1932
Movies watched and re-watched during my chronological review of 1932.
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- DirectorRouben MamoulianStarsMaurice ChevalierJeanette MacDonaldCharles RugglesA Parisian tailor finds himself posing as a baron in order to collect a sizeable bill from an aristocrat, only to fall in love with an aloof young princess.A Paris tailor (Maurice Chevalier) goes to a chateau to collect on a debt owed him by a ne'er-do-well count (Charlie Ruggles). He remains there incognito as a baron and falls in love with a princess (Jeannette MacDonald). With C. Aubrey Smith as the Duke and Myrna Loy as a comic vamp.
This stylish musical comes very close to perfection in my book. The high points include the opening to the sounds of the Paris streets, the "Isn't It Romantic?" sequence (which still gives me chills no matter how often I see it), and the reprise of "Mimi" by all the various characters. A silly story rendered sublime by its director. - DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsTatsuo SaitôTomio AokiMitsuko YoshikawaTwo young brothers throw a tantrum when they discover that their father isn't the most important man in his workplace.Two boys, ages 8 and 10, are new kids in town after their family moves to a suburb. The movie has two themes. One is the boys' efforts to fit in with the neighborhood kids and find a high place in the pecking order. Much of this is quite hilarious. These boys are all boy! The second comes about when they find out that their father plays the clown to win points with his boss, who is also the father of one of the kids in the gang. The boys are so disgusted they go on a hunger strike. Then the story focuses more on the choices adults make. I absolutely love this silent movie.
- DirectorMarc AllégretStarsRaimuPierre FresnayFernand CharpinAfter Fanny's boyfriend leaves her and sails away, she finds out she's pregnant.Warm, witty, and poignant second part of Marcel Pagnol's Marseilles Trilogy. At the end of Part I Marius, Marius has fulfilled his dream of seeing far-off places by shipping off for five years leaving a devastated Fanny behind. Shortly after this film starts, poor Fanny finds herself pregnant. What would be a melodrama in other hands becomes a literate, surprising, and deeply human story here. Highly recommended.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsMiriam HopkinsKay FrancisHerbert MarshallA gentleman thief and a lady pickpocket join forces to con a beautiful perfume company owner. Romantic entanglements and jealousies confuse the scheme.Two clever thieves (Herbert Marshall and Miriam Hopkins) dazzle each other with their virtuosity and set up housekeeping. When they decide to bilk a rich widow (Kay Frances), the man gets in much deeper than either of them expect.
This film exemplifies the "Lubitsch touch" with its sophisticated wit and tasteful sexuality. Kay Frances' wardrobe and the art deco sets are also delightful. With Edward Everett Horton and Charles Ruggles as rejected suitors and C. Aubrey Smith as an old family retainer. - DirectorCarl Theodor DreyerStarsJulian WestMaurice SchutzRena MandelA drifter obsessed with the supernatural stumbles upon an inn where a severely ill adolescent girl is slowly becoming a vampire.A susceptible young man runs into vampires at a country inn. It is not all that easy to identify the vampire or the other elements of a conventional story even after multiple viewings. It is more in the nature of the protagonist's dream. The images are the thing here. Dreyer and his cinematographer Rudolph Maté have created a film full of some of the most exquisite, spare, and evocative black and white photography ever.
- DirectorJames WhaleStarsBoris KarloffMelvyn DouglasCharles LaughtonSeeking shelter from a storm, five travelers are in for a bizarre and terrifying night when they stumble upon the Femm family estate.A group of travellers is forced to take shelter in a terrible storm and finds themselves in the title abode among the strangest family imaginable. With a boffo cast including: Boris Karloff, Charles Laughton, Melvyn Douglas, Ernest Thesinger, Raymond Massey, and Eva Moore.
I adore this movie! It is just the perfect amalgam of thrills and wit. The screenplay and all the performances are spot on. Have a potato! - DirectorJosef von SternbergStarsMarlene DietrichClive BrookAnna May WongA notorious woman rides a train through a dangerous situation with a British captain she loved.It took more than one man to change her name to Shanghai Lily! Excellent movie in which we follow the various passengers on an exciting and dangerous train journey from Peking to Shanghai during the Chinese Civil War. The notorious Shanghai Lily (Marlene Dietrich) meets former lover Capt. Harvey (Colin Clive) on the train and must regain his trust. Some of the other passengers include a mysterious Eurasian (Werner Oland), a beautiful Chinese shady lady (Anna May Wong), and an American gambler (Eugene Pallette). I really enjoyed this one.
- DirectorHoward HawksRichard RossonStarsPaul MuniAnn DvorakKaren MorleyAn ambitious and nearly insane violent gangster climbs the ladder of success in the mob, but his weaknesses prove to be his downfall.Gangster Tony Camante (Paul Muni) lives by an iron law: "Do it first, do it yourself, and keep on doing it." But like all movie gangsters Tony has his Achilles heel, in this case his little sister (Ann Dvorak). With George Raft as Tony's coin-flpping henchman and Boris Karloff as a rival gangster.
I liked this one much better on this repeat viewing. I had not been clued into the "X" motif before and watching for it was very interesting. Howard Hawkes did a grand job of keeping things moving. - DirectorErle C. KentonStarsCharles LaughtonBela LugosiRichard ArlenA mad doctor conducts ghastly genetic experiments on a remote island in the South Seas, much to the fear and disgust of the shipwrecked sailor who finds himself trapped there.Dr. Moreau (Charles Laughton) has been able to accelerate evolution in such a way as to create man-beasts from animals (with a little assist from vivisection in the House of Pain). When a shipwrecked man (Richard Arlen) is thrown overboard into his boat, things get really exciting on his uncharted Island. With a hirsute Bela Lugosi as The Sayer of the Law ("Are We Not Men?").
Somehow Laughton manages to combine the campy, the polymorphously perverse, and the satanic into one seriously scary mad scientist. The camerawork is beautiful and the makeup on the man-beasts is amazing. The elements of sexual threat and violence could only have been pre-Code. I hadn't seen this before and was pleased to discover another true horror classic. - DirectorRaymond BernardStarsPierre BlancharGabriel GabrioCharles VanelWorld War 1 begins and a young man enlists to fight for his country.Completely devastating film about the horrors faced by a French battalion in WWI. Bernard gives us enough of the characters to make it all personal and enough of the spectacle to make us hate war in general.
- DirectorKarl FreundStarsBoris KarloffZita JohannDavid MannersA resurrected Egyptian mummy searches Cairo for the girl he believes to be his long-lost princess.A British Museum Field Expedition unearths a cursed scroll that brings the mummy of an ancient Egyptian priest (Boris Karloff) back to life in this horror/romance tale. While some of the acting is pretty ham-handed, Karloff is effective and even moving, Zita Johann is probably the most intriguing of all the Universal horror ingenues, and the cinematography is first rate. I definitely prefer this one to Dracula.
- DirectorMikio NaruseStarsYoshiko OkadaShin'yô NaraYukiko TsukubaAn actress returns to Tokyo after a successful stint in Hollywood to reclaim - with the help of her gangster brother - the daughter she abandoned years before.Heartfelt melodrama about competing mother love. An actress has abandoned her husband and baby daughter for fame and fortune in America. The husband remarried and the stepmother is the only mother the little girl has ever known. The birth mother returns to Japan to reclaim her child and is left an opening when the father is thrown in jail. I liked this sensitively done silent. The stepmother was particularly good.
- DirectorTod BrowningStarsWallace FordLeila HyamsOlga BaclanovaA circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.A beautiful trapeze artist plans to murder a midget after she marries him for his money. The other side show "freaks" learn of this and exact a cruel revenge.
This was my first viewing of the film and I am still sorting out my reaction. The wedding banquet scene and the revenge sequence are powerful film making by any standard. On the one hand, the presentation of the deformed performers is unashamed and human. On the other hand, the whole thing is fundamentally exploitative and disturbing. - DirectorMervyn LeRoyStarsPaul MuniGlenda FarrellHelen VinsonWrongly convicted James Allen serves in the intolerable conditions of a Southern chain gang, which later comes back to haunt him.A decorated soldier (Paul Muni) returns from WWI with ambitions to become an engineer. Hard times and injustice put him on the chain gang instead. With Glenda Farrell as a no-good dame.
If I recall correctly, this was cited by Hitchcock as one of his favorite films when he first arrived in America. I don't know if I'd go that far, but it certainly does make compelling watching and Muni is great. - DirectorMervyn LeRoyStarsJoan BlondellAnn DvorakBette DavisAlthough Vivian Revere is seemingly the most successful of a trio of reunited schoolmates, she throws it away by descending into a life of debauchery and drugs.Ann Dvorak (the popular one), Joan Blondell (the bad girl), and Bette Davis (the smart one) play three alumnae of P.S. 62 whose lives come together again years later. Ms. Popularity seemingly has it made after marrying a wealthy lawyer (Warren William) and producing an adorable son. She is discontented, however, and she soon becomes lost to addiction. With Lyle Talbot as Ann's new love and Humphrey Bogart in a small part as a gangster.
I really enjoyed this pre-Code classic. It is lurid but has plenty of energy. - DirectorJean RenoirStarsMichel SimonMarcelle HainiaSévérine LerczinskaA bookseller saves a tramp from drowning and shelters him, but the tramp's odd behavior starts to wear everyone down.A tramp (Michel Simon) is attempting suicide in the Seine when a romantic bookseller comes to his rescue and kindly offers him bed and board with his family. The tramp proceeds to create anarchy of every kind in the bourgeois household. Although I don't find a lot of humor in destruction, there is enough comedy of manners to make this an enjoyable watch and the film making is masterful.
- DirectorCharles BrabinCharles VidorStarsBoris KarloffLewis StoneKaren MorleyEnglishmen race to find the tomb of Genghis Khan before the sinister Fu Manchu does.Dr. Fu Manchu (Boris Karloff) schemes to get his hands on the mask and sword of Genghis Kahn. Once these are in his possession, he will be able to call on untold millions of Asians, kill all white men, and take their women! The British Secret Service sends a team of scientists on a desperate quest to beat Fu to the goods.
This movie is just a ton of camp fun which I cannot recommend highly enough. It is full of creepy torture, juicy dialogue, and an unforgettable performance by Myrna Loy as Fu's sadistic, nymphomaniac daughter. - DirectorEdward H. GriffithGeorge CukorStarsAnn HardingLeslie HowardMyrna LoyBased on a play by Philip Barry, this sophisticated comedy is about a man trying to justify his love for both his wife and his mistress.Sophisticated pre-Code fare about a publisher (Leslie Howard) who has lived for years with an artist (Ann Harding) who has been not only a lover but a kindred spirit and close friend. When the bloom is off the rose, he decides to marry an alluring socialite (Myrna Loy). Based on a Philip Barry play and accordingly quite stagey. Still the acting is first rate and the moral years ahead of its time.
- DirectorLewis MilestoneStarsJoan CrawfordWalter HustonFred HowardA prostitute newly arrived in the South Pacific finds herself at odds with a stern missionary determined to save her soul.A varied group of passengers is stranded on a South Sea island when the ship has an outbreak of cholera. A preacher (Walter Huston) takes it upon himself to save or cast out Sadie Thompson (Joan Crawford), a prostitute in their midst. This is based on a stage play and it shows though the director does a heroic job in maintaining visual interest. The performances are also impressive. Huston in particular made me want to smack him.
- DirectorGeorge CukorErnst LubitschStarsMaurice ChevalierJeanette MacDonaldGenevieve TobinAn unhappily married couple try to come between a happy one.Andre (Maurice Chevalier) and Colette (Jeanette MacDonald) are still madly in love after three years of marriage. But Colette's best friend Mitzi (Genevieve Tobin) sets her cap for Andre, aided by her husband (Roland Young) who wants a divorce and all hell breaks loose. With Charlie Ruggles as Andre's best friend, who has a yen for Colette. There is nothing wrong with this movie and it certainly has the Lubitsch touch in spades. The songs are also quite nice. I just personally had a hard time finding the infidelity premise all that funny.
- DirectorFrank BorzageStarsGary CooperHelen HayesAdolphe MenjouAn American ambulance driver and an English nurse fall in love in Italy during World War I.An American ambulance driver (Gary Cooper) and a British nurse (Helen Hayes) are star-crossed lovers in WWI Italy. This made a huge upward leap in my esteem on this viewing. I've read the novel since the first time I saw it and I thought the movie did a reasonable job with the book. This, of course, could only have happened pre-Code. I really enjoyed Adolphe Menjou as Rinaldi.
- DirectorNorman Z. McLeodStarsGroucho MarxChico MarxHarpo MarxQuincy Adams Wagstaff, Huxley University's new president, accidentally hires bumblers Baravelli and Pinky to help his school win the big football game against their rival, Darwin University.This time the boys wreak havoc on a college campus and entertain with multiple renditions of "Everyone Says I Love You". Sad to say, Margaret Dumont is MIA.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsUreo EgawaKinuyo TanakaTatsuo SaitôWhen a young man inherits his father's lucrative business, he cheats the system to set up three of his college friends with jobs.Three chums live a carefree life at university, participating in military gymnastics, playing go in class, cheating on exams, and flirting with a girl who sells them beer. A fourth studies hard to support his widowed mother. When one of the slackers takes over as the director of his family run company, the others come calling for jobs. This film examines the change in the relationships when a friend becomes a boss. This silent does not measure up to I Was Born But ... but is interesting. It was fun to see an early glimpse of Ozu regular Chishû Ryû as one of the slackers.
- DirectorFrank CapraStarsBarbara StanwyckAdolphe MenjouRalph BellamyA librarian takes a cruise and falls for an unobtainable man, a district attorney married to an invalid."Plain" librarian Lula (Barbara Stanwyck) looks for romance on a vacation to Havana and finds in the form of lawyer Bob (Adolphe Menjou). After she is in deep, he informs her he is married and she proceeds to sacrifice everything for the sake of his political career. With Ralph Bellamy as a hardhitting reporter with a yen for Lula.
This tearjerker was pretty darned good once you get over the wallflower Barbara problem. It was particularly nice to see Bellamy in something other than a rebound financee role. This is definitely pre-Code, what with adultery, illegitimacy, etc. - DirectorCecil B. DeMilleStarsFredric MarchClaudette ColbertElissa LandiA Roman soldier becomes torn between his love for a Christian woman and his loyalty to Emperor Nero.Epic about the persecution of the Christians in Nero's Rome. With Charles Laughton as Nero; Claudette Colbert as his wife, the randy Poppea; Frederic March as Marcus Superbus, Prefect of Rome; and Elissa Landi, the Christian object of Marcus's affections.
The Christian backdrop and pre-Code conditions enable DeMille to display some of the most blatant scenes of sadism and debauchery to hit the screens for the next 30 years. Laughton, who plays Nero as a campy effeminate infant, and the deliciously wicked Colbert are the highlights. The rest of it isn't up to much IMHO. - DirectorWesley RugglesStarsClark GableCarole LombardDorothy MackaillAn on-the-lam New York card shark marries a small-town librarian who thinks he's a businessman.Clark Gable plays a card shark who has to lay low in a small town to avoid the vice squad. There he meets the librarian (Carole Lombard) and marries her, more or less on impulse. This light romance is the only time Gable and Lombard appeared together in a movie, years before they fell in love. I thought their screen chemistry was excellent. Lombard still needed to work a bit on her comic timing.
- DirectorJosef von SternbergStarsMarlene DietrichCary GrantHerbert MarshallA cabaret singer takes up with a millionaire to pay for her gravely-ill husband's operation.A cabaret singer (Marlene Dietrich) goes back to work to finance a cure for her gravely ill husband (Herbert Marshall) The plot of this didn't hang together too well but Dietrich showed her tough and tender sides and there was that famous number in the gorilla suit. With Cary Grant as Dietrich's sugar daddy.
- DirectorLeni RiefenstahlBéla BalázsStarsLeni RiefenstahlMathias WiemanBeni FührerWhen the moon is full, young men die attempting to reach the mysterious blue light in the mountains.This is the legend of Junta, a mountain girl, told in one long flashback. Junta (Leni Riefenstahl) is persecuted by the villagers in the Italian alps because she alone can scale the peak where the blue light shines on full-moon nights while the village boys all fall to their deaths. Thus, Junta is forced to wander dressed in revealing rags until she is befriended by a German mountaineer. This movie is very beautiful but strange.
- DirectorGeorge ArchainbaudStarsEdna May OliverRobert ArmstrongJames GleasonShady stockbroker and abusive husband Gerald Parker is found dead in the penguin pool of a NYC aquarium after being knocked cold by his wife's boyfriend.Fun light mystery starring Edna Mae Oliver as school teacher/amateur sleuth Hildegarde Withers. With James Gleason as the police inspector, Mae Clark as the victim's wife, and Robert Armstrong as Clark's lawyer. I will watch anything with Edna Mae Oliver in it. The YouTube copy of this is pretty bad and I will be looking for it on TCM where it plays fairly frequently.
- DirectorAlexander KordaStarsRoland YoungGeorge GrossmithJohn LoderYoung man fights off attempts to marry him off to a series of available girls. Intersting glimpses of London in 1930.His aunt threatens to cut off the allowance of a playboy aristocrat (Roland Young) unless he marries. In self-defense, he sets up all the candidates on the "list" with fiances. This forgettable comedy is perhaps best seen for performances by such notables as Young, Merle Oberon, Wendy Barrie, and John Loder. I usually like Roland Young a lot but here he is simply too old for the part.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanStarsBarbara StanwyckGeorge BrentLyle TalbotA torch singer becomes a farmer's mail-order bride.A nightclub singer (Barbara Stanwyck) decides she wants to leave her past behind and does so by becoming the mail-order bride of a North Dakota farmer (George Brent). Things get off to a rocky start. This story actually had potential and both Stanwyck and Brent are fine as hesitant lovers. Unfortunately, the rustic humor that went along with the plot was rather a turn off for me.
- DirectorRoy Del RuthStarsJames CagneyLoretta YoungGeorge E. StoneIndependent cabbie Matt Nolan is primed to let his fists and handgun deliver payback after a big taxi firm uses intimidation and violence to squeeze out small-timers.Warner's cashing in on Cagney's success in the previous year's <i>The Public Enemy</i> with another tough-guy role, this time as an embattled taxi driver. Unfortunately, Cagney seems to spend more time pushing around his girl friend and later wife, played by Loretta Young, than he does the bad guys. The most fun to be had in this movie is seeing Cagney speak Yiddish and do his first movie dancing in a fox trot contest with an uncredited George Raft.
- DirectorAlfred SantellStarsMarion DaviesClark GableC. Aubrey SmithAfter a trapeze performer is injured during an accident, she is moved to a minister's house where they both fall in love.Polly (Marion Davies) falls during her trapeze act and is taken to the home of the local minister (Clark Gable) to recover. During her convalescence they fall in love, but can a cleric and a circus performer sucessfully wed? With C. Aubrey Smith as a disapproving bishop. Pleasant enough romantic comedy. Davies acquits herself well.
- DirectorJames FloodElliott NugentStarsLoretta YoungEric LindenAline MacMahonAt a maternity hospital, future fathers pace the corridors while their wives wait for their babies either anxiously or happily. Efficient and compassionate nurse Miss Bowers keeps the ward running smoothly. Things liven up when Grace Sutton is transferred from the prison where she is being held for murder. Most agree that the man she killed deserved to die, and Nurse Bowers sympathetically allows Grace's concerned husband Jed unlimited time with his wife. On the ward, the women have varied feelings about motherhood. Mrs. West, mother of six children, thinks babies are what give meaning to women's lives. In contrast, Florette, a showgirl, just wants to get rid of her twins as soon as possible. Miss Layton has decided opinions about child rearing and has no intention of being a doting mother. While the women debate their various theories, a woman who wants a baby so much that she has become demented wanders in from another ward. An Italian woman quietly sobs when she learns that her newborn has died. After a touching farewell with Jed, Grace, whose health has suffered from prison conditions, is taken into the labor room. While Jed waits anxiously, Florette is appalled by the plans that the prospective adoptive mother of her twins has concocted. She cradles one baby herself and discovers mother love. Miss Layton has also given up on her progressive plans for her baby. Down the hall, things are going badly for Grace. When the doctors ask Jed to choose between saving Grace or the baby, he chooses Grace, but she herself insists that the doctors operate and save the baby. After she dies, Jed refuses to see the baby girl, but wise Nurse Bowers places the child in his arms, and as with the mothers, he cannot resist her charms.Vignettes of life on the maternity ward. The principal story concerns a young prison inmate (Loretta Young) who has come to give birth and her husband (Eric Linden). With Glenda Farrell as a reluctant mother of twins and Aline MacMahon as the sympathetic head nurse. The pre-Code conditions allowed the film to be a more realistic than the same story would be later but it's still on the melodramatic side. It's shocking to modern sensibilities to see XRays being routinely given to the expectant mothers and Glenda Farrell drinking up a storm!
- DirectorRobert FloreyStarsBela LugosiSidney FoxLeon AmesA mad scientist seeks to mingle human blood with that of an ape, and resorts to kidnapping women for his experiments.Universal horror entry loosely based on the Poe story complete with "Swan Lake" opening music. Bela Lugosi plays mad scientist Doctor Mirakle who displays his "man-ape" in a carnival sideshow by day and conducts evil experiments on young ladies in an attempt to combine ape and human blood by night. This film is marred by some ham-handed comic relief and unconvincing ape effects. On the other hand, it does feature some pretty spiffy cinematography by DP Karl Freund. With Leon Ames as Pierre Dupin, here a medical study in love with the ape's choice for a bride.
- DirectorIrving PichelErnest B. SchoedsackStarsJoel McCreaFay WrayLeslie BanksA psychotic big game hunter deliberately strands a luxury yacht on a remote island, where he begins to hunt its passengers for sport.A Cossack hunter (Leslie Banks) has tired of stalking the traditional "big game", so he arranges for shipwrecks on his isolated island so he can have the challenge of hunting the most dangerous game - the survivors. One day a world renowned hunter (Joel McCrae) makes it ashore where he encounters castaways played by Faye Wray and Robert Armstrong.
This movie was made on the King Kong sets during Wray and Armstrong's downtime during the special effects photography for that film. This is a disturbing and suspenseful horror entry that I find most endearing for an early performance by the handsome McCrae. - DirectorMichael CurtizStarsLionel AtwillFay WrayLee TracyA wisecracking New York reporter intrudes on a research scientist's quest to unmask The Moon Killer.A series of "Moonlight Murders" leave bodies with wierd surgical mutilations that tie them to a research laboratory headed by Dr. Xavier (Lionel Atwill). An enterprising reporter (Lee Tracy) interferes with the good doctor's efforts to keep his investigation of the crimes private. With Faye Wray as the doctor's daughter.
This film was billed as a horror/romance/comedy and therein lies its problem. The comedy is just not funny enough and is so prominent as to weaken the horror. The last 10 minutes are fairly scary, however. - DirectorJean CocteauStarsEnrique RiveroElizabeth Lee MillerPauline CartonTold in four episodes - an unnamed artist is transported through a mirror into another dimension, where he travels through various bizarre scenarios.I am not really qualified to rate or review this surrealist film, which I did not understand (or particularly enjoy).
- DirectorVictor HalperinStarsBela LugosiMadge BellamyJoseph CawthornA young man turns to a witch doctor to lure the woman he loves away from her fiancé, but instead turns her into a zombie slave.Low budget independent film noted for being the first zombie movie, though these zombies do not feed on human flesh but are more or less slaves. A plantation owner falls for a woman who is sailing to Haiti to be married. Once they return to the island, he enlists the help of an evil sugar mill owner (Bela Lugosi) to make her his own. The owner does this by making her a zombie like all the workers at his mill. Fairly effective. Lugosi's performance is very like that in Dracula, with the hypnotic stare.
- DirectorW.S. Van DykeStarsJohnny WeissmullerNeil HamiltonC. Aubrey SmithA trader and his daughter set off in search of the fabled graveyard of the elephants in deepest Africa, only to encounter a wild man raised by apes.A Great White Hunter (C. Aubrey Smith) leads a safari in search of unimaginable riches in ivory in the elephants' graveyard. On their journey, his daughter is abducted by a man who was raised by apes. With Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan and Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane.
I found this movie more disturbing in some ways than Freaks! I cut old movies a giant amount of slack in the racism department but this one has to take the cake.
It is also deeply ludicrous. First, we are treated to many, many obvious process shots as Jane and company survey various African tribes. The hunters have to keep their bearers in line with whips. The whole gang have a tendency to shoot first and ask questions later. Hippos are maneaters. Apparently, the logical choice to play the offspring of a man in a gorilla suit is a chimpanzee. The hunters conclude that Tarzan might be human because he is white. The coup de grace is when the safari is menaced by a tribe of white dwarfs in blackface.
I was looking forward to this because I had enjoyed Tarzan and His Mate. I now know that the sequel surpasses the original in this case.
I did like the quiet scenes between Tarzan and Jane and Johnny Weissmuller is certainly easy on the eyes. - DirectorEdmund GouldingStarsGreta GarboJohn BarrymoreJoan CrawfordA group of very different individuals staying at a luxurious hotel in Berlin deal with each of their respective dramas."Grand Hotel... always the same. People come, people go. Nothing ever happens." MGM threw every star in the cinema firmament at this material and won the Best Picture Oscar for its trouble. This did not improve on a the second viewing for me. I kept thinking that people just do not talk this way.
This is the film in which Garbo "wants to be alone." - DirectorRaoul WalshStarsSpencer TracyJoan BennettMarion BurnsYoung New York cop Dan falls in love with waterfront waitress Helen. Helen's sister Kate falls for gangster Duke. Dan must do in Duke.An Irish-American policeman (Spencer Tracy) falls for a wisecracking lunch counter waitress (Joan Bennett) while solving crime on the waterfront. There is nothing wrong with this movie that a complete rewrite could not fix, starting with the looong unfunny "comedy" drunk schtick by Will Stanton. On the other hand, the two leads acquit themselves admirably and Joan Bennett makes a beautiful blonde.
- DirectorGrigoriy AleksandrovSergei EisensteinStarsFélix BalderasSara GarcíaMartín HernándezHaving revolutionized film editing through such masterworks of montage as Potemkin and Strike, Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein emigrated west in hopes of testing the capabilities of the American film industry.Amazon Prime
- DirectorFrank CapraAllan DwanRoy William NeillStarsWalter HustonPat O'BrienKay JohnsonSocially-conscious banker Thomas Dickson faces a crisis when his protégé is wrongly accused for robbing the bank, gossip of the robbery starts a bank run, and evidence suggests Dickson's wife had an affair...all during the same day.Amazon Instant
- DirectorAlfred E. GreenStarsRuth ChattertonGeorge BrentBette DavisA socialite gets a divorce but can't keep out of her ex-husband's life.Buy on Amazon Instant
- DirectorClarence BrownStarsMarie DresslerRichard CromwellJean HersholtAfter decades of raising the motherless Smith children, housekeeper Emma Thatcher is faced with resentment when she marries their father.Amazon Instant
- DirectorLeslie PearceStarsW.C. FieldsMarjorie KaneArnold GrayAn unconventional dentist deals with a variety of eccentric and difficult patients in slapstick fashion.Amazon Prime
- DirectorFrank R. StrayerStarsMary BrianIrene RichJames HallThe lives of a number of the workers and executives in a Manhattan skyscraper are affected by the actions of a philandering and crooked company boss.Internet Archive
- DirectorGeorge ArchainbaudStarsJohn BarrymoreHelen TwelvetreesJill EsmondAttorney Tom Cardigan is the discontented "mouthpiece" for Vanny Powers' mob. When Tom takes sweet June Perry as his mistress, she tries in vain to redeem him. But Powers decides Tom would be even more useful to him as District Attorney, which he arranges with surprising ease...despite Tom's warning that "if I go on the other side, I'll stay there." Soon, Tom's ambition leads him to ditch June for the daughter of political boss Ulric. The crisis arrives when Powers goes on trial for a killing...witnessed by June.Amazon Instant
- DirectorWilliam A. SeiterStarsHelen TwelvetreesRicardo CortezJill EsmondPoster writes a gossip column for the Morning Gazette. He will write about anyone and everyone as long as he gets the credit. He gets most of his information from his gal, Peggy who is a showgirl. When Bill sees Tony stab Angelo Spinelli to death in a speak easy, he puts it front page of the Gazette. But on the night that he goes out with heiress Mildred, he slips the diamond that came from Peggy's finger on Mildred's finger and announces his engagement - while tattling about her friends in his column. This gets him in dutch with Mildred and Peggy. At the same time, the cops cannot find Tony, but Tony is looking for Poster to thank him for the publicity.Amazon Instant
- DirectorSamuel BischoffStarsHoward PhillipsPreston FosterGeorge E. StoneAn innocent man sentenced to death gets caught up in a prison riot.Internet Archive
- DirectorMax OphülsStarsMax NadlerJarmila NovotnaOtto WernickeBohemia in the 19th century, stage-coach driver Hans, loves the mayor's daughter Marie, but she is promised Wenzel, the son of another wealthy farmer. Marie refuses to marry Wenzel because of Hans, but the marriage arranger tries to "buy" Marie from Hans. But when Wenzel tells Hans, that he doesn't want to marry Marie, either, because he loves circus director Brummel's daughter, Hans decides to accept the offer of money for not interferring in the relations of Hans and Marie. But when Marie hears about this, she doesn't want to see Hans again.Internet Archive
- DirectorAlbert de CourvilleStarsJessie MatthewsOwen NaresCarol GoodnerA businessman's daughter runs away from an arranged marriage, only to find herself penniless and suspected of theft after she becomes the victim of a bag thief in the train. When she refuses to tell him who she really is, her accuser decides to take her home where he can keep an eye on her until 12 o'clock the next day, the time at which she has calculated that it will be safe to tell the truth! But when his fiancée arrives unexpectedly and then his 'guest' is mistaken for her, it all gets rather embarrassing...Internet Archive
- DirectorLowell ShermanStarsJoan BlondellMadge EvansIna ClaireEx-showgirls and roommates Polaire Gwynn (Madge Evans) and Schatze Citroux (Joan Blondell) are reunited with their sometime friend and former co-worker, Jean Lawrence (Ina Claire), when she returns from France. Jean, a hard-boiled gold digger, asks the honest Polaire and loyal Schatze to introduce her to a new man, and Polaire calls her boyfriend, playboy Dey Emery (David Manners), for help. The girls meet Dey and his friend, pianist Boris Feldman (the film's director Lowell Sherman), at a speakeasy, where Boris bets Jean that if his piano playing does not induce her to love him, he will give her $5,000. Later, at Boris' apartment, Jean pretends to sleep through Boris' concert. Polaire then plays, and Boris, impressed with her talent, offers to be her teacher. He implies that she will have to be his lover as well as his student, however, and Polaire becomes upset when Dey does not protest. Dey mistakenly assumes that an exhibition of jealousy would be unwelcome, and his inaction results in Polaire's acceptance of Boris' proposition. After Polaire leaves to collect her things, Schatze and the heartbroken Dey also leave, but Jean stays to seduce Boris. Jean's calculated exhibitionism is successful, and Boris does not answer the door when Polaire returns. After she leaves, Polaire is hurt in an automobile accident and is hospitalized. Sometime later, Jean tires of Boris and breaks up with him, then pursues Dey. Dey welcomes Jean's attentions until Schatze tells him that Polaire has been in the hospital since their parting. Dey immediately goes to Polaire and proposes to her, and they reconcile. Later, Jean makes an unwelcome appearance at Polaire and Schatze's apartment while Polaire is waiting to meet Dey's father Justin (Phillips Smalley) for the first time. When Dey arrives and Jean learns that Polaire is to meet Justin at the Emery house, she slips a pearl necklace into Polaire's pocket so that she will have an excuse to follow. Polaire's interview with Justin is going splendidly until Jean arrives and intimates that Polaire stole the necklace. Indignant that Dey believes Jean, Polaire storms out, while Jean stays to flirt with Justin. Later, on the day of Jean and Justin's wedding, Schatze and Polaire arrive to retrieve a bracelet that Polaire loaned Jean. Jean returns the jewelry and miserably contemplates her future of wedded boredom as Schatze and Polaire brag about the fun they will have when they sail for France that afternoon. The trio are soon drunk, and Jean decides that she cannot exchange her freedom for Justin's fortune. She sneaks out of the house with Schatze, but Polaire is caught by Dey. Dey apologizes to Polaire for misjudging her, but Polaire leaves anyway. The determined Dey follows her onto the ocean liner, where Polaire consents to marry him when he states that he is certain of her virtue. The couple then cuddles happily as Jean flirts with Schatze's male traveling companion.Internet Archive
- DirectorHoward HigginStarsBette DavisPat O'BrienJunior DurkinJimmy idolizes bootlegger Matt, and when he refuses to implicate his friend, he is sent to reform school. He befriends Shorty, a boy with a heart condition, and escapes to let the world know about the brutal conditions.Internet Archive
- DirectorGeorge ArchainbaudStarsIrene DunneRicardo CortezJill EsmondA young woman plots astrological revenge on schoolgirls from her past.Buy on Amazon Instant
- DirectorRichard ThorpeStarsLois WilsonGrant WithersDorothy RevierA murder mystery about the smuggling of illegal Chinese aliens into America through Chinatown.Amazon Instant
- DirectorKing VidorStarsDolores Del RíoJoel McCreaJohn HallidayA native girl falls for a visitor to her island, but she's chosen to be sacrificed to the volcano god.Amazon Instant
- DirectorEdwin L. MarinStarsBela LugosiDavid MannersAdrienne AmesMurder during film shoot sparks search for a killer.Internet Archive
- DirectorWilliam DieterleStarsRuth ChattertonGeorge BrentLois WilsonRich couple loses their fortune in stock market crash.Amazon Instant
- DirectorFrank R. StrayerStarsHarrison FordAlberta VaughnTyrell DavisA young couple making plans to elope are overheard by a jewel thief, who sees a chance to turn the situation to his advantage.Amazon Prime
- DirectorMichael CurtizLloyd BaconStarsRichard BarthelmessMarian MarshNorman FosterKarl is the workaholic adopted son while Stephan is the lazy one. They both go to Munich to study medicine and Karl is at the top of the class while Stephan is barely passing. When Stephan's actions causes the death of Anna, Karl is the one who takes the rap and three years in prison. When he gets out, he finds Stephan is dead and a sick child needs an operation and he does a brilliant surgery. This gets him noticed and his mother tells them that he is Stephan Brenner, not Karl Brenner. She tells Karl that he must cure sickness in the world. But, being that he is Stephan, he can no longer marry Lottie, as she is now his sister.Amazon Instant
- DirectorDudley MurphyStarsJoel McCreaMarian MarshWilliam GarganSpoiled sports hero learns hard lessons.Amazon Instant
- DirectorEdward SedgwickStarsBuster KeatonJimmy DuranteRuth SelwynA timid professor inherits a large sum of money and decides to fund a terrible musical.Internet Archive
- DirectorPhil RosenStarsThelma ToddLyle TalbotHenry B. WalthallDr. Robert Cromwell performs a delicate operation that has never been done before, and the patient dies. He is charged with malpractice and manslaughter and his trial is national news, but the jury acquits him. But the court of public opinion is still against him, and the medical board will meet to decide whether or not to take his medical license away. Before they do, amateur pilot Cromwell decides to join his friend, WWI Ace Donald Evans, on a flight to Alaska looking for a shorter route to Japan by following the Aleutian Islands. They crash in Alaska and Evans is killed, but Cromwell is rescued by fur trapper Tom Ross. He takes Cromwell to Armstrong's Trading Post, where he is nursed back to health by Klondike, a girl who works for Armstrong and was engaged to marry Armstrong's son Jim, who is now suffering from the same disease that Cromwell's last patient had. Mark talks Cromwell into performing the same operation, and this time it's a success--or would have been if Jim hadn't decided to fake it being a failure.Internet Archive
- DirectorGregory La CavaStarsDorothy WilsonArline JudgeRichard CromwellCollege co-eds learn to handle the responsibilities of romance.Amazon Instant
- DirectorAlbert RayStarsGinger RogersLyle TalbotJ. Farrell MacDonaldThirteen years ago, somebody murdered the wealthy host of a dinner party. Now, the guests from that event reunite at the creepy house where the crime took place to figure out who inherited the victim's estate.Internet Archive
- DirectorMaurice ElveyStarsIvor NovelloElizabeth AllanA.W. BaskcombA landlady suspects that her new lodger is the madman killing women in London.Amazon Prime
- DirectorA. Edward SutherlandStarsDouglas FairbanksWilliam FarnumEarle BrowneAfter making a bet, Steve strands himself on uninhabited island.Amazon Instant
- DirectorFrank R. StrayerStarsGene MorganDoris HillGlenn TryonAfter a plane makes an emergency landing, passengers take refuge in a deserted house, but one of them is a killer.Amazon Instant
- DirectorLouis KingStarsHenry B. WalthallLeon JanneyLionel BelmoreA once great stage and screen actor (Henry B. Walthall) has fallen from fame because of his alcoholism; his young son (Leon Janney) is determined to see his father "make good" again.Amazon Instant
- DirectorArmand SchaeferStarsJack MulhallPhyllis BarringtonCrauford KentDuring a séance at an elderly millionaire's house, the millionaire is murdered. The detectives investigating the crime discover that everyone who was at the séance had a motive for killing the man.Internet Archive
- DirectorChester M. FranklinStarsMyrna LoyConway TearleBarbara KentThis cinematic adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel stars Myrna Loy in her first starring role.Amazon Prime
- DirectorJ.P. McGowanArmand SchaeferStarsJohn WayneShirley GreyConway TearleWhen his father is killed in a train wreck, Larry Baker vows to unmask a mysterious criminal called "The Wrecker," who has targeted the L&M Railroad for deadly" accidents."Amazon Prime
- DirectorChester M. FranklinStarsLew CodyMarion ShillingGilbert RolandOctave Feuillet's play about an elderly Parisian rake who romances a parade of sophisticated women without falling for any of them. He meets his match when he tries to win a young girl away from her fiance, a struggling young artist.Amazon Prime
- DirectorRichard ThorpeStarsSally BlaneJohn DarrowJ. Farrell MacDonaldA reckless young society girl whose uncle is a judge is assigned a young offender as her chauffeur to try to help straighten her out.Amazon Prime
- DirectorH. Bruce HumberstoneStarsZasu PittsEugene PalletteLucien LittlefieldBodies start mysteriously disappearing from the city morgue. An investigator tries to determine what is going on.Amazon Prime
- DirectorRichard ThorpeStarsConway TearleNatalie MoorheadMarceline DayA beautiful blonde makes a career of seducing, then blackmailing, wealthy married men. She is found murdered after demanding a $5000 payoff from her latest victim, and the detective investigating the case finds out that she was involved in a lot more than just blackmail.Amazon Instant
- DirectorCharles HutchisonStarsNoah BeeryDorothy BurgessMiriam SeegarWhile a ship's captain is being slowly poisoned, a gang of thugs try to take over the ship.Amazon Instant
- DirectorRalph CederStarsFrank FayRuth HallNat PendletonAn elevator operator invents a machine that he believes can help to defeat a corrupt politician in the city's upcoming mayoral election.Amazon Prime
- DirectorPhil WhitmanStarsFifi D'OrsayPaul KellyRobert WarwickA French-Canadian girl is a champion bronc rider and is also a nightclub singer. An ambitious young man sees her act one night and is struck by her talent, realizing that she is good enough to become a Broadway star. He convinces her to accompany him to New York, where she indeed does become a Broadway star. However, the young man finds himself being squeezed out by greedy Broadway producers who see the talented young girl as their own personal gold mine.Internet Archive
- DirectorB. Reeves EasonStarsEdward J. NugentRita La RoyDorothy GulliverCub reporter Daniel Greely gets a job on a big city newspaper. A string of robberies occur and the owner of the paper blames the police for not rounding up the crooks. Daniel discovers that a coded message in the newspaper's editor's box tips the crooks about each robbery.Amazon Instant
- DirectorEmory JohnsonStarsWilliam Collier Jr.Sally BlaneJ. Farrell MacDonaldA railway is threatened by mysterious wrecks, which turn out to be caused by criminals using a unique deception.Internet Archive
- DirectorE. Mason HopperStarsConway TearleIrene RichMary CarlisleA woman is accused of murdering a man who molested her young daughter.Amazon Instant
- DirectorGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsBrigitte HelmHeinz KlingenbergTela TchaïTwo French Foreign Legionnaires are lost amid the shifting sands of the Sahara Desert when they stumble across the entrance to an underground world. Searching this new found subterranean passage, our heroes are surprised to find the lost city of Atlantis. Ruling over this fantastic underworld realm, an evil queen sets her sights upon these strangers to her kingdom.Amazon Instant
- DirectorRichard ThorpeStarsJosephine DunnJack MulhallEddie BolandMad scientist works on a death ray in his mountain hideaway.Amazon Instant
- DirectorChristy CabanneStarsPeggy ShannonTheodore von EltzJ. Farrell MacDonald(1932, Tiffany) Peggy Shannon, Theodore Von Eltz, Alan Mowbray. A posh hotel is about to close its doors forever. A paroled convict comes back to the hotel to find stolen funds he hid there years earlier. He saves a woman from suicide, unaware that she has been hired by crooks to spirit the loot away from him. This early Tiffany talkie is pretty good. 16mm.Amazon Instant
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsCarl MahonStarr CallowayAlice B. RussellAn undercover government agent on a case in Mississipi meets and falls in love with a beautiful young woman who's being menaced by a local crime boss. He rescues the girl, and they leave Mississippi and head to Harlem, but their troubles follow them: they become involved in the murder of a local crime boss there.Amazon Prime
- DirectorAlbert ParkerStarsHorace HodgesHugh WilliamsGrethe HansenRichard Morton brought back valuable emeralds from a trip. He has met on the boat a beautiful girl and her uncle. They all take the train together, and the emeralds disappear. Morton has reasons to suspect the uncle.Amazon Instant
- DirectorHarry L. FraserStarsRochelle HudsonWalter ByronHarry MyersA white jungle goddess is protected by a fierce killer gorilla.Internet Archive
- DirectorCharles LamontStarsTed FryeShirley TempleGeorgie BillingsA group of soldiers in a café watch a dancer as she entertains them, but later two of them become rivals over her.Internet Archive
- DirectorFred C. NewmeyerStarsNatalie MoorheadRussell HoptonJ. Farrell MacDonaldHollywood star Irma Gladden piles up the haters as she goes along her merry way-until she's found dead in her car.Amazon Prime
- DirectorFrank R. StrayerStarsMischa AuerMartha MattoxRex LeasePeople in an old dark house on a stormy night are menaced by a killer ape.Internet Archive
- DirectorGeorge CukorStarsJohn BarrymoreKatharine HepburnBillie BurkeA man, Hilary Fairfield returns home after fifteen years in a mental asylum. However, he finds things are not the way they were when he left.YouTube
- DirectorH. Bruce HumberstoneStarsZasu PittsJames GleasonBen LyonA group of amateur detectives sets out to expose The Crooked Circle, a secretive group of hooded occultists.YouTube
- DirectorSpencer Gordon BennetStarsWilliam 'Stage' BoydClaudia DellHuntley GordonGuests at a luxury hotel are horrified when they witness a man literally "disappear into thin air." The vanished man's relatives hire a detective, who goes to the hotel to investigate the disappearance.YouTube
- DirectorChristy CabanneStarsMerna KennedyTheodore von EltzGrant WithersA young girl new to the big city gets a job as a man's companion. What she doesn't know is that the man is a notorious gangster.YouTube
- DirectorVictor SchertzingerStarsJack OakieShirley GreyLeon AmesPat and Max are in love and share an intimate relationship. However, after Max receives his surgeon's diploma, his parents have arranged a marriage for him with a woman from a rich, good background.YouTube
- DirectorGraham CuttsStarsArthur WontnerIsla BevanIan HunterA young woman turns to Sherlock Holmes for protection when she's menaced by an escaped killer seeking missing treasure. However, when the woman is kidnapped, Holmes and Watson must penetrate the city's criminal underworld to find her.YouTube
- DirectorEdward F. ClineStarsJack OakieW.C. FieldsAndy ClydeA small country on the verge of bankruptcy is persuaded to enter the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics as a means of raising money.YouTube