Father of the bride 1950 - A cute family classic with wonderful performances

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IMDB rating: 7,3

Director: Vincente Minnelli
Main Cast: Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, Elizabeth Taylor, Don Taylor, Billie Burke

"Father of the Bride is a well-made light comedy, enhanced by a radiant performance from Elizabeth Taylor and Spencer Tracy at his subtle, comic best (receiving an Oscar nomination for his performance). The film encapsulates the self-image of the United States in 1950, depicting a traditional two-parent family's passing along the fundamental ritual of marriage. As such, it effectively defines what is sometimes referred to as a "family values" film, never mind that the United States in the 1950s may hardly have been this homogenized and wholesome. If not as opulent as MGM films of the Irving Thalberg era, Father of the Bride nonetheless represents the type of high-quality studio film often produced in the post-WWII era. It was a huge financial success, and it is sometimes cited as evidence that the reputation of director Vincente Minnelli has come to center too much on his musicals and not enough on his broader work, such as this comedy.
Minnelli reunited with the principal cast a year later for a sequel, Father's Little Dividend; and the movie was remade in 1991 with Steve Martin and Diane Keaton." - www.allmovie.com

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Adam's rib 1949 - Battle of the sexes

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IMDB rating: 7,6

Director: George Cukor
Main Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday, Tom Ewell, David Wayne, Jean Hagen

"Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin's witty and intelligent script (despite many improbabilities, such as the conflict of interest in having a husband and wife contest the same case, and the plausibility-defying circus-like theatrics that Amanda deploys in the courtroom) propels this funny and barbed courtroom comedy. The legal and gender-fueled debates at the center of the film may seem somewhat antiquated today, but the intelligence and wit that inform much of the film's dialogue are still surprisingly fresh. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn share an onscreen ease and familiarity usually reserved for long-married couples. Ironically - given that the film is about the legal ramifications of a woman's shooting of her philandering husband - they had become an extramarital item themselves by the time this film was being made. Judy Holliday gives an unexpectedly affecting performance as the woman wronged, while bug-eyed Tom Ewell is solid as her weasel-like philandering husband. However, David Wayne as the lascivious piano composer/neighbor of the feuding legal eagles gives the most impressive supporting performance. His best line? 'Lawyers should never marry other lawyers. This is called inbreeding, from which comes idiot children and more lawyers'. Technically, the film is very conventional. Outside of the opening sequences, in which George Cukor's camera roams the busy streets of rush hour New York, the film has a stage-like feel, with static shots of the battling spouses dominating the proceedings. Perhaps Cukor didn't want to distract us from the real star of the show, the clever and insightful Kanin/Gordon script." - www.allmovie.com

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The power and the glory 1933 - A precursor to Citizen Kane and a wonderful performance by Spencer Tracy

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IMDB rating: 7,0

Director: William K. Howard
Main Cast: Spencer Tracy, Colleen Moore, Ralph Morgan, Helen Vinson

"Frequently cited as the precursor to Citizen Kane, Power and the Glory is the first major Hollywood film to extensively utilize narrated flashbacks to tell its story. Though the 'narrative' technique used to relate the plotline of Power and the Glory is interesting, though the film itself is a bit too cut-and-dried (suicide seems to be a logical solution rather than a last desperate move) and far too short (76 minutes) to do justice to its central character.
Long considered one of the great lost classics of Hollywood's Golden Age, The Power And The Glory has recently resurfaced, marking a coup for lovers of cinema history, and the film itself still proves to be a landmark. First of all, it is the first screenplay produced by the great writer (and future director) Preston Sturges, modeled on the family of his then-wife. Sturges has crafted a powerful drama about the life of the wealthy in America. Second, it is a remarkable foreshadowing of Citizen Kane, itself still eight years in the future. The film tells the tale of a man's life after his death, portraying his rise from a humble railworker to a railroad magnate and how he deals with those around him during his ascent. This element is also very prevalent, indeed it's the centerpiece, of Kane. Third, this is the film that put Spencer Tracy on the map of Hollywood stardom, propelling him to the legendary status that he enjoys even to this day. He plays the character of Tom Garner with utter believability, including the character's faults. This is unusual, particularly for 1933, and the credit for that can fall to Sturges. Colleen Moore plays Sally Garner and the only word to describe her performance, without danger of overstatement, is magnificent. She gives Tracy a sure-handed run for his money. The film also features Ralph Morgan, better known for his portrayal of villains in B-movies, who here produces another excellent role for his large canon." - www.allmovie.com

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Stanley and Livingstone 1939 - The great explorer and the Victorian saint

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031973/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 7,2

Directors: Henry King, Otto Brower
Main Cast: Spencer Tracy, Cedric Hardwicke, Nancy Kelly, Richard Greene, Walter Brennan, Charles Coburn, Henry Hull

"Stanley and Livingstone is perhaps more faithful to its historical source than most Hollywood biopics, but even so it completely whitewashes the character of Henry Stanley. This is particularly true at the end, when Stanley returns to Africa, presumably a changed (and religiously inspired) man. It's totally false as history, but it makes for a great movie; for once, the studios' insistence on adding significant amounts of fiction to their fact-based products produced good drama. And Stanely is definitely a good drama, as well as a rousing adventure and an intriguing character study. The team of screenwriters have crafted a narrative that is totally engaging and peopled it with characters that leave their impressions on you, none more so than the two title characters. Henry King has directed with finesse, making sure that there's an excellent balance of action, adventure and inspiration, and even making the extraneous romantic subplot work fairly well. Of course, he's aided enormously by Spencer Tracy's towering yet nuanced performance. Tracy gets to play it both rough and pious, the adventurer and the thinker, the amoralist and the moralist, and he does so superbly. No other actor could combine gusto with restraint in the way that Tracy could, and watching his transformation from the beginning of the film to the end is a true treat. Cedric Hardwicke is also in top form as Livingstone, celebrating the man's deep religious faith without ever commenting upon it. The supporting cast is good, the cinematography evocative (even if the rear screen projections are occasionally obvious to modern viewers)." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/stanley-and-livingstone-v46460/

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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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Boys town 1938 - No boy is bad, if given a chance!

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029942/?ref_=nv_sr_1
IMDB rating: 7,3

Director: Norman Taurog
Main Cast: Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull, Leslie Fenton

"Boys Town features a sympathetic fact-based story and sincere performances from stars Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney, who keep the film's tone just this side of maudlin. Veteran child-star director Norman Taurog ably handles his teenage charges, knowing precisely when to call for a close-up. Boys Town isn't without its moments of tear-jerking sentimentality, but Taurog keeps them at bay so that the story's pace won't falter. Tracy was supposedly so moved on winning his second Best Actor Oscar for the role that he gave the award to the real-life Father Flanagan; in actuality, an MGM publicist orchestrated the gesture. Boys Town, by the way, is the source of the classic line 'He ain't heavy - he's my brother'." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/boys-town-v6879/

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Captains courageous 1937 - A warm and wonderful film about timeless subjects

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028691/
IMDB rating: 8,0

Director: Victor Fleming
Main Cast: Spencer Tracy, Freddie Bartholomew, Lionel Barrymore, Melvyn Douglas, Mickey Rooney

"A boy learns life-changing lessons about the importance of friendship and the dignity of labor in this adventure saga based on a story by Rudyard Kipling. The well-known novel enjoys an excellent adaptation in Victor Fleming's splendidly directed film. There are some well-directed action sequences that get the heart pounding, but the core of the story is in the slowly developing relationship between Harvey and Manuel. In an unlikely 'love' story, these two opposites - a privileged, tyrannical child who has never known a moment of pain or want, and a gentle, humble man who has had to work very hard for everything he has and endure some real hardships along the way - learn to love each other. Through a combination of forbearance, forgiveness, and firmness, Manuel teaches Harvey more about life in his three months on the boat than he would have learned if he had spent his entire life in his penthouse apartment. The climax of the film may bring tears to even the most hard-bitten viewer. Captains courageous was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Spencer Tracy, who won his first of two consecutive Best Actor Oscars, was the only one to walk away with a statuette." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/captains-courageous-v8136

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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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Fury 1936 - Two lovers... victims of mob violence!

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027652/?ref_=fn_al_tt_9
IMDB rating: 7,9

Director: Fritz Lang
Main Cast: Sylvia Sidney, Spencer Tracy, Walter Abel, Bruce Cabot

"Not long after he fled Nazi Germany rather than produce films for Hitler, Fritz Lang made his American debut with this powerful drama that it made clear that mob violence was not confined to his homeland. At a time when lynching was still a grim fact of life in America, Fury tackled this social evil head-on; even if MGM seems overly cautious in making both the mob and their victim white, the film's unflinching willingness to look dead-on at the ugly side of the American character is as impressive (and troubling) today as it was in 1936. Spencer Tracy delivers a typically strong 'everyman' performance as the wrongfully accused Joe Wilson, and he doesn't shrink from Joe's less pleasant side in the second and third act, while Sylvia Sidney is genuinely affecting as his tormented fiancée. As Kirby and a band of local rabble trap Joe in his jail cell and then set the building alight, Lang takes the average folks of the American heartland, the sort of people that Frank Capra's populist visions were made of, and shows that a gruesome thread of hatred can be found inside them, waiting for the opportunity to come out. Sadly, this message may remain as pertinent today as it was when Fury first hit screens." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/fury-v18992/

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Man's castle 1933 - An unsentimental, romantic Depression-era drama

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024302/
IMDB rating: 7,4

Director: Frank Borzage
Main Cast: Spencer Tracy, Loretta Young, Marjorie Rambeau, Glenda Farrell, Walter Connolly

"Man's Castle could easily be a candidate for the best movie released by Columbia Pictures during the first half of the 1930's - and ranks right alongside the best work of Frank Capra, who was usually regarded as the studio's ace-in-the-hole. And, ironically, it's a film whose key players  director Frank Borzage, and stars Spencer Tracy and Loretta Young - were never closely associated with Columbia. And courtesy of Joseph August's cinematography, it's certainly the best-looking picture to come out of the studio during this period, yet it isn't lacking for grit, or a verisimilitude of poverty and life on the skids, or an array of rich and fascinating characters and players, of whom the two lead performances are only some of the fine elements to be discovered. Borzage has pulled off one of his frequent conjuring tricks, mixing honest, raw emotion, all on the surface and in your face, with a comparatively subdued sentimentality and belief in romance, and pulled it all together through the performances of Tracy and Young. There are moments where the uncertainty that afflicted Spencer Tracy's career during this period get close to the surface - in the early part of the picture, he's pushed a little close to James Cagney territory, whereas later on, it seems as though he's aiming for Wallace Beery, but he never quite falls into an identifiable groove, and in the end comes out as . . . Spencer Tracy. The big surprise in this picture is Loretta Young - her early work, which is hardly seen enough, shows an actress of surprising depth and the ability to reach audiences with small nuances and understated approaches to a role; all of this will amaze viewers who only know her later, rather over-the-top and self-conscious performances, which usually don't wear well. And to top it off, we also get highly workwhile supporting performances from Marjorie Rambeau, Arthur Hohl (in a surprisingly subtle villain turn), Glenda Farrell, and Walter Connolly. A Man's Castle is full of surprises, in terms of its look, and its plot, and characterizations, but Young's work may be the biggest of a brace of revelations, all of them rewarding and well worth tracking down.
Dealing with tough material in an adult manner, Man's Castle was considered quite daring in its day. A year after its release, Hollywood adopted the Production Code that prohibited the depiction of unwed cohabitation and premarital pregnancy (among many other things), which would have made this a very different film." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/a-mans-castle-v101472

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