Synopsis:
Sardonic detective Shane, thrown out of one town for bringing trouble, heads for home and his ex-partner’s detective agency. The business is in a sad way, and Shane, who has had the forethought to provide himself with a 250-dollar commission from an old lady on the train, is welcomed with open arms. When pretty Valerie Purvis walks in the next day willing to pay over the odds to put a tail on the man who did her wrong, Shane’s way with the ladies looks like paying off yet again. But things start to go wrong when his partner is murdered, and Shane himself comes home to find his apartment wrecked by a gentlemanly crook who comes back to apologise — and to tell him a fascinating fairy-story about the fabled Horn of Roland that looks like not being so mythical after all. Miss Purvis wants protection. The police want answers. And all sorts of people want the ‘French horn’… but Shane is one jump ahead of everyone all the way. Well, almost.

Satan.Met.a.Lady.1936.x264.DVDRip-RLYEH.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1h 14mn
Size: 	1.08 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	720x480 ~> 720x540
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
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Audio
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https://nitro.download/view/A30DDC42BE4A3D7/Satan.Met.a.Lady.1936.x264.DVDRip-RLYEH.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:(none)

The post William Dieterle – Satan Met a Lady (1936) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis:
Broadway director Oscar Jaffe (John Barrymore) is a bigger ham than most actors, but through sheer drive and talent he is able to build a successful career. When one of his discoveries, Lily Garland (Carole Lombard), rises to stardom and heeds the call of Hollywood, Oscar begins a career slide. He hits the skids and seems on his way out, until he chances to meet Lily again, on a train ride aboard the Twentieth Century Limited. Oscar pulls out all the stops to re-sign his former star, but it’s a battle – because Lily, who is as temperamental as Oscar is, wants nothing to do with her former mentor.

Twentieth.Century.1934.576p.BluRay.AAC.x264-HANDJOB.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 31 min
Size: 	2.62 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	788x576 
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	3 916 kb/s
BPP: 	0.360
Audio
#1:  	English 1.0ch AAC LC @ 91.8 kb/s
#2:  	English 2.0ch AAC LC @ 108 kb/s (Commentary by film critic and writer Farran Smith Nehme)

https://nitro.download/view/9DF831B49B5189F/Twentieth.Century.1934.576p.BluRay.AAC.x264-HANDJOB.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English (muxed)

The post Howard Hawks – Twentieth Century (1934) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

College town life gets turned upside down after a button-down botany professor secretly weds a sizzling night-club singer.

Vivacious.Lady.1938.DVDrip.H264-KG.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 30 min
Size: 	1.70 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	720x480 ~> 720x540
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	2 500 kb/s
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Audio
#1:  	English 2.0ch AAC LC @ 192 kb/s (Stereo)

https://nitro.download/view/9455CA4D3CD7711/Vivacious.Lady.1938.DVDrip.H264-KG.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English

The post George Stevens – Vivacious Lady (1938) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis:
A New York bank clerk,Mollie Truesdale (Jean Arthur), in the late 1930s, finds that her cherished dream of making a 17-day all-expenses-paid bus trip to the Pacific Coast and back, isn’t all she thought it would be…until she reaches Oregon and a bucking broncho tosses a rodeo performer on top of her and knocks her flat. Duke Hudkins (John Wayne), by way of apology, shows her the sights of Fairfield, Oregon, and she misses her bus, quarrels with the bewildered Duke, hitchhikes across a lot of desert…and a romance is born.

A Lady Takes a Chance (1943) -- William A. Seiter.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1h 26mn
Size: 	2.11 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	790x576 
Aspect ratio:  	1.372
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	3 250 Kbps
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Audio
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https://nitro.download/view/97A49E9D211E85B/A_Lady_Takes_a_Chance_(1943)_–_William_A._Seiter.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English (muxed)

The post William A. Seiter – A Lady Takes a Chance (1943) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Thorne Smith is a name one hardly ever hears these days, and that’s a shame. In the 1920s and early ’30s, he was the popular author of a genre-defining series of novels in which mortal men broke out of their humdrum lives to embark on comic-erotic, supernaturally tinged adventures in the company of an exciting woman (or women). The most popular of these, Topper, was filmed in 1937, three years after Smith’s death. (Smith’s novel The Passionate Witch also became the basis for a classic film comedy, I Married a Witch (1942), and later the TV series Bewitched.)

The template Smith created in Topper and other novels dovetailed beautifully with that definitive ’30s film genre, the screwball comedy, since it too frequently featured a madcap heroine who helped her stodgy romantic interest break out of his rut. The combination of Smith’s novels (he also penned a sequel to Topper) and the screwball conventions—together with the comic expertise of producer Hal Roach—was such a success that the 1937 Topper was followed by two film sequels, the later of which, Topper Returns, is included in this two-movie set from Artisan.

Although Topper tones down the raciest features of Smith’s novel, it remains remarkably faithful to it. Smith’s scene in which the invisible Marion creates a sensation by wearing nothing but a pair of lacy step-ins appears in the film, as does the pivotal plot development in which Topper’s transformation takes off when he purchases the late Kerbys’ sexy automobile. (This car, dubbed a “painted Jezebel” by the disapproving Mrs. Topper, is surely one of the most luscious vehicles ever to appear in a film. One can definitely understand how it would change a man’s life.) To its comedic and risqué elements the screen adaptation also adds a more heartwarming tone; we genuinely care about Topper’s silly little wife and don’t want to see her lose her husband, even though he seems to be having a much better time without her. The screen writers (who included Eric Hatch, whose novel My Man Godfrey had also become a classic screwball film) do an excellent job of retaining the most engaging parts of Smith’s novel while giving the film a more tender emotional core.

Among the other elements that make Topper so successful, the cast is one of the greatest. Who but Cary Grant and Constance Bennett could embody the glamorous, high-spirited Kerbys so well? Bennett charmingly brings to life (or afterlife) that quintessential ’30s combination of elegant sophistication and sass, and Grant displays an infectious, boyish energy. As Topper, Roland Young is completely endearing. From the hint of sulkiness with which he confronts his breakfast egg to the nimble little dance steps he executes under the influence of champagne, he shows us the inner rascal trying to break through the pressures of respectability. In one bravura sequence in which the inebriated Topper is being half carried by the invisible ghosts, Young navigates precariously down a flight of stairs and through a hotel lobby in a brilliant piece of physical comedy. As Mrs. Topper, Billie Burke shows off her unmatched talent for quivery vocalizing and tremulous anxiety. We’re also treated to a hefty roster of familiar faces in supporting roles, from Hedda Hopper and Hoagy Carmichael to bullfrog-voiced Eugene Pallette (The Lady Eve) as a confused hotel detective and a pre-Blondie Arthur Lake as a hapless elevator boy.

Norman Z. McLeod - (1937) Topper.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 37 min
Size: 	1.66 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	790x576 
Aspect ratio:  	1.372
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	2 225 kb/s
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Audio
#1:  	English 2.0ch AC-3 @ 192 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/475F7D10A500E9D/Norman_Z._McLeod_-_(1937)_Topper.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English

The post Norman Z. McLeod – Topper (1937) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Free-thinking Johnny Case finds himself betrothed to a millionaire’s daughter. When her family, with the exception of black-sheep Linda and drunken Ned, want Johnny to settle a career in finance, he rebels, wishing instead to spend the early years of his life on “holiday.” With the help of his friends Nick and Susan Potter, he makes up his mind as to which is the better course, and who he’d rather take the leap with.

Holiday.1938.1080p.Criterion.Bluray.FLAC.1.0.x264-SaL.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1h 35mn
Size: 	10.5 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1480x1080 
Aspect ratio:  	1.370
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	15.4 Mbps
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https://nitro.download/view/09EF4593B4DF2E4/Holiday.1938.1080p.Criterion.Bluray.FLAC.1.0.x264-SaL.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English SDH

The post George Cukor – Holiday [Criterion] (1938) (HD) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
A brilliant black comedy by Preston Sturges, developed from a script he had written as early as 1932 and tried in vain to get Fox, Universal and Paramount intrested in producing. The script’s early provinence must be the reason that it’s the only one of his four post-Paramount pictures to feature dialogue comparable to (and sometimes surpassing) that found in the eight great comedies he wrote and directed in 1940–44, as well as numerous comedies that he had scripted in 1930s. The studios’ reluctance to make the film at that time is indicative of why it became a critical and a box office failure: the morbid subject matter, combined with the recent suicide of actress Carole Landis (who was suspected of having an affair with Rex Harrison, who plays the lead here), simply drove audiences away from it and for decades gave it a reputation of a film maudit. The film has always had its defenders, though: Woody Allen praised it for its “wonderful dialogue”, Quentin Tarantino placed it 8th on the list of his 11 favorite films, and Pauline Kael called it “one of the best comedies ever made in this country”, beginning her capsule review with these words: “The hero is Rex Harrison in a sensational parody of Sir Thomas Beecham; he disposes of his wife (Linda Darnell) in three different ways, to the music of Rossini, Wagner, and Tchaikovsky. What more could one ask of a movie?”

Oddly enough, many critics are not quite content with that, and even many of Sturges’ admirers are closer to the stance expressed by Leslie Halliwell in the essay quoted below. The film does suffer from some imbalance in its neat three-act structure, with the first act relying heavily on dialogue, the third act consisting almost entirely of silent slapstick sequence that doesn’t quite hold up until the end (as Halliwell notes, “it would take a very full house to keep the laughter alive”), and the macabre second act sitting uneasily with both of them. The film is better in parts than as a whole, and some scenes – notably Harrison’s confronations with his brother-in-law, the house dick and the private detective, as well as the beautifully shot rehersal scene of Rossini’s Semiramide overture – rank with Sturges’ best achievements in his Paramount period. The film could certainly use William Demarest to accompany other familiar faces from Sturges’ stock company, but his lack is more than made up by veteran comic foil Edgar Kennedy, given a chance to shine just months before his death (on 9 November 1948, four days after the film’s premiere), in a bit part that includes one of the most famous lines Sturges ever wrote: “For me, there’s nobody handle Handel like you handle Handel! And your Delius – delirious!”

Unfaithfully.Yours.1948.576p.BDRip.x264.AAC.1.0-OLDFLiX-KG.mkv

General
Container: Matroska
Runtime: 1 h 45 min
Size: 2.63 GiB
Video
Codec: x264
Resolution: 766x576 
Aspect ratio: 4:3
Frame rate: 23.976 fps
Bit rate: 3 238 kb/s
BPP: 0.306
Audio
#1: English 1.0ch AAC LC @ 144 kb/s
#2: English 2.0ch AAC LC @ 185 kb/s (Commentary by Sturges scholars James Harvey, Diane Jacobs, and Brian Henderson)

https://nitro.download/view/5BB5F4414510B93/Unfaithfully.Yours.1948.576p.BDRip.x264.AAC.1.0-OLDFLiX-KG.mkv

https://fikper.com/4L2WVobK3v/Unfaithfully.Yours.1948.576p.BDRip.x264.AAC.1.0-OLDFLiX-KG.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English,English SDH Chinese,French

The post Preston Sturges – Unfaithfully Yours (1948) first appeared on Cinema of the World.