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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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."

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