1931-1940

  • Max Ophüls – Lachende Erben AKA The Merry Heirs (1933)

    1931-1940ClassicsComedyGermanyMax Ophüls

    A young salesman may inherit a wine-estate on one condition: he can’t drink a drop of alcohol for at least a month.Read More »

  • Anatole Litvak – Cette vieille canaille AKA The Old Devil (1933)

    1931-1940Anatole LitvakClassicsDramaFrance

    Vautier, a wealthy surgeon in his fifties, falls in love with Hélène, a young woman from a modest background. He allows her to have a string of short-lived lovers – but when Jean Trapeau, an old boyfriend, resurfaces, things get complicated.Read More »

  • Brian Desmond Hurst – Prison Without Bars (1938)

    1931-1940Brian Desmond HurstCrimeDramaUnited Kingdom

    Suzanne, Renee, Nina and Marta all hate being in prison, being slapped and treated badly, and so all the girls are trying to escape. Madame Appel just causes chaos all the time, with her harsh manners. When Yvonne with her free-thinking ways is put in charge of the school for misbehaving girls, and asks them to tell her their complaints, they don’t believe her at first. Yvonne is in love and about to marry the establishment’s doctor, and it does not help that one teenage girl falls for him – and is corresponded. It’s a hard life for the girls, and for the new female warden.Read More »

  • Sidney Lanfield – The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)

    1931-1940CrimeMysterySidney LanfieldUSA

    Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson investigate the legend of a supernatural hound, a beast that may be stalking a young heir on the fog-shrouded moorland that makes up his estate.

    ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ (1939) is the most well-known cinematic adaptation of the book, and is often regarded as one of the better film versions of it. It differs somewhat, but not as much as the 1959 film version.Read More »

  • Shirô Toyoda – Uguisu aka Nightingale (1938)

    Drama1931-1940JapanShirô Toyoda

    Not much info on this film out there, but here is a nice little rundown by Keiko McDonald from her book, From Book to Screen: Modern Japanese Literature in Films:

    “Uguisu (The Nightingale) drew on a story of the same title published that year by Einosuke Ito. Here the frame of reference is a subgenre that called itself agrarian literature. Ito’s tale is an episodic account of peasants responding to poverty and depravation with cunning, simplicity, and often woeful ignorance.Read More »

  • Anatole Litvak – Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939)

    1931-1940Anatole LitvakClassicsThrillerUSA

    Prior to the United States entry into World War II, Nazi spies try to steal American military secrets. Among those whose passions are roused is Kurt Schneider who was court-martialed and dishonorably discharged from the US Army. Schneider is not very bright and is easily swayed by the oratory of Dr. Karl Kassel, a prominent physician who is eventually made the head of the Nazi spy ring. When Schneider’s contact is arrested in Scotland, the US military asks the FBI to root out the spies. Agent Edward Renard is put in charge of the case and they methodically arrest all who have been spying.Read More »

  • William Keighley – The Prince and the Pauper (1937)

    Drama1931-1940AdventureUSAWilliam Keighley

    Errol Flynn duels into action in Warner Bros.’ spectacular, spirited film of Mark Twain’s classic novel. Amid 16th-century England’s pomp and poverty, two lookalike lads, one a beggar and one young Edward VI, exchange identities for a lark. But their switch backfires and it’s up to soldier of fortune Miles Hendon (Flynn) to turn the tables on a conspirator (Claude Rains) and return the correct lad to the throne. Flynn’s rakish persona, William Keighley’s brisk direction, Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s score and the spry performances of twins Billy and Bobby Mauch helped many a film fan form an enchanted view of olde England. That view is just as rousing today. The Prince and the Pauper is regal all-family entertainment.Read More »

  • William Wyler – Wuthering Heights (1939)

    1931-1940DramaRomanceUSAWilliam Wyler

    AMG Synopsis:
    William Wyler’s Wuthering Heights is one of the earliest screen adaptations of the classic Emily Brontë novel. A traveler named Lockwood (Miles Mander) is caught in the snow and stays at the estate of Wuthering Heights, where the housekeeper, Ellen Dean (Flora Robson), sits down to tell him the story in flashback.Read More »

  • Marcel L’Herbier – Entente cordiale (1939)

    1931-1940ClassicsFranceMarcel L'HerbierWar

    IMDB:
    The history of the Entente Cordiale in the big and small picture, from 1898, when a French officer occupied the village of Fashoda, Sudan to 8 April 1904, when a series or agreements marking the rapprochement between England and France were signed. To this turnaround in public opinion corresponds a parallel evolution in the intimate feelings of two families, one English and the other French which will result in the French heir marrying the English daughter.
    —Guy BellingerRead More »

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