1931-1940

  • John Farrow – The Invisible Menace (1938)

    USA1931-1940John FarrowMysteryThriller

    Quote:
    Army Private Eddie Pratt smuggles his new bride into camp in hopes of having a happy wedding night. Instead they discover a murder. Colonel Rogers of Army Intelligence arrives to take over the case. The prime suspect, Jevries, is well-known to Rogers, who sets out to get a confession from Jevries even though there are plenty of other suspects. In the end, Eddie’s bride Sally surprisingly turns the tables on the culprit.Read More »

  • Cyril Gardner – Perfect Understanding (1933)

    1931-1940ComedyCyril GardnerRomanceUnited Kingdom

    Gloria Swanson co-produced Perfect Understanding, a romantic comedy that teamed her with a young Laurence Olivier. A young American woman (Swanson), on vacation in England, meets an aristocrat (Olivier) and the two fall passionately in love. Seeing how other couples become possessive and implode in marriage, they make a pact: they’ll marry, but they’ll keep the arrangement light and loose. But can two young lovers really carry on carefree, committed to not belonging to each other?Read More »

  • Max Neufeld – Sehnsucht 202 (1932)

    1931-1940AustriaComedyMax NeufeldMusical

    From luise-rainer.com:
    Many sources, including Luise herself, referred to the ‘overnight sensation’ that Luise made in her first film for MGM, Escapade (1935). This narrative of the newly discovered film star conveniently erased Luise’s film career up to that point. She had appeared in three films in Europe before Hollywood came calling.Read More »

  • Jacques Tourneur – They All Come Out (1939)

    1931-1940CrimeDramaJacques TourneurUSA

    A “Crime Doesn’t Pay” morality drama about a young man sentenced to a prison term and attempts by the system to rehabilitate jailed criminals.Read More »

  • Tod Browning – Miracles for Sale (1939)

    1931-1940ThrillerTod BrowningUSA

    Quote:

    Directed by Tod Browning (Dracula (1931) & Freaks (1932)), this film features a host of character actors led by Robert Young as retired magician Mike Morgan, who now sells tricks to the other performers in his former trade (hence the film’s title). Frank Craven plays Young’s father, having just come to NYC to visit his son, and provides the film’s comic relief. Judy Barclay (Florence Rice) is being chased and comes to Morgan for help, whose assistance becomes the story, which plays out confusingly and frenetically during this picture’s 71 minutes. Henry Hull as Houdini-like Dave Duvallo and Lee Bowman (among others, some listed later) also appear in this Harry Ruskin, Marion Parsonnet, and James Edward Grant screenplay (based on Clayton Rawson’s novel).Read More »

  • Jean Benoît-Lévy & Marie Epstein – La Maternelle AKA Children of Montmartre (1933)

    1931-1940ClassicsFranceJean Benoît-LévyMarie Epstein

    Below is an apt “user comment” from the film’s IMDB page. For my money, LA MATERNELLE is an even greater film than ZERO FOR CONDUCT, which is saying a lot.

    “Until I saw this film at a Cinema Conference in Aberdeen in 1995 I was ignorant of the fact that a woman director had produced poetic and social cinema comparable with Vigo’s ZERO DE CONDUITE (certainly one of the greatest films ever). Vigo in 1933 is revolutionary anarchist with modernist poetry at his finger tips; Epstein in 1933 is warm-hearted popular front realism with magnificent performances by nursery school kids, though the main schoolgirl is a little older (and in love with her teacher, like the protagonist in Leontine Sagan’s MAIDENS IN UNIFORM 1931). Read More »

  • Ewald André Dupont – On Such a Night (1937)

    1931-1940CrimeDramaEwald André DupontUSA

    When her husband is accused of murder, an actress tries to prove his innocence.Read More »

  • Erich Engels & Fyodor Otsep – Der Mörder Dimitri Karamasoff (1931)

    1931-1940DramaErich EngelsFyodor OtsepGermanyWeimar Republic cinema

    Plot Synopsis
    This is a stripped down (but still excellent) version of “The Brothers Karamazov.” Young Dimitri Karamasoff, on leave from the army, returns home to ask his father for money to get married. When he arrives he finds that his father has become smitten with a young woman of extremely questionable character named Gruschenka. His father gruffly rebuffs Dimitri’s request for money. Dimitri immediately seeks out his fathers lover to demand that she break off the engagement. Things get a bit more complicated when his anger towards her turns to infatuation – and eventually obsession. Dimitri and his father are both mad for Gruschenka, but she doesn’t want anything from either of them – except their money. Things come to a head when the old man is found murdered. Did Dimitri really commit patricide? Or is there more to the story?Read More »

  • Paul Merzbach – Falska miljonären AKA The Wrong Millionaire (1931)

    1931-1940ComedyPaul MerzbachSweden

    The young millionaire Fridolf Johnson and his secretary comes back to Sweden from USA by ship. The millionaire – who is never left alone, see – changes places with his secretary, which has far and unintended consequences.Read More »

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