1930’s

[6] Three con artists trick two celebrity athletes into serving as editors for a new ‘Health and Fitness’ magazine. The athletes (Buster Crabbe and Ida Lupino) soon learn they are just figureheads meant to draw credibility and increase circulation for the publication — not to teach America about health or fitness. Instead, the con artists fill the magazine with salacious love stories and suggestive photographs. …

[7] Jack Holt (San Francisco), Ralph Graves (Ladies of Leisure), and Fay Wray (King Kong) star in this early ‘talkie’ from director Frank Capra (It Happened One Night, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington). Holt and Graves play a dirigible (blimp) commander and Navy pilot, respectively, who set their sights on planting an American flag at the South Pole when a French explorer (Hobart Bosworth) offers …

[7] James Stewart plays the son of a Wall Street tycoon whose father (Edward Arnold) is trying to force an eccentric family out of their home so he can pursue a major real estate development deal. Things get more complicated when Stewart realizes the family in question is his fiancĂ©e’s (Jean Arthur). You Can’t Take It With You is a quintessential Frank Capra movie, focusing …

[5] William Holden’s breakout performance was in this drama about a New York violinist who gets drawn into the boxing ring much to his father’s dismay. His fighting takes him all the way to Madison Square Garden under the guidance of a shady mobster, where bitterness about his life choices leads to a tragic outcome. Golden Boy features adequate performances from Holden and love interest …

[7] Cary Grant and Constance Bennett play a carefree wealthy couple who die in a car wreck after a night of hard partying. When they discover they are ghosts with no purpose, they decide to do a good deed in hopes of getting into heaven. So they try to rescue their stuffy bank manager friend, played by Roland Young, from the stifling lifestyle his wife …

[5] Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, and Humphrey Bogart star in this overly-talky stage play adaptation about disparate characters whose lives intersect when a notorious criminal on the lam (Bogart) takes them all hostage at a gas station diner in the middle of the desert. Director Archie Mayo conjures terrific ambience with the dust-blown stage set, especially during the climactic shoot-out when the only light source …

[6] Innovative producer/directors Ernest B. Schoedsack and Merian C. Cooper (King Kong, Dr Cyclops) tackle a religious parable that ends in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius with The Last Days of Pompeii. Preston Foster stars as a poor blacksmith hardened by misfortune who turns to the Gladiatorial arena, slavery, and other shady deeds to acquire vast wealth. His life intersects with those of Jesus Christ …

[6] Sylvia Sidney (Sabotage, Beetlejuice) plays two roles in this spin on the classic tale of The Prince and the Pauper. After a European princess (Sidney) comes down with the mumps on a good will tour of America, her political liaison (Edward Arnold) scours the city to find the perfect look-alike (also Sidney) to carry out her duties. When the doppelganger falls in love with …

[5] Character actor Frank Morgan (The Wizard of Oz) gets a leading role in this warped melodrama from director James Whale (The Old Dark House). Morgan plays an attorney defending a friend who murdered his wife after catching her in the arms of another man. When Morgan discovers his own wife (Hot Saturday‘s Nancy Carroll) is also having an affair, he plans to follow in …

[8] Norma Shearer (The Divorcee) fronts an all-star, all-female cast in George Cukor’s adaptation of Clare Boothe Luce’s The Women. Shearer plays a happily married woman of privilege who learns through the gossipy grapevine that her husband is having an affair with another woman, played by Joan Crawford. Shearer struggles under the dueling influences of her mother (Lucile Watson) and her so-called ‘friends’, which include …

1 2 3 16