Gold diggers of 1933 (1933) - The show of a thousand wonders

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024069/
IMDB rating: 8,2

Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Main Cast: Warren William, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Ginger Rogers

"The second talkie version of the Avery Hopwood's theatrical war-horse The Golddiggers of Broadway, Gold Diggers of 1933 was the second of three back-to-back 1933 Warner Bros. musicals benefiting from the genius of Busby Berkeley. Gold Diggers of 1933 adroitly intertwined a light-hearted yet gritty look at backstage shenanigans involving unemployed showgirls and potential moneymen with choreographer Busby Berkeley's outrageously lavish production numbers, replete with fluid camerawork and overhead compositions. Using the Great Depression rather than ignoring it, Mervyn LeRoy's crisply directed story hinged on survival in hard times, as romance blooms when the pragmatic chorines use their 'assets' to charm backers for a new show. Berkeley's 'We're in the Money', featuring coin-clad chorus girls and Ginger Rogers singing in pig Latin, and the cheekily smutty 'Pettin' in the Park' indicate the movie's dual focus on fiscal troubles and carnality. The downbeat finale, 'Remember My Forgotten Man', keeps the film rooted in 1930s reality, despite the escapism offered by Berkeley's visually innovative set pieces and the sweet Ruby Keeler-Dick Powell love story. Other Berkeley-staged musical highlights include the neon-dominated 'Shadow Waltz', all written by the prolific Harry Warren and Al Dubin. As spectacular as Gold Diggers of 1933 was, it would be topped by the last of Berkeley's 1933 trilogy, Footlight Parade." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/gold-diggers-of-1933-v20140

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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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Das blaue licht (The blue light) 1932 - The movie which impressed even Hitler and Goebbels

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022694/
IMDB rating: 7,0

Director: Leni Riefenstahl
Main Cast: Leni Riefenstahl, Mathias Wieman, Beni Führer, Martha Mair

"The Blue Light (Das Blaue Licht) is widely regarded as the best of the German 'mountain' films of the early 1930s. Leni Riefenstahl both directed and starred in this film, playing a free-spirited gamine who dares to climb a precipitous mountain peak. Because she is the only member of her community to accomplish this, she is regarded as something of a witch. When she discovers a hidden crystal cave, the villagers change their tune and follow her up the mountain, stripping the cave of its riches. She responds to this symbolic rape by killing herself. It was The Blue Light which impressed Hitler and Goebbels enough to engage Leni Riefenstahl to direct the Nazi party's subsequent propaganda films.
Leni Riefenstahl's directorial debut (she had been a widely recognized and praised dancer in the 20's and gone on to be one of the most well known silent movie stars, working with Arnold Fanck and G. W. Pabst on a series of mountain films). Here she shows that magnificent eye exciting visuals probably attainted while shooting up in the mountains with Fanck, and which would go on to make Triumph of the Will the most stunning, famous propaganda film of all time, and Olympia, her film of the 1936 Berlin Olympics the single most famous (and incredible visually) sports documentary of all time.
In The Blue Light you will find some of the most stunning visuals in early sound cinema, a gorgeous score and the magnetic, sensual screen presence of Leni herself in the lead role of Junta, the outcast who lives among the crystals in a mountain high above a fairytale village. It is a delight to watch, and one of the great treasures of early sound cinema."

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Rain 1932 - Joan Crawford as Miss Sadie Thompson

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023369/
IMDB rating: 6,9

Director: Lewis Milestone
Main Cast: Joan Crawford, Walter Huston, William Gargan, Guy Kibbee

"The pleasures of the flesh confront the discipline of the Lord's teachings in this screen adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's story Miss Sadie Thompson. This is the first sound film adaptation of the play, where young MGM 'flapper' star Joan Crawford's turn as Miss Sadie Thompson revealed that she could play more than just a spirited modern girl. As the South Seas prostitute reformed and then violated by Walter Huston's fire-and-brimstone preacher, Crawford matches Huston's intensity and reveals the depth of emotions behind Sadie's slatternly, free-wheeling façade. The lush, nocturnal tropical setting with its copious precipitation and Polynesian drum music enhances the sensuality of the conflict between spirit and carnality, while director Lewis Milestone's mobile camera and telling visual touches (like Sadie's choice of shoes) offset the potential staginess of a theatrical adaptation. A flop in 1932, Rain has since recovered its artistic reputation, particularly for Crawford's then-shocking 'realism' as Sadie. The play was first adapted as Sadie Thompson in 1928 with Gloria Swanson, then re-made again in 1953 as Miss Sadie Thompson with Rita Hayworth." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/rain-v40130

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https://archive.org/download/LewisMilestonesRain1932/Rainvo_512kb.mp4

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The beast of the city 1932 - A riveting look into the gangster life

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022660/
IMDB rating: 7,0

Director: Charles J. Brabin
Main Cast: Walter Huston, Jean Harlow, Wallace Ford, Jean Hersholt

"A reluctantly appointed police chief in a crime-riddled city takes his job seriously and works hard to clean the streets of gangsters and to shape up his own corrupt department in this brutal, gritty film noir. Jean Harlow plays a luminescent but ill-fated gun moll.  Adapted by John Lee Mahin from a W.R. Burnett story, and directed by Charles Brabin (The Mask of Fu Manchu), this 1932 talkie is said to be better than average, as a police chief (Walter Huston) sets out to battle organized crime.
This is a very elaborate production for an early 30's film. The camera was surprisingly fluid with some strong cinematography. The Beast of the City was the precursor to many modern crime drama films that pit the gangsters vs. the diligent cops - eventually in a courtroom setting. It was also certainly racy for it's time - made a couple of years before enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code (also known as the Hays Code), with an exceptional cast."

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Once in a lifetime 1932 - A Hollywood story, extremely funny and entertaining

Fashion portrait of Sidney Fox circa 1932

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023302/
IMDB rating: 6,8

Director: Russell Mack
Main Cast: Jack Oakie, Sidney Fox, Aline MacMahon, Zasu Pitts

"Based on the stage comedy by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, Once in a Lifetime is a satire of Hollywood's early-talkie era. A down-and-out vaudeville trio (Jack Oakie, Aline MacMahon, and Russell Hopton) takes advantage of the confusion attending the talkie revolution by heading to Hollywood and posing as voice experts. George (Oakie), the team's dimwitted straight man, falls in love with a pretty young miss (Sidney Fox) who has come to Hollywood to become an actress - and won't let her utter lack of talent get in the way. Fast-talking themselves into jobs at the Glogauer Studios, the phony vocal specialists eventually wear out their welcome and are on the verge of being fired. But George, who has been listening to the complaints of a disillusioned screenwriter, suddenly spouts those complaints word for word to Mr. Glogauer (Gregory Ratoff) - and is lauded as a genius for being the first man to stand up to the despotic studio head. George is made a producer, and immediately sets about filming an expensive movie vehicle for his girlfriend. Unfortunately, George had found the script for his film in a wastebasket, and winds up shooting the wrong picture. He and his vaudeville chums are fired, but when his picture (an incomprehensible farrago shot in darkness because George forgot to turn on the klieg lights) is previewed, it is hailed as a daringly original masterpiece. George is made the supervising producer of Glogauer Studios, and all ends happily for himself and his friends. An interesting precursor to the Singin' in the Rain school of Hollywood kidding itself, Once in a Lifetime has tarnished a bit over the years but is still well worth seeing." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/once-in-a-lifetime-v127936

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Smilin' through 1932 - A first class romance

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023488/
IMDB rating: 7,0

Director: Sidney Franklin
Main Cast: Norma Shearer, Fredric March, Leslie Howard

"Director Sidney Franklin originally adapted Jane Murfin and Jane Cowl's play Smilin' Through for the silver screen in a 1922 silent film starring Norma Talmadge and (the other) Harrison Ford. Remaking his own film, Franklin directed Norma Shearer in this 1932 talkie. With its message that true love redeems all and that nothing must be allowed to stand in the way of true love, Smilin' is clearly not interested in educating the intellect but in milking the emotions, and it does this beautifully. Yet at the same time, the films avoids being a shameless 'weepie'. Great credit for this is due Sidney Franklin's excellent direction. He clearly is committed to the material and allows the emotions to billow forth freely when appropriate; yet he also knows when to pull the reins in contrast and to create greater impact. Under lesser hands, the far-fetched story might seem ridiculous; in his, it feels just right, even as the viewer knows it's totally artificial. Sidney is also blessed with a superb cast, with a luminous Norma Shearer turning in one of her finest performances and a wonderful Fredric March demonstrating why he was one of the screen's finest actors in the 1930s and 1940s. Leslie Howard is hampered somewhat by some unconvincing 'age' make-up, but overall is quite effective.
Smilin' Through was once again adapted in a 1941 version directed by Frank Borzage and starring Jeanette MacDonald." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/smilin-through-v81978

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