Gone with the wind 1939 - One of the greatest achievements in film history

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IMDB rating: 8,2

Director: Victor Fleming (George Cukor)
Main Cast: Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland, Thomas Mitchell, Hattie McDaniel, Evelyn Keyes, Ann Rutherford

"As epic as the 1,000-plus-page Margaret Mitchell bestseller on which it was based, David O. Selznick's production of Gone With the Wind (1939) went through three directors, a well-publicized search for Scarlett O'Hara, and a then-enormous four-million-dollar budget, resulting in one of the all-time highest-grossing movies. Sparing no expense on sets and costumes, Selznick aimed to produce the ultimate Technicolor blockbuster, faithfully adapting the book's Civil War era travails of Southern belle Scarlett and her roguish match, Rhett Butler. While the film is grand in scale (and length), its cast, especially relative unknown Vivien Leigh as Scarlett and MGM king Clark Gable as Rhett, made the narrative as engrossing as the spectacular recreation of the burning of Atlanta (in which old sets were torched). Premiering first in Atlanta, Gone With the Wind delivered on the promise of the hype, breaking box-office records. Earning an unprecedented 13 Oscar nominations, Gone With the Wind won eight statuettes and two special awards, taking Best Picture in Hollywood's 'miraculous' year, as well as Best Director for Victor Fleming, and Best Actress for Vivien Leigh. Best Supporting Actress Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American actor to win an Oscar.
The film grossed nearly 192 million dollars, assuring that, just as he predicted, Selznick's epitaph would be 'The Man Who Made Gone With the Wind'." - www.allmovie.com

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Hold your man 1933 - A truly sweet romance

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IMDB rating: 7,0

Director: Sam Wood
Main Cast: Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Stuart Erwin

"The first two-thirds of Hold Your Man is a snappy romantic comedy with a bit of an edge, and it's a shame that the powers that be at MGM couldn't have left good enough alone. Unfortunately, though this was made before the Production Code really had power, MGM decided to police itself and so the final third of the film becomes moralistic. There's nothing necessarily wrong with telling a moral story, but the filmmakers have to believe in it, and that's clearly not the case here. As a result, Man comes across rather schizoid, and the final third not only lacks punch and power, it dilutes the effectiveness of what came before it. Script problems - and the by-the-numbers direction of Sam Wood - aside, Man is an entertaining way to spend the time, primarily because of the unbeatable chemistry between stars Jean Harlow and Clark Gable. The two were a marvelous team, creating that indefinable 'something' that is pure gold. Just watch the way her eyes will linger over him a fraction of a second too long, or his body language when the two are in the middle of sparring with each other. They're both good actors, but what they create is something that's beyond drama and technique." - www.allmovie.com

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Night flight 1933 - An all star cast aviation spectacle

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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

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

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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

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Red dust 1932 - Gable & Harlow get torrid in the Tropics

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IMDB rating: 7,4

Director: Victor Fleming
Main Cast: Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Gene Raymond, Mary Astor, Donald Crisp, Tully Marshall

"Red Dust was lensed almost entirely on MGM's back lot; even so, we are utterly convinced that the film takes place in Indochina. Even more importantly, the audience never doubts for one moment that the relationship between 'hero' Clark Gable and 'heroine' Jean Harlow has gone far beyond the meaningful-glances stage.
Gable plays the overseer of a rubber plantation, whiling away the hot, lonely nights with his drunken assistant Tully Marshall. Donald Crisp, another of Gable's cohorts, arrives by boat with stranded prostitute Jean Harlow in tow. Gable wants no part of Harlow at first, telling her that she's history the moment the next boat to Saigon shows up. But Gable and Harlow are, in the parlance of the time, made for each other. After the inevitable affair, Harlow leaves, just as engineer Gene Raymond shows up to participate in the construction of a bridge. Raymond has brought along his seemingly proper wife Mary Astor; it isn't long, however, before Astor is throwing herself at the not altogether unwilling Gable. Raymond is such a good egg that Gable feels ashamed of himself for enjoying Astor's favors. When Harlow returns, Gable goes back to her, which drives the already unstable Astor completely off her trolley. She shoots Gable in a fit of jealous rage. Hearing the shot, Raymond rushes in. Proving that she's 'aces', Harlow quickly covers up for Astor, insisting that it was she who shot Gable. None the wiser, Raymond returns to the mainland with Astor, while Gable and Harlow end up in each other's arms for keeps.
Fairly 'hot' even by pre-code standards, Red Dust has gained legendary status thanks to rumors concerning Jean Harlow's famous bathing scene in a shaved barrel; according to rumor, footage still exists of Harlow totally au naturel (some stories go as far as to claim that the overseas version of Red Dust shows Gable and Harlow 'doing it'.) A heavily laundered remake of Red Dust, Mogambo, appeared in 1954, again with Clark Gable in the lead, but this time with Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly in the Harlow and Astor roles, respectively." - www.allmovie.com

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Sporting blood 1931 - Gable in his first top billed role

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IMDB rating: 6,2

Director: Charles J. Brabin
Main Cast: Clark Gable, Madge Evans, Ernest Torrence, Lew Cody, Marie Prevost

"Clark Gable went from supporting actor to star in the space of one year with Sporting Blood, adapted from a novel by Frederick Hazlitt Brennan. Gable is top-billed as a gambling house proprietor named Rid Riddell. When the owner of a prize thoroughbred loses heavily in Riddell's establishment, he is forced to give up the horse to the gambler as security. Rid enters the horse in several honest races, then pulls the animal during a crucial race in order to collect big money on the losses; then he plans to dope up the horse to assure future wins. But when the horse loses, the gambler, deeply in debt to mobsters, transfers ownership to one of his female dealers (Madge Evans), and then drops out of the plotline.
This film is a classic example of the old studio system at work. Both Madge Evans, and Clark Gable, were brand new at MGM. The studio bosses weren't at all sure how well either star would fare with the public. In fact, there is a sense of freshness about this film. It hasn't the ordinary Hollywood veneer to it. It makes no pretensions and avoids clichés typical of so many similar films of the 1930s. Evans and Gable are absolutely marvelous in their respective roles. Gable isn't really the lead in Sporting Blood - actually he's something of a rat - but he's the one whom everybody in the audience remembers long after the final fadeout." - www.allmovie.com

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The secret six 1931 - A terrific cast makes this early gangster flick

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IMDB rating: 6,4

Director: George W. Hill
Main Cast: Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone, Johnny Mack Brown, Jean Harlow, Marjorie Rambeau, Clark Gable, Ralph Bellamy, John Miljan

"George W. Hill's The Secret Six was an unlikely subject for an MGM feature - its story of bootleggers battling the law and each other is closer to what Warner Bros. was doing at the start of the 1930s. (One can also see some unique MGM touches in the production - the apartment in which Jean Harlow's character is set up by her mobster/lover Wallace Beery is more elegant, in the best Art Deco design, than anything that would have turned up in a Warner Bros. drama of this sort). And the presence of Clark Gable in a leading role here, and the modest similarities in the plot to Warner Bros.' Little Caesar (released three months earlier) have a certain irony - Gable had been up for the role of Edward G. Robinson's best friend (who eventually helps bring him down) when that earlier film was in pre-production in 1930. He gave such a strong performance in this movie, however, and showed he could dominate the screen so successfully, that he landed a long-term contract with MGM on the strength of his performance here. And Gable is the sparkplug that drives the movie - Wallace Beery is okay, doing what he did best as a sometimes comically uncouth but vicious villain; Jean Harlow is good to look at and acquits herself well as an actress; and Lewis Stone is surprisingly effective as a lawyer whose contact with his criminal clients goes far beyond representing them in court. There are also some tense and well-staged scenes, such as an execution in a subway car, but the movie also creaks in spots where it should roll along smoothly, as was a risk with any talkie in 1931; and the director wasn't quite up to carrying it over those patches - except when Gable is on the screen. There is also some fairly snappy dialogue, courtesy of Hill's wife Frances Marion, and it helps; but the whole notion of a group of masked citizens organizing a secret war against the mob will seem even sillier today than it probably did to anyone who stopped to think about it in 1931. Oddly enough, despite the plot holes and a certain unreality to the briskness of some of the events depicted, this movie was very topical for its time - the exploits of Chicago mobster Al Capone were the obvious basis for some of the misdeeds attributed to Beery's Louis Scorpio, and Capone was indicted for tax evasion (one of the charges leveled at Scorpio) in 1931. As a multi-layered curio, in the career of Clark Gable, as an MGM crime film, and a piece of topical filmmaking, The Secret Six is worth a look - and at its best, it's also an old-style thrill ride." - www.allmovie.com

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The finger points 1931 - Depression era gangster story with a dominating Gable

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IMDB rating: 6,1

Director: John Francis Dillon
Main Cast: Richard Barthelmess, Fay Wray, Regis Toomey, Robert Elliott, Clark Gable, Oscar Apfel

"The names have all been changed, but this hard-hitting gangster tale is based on an actual newspaper headline story involving the brutal slaying of corrupt crime reporter Alfred 'Jake' Lingle, who had been suspected of betraying his boss Al Capone. Naive Southern boy Breckinridge Lee comes to the big city for fame and fortune. He starts out honest, but is unable to the resist hefty payoffs offered by crime lord Louis Blanco to suppress certain stories. Time passes and Lee does a great job for Blanco. Lee's girl friend tries to get him to go straight, but he has become too accustomed to the money and besides is too deeply mired in corruption to ever escape. In the end, he loses his life when a story about Blanco's latest shenanigans escapes his watchful eye and gets printed. Believing Lee was behind the double-cross, Blanco orders him executed and tragedy ensues.
After talkies came in, Warner Brothers didn't really seem to know what to do with Richard Barthelmess, but he hung around in starring roles quite a bit longer than most of his silent counterparts - from 1929 to 1934. Of course, most notable here is Clark Gable, sitting in the palm of Jack Warner's hand, and not being recognized by him as a star in the making. Gable is impressive here as a spats-wearing charming sinner, the gangster who sees Lee as a useful idiot - for awhile anyways." - www.allmovie.com

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The Finger Points 1931 Mp4

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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A free soul 1931 - Lionel Barrymore gives an Oscar winning acting lesson

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021885/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 6,7

Director: Clarence Brown
Main Cast: Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, Lionel Barrymore, James Gleason, Clark Gable

"In its day, A Free Soul was powerful stuff, and if the passing of time has diluted its impact, it still carries enough of a punch to make it worth catching today. An example of the kind of adult issues that pre-Code films often explored, Soul is daring for its portrayal of a single woman embroiled in what is clearly a sexual affair with a man; unfortunately, it dresses up this interesting situation in a melodramatic screenplay that never seems to know when to stop. This keeps Soul from being great drama - but it doesn't keep it from being quite entertaining. Clarence Brown provides highly appropriate direction; he embraces (and believes in) the melodrama without letting it get too far out of hand. Brown is blessed with a stellar cast, especially Norma Shearer. The actress is in excellent form and gives a very well modulated performance that allows her to pull out all the stops when appropriate, but also to underplay notably in several key moments. Lionel Barrymore's Oscar-winning performance is slightly more uneven - it's a bit mannered early on and always seems to be channeling Frank Morgan - but it's sensational in the climactic sequences, when it really matters. Clark Gable is a marvelous heel, and Leslie Howard appropriately noble and self-sacrificing. Despite its not inconsiderable flaws, A Free Soul makes for entertaining viewing." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/a-free-soul-v18556/

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Possessed 1931 - Mature pre-code Hollywood drama

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022276/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_15
IMDB rating: 6,7

Director: Clarence Brown
Main Cast: Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Wallace Ford, Richard 'Skeets' Gallagher, Marjorie White, John Miljan

"Clarence Brown creates an effective melodrama that interestingly examines some of the social mores and topical concerns of the 1930's. The position of women in society is the key theme addressed by the competent director, with Crawford's portrayal being both realistic and touching. Crawford makes great use of the close-up to express inner thoughts and feelings, suggesting a whole range of emotions when she overhears Gable speak of his reluctance towards marriage. Crawford is the film's best asset and she does some great work here, providing the most memorable scenes in the picture.
The film's other triumph is the slick narrative economy employed by Brown. Possessed clocks in at around 73 minutes and is a very efficiently-produced film. MGM's trademark opulent production design suits the penthouse scenes well, with Crawford looking terrific in jewels and well-cut Adrian dresses. Cinematographer Oliver T. Marsh provides some inspired visual style in an early scene that sees Marian standing in awe at the luxury and splendor passing by her on the train. The juxtaposition of Marian's two lifestyles in this short sequence is a nice effect.
The film is let down by Gable's distinct blandness and an average script. Gable conspicuously lacks presence alongside Crawford in their scenes and his dialogue delivery is very wooden here but Crawford manages to cover for him in their romantic scenes, putting in a top-drawer 'cover all bases' performance.
Based on a 1920 play by Edgar Selwyn, Possessed had been filmed previously in 1924 as The Mirage, a vehicle for silent star Florence Vidor."

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Dance fools, dance 1931 - Crawford and Gable sizzle!

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021778/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 5,9

Director: Harry Beaumont
Main Cast: Joan Crawford, Cliff Edwards, Lester Vail, William Bakewell, William Holden, Clark Gable, Natalie Moorehead

"This quick-moving and entertaining melodrama was MGM's answer to Little Caesar, The Public Enemy and Scarface, with a woman's angle added to make things a little different. As she did in many of her earlier films (both silent and sound), Crawford dances up a storm, proving herself as one of the best 'Jazz Babies' of the late 20's and early 30's. Star-to-be Clark Gable is billed way down in the credits, playing a brutish role that made him extremely unlikable, although his sexiness does show in his scenes with Crawford and the feisty Natalie Moorehead as his moll. In all of his future movies with the future 'Mommy Dearest', Gable softened his image and was more the lover rather than the brute man, even though he was still all man. Bakewell, who was a major player in the early 30's (usually cast as insensitive and selfish young men who cause their families a lot of heartache), was never really likable on screen, and in bit parts of the late 30's and 40's, this trait continued as well.
Well-written and excellently photographed, this is one of the films that assured Crawford stardom, making her a major threat to Norma Shearer. (Garbo would be in a category all her own.) There's a lot of pre-code innuendo, some great montages, and a memorable exchange between Natalie Moorehead and Gable involving a lit match."

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Test pilot 1938 - A familiar story but with great actors

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030848/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 6,9

Director: Victor Fleming
Main Cast: Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy, Lionel Barrymore

"Test Pilot is one of those irresistible MGM potboilers of the 1930s that coast along on sheer star power. Clark Gable plays a courageous test pilot, who compromises his achievements with his frequent bouts of drinking. Gable's mechanic, Spencer Tracy, does what he can to keep his boss out of trouble. While testing a new aircraft, Gable is forced to land on a Midwestern farm, where he meets and falls in love with Myrna Loy. Gable and Loy marry, whereupon he is fired by his boss Lionel Barrymore, who is of the opinion that flying and dames don't mix. Gable goes off on another bender, compelling Loy to leave him. Once more, Tracy comes to Gable's rescue by reuniting the couple and arranging for Barrymore to give Gable his job back. Later, Gable and Tracy are assigned to test a huge army bomber. Something goes wrong, and the plane goes into a dive. The self-sacrificing Tracy sees to it that Gable is saved from a flaming death - at the cost of his own life. Gable is so devastated by Tracy's death that it looks as though he'll never fly again. But with Loy's help, Gable regains his self-confidence. As one can see, there's little in Test Pilot that hasn't been done before. But with Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy and Myrna Loy at the controls, the film proved a real audience-pleaser in 1938. In fact, it's still pretty good today." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/test-pilot-v49173

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San Francisco 1936 - A major Hollywood spectacle from the 30's

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028216/?ref_=nv_sr_1
IMDB rating: 7,4

Director: W. S. Van Dyke
Main Cast: Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, Spencer Tracy, Jack Holt, Shirley Ross

"San Francisco had removed Miss MacDonald from the wooden Nelson Eddy and right into the arms of Clark Gable, with Spencer Tracy as her guardian angel, of sorts, to boot. MGM had assigned the dependable W.S. Van Dyke to direct this the company's second blockbuster of 1936. Nominated for both The Great Ziegfeld and San Francisco, Van Dyke ended up competing against himself at the Academy Awards, eventually losing to Frank Capra (Mr. Deeds Goes to Town). Perhaps that was fair enough. If Mr. Deeds stands as a testament to Capra's genius (and writer Robert Riskin's), both San Francisco and The Great Ziegfeld remain crowning achievements of the studio system, MGM-style. Quite a few writers worked on the screenplay to San Francisco, including Herman J. Mankiewicz and Anita Loos, but only the latter earned an onscreen credit. While Van Dyke obviously stood for the major portion of the direction, everyone from special effects designer James Basevi to, reportedly, D.W. Griffith had a hand in there, the latter often credited with helming MacDonald's rousing pre-earthquake rendition of Gus Kahn, Bronislau Kaper, and Walter Jurman's famous title song. Had there been an award for Best Special Effects in 1936, Basevi would almost certainly have won, San Francisco's earthshaking tremors remain far more effective than such later 'spectacles' as Earthquake (1974), Panavision and Sensurround notwithstanding. Then again, maybe not -  nominated for Academy Awards in four categories, San Francisco lost in all of them, including Spencer Tracy as Best Actor, an honor which instead went to Paul Muni of The Story of Louis Pasteur." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/san-francisco-v42760/

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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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It happened one night 1934 - The movie which set the pace for screwball comedy

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025316/
IMDB rating: 8,3

Director: Frank Capra
Main Cast: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly

"Frank Capra's seminal screwball comedy, which won all five major Academy Awards for 1934, is still as breezy and beguiling today. Scripted by Capra's frequent collaborator Robert Riskin, Frank Capra's It Happened One Night became the prototypical screwball comedy and elevated Columbia Pictures from Poverty Row status to respectable 'major minor' studio. Starring Clark Gable, on loan from MGM as punishment, and Claudette Colbert, on loan from Paramount for twice her usual pay, Capra's and Riskin's comic romance between a down-to-earth newspaper reporter and a spoiled runaway heiress set the standard for screwball. Its fast-paced repartee, kooky heroine, witty gags, and class-crossing love story became hallmarks of the genre in such later films as My Man Godfrey (1936) and Bringing Up Baby (1938); the overt lustiness barred by the 1934 Production Code was transmuted into clever banter and the romance conveyed an ideal Depression-era fantasy. A critical and commercial hit, It Happened One Night was the first film to sweep the top five Oscars, rewarding Capra, Riskin, Gable, and Colbert, and fulfilling Columbia impresario Harry Cohn's desire to turn his B-studio into a class act.
The only other movies to win all five major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, and Screenplay) were One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991)." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/it-happened-one-night-v25509

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