The wizard of Oz 1939 - The movie which catapulted Garland into stardom

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 8,1

Director: Victor Fleming
Main Cast: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Billie Burke, Margaret Hamilton

"The third and definitive film adaptation of L. Frank Baum's 1900 children's fantasy, this musical adventure is a genuine family classic that made Judy Garland a star for her heartfelt performance as Dorothy Gale, an orphaned young girl unhappy with her drab black-and-white existence on her aunt and uncle's dusty Kansas farm. Dorothy yearns to travel 'over the rainbow' to a different world, and she gets her wish when a tornado whisks her and her little dog, Toto, to the Technicolorful land of Oz.
The lavish MGM production of L. Frank Baum's children's book may have lost a million dollars on its initial release, but its songcraft, technical artistry, star-making performance from Judy Garland, and unexpected TV success turned it into a perennial classic. With future ace MGM musical producer Arthur Freed lending producer Mervyn LeRoy an uncredited hand in pre-production, Cedric Gibbons' art direction, Adrian's costumes, and Hal Rosson's sparkling cinematography maximized the creative potential of Technicolor film, as Dorothy goes 'over the rainbow' from a sepia-toned black-and-white Kansas to a fantastically rendered Oz of ruby slippers, emerald cities, and yellow brick roads. Lent ample support by vaudeville vets Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, and Bert Lahr, neophyte Garland delivered a touching performance as Dorothy, proving that she had the acting talent to match her superb singing. As with Gone With the Wind, the film went through several directors and Victor Fleming got the credit; King Vidor directed the Kansas sequences, including Garland's solo 'Over the Rainbow'. Almost cut for the sake of pacing, 'Over the Rainbow' became an Oscar winner for Best Song and a Garland standard. Garland was MGM's second choice for Dorothy after Shirley Temple dropped out of the project; and Bolger was to have played the Tin Man but talked co-star Buddy Ebsen into switching roles. When Ebsen proved allergic to the chemicals used in his silver makeup, he was replaced by Haley. Gale Sondergaard was originally to have played the Wicked Witch of the West in a glamorous fashion, until the decision was made to opt for belligerent ugliness, and the Wizard was written for W.C. Fields, who reportedly turned it down because MGM couldn't meet his price. Although the 2.7-million-dollar film wilted at the box office, The Wizard of Oz was nominated for several Oscars, including Best Picture (which it lost to Gone With the Wind), winning for Herbert Stothart's score and Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg's song. It was the first feature sold for prime-time TV telecast, and its 1956 TV debut was a ratings hit, finally turning it into the crowd-pleasing blockbuster that MGM had always meant it to be." - www.allmovie.com

DVD links:

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

IMDB Link
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

DVD links:

Bombshell 1933 - Shining comic riot with Harlow & Tracy

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 7,4

Director: Victor Fleming
Main Cast: Jean Harlow, Lee Tracy, Frank Morgan, Franchot Tone, Pat O'Brien, Una Merkel, Ted Healy, Isabel Jewell, Louise Beavers, C. Aubrey Smith

"Jean Harlow is the 'bombshell' of the title, a popular movie actress named Lola. Though she seemingly has everything a girl could possibly want, Lola is fed up with her sponging relatives, her 'work til you drop' studio, and the nonsensical publicity campaigns conducted by press agent Lee Tracy. She tries to escape Hollywood by marrying a titled foreign nobleman, but Tracy has the poor guy arrested as an illegal alien. Finally Lola finds what she thinks is perfect love in the arms of aristocratic Franchot Tone, but she renounces Tone when his snooty father C. Aubrey Smith looks down his nose at Lola and her profession. Upon discovering that Tone and his entire family were actors hired by Tracy, Lola goes ballistic - until she realizes that Tracy, for all his bluff and chicanery, is the man who truly loves her. Allegedly based on the career of Clara Bow (who, like Lola, had a parasitic family and a duplicitous private secretary), Bombshell is a prime example of Jean Harlow at her comic best. So as not to mislead audiences into thinking this was a war picture, MGM retitled the film Blonde Bombshell for its initial run.
All of the actors are terrific. Franchot Tone is hilarious, totally and deliberately way over the top saying lines such as the one in the summary box. Harlow is surrounded with the best character actors - Lee Tracy, who despite a scandal in 1934 managed to enjoy a nearly 40-year career is great as Lola's fast-talking scam artist agent; Frank Morgan plays his usual role of a weak man, but not a bad one; Louise Beavers brings spark to the role of a maid; Pat O'Brien is in top form as the volatile Brogan.
But it's Harlow's film, and she keeps up with the frantic pace of the film beautifully. Funny and vulnerable, she's hilarious when she pretends she's upper class, as she's often done in her films - no one has ever pulled that off quite like she has. Bombshell is one of her best films among a lot of wonderful ones." - www.allmovie.com

DVD links:

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

IMDB Link
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

DVD links:

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

DVD links:

The good Earth 1937 - Luise Rainer's second consecutive Oscar

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028944/
IMDB rating: 7,9

Directors: Victor Fleming, Sidney Franklin
Main Cast: Paul Muni, Luise Rainer, Walter Connolly

"Based on Donald Davis and Owen Davis' stage-adaptation of Pearl S. Bucks's sprawling novel, Sidney Franklin's The good Earth is the story of a Chinese farming couple whose lives are torn apart by poverty, greed, and nature.
An epic tale of love, duty, greed, and revolution, MGM's The good Earth was an artistic and commercial success. It was the last film of legendary producer Irving Thalberg, and the only one to carry his name. The story's scope, following the fall and rise of a peasant family in pre-revolutionary China, was matched by a large scale production (costing an at-the-time astounding 3 million dollars) that included (literally) a cast of thousands, a 500-acre set, thousands of pieces of costume, equipment, and tools, and even buildings imported from China. The massive production, directed first by Victor Fleming, then by Sidney Franklin, includes a couple of classic scenes of epic grandeur: the mob rebellion scene in which the Imperial Palace is sacked, and the locust scene, a marvelous technical achievement in its own right. Despite the grand scale, the human drama is never dwarfed. Stars Paul Muni and Luise Rainer, as the hardworking farmer and his long-suffering wife, offer sincere performances. Although neither was of Chinese descent, both found the right notes for these parts. Rainer won her second consecutive Academy Award, and soon thereafter dropped from sight in a prolonged feud with Hollywood executives. Cinematographer Karl Freund, famous for his work in German Expressionist films of the 1920s, took home an Oscar as well, and the film was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Editing." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-good-earth-v20287

DVD links: 

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

DVD links: