1931-1940

  • Christy Cabanne – Annapolis Salute (1937)

    1931-1940Christy CabanneDramaRomanceUSA

    Synopsis:
    The adventures of three disparate cadets at the US Naval Academy–one the son of a Navy enlisted man, the other the scion of a wealthy family, the third decent but somewhat slow-witted–and their struggles with the rigors of the academy, women, and each other.Read More »

  • Mark Donskoy – V lyudyakh AKA My Apprenticeship (1939)

    1931-1940ClassicsDramaMark DonskoyUSSR

    Quote:
    My Apprenticeship (V lyudyakh) was the second entry in Russian director Mark Donskoy’s “Maxim Gorky” trilogy. Picking up where 1938’s My Childhood left off, the story covers the years in Gorky’s life when the future writer (Alexei Lyarsky) was on his own, looking for a purpose and place in life. Before he can make up his own mind, Gorky is trapped into serfdom by a wealthy family. As he grows from his teen years to full manhood, Gorky fights his way towards freedom of thought and body. Based on Gorky’s autobiography, the film was followed in 1940 by My Universities. My Apprenticeship has also been released as On His Own and Among People. (Hollywood.com)Read More »

  • Mark Donskoy – Moi universitety AKA My Universities (1940)

    1931-1940ClassicsDramaMark DonskoyUSSR

    Quote:
    My Universities (Moi universiteti) is the last installment of Russian director Mark Donskoy’s “Maxim Gorky” trilogy. Having endured a painful youth in My Childhood (1938) and a torturous sojourn as a serf in My Apprenticeship (1939), future writer Gorky (Alexei Lyarsky) reaches maturity with an insatiable desire for personal and artistic freedom. The “university” of the title is actual the school of Hard Knocks, as Gorky goes to work in the shipyards and commisserates with the hard-drinking, philosophical dockworkers. Donskoy’s depiction of street life under the Czarist regime of the late 19th century as unrelentingly depressing, filled with disenfranchised derelicts. This, of course, was meant to be a contrast to the “perfection” of the Stalin years. We can forgive this propagandizing in the light of Donskoy’s indisputable cinematic brilliance. In 1941, a considerably edited version of My Universities was released in the US as University of Life. (Hal Erickson, Rovi)Read More »

  • Henri-Georges Clouzot – La terreur des Batignolles (1931)

    1931-1940ComedyFranceHenri-Georges ClouzotShort Film

    A burglar slips inside a middle-class apartment. Believing he could work quietly, he’s surprised by a couple in evening dress.

    An expressionist comedy greatly influenced by German Expressionism set in a bohemian enclave of northern Paris, which Clouzot made shortly before he served as assistant director to Anatole Litvak and E.A. Dupont and began scripting French versions of German films at Berlin’s UFA studios.Read More »

  • John Ford – The Brat (1931)

    USA1931-1940ClassicsComedyJohn Ford

    A society novelist brings a brash young chorus girl home in order to study her for inspiration for his new novel. His family is distraught, but soon her behavior has forever altered their snobbish ways.Read More »

  • Harry Lachman – The Man Who Lived Twice (1936)

    1931-1940CrimeDramaHarry LachmanUSA

    Full Synopsis: from TCM
    Johnny “Slick” Rawley flees the police and, after lying low with his partners John “Gloves” Baker and his moll Peggy Russell, goes into hiding at the Baldwin Medical College. There he hears Dr. Clifford L. Schuyler give a lecture. Schuyler has successfully performed brain surgery on violent animals, changing them into docile creatures, and wants to try the operation on a human. Slick volunteers, stipulating that his ghastly facial scars be corrected at the same time.Read More »

  • Marcel Pagnol – La fille du puisatier aka The well-digger’s daughter (1940)

    1931-1940DramaFranceMarcel Pagnol

    The Well-Digger’s Daughter served to reunite star Raimu and writer/director Marcel Pagnol, who’d earlier scored an international hit with the “Marseilles trilogy” (Fanny, Marius, Cesar). The title character played by Josette Day, is impregnated by aviator George Gray. Her father, Raimu, orders Josette out of the house so that her younger sisters won’t be likewise “corrupted”. There’s many a moment of pathos and hilarity before Raimu realizes the folly of his behavior. Filmed in 1940, just after France’s acquiescence to their Nazi conquerors, The Well-Digger’s Daughter didn’t make it to the US until 1946. (Hal Erickson@All Movie Guide)Read More »

  • Lloyd Bacon – 50 Million Frenchmen (1931)

    1931-1940ComedyDramaLloyd BaconUSA

    Olsen and Johnson on the loose in France.

    50 Million Frenchmen is the film adaptation of the hit Broadway play with all of Cole Porter’s music eliminated, with the exception of “You Do Something To Me”, which is used as background music. The songs were omitted because box office receipts for musicals were down and Warner Brothers apparently didn’t want to risk a flop. The movie was originally filmed in 2-color Technicolor, but all that remains is this black and white version.Read More »

  • S. Sylvan Simon – The Crime of Doctor Hallet (1938)

    1931-1940DramaS. Sylvan SimonUSA

    This underrated feature stars Ralph Bellamy as Dr. Paul Hallet, working in the jungles of Sumatra with associate Jack Murray (William Gargan), experimenting on monkeys in search of a cure for red fever. Enter a much younger doctor, Phillip Saunders (John “Dusty” King), whose arrival is met with disapproval by the much older Hallet, who consigns the newcomer to a life of cleaning test tubes. Accidentally stumbling on a possible cure, Saunders tries to share his discovery with the unresponsive Hallet, then decides to conduct his own private research without the others knowledge. When Hallet arrives at his own solution, the eager Saunders inoculates himself with red fever, trusting that Hallet’s cure will save him, but it fails. Read More »

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