Best Films of 1931

This cannot be emphasized enough. I once watched an old print at a university cinema, it was an extremely disappointing experience (I already knew the restored version at the time). Entire scenes were missing, which made the plot very hard to follow even if you knew the restored version, the sound was incomprehensible at times, and it felt like the entire thing was over after 60 minutes.

The film is a masterpiece and feels extremely modern (just think of the scene were it (spoiler alert) becomes clear that the little girl has been raped and killed: it's simply a 2 second shot of a balloon animal she previously had and which is now caught in an overhead telephone line. Nothing more. You get chills watching it, as it captures everything: violence (why did she let go of it?), lost innocence, death, clinging to life.

You can also clearly "feel" the influence it had on other filmmakers, in particular Hitchcock and Kubrick. For example, there are some very detailed close-up shots of technical stuff which resemble the equipment close-up shots in "Dr. Strangelove". The performance of Peter Lorre is also very Kubrick-like: some may consider it over-the-top (like some consider Jack Nicholson's and Shelley Duvall's performances in "Shining" over-the-top), but it is certainly very interesting to watch.