cinemadiso's - 1930s in Films Vol. 3 List
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Be careful what you say in private. It could become a movie. Some gossip overheard by Clare Boothe Luce in a nightclub powder room inspired her Broadway hit that's wittily adapted for the screen in The Women. George Cukor directs an all female cast in this catty tale of battling and bonding that paints its claws "Jungle Red" and shreds the excesses of pampered Park Avenue princesses. Joan Crawford, Rosalind Rusell, Joan Fontaine, Mary Boland and Paulette Goddard are among the array of husband snatchers and lovelorn ladies. Norma Shearer is jilted Mary Haines, who ultimately learns to claw without ruining her manicure. All the glamming and slamming comes with a shimmery bauble: a fashion show sequence in eye-popping Technicolor. - Director:
- George Cukor
- Cast:
- Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell
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The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)Victor Hugo's Immortal Classic The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The lecherous Chief Justice Frollo (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) gazes on a beautiful, gypsy girl, Esmeralda (Maureen O'Hara), and sends the deformed bellringer of Notre Dame Cathedral Quasimodo (Charles Laughton) to catch her. But Quasimodo himself is captured by Phoebus, Captain of the Guards, who frees Esmerelda and sentences Quasimodo to be flogged. Whilst Quasimodo is tied up in the square, only Esmeralda takes pity on him and gives him water. Later, at a party of nobles, Esmeralda again meets both Frollo, who is bewitched by her, and Phoebus; but when Phoebus is found stabbed to death, Esmeralda is accused of his murder, convicted by the court and sentenced to hang. Only Quasimodo, can save her from the gallows... - Director:
- William Dieterle
- Cast:
- Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Hara, Cedric Hardwicke
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The fishing schooner We're Here has just pulled up a different kind of fish: rich, 10-year-old Harvey Cheyne, who tumbled off the side of a sleek ocean liner. Harvey will have to wait months before the We're Here returns to harbour, months that will transform him from a spoiled whiner into an honorable young man - all because of the life lessons he learns from Manuel, the humble fisherman who befriends him. From Rudyard Kipling's classic, Captains Courageous thrills with its seagoing action, grand scale and all-star cast. But what gives it full-masted magnificence is the chemistry between Freddie Bartholomew (Harvey) and Spencer Tracy (Manuel). Tracy won his first Best Actor Academy Award for his towering portrait of the father we all wish for: virile, patient, wise and protective. Set sail for cinema glory. - Director:
- Victor Fleming
- Cast:
- Spencer Tracy, Freddie Bartholomew, Lionel Barrymore
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Browning, a former circus contortionist, cast reai-life sideshow professionals. A living torso who, nimbly fights his own cigarette despite having no arms or legs, microcephalics (whom the film calls "pinheads")-they and others play the big-top troupers who inflict a terrible revenge on a trapeze artist who treats them as subhumans. - Director:
- Tod Browning
- Cast:
- Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Olga Baclanova
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When a major newspaper accuses wealthy socialite Connie Allenbury of being a home-wrecker, and she files a multi-million-dollar libel lawsuit, the publication's frazzled head editor, Warren Haggerty, must find a way to turn the tables on her. Soon Haggerty's harried fiancee, Gladys Benton and his dashing friend Bill Chandler are in on a scheme that aims to discredit Connie, with amusing and unexpected results. - Director:
- Jack Conway
- Cast:
- Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy
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Set near the end of the bloody Indo-Chinese War in which the Vietnamese struggled to shuck off the yoke of French colonialism, this taut, provocative French war drama chronicles the events leading up to the slaughter of the French Army's 317th Platoon, a unit comprised of 41 Laotians and a quartet of French officers that was ordered to make it back to the safety of camp Dien Bien Phu. It is an arduous journey and the soldiers must not only battle constant ambushes, but also the jungle itself. Many soldiers die along the way. When they finally make it to the camp, they find the enemy waiting. Not one member of the platoon survives the ensuing slaughter. - Director:
- Claude Lelouch
- Cast:
- Jean-Paul Belmondo, Michel Boujenah, Alessandra Martines
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Beau (Gary Cooper), John (Ray Milland), and Digby (Robert Preston) Geste are three inseparable, adventurous brothers who have been adopted into the wealthy household of Lady Brandon (Heather Thatcher). When money in the upper-crust household grows tight, Lady Brandon is forced to sell her most-treasured jewel, the mighty "Blue Water" sapphire. The household gets it out for one last look, the lights go out, and it vanishes - stolen by one of the brothers, no doubt. That night, Beau, Digby, and John each "confess" and slip out, John leaving behind his sweetheart Isobel (Susan Hayward). They all join the Foreign Legion and Beau and Digby are split from John and put under the command of the ruthless, sadistic Sergeant Markoff (Brian Donlevy). Things get hairy as the rest of the Legionnaires plot a rnutiny against Markoff the midst of an attack by Arab hordes. - Director:
- William A. Wellman
- Cast:
- Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston
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The Blue Angel (1930)Der Blaue Engel
Emil Jennings, the quintessential German expressionist actor, stars as Professor Immanuel Rath, the sexually-repressed instructor of a boys prep school. After learning of the pupils' infatuation with French postcards depicting a local nightclub songstress, he decides to personally investigate the source of such indecency. But as soon as he enters the shadowy Blue Angel nightclub and steals one glimpse of the smoldering Lola-Lola (Marlene Dietrich), commanding the stage in a top hot, stockings and bare thighs, Rath's self-righteous piety is crushed. He finds himself fatefully seduced by the throaty voice of the vulgar siren, singing, "Falling in Love Again". Consumed by desire and tormented by his rigid propriety, Professor Rath allows himself to be dragged down a path of personal degradation. Lola's unrestrained sexuality was a revelation to turn-of-the-decade moviegoers, thrusting Dietrich to the forefront of the sultry international leading ladies, such as Greta Garbo, who were challenging the limits of screen sexuality. - Director:
- Josef Von Sternberg
- Cast:
- Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich, Kurt Gerron
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Marlene Dietrich lights up the screen as the Empress Catherine in this historical drama directed by Josef von Sternberg. Young Princess Catherine's dreams are shattered when she's forced into an arranged marriage with Peter (Sam Jaffe), the homely and idiotic Grand Duke of Russia. Though there is pressure to bear a male heir to the throne, Peter prefers the company of his mistress. Imprisoned in loveless wedlock, his young bride seeks solace in the arms of other men, including a handsome young officer of the guard. Months later, when a son is born, Russia rejoices, while Peter conspires to murder his adulterous wife. But the officer of the guard and Catherine's loyal troops stand by their beloved monarch to save imperial Russia from the hands of this madman. - Director:
- Josef Von Sternberg
- Cast:
- Marlene Dietrich, John Lodge, Sam Jaffe
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