Pride and prejudice 1940 - Jane Austen in the Hollywood fashion

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IMDB rating: 7,5

Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Main Cast: Greer Garson, Laurence Olivier, Maureen O'Sullivan, Ann Rutherford, Marsha Hunt, Heather Angel, Mary Boland, Edmund Gwenn

"Pride and Prejudice is a moderately faithful re-telling of Jane Austen's best-known novel. The protagonists are appropriately composed in the pre-Victorian England setting, championing Austen's rebellion against what she saw as the excessive emotionalism and romantic world view of the literature of her time. Austen's aim of puncturing holes in the snootiness of upper-middle class figures is retained in Aldous Huxley's screenplay and Robert Leonard's occasionally stiff direction. The unlikely romance of the leads, played conventionally but effectively by the attractive pair of Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson, evolves from contempt to understanding to affection, retaining a modern appeal in its focus on illusory first impressions and the follies of personal pride and class prejudice. Though Austen's novel was set in 1813, the year of its publication, the film version takes place in 1835, reportedly so as to take advantage of the more attractive costume designs of that period. Not surprisingly, a few changes had to be made to mollify the Hollywood censors (eager to find offense in the most innocent of material): the most notable is the character of Mr. Collins (Melville Cooper), transformed from the book's hypocritical clergyman to the film's standard-issue opportunist." - www.allmovie.com

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Susan Lenox: Her fall and rise 1931 - Garbo rises above all else

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022453/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 6,5

Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Main Cast: Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Jean Hersholt, John Miljan

"It was once theorized by critic Andrew Sarris that this 1931 Greta Garbo vehicle was subtitled 'Her Fall & Rise' rather than the expected 'Rise & Fall', because Hollywood - and by extension, the public - could not tolerate a failure. Whatever the case, modern audiences will latch onto Susan Lennox not because of its cumbersome title but because of its one-time-only pairing of Garbo and Clark Gable. It's a pairing that promises fireworks, especially as Gable is still young - and even mustache-less. Unfortunately, those firecrackers don't ever really materialize. There's certainly some chemistry between the two, but not enough, perhaps because Gable is not well cast. The Gable audiences know and remember would never have let his true love's tawdry background keep him from her. Gable doesn't seem comfortable in the role, and as a result he can't come up to Garbo's level, who is playing a part that fits her like a glove. Looking absolutely stunning in William H. Daniels' lovingly composed photography, Garbo sails through the part, turning in a glorious star diva performance that still finds the truth beneath the cinematic trappings and makes a ridiculous story compelling and thoroughly engaging. Lenox' screenplay is so much nonsense, but Garbo knows she can play that nonsense for all its worth, and she is a wonder to behold. She gets fine support from Jean Hersholt and Alan Hale, and even miscast, Gable is worth seeing; but Lenox is a Garbo vehicle, and she is at all times firmly in the driver's seat.
The film was adapted by four screenwriters from a novel by David Graham Phillips." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/susan-lenox-her-fall-and-rise-v48018/

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The bachelor father 1931 - Great performance by Sir C. Aubrey Smith

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021633/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 7,8

Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Main Cast: Marion Davies, Ralph Forbes, C. Aubrey Smith, Ray Milland

"A grumpy old baronet, happily unmarried, decides to send for his three grown-up illegitimate children and provide them a home at his manor. To his surprise, he finds himself bonding with his uninhibited American daughter. Can he find satisfaction in his new role as 'the bachelor father'?
This 1931 film, in which he gives a robust performance, marked the arrival at MGM of elderly Sir C. Aubrey Smith, very soon to be one of Hollywood's most valuable character actors. With his great hooked nose and beetling brows, Sir Aubrey looked every inch the part of the duke or general or statesman he would play so often. He would remain very much in demand in studios all over town, right up to his death in 1948.
The film's top-billed star is Marion Davies. Best remembered today as the mistress of media mogul William Randolph Hearst and the chatelaine of Hearst Castle, the most fabulous residence on the West Coast, she was actually a very talented and pretty comedienne. For a few years, Hearst attempted to make her the queen of MGM (with her own production company and a huge bungalow-dressing room) but the studio already had several other queens - Dressler, Garbo, Shearer, Crawford - and he eventually moved her to Warner Bros. Here Miss Davies gets a chance to joke and clown and her scenes with Sir Aubrey are entertaining. Her love interest is played by Ralph Forbes, a handsome young British actor who was just starting to find good films as the silent days ended. He had all the qualities for major stardom, but sadly it was not to be. Celebrity would come to Ray Milland, here making one of his first screen appearances."

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Let us be gay 1930 - Old fashioned but interesting little comedy with Shearer and Dressler

Norma Shearer in Let Us Be Gay (1930)

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021060/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 6,6

Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Main Cast: Norma Shearer, Marie Dressler, Rod La Roque, Hedda Hopper, Raymond Hackett, Sally Eilers

"Let us be gay is an interesting little domestic comedy which features some tart dialogue (courtesy of celebrated screenwriter Frances Marion) & good performances. While perhaps a bit mawkish at times, this can probably be blamed on the difficulties with early sound technology which tended to limit action & movement.
Norma Shearer can be credited with appearing in this minor film, rather than using her undoubted clout as Irving Thalberg's spouse to insist upon only A-grade pictures. She is especially effective in her first few scenes, where dowdy flat makeup makes her almost unrecognizable. Her extreme transmogrification from goose to swan could only happen in Hollywood, but it's scarcely profitable to spend much time worrying about that.
Rod LaRocque doesn't come off too well as Shearer's adulterous husband. Quite popular during Silent days, the talkies were not especially kind to him and his career would suffer. Here his role is not in the least sympathetic and one has to wonder what masochistic impulse moves women to desire the cad so much.
Magnificent Marie Dressler is on hand as an eccentric Long Island dowager. As a great friend of Frances Marion, one can easily imagine that the part was written expressly for her. Full of cranks & crotchets, she is very humorous. However, the tremendous warmth & essential goodness which would very shortly make her Hollywood's biggest star are largely missing.
Among the supporting cast, Hedda Hopper scores as a slinky society serpent, as does Wilfred Noy playing a comic butler. Movie mavens will spot little Dickie Moore as Shearer's young son & elderly Mary Gordon as her housekeeper, both uncredited."

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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/

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The great Ziegfeld 1936 - The greatest showman

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027698/?ref_=nv_sr_1
IMDB rating: 6,9

Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Main Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer, Frank Morgan, Fanny Brice, Virginia Bruce, Reginald Owen, Ray Bolger

"The Great Ziegfeld manages to combine an interesting story with spectacular production numbers, something that MGM musicals of the early sound era achieved on only an occasional basis. William Powell is fine as Florenz Ziegfeld, but it is Best Actress Oscar winner Louise Rainer who shines as Anna Held. Among the film's several pleasures are seeing real-life performers from the Ziegfeld era playing themselves, particularly Fanny Brice, later immortalized by Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl. Despite its 176-minute running time, The Great Ziegfeld maintains interest between its superb musical production numbers." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-great-ziegfeld-v20813/

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