Tremain (#3469 → #3470)

beat Petulia (#3220 → #3227)

beat A Jazzman's Blues (#3096 → #3101)

lost to Heidi (#3034 → #3028)

beat How to Deal (#3065 → #3069)

lost to Ice Station Zebra (#3049 → #3040)

lost to She's All That (#3057 → #3059)

beat Wrath of Man (#3061 → #3065)

lost to War of the Buttons (#3059 → #3053)

lost to Ivan the Terrible, Part I (#3060 → #3055)

Final spot: #3062 out of 3972, or 23%.

She's Having a Baby (1988)

IMDb plot summary: Young newlyweds find out just how unprepared they are for their future together.

Directed by John Hughes. Starring Kevin Bacon, Elizabeth McGovern, and Alec Baldwin.

She's Having a Baby is a John Hughes film starring Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth McGovern as a young married couple struggling to make their relationship work as life becomes overwhelming. While the title refers to a pregnancy, that really doesn't come into play until fairly far into the story -- it really is just a story of two very young, very naive adults trying to work through what they owe to each other and to themselves now that they're in a relationship. It is frustrating at times to watch these kids grow up together -- there's a part of me that just wants to shake them and say, "You're not ready for any of this," but I think the story does a good job of portraying their confusion in the adult world. There's surprisingly little resolution in this story, functioning more as a slice-of-life about the two of them, and while I would have liked a bit more structure, I grew to enjoy the characters I was watching. It's not Hughes' best work but I warmed to it, and it has a satisfying ending.

How it entered my Flickchart:

She's Having a Baby (1988)

beat Gothika (#1983 → #1982)

lost to Repo Man (held at #989)

beat A Night to Remember (#1485 → #1489)

lost to Draft Day (#1236 → #1231)

lost to Men in Black (#1361 → #1360)

lost to Possession (#1423 → #1422)

lost to The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (#1454 → #1455)

lost to Sweet Smell of Success (#1469 → #1466)

beat The Virtuous Sin (#1477 → #1482)

beat Bottle Rocket (#1473 → #1475)

lost to His Girl Friday (#1471 → #1472)

lost to Panic Room (#1472 → #1467)

Final spot: #1470 out of 3971, 63%.

Montana Moon (1930)

IMDb plot summary: A vacuous and flirtatious daughter of a wealthy rancher falls in love and marries a Texas cowboy and rancher, who calls her 'Montana', and eventually clash over their different lifestyles, to the point of almost ending their marriage.

Directed by Malcolm St. Clair. Starring Joan Crawford, Johnny Mack Brown, and Dorothy Sebastian.

Montana Moon is a romance about a spoiled young heiress who finds herself unexpectedly falling in love with one of her wealthy father's ranch hands, and they spontaneously elope. When they get back into the real world, though, their very different worldviews start to cause tension between them. This is not an exciting story, but it's told fairly well. Our leads have believable chemistry, even as we know deep down they're not going to last as a couple, and so it's disappointing to see them fall apart even though it is truly inevitable. The beginning is set up well enough that the (spoiler) happy ending does feel unbelievable, though, and that brings the whole thing down a bit. The first 2/3 are a pretty solid drama, and then it falls apart at the end. Because of that, it ranked lower on my Flickchart than I expected, but it is a little better than that would suggest.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Montana Moon < Walk the Line

Montana Moon > Margaret

Montana Moon < The Fourth Kind

Montana Moon > The Autopsy of Jane Doe

Montana Moon > Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody

Montana Moon < The Apostle

Montana Moon < The Defiant Ones

Montana Moon > Flypaper

Montana Moon > Come to the Stable

Montana Moon > An Ideal Husband

Montana Moon > Convict 13

Montana Moon < Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey

Final spot: #2623 out of 4044, or 35%.