1931-1940

  • George Marshall – Pack Up Your Troubles (1932)

    1931-1940ClassicsComedyGeorge MarshallUSA

    The boys’ Army buddy, Eddie Smith, is killed in the trenches in France, leaving his baby girl an orphan. Back home after Armistice, they try to find Eddie’s father and turn the child over to him. Unfortunately, they keep coming up with the wrong Smiths, and in the process disrupt a wedding by proclaiming the baby to be the groom’s child. To evade the Welfare Association, they try to skip town, raising money for their escape by hocking their lunch wagon. But they accidentally knock the bank president unconscious and wind up being hunted down for bank robbery.Read More »

  • Raffaello Matarazzo – Joe il rosso (1936)

    Comedy1931-1940ItalyRaffaello Matarazzo

    Quote:
    The action takes place on the French Riviera. Joe Mark, known as The Red, arrives in flight from the USA. He is an old gangster who improvises as a detective to find out who stole a precious painting by Murillo from a castle belonging to his relatives – a copy, actually – and brings to light a hotbed of hypocrisy, dishonesty, cheating under the arrogant good manners of the aristocratic family.
    Entrusted to the congeniality of the brilliant leading actor Falconi, it is a satirical comedy on the passion for foreign styles, American particularly, trendy at the time and opposed by the fascist regime, and in particular on gangsterism whose Italian-mafia component is sought to erase.
    MorandiniRead More »

  • Dave Fleischer & Dave Tendlar – Betty Boop’s May Party (1933)

    1931-1940AnimationDave FleischerDave TendlarUSA

    Betty Boop attends a May Party (May Day?) dressed as a queen in the second of her three party cartoons of 1933, but is relegated almost to the role of a supporting character, only getting to sing a few verses of the song “Here We Are”. Most of the cartoon is taken up by typical surreal sight gags in the Fleischer style and, during the last two minutes, some of the wildest and rubberiest animation of any cartoon in the series to the tune of “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)”.Read More »

  • Yasujiro Shimazu – Shu to midori kohen midori no maki aka Vermilion and Green Part 1&2 (1937)

    1931-1940AsianDramaJapanYasujiro Shimazu

    CHIAKI -the business owner’s daughter, TUYOKO -plubisher, and YUKIE are in love with the same person: YOSHIO (Uehara Ken), a handsome young man who is an employee at a fabric export company whose boss is Yukie’s father….Read More »

  • Tomotaka Tasaka – Robo no ishi AKA A Pebble by the Wayside (1938)

    1931-1940ClassicsDramaJapanTomotaka Tasaka

    Quote:
    Tomotaka Tasaka’s A Pebble by the Wayside (Robo no Ishi), made in 1938 and taken from a Yuzo Yamamoto novel, takes place around 1902, was about a young boy brought up entirely by his mother since his drunken father is never home. An intelligent teacher wants to send him to middle school, but instead the father apprentices him to a clothing store to which he is in debt.Read More »

  • Marcel L’Herbier – Le bonheur (1934)

    1931-1940DramaFranceMarcel L'Herbier

    Synopsis:
    ‘Clara Stuart, star of music hall and cinema, arrives in Paris, to great public acclaim. She has everything – fame, wealth, and – through her aristocratic husband – a title. Hence, whilst she is worshipped by the masses, she is the object of hatred for Philippe Lutcher, am impoverished artist and notable anarchist. Lutcher shoots Clara Stuart after she gives a public recital, but he cannot bring himself to kill her. At his subsequent trial, the star attempts to plead in her assailant’s favour, but Lutcher rejects her support…’
    – Films deFranceRead More »

  • Chianca de Garcia – Aldeia da Roupa Branca AKA The Village of White Clothes (1939)

    1931-1940Chianca de GarciaClassicsMusicalPortugal

    Quote:
    Gracinda, a young laundry washer, lives with her godfather, “Uncle” Jacinto, and together they run a family business, doing the laundry for residents of Lisbon in their small village in the outskirts of that city (Canecas). Unfortunately, the business is not going very well, but that changes when Gracinda decides to go to the city to try to convince Chico, “Uncle” Jacinto’s son, with whom she is in love, to return to the village and give new life to the business. The village is preparing for the annual festivities and a dispute erupts between “Uncle” Jacinto and his business rival , the widow Quiteria, when each of them invites different bands to play at the same time during the party and dances.Read More »

  • John Ford – The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936)

    1931-1940ClassicsDramaJohn FordUSA

    A few short hours after President Lincoln has been assassinated, Dr. Samuel Mudd gives medical treatment to a wounded man who shows up at his door. Mudd has no idea that the president is dead and that he is treating his murderer, John Wilkes Booth. But that doesn’t save him when the army posse searching for Booth finds evidence that Booth has been to the doctor’s house. Dr. Mudd is arrested for complicity and sentenced to life imprisonment, to be served in the infamous pestilence-ridden Dry Tortugas.Read More »

  • John Fernhout & Joris Ivens – The 400 Million (1939)

    1931-1940DocumentaryJohn FernhoutJoris IvensUSAWar

    Documentary about the resistance of the Chinese against the Japanese invasion and occupation from Manchuria. The Chinese had joined forces against this common enemy. The nationalistic Kuomintang, led by Chiang Kai-sjek and the communist party cooperated, at least on paper.Read More »

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