Flesh 1932 - A lesson in love

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 6,5

Director: John Ford
Main Cast: Wallace Beery, Ricardo Cortez, Karen Morley, Jean Hersholt

"Flesh was one of the few big-studio films to deal with the subject of professional wrestling - at least until Hulk Hogan came along in the 1980s. Wallace Beery stars as a thickheaded waiter in a German beer garden who uses his muscles to clear out rowdy patrons. Beery channels his strength into a wrestling career, grappling his way up to the championship. His wife Karen Morley enjoys the creature comforts of Beery's success, but her heart belongs to her ex-lover Ricardo Cortez, and soon Karen is stepping out on her husband. Beery finds out and exacts a terrible revenge on Cortez - just minutes after Karen wises up and realizes she loves Beery after all. John Ford directed Flesh in a heavy Germanic fashion reminiscent of the Emil Jannings 'cuckolded husband' melodramas of the 1920s." - www.allmovie.com

DVD links:

Grand Hotel 1932 - Garbo 'wants to be alone'

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 7,7

Director: Edmund Goulding
Main Cast: Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone, Jean Hersholt

"Based on Vicki Baum's novel, Grand Hotel is the prototype for the all-star ensemble film and an excellent example of the rich and glamorous escapist entertainment, often from MGM, that took on enhanced prominence during the Depression. Produced by Irving Thalberg using top-end ingredients and state-of-the-art technology, it is yet another example of MGM's dominance during the 1930s for this type of film. The plot exists merely as a device to get star faces on the screen, particularly that of Greta Garbo. Though only moderately respected by the critics, Grand Hotel has proven itself of enduring influence, both for Garbo's performance and for creating star-heavy blockbusters that peaked in the 1950s with Around the World in 80 Days. Grand Hotel won Best Picture at the 1932 Academy Awards." - www.allmovie.com

DVD links:

Freaks 1932 - A disturbing and thought-provoking cult movie

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 8,0

Director: Tod Browning
Main Cast: Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Olga Baclanova, Roscoe Ates

"The genesis of MGM's Freaks was a magazine piece by Ted Robbins titled Spurs. A pre-Code tale of love, deceit, and revenge at a carnival midway, with a frank-for-its-day approach to sexual gamesmanship and violent retribution among its characters, Freaks would have raised a few eyebrows under ideal circumstances. But Browning upped the ante by casting real-life human oddities in supporting roles, most of whom would never have appeared in a major studio film otherwise. You can't say that Schlitzie the Pinhead, Randian the Living Torso, or Daisy and Violet Hilton the Siamese twins are great actors, but their flatness merely adds to the film's impact. Incapable of 'acting' in the conventional sense, they are what they are, and the blunt realism of their flat onscreen affect takes this film to a place that no other film of the day would dare to go. And while Browning uses the freaks for their shock value, he also allows them to live off-stage lives that aren't played for laughs; if their final revenge is ugly, it shows them seizing power in a way that would be denied them in nearly any other dramatic context. Freaks is generally considered to be the film that killed Tod Browning's career." - www.allmovie.com

DVD links:

I am a fugitive from a chain gang 1932 - A film experience that is hard to forget

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 8,0

Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Main Cast: Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell, Helen Vinson, Noel Francis, Preston Foster, Allen Jenkins

"Warner Bros.' hard-hitting chain-gang movie was a faithful adaptation of the similarly titled autobiography of Robert Elliot Burns (the publication of Burns' book led to the abolishment of that system and an erasure of Burns' sentence). A movie as grim as I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang was hardly a sure bet at the box office, then or now: based on the memoirs of a man who was still a wanted fugitive from a Georgia work gang, it represented a brave and potentially dangerous attack on a corrupt penal system that created more criminals than it cured. Director Mervyn LeRoy made his work camps (conveniently located in an unnamed state) as dirty, back-breaking, and soul-destroying as the screen would permit in 1932, and many prison films made later under more lenient circumstances were not nearly as brutally effective. Just as significant, Le Roy and screenwriters Howard J. Green, Brown Holmes, and Sheridan Gibney indicted the shabby treatment of America's returning veterans after World War I and damned a society that would put an innocent man behind bars and turn him into a criminal. LeRoy had an ideal leading man in Paul Muni, who made James Allen decent but flawed, making clear that, but for fortune, this story could happen to anyone." - www.allmovie.com

DVD links:

Trouble in Paradise 1932 - The most accomplished example of the 'Lubitsch touch'

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 8,2

Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Main Cast: Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis, Herbert Marshall, Charles Ruggles, Edward Everett Horton, C. Aubrey Smith

"Ernst Lubitsch used Laszlo Aladar's play The Honest Finder as a springboard for one of his most delightful early-'30s Paramount confections. With a script by Samson Raphaelson and Grover Jones, Lubitsch derives sparkling humor from the lusty (Pre-Code) love triangle among two jewel thieves, Lily and Gaston, and their intended victim, Mme. Colet. From the opening image of a garbage gondola's gliding through the picturesque Venice canals, Lubitsch makes light of the notion that amorality lies beneath the glossy exteriors of the rich. Elegantly sending up idealized movie romance, Gaston and Lily fall in love as they attempt to rob each other blind over an intimate dinner, sealing a bond between two scoundrels. Such Lubitsch details as a hand's hanging a 'Do Not Disturb' sign on a doorknob and the shadow of a couple cast on a bed neatly communicate the nature of Gaston's relationships with Lily and Mme. Colet, complementing the clever dialogue, spiked with nimble come-ons and ripostes, and delivered with aplomb by Herbert Marshall, Miriam Hopkins, and Kay Francis. Praised for its smoothly imaginative technique and comic invention, Trouble in Paradise burnished Lubitsch's reputation as Paramount's premier purveyor of 1930s Continental class, and it is still considered one of the best adult comedies ever made." - www.allmovie.com

DVD links:

Murders in the Rue Morgue 1932 - Lugosi in a Poe adaptation

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 6,3

Director: Robert Florey
Main Cast: Bela Lugosi, Sidney Fox, Leon Ames, Bert Roach, Betty Ross Clarke

"Having missed the opportunity to direct Frankenstein for Universal, Robert Florey was offered Murders in the Rue Morgue as a consolation, whereupon he transformed a pedestrian property into a minor classic.
Bela Lugosi in the prime of his horror career delivers a sublimely evil performance that carries this effective thriller released by Universal in the wake of their horror success of Frankenstein and Dracula. Based on a tale by Edgar Allen Poe, Murders in the Rue Morgue strikes a similar feel to some of Tod Browning's pictures: dark and rather sadistic. Lugosi's Dr. Mirakle is an evil doctor whose prize sideshow attraction is a killer gorilla whose blood he wants to mix with that of a woman (Sidney Fox) for some bizarre reason. While Lugosi takes the role to its horrifying limits, his co-stars pale by comparison playing rote characters in corny performances. Leon Waycoff (aka Leon Ames) is the hero, a medical student whose girlfriend (Fox) is abducted by the runaway ape in an exciting rooftop climax. The film's stronger elements - a woman's death in Mirakle's lab, another who is murdered and left stuffed in a chimney - come across even more powerfully thanks to the fine cinematography of the masterful Karl Freund (Metropolis). In one particularly noteworthy shot, the sound of a woman's screams are intercut with footage of shocked villagers. Director Robert Florey does a solid job of keeping the action moving and the audience on its toes despite a script that does have its occasional lame points. One notable example of this is when Waycoff's friend becomes overly upset that his pal won't eat. John Huston received credit on the film for adding dialogue." - www.allmovie.com

DVD links:

Tiger shark 1932 - The root of all the remakes

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 6,5

Director: Howard Hawks
Main Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Richard Arlen, Zita Johann, Leila Bennett, J. Carrol Naish

"Legend has it that director Howard Hawks filmed Tiger Shark for Warner Brothers while on a fishing trip in Hawaii. Despite the off-handed nature of the production, the film - based on the play, They Knew What They Wanted - still manages to touch upon many of Hawks' signature themes. There's a morally complex love triangle, an examination of trust and loyalty, and the impending doom of an outside instrument of death (the sharks). Tiger Shark's driving story line is delivered in a typically Hawksian, no-nonsense style; the fishing scenes are highly charged and very realistic, significant for a film made in the 1930s. Two years after his breakthrough role in Little Caesar (1930), Edward G. Robinson proves his versatility as the Portuguese tuna boat skipper with a bitter, resentful side. Warner Bros. would unofficially remake Tiger Shark several times over the next ten years; while the professions of the two leading male characters would change, the basic 'triangle' plot remained the same." - www.allmovie.com

DVD links:

The animal kingdom 1932 - Good mistress vs. bad wife

Ann Harding, Leslie Howard & Myrna Loy in The Animal Kingdom (1932)

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 6,6

Director: George Cukor, Edward H. Griffith
Main Cast: Ann Harding, Leslie Howard, Myrna Loy, William Gargan, Neil Hamilton, Ilka Chase

"The first film version of Philip Barry's Broadway play The Animal Kingdom stars Ann Harding, Leslie Howard and Myrna Loy. Howard plays a wealthy publisher who decides to marry the socially prominent Loy, leaving his mistress Harding in the lurch. In comically convoluted fashion, Loy behaves like a callous libertine, while Harding is the soul of love and fidelity. The frustrated Howard declares at the end that he is going back to his 'wife' - meaning, of course, the faithful Harding. Animal Kingdom was long withdrawn from public view due to the 1946 remake One More Tomorrow; a pristine 35-millimeter print was discovered in the Warner Bros. vaults in the mid-1980s.
Philip Barry as a playwright was able to find an audience in two distinct eras of American history, the carefree Roaring Twenties and the poorer socially significant Thirties. He did with a clever mixture of social commentary while writing about the privileged classes enjoying their privileges.
The Animal Kingdom had a 183 performance run on Broadway the previous year and its star Leslie Howard was a movie name already on two continents. So Howard, Bill Gargan, and Ilka Chase repeat their Broadway roles here.
Harding was an interesting leading woman - she was attractive but not beautiful and had a very low, distinctive speaking voice. She came from the Broadway stage, and her heyday in films was through the mid-thirties, though she worked consistently in films and television until the mid-60s. As was the case back then, at 31 years of age, her time as a leading lady was drawing to a close, and soon would be turned over to people like the younger Loy. Her performance in The Animal Kingdom is a very honest one. Loy is absolutely ravishing as she essays the part of the glamorous wife beautifully, reminiscent of Gene Tierney later on with the ultra-feminine facade hiding the steel underneath. Howard is handsome and thoughtful in the lead, and one can see it slowly occurring to him that he made a mistake."

Download links:

Doctor X 1932 - Beware the full moon!

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 6,5

Director: Michael Curtiz
Main Cast: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Lee Tracy, Preston Foster, John Wray

"Michael Curtis's Doctor X is a strange movie by any definition, both in its content and its execution. Based on a mystery/melodrama by Howard Warren Comstock and Allen C. Miller, which ran for 80 performances (a marginally respectable, if not profitable run, in those days) on Broadway in the winter/spring of 1931, the play was mostly set in the offices of a New York newspaper and in East Orange, New Jersey - screenwriter Earl W. Baldwin moved the action entirely to New York and Long Island, effectively creating an old dark house mystery; and Curtiz transposed it all into an eerily stylized mode, shot in two-color Technicolor that gives the whole movie a strangely mixed look of not-quite-verisimilitude and unearthly eeriness. Actually, the main element of New York verisimilitude resides in the presence and performance of Lee Tracy's fast-talking reporter, who propels a lot of the action forward in what is otherwise a surprisingly talkie script; Tracy makes an unconventional but likable hero, and is well matched to Fay Wray as the daughter of Dr. Xavier (Lionel Atwill), the pathologist called in on the case of the 'Moon Killer'. His casting, and the deliberately overstated performances by his colleagues at the Academy of Surgical Research, fill the movie with potential suspects (some of whom are obvious red herrings). The resolution, such as it is, and the logic of the story, coupled with the talkie nature of the picture, make Doctor X more of a curio than a truly great, or even very good movie. For decades the movie was only available in murky black-and-white prints, which further reduced its value, apart from the eeriness of the plot and resolution, but the renewed availability of Technicolor prints has restored much of its original value. (The movie was successful enough in its time to justify the creation of a low-budget (black-and-white) faux sequel, The Return of Dr. X, seven years later, with a pre-stardom Humphrey Bogart in the title role)." - www.allmovie.com

DVD links:

Rasputin and the empress 1932 - The three fabulous Barrymores together

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 6,7

Director: Richard Boleslawski
Main Cast: John Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Ralph Morgan, Diana Wynyard

"It's hard to separate fact and fancy from the many accounts of what happened on the set when all three of the fabulous Barrymores - Ethel, John and Lionel - appeared together for the only time in Rasputin and the Empress. As for the end result, John offers the subtlest (!) performance as Russian Prince Paul Chegodieff; Lionel throws all caution to the four winds in the role of 'Mad Monk' Rasputin; and Ethel comes off as rather artificial as Empress Alexandra (Ethel was more appealing in her character roles of the 1940s and 1950s). When seen today, Rasputin and the Empress seems rather choppy in spots, with isolated lines of dialogue and sometimes whole scenes completely missing. This is due to a million-dollar lawsuit brought against MGM by Prince Yusupov, the man who really engineered Rasputin's assassination. The Prince wasn't offended by being depicted as a murderer, but he was distressed when MGM suggested that his wife had been raped by Rasputin. As a result, Rasputin and the Empress was withdrawn from distribution, and all prints were later bowdlerized when released to television. Also as a result, all future Hollywood films were obliged to carry the 'Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental' disclaimer." - www.allmovie.com

DVD links:

A bill of divorcement 1932 - Katharine Hepburn's auspicious film debut

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 6,6

Director: George Cukor
Main Cast: John Barrymore, Katharine Hepburn, Billie Burke, David Manners

"Katharine Hepburn made her auspicious film debut in the otherwise undistinguished A Bill of Divorcement, based on a play by Clemence Dane. Even now, many decades later, there's still a raw freshness and energy to Hepburn's performance that is hard to resist. It's true that her work here is not particularly polished; there are moments when she clearly pushes too hard, and others when she sacrifices truth for effect. But there's a spirit and energy radiating from the actress that make the viewer forgive her these and other little sins, and she is so spot on in most of the sequences that there's no need to make excuses for this early performance. What's surprising is John Barrymore's performance, which was lauded at the time but has been overshadowed by Hepburn's through the years. The celebrated but uneven actor gives an exceptional performance, informed with telling detail and carefully nuanced, and there is a rare and essential rapport between him and Hepburn which goes a long way to smoothing over many of the rough patches of the dated and sometimes melodramatic screenplay. Also a surprise is Billie Burke, who gives her character an underlying melancholy and guilt, and who handles her dramatic scenes quite well. Divorcement doesn't stand up well as drama, and George Cukor's direction is often rudimentary, but it's a great showcase for its stars." - www.allmovie.com

Download links:

No man of her own 1932 - The only onscreen pairing of Gable & Lombard

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 6,7

Director: Wesley Ruggles
Main Cast: Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Dorothy Mackaill, Grant Mitchell, Elizabeth Patterson

"Many viewers will come away slightly disappointed from No Man of Her Own, a perfectly adequate, moderately entertaining little film that raises unrealized expectations due to its fabled status as the only onscreen pairing of legendary husband and wife Clark Gable and Carole Lombard (at the time the film was made, both were married to other people; their romance and subsequent marriage was several years in the offing). No Man's screenplay is what keeps it from reaching the expected heights; it's perfectly fine, but also a bit odd, shifting a little awkwardly in tone as it goes along and thus creating a certain amount of dissatisfaction. It seems as if the viewer is being set up for a raucous comedy, a 'mating of opposites' situation that promises great clashes of amusement. Instead, what results are chuckles which soon turn into mild amusement as the film ambles its way into a rather standard romance. Perhaps all of this could have been an asset, creating a film that surprised audiences by its shifts in tone, but Wesley Ruggles' direction is not inventive enough to pull off this feat. It is, however, more than capable of framing the performances of its stars, which are the real reason for seeking out No Man of Her Own. Gable and Lombard glisten, and if both have given better performances elsewhere, they're still a treat. So the film is an opportunity not to be missed by latter-day 'Golden Age of Hollywood' aficionados." - www.allmovie.com

DVD links:

Faithless 1932 - Suffers from miscasting but very enjoyable

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 6,8

Director: Harry Beaumont
Main Cast: Tallulah Bankhead, Robert Montgomery, Hugh Herbert

"Faithless was titled 'Tinfoil' during pre-production, which is perhaps a more apt description of this story about a calculating heiress who loses everything only to find her heart. Although never abandoning her husky mid-Atlantic speech pattern - Bankhead's desperate prostitute still says 'cahn't' - the grand dame's acting prowess stands her in good stead throughout and she remains believable to the very end. Robert Montgomery is his usual affable self, but comedian Hugh Herbert is surprisingly potent as Bankhead's nasty 'sugar daddy'. Faithless is pure soap opera, but as such it never fails to entertain.
Tallulah Bankhead made her name on the stage and came to Hollywood under contract to MGM. Faithless would be her last film until 1944's Lifeboat. Bankhead's particular style of acting was not effective on film, and it was probably because of the way she was cast. In Lifeboat, she's perfect - Hitchcock wanted 'the most oblique, incongruous person imaginable in such a situation'. Robert Montgomery plays one of depression's many unlucky - what jobs he gets, he loses because the companies close, and he's finally attacked on the job by employees who feel threatened. Through it all, he keeps his dignity and hope." - www.allmovie.com

DVD links:

Arsene Lupin 1932 - The first screen pairing of the Barrymore brothers

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 7,0

Director: Jack Conway
Main Cast: John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Karen Morley, John Miljan, Tully Marshall

"John Barrymore plays a burglar and his brother Lionel Barrymore is the detective trying to catch him in this cleverly cast drama. An upscale thief who works under the name of Arsene Lupin is making the rounds of the homes of the wealthy and privileged, and Detective Guerchard (Lionel Barrymore) is determined to track him down. What he doesn't know is that the suave and sophisticated Duke of Charmerace (John Barrymore) is actually the man behind the robberies. Will Guerchard find out the thief's true identity before he can execute a daring theft from the Louvre Museum? Karen Morely co-stars as Sonia, the Duke's love interest.
When it debuted in 1932, the big news about Arsene Lupin was that it was the first screen pairing of the legendary Barrymore brothers. Modern audiences, who have had the chance to see them in several of their subsequent screen teamings, won't approach Arsene with the same sense of anticipation, but they'll likely find themselves quite entertained with the result, especially if they are fans of Raffles-type 'gentleman thief' stories. The screenplay of Arsene is solid, setting up the situations with skill and making sure that all of the parts are in their proper places. The writers do a fine job of keeping the audience guessing as to the identity of the title character until more than halfway into the film and it is only in the climax that the viewer is really certain that his guess is right. Jack Conway directs efficiently, with an eye on atmosphere and tension but also making sure that the appropriate light moments are given equal play. And he is very careful to spotlight 'the big show': the scenes in which John Barrymore and Lionel Barrymore share the screen and perform their own special brand of dramatic dueling. They're in beautiful form, sparring delightfully off of each other and giving their fans plenty to relish. All in all, Arsene is a treat for fans of light mystery entertainment." - www.allmovie.com

DVD links:

(Arsene Lupin Double Feature: Arsene Lupin 1932 & Arsene Lupin Returns 1938)

Kongo 1932 - A tropical human condition story

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 6,9

Director: William J. Cowen
Main Cast: Walter Huston, Lupe Velez, Conrad Nagel, Virginia Bruce

"A remake of West of Zanibar (1928), this strange, gut-wrenching melodrama set in the African jungles, offers a disturbing portrait of a bitter, crippled and insane megalomaniac who vents his rage via mental torture against all those who get too near. Walter Huston plays the madman who lost the use of his legs during a battle with his nemesis Gordon. The accident happened many years ago and since then Huston has dragged himself about in his jungle home making the lives of those around him waking nightmares. He has terrified the local tribesmen into total submission with his knowledge deadly voodoo (he tells them guns are magical instruments). He is even crueler to his fellow Anglos. A young white woman comes to visit one day. Believing her to be the daughter of his arch rival Gordon, he gleefully embarks upon a heavy reign of psychological abuse until the poor girl is nearly destroyed. For more fun, he gets a new doctor addicted to drugs and of course he can also torment the woman who loves him, Velez. The horror continues until Gordon suddenly shows up. Vengeful Huston quickly picks a fight and during the ensuing struggle Gordon tells Huston a bitter truth, one that leads Huston to a horrible realization." - www.allmovie.com

DVD links:

Emma 1932 - Another sterling performance from Dressler

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 7,1

Director: Clarence Brown
Main Cast: Marie Dressler, Richard Cromwell, Jean Hersholt, Myrna Loy, John Miljan

"Emma is a turn-of-the-century domestic drama completely dominated by star Marie Dressler. She plays the maid of an upper middle class family, keeping her wits about her as her employers suffer crisis after crisis. When the master of the house (Jean Hersholt), a prominent inventor, is widowed, he proposes marriage to Emma. Shortly afterward, Hersholt dies, and Emma, who has married 'out of her class', is accused of murder by Hersholt's jealous children. Cleared of the accusation, Emma turns over her inheritance to the selfish children and heads off to work for another family, once again making the best of any and all bad situations.
At the time she made this film, Marie Dressler was Hollywood's greatest star. An unlikely celebrity sensation, with her homely face and shapeless body, Dressler was nonetheless adored by the American public who could sense her basic decency and goodness. For a few brief years she became the nation's grandma, someone with whom the public could feel completely comfortable. Dressler seemed to typify the virtues of hard work and plainspoken honesty - attributes which counted for much in the Great Depression's darkest days.
Firm support is given by gentle Jean Hersholt as Dressler's kindly employer. As his son, Richard Cromwell gives an energetic performance. Lovely Myrna Loy, not-quite-yet a star, is strangely awkward as Hersholt's spiteful daughter. John Miljan is effective in the role of a relentless District Attorney." - www.allmovie.com

DVD links:

Pack up your troubles 1932 - Stan & Ollie and a little girl

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 7,3

Director: George Marshall
Main Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Don Dillaway, Mary Carr, James Finlayson

"Drafted into the army during World War I, those muddled misfits Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy make a shambles of Training Camp before being shipped to France. When their best pal Eddie (Donald Dillaway) is killed in battle, Stan and Ollie vow to locate the grandparents of Eddie's orphaned little daughter (Jacquie Lyn). Unfortunately, the grandparents are named Smith - and they live in New York City. With only a city directory and phone book as their guide, Stan and Ollie undergo several chucklesome misadventures as they scour the canyons of Manhattan to find Mr. and Mrs. Smith. With the orphanage officials hot on their heels, the boys take drastic action to raise enough money to get out of town with the little girl. All turns out well when Eddie's grandfather makes an appearance under the least likely circumstances. But before Laurel & Hardy can enjoy their own happy ending, they cross the path of an old enemy from their army days: a knife-wielding chef with blood in his eye.
The second of Laurel & Hardy's feature-length films, Pack Up Your Troubles is infinitely more amusing than their first feature effort, 1931's Pardon Us. Best bit: An overtired Laurel, attempting to tell a bedtime story to the little girl, ends up snoozing away as the kid finishes the story. The powerhouse supporting cast includes such Laurel & Hardy regulars as James Finlayson, Billy Gilbert, Rychard Cramer, Charles Middleton and Charlie Hall. George Marshall, the film's director, proves a mirthsome menace in the small role of the vengeful chef." - www.allmovie.com

DVD links:

The penguin pool murder 1932 - Entertaining mystery boosted by Oliver and Gleason chemistry

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 7,1

Director: George Archainbaud
Main Cast: Edna May Oliver, Robert Armstrong, James Gleason, Mae Clarke, Donald Cook

"Edna May Oliver makes the first of three appearances as Hildegarde Withers, the schoolteacher/sleuth created by mystery writer Stuart Palmer.
The Penguin Pool Murder is a delightful piece of murder mystery fluff. It's no classic of the genre, mind you, but it's a fun little movie, and one in which the comedy works equally as well as the mystery. The plot is, of course, concerned with 'who done it', and it lays the pieces out in an entertaining manner. It's not especially hard to solve the identity of the murderer and some of the clues are put together a bit too handily, but Penguin is so much fun that few will care. Nor will they care too much about the climactic court room scene which, even by cinematic standards, veers off course from reality by a wide margin, nor about the willingness of the chief detective to misstate a valuable piece of evidence (which somehow keeps being withheld even during the trial). How can one care when the droll Edna May Oliver and the crusty James Gleason are having so much fun sparring with each other? Oliver and Gleason carry the picture, something two character actors don't get the chance to do very often, and boy do they make the most of the opportunity." - www.allmovie.com

DVD links:

Tarzan, the ape man 1932 - The one and only original Tarzan movie that started it all

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 7,2

Director: W. S. Van Dyke
Main Cast: Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O'Sullivan, C. Aubrey Smith, Neil Hamilton, Doris Lloyd

"Tarzan, The Ape Man was not only MGM's inaugural Tarzan film, but also the first to star former Olympic swimming champ Johnny Weissmuller as The Lord of the Jungle (strange but true: one of the pre-Weissmuller Tarzan candidates was Clark Gable!)
Utilizing scads of stock footage from MGM's Trader Horn (1931), the film begins with great white hunter James Parker (C. Aubrey Smith) trekking through darkest Africa in search of the legendary Elephant Graveyard. Accompanying Parker is his daughter Jane (Maureen O'Sullivan) and her erstwhile beau Harry Holt (Neil Hamilton). The expedition is habitually sabotaged by the ecology-conscious Tarzan, a white man who'd been lost in the jungle years earlier and raised by Apes. Tarzan kidnaps Jane and spirits her away to the treetops, where she gradually overcomes her fear of the Loinclothed One and teaches him to speak English. The perfect gentleman, Tarzan returns Jane to her father and swings off into the distance. When Parker, Jane and Holt are captured by pygmies, Tarzan comes to the rescue, with an entourage of his elephant friends. At fade-out time, Jane has decided to renounce civilization and spend the rest of her life with Tarzan.
The only one of the MGM Tarzans actually based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs originals, Tarzan the Ape Man proved a surprise hit, spawning an endless parade of sequels and remakes.
The movie was one of Irving Thalberg's 'pet' projects at MGM, an opportunity to take an existing franchise (Edgar Rice Burroughs' jungle lord had been a film staple since beefy Elmo Lincoln donned a loincloth, in 1918), give it 'A'-list production values and a 'name' director (W.S. Van Dyke), introduce charismatic actors as the leads (28-year old multiple Olympic champion Johnny Weissmuller and 21-year old Irish import Maureen O'Sullivan), and create a 'definitive' success for the studio." - www.allmovie.com

DVD links:

Blessed event 1932 - Lee Tracy as a lost joy of the pre-code era

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 7,2

Director: Roy Del Ruth
Main Cast: Lee Tracy, Mary Brian, Dick Powell, Allen Jenkins, Ruth Donnelly

"Blessed Event is one of several early-1930s films inspired by the meteoric rise to fame of gossip columnist Walter Winchell - and like most such films, its title is based on a Winchell tag line.
Lee Tracy plays a glib-tongued reporter who is conducting a feud with popular singer Dick Powell (making his film debut). Along the way, Tracy offends a powerful gangster, and in so doing becomes entangled with chorus girl Mary Brian.
The original Broadway stage version of Blessed Event was written by Manuel Seff and Forrest Wilson--and reportedly inspired by the career of Ruby Keeler, who rose to stardom thanks in part to the patronage of a New York mobster.
There never was anyone quite like Lee Tracy, the machine gun-mouthed character actor who managed a brief starring career in pre-Code movies, of which Blessed Event arguably gives Tracy the chance to shine in all his diamond hard glory. Tracy was an odd choice for stardom, a guy who wasn't blessed with male model looks and who had a persona that was perfect for self-centered egoists who don't mind a little love but only if it doesn't get in the way of old number one. It's the kind of character that can be repulsive, but Tracy's total self-absorption and, equally important, his incredible timing and precise delivery of a one-liner make him somehow appealing. He's a force of nature, and one that won't be denied; moreover, he's a peculiarly American one, taking the concept of individualism to an extreme. Tracy also is someone who requires an amoral atmosphere in which to thrive. After the Production Code really came in, the kind of stories, situations and characters that could best contain him lost their power. But Blessed has none of these worries, blithely dealing with unwanted pregnancies, homosexuality and other subjects soon to be forbidden, and allowing the audience to cheer on a go-getter who tramples anyone in the way of getting what he wants. Tracy is perfectly complemented by Roy Del Ruth's rapid-fire direction and by a script that gives him plenty to get his mouth around; his electric chair monologue is really astounding." - www.allmovie.com

DVD links: