Tweet Art Deco films from '20s and '30s

A friend of mine is trying to come up with a list of films from these two decades that feature art deco style. The ideal film would have art deco as part of the story, that is, perhaps a "Fountainhead" story about an architect dealing with competing styles. But failing this stern test, any film where art deco sets or buildings are prominently featured as a 'characters' in the story would be of interest.

Garbo's final silent film THE KISS (1929) is a film that instantly pops into my head anytime someone mentions art deco. While the architecture isnt central to the storyline, its a beautiful example of the deco style.

For a cartoon before the feature, "Page Miss Glory" from Warner Bros. 1936. "Moderne art conceived and designed by Leadora Congdon" featured in the dream sequence that makes up most of the cartoon. In Glorious Technicolor! In the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 6 DVD set.

[Danny Burk]

OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS also has a lot of Art Deco style. I haven't seen THE SINGLE STANDARD in a long time, but I seem to remember it using some of the same sets. And.....don't forget MADAM SATAN!

The one that came immediately to my mind was Broadway (Universal, 1929) but unfortunately it's not an easy title to see. Nonetheless, the nightclub featured in the film is Art Deco par excellence and worth seeking out for any student of architecture.

Other films with prominent Art Deco designs are listed below. Those in which the Art Deco is somewhat more than ornamentation and actually plays a role in the psyche of the film (for lack of a better term) have a *.

A Lady of Chance (1928)
The Broadway Melody (1929)
Dynamite (1929)
Glorifying the American Girl (1929)
Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929)-the finale
The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929)
The Kiss (1929)
The Divorcée (1930)
The King of Jazz (1930)*
Flying High (1931)
Grand Hotel (1932)*
Manhattan Tower (1932)*
Counsellor-at-Law (1933)*

After this point Art Deco starts blending into Streamline Moderne--at least, if you choose to make a distinction at all. Most of the Astaire-Rogers films up through Shall We Dance (1937) provide effective examples of this style, as do The Broadway Melody of 1936 and 1938. The introduction of glass brick into film design can be seen in Theodora Goes Wild (1936), A Star is Born (1937), and The Young in Heart (1938).

By 1937-38 you start seeing a certain "Americana" look in many interiors: a combination of brick, wood, and whole stones set into walls. Example films include Bringing Up Baby, Carefree, In Name Only, and My Favorite Wife. We've moved away from both Art Deco and Moderne by this point, but it can be worthwhile to study the movements that came after a particular period in order to define both better.

More generally, your friend could look into studies of Cedric Gibbons and Van Nest Polglase, the main influences behind the look of (respectively) MGM and RKO films during the Art Deco period.

The Affairs of Anatol and Camille (both 1921) provide excellent glimpses of proto-Art Deco designs. Paul Iribe, the art director on Anatol, designed relatively few films but could also be a fruitful source of study.

-Harold

You might want to check out the book, SCREEN DECO, by Howard Mandelbaum and Eric Myers. It has a ton of stills focusing on the architecture during this period.

One that comes to mind, although it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the plot, is Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.'s talkie from 1930 "Reaching for the Moon". The art deco sets nearly overpower the film and take away from the actors and actresses in some scenes - I think because the camera is not fluid enough and takes in too much scenery, including an enormous amount of the art deco ambiance. Not a great film, but art deco abides like a bad rash...

You can add Gloria Swanson's 1927 The Love of Sunya, which features art deco jewelry by Rene Hubert.

You can add Gloria Swanson's 1927 The Love of Sunya, which features art deco jewelry by Rene Hubert.

I find the distinctions fascinating. I didn't realize that the International Style was around so early. At first glance, it looks like Art Deco is in direct competition with the International Style (IS), but on further reading, it looks like both movements were in reaction to the excesses of the Art Nouveau style, that Art Deco came slightly earlier, and didn't have the political context that IS brought with it. But by the mid30s, there does seem to be a conflict between IS and Art Deco, with International Style reducing the decorative element, or almost eliminating it completely, which I don't see with Art Deco at all. Art Deco likes decoration--it's just toning it down from the florid style of Art Nouveau.

In regard of how this fits into a film discussion, it seems to me that Art Deco and film are made for each other, but that International Style would be a lot less friendly to the aesthetic of production design. Are there any films from the the '30s or '40s that take on this question? Outside of The Fountainhead, of course.

And thanks for the reference to the cartoon. I'd never seen it before, and it's terrific. Really gives me a hint of what it must have been like living in the '30s.

Even though it is supposed to be futuristic, I think the sets in "Things to Come" look awfully deco-y

Even though it is supposed to be futuristic, I think the sets in "Things to Come" look awfully deco-y

Quite a few of the precodes use Art Deco design as visual shorthand, to identify the deplorably behaved Modern Woman. It's usually contrasted with the traditionally behaved woman, who is usually surrounded by Victorian design. Deco was a modern and revolutionary design style at the time and was rabidly disliked by the more traditional furniture purchaser/movie fan.

Fred

and speaking od decadent women, don't forget the amazing art deco interiors in Camille (1921)....

In The Black Cat (Universal 1934) Boris Karloff plays Hjalmar Poelzig, the architect of his strikingly Deco/Moderne residence, actually built upon the ruins of a fort he commanded in the war, and during which his actions resulted in the inexcusable deaths of thousands. Also, he conducts satanic rituals in the basement.

In The Black Cat (Universal 1934) Boris Karloff plays Hjalmar Poelzig, the architect of his strikingly Deco/Moderne residence, actually built upon the ruins of a fort he commanded in the war, and during which his actions resulted in the inexcusable deaths of thousands. Also, he conducts satanic rituals in the basement.

Yes, that's right, I'd forgotten this film--it comes the closest to matching all the criterion, I think.

I know the question is inherently unfair, but I wonder if there is a '30s film that, in hindsight, would be the 'tipping point,' of Art Deco--a film that would suggest it was no longer the decadent style of the rich and sinful, but rather the current fashion, or perhaps a little dated--no longer at all with the sinful connotations. In other words, a bookmark film. That might not have happened until the '40s, or even later.

I just saw SKYSCRAPER SOULS and FAITHLESS, both gorgeous art deco films. Art deco really announces rich in FAITHLESS, and when the main characters lose it all, they end up in a rooming house with mismatched furniture, including Arts and Crafts. CAMILLE (1921), OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS, THE DIVORCEE, TROUBLE IN PARADISE. MGM and RKO were the kings in art deco, mainly because so many of their films featured high class society types.

Ruth Chatterton's apartment in Female is the first thing I thought of reading this thread. It's wildly art-deco to the point of absurdity.

In The Black Cat (Universal 1934) Boris Karloff plays Hjalmar Poelzig, the architect of his strikingly Deco/Moderne residence, actually built upon the ruins of a fort he commanded in the war, and during which his actions resulted in the inexcusable deaths of thousands. Also, he conducts satanic rituals in the basement.

Actually, BLACK CAT is Bauhaus, a German style of architecture that emphasized modernity and technology. In fact, one of its foremost practitioners was Hans Poelzig, whose last name Ulmer appropriated for the Karloff character. There are some similarities, but the overall difference is significant, most notably in the use of wallpaper.

The Disney cartoon DONALD AND PLUTO takes place in a Streamline Moderne house that looks remarkably like the hotel in the early Cary Grant picture KISS AND MAKE-UP.

Mike S.

Not being an architect, would you count the Palace in the Randolph Scott "She" as Art Deco???

In The Black Cat (Universal 1934) Boris Karloff plays Hjalmar Poelzig, the architect of his strikingly Deco/Moderne residence, actually built upon the ruins of a fort he commanded in the war, and during which his actions resulted in the inexcusable deaths of thousands. Also, he conducts satanic rituals in the basement.

Actually, BLACK CAT is Bauhaus, a German style of architecture that emphasized modernity and technology. In fact, one of its foremost practitioners was Hans Poelzig, whose last name Ulmer appropriated for the Karloff character. There are some similarities, but the overall difference is significant, most notably in the use of wallpaper.

The Disney cartoon DONALD AND PLUTO takes place in a Streamline Moderne house that looks remarkably like the hotel in the early Cary Grant picture KISS AND MAKE-UP.

Mike S.

The one thing I remember about Bauhaus, that was beat into my brain by my art history teacher over three decades ago, was "form follows function" when it comes to design.

Joe Moore

Last night I watched the Czech film "Erotikon" (1929) [not to be confused with the 1920 Mauritz Stiller film of the same name!] and saw a sequence which is pure art deco, with magnificent stairs and all.

The one thing I remember about Bauhaus, that was beat into my brain by my art history teacher over three decades ago, was "form follows function" when it comes to design.

Joe Moore

Well, the Poelzig house in THE BLACK CAT does look like a deluxe, glass & steel morgue. Which fits.

I got the Mandelbaum and Myers books and it's excellent. Tons of pictures and a nice discourse on the different forms of "art deco."

The book even has a section of stars who exemplified "art deco," which the book argues was usually seen by Hollywood as a sign of wealth and perhaps decadence.

Animal Crackers (1930) with the Marx Brothers. It's been a long time since I saw this one, but my memory is of Deco sets.