Donald Crisp

[5] A young minister (John Beal) falls in love with a gypsy (Katharine Hepburn) and begins a village scandal. Hepburn and Beal are fairly matched and the rural setting is lovingly evoked through impressive indoor sets. The story, based on a novel by Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie, doesn’t quite break free from the hackneyed cross-class romance mold, but you could do worse for formulaic …

[6] Katharine Hepburn plays a woman determined to dodge marriage and make a career for herself. She gets pretty far, until an unexpected turn of events turns her into a single mother. A Woman Rebels presents a peek at the feminist persona for which Katharine Hepburn would later become famous, but the film is a little too melodramatic for my taste. With the Hays Code firmly in …

[5] Bette Davis marries Errol Flynn and moves to San Francisco, but their happy marriage begins to disintegrate when he can’t support the couple and turns to drinking. It may be the writing more than the performances, but there’s not much chemistry between Flynn and Davis (who hated each other in real life). The film sticks primarily with Davis’ character, short-changing the subplots revolving around …

[8] Errol Flynn and David Niven star as World War I pilots confronting the grimmest odds of survival in this exciting and moving remake of Howard Hawks’ 1930 original. With its wartime setting and nary a woman in the cast, The Dawn Patrol is another great bromance in the grand tradition of war stories — it’s all about camraderie, brotherhood and sacrifice.

[7] Bette Davis plays Queen Elizabeth the first, in love with Errol Flynn’s Earl of Essex, in this period technicolor drama from director Michael Curtiz (Casablanca, The Adventures of Robin Hood). Both stars conjure the necessary pathos of their characters’ doomed relationship. His love is tainted by his thirst for power, while hers is hindered by her royal standing and social responsibilities. The film’s finale …