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- DirectorMervyn LeRoyStarsWarren WilliamJoan BlondellAline MacMahonA wealthy composer rescues unemployed Broadway performers with a new play, but insists on remaining anonymous.: This movie had me when Ginger Rogers started singing in Pig Latin and never let me go! This is chock full of the most madly inventive numbers ever put to film, including Billy Barty as a mischievious infant and the cops on roller skates in "Petting in the Park", the neon violins in "The Shadow Waltz", and the starkly powerful "My Forgotten Man." My personal favorite of the Busby Berkeley musicals and I love them all. With most of the cast of 42nd Street plus Warren William, Joan Blondell, and Aline MacMahon.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsRudolf Klein-RoggeOtto WernickeThomy BourdelleA criminal mastermind uses hypnosis to rule the rackets after death.Criminal mastermind Dr. Mabuse has been confined in an insane asylum for the last decade. Of late, he has turned to scrawling über-terrorist tracts while otherwise maintaining complete catatonia. It is beginning to seem like the only thing standing in the way of a reign of crime is our old friend Commissioner Lohmann from M.
I love the atmosphere of dread Lang creates in this movie and the wonderful performance by Otto Wernicke as Lohmann. Hitler banned the film and you can certainly see why folks might see a similarily between Dr. Mabuse's organization and his own. - DirectorJean VigoStarsJean DastéRobert le FlonLouis LefebvreIn a repressive boarding school with rigid rules of behavior, four boys decide to rebel against the direction on a celebration day.Four boys mount a revolution at a boarding school. This is highly inventive short film is full of youthful anarchic energy and some surrealist touches. Boris Kaufman, the cinematographer behind Man with a Movie Camera, provides the striking images. Highly recommended.
- DirectorMerian C. CooperErnest B. SchoedsackStarsFay WrayRobert ArmstrongBruce CabotA film crew goes to a tropical island for a location shoot, where they capture a colossal ape who takes a shine to their blonde starlet, and bring him back to New York City.A showman journeys to a mysterious island to film what lurks within. This is the granddaddy of all special effects films and is still pretty amazing for its time. It is hard to imagine how much work must have gone into the elaborate stop-motion animation, matte paintings, and projections needed to make this work. It is impressive that we end up feeling pity for what is, after all, a rubber puppet covered with rabbit fur. The Max Steiner music, one of Hollywood's first purpose-written full-length film scores, adds to the suspense.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsFredric MarchGary CooperMiriam HopkinsA woman cannot decide between two men who love her, and the trio agree to try living together in a platonic friendly relationship.Expatriates in Paris play house when a commercial artist (Miriam Hopkins) falls for both a playwright (Fredric March) and a painter (Gary Cooper) in this absolutely delightful pre-Code farce. The Ben Hecht screenplay sparkles as bright as the acting and direction. I'm very glad I've finally seen this one.
- DirectorLloyd BaconStarsWarner BaxterBebe DanielsGeorge BrentWhen the leading lady of a Broadway musical breaks her ankle, she is replaced by a young unknown actress, who becomes the star of the show.1930's backstage musical bliss. With Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, Ginger Rogers, Una Merkle, Guy Kibbee, Ned Sparks and a bevy of Busby Berkeley beauties.
The part of this movie that always kills me is when Ginger Rogers tells Warner Baxter that she isn't right to take over for the injured Bebe Daniels but that Ruby Keeler is because Ruby is such a great dancer! Such irony ... - DirectorHiroshi ShimizuStarsMichiko OikawaYukiko InoueUreo EgawaTwo schoolgirl friends drift apart when one of them falls for a handsome boy.The harbor is Yokohama. Dora and Sunako are inseparable friends until Sunako loses her heart to Henry. Henry, however, turns out to be bad news and Sunako's jealousy of his philandering has consequences that force her to leave town and turn to a life of prostitution. For me, the plot was incidental to the absolutely poetic outdoor shots of Yokohama. This was the first film I've seen by Shimizu and I'm glad I have more in my future.
- DirectorGeorge CukorStarsMarie DresslerJohn BarrymoreWallace BeeryAffluent Millicent and Oliver Jordan throw a dinner for a handful of wealthy and/or well-born acquaintances, each of whom has much to reveal.Mrs. Jordan (Billie Burke) plans a formal dinner in honor of English aristocrats but nothing works out as planned. It's the depression and everybody has a secret, usually financial. This was MGM's all-star follow-up to the previous year's Grand Hotel. I just love this one. All the actors, including both the Barrymores, do themselves proud but my very favorite is Jean Harlow. The cast includes John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, Lee Tracy, and Edmund Lowe, and Madge Evans.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsJohn BarrymoreBebe DanielsDoris KenyonA successful attorney has his Jewish heritage and poverty-stricken background brought home to him when he learns that his wife has been unfaithful.John Barrymore plays a top New York lawyer who had his beginnings as a young immigrant and worked hard to get where he is. The lawyer is crazy about his high society WASP wife. Everything falls appart when he is threatened with disbarrment. With Bebe Daniels as his devoted secretary, Doris Kenyon as the wife, and Melvyn Douglas as a louse.
This may rank as my most dramatic revision of opinion of a film ever. I absolutely hated this movie the first time around and I have no idea why. It is excellent, with law office zingers flying about as fast as in The Front Page, and the performances are outstanding. This is truly the best performance I have witnessed by John Barrymore. - DirectorJames WhaleStarsClaude RainsGloria StuartWilliam HarriganA scientist finds a way of becoming invisible, but in doing so, he becomes murderously insane.A chemist succeeds in achieving invisibility but goes mad in the process. Claude Rains makes an unforgettable US film debut as the title character with his resonant voice. James Whale again shows his deft hand at mixing wit with violence and doing justice to both. I could live without Una O'Connors hysterics but what would these movies be without them?
- DirectorArchie MayoMichael CurtizStarsJames CagneyMadge EvansArthur ByronFive members of a teen-age gang, including leader Jimmy Smith, are sent to the state reformatory, presided over by the melodramatically callous Thompson. Soon, Patsy Gargan, a former gangster appointed deputy commissioner as a political favor, arrives - complete with hip flask and blonde. Gargan falls for activist nurse Dorothy and, inspired by her, takes over the administration to run the place on radical principles. But Thompson, to conceal his years of graft, needs a quick way to discredit Gargan.Cagney plays a ward heeler and gang leader who gets a pay-off appointment to Deputy Commissioner responsible for juvenile detention centers. He falls for an idealistic nurse who has a plan for reforming a truely abysmal reformatory. Cagney is great as is Frankie Darro, who plays the boys' gang leader and title character. I loved all three Cagney movies I saw for 1933 and this was my favorite.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsYoshiko OkadaUreo EgawaKinuyo TanakaRyoichi and Chikako are brother and sister. They live together. Chikako works during the day in an office and at night she prostitutes herself to fund her brother's studies at the university. Ryoichi doesn't know about his sister's secret life, but he is dating Harue whose brother is a policeman.Silent 43-minute short about a sister who works as a secretary by day and a prostitute by night to support her brother, who is a university student. The brother reacts violently when his girlfriend tells him of the rumors of his sister's activities.
This film is the earliest I have seen in which I could clearly recognize Ozu's characteristic tatami-level low-angle shots and transitions via inanimate objects (boiling kettles, etc.). On the other hand, the material is so uncharacteristic, I was simply stunned. I have never seen such melodrama (the brother commits suicide) or such violence (the brother repeatedly strikes his sister) in an Ozu film. On the other hand, it was a powerful and beautifully made film. - DirectorFrank CapraStarsWarren WilliamMay RobsonGuy KibbeeA gangster tries to make Apple Annie, the Times Square apple seller, a lady for a day.Urban fairy tale based on a Damon Runyon story about an apple seller who needs to convince her daughter that she is in high society. With May Robson in an Oscar-nominated performance as Apple Annie, Warren William as the gambler who helps her, Guy Kibbee as her "huband", and Glenda Farrell as a nightclub owner along with tons of other familiar faces. Despite a little schmaltz, this is one of my favorite Capra movies. Robson is just wonderful.
- DirectorLowell ShermanStarsKatharine HepburnDouglas Fairbanks Jr.Adolphe MenjouWhen a naively innocent, aspiring actress arrives on the Broadway scene, she is taken under the wing of several theater veterans who mentor her to ultimate success.A young actress (Katharine Hepburn) straight off the little theater stage of her native Vermont expects to take Broadway by storm. Though she is loaded with talent, she finds out that it is not that easy. With Adolph Menjou as a tough theater manager who breaks her heart, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. as a playwright and C. Aubrey Smith as an old trooper.
For some reason, I didn't expect to like this one as much as I did. I thought it was great and that Hepburn was fantastic. She captured the foolish over-confidence and fears of the young so perfectly. Her drunk scene at the opening night party is marvellous. - DirectorGeorge CukorStarsKatharine HepburnJoan BennettPaul LukasA chronicle of the lives of sisters growing up in 19th-century New England.Film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's timeless classic. I don't know what it is about this story that chokes me up so but I think I cry at every version. This is a particularly good one. Katharine Hepburn was born to play Jo.
- DirectorWilliam A. SeiterStarsStan LaurelOliver HardyCharley ChaseWhen Stan and Ollie trick their wives into thinking that they are taking a medicinal cruise while they're actually going to a convention, the wives find out the truth the hard way.This is a hilarious Laurel and Hardy feature in which the boys attend a lodge convention in Chicago the objection of their wives. They are in trouble throughout. I loved the "two peas in a pot/pod/pod-ah" gag, all the broken crockery, and the "Honolulu Baby" number and reprises. A whole lot of fun.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsAbel JacquinAlexandre O'NeillA surrealist film, a pseudo-documentary portrait of Las Hurdes, a remote region of Spain where civilisation has barely developed, showing how the local peasants try to survive without even the most basic utilities and skills.This "documentary" about the benighted population of Las Hurdes, a remote rural region in Northern Spain, has long fascinated me. Is it an attempt at straight-forward descripiton? Is it a satire or parody? Is it a political statement? Probably some combination of all of these. The narrator describes the appalling povery and ignorance of the place in a matter-of-fact tone better suited to a travelogue. Many of the scenes are either ambiguous as to what is really being depicted or are clearly staged. Many of the customs attributed to the villagers seem to defy the normal human survival instinct. A puzzling work.
- DirectorFrank CapraStarsBarbara StanwyckNils AstherToshia MoriA Chinese warlord and an engaged Christian missionary fall in love.Megan Davis (Barbara Stanwyck) travels to Shanghai during the Chinese Civil War to marry a missionary. Caught up in the chaos in the streets, she is rescued/abducted by ruthless warlord General Yen (Nils Asther). While captive at his headquarters, she is appalled at his brutality, yet the two experience a deep attraction. With Walter Connelly as the general's American financial advisor.
The acting is uniformly wonderful and this might be Capra's most poetic film in terms of its framing and cinematography. My hesitation on the rating is some reservation about the explicit and implicit racism. On the other hand, there is some argument that the plot could reasonably be reframed as "a Chinese warlord is destroyed by his love for a beautiful but naive American." He is portrayed as being barbaric but his merciful actions, at Megan's urging, are big mistakes that cost him everything. - DirectorAlfred E. GreenStarsBarbara StanwyckGeorge BrentDonald CookA young woman, sexually exploited all her life, decides to turn the tables and exploit the hapless men at a big city bank by gleefully seducing her way to the top.Lily (Barbara Streisand), a bar maid from the wrong side of the tracks, takes some advice from Nietsche and ruthlessly exploits her sex appeal to get to the top, wrecking the lives of numerous men in the process. This has all the attributes of a pre-Code winner and then some. The DVD included both the pre-release cut and the theatrical release. The film was too strong even in the pre-Code days! Many of Lily's more sordid conquests were excised and the German friend who turned her on to Nietsche becomes a kindly old moralist in the theatrical release. Stanwyck is fabulous in this role which provided some early practice for Phyllis Dietrichson. Recommended.
- DirectorHeinosuke GoshoStarsKinuyo TanakaDen ÔhinataTokuji KobayashiIn this adaptation from Kawabata, a young student becomes friends with a brother and sister in a troupe of travelling entertainers, who perform at a geisha house in mining country.A brother and sister form part of an itinerant acting company. The sister and another girl dance in private homes while the brother and other women play musical instruments. A student joins the little company on its travels and forms an attachment with the sister. In the meantime, we learn that the brother previously sold a mine, which was his inheritance, on disadvantageous terms to a man who now wants to lure the sister back to marry his son. It all ends very sadly with the girl and the student confessing their love for each other but the student departing for Tokyo and leaving the girl weeping.
I watched this Japanese silent film on YouTube. The print I saw is extremely cloudy and I'm not finding much on the film. Its director made the first talkie in Japan but this film is silent. The dancing girl/sister was played by Kinuyo Tanaka, who was the moll in Dragnet Girl and appeared in several other of the Japanese silents I have seen recently. This is the finest and most moving performance I have seen by her as a young actress. She had an extensive filmography and starred in several 50's classics directed by Mizoguchi, including Life of Oharu (she played Oharu), Ugetsu and Sansho, the Bailiff.
I realize I'm going on and on without saying much but this was a fairly bad print of what I think must have been quite an impressive film if it had the proper musical accompaniment (what I saw was totally silent) and a clearly discernable print. I have not seen any thing else by the director, Heinosuke Gosho, who seems to have quite an energetic style and to have been well-respected at the time from what I can gather. - DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsTakeshi SakamotoNobuko FushimiDen ÔhinataTwo Tokyo co-workers come across a destitute young lady in search of a place to live.A layabout single father and his handsome younger friend happen upon a homeless young woman and arrange a place for her to stay. The father falls for her but she is more interested in the friend. A bittersweet story mostly centering on the bond between the father and his son. This all takes place in the slums of Tokyo. This took a while to get going but once it did it brought tears to my eyes. Some beautiful Ozu touches like the fireworks near the end.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsKinuyo TanakaJôji OkaSumiko MizukuboA gangster tries to find redemption with the inadvertent help of an innocent shop girl and his jealous girlfriend will do anything to keep him.A gang leader and former boxer is supported by his moll. He is attracted to the sweet sister of a gang member, who wants her brother to go straight. But the moll is not ready to give our hero up. Nothing turns out as expected. Another penetrating film from one of my favorite directors. I thought both the ladies were outstanding.
- DirectorLloyd BaconStarsJames CagneyJoan BlondellRuby KeelerChester Kent struggles against time, romance, and a rival's spy to produce spectacular live "prologues" for movie houses.A musical comedy director (James Cagney) bends to the times and switches to producting live "prologues" for motion pictures. The third of at least three mind-blowing Busby Berkeley musicals in 1933. With the usual Warner Brothers musical stock company plus Frank McHugh and Hugh Herbert.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanStarsFrankie DarroRochelle HudsonEdwin PhillipsIn the depths of the Depression, two teenage boys strike out on their own in order to help their struggling parents and find life on the road tougher than expected.Hard-hitting Warner Brothers pre-Code exposé about kids who leave home to seek work when their parents lose their jobs. Life is pretty tough on the road but these kids fight back against the relentless pressure to move on. Terrific stuff up until a judge solves everybody's problems with a snap of his fingers and assures them better days are right around the corner. The lead, Frankie Darro, is splendid. He had the talent to be another Cagney but was hampered by his small stature.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanStarsLoretta YoungRichard BarthelmessAline MacMahonA veteran fights drug addiction to make his way in the business world.If poor Tom Holmes (Richard Barthelmess) didn't have bad luck, he would have no luck at all. The story follows his life from the time he gets shot by friendly fire in WWI through his fate as a "forgotten man" in the Depression. Along the way, Tom gets wrongfully jailed for inciting a riot and branded as a Red. An interesting pre-Code take on the struggles of the working man in the 20's and 30's.