She 1935 - "She who must be obeyed!"

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026983/?ref_=fn_al_tt_3
IMDB rating: 6,6

Directors: Lansing C. Holden, Irving Pichel
Main Cast: Helen Gahagan, Randolph Scott, Helen Mack, Nigel Bruce

"Containing many of the ingredients that would award the later Lost Horizons legendary status, 'She' just misses that elevated spirit. Where Lost Horizons' Shangri La remains a source of inspiration and dreams, 'She''s hidden civilization of Kor is rather more mundane, emerging just this side of ridiculous. Much of the blame should perhaps go to Broadway actress Helen Gahagan's rather lifeless portrayal of the supposedly enticing queen, but Irving Pichel was no Frank Capra and his direction is sometimes downright leaden. In her first - and, as it turned out, final - screen performance, Gahagan did her best, but the role seems to have been beyond her much-vaunted capacities and the blame for the film's loss of more than $180,000 at the box office was placed squarely at her feet. Apparently producer Merian C. Cooper's only choice for the role, Gahagan proved a better politician in real life than as ruler of Kor: she was later elected to two terms in the United States Congress on the Liberal ticket. In 1950, she ran for the United States Senate but was defeated by future president Richard Nixon. Opposite Gahagan's title character, Randolph Scott and Helen Mack perhaps lack the extra sparkle that Cooper's first choices, the husband-and-wife team of Joel McCrea and Frances Dee, may have added. Despite these caveats, 'She' fully deserves its rediscovery.
Filmed at least four times in the silent era (including a 1925 British production starring American femme fatale Betty Blythe), 'She' was remade twice by low-budget Hammer Films, in 1965 starring Ursula Andress and as The Vengeance of She in 1967." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/she-v109763/

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The clairvoyant 1935 - "The evil mind" of Claude Rains!

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024989/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 6,7

Director: Maurice Elvey
Main Cast: Claude Rains, Fay Wray

"Claude Rains is a phony psychic who makes a good living fleecing the suckers with his wild prognostications. But after Rains is plagued by severe headaches, he discovers that he truly does have "visions". Suddenly his predictions begin to come true, and Rains is elevated to a position of prominence in European social and political circles. Despite the protestations of his loving wife (Fay Wray), Rains becomes intoxicated by his own power, which leads to disaster. Also known as The Evil Mind, The Clairvoyant is an elaborate British-made cautionary fable, with an excellent performance by Claude Rains and a remarkably good one from Fay Wray." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-clairvoyant-v87378

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Mississippi 1935 - A rare Crosby classic

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026723/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 6,9

Director: A. Edward Sutherland
Main Cast: Bing Crosby, W. C. Fields, Joan Bennett, Gail Patrick

"In this comedy with musical numbers set in the Old South, Bing Crosby plays a singer from Philadelphia named Tom Grayson, who has fallen in love with Southern heiress Elvira Rumford (Gail Patrick). Tom wants to marry Elvira, but a man called Major Patterson (John Miljan) has announced his desire to do the same, and he challenges Tom to a duel to decide who will have Elvira's hand. Tom is not at all agreeable to this idea, which leads Elvira's father (Claude Gillingwater) to proclaim Tom to be a coward and deny him permission to wed his daughter. Elvira's sister Lucy (Joan Bennett), who is infatuated with Tom, thinks that he's merely being sensible, but Tom thinks that Lucy is too young for a serious relationship. In need of work and not especially welcome in the Rumford's community, Tom takes a job performing on a riverboat piloted by the blustery Commodore Orlando Jackson (W.C. Fields). One night, Tom finds himself in a barroom brawl with a man named Captain Blackie (Fred Kohler), who dies accidentally from a shot fired by his own gun. Hoping that his infamy will draw crowds, Jackson begins billing Tom as 'The Singing Killer'. Tom comes to realize that Lucy may be the right woman for him after all, but Lucy is not interested in a man with blood on his hands, and now Tom must convince her that he's not a killer at all. Noted gambling aficionado Fields has a hilarious poker-playing bit, and he steals most of his scenes from the rest of the cast. Mississippi was loosely based on the play 'Magnolia' by Booth Tarkington." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/mississippi-v102575/

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A Midsummer Night's dream 1935 - A quite satisfying Shakespearean adaptation

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026714/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2
IMDB rating: 7,1

Directors: William Dieterle, Max Reinhardt
Main Cast: Dick Powell, Ross Alexander, Olivia de Havilland, Jean Muir, Verree Teasdale, James Cagney, Joe E. Brown, Anita Louise

"Max Reinhardt's legendary Hollywood Bowl production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream was transferred to the screen by Warner Bros. in 1935. Like most of Shakespeare's comedies, the story contains several seemingly unrelated plotlines, all tied together by a single unifying event, in this instance the impending wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. Although it is not without flaws, the 1935 version of A Midsummer Night's Dream is by and large a delight. Given the casting, it's inevitable that there would be some grumblings with this Dream; for one thing, there's an awful lot of Hollywood in here and very little English. But, surprisingly, some of those Hollywood names turn in exceptional performances. Top of the list is the thoroughly delightful James Cagney as Bottom, leader of the mechanicals. His enthusiastic, audacious, ultimately captivating turn brings abundant life to the film and makes one forget that, really, this man shouldn't be so at home with Shakespeare. As one of Cagney's cronies, Joe E. Brown is also a surprising pleasure, making up for the misfire of fellow mechanical Hugh Herbert. An extraordinarily young Olivia de Havilland is fetching and entirely winning as Hermia, and Victor Jory is just about perfect as Oberon. On the down side, there's Dick Powell, entirely out of his depth as Lysander. Most controversial is the Puck of Mickey Rooney, which some find charming and appealing and others find busy and annoying; suffice it to say that while he admirably captures the feeling of youthful and irreverent mischief that is at the heart of the character, he does so in a manner that is often forced. Although the direction is a tad uneven, the art direction and special effects (especially the nocturnal dance of the fairies) are breathtakingly beautiful. Mendelssohn's 'Midsummer Night's Dream' incidental music is masterfully orchestrated by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, while the cinematography by Hal Mohr earned the first write-in Academy Award in Hollywood history (Mohr had not been nominated due to hostilities arising from a recent industry strike). Considered a brave failure at the time of its first release, on a purely visual level A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of the more satisfying Shakespearean cinemadaptations of Hollywood's golden age." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/a-midsummer-nights-dream-v32585/

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Alice Adams 1935 - Hepburn as Tarkington's loveliest heroine

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026056/?ref_=nv_sr_1
IMDB rating: 7,1

Director: George Stevens
Main Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Fred MacMurray, Fred Stone, Evelyn Venable, Hedda Hopper, Hattie McDaniel

"Alice Adams does a credible job of transferring Booth Tarkington's popular Pulitzer Prize-winning novel to the screen, even if it adds a happier ending than the one in the book. A significant part of the credit belongs to director George Stevens, who keeps the film briskly paced without sacrificing character development and atmosphere. Filmed during the Great Depression, Alice Adams takes a satirical view of the 1920s, reminding 1935 audiences of some of the shallowness of those 'better days'. Hepburn's performance dominates the film, and the supporting cast functions mostly as props, though Fred MacMurray, Hepburn's nominal co-lead, manages to shine in moments. The film received two Oscar nominations, for Best Picture and for Hepburn's performance. Alice Adams was the first major directorial assignment for George Stevens, as well as one of the few Katharine Hepburn vehicles of the 1930s to score a hit with the public." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/alice-adams-v1471/

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G-men 1935 - Cagney on the side of law this time

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026393/?ref_=nv_sr_3
IMDB rating: 7,2

Director: William Keighley
Main Cast: James Cagney, Margaret Lindsay, Ann Dvorak, Robert Armstrong, Barton MacLane, Lloyd Nolan

"In G Men, Warner Bros. 'bad boy' James Cagney plays James 'Brick' Davis, a young lawyer whose education has been financed by soft-hearted racketeer McKay (William Harrigan). When Cagney's best pal, detective Eddie Buchanan (Regis Toomey), is killed in a gangland shooting, James decides to become a G-Man. Though scrupulously honest, Davis is looked upon with suspicion by his fellow agents because of his association with the crooked McKay. He proves he's a 'good guy' when his former girlfriend, Jean (Ann Dvorak), now the wife of mobster Brad Collins (Barton MacLane), tips him off to a 'Little Bohemia'-style gangster hideaway. Jean later sacrifices her own life to help James rescue his new girl, nurse Kay McCord (Margaret Lindsay), from the vengeful Collins.
Based on Gregory Miller's book Public Enemy No. 1, G-Men was reissued in 1949, with an added prologue featuring David Brian as an FBI trainer who advises his students not to laugh at the old-fashioned costumes and slang in the 1935 film; seen today, it is Brian's superfluous opening comments that seem hopelessly dated, while the film itself is as exciting and entertaining as ever." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/g-men-v19031/

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Mad love 1935 - A great influence on Ciziten Kane

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026663/?ref_=nv_sr_4
IMDB rating: 7,4

Director: Karl Freund
Main Cast: Peter Lorre, Frances Drake, Colin Clive

"Produced at the height of Hollywood's 1930s horror obsession, Mad Love (1935) was one of the first psychological horror films, as well as the first American film for German actor Peter Lorre, who accepted the lead after Claude Rains rejected it. Although Lorre shaved his head for the role, the actor did not break from typecasting in his portrayal of a surgeon who enjoys viewing guillotine executions and is becoming mentally unglued over his fixation on a Grand Guignol actress named Orlac (Frances Drake). In the 1970s, film critic Pauline Kael attributed much of Toland's later brilliance in Citizen Kane (1941) to the influence of his earlier work on Mad Love. The first of several film versions of Maurice Renard's The Hands of Orlac, Mad Love was directed by cinematographer Karl Freund. Oddly, Freund never directed again, though he served as cinematographer on many classic films, not the least of which were The Good Earth (1937) and Key Largo (1948)." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/mad-love-v30655/

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The lives of a Bengal lancer 1935 - A little dated but still rousing adventure!

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026643/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 7,4

Director: Henry Hathaway
Main Cast: Gary Cooper, Franchot Tone, C. Aubrey Smith, Akim Tamiroff, Monte Blue, Kathleen Burke

"The Lives of a Bengal Lancer is the type of imperialist adventure story that has fallen out of favor with changing times. Nonetheless, it's an exciting film, full of heroic action and attention-grabbing performances that help overcome its dated feel. Gary Cooper is fine in the lead, but the film also provides a good chance to see Franchot Tone in one of his best roles. The presence of C. Aubrey Smith adds a feeling of authenticity; indeed, all the British roles are well-cast, even if the Indian roles are not. Former silent-movie child actor Henry Hathaway directs the solidly told story, providing crisp action sequences and effective chemistry between the leads. The film's one drawback is its failure to develop credible non-Anglo-Saxon characters - a common problem in studio films of the 1930s." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-lives-of-a-bengal-lancer-v29736/

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The man on the flying trapeze 1935 - A little unknown but classic W. C. Fields comedy

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026676/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 7,8

Director: Clyde Bruckman
Main Cast: W. C. Fields, Kathleen Howard, Mary Brian

"Although it is not as well known as such classic W.C. Fields entries as The Bank Dick, The Man on the Flying Trapeze is one of the great comic's finest vehicles and a delightful film all around. Despite the title, there's no circus setting in Trapeze; the title is more metaphorical, referring to the title character's flying from one ridiculous situation to another and as such could serve as the title for any number of Fields pictures. Trapeze benefits from the fact that the comic is playing a slightly more submissive character than usual. Fields is almost always put-upon in some way, and his characters vary in how much they react to his situations, but his Ambrose Wolfinger is more vulnerable and one roots for him even more than usual. That's not to say he's not as cantankerous and crabby as ever, just that his retorts are more 'under the breath' than usual. Fields and crew do a wonderful job of setting up all the odds against Ambrose, making the audience feel for and with him, and the comic set pieces they devise are gems all the way through. They do such a fine job that when the character finally has had enough and explodes, it's a titanic release for the audience as well and generates an incredible sense of fair play and joy among viewers. Fields' supporting cast is quite good, but it's definitely Fields who holds the whole show together and does it beautifully." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-man-on-the-flying-trapeze-v101325/

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David Copperfield 1935 - A great adaptation with strong performances

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026266/
IMDB rating: 7,6

Director: George Cukor
Main Cast: Freddie Bartholomew, Frank Lawton, W. C. Fields, Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O'Sullivan, Madge Evans, Edna May Oliver, Roland Young, Elizabeth Allan, Basil Rathbone, Elsa Lanchester

"David Copperfield was MGM's major Christmas release for its 1934-1935 season and also the first of producer David O. Selznick's major 'literary' films for that studio. While a great deal of editing and streamlining was necessary to distill Charles Dickens' massive novel into 133 minutes of screen time, the end result was so successful that only the nittiest of nitpickers complained about the excised characters and events.
This 1935 adaptation of David Copperfield has endeared itself to generations of movie audiences in spite of artistic and technical flaws reflecting the state of the movie art in filmdom's infancy. The success of the production derives mainly from its loyalty to the spirit of the novel, its atmospheric depiction of 19th century England, and its talented adult actors. On the other hand, the child actors - Freddie Bartholomew (David as a boy), Fay Chaldecott (Little Emily), and Marilyn Knowlden (Agnes as a little girl) - all perform with the overwrought theatricality of elementary students in a school play. Moreover, Elizabeth Allan as Mrs. Clara Copperfield fairly reeks of maudlin melodrama. Even her two-second fainting spell is overdone. Director George Cukor may be responsible for the weak performances of Allen and the children; Cukor's choppy transition style also hurts the film. He unceremoniously cuts off one scene, then begins rolling the camera again elsewhere.
Originally, Charles Laughton was slated to play Micawber, but he pulled out of the production, worried that he wouldn't be funny enough. The casting of W. C. Fields was an inspired choice: although he injects his own established screen personality at every opportunity, Fields was born to play Micawber. Likewise, second-billed Lionel Barrymore fits his portrayal of crusty old Dan Peggoty like a glove. In fact, there isn't a false bit of casting in the whole production, and this, as much as Selznick's sumptuous production values, is the key to David Copperfield's enormous success." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/david-copperfield-v12542

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The informer 1935 - John Ford's labor of love

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026529/
IMDB rating: 7,6

Director: John Ford
Main Cast: Victor McLaglen, Heather Angel, Preston Foster, Margot Grahame, Wallace Ford, Una O'Connor

"The informer, Liam O'Flaherty's novel of the the Irish 'troubles' of the early 1920s, was first filmed in England in 1929, with Cyril McLaglen in the lead. When director John Ford remade The informer in 1935, the role of the tragic Irish roisterer Gypo Nolan went to Cyril's brother Victor McLaglen.
The informer was a box-office dud for John Ford, but it brought him his first Best Director Oscar and remains one of the most studied films of its era. The pathos created by the convincing performance of Victor McLaglen is made all the more intense by Ford's sensitive direction and Max Steiner's emotional score. Filmed in black-and-white and taking place mostly at night, The informer creates an effective atmosphere of desperation, as the sadness of the story takes hold on the audience, especially since the Irish struggle for independence remains a powerful current-day theme.
The informer earned Victor McLaglen an Oscar, as well as several other nominations; the film did poorly at the box office, but John Ford had anticipated this reaction, reportedly waiving his considerable salary just to make certain that picture - a labor of love for the director, who was himself a native of Ireland - would be completed." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-informer-v24847

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Captain Blood 1935 - The film that transformed the 26-year-old Errol Flynn into a star

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026174/
IMDB rating: 7,8

Director: Michael Curtiz
Main Cast: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Lionel Atwill, Basil Rathbone

"Captain Blood adapted from the novel by Rafael Sabatini, is typical of the better-grade Warner Bros. efforts of the mid-1930s, combining first-rate production values with heavy-duty star power. Directed by Michael Curtiz with his usual economical style and talent for staging complex sequences, the film is among the best of the adventure films of its era, if at times too talkative for a film with only formulaic things to say. The United States was still suffering from the Great Depression in 1935, and films like Captain Blood provided audiences with inexpensive relief from the struggles of the era: the hero is handsome, the beautiful maiden is appealing, good triumphs over evil, and there's a happy ending, all to the stirring music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold
When British actor Robert Donat dropped out of Warner Bros. Captain Blood, the studio took a chance on its new contractee, Tasmania-born Errol Flynn.
The film also represented the cinematic debut of composer Korngold, who wasn't completely happy with his hastily written score and asked that his on-screen credit be diminished to 'musical director'." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/captain-blood-v8083

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Les miserables 1935 - A lavish adaptation of Hugo's oft-filmed novel

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026725/
IMDB rating: 7,7

Director: Richard Boleslawski
Main Cast: Fredric March, Charles Laughton, Cedric Hardwicke, Rochelle Hudson, Florence Eldridge, John Beal, Frances Drake

"Les miserables is one of literature's most durable stories, and this 1935 Hollywood studio effort is one of the best of the numerous English-language film versions, featuring Fredric March and Charles Laughton at the height of their powers. Their battle of wills gives the film its emotional texture. Perhaps more than any other actor who has played Inspector Javert, Laughton captures the insanity of a person who holds concrete values even as those beliefs become a barrier to the happiness of both himself and others. Laughton's performance might be better remembered today were it not for his role as the similarly flawed Captain Bligh in Mutiny on the Boutny. Overall, Les Miserables received four Oscar nominations, winning none, and lost the Best Picture award to Bounty." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/les-miserables-v28995

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Top Hat 1935 - One of the best Astaire & Rogers musicals

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027125/
IMDB rating: 7,9

Director: Mark Sandrich
Main Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton

"Top hat is classy, Depression-era escapism, with great tunes, witty choreography, and the charismatic screen chemistry of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. It is an excellent example of the fine work of director Mark Sandrich, who today is less remembered than the musical stars who had some of their greatest successes in his films. The film's story, cast, and style are largely derivative of The gay divorcee, which also starred Astaire and Rogers and was directed by Sandrich a year earlier. The supporting casts are pretty much the same, although Top hat has the distinction of adding Lucille Ball in a small role. RKO pulled together many of its best resources to produce the film, including songwriter Irving Berlin, dance director Hermes Pan (superlative choreography with Fred Ataire), and art directors Carroll Clark and Van Nest Polglase. The result was a film that proved popular with audiences and critics alike. Top hat was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/top-hat-v50447

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A tale of two cities 1935 - A stepping stone for Selznick to Gone with the wind

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027075/
IMDB rating: 7,9

Director: Jack Conway
Main Cast: Ronald Colman, Elizabeth Allan, Edna May Oliver, Reginald Owen, Basil Rathbone

"A tale of two cities is well remembered for its rich production values and the charismatic performance of Ronald Colman as the dissipated lawyer drawn to a cause greater than his personal problems. Jack Conway's directing work is solid, but he was pretty much the hired hand of producer David O. Selznick, who was largely responsible for the film's artistic vision. Selznick had the best of MGM's production team, including composer Herbert Stothart, art director Cedric Gibbons, sound engineer Douglas Shearer, and film editor Conrad Nervig. The result is a first-rate example of the production quality typical of big-budget Hollywood studio films of the mid-1930s, particularly the ones from MGM. Surprisingly, the film received only two Academy Award nominations, for Best Picture and Best Film Editing, as MGM successfully focused its awards efforts for that year on The great Ziegfeld.
This adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic novel, set during the French Revolution, revolves around two men - English lawyer Sydney Carton and French aristocrat Charles Darnay - who share similar looks and a love for the same girl, Lucie Manette." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/a-tale-of-two-cities-v48478

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Mutiny on the Bounty 1935 - The height of MGM film-making during the Thalberg era

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026752/
IMDB rating: 7,9

Director: Frank Lloyd
Main Cast: Charles Laughton, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone

"Filming on location in Tahiti, the studio spent $2 million in production costs, an astounding sum for 1935. Thalberg's boss, Louis B. Mayer, opposed the film, but the production chief prevailed, insisting that the public was fascinated by cruelty. Indeed, Charles Laughton's Captain Bligh is among the screen's most despicable villains, never mind that the historic Captain Bligh was a substantially more complex person, and the heroic Fletcher Christian (Clark Gable) of the film is hardly the Fletcher Christian of history who kidnapped Tahitian natives and forced them to work as slaves for his mutineers. Mutiny on the Bounty holds up well as a grand tale of adventure, beautifully filmed, with charismatic lead performances and the quality of production that made Thalberg's work legendary. It is a rarity in Academy Awards history: a Best Picture winner that won only that one Oscar. The bigger winner for the night was John Ford's The informer, which took four Oscars, all at Bounty's expense." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/mutiny-on-the-bounty-v33980

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The 39 steps 1935 - The thriller that firmly established Hitchcock's reputation

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026029/
IMDB rating: 7,9

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Main Cast: Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Lucie Mannheim, Godfrey Tearle, Peggy Ashcroft, John Laurie

"This classic British thriller was one of Alfred Hitchcock's first major international successes, and it introduced a number of the stylistic and thematic elements that became hallmarks of his later work.
He'd already made three excellent thrillers - The lodger (1926), Blackmail (1929), and The man who knew too much (1934) - that had attracted considerable attention in America, but The 39 steps, as a piece of screencraft, assembled all the best elements in those widely scattered successes (spread across eight years of his career) between two covers in a way that riveted audiences and industry observers. It played exactly the way that British movies weren't supposed to: lively and piercingly funny, rather than stodgy and dignified; it was almost as much a comedy as a thriller, which was something new in any country's cinema; and it was almost as much a battle of the sexes in the jousting of its two leads (Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll) as it was a quest by the hero to prove his innocence of a murder charge; by the end of the movie, we want to see not only how Richard Hanney proves his innocence but also how he and Pamela manage to stay together. Not coincidentally, The 39 steps was also the first of his major films in which Hitchcock ripped up and threw away most of the contents of the underlying source (a novel by John Buchan that had been a best-seller then and which has remained a perennially popular read ever since) - he later followed this practice in his subsequent treatments of Josephine Tey's A Shilling For Candles (as Young and innocent), Ethel Lina White's The Wheel Spins (as The lady vanishes), and Francis Beeding's The House of Dr. Edwardes (as Spellbound), among other literary properties. In the process, he struck a blow for the director as a creative voice in his own right, independent of and superior to the novelist (at least where actual screen adaptations were concerned), who might take one or two good ideas, a name or two, and perhaps a setting and a scene from a chapter and junk everything else, making it his own. In a time when producers and studios still occupied a place of cultural inferiority (even in their own minds) to the authors and publishers of the printed word, this was no small achievement, especially considering that it was done well and, thus, justified itself. So, in his own way, working within the thriller genre in The 39 steps, Hitchcock helped open the way for virtually every major director who came after him." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-39-steps-v73696

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The bride of Frankenstein 1935 - The greatest of all Frankenstein movies

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026138/
IMDB rating: 7,9

Director: James Whale
Main Cast: Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchester, Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson

"The wildest and most audacious of James Whale's 1930s horror movies, The bride of Frankenstein is in nearly all ways superior to Whale's original Frankenstein four years earlier. While the first picture was made on a limited budget, Bride was given all the trappings of a big studio's most prestigious production, and, if the results lack the original's lean, claustrophobic mood, Whale's sly wit and gleeful enthusiasm more than make up for it. Brimming with subtle self-parody, The bride of Frankenstein offered Whale the opportunity to mock the clichés of horror films, along with amusing sideswipes at Hollywood romances, historical dramas, and even Christianity. As was his habit, Whale packed the film with amusing eccentrics, including Ernest Thesiger as Dr. Pretorious, a gin-guzzling mad scientist who's even madder than Dr. Frankenstein (Colin Clive), Una O'Connor as Minnie the shrieking servant, and demented hunchback Dwight Frye. Blending effortlessly with Whale's offbeat humor, the cast gave the proceedings an unmistakably British humor and sensibility, even if the film was shot on a Hollywood backlot. Despite Whale's farcical humor, Boris Karloff still delivers a powerful performance as the Monster; the tortured creature is, if anything, even more humane and sympathetic than in the first film, and, while Karloff strongly objected to having the Monster speak, his gruff but heartfelt delivery of his simple dialogue makes his sad fate all the more effective. A young Elsa Lanchester is quite memorable as both the Monster's bizarre mate and Mary Shelley, who spins this tale as a lark for Percy Shelley and Lord Byron. The bride of Frankenstein is ultimately more spooky than scary, but its witty dialogue, top-notch cast, and superb sense of mood make it high entertainment no matter what genre you drop it into." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-bride-of-frankenstein-v7091

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A night at the opera 1935 - A smash-hit gigglefest

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026778/
IMDB rating: 8,1

Director: Sam Wood
Main Cast: The Marx Brothers, Kitty Carlisle, Allan Jones

"Although some purists hold out for Duck soup (1933), many Marx Brothers fans consider A night at the opera is the team's best film.
It was the first Marx Brothers movie without Zeppo Marx and also the first under the supervision of MGM's legendary producer Irving Thalberg. A relatively sane plot line and conventional romantic subplot place this film in the more conventional camp of Marx Brothers movies. Due to the critical and commercial failure of Duck soup (1933), the Brothers' previous movie, the studio decided to pre-test many of the skits on live audiences; while Duck soup's anarchic revelry left many in the audience less amused than baffled, A night at the opera's script by George S. Kaufman and Morris Ryskind and direction by Sam Wood were more controlled and focused than in previous Marx efforts. But as was often the case in their movies, the Brothers' comedy takes aim at the pompous and pious hypocrisy of the upper crust, and this movie features many of their most famous routines, including the stateroom scene, the contract scene, the bed-switching sequence, and the operatic finale. The film's openly subversive and derisive tone was a perfect match for a Depression-era crowd looking for some wealthy authority figures to laugh at." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/a-night-at-the-opera-v35272

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