1930s

  • Lloyd Bacon – Sit Tight (1931)

    1931-1940ClassicsComedyLloyd BaconUSA

    Plot: A movie musical about…wrestling? Turns out the public grew weary of musicals while Sit Tight was made, so most of the tunes were jettisoned prior to release. What remains is a wrestling comedy filled with plenty of pre-Code friskiness. Athletic funnyman Joe E. Brown plays Jojo Mullins, who has an eye for the ladies although his heart belongs to the manager (Winnie Lightner) of the health club where he works. Eager to show the ring prowess he learned by correspondence, Jojo gets his chance in a big-time match. Paul Gregory and Claudia Dell (rumored to be the model for Columbia Pictures logo) play the subplot’s young lovebirds in this energetic comedy that’s one of nearly 50 films directed by Lloyd Bacon in the 1930s. From Warner Brothers Studio!Read More »

  • Reinhold Schünzel & Albert Valentin – Les Dieux s’amusent AKA Amphitryon (1935)

    1931-1940Albert ValentinComedyFantasyGermanyReinhold SchünzelThird Reich Cinema

    Synopsis
    Jupiter comes down from Mount Olympus and disguises himself as a mortal to romance a woman…Read More »

  • Clarence Brown – Emma (1932)

    1931-1940Clarence BrownComedyDramaUSA

    Plot: When their mother dies, Frederick Smith hires Emma Thatcher to be a nanny to his 3 children. The children grow up and Frederick becomes rich and successful. He and Emma marry right before his death, and his will becomes a source of trouble between the children and Emma. Written by Rebecca Fennig Read More »

  • Werner Kissling – Eriskay, a poem of remote lives (1935)

    1931-1940DocumentaryShort FilmUnited KingdomWerner Kissling

    Made in 1934 by an amateur ethnographer and aristocratic German diplomat who had abandoned his country to live in Scotland, this is one of the earliest film portraits of the tiny island Eriskay, famous for Whiskey Galore, the Eriskay Love Lilt, the Eriskay fisherman’s jersey, and the fact that Bonnie Prince Charlie first set foot on Scottish soil on this island, when he returned from France to lead the rebellion.Read More »

  • Anatole Litvak – L’Équipage aka Flight into darkness (1935)

    1931-1940Anatole LitvakDramaFranceWar

    Filmmaker Anatole Litvak was still one year away from his “breakthrough” picture Mayerling when he co-wrote and directed L’Equipage (The Crew). Charles Vanel and Annabella star respectively as a daring WW I aviator and his loving but neglected wife. Ostracized by the other pilots because of his recklessness and standoffishness, Vanel nonetheless befriends a young flyboy (Jean-Pierre Aumont). It is therefore a great source of consternation for Aumont when he discovers that the woman with whom he’s fallen in love is none other than Vanel’s wife Annabella.Read More »

  • William Van Der Veer, Joe Rucker [Cinematographers] – With Byrd at the South Pole (1930)

    1921-1930DocumentaryUSAWilliam Van Der Veer

    Winner of the 3rd Academy Award for Best Cinematography

    Quote:
    With Byrd at the South Pole (1930)
    With Byrd at the South Pole is one of the earliest and most captivating film documentaries. A deserving Academy Award winner for Best Cinematography, the film chronicles in stark reality the Antarctic expedition that led to Byrd’s famous flight over the south pole.Read More »

  • Jean Renoir – Chotard et Cie AKA Chotard and Company (1932)

    1931-1940ComedyFranceJean Renoir

    IMDb review:

    Sandwiched between “Boudu Sauvé des Eaux” and “Madame Bovary” ,”Chotard et Cie” is necessarily a let-down .Adapted from a stage play,it’s a badly constructed movie.Roughly there are three parts and the connection between them is very thin.

    ACT ONE: Chotard (Charpin) is in the grocery business.After a ball,his daughter marries a poet ,much to her father’s annoyance.The son-in-law is no good at anything,not even weighing ham, and giving sweets for free to the children in the neighborhood.Read More »

  • W.S. Van Dyke – San Francisco [Colourised] (1936)

    1931-1940DramaMusicalUSAW.S. Van Dyke

    San Francisco is a 1936 film directed by W.S. Van Dyke, written by Anita Loos, starring Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, Spencer Tracy and Jack Holt. It was nominated for six Oscars, of which it won one. The film tells the story of Mary Blake, who, out of poverty, starts singing at a local gambling hall. When she moves on, the owner of the gambling hall, Blackie, keeps following her. The confrontations between Mary and Blackie are suddenly put to a stop with the advent of the San Franscisco earthquake.Read More »

  • William A. Seiter – Chance at Heaven (1933)

    1931-1940ClassicsDramaUSAWilliam A. Seiter

    Plot: Blackstone ‘Blacky’ Gorman, rising service station owner, is blessed with the devotion of supremely sweet and noble Marje Harris, but he meets coquettish and silly debutante Glory Franklyn and, between Glory’s charm and his social ambition, is snared into an upscale marriage that proves to have its downside. Written by Rod Crawford
    Read More »

Back to top button