Tag Archives: 1930s

A small country on the verge of bankruptcy is persuaded to enter the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics as a means of raising money. Either a masterpiece of absurdity or a triumph of satire, depending on your mood, but it’s quite possibly the funniest movie ever made, and becomes even funnier with subsequent viewings.
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In a spooky New York City mansion, a wealthy but mean old woman threatens to return her sister to the home’s secret torture chamber when the sister objects to the woman’s trying to ruin the lives of relatives she doesn’t like.
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An old German mine was split in two after the end of WWI because of where the new border was located. In the French part a fire breaks out; the German miners send a rescue group in, helping their French comrades. Three old German miners, who were not treated friendly at a French inn the night before, start their own private rescue through an old tunnel that separated the two mines. Will the official rescue party realize there are others left behind in time to save them?
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Fan dancer Alabam Lee is convicted of breaching the morals code with her racy shows. Her agent has her adopt a “mother” from an old ladies home as a publicity ploy to improve her image. Alabam chooses Patricia”Patsy” Patterson, a drunk and disorderly street lady with a past. Patsy has a protector in Johnny Mills, the lawyer son of her old flame. When Johnny comes to visit Patsy he meets Alabam and the two eventually fall in love. Both Patsy and the everpresent Judge Daly think that Alabam is golddigging for Johnny’s money and their attempts to break things up puts the relationship on shaky ground.
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The delightful Winnie Lightner stars in this comedy-drama as Pat, a traveling carnival troupe member who does everything from high diving to hula dancing, with time left over to romance meek and mild Sidney (Charles Butterworth) and try to save her younger sister, Irene (Evelyn Knapp), from a lecherous carny barker. The slapstick big-top finale is a highlight.
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Embittered after serving time for a burglary he did not commit, Joe Bell is soon back in jail, on a prison farm. His love for the foreman’s daughter leads to a fight between them, leading to the older man’s death due to a weak heart. Joe and Mabel go on the run as he thinks no-one would believe a nobody like him.
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A well-cloistered and protected-against-reality group of college students get their diplomas in the heart of the Great Depression, and quickly learn that the piece of paper the diploma is written on is worth about eighteen-dollars-a-week in the job-market…for the lucky ones. Some of them fare even worse.
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In the very oldfashioned town of Ostend suddenly 13 suitcases are delivered to the hotel, with a note, that O.F. will be here soon and needs 6 rooms (the hotel just has five). This event, probably the biggest in 300 years, starts a small wave of modernisation, yet everybody is wondering who O.F. is. Journalist Stix and architect Stark have an idea how to use this event. They proclaim, that O.F. is a former citizen of the town, who became a millionaire abroad. They tell their fellow citizens that the town still needs modernisation, like better hotels, nightclubs, shops, etc. And soon, Ostend is a boomtown, then a capital. The architect, responsible for the new buildings is finaly allowed to marry the mayor’s daughter, while Stix marries the cabaret star and the widowed mayor his new secretary. The only problem is, O.F. hasn’t shown up, while finance experts from all over the world are trying to solve the depression problem, that is non-existant in Ostend, this soon lets the people …
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A southern town is rocked by scandal when teenager Mary Clay is murdered on Confederate Decoration Day. Andrew Griffin, a small-time lawyer with political ambitions, sees the crime as his ticket to the Senate if he can find the right victim to finger for the crime. He sets out to convict Robert Hale, a transplanted northerner who was Mary’s teacher at the business school where she was killed. Despite the fact that all the evidence against Hale is circumstantial, Griffin works with a ruthless reporter to create a media frenzy of prejudice and hate against the teacher.
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A 1930s British summer Bank Holiday starts at midday on Saturday with a rush for the trains to the sea-side. Doreen Richards under the name Miss Fulham is off with friend Milly to a beauty contest. Geoffrey and nurse Catherine Lawrence have decided to spend an illicit week-end in the Grand Hotel, although Catherine’s mind keeps turning back to the hospital case she was working on. Arthur, May and the children are set on a more straight-forward excursion of sea, sand, and pub. Meanwhile, the manager and performers of the “Follies” on the pier pray for rain.
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