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

DVD links:

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."

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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):

The private life of Henry VIII. 1933 - The movie that put British cinema on the map

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024473/
IMDB rating: 7,3

Director: Alexander Korda
Main Cast: Charles Laughton, Robert Donat, Merle Oberon, Wendy Barrie, Elsa Lanchester, Binnie Barnes

"Charles Laughton became an international star by chewing both mutton and scenes in his Oscar-winning turn as King Henry VIII. Alexander Korda's British super-production also put the British cinema on the map, which, until this film, received precious little respect in the international film community. The film, with tongue planted firmly in cheek, details the private life of the famous British monarch.
Laughton's Oscar-winning performance as Henry VIII rises above the stuffy limitations of the period piece to give us a portrait as rounded and exuberant as any on film. Laughton is well-supported by fine actresses as his wives, particularly Wendy Barry as the doomed Jane Seymour and Merle Oberon as the dim but delightful Anne Boleyn. Director Alexander Korda is the chief beneficiary of Laughton's larger-than-life performance, as his conservative helmsmanship fails to provide the film with a distinctly personal stamp. However, the sensual gusto in the scenes of Henry's indulgences is enthusiastically presented, and Korda deserves credit for giving us a very human portrait of this controversial figure. The film also benefits from some insidious dialogue by Arthur Wimperis (based on the story by Lajos Biro) that punctures the pomp of the English costume drama with tongue-in-cheek humor. Particularly entertaining are the exchanges between Henry and his prospective and coquettish wives (and mistresses), while some of the minor characters deliver wickedly insightful social criticism directed more at the state of the world's economy in 1933 than at the film's period." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-private-life-of-henry-viii-v39313

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Wild boys of the road 1933 - Girls living like boys! Boys living like savages!

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024772/
IMDB rating: 7,5

Director: William A. Wellman
Main Cast: Frankie Darro, Edwin Phillips, Rochelle Hudson, Dorothy Coonan Wellman, Sterling Holloway

"Despite some flaws, William Wellman's bitingly realistic depiction of the bleak prospects awaiting the hordes of teenagers who took to the road in search of work during the Depression remains one of the most memorably affecting features on that era. While talented tough-kid Frankie Darro (as Eddie Smith) is the ostensible star, the film is episodically structured around a group of these rail-riding kids and the ease with which characters are dropped and picked up underlines the randomness of their lives. The film is permeated by the director's characteristic mixture of harshness and tenderness, as comic interludes alternate with scenes of abject desperation. As usual, Wellman was testing the limits of censorship, with a then-shocking suggestion of rape, and in the film's best-known scene, a mutilation which still has the power to disturb. The initial naïveté of these kids may seem incredible in a far more cynical age, but Wellman, who had taken to the road himself 20 years earlier, imbues their disillusionment with a depth that feels personal. Although the film is bereft of any political or economic analysis of the causes of the Depression, and the unbelievably positive tacked-on ending seems to bely everything that's gone before, it's difficult to imagine how it could have been otherwise in the Hollywood of the period. It also seems possible that the ubiquitous figure of the cop-as-obstacle spoke to contemporary audiences more eloquently than any analysis." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/wild-boys-of-the-road-v117016

Download links:

(DVDrip, avi, 797 MB):

http://www.filefactory.com/file/4b6fbe7dxipt/

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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Lady for a day 1933 - A rags-to-riches tale during the Depression

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024240/
IMDB rating: 7,6

Director: Frank Capra
Main Cast: Warren William, May Robson, Guy Kibbee, Glenda Farrell, Walter Connolly, Jean Parker, Ned Sparks

"Based on a story by Damon Runyon, this Frank Capra film was nominated for several Oscars after it was released in 1933 (it was remade by Capra as Pocketful of Miracles in 1961). A tenderhearted Depression-era comedy, it tells the story of Apple Annie (May Robson), a panhandling street vendor who has kept her real identity hidden from a daughter being reared in Europe. When the grown-up daughter comes to New York for a visit, Annie turns to gambler Dave the Dude (Warren William) for help. He transforms her - temporarily - into a high-society grande dame, but not without complications. The film is nearly stolen by Guy Kibbee, as a judge posing as Annie's husband, but Warren William, a John Barrymore lookalike, and dour Ned Sparks get laughs too.
A Cinderella fairy tale set in the early 1930s, Lady for a Day is a delightfully charming mix of drama and comedy that propelled Frank Capra to the top ranks of popular filmmakers. Capra is too patriotic to take many pot-shots at the American rich, though his vindication of the common man seemed to be just what the public wanted. The acting is crisp, particularly May Robson in the central role of Apple Annie."

DVD links:

Footlight parade 1933 - A bravura exercise in song and dance

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024028/
IMDB rating: 7,7

Director: Lloyd Bacon
Main Cast: James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell

"The last - and to some aficionados, the best - of choreographer Busby Berkeley's three Warner Bros. efforts of 1933, Footlight Parade stars James Cagney as a Broadway musical comedy producer. As with many films of this type, the story is incidental, though the non-musical scenes benefit from a fine performance from James Cagney as a Broadway producer displaced by the film industry's transition to sound. In the early sound era, Warner Bros. was second only to MGM in opulent production values, and Footlight Parade outshines most films of its type from that era. Joan Blondell and Ruby Keeler are tops among the supporting cast, though there are no weak spots. Director Lloyd Bacon had a reputation for an efficient indifference to stylistic filmmaking. Here he has Berkeley and Cagney to create the style for him. he last half-hour of Footlight Parade is a nonstop display of Busby Berkeley at his most spectacular: the three big production numbers, all written by Harry Warren and Al Dubin, are 'By a Waterfall', 'Honeymoon Hotel', and 'Shanghai Lil', the latter featuring some delicious pre-code scatology, and a tap-dance duet by Cagney and Keeler. The result is what many critics consider one of the best musicals of the 1930s." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/footlight-parade-v18113

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Design for living 1933 - The classic Lubitsch touch in a not so faithful adaptation of Coward's play

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023940/
IMDB rating: 7,6

Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Main Cast: Fredric March, Gary Cooper, Miriam Hopkins, Edward Everett Horton, Isabel Jewell, Jane Darwell

"Design for Living was based on the stage comedy by Noel Coward, though little of his dialogue actually made it to the screen. Playwright Fredric March and artist Gary Cooper both fall in love with Miriam Hopkins, an American living in Paris. Both men love the girl, and the girl can't make up her mind between the two men, so the threesome decide to move in together - strictly platonically, of course.
When first released, Design for Living was assailed for the incredible liberties it took in transferring the material from stage to the screen. Indeed, director Ernst Lubitsch and screenwriter Ben Hecht kept only a single line of dialogue from the witty, sparkling Noel Coward comedy - and that one line was hardly itself distinguished. In other hands, this would have been a recipe for disaster; fortunately, Lubitsch and Hecht were enormous talents themselves, and the film they concocted from the barebones of Coward's play is sharply observed, slightly daffy and a total delight. It's true that Gary Cooper is a little out of place in high-style comedy of this sort; he's a little too 'downhome' to pull off some of what is asked of him. Nevertheless, his natural charisma is sufficient to overcome this deficiency, and his innate masculinity is used to interesting effect. On the other hand, Fredric March is right at home, turning in a deliciously comic performance that never takes a false turn. He's matched by Miriam Hopkins, creating some subtly wonderful variations on a madcap theme and proving irresistible in whatever she does.
The subtle homosexual implications of the Noel Coward stage original were dissipated by the presence of the aggressively masculine Gary Cooper and Fredric March in the film version of Design for Living. Replacing these implications were the equally subtle but more 'mainstream' boudoir innuendos of director Ernst Lubitsch." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/design-for-living-v89216

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Sons of the desert 1933 - The best of Laurel & Hardy's feature films

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024601/
IMDB rating: 7,8

Director: William A. Seiter
Main Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Charley Chase, Mae Busch

"Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy made many successful comedies in the 1930s, but none was as big a hit or as well-realized a feature as the lunatic Sons of the Desert. Hands-down the best Laurel and Hardy feature, it's a complicated tale of two henpecked husbands who scheme to ditch their wives and attend a fraternal organization's festive meeting in Chicago. The sight gags, slapstick, and repartee are all top-notch. Written by Frank Craven and Byron Morgan and directed by William A. Seiter, Sons of the Desert shows how entertaining the fat-and-thin comedy team, who often weren't given much to work with, could be when they had rich material." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/sons-of-the-desert-v45690/

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Counsellor at law 1933 - One of the best lawyer films of the 30's

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023911/
IMDB rating: 7,7

Director: William Wyler
Main Cast: John Barrymore, Bebe Daniels, Doris Kenyon, Isabel Jewell, Melvyn Douglas, Thelma Todd

"Adapted from the play by Elmer Rice, Counsellor-at-Law is the story of a successful Jewish lawyer George Simon (John Barrymore) who finds it's lonely at the top. Barrymore gives a crackling performance as a dynamic Manhattan lawyer who's worked his way to the top, yet still has the hunger of an immigrant Jew who came over in steerage. Seemingly master of all he surveys - his offices are in the Empire State Building! - he suddenly finds himself facing disbarment, and ditching by the elegant WASP wife (Doris Kenyon) who's always wished he would practice law 'like a gentleman'.
Such a stagy stratagem (Elmer Rice adapting his own play) usually spells static filmmaking, but Wyler (who signaled his readiness to take a big step up in class with this expertly directed movie) brings off a cinematic tour de force, an energetic direction with tensile camerawork, sharp performances, and brilliant set design (Charles D. Hall) that gets great visual excitement out of all the doors, glass walls, and skyscraper windows."

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Queen Christina 1933 - Luxuriously romantic Garbo

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024481/
IMDB rating: 7,9

Director: Rouben Mamoulian
Main Cast: Greta Garbo, John Gilbert

"Displaying the full range of Greta Garbo's mystique, Queen Christina is usually considered one of Garbo's best works, as well as her most erotically complex. Working from the true story of the 17th century Swedish queen who abdicated her throne for love, MGM surrounded Garbo with the kind of beautifully detailed period sets and costumes for which it was known in the 1930s, including Christina's preferred male drag. Gracefully directed by Rouben Mamoulian, Garbo silently yet powerfully communicates Christina's ill-fated love for John Gilbert's Spanish envoy as she moves around their room at a snowbound inn, 'memorizing' every object. Despite Garbo's reunion with three-time silent movie romance partner Gilbert, Queen Christina is more renowned for its (relatively) clear treatment of Christina's bisexuality, as she declares that she'll 'die a bachelor', kisses her favorite countess on the lips, and disguises herself as a man. Equally unforgettable is the final shot of Garbo staring enigmatically past the camera (a signature Garbo moment of secret emotions, hidden passions, and mysterious allure), allowing the viewer to 'fill in' her thoughts (director Rouben Mamoulian always claimed that he ordered Garbo to think about 'absolutely nothing', but one wonders).
Queen Christina did not perform as well as MGM had expected, making it a rare disappointment for Garbo and the end of Gilbert's career.
While some of Garbo's earliest talkies tend to creak a bit, Queen Christina is as fascinating today as it was nearly eight decades ago, and will undoubtedly continue to remain just as fascinating for the next eight decades." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/queen-christina-v39808

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Das testament des Dr. Mabuse (The testament of Dr. Mabuse) 1933 - Fritz Lang's masterpiece

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023563/
IMDB rating: 7,8

Director: Fritz Lang
Main Cast: Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Otto Wernicke, Gustav Diessl, Rudolf Schündler, Theo Lingen, Camilla Spira

"The Testament of Dr. Mabuse was Fritz Lang's second sound film and a sequel to his enormously successful 1922 silent. Mixing several genres including cop drama, mystery, and horror, Lang created a rare hybrid picture full of striking characters and images. Lensed simultaneously in French and German, Testament details a three-pronged story: one about a crime ring run from behind a curtain by the evil Dr. Mabuse, a second about a guilt-stricken member of Mabuse's gang who has fallen in love, and a third about a determined detective who is stumped by the strange case. Marked by Lang's brilliant camerawork, the film connects the dots with a number of excellent scenes that culminate in one incredible sequence that jumps back and forth between two thrilling escapes: a couple trapped in a room with a ticking time bomb and the criminals stuck in another building with cops outside the door. In another memorable scene, a doctor who has connected Mabuse to the crimes is gunned down in heavy traffic when the killers use their horns to provide a noisy cover. The exciting car chase featured in the film's climax - led by the evil doctor in his Mercedes - was one of the first of its kind. Performances are very good across the board, but Otto Wernicke really steals the show as Detective Lohmann, a character Wernicke also played in Lang's 1931 classic M. Rudolf Klein-Rogge is sufficiently creepy in the part of Mabuse (he also played the Mabuse role in Lang's silent Dr. Mabuse), although his performance is limited to a handful of brief scenes and some chilling double-exposure shots in which his spirit steps out of his body to do its evil work. Co-star Rudolf Schündler, who plays the psycho gunman Hardy, later appeared in Dario Argento's Suspiria. Testament was later cut into a 75-minute, dubbed version that was titled The Crimes of Dr. Mabuse. Lang revisited the character of Mabuse in 1960's The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse, which turned out to be his final film." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-testament-of-dr-mabuse-v67069

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

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

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

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

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42nd Street 1933 - The quintessential backstage musical

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024034/
IMDB rating: 7,8

Director: Lloyd Bacon
Main Cast: Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, George Brent, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Una Merkel, Guy Kibbee, Ginger Rogers

"If MGM's 1929 The Broadway Melody invented the musical, Warner Bros.' 42nd Street saved it. The four years between the two movies had seen the genre driven practically into the ground, as the studios, still struggling with synchronized sound and what to do about it, ground out one ill-advised musical after another, few terribly good as music and most even less impressive as movies. It had gotten so bad that by 1932, theater owners were protecting their box office with signs announcing, for any 'suspect' title, 'NOT A MUSICAL!' It was into that environment in 1933 that Warner Bros. released 42nd Street, directed by Lloyd Bacon and choreographed by Busby Berkeley - and it revived and revolutionized the whole musical genre, by taking it to the long-delayed next step. It was during the making of The Broadway Melody that filmmakers discovered that they could separate the shooting of a musical number from the recording of its music. Berkeley and cinematographer Sol Polito took this notion to the next step by removing the camera from the studio floor. Under their direction, shots were done from overhead angles and other locations from which no person could ever actually observe in real life, and the dancers' motions were, in turn, designed to exploit those angles; in effect, they created the true movie musical, as opposed to a musical that happened to be on film. Bacon's direction of the dialogue portions of the story, with both dramatic and comic content, was also very sure, no surprise for a man later responsible for dramas like The Fighting Sullivans and comedies with Red Skelton, which meant that the movie held up even when there was no dancing or singing on the screen; and when there was, the music by Harry Warren and Al Dubin was downright clever; and the acting, though a little broad by modern standards, was of first caliber, also unusual for a musical, ranging from serious dramatic lead Warner Baxter to comic relief from George E. Stone as the mousy, lecherous stage manager and Guy Kibbee's befuddled, lecherous backer, with Bebe Daniels, Ruby Keeler, and Ginger Rogers at their most delectable.
Based on the novel by Bradford Ropes (which was a lot steamier than the movie censors would allow), 42nd Street is highlighted by such grandiose musical setpieces as 'Shuffle Off to Buffalo', 'Young and Healthy', and of course the title song. The audience devoured it, and Warner Bros., Berkeley, and company rose to the occasion of delivering more and better musicals like it for much of the rest of the decade.
Nearly fifty years after its premiere, it was successfully revived as a Broadway musical with Tammy Grimes and Jerry Orbach." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/42nd-street-v258

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Dinner at eight 1933 - A movie with romance, glamour, wit, charm and intrigue

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023948/
IMDB rating: 7,9

Director: George Cukor
Main Cast: Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, Lionel Barrymore, Billie Burke, Madge Evans

"Based on the Broadway hit by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber, Dinner at Eight is a near-flawless comedy/drama with an all-star cast at the peak of their talents. Social butterfly Mrs. Oliver Jordan (Billie Burke) arranges a dinner party that will benefit the busines of her husband (Lionel Barrymore). Among the invited are a crooked executive (Wallace Beery), who is in the process of ruining Jordan; his wife (Jean Harlow), who is carrying on an affair with a doctor (Edmund Lowe); a fading matinee idol (John Barrymore), who has squandered his fortune on liquor and is romantically involved with the Jordan daughter (Madge Evans); and a venerable stage actress (Marie Dressler), who since losing all her money has become a 'professional guest'. Nothing goes as planned, due to various suicides, double-crosses, compromises, fatal illness, and servant problems. But dinner is served precisely at eight.
Dinner at Eight is, above all else, about changes: changes in society where graceful old money is about to be supplanted by the new and crass; changes in the motion picture business where talkies turn silent stars into alcoholic has-beens; and changes in industry, where, according to Jean Harlow's brassy Kitty Packard, 'machines are taking the place of every profession'. After which observation, of course, Marie Dressler, as the grand Mrs. Patrick Campbell-like stage diva, delivers one of the screen's most memorable closing lines, 'That my dear', she intones, giving the bleach blonde the once-over, 'is something you never need to worry about!' It is a delicious moment in a film positively giddy with such bon mots and brimming with performances as fresh today as they were in 1933. Were Dressler, Harlow, Billie Burke, or the Barrymore brothers ever better? Although director George Cukor and producer David O. Selznick deserved much of the credit, they were, of course, heavily indebted to a sparkling screenplay penned by Frances Marion, Herman J. Mankiewicz, and Donald Ogden Stewart. It is to the credit of all these talented professionals that Dinner at Eight manages to amuse and delight even the jaded audiences of today, in contrast, perhaps, to its equally famous predecessor, the rather overstuffed and decidedly dated Grand Hotel (1932)." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/dinner-at-eight-v13816

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The invisible man 1933 - A new kind of horror movie with humor!

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024184/
IMDB rating: 7,7

Director: James Whale
Main Cast: Claude Rains, Gloria Stuart, William Harrigan

"Based on H. G. Wells' novel, James Whale's The Invisible Man was a new kind of horror movie in 1933 - one that made audiences laugh almost as much as it frightened them. Whale might simply have relied on the dazzling impact of John Fulton's special effects, which did an extraordinary job of creating the illusion of an invisible man on screen. Instead, he challenged his audience's expectations by playing many of the key scenes for laughs, such as that of the shirt dancing around the room while the police officer chases it; the scenes between the inn keeper (Forrester Harvey) and his hysterical wife (Una O'Connor); and the confusion of various characters trying to describe what they've seen (or, more properly, haven't). Wittily scripted by R.C. Sherriff and an uncredited Philip Wylie, and brilliantly directed by James Whale, The Invisible Man is a near-untoppable combination of horror and humor. Also deserving of unqualified praise are the thorouhgly convincing special effects by John P. Fulton and John Mescall. With the exception of The Invisible Man Returns, none of the sequels came anywhere close to the quality of the 1933 original. Audiences feel as though they've seen two films for the price of one, and the mixing of genres and moods worked so well that Whale was emboldened to try for even more extremes of humor, irony, and horror in his next major movie, The Bride of Frankenstein, 18 months later, and succeeded even further beyond anyone's expectations, creating that rare sequel that outstrips its predecessor. It is on that film, and The Invisible Man, that much of Whale's 70-year-plus reputation as a master filmmaker and horror creator rest, and from these two movies that dozens of modern filmmakers, from Wes Craven and Tobe Hooper to Tim Burton, derived much of the inspiration for their work and their careers." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-invisible-man-v25334

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King Kong 1933 - The most awesome adventure of all time

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024216/
IMDB rating: 8,0

Directors: Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack
Main Cast: Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot

"Generally thought of as a monster movie (not difficult to understand when your title character is a 50-foot-tall gorilla with a habit of killing people who get in his way), King Kong is actually an old-fashioned adventure story on the grand scale, complete with fearless hunters in search of uncharted islands, angry natives appeasing their god, damsels in distress, and a dashing hero on hand to save said damsel. Much of this story probably seemed a bit cliché even when King Kong was first released in 1933, but directors Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack tell their tale with two-fisted gusto, leavened with a genuine sense of wonder, and the result captures the imagination from the start and never lets go. It also helps that they had a cast capable of handling the heroics in grand form while knowing how to play the abundant comic relief in appropriate style; Robert Armstrong's Carl Denham is ham at its tastiest, Bruce Cabot's Jack Driscoll is a hero with his feet planted solidly on the ground (and his tongue just entering his cheek), and has any screen heroine ever screamed more eloquently than Fay Wray? Willis H. O'Brien's stop-motion effects animation was legendary in its day, and it retains its magic today; while technology has progressed considerably since King Kong, O'Brien was able to give his great ape a personality, and Kong's moments of fear, curiosity, pain, and occasional goofiness gave him a sympathetic, ultimately tragic dimension that adds immeasurably to the picture's effectiveness. And Max Steiner's bombastic score is always there to cheer the picture along when its energy starts to flag. While the 1976 remake already seems hopelessly dated, the original King Kong remains rousing entertainment with brains, brawn, and a heart." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/king-kong-v27391

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Duck soup 1933 - The definitive Marx Brothers movie

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023969/
IMDB rating: 8,1

Director: Leo McCarey
Main Cast: Marx Brothers (Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Zeppo), Margaret Dumont, Raquel Torres

"Along with A Night at the Opera, Duck Soup is often regarded as the definitive Marx Brothers movie, the picture in which every shot, every line, and every gag worked. Modern audiences are often surprised to learn that it was a notorious flop that killed the Brothers' contract at Paramount Pictures in the mid-1930s. Audiences harried by the Great Depression seemed unable to connect with the Marx Brothers in their Paramount movies, at least not in the way that Broadway theatergoers and Paramount executives who'd seen them in The Cocoanuts or Animal Crackers did. Part of the problem may have been their piercing topicality and ethnic humor, whether Groucho's Jewish conniver or Chico's fake Italian. And no movie was more piercing in its topicality in 1933 than Duck Soup, a satire of nationalism, diplomacy, and international intrigue that seemed all too real as Hitler's rise to power in Germany dominated world news. When the Marxes then moved to MGM, the company's chief of production, Irving Thalberg, convinced them to tone down their image and give themselves sympathetic personae, and audiences then devoured their work. But Duck Soup, a failure in its time, remains the brothers' definitive film in their classic original style." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/duck-soup-v14904

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