Playing catch-up and looking at the list for 1932, I know for sure that I've seen Freaks, Horse Feathers, The Mummy, Scarface, and Tarzan the Ape Man. Of those, the one I remember best is Scarface, and I'll make that my pick, though I suspect I might change my mind if I re-watched the others. It's been so long since I've seen the various Marx Brothers movies, for example, that they have become blended in my memory and I can't always recall which bits are from which particular film, though I did pick one for 1930.

I thk Scarface is one of the best of the many great early gangster movies and Paul Muni's performance feels amazingly modern, as original for its time as Brando was in the 1950s or Pacino, De Niro, and Keitel in the '70s.

So my running list is:

1930 - Animal Crackers
1931 - Dracula
1932 - Scarface

1934, looks like Tarzan and His Mate and The Black Cat are the two I've seen. Don't recall either one of them all that well so it's kind of a toss-up. I'll go with The Black Cat on the basis of Karloff and Lugosi.

1930 - Animal Crackers(?)
1931 - Dracula
1932 - Scarface
1933 - King Kong
1934 - The Black Cat

Gold Diggers of 1935
Bride of Frankenstein
The Raven
A Night at the Opera
Triumph of the Will

Once again, it's been so long since I've seen any of these that I'll have to go more by my memories of how I felt about them when watching the for the first time rather than my memories of the films themselves. Thus, in spite of the blending together of the various Marx Brothers films in my mind, I'm picking A Night at the Opera, because my reaction to it when seeing it on tv as a kid was the strongest of any of these 1935 movies. Plys, skimming through the wiki article, it does come back to me a little now.



1930 - Animal Crackers
1931 - Dracula
1932 - Scarface
1933 - King Kong
1934 - The Black Cat
1935 - A Night at the Opera

Moving on to 1936.  

It's beginning to seem like the years are alternating between a glut of movies I love and the next year having maybe one or two contenders.  '36 is as much a dearth as 1935 was a glut.  There's really only one movie that, for me, shines from the summit.  Without it, there'd be two cartoons and an interesting but flawed stage adaptation.  Let me say that there are a number of big films from '36 that I either haven't seen or haven't seen in so long I barely remember them, including, "My Man Godfrey," "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" and "After the Thin Man."  It's been super long since I've seen either of the Hitchcock films from '36, "Secret Agent" and "Sabotage." 

The clear stand-out, for me, and my favorite film of 1936 is:

Modern Times - Modern Times is, quite simply, a brilliant, hilarious and subversive look at a small man's struggle to fit in to modern industrial society in the form of Chaplin's Tramp.  This was Chaplin's first overtly political film.  It's pretty clearly a stab at the forces that created the Great Depression and failed to take action for far too long.  It's also Chaplin's first, less overt, stab at the Nazi regime in Germany and the film was banned there.  I'm going to just give extra points to any movie banned by the Nazis.  The fact that Chaplin could find commercial and artistic success with a film that is mostly silent a half decade after the rest of the industry had moved to sound pictures just shows his brilliance.  And individual scenes, particularly the factory scenes would be imitated and homaged for decades to come.  



I don't want to leave Chaplin here alone.  So a couple other films that I considered.  

The Petrified Forest - This one is more about its historical importance than its quality as a movie.  The Petrified Forest started on Broadway in 1935 starring Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart.  When it came to the screen the producers wanted to replace Bogart with a bigger star, but Howard insisted he reprise his role as Duke Mantee.  The film made Bogart a star and set his film persona for the next decade.  I'm not saying it's a bad movie.  But it suffers from being somewhat claustrophobic, as many stage adaptations do.  And I personally don't care for Howard, finding him stiff and overly mannered.  But I'm a huge Bogart fan, so the movie is important. 



Popeye Meets Sindbad the Sailor - If it weren't for Modern Times this would likely come out as my favorite film of 1936.  This is just a great two-reeler, that showed that the Fleisher's were fully capable of putting out cartoons that were the equal of, if not superior to, those of Walt Disney.  This little film was a huge influence on Ray Harryhausen, particularly his The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.  Wimpy wandering through the movie chasing a duck with a meat-grinder just slays me.  This is just one of the great adventure films of the 30s and is a worthy tribute to the glory days of Thimble Theater.  



The Mickey Mouse short Thru the Mirror is excellent as a sleeping Mickey goes through the looking glass in to a magical and occasionally dangerous world.  




1936 also saw Porky Pig get a full slate of shorts (though it was the original model Porky).  It also saw the release of "I Love to Singa" directed by Tex Avery and Friz Freleng's "The Coo Coo Nut Grove."  Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies shorts were still an afterthought but the seeds were there for future greatness. 


1936 in film for those wondering.  

Yeah the only movie from '36 that stands out in my memory, and it's not one I am particularly fond of but have seen a few times because it has become a bit of a cult classic, is Reefer Madness.

I know I've seen the Tarzan movie (Escapes), After the Thin Man, the Charlie Chan movie, and a few more at least once over the years, but none of them stand out as a favorite, so I am going to take the zero on this year.


-M

I see what you mena about 1936, Slam. I haven't seen nearly the number of movies from this year as the rest of the mid- to late thirties.

However, among the ones I have seen are a batch of memorable ones:

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town: Cooper is perfect as the not-so-innocent rube from Vermont in this dry run for both Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Meet John Doe (1941), but with a gentler tone and a greater emphasis on comedy. Always, always enjoyable, as Cooper is irresistible.

Modern Times: Up there with Citizen Kane and other masterpieces, without a doubt. Chaplin and the Tramp take it to the Man.

After the Thin Man: Delightful. Powell and Loy at their inebriated, sparkling best. May be my favorite of the series. And Jimmy Stewart, on the cusp of stardom, plays a key role.

My Man Godfrey: Powell again, and again he is brilliant in this sharp satire. Similar to Mr. Deeds, The Admirable Crichton and more than a few other comedies of manners in its use of class reversal as the means of mocking the upper class.

San Francisco: Gable and Tracy bring the star power (Sorry, bt Jeanette McDonald just doesn't cut it), but what ya pays yer money for are the effects in the earthquake sequence, which are still jaw-dropping, especially when you remember that they were real, not pixels on a computer.

The Petrified Forest: Agree completely with you, Slam_Bradley. Bogey is a snarling primeval creature and Howard so fey and feckless you think he's going to blow away.

Romeo and Juliet: R and J were 43 and 34 respectively, so disbelief can be difficult to suspend, but as a production, there's lots to enjoy here, particularly the clash of the hams, Barrymore and Rathbone as Mercutio and Tybalt, and Edna May Oliver as the Nurse in her interplay with her usually neglected servant Peter, played by... wait for it... Andy Devine!

The Devil-Doll: Creepy horror film with Lionel Barrymore at his best and the... unique... Rafaella Ottiano as the eerie assistant who looks like the spawn of Igor and the Bride. Worth a peek. Directed by Tod Browning.

Fury: It seems forgotten, but shouldn't be. Fritz lanf directs Spencer Tracy in a different role for him, of a working Joe (literally, as he's Joe Wilson) mistaken for a kidnapper, the target of a lynch mob who manages to escape and then seek vengeance. A fascinating study of how quickly a civilized man can become as evil as the forces that victimized him. It shows its age at times, but you have to remember when it was made and the kinds of fears studios had.

Now for my favorite movie of 1936. Grew up with it, rarely resist the chance to see it when it's on TCM. Directed by Michael Curtiz, who could direct anything, featuring almost every British actor in Hollywood, and starring the peerless team of Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland in one of the great romantic adventure movies: The Charge of the Light Brigade.

Forget any connection to actual history, pity all the horses who perished in the epic charge sequence, wince at the "other" status of the turbanned foes (all played by Brtish actors, of course), and watch old-fashioned movie magic at its best. The trailer: