Quote:
Thorne Smith is a name one hardly ever hears these days, and that’s a shame. In the 1920s and early ’30s, he was the popular author of a genre-defining series of novels in which mortal men broke out of their humdrum lives to embark on comic-erotic, supernaturally tinged adventures in the company of an exciting woman (or women). The most popular of these, Topper, was filmed in 1937, three years after Smith’s death. (Smith’s novel The Passionate Witch also became the basis for a classic film comedy, I Married a Witch (1942), and later the TV series Bewitched.)Read More »
1930s
-
Norman Z. McLeod – Topper (1937)
1931-1940ClassicsComedyNorman Z. McLeodScrewball ComedyUSA -
Marc Allégret – Sous les yeux d’occident aka Under Western Eyes (1936)
Drama1931-1940FranceMarc AllégretPolitical turmoil convulses 19th-century Russia, as Razumov, a young student preparing for a career in the czarist bureaucracy, unwittingly becomes embroiled in the assassination of a public official.
Based on Joseph Conrad’s novel.Read More »
-
Arthur Robison – Der Student von Prag (1935)
1931-1940Arthur RobisonFantasyGermanyPhilosophyQuote:
The story of the student who sells his shadow for money and power only to find that the shadow reappears at certain moments and brings disaster upon him, should be well known from the original and the first remake. Robison however, introduces some new twists and angles to the story which should not be told here.Read More » -
Sacha Guitry & Fernand Rivers – Pasteur (1935)
1931-1940DramaFernand RiversFranceSacha GuitrySynopsis :
Some episodes in Pasteur’s life: the selflessness of the researcher when war is declared, Pastor rejected by members of the Academy of Medicine, Pasteur treats a child with rabies, Pasteur as a patient receives his doctor who asks him to stop his research, Pasteur celebrated at the Sorbonne by luminaries from around the world …Read More » -
John Cromwell – Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936)
1931-1940ClassicsDramaJohn CromwellUSAAn American boy turns out to be the long-lost heir of a British fortune. He is sent to live with the cold and unsentimental lord who oversees the trust.Read More »
-
George Cukor – Holiday [Criterion] (1938) (HD)
USA1931-1940ComedyGeorge CukorRomanceScrewball ComedyFree-thinking Johnny Case finds himself betrothed to a millionaire’s daughter. When her family, with the exception of black-sheep Linda and drunken Ned, want Johnny to settle a career in finance, he rebels, wishing instead to spend the early years of his life on “holiday.” With the help of his friends Nick and Susan Potter, he makes up his mind as to which is the better course, and who he’d rather take the leap with.Read More »
-
Francisco Elías – María de la O (1939)
1931-1940Francisco ElíasMexicoMusicalRomancePlot: A famous painter returns to Spain under a false name as he once had to run away, to meet his half gypsy daughter, who has become a flamenco dancer. He offers her his house, making popular rumors take flight.Read More »
-
Josef von Sternberg – Der Blaue Engel AKA The Blue Angel [English Version] (1930)
1921-1930ClassicsDramaGermanyJosef von SternbergWeimar Republic cinemaImmanuel Rath is a stuffy, disciplinarian professor who is shocked to discover his students passing around a postcard of Lola-Lola, a singer at The Blue Angel cabaret. Hoping to catch his students there, Professor Rath visits the nightclub and witnesses Lola-Lola’s performance. Entranced by her dissolute charms, he gets drunk on champagne and spends the night with her. The ensuing scandal causes him to lose control of his students and he is terminated from his position. Returning to Lola, he agrees to marry her and joins the troupe. His humiliation at having to play a clown onstage is compounded by Lola’s attraction to the strongman Mazeppa. To make matters worse, the troupe returns to the professor’s hometown, forcing him to acknowledge how far he has fallen.Read More »
-
Juliusz Gardan – Wyrok zycia AKA Life Sentence (1933)
Drama1931-1940Juliusz GardanPolandQuote:
A young girl, Jadzia, is sentenced to death for the murder of her child. Shocked by her fate, lawyer Krystyna decides to defend her in the court of second instance. She learns the story of a girl who was seduced by a strange man during a trip. Jadzia is acquitted and tries to start her life anew, but fate is preparing another fatal surprise for her.Read More »