|
Cimarron (1931)
|
|
|
|
| When the government opens up the Oklahoma territory for settlement, restless Yancey Cravat claims a plot of the free land for himself and moves his family there from Wichita. A newspaperman, lawyer, and just about everything else, Cravat soon becomes a leading citizen of the boom town of Osage. Once the town is established, however, he begins to feel confined once again, and heads for the Cherokee Strip, leaving his family behind. During this and other absences, his wife Sabra must learn to take care of herself and soon becomes prominent in her own right.
|
|
Grand Hotel (1932)
|
|
|
|
| The creme de la creme of MGM's pantheon gathers at the luxurious GRAND HOTEL, where "nothing ever happens." Greta Garbo is at her most radiant and poetic as the melancholy ballerina who finds a reason to dance again after she falls for the down-and-out Baron (John Barrymore) who planned to rob her. In another room a ravishing young secretary (Joan Crawford) succumbs to the advances of an arrogant industrialist (Wallace Beery). In yet another, a fatally ill office clerk (Lionel Barrymore) spends his life savings in a desperate effort to derive some pleasure from this bleak and brief existence. Downstairs at the bar, a disfigured doctor (Lewis Stone) dispenses wry commentary as people come and go. This precedent-setting ensemble piece of frothy, bubbly, tear-jerking super soap cemented the A-list status of its director, Edmund Goulding. It's an oft-imitated, never duplicated spectacle; the old Hollywood star system lighting up the sky with all the wattage at its disposal.
|
|
Duck Soup (1933)
|
|
|
|
| To rescue the small country of Freedonia from bankruptcy, Mrs. Teasdale agrees to donate 20 million dollars if Rufus T. Firefly is appointed its new president. Firefly is a cynical, sarcastic dictator who refuses to play politics by the book. For instance, he does reduce workers' hours~~by shortening their lunch breaks! Firefly attempts to win the hand of Mrs. Teasdale, as does Ambassador Trentino of the neighboring country, Sylvania. When the two leaders cannot resolve their dispute over the wealthy dowager, war between the countries is declared, and Mrs. Teasdale's house comes under attack. Who will save the day?
|
|
Little Women (1933)
|
|
|
|
| The first motion picture based on Louisa May Alcott's gently humorous 1869 classic of four sisters who learn moral lessons and grow from children to adults in Civil War-era Massachusetts, this film chronicles the lives of the teenage March sisters Jo (Katharine Hepburn), Meg (Frances Dee), Amy (Joan Bennett), and Beth (Jean Parker), who, in the company of their mother, try to maintain positive attitudes in the face of hardship. Hepburn infuses her role with a raw, awkward energy, revealing a vividness and buoyancy beneath her Victorian reserve. The movie, like the novel, is unapologetically sentimental, playing skillfully at the heart strings; based on an Oscar-winning adaptation by Victor Heerman and Sarah Mason and able direction by George Cukor, it is careful to avoid clichés, developing into an authentically moving story.
|
|
It Happened One Night (1934)
|
|
|
|
Ellie Andrews has just tied the knot with society aviator King Westley when she is whisked away to her father's yacht and out of King's clutches. Ellie jumps ship and eventually winds up on a bus headed back to her husband. Reluctantly she must accept the help of out-of- work reporter Peter Warne. Actually, Warne doesn't give her any choice: either she sticks with him until he gets her back to her husband, or he'll blow the whistle on Ellie to her father. Either way, Peter gets what (he thinks!) he wants .... a really juicy newspaper story.
|
|
Cavalcade (1934)
|
|
|
|
| Clive Brook and Diana Wynyard star in this turn-of-the-century epic saga adapted from Noël Coward's successful 1931 stage play. This richly nostalgic look at a vanished way of life traces the lives of a British family from the late 19th century through 1930. The story follows two English families--the upper-class Marryots and the working-class Bridges--as they confront some of the major political and social events that rock Britain during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Beginning with the Boer War in 1899, in which both the Marryot and the Bridge patriarchs enlist, and moving on to the death of Queen Victoria, the coming of World War I, and the sinking of the Titanic, the families must learn to deal with the death of their loved ones as well as with the constantly changing world around them. In spite of all the tragedy, they continue to to believe in the everlasting glory of their nation and dream of a better future for all.
|
|
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
|
|
|
|
| Midshipman Roger Byam joins Captain Bligh and Fletcher Christian aboard the HMS Bounty for a voyage to Tahiti. Bligh proves to be a brutal tyrant and, after six pleasant months on Tahiti, Christian leads the crew to mutiny.
|
|
Great Ziegfeld, The (1936)
|
|
|
|
| Lavish biography of famed Broadway producer Florenz Ziegfeld, from his beginnings as a carnival sideman, to world fame, featuring numerous musical numbers and cameos by dozens of Ziegfeld.
|
|
Life of Emile Zola, The (1937)
|
|
|
|
| The Life of Emile Zola episodically explores the career of the novelist who championed the cause of France's oppressed. Zola (Paul Muni) is a hugely successful French author who risks all his success and comfort to come to the defense of the unjustly jailed Capt. Dreyfus (Oscar winner Joseph Schildkraut).
|
|
You Can't Take It with You (1938)
|
|
|
|
| Tony (Jimmy Stewart), the eldest son of millionaire Anthony P. Kirby, has fallen in love with Alice Vanderhof. She's a sweet working girl who lives with her eccentric family and a few extra misfits in a decaying old house. It's a building that just happens to stand in the way of Mr. Kirby's plans to construct an impressive office complex. But when Grandpa Vanderhof refuses to sell, it's clash of the cantankerous titans. Unfortunately, the fallout may send lovebirds Tony and Alice flying in different directions. A Capra-fied adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart.
|
|
