1930s

  • Michael Curtiz – Doctor X (1932)

    1931-1940ClassicsHorrorMichael CurtizUSA

    A monster lurks as New York newspaperman Lee Taylor investigates one of the “Moon Killer” murders, in which the victims are strangled, cannibalized and surgically incised under the light of the full moon. The trail leads to the cliffside mansion of Dr. Xavier, where the doctor and his colleagues conduct a strange experiment.Read More »

  • Mitchell Leisen – Midnight (1939)

    1931-1940ComedyMitchell LeisenRomanceScrewball ComedyUSA

    Frank S. Nugent wrote:
    ‘Midnight,’ With Don Ameche and Claudette Colbert, Strikes a Seasonal High in Comedy at the Paramount

    The ice went out of the river at the Paramount yesterday, and Spring came laughing in with “Midnight,” one of the liveliest, gayest, wittiest and naughtiest comedies of a long hard season. Its direction, by Mitchell Leisen, is strikingly reminiscent of that of the old Lubitsch. Its cast, led by Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, John Barrymore and Francis Lederer, is in the best of spirits. Its script, by too many authors to mention, is a model of deft phrasing and glib narrative joinery; and its production, while handsome, never has been permitted to bulk larger than its players. The call is for three cheers and a tiger: the Paramount is back on Broadway again.Read More »

  • Karl Freund – The Mummy [+Commentary] (1932)

    1931-1940ClassicsHorrorKarl FreundUSA

    In 1921 a field expedition in Egypt discovers the mummy of ancient Egyptian prince Im-Ho-Tep, who was condemned and buried alive for sacrilege. Also found in the tomb is the Scroll of Thoth, which can bring the dead back to life. One night a young member of the expedition reads the Scroll out loud, and then goes insane, realizing that he has brought Im-Ho-Tep back to life. Ten years later, disguised as a modern Egyptian, the mummy attempts to reunite with his lost love, an ancient princess who has been reincarnated into a beautiful young woman.Read More »

  • William Wyler – The Good Fairy (1935)

    1931-1940ComedyRomanceScrewball ComedyUSAWilliam Wyler

    Synopsis:
    When a brash movie theatre owner needs usherettes for his Budapest cinema, he recruits young Luisa Ginglebusher from a nearby orphanage. Encouraged by her kindly guardian to “spread your wings,” Lu naively embarks on her quest to live the life of a fairy tale angel. Quickly encountering the debonair wolves that roam the sidewalks of Hungary, Lu randomly chooses a man to play the role of her husband: Dr. Max Sporum, a humble and idealistic lawyer. As Lu’s simple ruse grows hopelessly complicated, the dreamy-eyed girl refuses to abandon the charade, determined to evade one suitor’s wiley grasp, provide Max the prosperity he so deserves, and allow the opportunity for true love to enter her life.Read More »

  • George Sherman – New Frontier AKA Frontier Horizon (1939)

    1931-1940ActionGeorge ShermanUSAWestern

    The state government plans to build a flood-control dam and condemns the property of the local farmers and ranchers, including The Three Mesquiteers. The state intends to compensate the land-owners fairly, but a crooked real-estate promoter complicates things. The ranchers, led by Stony Brooke (‘John Wayne’ (q)), Tucson Smith (‘Ray Corrigan’) and Rusty Joslin (Raymond Hatton) fight back against both the law and the crooks.Read More »

  • Alfred E. Green – Ride a Crooked Mile (1938)

    1931-1940Alfred E. GreenUSAWestern

    SYNOPSIS:
    A macho Cossack immigrant to the U.S. goes West and joins a ring of rustlers. Later his son follows him to states and he too begins stealing cows. Not knowing his father very well, the youth is anxious to prove himself a manly man and a friendly rivalry develops until the father is captured and imprisoned. Meanwhile, his son joins the cavalry and secretly engineers a break out. He succeeds and then feels terrible guilt, for it is his unit that has been assigned to bring his father to justice.Read More »

  • Ford Beebe – Red Barry (1938)

    1931-1940ActionAdventureFord BeebeUSA

    Quote:
    “Red Barry” was the 40th sound-era serial produced by Universal Pictures (followed “Flaming Frontiers” and preceded “Scouts To the Rescue”), and was based in the Will Gould comic strip distributed to newspapers by King Features Syndicated, Inc. It was the third of five serials from Universal starring Buster Crabbe, and while the plot only revolves around two million dollars in bonds and soon evolves into a game of “Bonds, Bonds, Who Has the Bonds?”, it has so many groups, and their armies of henchmen, acquiring and re-acquiring the bonds that, in a chapter or two, the people who have the bonds don’t appear to know they are the current holders. Wing Fu (Cyril Delevanti), brings the bonds to the USA to buy war planes for an unnamed county, and quickly loses them to Quong Lee (Frank Lackteen), a Eurasian underworld chief, but they are re-taken in chapter two by Red Barry (Buster Crabbe). Ballet dancer Natacha (Edna Sedgwick), representing a ruthless group of Russians, acquires them in chapter three, but Barry gets them back in chapter four. Read More »

  • Allan Dwan – While Paris Sleeps (1932)

    1931-1940Allan DwanClassicsUSA

    Plot : While Paris Sleeps is a grim expose of the European white slave trade. To save his daughter Manon (Helen Mack) from falling into the hands of a vicious gang of pimps, convict Jacques Costard (Victor McLaglen) escapes from jail. Jacques’ problems are twofold: he must keep Manon from being abducted into a life of prostitution, and he must also hide his true identity from the girl, who has been raised to believe that Jacques died a hero in WWI. The film’s gruesome “money scene” finds the white slavers disposing of a stool pigeon by incinerating him in a huge bakery oven! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideRead More »

  • Rouben Mamoulian – Love Me Tonight (1932)

    1931-1940MusicalRomanceRouben MamoulianUSA

    Parisian tailor Maurice Courtelin (Maurice Chevalier) goes to the chateau of the Duke d’Artelines (C. Aubrey Smith) to collect a debt owed by a spendthrift nephew, the Viscount Gilbert de Varèze (Charlie Ruggles), Maurice passes as a Count and interacts with other members of the household, including the nervous bookworm the Count de Savignac (Charles Butterworth) and the near-nymphomaniac Countess Valentine (Myrna Loy). But he falls madly in love with Princess Jeanette (Jeanette MacDonald) and slowly wins her to his side. Now, how does Maurice explain to her that he’s nothing but a tailor?Read More »

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