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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Arrowsmith 1931 - An early sound version of a Pulitzer Prize winning novel

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IMDB rating: 6,2

Director: John Ford
Main Cast: Ronald Colman, Helen Hayes, Richard Bennett, Myrna Loy

"One of the more prestigious films of its time, John Ford's film adaptation of Sinclair Lewis' Pulitzer Prize-winning novel has a sleek Art Deco look strangely out of tune with its tale of moral struggle. One of the director's most uncharacteristic projects, it was an enormous critical and commercial success, and although it remains an interesting film it's marred by an absence of clarity. In taking on the most complex protagonist he had attempted to date, Ford's film tries to balance a critique of the scientist's Faustian ambitions and hunger for glory with an awareness that the research he's doing is absolutely necessary. The film alternates uncertainly between condoning its protagonist's idealism and castigating his indifference to his wife, and the possible side effects of his work. Colman is also somewhat miscast, his characteristic suavity unable to accommodate the complexity of the driven, tormented physician. Helen Hayes easily handles the character of the long-suffering, possibly abused wife, and legendary stage actor Richard Bennett does the best work as the emphatic Sondelius. Particularly in the island sequence, Ford's stylized depth of focus work betrays the influence of Murnau, and his evocation of an undercurrent of paranoia in the face of the burgeoning disease is the film's most powerful effect." - www.allmovie.com

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The sin of Madelon Claudet 1931 - The definitive sacrificing mother saga of the 30's

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022386/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 6,8

Director: Edgar Selwyn
Main Cast: Helen Hayes, Lewis Stone, Neil Hamilton, Cliff Edwards, Jean Hersholt, Marie Prevost, Robert Young, Karen Morley, Charles Winninger

"Legend has it that Helen Hayes was somewhat embarrassed at winning an Oscar for a work as blatantly manipulative and melodramatic as The Sin of Madelon Claudet, but Hayes' performance overcomes the limitations of the material and, more importantly, even manages to elevate that material. Hayes is simply stunning, investing every moment of this sudsy tearjerker with an honesty that makes even its most stilted dialogue come alive. Her naïveté in the early segment of the film is endearing rather than cloying; it feels real rather than manufactured and, therefore, makes all the more powerful her strongly ambivalent feelings at the birth of her son. Hayes handles the transformations into each of the stages of her life with remarkable facility. In each stage she is practically a different character, yet the audience never once questions that they are all the same woman - nor questions whether one woman could exhibit so many different facets. While it's hard to see past the star performance, it must be noted that she gets some very solid support from the rest of the cast, especially from a wonderful Lewis Stone and an engaging Marie Prevost." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-sin-of-madelon-claudet-v44814/

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A farewell to arms 1932 - The first film version of Hemingway's novel

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022879/
IMDB rating: 6,6

Director: Frank Borzage
Main Cast: Gary Cooper, Helen Hayes, Adolphe Menjou

"Although the ending was altered, this A Farewell to Arms is one of the best cinematic adaptations of an Ernest Hemingway work. True, the film doesn't quite capture the unique Hemingway voice and style, but it does have some of his flavor; more importantly, it translates the story into "Hollywood" terms that make it more cinematically appealing. If the film lacks the depth of the novel, it still packs an emotional wallop. Certainly a great deal of the credit must go to stars Helen Hayes and Gary Cooper, who make an odd physical pair but who have a genuine, affecting chemistry. Hayes is radiant in one of her finest screen performances, playing suffering, nobility, and heartbreak in an outsized style that still rings true. Cooper was a Hemingway friend in real life, and later played the hero of Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls; his boyish simplicity is just right for director Frank Borzage's heartfelt approach and he utilizes his considerable charm to good effect, helped by his truly impressive good looks; while he's not as comfortable as Hayes with some of the heightened emotion, he still pulls it off. Director Frank Borzage skillfully blends the romance with the war-themed story, creating both impressive battle vistas and intimate, softly lit duets -- all with the inestimable help of cinematographer Charles B. Lang. The Oscar-winning cinematography is the kind of lush black and white that can capture the glow from a cigarette as it plays across Cooper's darkened face--a breathtaking touch. The jaded battle scenes show the influence of the hit film version of All Quiet on the Western Front, especially in a gripping montage depicting Cooper's progress alone through the war zone.
This is first and foremost a love story, however, and as such it succeeds beautifully, right through to the remarkably intense ending.
Modern audiences will undoubtedly find portions of the film (and its style) dated and over the top, but those willing to meet it on its own terms will be rewarded." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/a-farewell-to-arms-v16801

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