Here comes Mr. Jordan 1941 - A charming classic fantasy

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 7,8

Director: Alexander Hall
Main Cast: Robert Montgomery, Evelyn Keyes, Claude Rains, Rita Johnson, Edward Everett Horton, James Gleason

"The usually debonair Robert Montgomery stepped out of character in this classic comic fantasy to play a clean-cut boxer, Joe Pendleton, who's been sent to heaven before his time. Mr. Jordan, a kind of celestial executive, rectifies the error by loaning Pendleton the body of a millionaire named Bruce Farnsworth who's just been murdered by his wife. When she learns that he's alive again, the fun begins. The kind of beautifully executed film that turns the auteur theory on its head, it's driven by a script that always manages to keep its fiendishly complicated farcical maneuvers in perfect focus. Montgomery is wonderful as the simple boxer who just wants a shot at the title, as is Claude Rains as the dryly sardonic angel. But it's veteran James Gleason's Academy Award-winning performance as Joe's manager Max Corkle that steals the film. The scene in which Joe finally convinces Max that his spirit is inhabiting the body of Farnsworth is a masterpiece of comic acting.  Here Comes Mr. Jordan is one of the most consistently clever romantic comedies of the 1940s, and richly deserving of the Oscars won by screenwriters Sidney Buchman, Seton I. Miller and Harry Segall. A sequel, Down to Earth, was filmed in 1947, with Roland Culver as Mr. Jordan; and in 1978, the original Jordan was remade by Warren Beatty as Heaven Can Wait." - www.allmovie.com

DVD links:

Night flight 1933 - An all star cast aviation spectacle

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 6,4

Director: Clarence Brown
Main Cast: John Barrymore, Helen Hayes, Clark Gable, Lionel Barrymore, Robert Montgomery, Myrna Loy, William Gargan, C. Henry Gordon, Leslie Fenton, Irving Pichel

"This long-forgotten, long-unavailable MGM aviation drama (produced under the aegis of David O. Selznick) is an adaptation of flier-turned-belletrist Antoine de Saint-Exupery's slim 1931 novel of the same name, which dramatizes the adventures of the South American night mail aviation service in the early years of the 20th century. The studio enlisted a top-drawer cast for this one, including Clark Gable, Robert Montgomery, Myrna Loy, brothers John and Lionel Barrymore (in their final onscreen appearance together), and Helen Hayes. Selznick and his brass were obviously hoping to produce another hit on par with Wings or Grand Hotel, and thus pinned empyrean hopes on the novella. To say that the adaptation didn't live up to their box office expectations would be an understatement, and probably explains the obscurity into which the picture sank. But all told, this film represents a happy, eminently enjoyable surprise. Scriptwriter Oliver H.P. Garret builds the drama around a plot contrivance not found in the original text - the attempts of the said pilots to deliver a precious vaccine to the infantile paralysis unit at the City Hospital in Rio de Janeiro, before one child in particular expires. De Saint-Exupery purists may scoff, but this ingenious narrative addition works beautifully - it functions as the hook necessary to sustain suspense in the audience's mind and maintain an involving through-line. All of the actors do stellar work here, particularly Gable and Montgomery (both cast as noble pilots), who give the picture the star power and the dramatic weight that it needs. A number of scenes feel stilted and overly theatrical, and others threaten to interrupt the film's momentum just a bit, but for the most part, what's onscreen is both involving and exciting. The film doesn't recreate de Saint-Exupery's majestic scenic tableaux - how could it? - and director Clarence Brown relies too heavily on 'wipes' to segue from one aerial shot to another. But the film compensates with special effects that feel downright revolutionary for the period in question, and that anticipate Howard Hawks's Only Angels Have Wings - including gorgeous, convincing shots of aircraft during nocturnal voyages (done with miniatures) and a magnificent storm sequence, set in the Andes and lifted directly from the text. Of greatest curiosity are the period images of such cities as Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Santiago, Chile, presented as sterile-white, WASP-staffed utopian communities with nothing but the most luxurious surroundings. Why the absence of Hispanic citizens, and why the careful resistance to any signs of local squalor? (It may simply be a reflection on the nativism of the era that produced this film). The movie suffers just a bit from one of the most risible final shots of any film in memory (with 'ghost pilots' emerging from the sea and soaring up to the heavens); until then it's an engrossing entertainment and does justice to its source material." - 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:

The man in possession 1931 - One of Montgomery's delightful comedies

Publicity picture of Robert Montgomery, circa 1931

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022117/?ref_=nv_sr_1
IMDB rating: 7,1

Director: Sam Wood
Main Cast: Robert Montgomery, Charlotte Greenwood, Irene Purcell, C. Aubrey Smith, Reginald Owen, Alan Mowbray

"Robert Montgomery plays an aimless young man who secures a job as a bailiff's deputy. Montgomery is assigned to guard a house under writ, but when he falls for the lady of the house (Irene Purcell), the boy decides to serve as her butler to keep up her family's appearances. Throughout the film, Montgomery assumes several more disguises to keep the family's legal reverses from becoming public. P. G. Wodehouse adapted H. M. Harwood's play The Man in Possession for this brisk film version. The story was Americanized in 1937 as Personal Property, with Robert Taylor and Jean Harlow in the leads." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-man-in-possession-v101236

DVD links:

Free and easy 1930 - Keaton's talkie debut

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020902/?ref_=nv_sr_2
IMDB rating: 5,6

Director: Edward Sedgwick
Main Cast: Buster Keaton, Anita Page, Robert Montgomery, Fred Niblo, Lionel Barrymore, William Haines, Dorothy Sebastian

"Buster Keaton's talkie debut (discounting his non-speaking guest appearance in Hollywood Revue of 1929) was Free and Easy, an uneven but generally amusing comedy with a Hollywood setting.
When pretty Elvira (Anita Page) of Gopher City, Kansas wins a beauty contest, her prize includes a trip to Tinseltown and a screen test at MGM. Appointing himself protector of Elvira and her formidable mother (Trixie Friganza), gas-station attendant Elmer Butts (Keaton) accompanies them to California. Once they've arrived, Elmer manages to disrupt the daily MGM routine, stumbling into films in progress, knocking over sets and breaking props, and finding himself taking a screen test in which he repeatedly blows the single line 'The queen has swooned' ('The sween has quooned', 'The coon has sweened') over and over. Meanwhile, latin-lover film star Lorenzo (Robert Montgomery) sets his sights on innocent Elvira, attempting to seduce her while Elmer's back is turned. But Lorenzo turns out to be a good guy - in fact, his real name is Larry, and he's a Kansas boy himself - and he arranges for Elvira to get her big break. In a surprise turnaround, Elvira doesn't win a contract, but Elmer and Elvira's mom become popular musical-comedy stars!
The film is studded with guest appearances by such MGM contractees as directors Cecil B. DeMille, Lionel Barrymore, Fred Niblo, and actors Gwen Lee, John Miljan, William Haines, Karl Dane and Keaton's then-girlfriend Dorothy Sebastian. The film was remade as Pick a Star in 1937, and as Abbott and Costello in Hollywood in 1945." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/free-and-easy-v18547

DVD links:

The sins of the children 1930 - A long forgotten, but a very good early talkie

Leila Hyams & Robert Montgomery in The sins of the children (1930)

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021382/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 6,4

Director: Sam Wood
Main Cast: Robert Montgomery, Leila Hyams, Elliott Nugent, Clara Blandick, Mary Doran, Louis Mann

"Despite its slightly lurid title, this film is all about love. Full of small moments beautifully played, it gives a portrait of an American family over a series of several years, held together through times of tribulation by a proud papa who adores his family unstintingly. This is a 'feel good film' in the best sense of the phrase and perfect to enjoy at the Christmas Holidays. It is a shame that this little gem has become so obscure.
As Adolf Wagenkampf, immigrant German barber, Louis Mann is nothing short of magnificent, giving one of the first great performances of the sound era. Showing enormous confidence in front of the camera, Mann steals the show with his mannerisms and accent, his pliable face registering every triumph or tragedy, every hope or defeat, which comes his way. Mann's beautiful soul is authentic, his talent undeniable. Unfortunately, this was to be virtually his only film. Louis Mann died in February of 1931, at the age of 65.
A very fine cast supports Mann throughout: Clara Blandick as his gentle wife; Francis X. Bushman Jr as the doctor son ashamed of his family name; Elliott Nugent as the inventor son, whose unwise impulse costs his father dearly; pretty Leila Hyams as the headstrong youngest daughter; and James Dolan as the obnoxious son-in-law.
(It was actor Nugent, playing the part of the youngest Wagenkampf son, who was largely responsible for both the original story and dialogue for the film. It's success is his, as well.)
In one of his earliest roles, Robert Montgomery scores as the local cad who compromises Hyams."

Download links:

The divorcee 1930 - Shearer is excellent in her Oscar-winning performance

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020827/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 6,9

Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Main Cast: Norma Shearer, Robert Montgomery, Chester Morris, Conrad Nagel, Mary Doran

"Norma Shearer earned an Academy Award for playing the not so gay divorcée in this pre-Code offering based, loosely, on Ex-Wife, a 1929 Ursula Parrott novel. Shearer is alternately delightfully wry and silly but her leading men, with the exception perhaps of a very young Robert Montgomery, make for less than exiting company, especially the charisma-deficient Conrad Nagel, who seems to have popped up in every other Hollywood drama of 1930." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-divorc%C3%A9e-v14078/

DVD links:

Night must fall 1937 - Brilliantly acted, moody psychological drama

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029310/?ref_=nv_sr_1
IMDB rating: 7,3

Director: Richard Thorpe
Main Cast: Robert Montgomery, Rosalind Russell, Dame May Whitty, Alan Marshal

"Emlyn Williams' theatrical horror piece Night Must Fall was filmed by MGM without the usual studio-imposed happy ending. Night Must Fall is a classic nail-biter that, despite the passage of time, is still enormously effective. Primary credit is due to Robert Montgomery, who sheds his 'light comedy' image with a finely crafted, carefully nuanced performance that grows more impressive with repeated viewings. That Montgomery can provide Danny with charm is no surprise; that he can do so in a manner that is simultaneously convincing to Dame May Whitty and contrived to Rosalind Russell is unexpectedly delightful. His understanding of the character's psychosis is impressive, and many of his choices - the subtle changes in Danny's gait and stance, for example - demonstrate the amount of care he put into this portrayal. Russell's part does not allow her the same range, but her work is polished. She makes the character's repulsion and attraction to Danny credible, which is crucial to the film's success, and her restlessness and discontent are pitched to exactly the right key. Whitty, of course, has a grand time; she and Montgomery are so believable that plot contrivances that might otherwise provoke grunts of disbelief are accepted without batting an eye. Credit director Richard Thorpe with guiding the cast through some difficult terrain; much of the screenplay requires finely tuned reactions and scrupulous attention to subtext to avoid seeming obvious, and Thorpe's careful handling sees that the tone of the scenes never strays into that pit." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/night-must-fall-v103947/

DVD links:

Private lives 1931 - Based upon one of Noel Coward's wittiest plays

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022279/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 7,0

Director: Sidney Franklin
Main Cast: Norma Shearer, Robert Montgomery, Reginald Denny, Una Merkel, Jean Hersholt

"A fairly faithful adaptation of the classic Noel Coward stage play (virtually all of the witticisms, notably 'Some women should be struck regularly - like gongs' are left intact, though we truly miss 'You're looking lovely in this damned moonlight').
In Amanda and Elyot, Coward created a pair of joined-at-the-erotic-hip twins; while there was nothing particularly bawdy about them on-stage, they were still rather too frank (and frankly amoral) to totally withstand the censor's shears on film. Fortunately, the filmmakers were sensitive and judicious in their cutting, with the result that most of the humor - and more importantly, the flavor - of the original remains. True, there's a little of the edge missing, but that has more to do with the actors than the adaptation. Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery are slightly too much the movie stars to play the parts with the total honesty that is called for, but their charm, timing, and bearing more than make up for this. Shearer, especially, understands the cadences of Coward's dialogue, but doesn't become enslaved to it. Reginald Denny has Victor's amusing insufferableness down pat, and Una Merkel is a winningly tiresome Sibyl.
The movie has been opened up from the stage play, sometimes to good effect, sometimes to little; however, the settings - especially the glorious Art Deco hotel - are noteworthy.
Private lives is played with such polish and expertise that we're willing to overlook the fact that only one of the four principals (Reginald Denny) is genuinely British." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/private-lives-v39315

DVD links: