Tag Archives: 1930s

Back Page (1934) Anton Lorenze, Peggy Shannon, Russell Hopton, Claude Gillingwater, Crime, Drama

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Peggy Shannon plays a young female reporter who is fired from a big city newspaper, then decides to take over a troubled small town newspaper. She encounters difficulties with small town politics, getting advertisers to help keep the paper afloat, and issues with 1930’s feminism in the resistance she receives from the town’s residents to her attempts to run the newspaper. An insightful story of a woman’s determination to succeed in an era long before the women’s rights movement.
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Success at Any Price (1934) J. Walter Ruben, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Genevieve Tobin, Frank Morgan, Drama

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Joe comes from a rough neighborhood and when his brother Mike is gunned down in 1927, he decides to go into legitimate business. He wants to make a lot of money and fast so he is ambitious and rude. He wants what he cannot have and that includes Aggie who is the gal pal of Merritt, his boss. He works his way up the ladder and finds that all the money and all the crooked deals will not buy happiness.
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I Found Stella Parish (1935) Mervyn LeRoy, Kay Francis, Ian Hunter, Paul Lukas, Drama, Romance

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Stella Parish, star of the London stage, keeps her private life a secret. After an opening night triumph, her mysterious past catches up with her and she vanishes before the after-party. When Ms. Parish doesn’t show up, Keith Lockridge, an ace newspaper reporter, at first assumes it to be a publicity stunt. But producer Stephan Norman receives word that Stella is leaving the country. Lockridge is able to track Stella to a ship bound for America, where she is traveling under a false name and wearing a disguise. Aboard the ship Lockridge befriends Stella and her young daughter Gloria. In New York he becomes very close to Stella (now without the disguise) and Gloria, all the while digging up the details of Stella’s sordid past. Stella confesses her love for Lockridge after he’s already wired his story to his newspaper. With the truth out in the open, Stella sends Gloria to be raised abroad while she exploits her notorious reputation onstage. Sorry for the mess he’s made, Lockridge does …
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The White Angel (1936) William Dieterle, Kay Francis, Ian Hunter, Donald Woods, Biography, Drama

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Briefly breaking away from her high-gloss modern soap operas, Kay Francis stars as Florence Nightingale in this reverent Warner Bros. biopic. The screenplay concentrates on Nightingale’s humanitarian activities during the Crimean War of 1854-55. Defiant in the face of military bureaucracy and the male hierarchy, she organizes a volunteer group of nurses to tend to the military wounded, and also works tirelessly to update and improve the primitive, almost barbaric medical conditions of the Victorian Era.
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Gentleman’s Fate (1931) Mervyn LeRoy, John Gilbert, Louis Wolheim, Leila Hyams, Drama

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Jack lives the high life and wants to make Marjorie his one and only. He then learns that his deceased father is alive but dying of lead poisoning. His father sent him away, twenty years before, to keep him out of the rackets. But now that he is dying, he wants to split the business between Giacomo (Jack) and Frank, his other son. The business includes running booze down from Canada.
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The Phantom of Paris (1931) John S. Robertson, John Gilbert, Leila Hyams, Lewis Stone, Drama, Thriller

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Bibi is a world class escape artist, but he cannot escape the false murder charge that is placed on him. Max has killed Bourrelier before he was removed from the will so that he will be rich when he marries Cecile. Together with Vera, they put the blame on Bibi, who is a romantic rival to Max, and he is sentenced to death. But Bibi escapes before his execution and hides in Herman’s secret cellar. When he learns that Max is dying, Bibi goes to his house for his confession, but Max dies before it is told to anyone else. So Bibi, has just one chance, and he goes to Dr. Gorin who will make him look like Max so that he can clear his name and put the blame where it belongs – on Max, even in death.
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Glamorous Night (1937) Brian Desmond Hurst, Mary Ellis, Otto Kruger, Victor Jory, Drama

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The popular Ivor Novello musical play Glamorous Night was given a conservative film treatment in 1937–minus much of the Novello score that had made it famous. Opera singer Mary Ellis plays an opera singer (why not?) who falls in with a band of roguish but likeable gypsies. Mary manages to convince her Bohemian cohorts to rescue the King from the machinations of his ambitious prime minister. As “cast insurance” to make certain that Glamorous Night would get American bookings, Hollywood character actors Otto Kruger and Victor Jory are given leading roles. The US distributors also sliced the film down from 81 to 65 minutes, through the simple expedient of removing several songs.
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Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) Anatole Litvak, Edward G. Robinson, George Sanders, Francis Lederer, Drama, War

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Prior to the United States entry into World War II, Nazi spies try to steal American military secrets. Among those whose passions are roused is Kurt Schneider who was court-martialed and dishonorably discharged from the US Army. Schneider is not very bright and is easily swayed by the oratory of Dr. Karl Kassel, a prominent physician who is eventually made the head of the Nazi spy ring. When Schneider’s contact is arrested in Scotland, the US military asks the FBI to root out the spies. Agent Edward Renard is put in charge of the case and they methodically arrest all who have been spying.
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Hellbound Train (1930) James Gist, Drama

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Hellbound Train comprises a series of vignettes of “sinful” acts, any of which could book you a spot on that locomotive to perdition: Women deceiving their husbands; gamblers and tipplers; crooked men conducting illicit business; and insolent children disrespecting their parents make up the 20-minute silent film. At the end of each scene a character dies, and a round man in a form-fitting devil suit hops off a train and does a little jig as he accepts a new passenger.
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The Black Camel (1931) Hamilton MacFadden, Warner Oland, Sally Eilers, Bela Lugosi, Crime, Mystery, Thriller

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Movie star Sheila Fayne is seeing wealthy Alan Jaynes while filming in Honolulu, Hawaii, but won’t marry him without consulting famed psychic Tanaverro first. Tanaverro confronts her about the unsolved murder of fellow film star Denny Mayo three years earlier, and she decides to reject Jaynes’ proposal. When Sheila is found shot to death in her beach-front pavilion, Charlie Chan of the Honolulu Police investigates.
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