Secret of the blue room 1933 - Atmospheric mystery with good performances

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IMDB rating: 6,6

Director: Kurt Neumann
Main Cast: Lionel Atwill, Gloria Stuart, Paul Lukas, Edward Arnold

"This tight little melodrama opens with a group of wealthy people staying at a luxurious European mansion. According to legend, the mansion's 'blue room' is cursed - everyone who has ever spent the night in that room has met with an untimely end. The fact that Universal made it has awarded this tight little whodunit status as a horror film. There are indeed some horror elements (spooky rooms, secret panels, etc.) but the mysterious goings-on are subsequently explained to everyone's satisfaction, except perhaps the viewer who is forced to grabble with a couple of loose ends. The Secret of the Blue Room was indeed one of Universal's cheapest releases of 1933 - a Depression year that did not call for extravagance anywhere - but good utilization of standing sets, including the mansion from James Whale's far superior The Old Dark House (1932), adds production values not matched by its Poverty Row competitors, of which there were many. Also leftover from The Old Dark House, so to speak, is Gloria Stuart, who makes the perfect foil for Lionel Atwill's troubled estate owner. Remade twice by Universal, Secret of the Blue Room was based on the German Geheimnis des Blauen Zimmers, produced by Engels & Schmidt Tonfilm in 1932." - www.allmovie.com

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Downstairs 1932 - John Gilbert's best performance of the sound era

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IMDB rating: 8,0

Director: Monta Bell
Main Cast: John Gilbert, Virginia Bruce, Paul Lukas, Hedda Hopper, Reginald Owen, Olga Baclanova

"Anyone who believes that the career of silent screen idol John Gilbert ended because his voice has too high for the talkies hasn't seen this marvelously black comedy. In perhaps his best performance of the sound era (with his supporting role in 1934's The Captain Hates the Sea running a close second), Gilbert plays a rogue who can get away with just about anything because of his charisma and charm -- and his voice suits his character perfectly. Karl (Gilbert) is a chauffeur who goes to work for a Viennese Baron and Baroness (Reginald Owen and Olga Baclanova) on the day that two of their servants - head butler Albert (Paul Lukas) and maid Anna (an astonishingly lovely Virginia Bruce) - are being wed. Almost immediately Karl creates havoc in the household - he flirts with the innocent, susceptible Anna, blackmails the Baroness, who is having an affair, and seduces the middle-aged head cook, Sophie (Bodil Rosing), only so he can get his hands on her life savings. In spite of his wickedness, there is something magnetic about Karl, and Anna - who is vaguely dissatisfied with her loving but dogmatic husband - finally succumbs. But all of his schemes inevitably backfire on him and after Albert gets Sophie's money back, he gladly tosses Karl out of the Baron's mansion. The next we see of him, he is charming his way into yet another chauffeur position (hinting at a potential sequel that, unfortunately, never came).
Gilbert, who wrote the story four years earlier, originally had an appropriately macabre ending - after a brutal fight, Albert drowns Karl in a vat of wine. When he first came up with the idea, Gilbert had wanted Erich Von Stroheim to direct. By 1932, this was out of the question (MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer had little use for Stroheim). Instead, the highly capable Monta Bell was given the job - sadly, it was one his last directing assignments. During the shoot, Gilbert and Virginia Bruce fell in love and they were married in August, 1932, the month that the film was released." - www.allmovie.com

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The devil's holiday 1930 - Nancy Carroll gives the performance of her life

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020823/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 6,1

Director: Edmund Goulding
Main Cast: Nancy Carroll, Phillips Holmes, James Kirkwood, Hobart Bosworth, Ned Sparks, Paul Lukas, Zasu Pitts

"Nancy Carroll brings a touch of freshness to the well-worn plot convolutions of Devil's Holiday. Ms. Carroll plays a manicurist who woos and weds wealthy Phillips Holmes. She tells herself that she harbors no mercenary notions, but when Holmes' family offers to buy her off if she'll leave, Carroll accepts the offer. The girl's basic loyalty surfaces when Holmes goes temporarily insane; Carroll reneges on her cash deal with the family and returns to her husband. Devil's Holiday is one of those class-conscious early 1930s pictures that always scored a hit with middle-class filmgoers, who liked to believe that they, too, would behave as altruistically as Nancy Carroll if given the chance." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-devils-holiday-v89378

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Little women 1933 - A coming-of-age drama with the classic Hollywood style

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024264/
IMDB rating: 7,4

Director: George Cukor
Main Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Jean Parker, Frances Dee, Paul Lukas, Douglass Montgomery

"George Cukor directed this classic adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's sentimental novel with a shimmering lavishness that is a prime example of the classic Hollywood style at its best. One of Hollywood's original 'chick flicks', this faithful adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's Civil War-era novel focuses almost exclusively on the ambitions, desires, and emotions of the titular four sisters. Little Women's first half, focused on the sisters' effervescent and fun-loving youth, gradually gives way to a melancholy, downbeat second half, in which we witness confusion, disappointment, and death. The film's willingness to concentrate almost exclusively on these four sisters, who vary from confident to reticent, was an important step forward in the cinematic treatment of women. How the 'little women' hold up as they undergo their trials and tribulations is also essential, as they survive and thrive without (and occasionally despite) men, who appear only in supporting roles, a tidy inversion of Hollywood tradition. Little Women's star-making performance was that of Katherine Hepburn, whose tomboyish spunk is wonderfully endearing in the role of Jo, the embryonic writer. However, the supporting work of Joan Bennett, Jean Parker, and Frances Dee is also key to the film's enduring appeal. Nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for George Cukor, Little Women won best adapted screenplay for Victor Heerman and Sarah Y. Mason." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/little-women-v29694

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