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The History of Cinema: 1930

Australia - Germany

Australia

Fellers, the first Australian sound film, receives a press screening.   The film is produced by Artaus Films and directed by Austin Fay and Arthur Higgins. [ADD]

– Following a recommendation by the Royal Commission in 1928, cash awards are offered for films, but lack of suitable productions means only an award for third place is given. [ADD]

Austria

The National Austrian Library establishes an archive to store the best examples of its domestic film output. [ADD]

– Sacha Film Studio merges with the German Tobis studio to form Sacha-Tobis Film and make sound films. [ADD]

Belgium

– La Famille Klepkens, a silent film accompanied by a soundtrack on phonograph discs, is released.   In 1936, the director Gaston Schoukens releases a version with a normal soundtrack. [ADD]

– An investigation into Hollywood’s monopolistic practices is begun under the Combines Investigation Act. [ADD]

The censorship law intended to protect the national industry and “prevent any attacks on the dignity of the Chinese” is promulgated. [ADD]

– Genu hongmudan (Sing-Song Red Peony), China’s first sound film, is released.   It is directed by Shichuan Zhang for Star film company and stars Die Hu. [ADD]

– The Lianhua Film Company is founded by former cinema owner Luo Mingyu.   Its first two productions are both produced by Sun Yu. [ADD]

Costa Rica

– Albert Francis Bertoni's El Retorno, the country’s first film, is released. [ADD]

Cuba

– El Caballero de Max, reputed to be Cuba’s first sound film (although some sources dispute this), is released.   It is directed by Jaime san-Andrews. [ADD]

Czechoslovakia

– The Barrandov Studios are built on a mountain plateau above Prague. [ADD]

– The country’s first sound film, Karel Anton’s Tonka of the Gallows, a melodrama about a country girl forced into prostitution, is released. [ADD]

Denmark

Premiere of George Schneevoigt’s Eskimo, Denmark’s first sound film. [ADD]

– Woe to Him Who Lies, a short comedy film starring Marguerite Viby, and the first Danish picture with combined sound, is released. [ADD]

Dominican Republic

– A sound newsreel film is shot of the inauguration of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, whose dictatorship ironically marks a thirty year dearth of film-making in the republic – apart from documentaries exalting Trujillo. [ADD]

Influential director Mohammed Karim’s first film, Zeinab, premieres in Cairo.   It is based on a novel by Mohammed Husayn Haykal Pasha. [ADD]

Estonia

– Release of Waves of Passion, an Estonian-German co-production telling the topical tale of smuggling spirits between Estonia and Finland. [ADD]

Georgia

Mikheil Kalatozishvili’s Jim Shvante (marili svanets) (Salt for Svanetia), a documentary showing the poverty and hardship endured by peasants in a remote region of the Soviet Union, is released. [ADD]

Germany

Curt Siodmak and Robert Siodmak’s Menschen am Sonntag (People on Sunday) is released and becomes a major hit. [ADD]

Josef von Sternberg’s Der Blaue Engel (The Blue Angel) starring Marlene Dietrich and Emil Jannings premieres at the Gloria Palast cinema in Berlin.   It is UFA studio’s first talking picture and is filmed in both German and English. [ADD]

G. W. Pabst’s Westfront 1918 is released.   The film realistically chronicles the lives of German soldiers in the trenches during the Great War. [ADD]

UFA’s first operetta, Die Drei von der Tankstelle (Three Good Friends) is released.   It stars English-born singer Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch – although his role is taken by Henri Garat in the French version. [ADD]

A presentation of Lewis Milestone’s pacifist war film, All Quiet on the Western Front, is disrupted by Nazis. [ADD]

Lewis Milestone’s All Quiet on the Western Front is banned nationwide. [ADD]

– Disney’s Mickey Mouse cartoon The Barnyard Battle is banned by censors because, ‘the wearing of German military helmets by an army of cats which opposes a militia of mice is offensive to the national dignity.’ [ADD]

Other Key Films of 1930

Abschied (Robert Siodmak) [ADD]