Quote:
One of several Pre-Code dramas helmed by Warner Bros. contract director Archie Mayo in 1932, Under Eighteen is a cautionary tale for the working girl that was lost in the shuffle of too many similar programmers released that same year. Seen today, it provides a unique window into the past when studios like Warner Bros. catered to blue collar audiences, particularly women, with movie plots that mirrored situations and circumstances in the lives of their audience.

Under Eighteen opens on a hopeful note with Sophie (Anita Page) getting married to Alf (Norman Foster) and moving out of the cramped tenement apartment she shares with her sister Marge (Marian Marsh) and her mother. The mood quickly changes to despair as Marge considers her circumstances and realizes that marriage is not necessarily the answer to the grinding poverty she experiences day after day. This becomes even more pronounced when Sophie, Alf and their newborn baby move back in with them because Alf lost his job and won’t look for a new one; he keeps blowing the little money they have on billiard tournaments in bars, hoping he’ll win the big cash prize. The situation becomes unbearable for Sophie once she realizes she is pregnant with a second child. She begs Marge to help her raise the money for a divorce lawyer, all of which helps convince Marge that she won’t make the same mistakes. Her fiancé Jimmie (Regis Toomey), a delivery boy who aspires to start his own delivery service, wants to tie the knot and doesn’t share Marge’s dismal view of matrimony. In her opinion, “Marriage is a bunk, at least for poor people.”

Soon Marge postpones her wedding plans with Jimmie and sets her sights on raising money for her sister’s divorce lawyer by using herself as collateral in a deal she proposes to Howard Raymond (Warren William), a well-known tycoon and notorious ladies’ man. Marge goes to his penthouse apartment, where a decadent rooftop party is in full swing, and begins to succumb to the inhibition-free atmosphere. When Marge and Howard finally retire to his private suite, however, their rendezvous takes a surprisingly unexpected turn.

More than anything else, Under Eighteen is an impressive showcase for Marian Marsh (best known for her role as Trilby in Svengali [1931]), who displays both fearless determination and raging self-doubt as the desperate Marge. The film builds suspense and a growing tension over what lengths Marge will go to help her sister. And it offers a grimly realistic view of the options available for women born and raised in the slums. This isn’t an escapist fantasy but the flip side of the working girls glimpsed in Gold Diggers of 1933. For most of the film, the camera captures the squalid details of tenement life: people sleeping on fire escapes on sweltering summer nights, the congested sidewalks and never-ending street traffic, the rented rooms with walls so thin you can hear the neighbors through them.

Though not as sordid or as entertainingly racy as other Pre-Code movies such as Baby Face (1933) or Employees’ Entrance (1933), Under Eighteen has its share of frisky behavior and sexual innuendos, particularly during the penthouse pool party scene. Warren William, who specialized in playing lecherous employers and rich philanderers, is right in his element here. When he welcomes Marge to his alcohol-fueled roof party, he says, “Why not take off your clothes and stay awhile?” Prior to that, he is glimpsed bobbing up and down suggestively in the water with a drunken female guest on a phallic-like float so we know his intentions are strictly dishonorable.

1.23GB | 1 h 19 min | 708×531 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/D2800B3F7DFE615/Under.Eighteen.(Under.18).1931.DVDRip.x264-NoSouce.mkv

Language:English
Subtitles:English

The post Archie Mayo – Under 18 AKA Under Eighteen (1931) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis:
WBLA is on the air, presenting the live music, the sudsy dramas and the sell-sell-sell of commercial interludes that keep consumers buying and sponsors smiling. But one sponsor, a producer of plumbing supplies, isn’t happy. So WBLA scriptwriter Bill Grimes is bounced from his job, setting in motion this movie’s turn from comedic to darkly tragic. William Haines, two years removed from being Tinseltown’s top male star, plays Grimes in a melodrama noted for its glimpses of live radio production and for a Depression-era ethos that includes peroxide cuties eager to land a job, a sugar daddy or both. The cast includes Hattie McDaniel in a bit role. Are You Listening? Don’t touch that dial. From Warner Brothers!

1.07GB | 1h 13mn | 716×537 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/314A5DF322E03B8/Are.You.Listening.1932.DVDRip.x264-HANDJOB.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:(none)

The post Harry Beaumont – Are You Listening? (1932) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Judge Moffett is as crooked as they come and the Board of Judicial Corruption is after him. So he hides out in the poor part of town. While there, she drops the bankbook that Moffett has listing his accounts and Mary returns it to him. But Moffett thinks Mary saw the book and he puts her away for six months on a trumped up charge. Mike is overcome with grief and when he comes to his senses, he talks to Mary who tells him about the book. This gets Mike beat up and put on a boat to South America, but he jumps ship and plots his revenge.

Night.Court.1932.DVDRip.x264-Flipper.mkv

General
Container:	Matroska
Runtime:	1h 32mn
Size:	1.37 GiB
DXVA:	Compatible
Minimum settings:	Met
Video
Codec:	x264
Resolution:	698x476 ~> 698x523
Aspect ratio:	4:3
Frame rate:	23.976 fps
Bit rate:	1 899 kb/s
Audio
English 2.0ch AC-3 @ 192 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/063E446234C2DCF/Night.Court.1932.DVDRip.x264-Flipper.mkv

Language:English
Subtitles:None

The post W.S. Van Dyke – Night Court (1932) first appeared on Cinema of the World.