Bulldog Drummond strikes back 1934 - Simply the best Bulldog Drummond movie

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024932/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB ratings: 7,4

Director: Roy Del Ruth
Main Cast: Ronald Colman, Loretta Young, Warner Oland, C. Aubrey Smith

"This second and final 'Bulldog Drummond' film to star Ronald Colman, finds the famed sleuth in the midst of a sinister plan orchestrated by Warner Oland. Damsel in distress Loretta Young reports that her wealthy and influential uncle is missing, but all those concerned insist that the uncle never existed, and that Young is out of her mind. Drummond suspects that she's telling the truth, and that the uncle's disappearance is tied into political intrigue of some sort or other. Before the rousing climax, Drummond, the heroine, and Drummond's pal Algy (Charles Butterworth) are repeatedly kidnapped, imprisoned, and threatened with certain death. Counterpointing the film's plot twists (a bit too convoluted to relate in full here) is a comic subplot involving the continually interrupted honeymoon of Algy and his frustrated bride (Una Merkel)." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/bulldog-drummond-strikes-back-v86218

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The lost patrol 1934 - Ford's epic story of boiling passions

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025423/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2
IMDB ratings: 7,0

Director: John Ford
Main Cast: Victor McLaglen, Boris Karloff, Wallace Ford, Reginald Denny

"Previously filmed in 1929, Philip MacDonald's novel Patrol was lensed by director John Ford as The Lost Patrol in 1934. This is a minor entry in the pantheon of John Ford classics, though it had a substantial influence on subsequent films. The film has a dated look and feel, even if Ford's stylistic touches are still occasionally evident. What works is Ford's ability to develop a sense of helplessness among the characters. The scene with the rescue pilot is exceptional, and Max Steiner's score is among the best of his prolific career. The film also features one of the few bad performances by Boris Karloff, whose overwritten fanatical character is too blatantly symbolic. The film's best parts convey the bleak futility of warfare. At other times, the story tries too hard to create an anti-religious counterpoint. Nonetheless, its good parts are very good, and the story of survival in combat against overwhelming odds has been imitiated to the point of becoming an action-film sub-genre.
Max Steiner's relentless musical theme for The Lost Patrol would later be adapted into his score for Warner Bros' Casablanca. Lost Patrol would itself be adapted as the 1939 western Bad Lands." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-lost-patrol-v30160

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The Barretts of Wimpole Street 1934 - An appealing costume drama of Hollywood's golden age

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024865/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB ratings: 7,1

Director: Sidney Franklin
Main Cast: Norma Shearer, Fredric March, Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Sullivan

"No studio other than MGM would have dared to mount such a sumptuous production of Rudolph Besier's highly flowery and romanticized 1930 play about the clandestine courtship and eventual marriage of poets Elizabeth Barrett (Norma Shearer) and Robert Browning (Fredric March). And only MGM employed a producer with enough taste, patience and eye for details like Irving Thalberg, who quite fortuitously substituted his exquisite wife, Shearer, for the studio's original choice to play Elizabeth, the highly unsuitable Marion Davies. The result is a surprisingly entertaining and quite cinematic version of a rather static play, teeming with the kind of supporting performances that became the trademark of Thalberg's brief reign as Hollywood's wunderkind. Here is a very young Maureen O'Sullivan as Henrietta Browning, bubbling with teenaged enthusiasm in spite of her dreary existence; stage actress Marion Clayton as the fluttery, lisping cousin Bella; Ian Wolfe as Bella's foppish intended ('Come, come, dear pet!'); and the amazing Una O'Connor as Elizabeth's maid and confidante Wilson, all but levitating across a room in humble servility. And towering above them all is Charles Laughton's manipulative, nearly incestuous Edward Moulton-Barrett. Borrowed for the occasion from Paramount, Laughton is never allowed to indulge in his usual scenery-chewing and Barrett remains among the very best of his early Hollywood performances.
Director Sidney A. Franklin also helmed a remake of The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1957); it was his last film." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-barretts-of-wimpole-street-v3998

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Of human bondage 1934 - A tragic tale of love and rejection

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025586/?ref_=nv_sr_1
IMDB ratings: 7,3

Director: John Cromwell
Main Cast: Bette Davis, Leslie Howard, Frances Dee, Reginald Denny

"Based upon the W. Somerset Maugham's novel of the same name, this is one of the most acclaimed dramas of its period, the RKO-produced film put Bette Davis on the map and also added to Leslie Howard's formidable reputation. When Warner Bros. made its version of the story in 1946, however, the studio is reputed to have ordered the destruction of the original master elements of the RKO version; ironically, neither that remake, nor a later 1964 version came up to the standard achieved by the director or cast in the original, dramatically or cinematically.
As to this version, it flows better dramatically than just about any dramatic film of its era, the director moving us effortlessly into the tormented psyche of Leslie Howard's Philip Carey, a sensitive and highly cerebral medical student who is all-but-destroyed by his obsession with the slutty waitress Mildred (Bette Davis) - the camera conducts us through what amount to internal visual dialogues within Carey, without ever breaking the forward momentum of the plot or the rhythm and intensity of the performances; it does drag a bit in the middle, but overall Cromwell's use of close-ups, dissolves, montage, and sound edits was about as good as movies got in 1934, and it all holds up remarkably well 60 years later - certainly better than either of the later versions. By contrast, Davis' performance now seems mostly rooted in her mannerisms and Cockney accent, though she does undergo a hideous physical transformation in the course of the story, and when viewed in the context of the movie and the era, definitely represented a minor milestone in her career.
The industry buzz in 1934 indicated that Bette Davis was a shoe-in for an Academy Award for her savage portrayal of Mildred, but her home studio Warner Bros. failed to mount an adequate publicity campaign on Davis' behalf, allegedly because she'd made the film on loan-out to RKO and Warners wasn't about to heap praise upon a rival. It is now generally conceded that Davis' Oscar win for 1935's Dangerous was consolation for her losing the statuette in 1934." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/of-human-bondage-v35970

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The black cat 1934 - A horror masterpiece from Edgar G. Ulmer

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024894/?ref_=nv_sr_1
IMDB rating: 7,2

Director: Edgar G. Ulmer
Main Cast: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, David Manners, Julie Bishop

"The first cinematic teaming of horror greats Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi is a bizarre, haunting, and relentlessly eerie film that was surprisingly morbid and perverse for its time. The story operates on multiple levels, most deeply as a parable for post-WWI Europe. Unlike such anti-war films as All Quiet on the Western Front, which seem to have all the answers worked out before the first scene, The Black Cat presents a series of morally ambiguous metaphors that undermine the story's conventional ending. At its most basic level, The Black Cat works as a great horror film. The Bauhaus-inspired set design is uncomfortably disquieting, and Boris Karloff's performance creates one of the screen's most distinct and credible villains. The monsters in The Black Cat are human, unlike in other horror films of the era, where viewers could leave the theater and be quite sure that they would never be terrorized by a mummy or a werewolf. And while the audience understands that Bela Lugosi is the de facto representation of good, there are uncomfortable shortcomings in his character that hinder the audience's comfort. Regrettably, Ulmer felt the commercial need to include various elements of comic relief, and the stiff, uninteresting performance of David Manners as Peter Allison is a major liability. Nonetheless, in its best moments, The Black Cat is as powerful as any film of its era, and it represents the creative direction in which horror films of the 1930s were headed until censorship and other pressures forced them back into the mainstream.
Corpses preserved in glass cases, frightening Satanic rituals, and a climactic confrontation in which one of the characters is skinned alive add to the film's pervasive sense of evil and doom, along with the stark black-and-white photography by John Mescall that makes Poelzig's futuristic mountaintop mansion even more disturbing. Karloff and Lugosi are both excellent, with Lugosi doing a rare turn as a good guy, albeit one who has gone off the rails. Having little to do with the Edgar Allan Poe story of the same name, The Black Cat has grown in stature over the years and is now widely regarded as the masterpiece of director Edgar G. Ulmer and one of the finest horror films ever made." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-black-cat-v5835

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El compadre Mendoza 1934 - A lyrical lament for human values

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023902/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 7,8

Directors: Juan Bustillo Oro, Fernando de Fuentes
Main Cast: Alfredo del Diestro, Carmen Guerrero, Antonio R. Frausto

"El Compadre Mendoza is a story of the effect of the Mexican revolution on the privileged class. What at first might seem to be a simple story of betrayal becomes a lament for human values abandoned in the tension of wartime, where revolutionary ideals always lose.
Director Fernando de Fuentes' simple shooting style cleverly sets up the complex contradictions within Rosalío Mendoza, superbly played by Alfredo del Diestro. The outwardly confident landowner must sleep with a six-gun hanging on the bedpost. He never knows if a knock at the door will be a visit by midnight executioners, so he's certainly not a coward. The acting and staging is natural and unforced.
Lolita is played by the quietly sensual Carmen Guerrero, best known in America as 'Lucia' in the Spanish-language version of Dracula.
Fernando de Fuentes and writer Juan Bustillo de Oro made a number of classic Mexican films of the 1930s, including some little-seen horror tales of high repute, El fantasma del convento (The Phantom of the Convent) and Dos Monjes (Two Monks)."

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The merry widow 1934 - The musical that set all the standards

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025493/?ref_=nv_sr_1
IMDB rating: 7,6

Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Main Cast: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Edward Everett Horton, Una Merkel

"Ernst Lubitsch directs the 1934 musical comedy The Merry Widow, based on the 1905 operetta by Franz Lehar. The apparent goal of MGM in adapting The Merry Widow as a vehicle for Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier was to emulate movies such as Love Me Tonight, which they'd made at Paramount - they even got Lorenz Hart, who'd co-authored the music from that film, to adapt the score for this production. And in the main it works as one of the best of the early MGM musicals, with memorably charming numbers amid a glittering setting, spiced with engaging moments of romantic comedy and misunderstanding (this is, after all, an adaptation of an operetta). The only reservation may be that there's nothing here as clever in design or execution as what Rouben Mamoulian achieved in Love Me Tonight. Not that it's the fault of director Ernst Lubitsch - it's more a matter of MGM weighing the proceedings down a bit in sheer opulence and sheer scope of the production, as though the studio never quite wants you to forget that this is an MGM picture. As a result, it's just a little clunkier and less light on its feet, in the execution (including the editing) than Mamoulian's earlier effort. Which doesn't mean that The Merry Widow isn't filled with brilliant moments, musical, comedic and otherwise, and have lots of inspiration - even the supporting cast, forget the two stats, have great moments, and the Franz Lehar music speaks for itself.
The Merry Widow was filmed several other times, including the 1925 silent version directed by Erich Von Stroheim and the1952 version starring Fernando Lamas as Danilo. - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-merry-widow-v32288

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Tarzan and his mate 1934 - The best of any Tarzan movies

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025862/?ref_=nv_sr_1
IMDB rating: 7,7

Director: Jack Conway, Cedric Gibbons
Main Cast: Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O'Sullivan, Neil Hamilton, Paul Cavanagh

"Considered by many the best of the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films, and arguably the best of any Tarzan movies, Tarzan and His Mate is also amazingly adult. Certainly it is the sexiest and it's not just because of the famous nude swimming scene, several other near-nude moments, and Jane's rather scanty wardrobe. It also has to do with the manner in which Tarzan and Jane relate to each other. Their words don't necessarily tell us anything, but the way they look at and handle each other indicates that theirs is a healthily erotic relationship. Mate also has a much better script than is usual for the series, with some very compelling moments involving Jane's commitment to Tarzan and their way of life. There's also plenty of action and adventure. Modern audiences may find some of the special effects quite dated, but if one can look past that, the sequences themselves are quite exciting. Director Jack Conway (who took over from credited Cedric Gibbons) does a sterling job, creating a tremendous amount of tension and suspense throughout, but finding time to concentrate on character development as well. Weissmuller, though somewhat limited as an actor, is in his element here and turns in one of his finest performances. But it's Maureen O'Sullivan who walks away with the acting honors; her work here is wonderful, much more detailed and nuanced than one expects in a 'jungle flick'. Tarzan and His Mate would be worth seeing even with a lesser actress, but with O'Sullivan it becomes required viewing. - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/tarzan-and-his-mate-v48678

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(DVDrip, 1 GB):

http://rapidgator.net/file/72854435/

Or:

http://www.filefactory.com/file/qjnyln4bz8h/

You're telling me 1934 - A kindhearted Fields in a surprisingly sweet fairy tale

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026017/?ref_=fn_al_tt_3
IMDB rating: 7,7

Director: Erle C. Kenton
Main Cast: W. C. Fields, Joan Marsh, Buster Crabbe, Adrienne Ames

"One of W.C. Fields' best features, You're Telling Me (a remake of his silent comedy So's Your Old Man) is a comic gem from one of the screen's finest comic performers. It's to be expected that a Fields flick will be funny - or at the very least that Fields himself will be funny. What's surprising and rewarding about Telling is that it provides the cynical master with one of his most likeable roles. Don't worry - he's still an oily curmudgeon who's never met a person about whom he can't find something to insult. But there's a slightly softer side to Fields here, both in his dealings with and feelings for his daughter and in the manner in which he 'rescues' the Princess from what he misinterprets as a suicidal impulse. This latter scene is especially rewarding; it's still amusing, but there's a vulnerability and tenderness underneath Fields that is not often given this much rein. Like many Fields vehicles, this one is more a series of gags and routines tied around a more or less loose plot; but the vignettes are choice, including a version of his celebrated golf routine, as well as an ostrich sequence that is first class. Fields alone is more than enough reason to watch Telling, but there's also fine support from Adrienne Ames, Kathleen Howard, and Louise Carter, among others, that more than makes up from the rather perfunctory performances of Joan Marsh and Larry 'Buster' Crabbe. Thought lost for many years, You're Telling Me's rediscovery in the 1970s gave quite a boost to Fields aficionados hungry for something 'new'." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/youre-telling-me-v118033

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The count of Monte Cristo 1934 - The Hollywood debut of Donat

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025004/?ref_=nv_sr_3
IMDB rating: 7,7

Directors: Rowland V. Lee, Wilfred Lucas
Main Cast: Robert Donat, Elissa Landi, Louis Calhern, Sidney Blackmer

"Few famous novels have been filmed as often as Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo--and few versions are as enjoyable as this 1934 adaptation starring Robert Donat which faithfully  retells the story of the betrayed and wrongfully imprisoned Edmond Dantes. Though the film's tacked-on happy ending may seem a little weak by today's standards, Count provides ample reasons why Dumas and his timeless themes of faith, love and vengeance continue to spawn popular adaptations, such as 1998's Man in the Iron Mask. Directors Rowland V. Lee and Wilfred Lucas do an excellent job of visualizing Dumas' imaginative settings; no expenses were spared on the lavish sets. In the title role, Robert Donat heads up a perfect cast; the role made the Englishman a Hollywood star, and he was offered several other high-profile, swashbuckling roles before his debilitating asthma forced him back home." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-count-of-monte-cristo-v11131

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(avi, 826 MB):

http://filenuke.com/nlcj2wajickm

Ukigusa monogatari (A story of floating weeds) 1934 - Joy and sadness in everyday life

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025929/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 7,8

Director: Yasujiro Ozu
Main Cast: Takeshi Sakamoto, Choko Iida, Koji Mitsui, Rieko Yagumo

"Ozu's silent film, inspired by the now-obscure 1928 carnival-troupe drama The Barker, a much inferior American film on a similar theme, might seem to inevitably be swamped by sentimentality, given the plot outline. But the director's genius adroitly avoids any hint of mawkishness by grounding the film in the most mundane details of daily life as he fashions one of the most powerfully moving works of his early career. The pleasure taken by the actor in a moment of peace for a cigarette, water dropping through the roof of the rickety theater into bowls, the horny supporting actors of the troupe always on the make -- these and dozens of other carefully observed fragments of the ebb and flow of the quotidian, shot in the director's characteristically understated visual style, emphasize his belief that everything his eye falls upon has value and meaning.
Ozu was justifiably proud of this meticulous character study, in which his celebrated low-angle style began to assert itself. A quarter-century later, he remade the film as Floating Weeds, retaining the same story and characters, switching the setting to a seaside town." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/ukigusa-monogatari-v111851/

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The scarlet empress 1934 - Dietrich, the reigning beauty of the screen!

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025746/?ref_=nv_sr_6
IMDB rating: 7,8

Director: Josef von Sternberg
Main Cast: Marlene Dietrich, John Lodge, Sam Jaffe, Louise Dresser

"Of the two 1934 film versions of the life of Russia's Catherine the Great, Josef von Sternberg's The Scarlet Empress was the most opulent and exotic. This movie is a largely fictional account of the life of Catherine the Great, but that doesn't stop it from being one of the best and most adult biopics of the 1930s. Directed in grand style by Josef von Sternberg, the film is a visual feast, though it is Marlene Dietrich's performance in the title role that has given the film its enduring appeal. A truer account of the life of Catherine the Great probably could not have been made in the U.S. in the 1930s. Nonetheless, The Scarlet Empress is unusually frank and occasionally suggestive.
This version has even less to do with accuracy than Paul Czinner's Catherine the Great of the same year, which starred Elizabeth Bergner. Watch for Dietrich's real-life daughter Maria Sieber (aka Maria Riva) as the 7-year-old Catherine in the early scenes.
A self-proclaimed 'relentless excursion into style', the pair's sixth collaboration (which was the last between von Sternberg and Dietrich) follows the exploits of Princess Sophia (Dietrich) as she evolves from trembling innocent to cunning sexual libertine Catherine the Great. With operatic melodrama, flamboyant visuals, and a cast of thousands, this ornate spectacle represents the apex of cinematic pageantry by Hollywood's master of artifice. After this Dietrich would go on to make well-remembered films for other directors, while von Sternberg's later career would be less successful." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-scarlet-empress-v43090

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The Scarlet Pimpernel 1934 - Who was he? What was his strange power?

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025748/
IMDB rating: 7,6

Director: Harold Young
Main Cast: Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon, Raymond Massey, Nigel Bruce

"This film from director Harold Young is the second big-screen adaptation of Baroness Emmuska Orczy's 1905 novel The Scarlet Pimpernel and is among the screen's most enduring and frequently filmed action/adventure stories, but it is the 1934 version with Leslie Howard in the title role that stands out for most fully re-creating the setting of the French Revolution. Were it not for his role as Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind this would likely be the performance for which Howard is best remembered. He dominates the film, though not so much that there is not space for several of the supporting actors to shine, most notably Merle Oberon and Raymond Massey. Most of the credit for the film should be given to British producer Alexander Korda, who produced low-budget films with a look and feel that approached the best Hollywood efforts of the 1930s. Of particular note is the cinematography of Harold Rosson and the fast-paced editing of William Hornbeck." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-scarlet-pimpernel-v43093

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The gay divorcee 1934 - The king and queen of Carioca at their best!

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025164/
IMDB rating: 7,6

Director: Mark Sandrich
Main Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Alice Brady, Edward Everett Horton

"The Gay Divorcee (Based on Dwight Taylor and Cole Porter's play of the same name) is a good example of Depression-era escapism at its best. The glamorous Ginger Rogers was already a big star and the debonair Fred Astaire was on his way to becoming one. The viewer is treated to a feast of opulence free from the cares of the world - except the ones necessary to provide the film with a plot. The film's happy ending is welcomingly contrived in a way that protects the morality of the primary characters, providing the audience with a guilt-free, feel-good conclusion. The music and the dancing of Astaire and Rogers are the primary reasons why current-day audiences continue to enjoy The Gay Divorcee. Among the musical highlights are 'Night and Day', the only song from the original Broadway musical included in the film, and 'The Continental", a witty and sophisticated exercise in flirting that brought the first-ever Best Song Academy Award to Con Conrad and Herb Magidson.
Directed by Mark Sandrich, the film features supporting performances by Alice Brady and Edward Everett Horton." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-gay-divorcee-v19311

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It's a gift 1934 - A classic comedy by any standards

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025318/
IMDB rating: 7,5

Director: Norman Z. McLeod
Main Cast: W. C. Fields, Kathleen Howard, Jean Rouverol

"Anyone seeking to understand W.C. Fields's humor and screen persona need look no further than Norman Z. McLeod's It's A Gift. The 1934 movie, which was successful but not highly regarded at the time, has become the defining film in the comic's screen career. It's also a very telling comedy about men who are downtrodden in spirit and put-upon by everyone around them, particularly women and children. It's misogynist humor, which is one reason why Fields' comedy, like that of the 1990s television series Married... with Children, is almost entirely a male phenomenon. In It's A Gift, Fields' performance as the common man and hen-pecked husband achieved a level of sympathy that he would seldom find in his other, more aggressive, assertive roles. Fields' Harold Bissonette is, or rather, once was, an essentially kind man - he wants nothing more than peace and quiet to enjoy his meals, family, and home, and wouldn't even mind earning the respect of his wife, if that's what it takes - but his patience is tried at every turn by some of the most obnoxious supporting players ever to grace a feature film. It's significant that the one and only completely sympathetic character in It's A Gift is Harold's new neighbor, a complete stranger (former filmmaker Dell Henderson) who does Bissonette a good turn without even knowing anything about him. The gesture is an element of the script that suggests, subtly yet profoundly, that there is hope for Harold and the men in Fields' audience like him. Fields never did another movie that was as cleanly executed, neatly constructed, or pleasing - indeed, by the end of his career, with Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, his barbed humor spun in too many directions at once, evoking a spirit of anarchy but not much sympathy or warmth. It's A Gift is Fields at his most affecting and funny and, along with his performance as Micawber in George Cukor's David Copperfield, his best work on screen." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/its-a-gift-v25529

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Twentieth century 1934 - The movie which invented screwball comedy

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025919/
IMDB rating: 7,9

Director: Howard Hawks
Main Cast: John Barrymore, Carole Lombard, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns

"Based on the Broadway play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, Twentieth Century is 'screwball comedy' at its screwiest. Director Howard Hawks once claimed that he was the first to treat his romantic leads like comedians: whether he was or not, it is true than Barrymore and Lombard deliver two of the funniest performances of the 1930s.
Poking fun at his master thespian image, Barrymore's hammy Broadway impresario Oscar alternately threatens to shut 'the Iron Door' on his associates or kill himself to get his way, but ultra-spirited Lombard as shopgirl-Mildred-turned-diva-Lily proves his equal in acting chops and screen strength. With most of the action confined to the eponymous train, Oscar's machinations to get the estranged Lily to star in his next show rise in hysterical pitch as the quarters get increasingly close, culminating in another Oscar death spectacle for an audience of passengers. Swiftly paced by Hawks, the rapid-fire jokes and arguments never let up, setting the standard for the genre's speed and humor. With equally superb supporting performances from Walter Connolly and Roscoe Karns, Twentieth Century became a box office hit, turning Lombard into a star comedienne and joining It Happened One Night (1934) as the prototype for the screwball genre." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/twentieth-century-v51294

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L'Atalante 1934 - Widely regarded as one of cinema's finest achievements

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024844/
IMDB rating: 7,9

Director: Jean Vigo
Main Cast: Dita Parlo, Jean Daste, Michel Simon

"In his only full-length feature, released shortly before he died at age 29, Jean Vigo led the way for the French poetic realist style, deriving poignant beauty from the drab reality of a couple's marital problems while they live on a river barge. Beginning with their on-shore wedding and near-surreal, low-angle walk to the barge across barren fields, Vigo turns the ups and downs of the couple's mundane existence into rapturously dreamlike visual interludes interspersed with moments of humor and grotesquerie from the barge's other two inhabitants. Expressively shot by Boris Kaufman, the cramped quarters, the river's fog, and the industrial riverfront wastelands complement the struggle between Dita Parlo's bride and Jean Dasté's skipper/husband as they adapt to married life; underwater shots and superimpositions lyrically evoke their anguish after a separation. The catalogue of the cat-loving first mate (Michel Simon)'s eccentric international souvenirs underlines the freedom afforded by barge life.
Unmoved by Vigo's artistic bravery, the producers mutilated L'Atalante in 1934; censors banned it anyway. Finally restored to its original form in 1989, L'Atalante was voted one of the ten best films of the 20th century in a 1999 Village Voice critics' poll." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/latalante-v27800

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The thin man 1934 - A marvelous adaptation of the Hammett novel with great chemistry between Powell and Loy

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025878/
IMDB rating: 8,2

Director: W. S. Van Dyke
Main Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan, Nat Pendleton

"Filmed on what MGM considered a B-picture budget and schedule (14 days, which at Universal or Columbia would have been considered extravagant), The Thin Man proved to be 'sleeper', spawning a popular film, radio, and television series. Contrary to popular belief, the title does not refer to star William Powell, but to Edward Ellis, playing the mean-spirited inventor who sets the plot in motion.
The Thin Man works because of the chemistry between stars William Powell and Myrna Loy (which would be adroitly exploited by MGM in several subsequent films, including five additional Thin Man mysteries produced between 1936 and 1948), and because screenwriters Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich had the good sense to transfer Dashiell Hammett's source novel to the screen without substantial alterations to the story. Planned by MGM as a lower-profile release, the film nonetheless featured first-rate talent in front of and behind the camera, including director W.S. Van Dyke, cinematographer James Wong Howe, art director Cedric Gibbons, and sound engineer Douglas Shearer. The supporting cast features consistently good performances, with Maureen O'Sullivan the standout.
Surprisingly popular at the box office, The Thin Man was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-thin-man-v49456

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It happened one night 1934 - The movie which set the pace for screwball comedy

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025316/
IMDB rating: 8,3

Director: Frank Capra
Main Cast: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly

"Frank Capra's seminal screwball comedy, which won all five major Academy Awards for 1934, is still as breezy and beguiling today. Scripted by Capra's frequent collaborator Robert Riskin, Frank Capra's It Happened One Night became the prototypical screwball comedy and elevated Columbia Pictures from Poverty Row status to respectable 'major minor' studio. Starring Clark Gable, on loan from MGM as punishment, and Claudette Colbert, on loan from Paramount for twice her usual pay, Capra's and Riskin's comic romance between a down-to-earth newspaper reporter and a spoiled runaway heiress set the standard for screwball. Its fast-paced repartee, kooky heroine, witty gags, and class-crossing love story became hallmarks of the genre in such later films as My Man Godfrey (1936) and Bringing Up Baby (1938); the overt lustiness barred by the 1934 Production Code was transmuted into clever banter and the romance conveyed an ideal Depression-era fantasy. A critical and commercial hit, It Happened One Night was the first film to sweep the top five Oscars, rewarding Capra, Riskin, Gable, and Colbert, and fulfilling Columbia impresario Harry Cohn's desire to turn his B-studio into a class act.
The only other movies to win all five major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, and Screenplay) were One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991)." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/it-happened-one-night-v25509

DVD links:

The song of songs 1933 - One of Dietrich's best performances

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024598/
IMDB rating: 6,8

Director: Rouben Mamoulian
Main Cast: Marlene Dietrich, Brian Aherne, Lionel Atwill, Alison Skipworth, Helen Freeman

"Those who feel that Marlene Dietrich was merely a beautiful figure whose performances were molded only by director Josef von Sternberg should take a look at Song of Songs, which contains some of Dietrich's finest (if often overlooked) work. Granted, she was once again working with a strong director (Rouben Mamoulian in this case), but it's clear that this was a woman who not only had abundant talent but had a clear sense of how to act specifically for the camera. Observe the many ways she looks at the camera, always embracing it, but doing so with a tremendous variety - sometimes tenderly, sometimes angrily, sometimes teasingly, sometimes aloofly. Dietrich also gets a chance to show some range here, creating a character who changes from naïve and trusting to one who is cynical and world weary - and making all aspects of the character quite believable. For his part, Mamoulian's direction is a bit more 'conventional' than usual but enormously effective nonetheless. If he's not able to draw a very lively performance from Brian Aherne, he compensates with his work from Lionel Atwill, Alison Skipworth, and Helen Freeman. Add in some evocative Victor Milner cinematography and some stunning sculptures, buttressing a sturdy screenplay, and the result is an enormously entertaining drama in the Dietrich manner.
Song of Songs was based on a Herman Sudermann novel, previously adapted into a stage play and then filmed twice during the silent era." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/song-of-songs-v111040

DVD links:

Deluge 1933 - A very early disaster movie

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023938/
IMDB rating: 6,2

Director: Felix E. Feist
Main Cast: Peggy Shannon, Lois Wilson, Sidney Blackmer

"This remarkable early-talkie 'disaster' flick was the first directorial effort of Felix E. Feist. An enormous tidal wave destroys New York City and most of the Eastern seaboard - and that's only the beginning of the picture! The rest of the film deals with the aftermath of the deluge. Hero Martin (Sidney Blackmer), certain that his wife Helen (Lois Wilson) and his children have died in the disaster, begins a romance with bathing beauty Claire (Peggy Shannon). They must fight for their lives against Jephson (Fred Kohler Sr.) and his band of outlaws, who are using the apocalyptic crisis as an excuse to rape and pillage. Surviving one peril after another, the couple is forced to face their biggest crisis when it turns out that Martin's family has not perished after all. Claire nobly solves everyone's problem by swimming out to sea, never to be heard from again. Ned Mann's special effects and miniature work are first-rate, resurfacing as stock footage for years afterward (incidentally, some of the earthquake footage was filmed during an actual California quake in early 1933). Also praiseworthy is the superb, wall-to-wall musical score. For years considered a 'lost' film, Deluge was found again in 1987 and has since been restored to an approximation of its original form - though a full-scale videotape release is long overdue." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-deluge-v13154

Download links (Italian audio with English subtitles - very rare!):

She done him wrong 1933 - The trademark Mae West movie

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024548/
IMDB rating: 6,5

Director: Lowell Sherman
Main Cast: Mae West, Cary Grant, Owen Moore, Gilbert Roland, Rochelle Hudson

"She Done Him Wrong is the best example of the screen persona of Mae West and why it has endured as a icon of comic sexuality. Adapted from West's stage play, the story is secondary to West's charismatic one-liners and simmering seductiveness. The supporting cast appears to be there just for show, including West's nominal co-star, Cary Grant, whom Paramount was then attempting to build into a leading man. Paramount consistently selected material for Grant that failed to showcase his talents, and he did not achieve major box-office status until after leaving the studio in 1935.
Mae West's first starring film literally saved Paramount Pictures from bankruptcy. It would remain the best of her feature films, most of which were severely watered down by the Production Code (whose renewed stringency of 1933 was brought about in great part by West herself). She Done Him Wrong was based on West's own stage play, Diamond Lil, which ran on Broadway for 97 weeks. West sings 'Frankie and Johnny', 'I Like a Man Who Takes His Time', and 'I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone'. She Done Him Wrong holds the unusual distinction of being nominated for an Academy Award as Best Picture without being nominated in any other category." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/she-done-him-wrong-v44218

DVD links:

Turn back the clock 1933 - A charming fantasy comedy

Lee Tracy and Mae Clarke

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024704/
IMDB rating: 7,0

Director: Edgar Selwyn
Main Cast: Lee Tracy, Mae Clarke, Otto Kruger, Peggy Shannon

"Directed by Edgar Selwyn, who co-wrote the screenplay with Ben Hecht (Underworld 1927 & The Scoundrel 1935), the story is a very clever exploration into the 'what if', as in 'what if I made a different choice at a pivotal moment in my life' and what would have happened. It stars Lee Tracy (The Best Man 1964) as the man who gets the opportunity to 'see' how his life may have been had he chosen to marry one girl vs. another in his youth.
Selwyn and Hecht delivered a small masterpiece in 1933 that might seem familiar now to later generations. Everyone from Frank Capra to Rod Serling has used the same theme successfully - the lesson to be learned: you can't change the past without consequences, so maybe its better just to be happy with what you have.
A truly imaginative fantasy, Turn Back the Clock is acted with conviction by everybody from star Lee Tracy to a trio of bit players (in the wedding sequence) who later called themselves The Three Stooges." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/turn-back-the-clock-v114664

DVD links:

Berkeley Square 1933 - One of the first time-travel fantasies ever made

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023794/
IMDB rating: 6,7

Director: Frank Lloyd
Main Cast: Leslie Howard, Heather Angel

"Adapted from John Balderston's successful stage fantasy (itself based on a story by Henry James), Berkeley Square is the story of a modern-day London scientist (Leslie Howard), who is romantically fascinated by the 18th century. A freak accident propels Howard back to 1784, where he assumes the identity of one of his own ancestors. Howard falls in love with his distant cousin Helen (Heather Angel), while his other relatives regard the time-traveller as a 'sorcerer' due to his disturbing knowledge of future events. Gradually, Howard is disillusioned by the squalor and bigotry of the 18th century. He bids farewell to Helen, explaining that he will actually be born years after her death but that they will be reunited 'in God's time'. Returning to the present, Howard discovers that Helen died young without ever marrying. He renounces his own fiancee and determines to live out his life as a bachelor, to be united with his true love in death.
Long considered a lost film, Berkeley Square was rediscovered in the mid 1970s. The film had already been remade in 1951 as the Tyrone Power vehicle I'll Never Forget You." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/berkeley-square-v84811

Download links:

(DVDrip, 700 MB):

http://www.filefactory.com/file/xw6xyj37cw5/

Ekstase (Ecstasy) 1933 - Containing the famous nude scene with Hedy Lamarr

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022867/
IMDB rating: 6,9

Director: Gustav Machaty
Main Cast: Hedy Lamarr, Aribert Mog, Zvonimir Rogoz, Leopold Kramer

"It is one of the notorious titles in all cinema history, but - sigh - it looks rather quaint today. In the mid-1930s, Ecstasy was a great conversation piece, for its scandalous acknowledgment of sexual passion in women and its revelation of the naked form of actress Hedy Kiesler, who would become the Hollywood star Hedy Lamarr. Czech director Gustav Machatý constructs the movie as an almost wordless shadow play of symbols and signs, mostly sexual (there are many close-ups of heavy-breathing horses and nude statues, cut together for maximum erotic impact). As precious as some of these things seem now, it's still amazing to consider Machatý's nerve in depicting one of the first orgasms to hit the movies. And then there's Hedy, whose expressive eyes matter more than her brief skinny-dip. She's an unmistakable future star.
Called 'the most whispered about picture in the world' at its release, Ecstasy shocked moviegoers with its erotic depiction of sex, particularly scenes of a young Lamarr swimming naked and its images of this unknown beauty at the height of passion. The European film propelled Lamarr into Hollywood stardom and became an internationally-known classic hailed for its sophisticated approach to sexuality, maintaining a special place in movie history."

Download links:

(DVDrip, 1,12 GB, German audio with English subtitles):

http://uploaded.net/file/x0qc9eze/ECS33.part1.rar
http://uploaded.net/file/pmo0r58i/ECS33.part2.rar
http://uploaded.net/file/9eo5fxz9/ECS33.part3.rar
http://uploaded.net/file/bhs1t4qz/ECS33.part4.rar
http://uploaded.net/file/tqdg6e2u/ECS33.part5.rar 

Mystery of the wax museum 1933 - Is she woman or wax? Solve it if you dare!

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024368/
IMDB rating: 6,9

Director: Michael Curtiz
Main Cast: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Glenda Farrell, Frank McHugh

"One of the talkies' early horror classics, The Mystery of the Wax Museum is a crackling good thriller that's a great deal of fun. Wax Museum has its flaws: the identity of the villain is not especially hard to figure out, and the actors employed to impersonate wax figures (because real wax would have melted under the hot lights) do tend to move, which is certainly distracting. But on the whole, Wax Museum is tremendously effective. Some object to its odd mixture of comedy and horror, but this mixture contributes greatly to the film's unique appeal; rarely in horror films of the period does one find a wise-cracking, gin-slinging girl reporter like Glenda Farrell, whose cynical, hardboiled performance is a delight. Lionel Atwill is even better in what is perhaps his finest screen performance, and there's also good work from Fay Wray and Frank McHugh. Michael Curtiz directs stylishly and atmospherically, aided greatly by the stunning, dizzyingly impressionistic sets by Anton Grot, which are an orgy of distorted angles and contorted surfaces. Throw in some surprising pre-Code frankness in the area of sex and drugs, and you've got a horror flick with a real kick. Long thought lost, The Mystery of the Wax Museum was rediscovered in Jack Warner's personal film collection in 1970. Its two-color Technicolor had faded to the point of monochrome, but fortunately its original hues were preserved by dedicated AFI technicians. The film was remade (and considerably simplified) as the 1953 3-D extravaganza House of Wax, with Vincent Price in the Atwill role." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-mystery-of-the-wax-museum-v34236

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(The adventures of) Don Quixote 1933 - A moving and exhilarating experience with opera star Chaliapin

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023956/
IMDB rating: 6,6

Director: G. W. Pabst
Main Cast: Feodor Chaliapin Sr., George Robey, Renée Valliers

"The French/British Don Quixote is a faithful rendition of the Cervantes novel, with a poignant ending added by director G.W. Pabst. Opera star Feodor Chaliapin stars as Cervantes' 'Knight of the Woeful Countenance', an aged, addled Spanish gentleman so devoted to stories of long-ago chivalry that he decides to relive those bygone days.
Pabst alters Cervantes' original ending by having the dispirited Quixote pass away as he watches his precious books on chivalry going up in flames. There are actually two versions of Don Quixote, one in English and one in French; the French-language version has a different supporting cast, but Pabst draws the same deep emotions and brilliant bits of business from both. Quixote benefits from its directors sure hand and even more so from his clear, dominating vision; the project clearly means a lot to him personally, and that connection fills every frame. Pabst is greatly aided by the dominating performance of Feodor Chaliapin, whose operatic presence is right at home with the larger-than-life Quixote. He's mesmerizing at all times, even when what he's doing is closer to grandstanding than acting. He gets fine support from George Robey and Renée Valliers, but it's Chaliapin who owns the film acting-wise. - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/don-quixote-v14297

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The Kennel murder case 1933 - The model of the whodunit genre

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024210/
IMDB rating: 6,9

Director: Michael Curtiz
Main Cast: William Powell, Mary Astor, Eugene Pallette, Ralph Morgan

"Often (and accurately) described as a model of the whodunit genre, The Kennel Murder Case stars William Powell, making his fourth screen appearance as S. S. Van Dine's dilettante detective Philo Vance.
Directed with crispness and efficiency by the reliable Michael Curtiz, the film is a good example of the high production standards of Warner Bros. in its post-silent era. The script is a solid whodunit packed with interesting characters, well-performed and impeccably cast. Much of the verbosity of S. S. Van Dine's novel is missing from Kennel Murder Case, making for a briskly told story." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-kennel-murder-case-v27085

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I'm no angel 1933 - The divine Miss West's most successful picture

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024166/
IMDB rating: 7,1

Director: Wesley Ruggles
Main Cast: Mae West, Cary Grant, Gregory Ratoff

"Mae West's second starring vehicle, I'm No Angel should have been as big and bawdy a success as West's earlier She Done Him Wrong, but by late 1933 the censors were beginning to have their way with Hollywood. Several of the more ribald (and more hilarious) elements of the film were toned down - not least of which was the title, which was supposed to have been It Ain't No Sin.
West's reputation for tweaking the noses of film censors was well-established by the time she made I'm No Angel, her second consecutive outing opposite the luminous Cary Grant. The two had made She Done Him Wrong earlier that year, and in I'm No Angel West does Grant wrong again, to hilarious effect. West plays her typical floozy, a carnival dancer, who escapes a murder charge and cozies her way into high society, where she famously tells her maid: 'Beulah, peel me a grape'. Eventually, she wins Grant, then drops him and sues him for breach of contract. Rarely has a more intelligent, sexually powerful, and dominant female figure been seen on screen, and West is at her sizzling comic peak. Already a major entertainment figure, West rode the popularity of I'm No Angel to greater notoriety, but she never again teamed up with a male superstar so successfully. West's movies were among those most responsible for bringing a new era of censorship after the early 1930s." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/im-no-angel-v80247

Download link:

(DVDrip, 700 MB):

http://rapidgator.net/file/51c341d932f8a40574f7e8c3b26e71cc 

State fair 1933 - A wonderful movie with charms, warmth and virtue

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024610/
IMDB rating: 7,0

Director: Henry King
Main Cast: Janet Gaynor, Will Rogers, Lew Ayres, Sally Eilers, Norman Foster, Louise Dresser

"The 1933 State Fair was the first of three film versions of the Phillip Stong bestseller. Some consider it the best of the three because of its stricter adherence to the source material and the presence of star Will Rogers.
The original film State Fair has suffered an ignominious fate, owing - ironically enough - to the consequences growing out of the virtues that made it so notable in the first place. The story, by Phillip Strong, was a good one, about a family that finds joys and some unexpected personal trials while attending the Iowa State Fair. Henry King, who'd made his mark on pictures a dozen years earlier with the rural tale Tol'able David, did some of his best sound work in that milieu on this particular picture. And that's not surprising, given that he had the opportunity to work tandem with Will Rogers, Louise Dresser, and Janet Gaynor. King had a light touch as a director, giving his actors room to do what they did best, and they all ran with it, and the results were so impressive that they ended up inspiring Rodgers and Hammerstein to try their hand at film scoring a dozen years later. And that musical version eclipsed the very work that had inspired them in the first place. This movie has many of the same virtues that one found in the other films of Rogers and Gaynor, plus King's ability to move a story along. The warmth of the characterizations radiates from the screen, and even those who have grown up on the more familiar films of the R&H musical version may be impressed with the straight dramatic approach that one finds here." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/state-fair-v111659

Download links:

http://www.filefactory.com/file/5h8hfiii2lkh/n/State.Fair.1933.DvDRip.avi

Taki no shiraito (The water magician) 1933 - A popular silent movie of Kenji Mizoguchi

The director with his leading lady

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024641/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 7,5

Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
Main Cast: Takako Irie, Tokihiko Okada, Nobuo Kosaka

"Early Japanese filmmaker Kenji Mizoguchi directs the black-and-white silent drama Taki No shiraito, based on the tragic novel written by Kyoka Izumi during the 19th century. (The title has been translated into both The Water Magician and White Threads of the Waterfall.) This tale of tragic love realistically depicts the beauty and strength of the women of the Meiji Era. Takako Irie (who was one of the greatest stars of Japanese cinema in that period, and a symbol of glamour and dignified beauty) plays Takino Hiraito, a strong-willed water magician in a circus. Popular entertainers of the time, water magicians used paddles to sculpt streams of water into different shapes. She travels around the Hokuriku district with her act until she meets a timid boy named Kinya Murakoshi (Tokihiko Okada). His boyish sensitivity is very attractive to the independent Takino. They must part ways, but she sends him money so he can go to law school. Like many of Mizoguchi's heroines, Takino sacrifices her own happiness in order to provide for the man she loves."

Download links (with English subtitles):

Okraina (Outskirts) 1933 - A masterpiece of early Russian sound cinema

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024402/
IMDB rating: 7,4

Director: Boris Barnet
Main Cast: Alexander Chistyakov, Sergei Komarov, Yelena Kuzmina

"Outskirts, from great Soviet director Boris Barnet, is a strange little film - it drifts along amiably for the first half, then radically changes direction twice. In a remote Russian village during World War I, colorful and nuanced characters experience divided loyalties: family loyalty vs. personal desire, nationalism vs. transcendent humanism.
It is also a mishmash of genres, going from comedy to drama to neorealism to propaganda, and never really defines itself. However, all of the above doesn't add up to a lousy or incomprehensible movie; quite the opposite. Outskirts is a great film, one of the very best from the early Russian sound era (around 1932-1939) and likely one of the top 50 Russian films of all time."

DVD links (Region free):