1930s

Evil old Silas Barnaby threatens to evict Widow Peep, who lives in a shoe, unless she lets him marry her daughter Bo-Beep, who is in love with the dashing young Tom-Tom. Desperate for money to pay off her mortgage, Widow Peep asks her boarders Stan and Ollie for help. They try to get money from their employer, but are fired instead. Since there’s no way out, Ollie leads Bo-Peep to the altar. As soon as the marriage vows are pronounced, Ollie gets the deed to the shoe and rips it up. Beneath the bride’s veil, however, is not a blushing virgin but…Stan! Silas seeks revenge by banishing Tom-Tom to Bogeyland, but with the help of Stan, Ollie and a mouse, Tom-Tom and Bo-Peep are saved and the monsters of Bogeyland chased out of Toyland.Read More »

Synopsis wrote:
Warner Bros.’ hard-hitting chain-gang movie was a faithful adaptation of the similarly titled autobiography of Robert Elliot Burns. Paul Muni plays World War I veteran James Allen, whose plans of becoming a master architect evaporate in the cold light of economic realities. Times get really tough when he’s falsely convicted of a crime and forced to work on a chain gang.Read More »

Synopsis:
Ken is a flier trying to perfect instruments for safe flying in the dark or fog. As his devices near completion, he is blinded in a gas explosion. Sheila, a writer/flier is in love with him, but the feeling is not mutual. Ken goes to live in the country with his mechanic and dog for company. He tries to be a writer but never knows the cheques he cashes are from Sheila. Sheila attempts a dangerous flight from Moscow to New York. When she gets into trouble, Ken realizes he loves her. He and his dog go up in the fog, and lead her to safety by means of the instruments he perfected.Read More »

Unable to find work, Harald (co-director Sissner) babysits for his friend Alvilde’s child when Alvilde heads off each day to her factory job. The child’s father perished at sea, and soon Harald is treating the child very much as his own; having won over her child, Harald then sets his sights on the mother. A huge critical and commercial success, The Big Christening is reminiscent of early Rene Clair both in its inventive use of sound — the opening scene, showing the start of a day at the factory, is practically a symphony of industrial machine sounds — as well as in its portrait of modest working-class lives. The film’s title refers to one of the recurring subplots, dealing with the reluctance of the church to baptize the child of an unmarried woman.Read More »

Based loosely on the poem by Rudyard Kipling, this takes place in British India during the Thuggee uprising. Three fun loving sergeants are doing fine until one of them wants to get married and leave the service. The other two trick him into a final mission where they end up confronting the entire cult by themselves as the British Army is entering a trap. This is of the “War is fun” school of movie making. It has the flavour of watching Notre Dame play an inferior high school team.Read More »

“Pinocchio” is a parable for children, and generations have grown up remembering the words “Let your conscience be your guide” and “A lie keeps growing and growing until it’s as plain as the nose on your face.” The power of the film is generated, I think, because it is really about something. It isn’t just a concocted fable or a silly fairy tale, but a narrative with deep archetypal reverberations. (“Cinderella,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Lion King” share that quality, and so do the scenes involving Dumbo and his mother.)Read More »

Synopsis:
Stephen Arden (Ralph Bellamy) benefits so much from his psychiatrist pal Tony Flagg’s drinking cure that he sends his fiancée Amanda Cooper to see Tony in hopes that she can be ‘cured’ of her reluctance to get married. Tony falls fast in love with Amanda but has a tough pursuit when she overhears him on a voice recording calling all females idiots. Tony’s hypnosis treatments gets out of hand when Amanda repeatedly leaves the sessions in an unconscious Ego-at-the-wheel state. The first time out she enjoys a destructive rampage on the city streets. Read More »

Synopsis:
While serving in World War I, mild-mannered Jimmy (Franchot Tone) strikes up an unlikely friendship with outspoken Fred (Spencer Tracy), but an Army nurse named Rose (Gladys George) comes between them. While Fred ends up in a POW camp, Jimmy makes a courageous turn in battle, thus winning Rose’s love. Unfortunately, after the war ends, Jimmy still yearns for the thrill of combat. Without an outlet, it isn’t long before he willingly enters the seedy criminal underbelly of New York City.Read More »

“Seven Seas, the first of Shimizu’s great silent films of the 30s, was scripted by Kogo Noda, Ozu’s close associate, from a novel by Itsuma Maki (a pen name of the noted writer, Umitaro Hasegawa). The film is a lengthy work interweaving characters from different backgrounds and social strata in a narrative centered around the experiences of its heroine, Yumie Sone. Over two hours long, Seven Seas was released theatrically in two parts, with the first part entitled “Virginity Chapter” coming out in December 1931, while the second part, “Frigidity Chapter,” followed in March 1932. Near the beginning of the narrative, at a garden party given by the wealthy Yagibashi family in Tokyo, Yumie meets Takehiko, the Yagibashis’ playboy son and the brother of Yumie’s fiancé, Yuzuru. Yumie, a young middle-class woman, lives with her ailing father, a retired ministry official, an older sister, and a younger sister still a child (played by a very young Hideko Takamine). Read More »