The good Earth 1937 - Luise Rainer's second consecutive Oscar

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028944/
IMDB rating: 7,9

Directors: Victor Fleming, Sidney Franklin
Main Cast: Paul Muni, Luise Rainer, Walter Connolly

"Based on Donald Davis and Owen Davis' stage-adaptation of Pearl S. Bucks's sprawling novel, Sidney Franklin's The good Earth is the story of a Chinese farming couple whose lives are torn apart by poverty, greed, and nature.
An epic tale of love, duty, greed, and revolution, MGM's The good Earth was an artistic and commercial success. It was the last film of legendary producer Irving Thalberg, and the only one to carry his name. The story's scope, following the fall and rise of a peasant family in pre-revolutionary China, was matched by a large scale production (costing an at-the-time astounding 3 million dollars) that included (literally) a cast of thousands, a 500-acre set, thousands of pieces of costume, equipment, and tools, and even buildings imported from China. The massive production, directed first by Victor Fleming, then by Sidney Franklin, includes a couple of classic scenes of epic grandeur: the mob rebellion scene in which the Imperial Palace is sacked, and the locust scene, a marvelous technical achievement in its own right. Despite the grand scale, the human drama is never dwarfed. Stars Paul Muni and Luise Rainer, as the hardworking farmer and his long-suffering wife, offer sincere performances. Although neither was of Chinese descent, both found the right notes for these parts. Rainer won her second consecutive Academy Award, and soon thereafter dropped from sight in a prolonged feud with Hollywood executives. Cinematographer Karl Freund, famous for his work in German Expressionist films of the 1920s, took home an Oscar as well, and the film was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Editing." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-good-earth-v20287

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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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Smilin' through 1932 - A first class romance

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

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

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

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Private lives 1931 - Based upon one of Noel Coward's wittiest plays

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022279/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 7,0

Director: Sidney Franklin
Main Cast: Norma Shearer, Robert Montgomery, Reginald Denny, Una Merkel, Jean Hersholt

"A fairly faithful adaptation of the classic Noel Coward stage play (virtually all of the witticisms, notably 'Some women should be struck regularly - like gongs' are left intact, though we truly miss 'You're looking lovely in this damned moonlight').
In Amanda and Elyot, Coward created a pair of joined-at-the-erotic-hip twins; while there was nothing particularly bawdy about them on-stage, they were still rather too frank (and frankly amoral) to totally withstand the censor's shears on film. Fortunately, the filmmakers were sensitive and judicious in their cutting, with the result that most of the humor - and more importantly, the flavor - of the original remains. True, there's a little of the edge missing, but that has more to do with the actors than the adaptation. Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery are slightly too much the movie stars to play the parts with the total honesty that is called for, but their charm, timing, and bearing more than make up for this. Shearer, especially, understands the cadences of Coward's dialogue, but doesn't become enslaved to it. Reginald Denny has Victor's amusing insufferableness down pat, and Una Merkel is a winningly tiresome Sibyl.
The movie has been opened up from the stage play, sometimes to good effect, sometimes to little; however, the settings - especially the glorious Art Deco hotel - are noteworthy.
Private lives is played with such polish and expertise that we're willing to overlook the fact that only one of the four principals (Reginald Denny) is genuinely British." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/private-lives-v39315

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