The Last Days of Pompeii (1935)

The Last Days of Pompeii (1935)

[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…
Thirty Day Princess (1934)

Thirty Day Princess (1934)

[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…
The Kiss Before the Mirror (1933)

The Kiss Before the Mirror (1933)

[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 Women (1939)

The Women (1939)

[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…
Annie Oakley (1935)

Annie Oakley (1935)

[8] George Stevens (Gunga Din, A Place in the Sun) directs this romanticized tale of an American western legend -- Annie Oakley, the woman sharpshooter who could beat any man at gunplay. While the real Annie Oakley was surely rougher…
Hard to Handle (1933)

Hard to Handle (1933)

[6] James Cagney stars as a career con artist who keeps trying to prove his worth to his girlfriend (Mary Brian) and her mother (Ruth Donnelly) through a series of promotional scams. From a rigged dance marathon and a bogus…
Alice in Wonderland (1933)

Alice in Wonderland (1933)

[3] I've never been a fan of Lewis Carroll's source material, so I'm not surprised to find this 1933 all-star studio production of Alice in Wonderland to be another tedious incarnation. You know the story: a little girl (Charlotte Henry)…
Heroes for Sale (1933)

Heroes for Sale (1933)

[7] Heroes for Sale follows Tom Holmes (Richard Barthelmess) through a near-death experience on the World War I battle front to a resulting morphine addiction upon his return to America. We see him lose his job and get rehabilitated, only…
The Mummy’s Hand (1940)

The Mummy’s Hand (1940)

[5] In the second of Universal's Mummy series, two American archaeologists partner with a wealthy magician and his daughter to find the hidden Tomb of Ananka in Egypt. Their quest is hampered by a secret organization determined to protect the…
Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932)

Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932)

[5] Bela Lugosi headlines this Universal horror flick as a carnival showman determined to successfully inject a human being with gorilla blood to prove that man descended from ape. But who in 1845 Paris would willingly subject themselves to such…