Animal crackers 1930 - One of the best Marx Brothers films

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IMDB rating: 7,7

Director: Victor Heerman
Main Cast: Marx Brotheers, Lillian Roth, Margaret Dumont

"Though many critics rank 1933's Duck Soup as the funniest Marx Brothers movie, others may prefer Animal Crackers, released in 1930. Based on the hit Broadway play by George S. Kaufman and Morris Ryskind, Animal Crackers features Groucho Marx as explorer Captain Spaulding, who is the guest of honor at a party hosted by wealthy matron Mrs. Rittenhouse (Groucho's favorite foil Margaret Dumont). The plot is a flimsy excuse for Groucho, Chico, and Harpo to run amok, with Zeppo playing his customary straight-man role. Director Victor Heerman is basically a bystander as the brothers take over, treating film as an extension of vaudeville. Animal Crackers was funnier and a bigger success than its predecessor, The Cocoanuts, and it marked the true beginning of the Marx Brothers' long and successful film careers, establishing their unique blend of physical and verbal mayhem." - www.allmovie.com

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You can't take it with you 1938 - A family of free spirits

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030993/
IMDB rating: 8,0

Director: Frank Capra
Main Cast: James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, Edward Arnold, Mischa Auer, Ann Miller, Spring Byington

"Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's whimsical Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play You Can't Take It With You was transformed into a paean to populism by director Frank Capra and screenwriter Robert Riskin. The result is a joyful celebration of good-natured people and unconventional lifestyles. In some ways, it presages the 'do your own thing' philosophy of the 1960s, and it is easy to imagine free-spirited families of the '60s as creative descendants of Hart and Kaufman's Pulitzer Prize-winning characters. The cast features some of the finest comic actors of its era. While Lionel barrymore and James Stewart were equally adept at drama, the film also features fine performances from such humor specialists as Spring Byington, Dub Taylor, and Mischa Auer. Of special note is the presence of comic legend Eddie Anderson, who, with his supporting performance in Gone with the wind, became the first African-American actor to appear in more than one Oscar- winning Best Picture.
You can't take it with you earned several Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director (Capra's third Oscar)." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/you-cant-take-it-with-you-v55902

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Stage door 1937 - A superb, realistic, behind-the-scenes film about show business

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029604/
IMDB rating: 7,8

Director: Gregory La Cava
Main Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou, Gail Patrick, Constance Collier, Andrea Leeds, Lucille Ball

"Stage door is notable for its predominantly female cast, predating George Cukor's The women by two years. Adapted from the Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman stage hit, the sparkling dialogue comes at the audience rapid-fire as each stellar performer steps forward. The film shifts easily between comedy and drama, with Ginger Rogers in particular showcasing her versatility. Director Gregory La Cava successfully pulls together a strong-willed cast that includes Katharine Hepburn, Lucille Ball, Eve Arden and Ann Miller. He puts the boarding house setting to good use, keeping the interplay brisk and the story lines moving quickly. Ironically, the film's only Oscar nomination for acting went to the lesser-known Andrea Leeds, who, unlike her character in the movie, would later marry a rich man and retire from the screen. The film was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/stage-door-v46386/

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

Fashion portrait of Sidney Fox circa 1932

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

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

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

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