1934
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- DirectorFrank CapraStarsClark GableClaudette ColbertWalter ConnollyA rogue reporter trailing a runaway heiress for a big story joins her on a bus heading from Florida to New York and they end up stuck with each other when the bus leaves them behind at one of the stops along the way.What else is there to say about this picture? There is not one single thing I would change. Of course, the leads are fabulous but every single character actor was the best possible that could have been found. The Academy has been stingy with comedies but this was too good to ignore.
- DirectorJean VigoStarsDita ParloJean DastéGilles MargaritisNewly married couple Juliette and a ship captain Jean struggle through marriage as they travel on the L'atalante along with the captain's first mate Le père Jules and a cabin boy.A young skipper brings his new bride (Dita Parlo)aboard his small barge to live with his eccentric first mate (Michel Simon), a boy, and at least 10 untamed cats. We witness the couple's initial passion, the wife's boredom, the husband's jealousy, and then the cycle begins again. The slight plot is told in vivid images that insinuate themselves in the memory. Dita Parlo brings an enchanting sense of wonder to her character. The last of Jean Vigo's four films before his death at age 29 and a masterpiece.
- DirectorW.S. Van DykeStarsWilliam PowellMyrna LoyMaureen O'SullivanFormer detective Nick Charles and his wealthy wife Nora investigate a murder case, mostly for the fun of it.An inventor mysteriously disappears and is blamed for the murder of his girlfriend and her possible paramour. His daughter (Margaret O'Sullivan) appeals to retired detective Nick Charles (William Powell). Charles would prefer to enjoy the high life with his rich, beautiful, and witty wife Nora (Myrna Loy) but she thinks it would be exciting for him to pursue the case.
I have seen this many times and I always forget who the murderer is. That is because the mystery is just a vehicle to showcase the fantastic repartee of Loy and Powell. They make the perfect married couple, playfully bickering but obviously in love. It is also the ideal escapist fare when one has, say, spent a whole day watching a manhunt in Boston and thinking about people who have lost their lives and limbs. - DirectorMark SandrichStarsFred AstaireGinger RogersAlice BradyA woman thinks a flirting man is the co-respondent her lawyer has hired to expedite her divorce.Fred Astaire plays Guy Holden a professional dancer living in London. He meets Mimi (Ginger Rogers) when she suffers a wardrobe malfunction at London customs. He isn't too helpful and she gives him the brushoff. She meets him again at an English seaside resort where she has gone to stage an en flagrante discovery so she can divorce her husband. A misunderstanding leads her to believe that Guy is the hired correspondent.
All this is just a good excuse for the dance numbers which are the point. The Night and Day ballroom number is so elegant and sublime that this movie would rank high with me even if that was all it contained. However, we have the almost equally delightful "The Continental" dance and a nice tap solo for Fred to "A Needle in a Haystack".
I find Alice Brady annoying but the always reliable Edward Everett Horton is along as Mimi's lawyer and Eric Rhodes is hilarious as the egotistical family man correspondent. - DirectorRaymond BernardStarsHarry BaurCharles VanelPaul AzaïsThe lives of numerous people over the course of 20 years in 19th century France, weaved together by the story of an ex-convict named Jean Valjean on the run from an obsessive police inspector, who pursues him for only a minor offense.This excellent four-and-a-half hour adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel, noted as being the most complete rendering of the story, was released as three films. I watched one film a day over three days. Part One: "Une tempête sous un crâne" (Tempest in a Skull) covers Jean Valjean's release from prison and redemption in the encounter with the Bishop through the death of Fantine. Part Two: "Les Thénardier"(The Thenardiers) covers little Cosette's treatment at the hands of the Thenardiers and her rescue then flash forwards eight years to Paris to relate Cosette's romance with Marius and the Thenardiers' threats against Jean Valjean. Part Three: Liberté, liberté chérie (Freedom, dear Freedom) covers the Uprising of 1832 and the conflict at the barricades through the end of the novel. There is certainly enough plot to justify the long running time!
The production is very polished and beautiful. The highlight is Harry Baur's portrayal of Jean Valjean. He is a powerful, taciturn, and unassuming man, equally convincing as a convict and as a gentleman. Baur is one of those actors that can express a world of emotion with a glance and is superb. Charles Vanel plays Javert as a relentless enforcer of the law, there is no evil posturing here. The other performances are not quite up to these two but are quite adequate. The set design and costuming are lavish and evocative of 19th Century France. Finally, there is the fabulous score by Arthur Honegger. Very highly recommended. - DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsTakeshi SakamotoChôko IidaKôji MitsuiA kabuki actor's mistress hatches a jealous plot to bring down her lover's son.Kihachi is the actor-manager of a traveling theater company that plays the backwaters of Japan. The shows they put on are comically bad but seem to entertain rural audiences. Kihachi aims to stay in the town where an old flame lives so he can visit with his illegitimate son, whom he has high hopes for but who thinks of the father as an "uncle". Kihachi's current mistress is consumed with jealousy and plots to have a young actress seduce the son to foil the father's plans.
That's about all there is to the plot but, this being an Ozu film, plot is not all that important. Instead, this is a character study focusing on how the different characters cope with relationships, failure, and aging. It is ultimately an examination of family love in real life as are all Ozu's films. This is arguably his best and most mature silent film. It was remade in 1959 as Floating Weeds, Ozu's first color film. - DirectorJohn CromwellStarsBette DavisLeslie HowardFrances DeeA young man finds himself attracted to a cold, unfeeling waitress who might ultimately destroy them both.Leslie Howard plays Philip Carey, a club-footed medical student with the soul of an artist. He falls helplessly in love with Mildred (Bette Davis), a waitress with a heart of ice who treats him like dirt. She figures that she can always go to Philip for help when she is in trouble and she is right.
Bette Davis begged Warner Bros. to loan her to RKO so that she could play the meaty but unsympathetic role of Mildred. Her gamble paid off and the movie made her a star. Her performance is excellent and far less mannered than she would get in later roles. Leslie Howard is actually the central character and he acquits himself well as the rather weak young man. - DirectorHarold YoungStarsLeslie HowardMerle OberonRaymond MasseyA noblewoman discovers her husband is The Scarlet Pimpernel, a vigilante who rescues aristocrats from the blade of the guillotine.During the French Reign of Terror, the mysterious Scarlet Pimpernel saves French aristocrats from the guillotine and spirits them away to England. Leslie Howard plays the gallant Pimpernel and his alter ego the foppish Sir Percy Blakeley. Merle Oberon is French-born Lady Blakeley, who is unaware of her husband's valor and is easy prey to the evil Chauvelin (Raymond Massey), who must find the Pimpernel at any cost.
This is my favorite ever performance by Howard. He is just wonderful in both the guises he plays and seems a man worthy of the love of a woman like Scarlet O'Hara. Raymond Massey is always good and the story is very entertaining. Recommended. - DirectorVictor FlemingStarsWallace BeeryJackie CooperLionel BarrymoreYoung Jim Hawkins is torn between his loyalty to his benefactors and his affection for lovable rogue Long John Silver in their struggle to recover a buried pirate treasure.Old Billy Bones (Lionel Barrymore) turns up at the inn run by Jim Hawkins's (Jackie Cooper) mother with a mysterious chest. Soon other unsavory characters turn up in search of Billy. Upon Billy's untimely death, Jim discovers a treasure map in the chest. Gentlemen of the town hire a ship to search for the treasure. Before they know it, unscrupulous but loveable Long John Silver (Wallace Beery) has signed on as cook and brought aboard his pirate cronies as crew. Long John and Jim become fast friends and the adventure begins.
This movie was a ton of fun and I'm sure immensely popular with boys when it came out. I thought the style forshadowed The Wizard of Oz, also directed by Fleming in a lot of ways. The pirates are deliciously vile! - DirectorJohn M. StahlStarsClaudette ColbertWarren WilliamRochelle HudsonA struggling widow and her daughter take in a Black housekeeper and her fair-skinned daughter; the two women start a successful business but face familial, identity, and racial issues along the way.Bea Pullman (Claudette Colbert) is a young widow who carries on her husband's maple syrup business to support her daughter Jesse. Delilah Johnson arrives on her doorstep looking for work with her own daughter Peola and proves to be a godsend. Bea goes on to use Delilah's secret pancake recipe to climb to success first in the restaurant business and then as a pancake mix queen (under the Aunt Delilah label). Bea offers Delilah a share in the business but Delilah is not interested in money or in having her own home.
Peola (Fredi Washington) easily "passes" as white and struggles against her black identity, eventually disowning her own mother and breaking her heart. Bea has daughter troubles of her own when Jesse falls for Bea's beau, Stephen Archer (Warren William), world's richest fish scientist.
There is obviously quite a bit of stereotyping in this film. Poor Delilah seems to downright enjoy getting the short end of the stick in the eyes of the film makers. On the other hand, this is one of the few films from classic Hollywood to give black characters emotional lives of their own. And although Delilah is content to serve, Peola, while conflicted and full of self-loathing, is portrayed as a sophisticated complex woman. The performances of Louise Beavers and Fredi Washington are quite good and Claudette Colbert is sympathetic as Bea. - DirectorErnst LubitschStarsMaurice ChevalierJeanette MacDonaldEdward Everett HortonWhen a small kingdom's main taxpayer leaves for Paris, its king dispatches a dashing count to win back her allegiance.I used to own the VHS tape and just loved this movie to pieces. Unfortunately, it's not out on DVD. What's up with that????
- DirectorArcady BoytlerRaphael J. SevillaStarsAndrea PalmaDomingo SolerFrancisco ZárragaRosario (Palma) becomes a prostitute after losing her father and discovering her boyfriend had a liaison with another woman. In Veracruz, Rosario lives above a sordid cabaret "selling her love to the men coming from the sea." One night, sailor Alberto (Soler) rescues Rosario from the dirty hands of a drunk man. They get along and go to Rosario's room. After making love, they begin to talk and Rosario discovers they're siblings...150. La mujer del puerto ("The Woman of the Port") (1934, dir. Boytler)
Rating: B+
Finished: April 28, 2013
Review: ou just never know when you are going to find that special film! I had never heard of this one until I was gathering films for this exercise. Rosario (Andrea Palma) lives in poverty with her aging father and is in love with a neighbor who says he will marry her when he has more money. Her father dies and her lover proves unfaithful so Rosario becomes a prostitute on the docks in another town. One night she meets a client who defends her from a drunk and her fate takes an even more tragic turn. (I will not spoil the ending but I was shocked.)
The plot and acting in this are secondary to some exceptionally beautiful images. In terms of the story, the film is uneven with certain parts moving at a very leisurely pace and the final fifteen minutes unnaturally rushed. Some of the acting is a bit overdone. However, the composition of the shots and some of the editing are just masterful. There is a scene where Rosario is escorting her father's coffin through a group of carnival revelers that is breathtaking. The whole movie is bathed in gorgeous expressionist lighting. Well, well worth seeing.
Director Arcady Boytler was born in Moscow and directed silent films in the USSR and Europe before arriving in Mexico and meeting Sergei Eisenstein at the time of the filming of Qué viva Mexico! (1932). He made several other films during Mexico's Golden Age of cinema but it looks like this is the one that is most readily available on DVD. - DirectorHoward HawksStarsJohn BarrymoreCarole LombardWalter ConnollyA flamboyant Broadway impresario who has fallen on hard times tries to get his former lover, now a Hollywood diva, to return and resurrect his failing career.Theater empresario and master manipulator Oscar Jaffe (John Barrymore) discovers lingerie model Mildred Plotkin (Carole Lombard), changes her name to Lily Garland and bullies her into stardom. They become lovers but his posturing and possessiveness finally drive her away to Hollywood. They meet again on the Twentieth Century Limited which is taking Oscar from Chicago to New York after a flop and Lily from Hollywood to New York where she has signed to work with another director. The fireworks continue on the train as Oscar seizes on Lily as his last chance to get the financing he needs to save his theater.
This early screwball comedy, written by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, is a lot of fun. Barrymore is especially good as the totally phony and ultra-flamboyant producer. Carole Lombard starts out sane and builds to a fever pitch of diva-itis after her character becomes a Hollywood star. Roscoe Karns and Walter Connelly are excellent as Oscar's assistants.
Sometimes this was a tad over the top for me but there were many moments that made me laugh out loud. I loved those crazy chalk marks on the floor and the whole concept of putting on the Passion Play on Broadway complete with camels and an ibis. - DirectorJosef von SternbergStarsMarlene DietrichJohn LodgeSam JaffeA German noblewoman enters into a loveless marriage with the dim-witted, unstable heir to the Russian throne, then plots to oust him from power.his is Josef von Sternberg's interpretation of the rise of Catherine the Great. Marlene Dietrich plays Catherine as a wide-eyed innocent for the first half of the movie (this was quite a stretch!) then as a sly dominatrix after she produces an heir to the throne. Sam Jaffe must have been told to throw caution to the wind in coming up with his imbecilic Grand Duke Peter. Finally, Louise Dresser plays Empress Elizabeth as a kind of Mid-Western fish wife having a very bad day.
My descriptions may lead you to believe that I did not enjoy the film but au contraire. By all objective measures it is very bad indeed but it is the kind of high camp that is endlessly watchable. The art design alone is simply so delirously over the top that it is not to be missed. The wedding banquet in particular is such a mixture of the pornographic and the sinister as to take ones breath away. And then there is the photography. Von Sternberg must have had Dietrich shot through every kind of sheer fabric he could get his hands on. It's as if he went completely off the rails in some kind of masochistic frenzy of adoration. It really cannot be adequately described but must be experienced. - DirectorEdgar G. UlmerStarsBoris KarloffBela LugosiDavid MannersAmerican honeymooners in Hungary become trapped in the home of a Satan-worshipping priest when the bride is taken there for medical help following a road accident.Dr. Vitus Vendergast (Bela Lugosi) meets a newly-weds Peter (David Manners) and Joan on a train and hitches a ride with them to their ultimate destination. On the way, the car goes off the road, the driver is killed and the party is forced to take refuge in the creepy modernist castle of Hjalmar Poelzig (Boris Karloff).
This suits Vendergast just fine as he is on a mission to make Poelzig, his sworn enemy, suffer slowly. Poelzig left Vendergast to rot in prison for 15 years then told his wife he was dead and took her for his own.
The movie is basically a duel of wits between Vendergast and Poelzig, who also has plans to use Joan as the sacrifice in a Black Mass.
This is the kind of thing I just eat up. Sure it can be a little campy in places and Lugosi emotes furiously but that is part of the fun. The Expressionist cinematography and art direction are quite wonderful. Highly recommended. - DirectorGus MeinsCharley RogersStarsStan LaurelOliver HardyVirginia KarnsOpposing the evil Barnaby, Ollie Dee and Stanley Dum try and fail to pay-off Mother Peep's mortgage and mislead his attempts to marry Little Bo. Enraged, Barnaby's Bogeymen are set on Toyland.TCM aired this movie for the first time Christmas Eve 2012 and I just had to watch. This is a lot of fun and Stan and Ollie are great as Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee in a world populated by all the characters from nursery rhymes. It's not specifically a holiday movie though Santa does put in an appearance.
- DirectorDavid ButlerStarsShirley TempleJames DunnJane DarwellAn orphaned girl is taken in by a snobbish family at the insistence of their rich, crotchety uncle, even as her devoted aviator godfather fights for custody.Little Shirley (Shirley Temple) loves to spend time at the airport with her buddy Loop (James Dunn), a pilot who was the friend of her late father. Shirley's mother works as a maid in the house of some stuck-up rich people the Smythes, their horrible little girl (Jane Withers), and crotchety Uncle Ned. When Shirley's mother goes to Heaven also, there is a custody battle between Uncle Ned, Loop, and Mrs. Smythes sister who just so happens to be Loop's ex-fiance. If you don't know where this is going, you haven't seen enough Shirley Temple movies! With Jane Darwell as the family cook, sporting a great Irish brogue. This is the one with "The Good Ship Lollypop."
Well, I haven't seen a Shirley Temple movie in a long, long time and I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Shirley Temple and James Dunn make an outstanding pair. He really seems like he could be her Daddy. Jane Withers is awesomely bratty. I can imagine that this would not be good for small children with little Shirley being orphaned and all. Nothing great but good fun despite a little schmaltz. - DirectorFrank CapraStarsWarner BaxterMyrna LoyWalter ConnollyA runaway heiress and her sister's husband join forces to race the latter's fast horse, Broadway Bill.Frank Capra made this pleasant comedy between It Happened One Night and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. Higginsville is a one-man town, all the business are owned by J.L. Higgins (Walter Connelly) and run by his various sons-in-law. Dan Brooks (Warner Baxter) is married to eldest daughter Margaret (Helen Vinson) and is reluctantly managing a paper box business but his passion is his race horse Broadway Bill. The youngest Higgins daughter, Alice (Myrna Loy), is a free spirit like Dan and is secretly in love with him. Dan, however, treats Alice like a kid. One fine day, Dan decides he can take no more of Higginsville and sets out with no money to enter Broadway Bill in an important Derby race with the support of faithful groom Whitey (Clarence Muse) and Alice. The rest of the picture follows their trials and tribulations on the way to the big race.
Although the ending is weak and the story is a bit sentimental, I enjoyed this a lot. Frank Capra seems to get good performances from all his actors. Warner Baxter, who is generally ultra intense is as relaxed as I have ever seen him and even funny at time. Myrna Loy is great as always. I was also pleased with the treatment of the character of the African-American groom. Although there is some stereotyping of course, he is portrayed as a real member of the team. It was so refreshing after a couple of Stepin Fetchin films in a row!
I read that Capra was not a big fan of this film because Warner Baxter was afraid of horses and Capra thought it showed. I didn't notice. Capra remade the story in 1950 as Riding High with Bing Crosby and Colleen Gray. - DirectorWilliam K. HowardStarsWilliam PowellMyrna LoyUna MerkelThe neglected wife of a high profile attorney dallies with a unscrupulous womanizer and finds herself involved in blackmail and murder.Engaging "women's picture"/courtroom drama. John Prentice (William Powell) is a high-powered defense attorney whose practice keeps him away from home most of the time. Evelyn Prentice (Myrna Loy) is his long-suffering but adoring wife. Their happy home is threatened when a beautiful client (Rosalind Russell) throws herself at John and an unsavory "poet" insinuates himself into Evelyn's life. With Una Merkel as Evelyn's wise-cracking friend and permanent house guest.
I thought this one was a whole lot of fun. It goes to show that Powell and Loy were the perfect screen couple even when the material gets more serious as here. I had never heard of the director but he certainly keeps things moving right along. I adore Una Merkel and she has a substantial supporting part here. This was Rosalind Russell's screen debut. She was still finding her way. I seem to always get annoyed at courtroom dramas and here neither the judge nor the attorneys ever seem to have heard of the concept "conflict of interest". The film was strong enough that the improbable ending and travesty of court procedure was fine by me. - DirectorPaul CzinnerAlexander KordaStarsDouglas Fairbanks Jr.Elisabeth BergnerFlora RobsonStraightforward biography of the Russian Empress, up to her assumption of the throne.Empress Elizabeth of Russia (Flora Robson) is determined that her indolent, debauched nephew Grand Duke Peter (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) should wed a German princess. He resists this idea until he meets the lady in question (Elisabeth Bergner), who has loved him dearly since childhood. Upon their marriage, she is renamed Catherine. Sadly, Peter descends slowly into madness but Catherine stands by her man until his public humiliations become too much to bear. It is not giving too much away to say she goes on to become Catherine the Great but in this version the death of Peter is strictly against orders. All Catherine was ever looking for was a little love.
It is impossible to watch this film without comparing it to Josef von Sternberg's weird but wonderful The Scarlet Empress released the same year. That is definitely the superior of the two films primarily because Bergner cannot hold a candle to Marlene Dietrich.
However, if taken alone, The Rise of Catherine the Great is not half bad. Flora Robson is excellent as the randy but principled Elizabeth and, while Fairbanks, Jr. struck me as too bland at the beginning of the film, he really grew on me. Bergner, the wife of director Czinner, was a famous Austrian actress and this was her first English speaking role. She is competent but unfortunately her sometimes wide-eyed coquettishness and petite stature make her look like she's playing dress-up in those period costumes. Speaking of costumes, they and the sets are lavish and wonderful - DirectorMikio NaruseStarsSetsuko ShinobuAkio IsonoHikaru YamanouchiStory of a waitress whose life, despite a host of male admirers and even some intrigued movie talent scouts, ends up taking a stiflingly domestic turn after a wealthy businessman accidentally hits her with his car.Sugiko works as a waitress in a Tokyo tea room. It looks like the world is her oyster. She has just received a proposal from her boyfriend and an offer from a movie studio for work as an actress. Then a rich young man hits her with his car. She loses her boyfriend due to a misunderstanding but the driver is falling for her. Can true love conquer the objections of his snobbish aristocratic family?
Naruse really hit his stride in this, his final silent film. I liked the way I was kept off guard with where the plot was taking me. It all felt very fresh. The film is bracketed with shots of life on a busy downtown Tokyo Street, which were an enjoyable slice of history. It's a bit melodramatic but I would recommend it. - DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsLeslie BanksEdna BestPeter LorreAn ordinary British couple vacationing in Switzerland suddenly find themselves embroiled in a case of international intrigue when their daughter is kidnapped by spies plotting a political assassination.Bob and Jill Lawrence are vacationing with their daughter Betty in Switzerland when their friend Louis is murdered. Before dieing Louis passes them secret information. Betty is promptly kidnapped to prevent the Lawrences from going to the authorities with the information. Can the Lawrences rescue Betty? Can another assassination be prevented? With Leslie Banks and Edna Best as the Lawrences, Nova Philbeam as Betty, Pierre Fresnay as Louis, and Peter Lorre as the head of the kidnapping/spy ring.
This is OK early Hitchcock but I can understand why he wanted to remake it on a bigger budget in 1956. The suspense leaves something to be desired, though the Albert Hall scene is still classic. The picture is well worth seeing if only to catch Peter Lorre's performance. He makes a wonderfully jovial yet really creepy bad guy. - DirectorRouben MamoulianStarsAnna StenFredric MarchJane BaxterNekhlyudov, a Russian nobleman serving on a jury, discovers that the young girl on trial, Katusha, is someone he once seduced and abandoned and that he himself bears responsibility for reducing her to crime. He sets out to redeem her and himself in the process.First, let me say that this is a really gorgeous film lensed by Gregg Toland and with wonderful authentic 19th Century Russian sets. There is a glorious scene of Russian Orthodox Easter in a church. I have never seen Anna Sten before and she is very beautiful and appealing in the love scenes. She overdoes it a bit after her fall but not too badly. Frederic March is good as always.
Something happened to this film between the first act and the second act. The early love scenes took their time and were a pleasure to watch. The later scenes were good too but seemed rushed or something – like this was clumsily edited for time. - DirectorCedric GibbonsJames C. McKayJack ConwayStarsJohnny WeissmullerMaureen O'SullivanNeil HamiltonThe idyllic life of Tarzan and Jane is challenged by men on safari who come seeking ivory, and come seeking Jane as well.Jane's (Maureen O'Hara) ex-fiancee Harry Holt returns to Africa in search of a treasure in ivory in the elephant's graveyard and in hopes of luring her back to England. She belongs heart and soul to Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller), however. Tarzan agrees to lead Harry and his no-good partner to the elephant's graveyard but balks at letting them take any ivory out.
The sequel is superior to the original in the case of the Tarzan series. It is certainly less offensive, although it does suffer from quite a lot of bwana-isms. The relationship between Tarzan and Jane (too include Cheeta) is quite charming. However, the film does suffer a certain sameness in the action. It is basically Tarzan wrestling a wild animal into submission over and over again.
This film came out in April 1934 before the Production Code began to be enforced. Clearly, we would not have been treated to a fairly lengthy scene of Jane's nude underwater bathing otherwise! Interestingly, Tarzan does not feel called upon to skinny dip. - DirectorKing VidorStarsKaren MorleyTom KeeneBarbara PepperA group of down-on-their-luck workers combine their abilities to make a Gallafentian-style commune... and bread!John and Mary Sims (Tom Keane and Karen Morely) are about to be evicted when Mary's uncle offers them a farm which is about to be foreclosed on. Although they know nothing of farming, they move there. They meet a dispossessed Swedish farmer (John Qualen) who shows them the ropes. Then John gets the idea of starting a cooperative where tradesmen will work on the barter system. Before he knows it, he has an entire village on the land and the men are plowing the fields.
King Vidor made this film with his own money as a labor of love, having been captivated by the "back to the land" movement as a solution to the woes of the Great Depression. The acting is earnest, but not particularly great. Unfortunately, I could not watch the film without questioning most of the basic premises. If these people could make a go of it why were so many farmers losing their farms in the Depression? Of course it helped that the land was essentially free (somehow these people manage to get it for $1.85 at a foreclosure auction). The seed etc. was miraculously available free. Finally, these folks dam and divert a stream a couple of miles away to solve their drought problem. In real life, the farmers whose lands were naturally irrigated by the stream would have been there in a heartbeat with guns.
It was a pretty idea of course. And an interesting look at some thinking during the depression. - DirectorRay EnrightBusby BerkeleyStarsJoan BlondellDick PowellRuby KeelerA multimillionaire decides to boycott "filthy" forms of entertainment such as Broadway shows.What only a year can do ... The Production Code put quite a damper on the sex appeal of the Warner Brothers backstage musical. Although this was enjoyable, it all seems a bit lackluster in comparison to something like Gold Diggers of 1933.
Rich Uncle Ezra (Hugh Herbert) wants his money to go to a strictly moral fruit of his family tree and has settled on his cousin Mathilda (Zasu Pitts) and her husband Horace (Guy Kibbee). Ezra has banished his wicked Broadway-show writing cousin Jimmy (Dick Powell). Naturally, Jimmy is in love with Barbara (Ruby Keeler), Horace and Mathilda's daughter. Somehow a chorus girl (Joan Blondell) is able to blackmail Horace in to backing Jimmy's show.
There are some love ballads (including "I Only Have Eyes for You") toward the beginning of the film but the main chorus numbers are saved for the end. Of these, the only one that begins to capture the Busby Berkeley magic is the title tune "Dames". That, however, was worth seeing the movie for. - DirectorMarc AllégretStarsJosephine BakerJean GabinPierre LarqueyZou Zou tries to help her childhood friend prove his innocence after he's accused of murder.Zouzou (Josephine Baker) and Jean (Jean Gabin) performed in the circus as "twins" as children and grew up as brother and sister. Zouzou is in love with Jean. When he is falsely arrested, she enters show business to get the money to defend him. Will Jean see the light?
This is the French equivalent of a backstage musical and very charming, if not as polished as a Hollywood production. I have read about Josephine Baker for years and was excited to be able to see her in something. Jean Gabin is a major heart throb of mine and it was nice to see him in a different kind of role and singing a bit no less! - DirectorJohn FordStarsMadeleine CarrollFranchot ToneReginald DennyRichard Girard is part of a New Orleans family working closely with the English Warburtons. When Richard meets Mary Warburton she is engaged to Erik von Gerardt. He does wed Mary but their time in America is financially difficult.This film follows the fortunes of the Girard family and its cotton and textile businesses from 1825 through 1934, similar to the premise of Fox's 1933 Best Picture Oscar winner Cavalcade. The story starts in New Orleans with the reading of the will of the firm's founder. The will enjoins his three sons to establish branches in New Orleans, Paris, and Berlin and forms a partnership between the family and Henry Warburton. Oldest son Richard (Franchot Tone) is named executor. Richard has a powerful attraction to Warburton's wife (Madeleine Carroll) but they are sooned parted when Warburton leaves for Manchester to start a textile mill there.
The film then segues to 1914 and a wedding between cousins in the French and German branches of the family. Richard Girard (Tone, again) and Mary Warburton (Carroll) attend the wedding. Mary is engaged to one of the German cousins but Richard and Mary feel that they have met before and begin to yearn for one another. Richard is heartbroken that Mary is engaged to another and enlists in the French Foreign Legion when World War II breaks out. The war naturally divides the family but brings Mary and Richard together. We follow the fate of the family through the stock market crash of 1929. When the family holds its last meeting some suggest that another war is in the cards. This is followed by footage of Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo and their armies.
The film is competently made and very watchable. It suffers from being all over the place. It's not quite a romance and not quite a war movie. Madeleine Carroll is positively radiant in this film and turns in an excellent performance. Franchot Tone not so much.
I got excited about the fantastic combat footage and then realized it looked familiar. It turns out 7 minutes of war footage from Raymond Bernard's Wooden Crosses, one of my Top 10 for 1932, was included in this film.
This was the first film to be granted the production seal of approval under new guidelines set forth by the Production Code Administration Office and the Motion Picture Producers and Directors of America. It received Certificate No. 1. - DirectorHenry HathawayStarsGary CooperCarole LombardShirley TempleA swindler and his girlfriend take in his young daughter, who has been living with the family of his deceased wife.Gary Cooper pays con man Jerry Day who travels the world one step ahead of the law with his wife Toni (Carole Lombard). In China, he announces that he has a child and is going to sign her over to his ex-brother-in-law for $75,000. Toni doesn't care for this scheme and they separate. Naturally, Jerry falls in love with Penny (Shirley Temple) as soon as they meet and is subsequently reunited with Toni. Jerry tries to go straight but is constantly tempted by a fellow con man (Guy Standing) who has something on him. With Charlotte Granville as the society matron who wants to take care of Penny.
This movie is quite a departure from Shirley's normal fare. First of all, her part is second to the two adult leads, though she does get equal billing. She does not play her normal role of bringing two people together for love of her and there is almost no singing. It's quite a dark story with an ambiguous ending. That said, this is no better than your average melodrama of the time period. Gary Cooper is an unlikely con man and Carole Lombard doesn't have much of a chance to be wacky. - DirectorCecil B. DeMilleStarsClaudette ColbertWarren WilliamHenry WilcoxonThe man-hungry Queen of Egypt leads Julius Caesar and Marc Antony astray, amid scenes of DeMillean splendor.Cleopatra (Claudette Colbert) seduces Julius Caesar (Warren William) and then Marc Antony (Henry Wilcoxson) in an attempt to save her beloved Egypt from conquest by Rome.
The Hollywood epic is my least favorite genre of movie. While spectacular, the sets here are more reminiscent of the studio backlot than of Egypt. Claudette Colbert can't help but be fairly charming but the other acting is over-the-top when it is not just wooden. Colbert wears many revealing gowns and there is suggestive dancing and gore to be had, but nothing near to that on display in DeMille's The Sign of the Cross a couple of years earlier. - DirectorJohn FordStarsVictor McLaglenBoris KarloffWallace FordA dozen British soldiers, lost in a Mesopotamian desert during World War I, are menaced by unseen Arab enemies.A British Army patrol is on duty in the Mesopotamian Desert when its officer is killed by Arab sniper fire. Since the officer was the only one who knew where the patrol was headed, the men are lost. The Sargeant (Victor McLaglen) leads the men to a desert oasis where their horses are promptly stolen. The men hunker down to await rescue while being under constant threat from Arabs.
The rather depressing story did nothing to capture my attention. It was nice to see Karloff in a fairly meaty non-horror role. Unfortunately, his character goes mad and Karloff heads straight over the top. Victor McLaglen is always pretty good. Some nice photography of sand dunes. Meh. - DirectorEugene FordeStarsWarner OlandDrue LeytonRay MillandCharlie visits a wealthy country home in England. Suspects in the murder range from a housekeeper, to a stableman, to a lawyer.A woman is convinced that her brother, who has been sentenced to death, is innocent. Charlie Chan (Werner Oland) is called in on the case only three days before the hanging. Will he be able to discover the true killer on the grounds of the British country house? Need you ask? Also with Ray Milland as the woman's lawyer and Alan Mowbray as the owner of the estate.
This is a pretty good entry in the Charlie Chan series. Charlie does without the assistance of Number One Son here. The DVD comes with a featurette in which various people argue that the Charlie Chan character, despite some stereotyping, was a positive development for the image of Chinese Americans in films. Up to then Chinese were generally portrayed as either servants or evil doers. Charlie Chan was always the smartest guy in the room. It's unfortunate that the times allowed him to be portrayed by a Swede. - DirectorClarence BrownStarsJoan CrawfordGene RaymondFranchot ToneA working girl's fortunes improve when she marries into money, but happiness is not so easily won.Sadie McKee's mother is a cook for a wealthy family and Sadie grew up with son Michael. She is engaged to Tommy. Michael fires him for stealing. Tommy takes off for New York and Sadie tags along with the understanding they will marry. But Tommy skips out on her with a night club singer. Penniless, Sadie gets a job dancing at a night club and meets alcoholic millionaire Jack Brennan, whom she marries. Sadie and Michael spend most of the movie at odds with each other because 1) Sadie's never forgiven him for firing Tommy and "ruining her happiness" and 2) Michael thinks Sadie is a gold digger for marrying Jack, his client. With Joan Crawford as Sadie, Franchot Tone as Michael, Edward Arnold as Jack Brennan, and Gene Raymond as Tommy. Also with Jean Dixon in a nice performance as Sadie's buddy and Esther Ralston (who can't carry a tune) as the night club singer.
What a plot! And I omitted a lot of it ... Anyway, this is your standard glossy MGM melodrama. It's pretty good for what it is but numerous aspects of the story annoyed me. I don't particularly care for Joan Crawford, particularly when she is being deified as here, though if you like her I think you'd like the movie more than I did. - DirectorAlexander KordaStarsDouglas FairbanksMerle OberonBruce WinstonWhat do women want? Don Juan is aging. He's arrived secretly in Seville after a 20-year absence. His wife Dolores, with whom he hasn't lived in five years, still loves him. He refuses to see her; he fears the life of a husband. She has bought his debts and will remand him to jail for two years if he won't come to her. Meanwhile, an impostor is climbing the balconies of Seville claiming to be Don Juan. When a jealous husband kills him, the real Don Juan sees a way to avoid jail and get some peace. He hides as Captain Mariano in a small town. After six months, he's ready to return to society. Can he measure up to the legend? Will women find him attractive? What about Dona Dolores?An aging Douglas Fairbanks plays an aging Don Juan in this pleasant comedy. Don Juan is tiring after 20 years in the saddle and when an imposter is killed in a duel happily attends his own funeral. Only problem is when he wants to reclaim his identity, no one will believe him. With Merle Oberon top-billed as a fiery Spanish dancer although Benita Hume has the bigger part as a woman plotting to keep the Don as her own. I loved the Spanish flavored score. Doug Fairbanks had the enviable ability of being able to poke fun at himself.
- DirectorWilliam BeaudineStarsW.C. FieldsJoe MorrisonBaby LeRoyThe Great McGonigle and his troupe of third-rate vaudevillians manage to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors and the sheriff.It is the Gay Nineties and W.C. Fields plays The Great McGonigle, proprietor of a travelling theater company that puts on melodramas. As usual, there is a romance involving his daughter. There's some comedy singing by a rich widow and straight singing by the daughter's beau. The film is capped by Fields's juggling act.
I found this less annoying than the other Fields pictures I've watched for 1934. The juggling act at the end is actually pretty good. Fields got his start in vaudeville as a juggler and is talented at it. - DirectorW.S. Van DykeJack ConwayGeorge CukorStarsClark GableWilliam PowellMyrna LoyThe friendship between two orphans endures even though they grow up on opposite sides of the law and fall in love with the same woman.Blackie and Jim were childhood buddies. Both were rescued from a tragic steamship fire and then raised together by a man who was trampled to death at a political rally. Blackie (Clark Gable) grows up to be a gambler and tough while Jim (William Powell) grows up a lawyer and idealistic politico. Blackie's main squeeze is Eleanor (Myrna Loy) but he eventually loses her to Jim who is the marrying kind. Jim becomes District Attorney and friendship and crime-fighting come into conflict.
I thought the script really let down the actors, who were fine. There were just one too many coincidences and everybody was too noble for me to bear. But what do I know? This won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay in 1934. - DirectorNorman Z. McLeodStarsW.C. FieldsKathleen HowardJean RouverolA henpecked New Jersey grocer makes plans to move to California to grow oranges, despite the resistance of his overbearing wife.W.C. Fields plays Harold Bisonette (that's Biso-NAY when his wife's around). The hen-pecked Bisonette owns a corner grocery but dreams of moving to California and running an orange ranch. His uncle dies and leaves him the money to move his family West, much to their disgust. The orange grove turns out to be a bust but there is always a happy ending in a W.C. Fields movie.
I have been trying to figure out why Fields just isn't funny to me. I think he lets each of his gags run on too long and telegraphs them to obviously. Also much of the humor relies on destruction, irritating noises, etc., which I find more annoying than comic. Finally this movie has a scene of food humor toward the end. I can't help it, I just find anything involving making a mess with food more disgusting than anything else.
This is one of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. The only reason I can find is that W.C. Fields is a name everybody has probably heard of. I now have seen this film twice and I sure won't be revisiting it before I die. - DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsYûkichi IwataMitsuko YoshikawaDen ÔhinataTwo half-brothers try to cope with the loss of their father.Sadao and Kuosaku lose their father when they are children. Unbeknownst to Sadao, the father's wife is not his real mother but his stepmother. The mother makes a vow to treat the boys the same and conceals the truth from Sadao. When Sadao enters university, he finds out at takes it very badly. His main complaint seems to be that the mother treats him better than her real son!
The first and last reels of this silent film have been lost and are substituted by a textual explanation. The other problem with the version I watched was that it was totally silent. Nevertheless, I became interested in the story. I guess in every time and culture children will be jerks and say thoughtless things to make their mothers cry. - DirectorJohn FordStarsWill RogersTom BrownAnita LouiseJudge Priest, a proud Confederate veteran, uses common sense and considerable humanity to dispense justice in a small town in the Post-Bellum Kentucky.This is essentially a love letter to a simpler time - in this case 1890's Kentucky, where folks still remember the glories of the antebellum South vividly. Judge Priest (Will Rogers) presides over the court in his small town dispensing justice and folksy wisdom. His nephew returns to town, having just graduated from law school, and is courting a local belle. His mother objects due to the girl's lack of breeding; her father's identity is unknown. The nephew's first client is a mysterious loner who is charged with assault for defending the girl's honor. Judge Priest is forced to recuse himself from the case, which enables him to assist his nephew at the trial. With Hattie McDaniel as Judge Priest's cook/maid and Stepin Fetchit as his errand boy.
Well, I have to admit that this was much better than Doctor Bull, the 1933 Will Rogers/John Ford movie I saw. There is a sort of small town charm to the storytelling. On the other hand, there is also much too much of Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry, better known in his Stepin Fetchit persona. His shtick just makes my skin crawl. I can't help it. Many people would also be offended by Hattie McDaniel's character but that does not rub me so much the wrong way.
This is one of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. Setting the racial stereotyping questions aside, I do not understand why this pleasant but unremarkable film should be rated a "must see." It is an introduction to Will Rogers, who I suppose is a major personality of early 20th Century American pop culture but not more than some others we don't meet in our journey through The List. Will Rogers worked with Stepin Fetchit many times so it may be hard to pick a decent Rogers film that doesn't also include that character. - DirectorDziga VertovStarsDolores IbárruriNadezhda KrupskayaVladimir LeninThree anonymous songs about Lenin provide the basis for this documentary that celebrates the achievements of the Soviet Union and Lenin's role in creating them.This is a documentary, or rather a tribute, prepared on the tenth anniversary of Lenin's death. The film is structured around three anonymous songs from the eastern USSR. The first "song" celebrates the lifting of the veil for women. Most of the images are from Central Asia and show women first opressed and then in new roles. The second "song" shows the great Soviet people mourning the death of their leader. The third song glorifies Soviet labor and the electrification of the USSR.
If you want to find out what the cult of personality is, this would be a good place to start! The praise heaped on Lenin is more like that usually reserved for a god than a father of his country. There are some interesting images here but overall it was disappointing. Vertov's The Man with the Movie Camera is one of my favorite films but clearly by this time he was hamstrung by the dictates of socialist realism. - DirectorErle C. KentonStarsW.C. FieldsJoan MarshBuster CrabbeA hard-drinking, socially-awkward inventor wrecks his daughter's chances of marriage into a rich family and bungles his own chances of success by selling one of his more practical inventions.When he is not drinking liquor out of a jug, Samuel Bisbee (W.C. Fields) is an optometrist and inventor who embarrasses his long-suffering wife no end. His daughter is in love with the son of a society family (Buster Krabbe) but they are having none of Sam. Sam's hopes are further dashed when he screws up the sales presentation of his puncture-proof tire. Luckily, Sam meets a princess who solves all his problems.
The plot, such as it is, only gets in the way of the gags. Chief among these is a reprise of Fields's golf routine from his 1930 short "The Golf Specialist". Fields is hit and miss with me and, unfortunately, this was a miss. I smiled a few times but I didn't laugh. - DirectorAlexander HallStarsAdolphe MenjouDorothy DellCharles BickfordBookie Sorrowful Jones receives a little girl as an IOU.Wow, this was kind of a let down after Bright Eyes. The plot of the movie is based on a Damon Runyon story and all of the characters are gamblers or their associates. Marthy Ann’s (Shirley Temple) father doesn’t have the money to bet on a race but leaves his daughter as a marker. After he loses his bet, he commits suicide (!), leaving Marthy Ann an orphan. Sorrowful Sam, the bookmaker (Adolphe Menjou), is stuck with the adorable child and spends most of the movie trying not to fall in love with her. Bangles Carson (Dorothy Dell), nightclub singer and moll of a crooked racehorse owner, helps Sam take care of her. Will Sam and Bangles turn Marthy Ann over to the authorities?
I’ve liked Damon Runyan adaptations including 1933′s Lady for a Day but Alexander Hall is no Frank Capra and he can’t make the sodden screenplay sparkle. I am beginning to wonder about how cavalierly the movies treat tragedy in the ’30′s. I can’t imagine slapping the suicide of a small child’s father in the middle of a comedy in a modern movie or that the child would scarcely react to such an event. Puzzling.
Pedophilia didn’t seem to be a big concern then either. We are treated with a scene in which Sam and Markie share a room. Markie complains that she can’t go to sleep in her underwear and proceeds to strip down in front of him wearing Sam’s pajama top but revealing a lot. It was clearly a much more innocent age. - DirectorMarion GeringStarsSylvia SidneyCary GrantEdward ArnoldA European princess arrives in New York City to secure a much-needed loan for her country. She contracts the mumps, and an actress who looks exactly like her is hired to impersonate her.A banker (Edward Arnold) wants to float a bond issue for the kingdom of Tyronia and brings its princess (Sylvia Sydney) to New York to publicize the deal. During her first speech there, the princess collapses and must be quarantined for mumps. The banker finds a lookalike stand-in in the form of Nancy Allen (also Sylvia Sydney), a struggling actress. He promises her extra payment if she can vamp crusading newspaper editor Porter Madison III into not denouncing the bond issue. Naturally, Nancy and Porter are soon in love.
This is standard romantic comedy fare. The story is lifted slightly above average by the performances of the two leads and a script that was co-written by Preston Sturges. - DirectorHarlan ThompsonStarsCary GrantGenevieve TobinHelen MackA handsome plastic surgeon has a beauty clinic, where many a beautiful client falls in love with him. His unnoticed secretary is in love with him, too.Cary Grant plays Dr. Maurice Lamar, a Parisian plastic surgeon and beauty expert in high demand. His efficient secretary Anne (Helen Mack) is in love with him. His “masterpiece” is Eve Caron (Genevieve Tobin), though her husband Marcel (Edward Everett Horton) does not approve of the changes the doctor has wrought and divorces her. Maurice marries Eve but is perfection all it is cracked up to be?
This movie was released just before the Production Code began to be enforced and you can sure tell by the double entendres and the amount of cheesecake on offer. In case there was any doubt, the first scene has the good doctor asking Toby Wing to disrobe and she is down to her scanties in a flash. The film also served as a showcase for the WAMPAS Baby Stars of 1934 so there are multiple parts for the lovely starlets as the doctor’s assistants or patients.
The plot is slender and unremarkable. Good for something light or to see Cary Grant sing and look young and handsome. The art deco sets are also very nice. - DirectorLowell ShermanJack ConwayStarsLoretta YoungCary GrantJackie KelkAn immoral mother blackmails a wealthy businessman after he accidentally hits her delinquent son with his truck.Loretta Young plays Letty Strong, an unwed mother who works as a "model" and "sales promoter" to support herself and her seven-year-old son, Mickey. Life has made her hard as nails and she is raising her son to be the same. She sees a way to cash in when a dairy truck driven by Malcolm Trevor (Cary Grant) runs into Mickey. They sue and Mickey fakes an injury. When Trevor's side proves this, the judge takes Mickey away from Lottie and puts him in an institution. Trevor and his wife volunteer to take care of Mickey. Lottie seduces Trevor in hopes of blackmailing him into returning her son.
This movie is Pre-Code and how. We don’t even have to look up the date of release to know this. Young is down to her lacy lingerie within five minutes of the opening and we have a plot featuring illegitimacy, loose living, and adultery. Unfortunately, the film is full of eye-rolling plot twists. I have never seen Cary Grant be quite so over the top as he is here. To be fair, the script doesn’t do him any favors. Loretta Young is very good but not completely convincing as a “bad girl”. I can recommend this mostly for the beautiful gowns and a glimpse at world that will not appear in Hollywood films for the next 30 years. It is just over an hour long. - DirectorRay TaylorStarsBela LugosiMaria AlbaClara Kimball YoungThe cult of Ubasti, headquartered on the isle of Lemuria, believes that Princess Nadji of Egypt is a reincarnation of their long-dead goddess, Ossana, and intend to sacrifice her so that Ossana may be resurrected.This movie was apparently distilled from a 12-part serial about the struggle of the White magician Chandu (Bela Lugosi) against Black magicians who are trying to kidnap his beloved, Egyptian princess Nadji, and use her in a human sacrifice. This isn't very good but neither is it the worst way one could spend an hour. Lugosi makes a very credible good guy.
- DirectorDavid HowardStarsWilliam HainesEsther RalstonConrad NagelWhen Lt. "Wild Bill" Traynor, bad boy of the Marine Corps, arrives at a San Diego Marine Base, he is surprised to discover he has been assigned to duty under his old rival, Captain Benton (Conrad Nagel). While eluding the advances of Rosita (Armida), a Latin dancer, Bill becomes involved with Benton's fiancee, Dorothy Manning (Esther Ralston), whom he quickly wins and Benton accepts the impending marriage. On his wedding eve, Bill, in the company of Rosita, becomes involved in a fracas in a gambling joint in nearby Tia Juana. Rosita disappears and Dorothy calls off the wedding. As Dorthy sails for Latin America, Bill resigns in disgrace from the Marines, but re-enters as a Private. Ordered to duty in Ponta Miguel, Bill discovers that Dorothy's father (Hale Hamilton) is the governor. His old nemesis Benton has Bill sent to the guardhouse and Bill is vowing revenge when he is released, only to find that Benton is being held prisoner by a jungle bandit known as The Torch (George Regas.) Posing as a drunk and renegade, Bill enters the bandit's camp and, by mending a disabled machine gun, wins the confidence of the bandit leader. Bill later mans the gun against the bandits who have prepared a trap for the Marine patrol searching for Benton.Poverty row comedy about wise-cracking Marine Corps Officer Bill Traylor (William Haines), who is always in trouble with the brass. When Traylor arrives in San Diego, he is assigned to duty under his nemesis Captain Benton (Conrad Nagle). He promptly latches on to Benton’s girlfriend (Esther Walston), while avoiding the advances of Rosita, a stereotypical Latin spitfire who has been following him from post to post insisting he marry her. When Traylor is forced to resign his commission, he returns as an enlisted man and the shenanigans continue in an unnamed Latin American country where the Marines are fighting bandits.
This film is notable mostly for being the last film William Haines ever made. I didn’t like it much. All the principals seem to have been instructed to plaster a big grin on their face and give it their all. Everybody complied but that didn’t make the film amusing to me. - DirectorHarry LachmanStarsShirley TempleJames DunnClaire TrevorEddie Ellison is an ex-con who spent time in Sing-Sing prison. Kay marries him as soon as he serves his time. Five years later, Eddie and his ex-convict buddy Larry, have both gone straight, and Eddie and Kay have a beautiful little daughter named Shirley. However, Welch has kept a close eye on them for years. He believes in "once a criminal, always a criminal." When Eddie's employer's wife's pearls go missing, it comes out that Eddie and Larry both spent time in prison, and they're fired. Welch suspects that Eddie and Larry have something to do with the theft of the pearls. Will Welch prove that Eddie and Larry had something to do with the theft, or will the truth prevail?Kay (Claire Trevor) is waiting for her sweetheart Eddie Ellison (James Dunn) to be released from Sing Sing. Eddie goes straight and they marry and have an adorable little girl, Shirley (Shirley Temple), who they love dearly. Fast forward to six years later and Eddie is working as a chauffeur for a wealthy family. Fellow ex-con Trigger Stone shows up and wants Eddie to fence some stolen property. Eddie refuses. A valuable pearl necklace is stolen from Eddie’s employer and insurance inspector Welch, who has long had it in for Eddie, tries to pin the blame on him. Shirley helps clear her father’s name.
Shirley is irresistible, to those of us who love her, in this film, released when she had just turned six years old. James Dunn is her ideal Daddy and Claire Trevor turns in a good performance as her mother. This is part prison film, part gangster film, and part musical. It all works in that 1930′s studio alternative reality. No masterpiece but I enjoyed it. - DirectorHamilton MacFaddenStarsWarner BaxterMadge EvansJames DunnA little girl's (Shirley Temple) toe-tapping musical numbers uplift the nation during the Depression in this charming classic that includes Temple's rendition of "Baby Take a Bow.The President decides to improve morale during the Depression by creating a Department of Amusement headed by Secretary Lawrence Cromwell (Warner Baxter). Cromwell selects Mary Adams (Madge Evans) to run the Children's Division, and they promptly fall in love. Meanwhile, some wicked industrialists are trying to sabotage Cromwell's efforts to cheer up the nation.
The plot is an excuse for a variety review and , aside from the "Baby Take a Bow" number with Shirley Temple and James Dunn, this movie is a godawful mess. The routines progressively grow worse and worse until we are left with "Broadway's Gone Hill-Billy", a truly awful sketch involving Stepin Fetchit and a penguin voiced by a Jimmy Durante impersonator (!!!), and the "We're Out of the Red" finale. Yes, these are every bit as bad as they sound. - DirectorWilliam NighStarsBela LugosiWallace FordArline JudgeMr. Wong stops at nothing to gain the possession of 12 coins of Confucius, which will bring him great power.Mr. Wong (Bela Lugosi) will stop at nothing to obtain the 12 golden coins of Confucius, which will allow him to rule the province of Keylat. The world's most foolhardy wisecracking reporter (Wallace Ford) is hot on his trail. Lugosi makes perhaps the most unconvincing Chinese person on record, but he does exude a certain campy menace. This was a Monogram Pictures production.
- DirectorRobert G. VignolaStarsColleen MooreHardie AlbrightHenry B. WalthallIn the seventeenth century, in Massachusetts, a young woman is forced to wear a scarlet "A" on her dress for bearing a child out of wedlock.This poverty-row adaptation of the Nathaniel Hawthorne novel stars Colleen Moore as Hester Prynne, Hardie Albright as Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale, Henry B. Walthall as Roger Chillingworth, and Alan Hale as comic relief. In 17th century Massachusetts, a woman whose husband was thought to be lost at sea is forced to wear a scarlet "A" on her breast as punishment for adultery that resulted in the birth of a child. She refuses to reveal the father of the girl but her husband returns incognito, determined to hound both parties to the affair for the rest of his days.
It is hard to find anything good to say about this movie. The first strike against it is that the makers felt compelled to lighten the dark story of the novel with copious amounts of comic relief, mostly supplied by Alan Hale and William Kent as sort of a Mutt and Jeff team. Their bits are really jarring and not all that funny. Then you get the principals posturing as if they were making a silent movie. Colleen Moore is the worst and also seems years too old for her part, though she would have only been 35 in 1934. This was the last film Moore ever made. - DirectorChristy CabanneStarsVirginia BruceColin CliveBeryl MercerA meek governess and her mysterious employer strike up a romantic relationship.The first sound adaptation of the Charlotte Brontë novel. After a lonely and difficult childhood, the independent-minded Jane Eyre (Virginia Bruce) becomes a governess at Thornfield Hall. There she falls in love with the master of the house, Mr. Rochester (Colin Clive) but he has a shocking secret that stands in the way of their happiness.
I have a few more films to watch but I do believe I may have hit the bottom of the barrel for 1934. This film might not be worse than Maniac but it is certainly less fun. With the sets that quiver when brushed? No, I think the worst part is the amateurish brutalization of the novel. Here we have a glamorous Jane Eyre with golden ringlets who sings to Rochester at their first meeting for what seems like five minutes of this 62 minute movie. The Adele character is changed to being Rochester's niece and has quite a prominent part in the story so that she can do hilarious stunts like falling head first into urns. Crazy wife Bertha shows up at the wedding looking quite OK and asking to see her husband. There are many times when it seems like the actors have been asked to improvise their lines. Since it is evident that no one, including the director, has read the novel, this was a bad idea - DirectorDwain EsperStarsBill WoodsHorace B. CarpenterTed EdwardsA former vaudevillian gifted at impersonation assists a mad scientist in reanimating corpses and soon goes mad himself.When he isn't busy being a maniac, Dr. Meirschultz conducts experiments aimed at raising the dead. His maniac/idiot assistant, Don Maxwell, apparently owes the doctor plenty for taking him in after flopping as an impersonator on the vaudeville circuit. When the doctor suggests that Maxwell shoot himself so that he can be an experimental subject Maxwell shoots the doctor instead. He then makes himself up as the doctor and assumes his personality. In the meantime, we see various young women bare their breasts (I assume this was the raison d'etre for the film), a man does a astoundingly bad tranformation to a monster, and Maxwell eats a "cat's eyeball". There are several "educational" intertitles with clinical descriptions of mental illnesses. Clearly, nobody planned to have this thing passed by the Hayes Office.
At 56 minutes, I had at least 5 LOL moments so I count this as a success on the bad movie front. I often wonder if the people involved really knew how bad these things were and were playing up the cheese factor. The acting is just so over the top here that it's hard to think the actors weren't trying for that effect! - DirectorRowland V. LeeStarsRobert DonatElissa LandiLouis CalhernAfter greedy men have Edmond Dantes unjustly imprisoned for 20 years for innocently delivering a letter entrusted to him, he escapes to get his revenge on them.Amazon Prime
- DirectorMervyn LeRoyStarsAline MacMahonAnn DvorakPreston FosterA lady gas station attendant gets mixed up with escaped murderers.Amazon Instant
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsJames CagneyBette DavisAllen JenkinsAn unpolished racketeer, whose racket is finding heirs for unclaimed fortunes, affects ethics and tea-drinking manners to win back the sweetheart who now works for his seemingly upright competitor.Amazon Instant
- DirectorWilliam DieterleStarsWilliam PowellBette DavisFrank McHughWhen the Manhattan investment firm of Sherwood Nash goes broke, he joins forces with his partner Snap and fashion designer Lynn Mason to provide discount shops with cheap copies of Paris couture dresses.For sale on Amazon Instant
- DirectorMitchell LeisenStarsFredric MarchEvelyn VenableGuy StandingThe Grim Reaper takes the form of a Prince in an attempt to relate to humans and, along the way, also learns what it is to love.Amazon Prime
- DirectorDavid HowardStarsBen LyonSari MaritzaErich von StroheimAfter Fred von Bergen, a German immigrant in America, is forced from his job by anti-German hysteria before the Great War, he and his friend Bob Wilson leave America and join the German air force,Amazon Prime
- DirectorVictor SavilleStarsJessie MatthewsSonnie HaleBetty BalfourHarriet Green, a beloved and radiant music hall star of the Edwardian era, has a guilty secret: She has a baby daughter, born out of wedlock. Harriet leaves her public and flees to South Africa to raise her daughter quietly. The years pass, and now her daughter, Harriet Hawkes, returns to London as a young show-biz hopeful. Tommy, a wily publicity man, knowing that young Harriet is a dead ringer for her famous mother, convinces a theater producer to star her in a new revue as none other than the original Harriet Green, miraculously untouched by old age. The ruse works too well: Now the public believes Harriet is a well-preserved 60-year-old and Tommy is her son. The deception is more than merely inconvenient, because now Harriet and Tommy have secretly fallen in love.YouTube
- DirectorWilliam A. SeiterStarsZasu PittsPert KeltonEdward Everett HortonA gangster becomes enamored of a dowdy amateur off-key singer and tries to force a producer to put her in his Broadway production.
- DirectorEdmund GouldingStarsNorma ShearerRobert MontgomeryHerbert MarshallMary is an impetuous romantic who marries British aristocrat Lord Philip Rexford on a whim. Their marriage is successful, though, and they grow closer over the years.
- DirectorJack ConwaySam WoodStarsJean HarlowFranchot ToneLionel BarrymoreChorus girl Eadie is determined to marry a millionaire without sacrificing her virtue.
- DirectorRobert FloreyStarsPat O'BrienAnn DvorakClaire DoddAuctioneer Spot Cash Cutler is planning the scam of a lifetime, but will he get burned?
- DirectorAlfred E. GreenStarsEdward G. RobinsonGenevieve TobinGlenda FarrellJim is a compulsive gambler. He meets Marge at a boarding house and they get married. His gambling causes problems. When he runs into old flame Valerie, Marge leaves him. After a few years he returns, but she is now in love with old flame Pres. Jim buys racing dog Dark Hazard and makes a fortune which he loses on roulette.
- DirectorMervyn LeRoyStarsPaul MuniGlenda FarrellNed SparksThe managing editor for a newspaper, in hot water with his boss, is demoted to writing the "Nellie Nelson" heart throb column, where he gets the unexpected opportunity to crack a major story.
- DirectorAlan CroslandStarsRichard BarthelmessAnn DvorakDudley DiggesJoe Thunderhorse, a Sioux Indian who has become the wealthy star of a Wild West show, returns home to his reservation after years away and finds that his father is dying and his people are being abused by corrupt white officials.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsKay FrancisRicardo CortezWarner OlandAbandoned by her lover, a woman becomes the main "hostess" in a decadent nightclub, but tries to put her past behind her on a steamer to Mandalay.
- DirectorSidney FranklinStarsNorma ShearerFredric MarchCharles LaughtonElizabeth Barrett's tyrannical father has forbidden any of his family to marry. Nevertheless, Elizabeth falls in love with the poet Robert Browning.