Category Archives: 1932

Thirteen Women (1932)

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Thirteen Women
Directed by George Archinbaud
Written by Bartlett Cormack and Samuel Ornitz
1932/US
RKO Radio Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Police Sergeant Barry Clive: We want this woman. Her name’s Ursula Georgi. Half-breed type. Half Hindu, half Javanese, I don’t know. She’s living right here in this town. I want you to find her. Check every move she makes.
Mike – the Detective: There are one million, two hundred and thirty-eight thousand and forty-eight people in Los Angeles, and you want only one woman? Cinch!

Carrying on with my Pre-Code horror series with this one. It’s actually more of a thriller – with few thrills.

Myrna Loy, who was still in her exotic vixen phase at the time, plays Ursula Georgi, a half-caste with hypnotic powers. She manipulates her swami astrologist lover into making dire predictions of the fates of twelve women. Predictions that all come true. With Irene Dunne as the most sensible of the woman and Ricardo Cortez as a detective.

I always enjoy watching these stars but the film isn’t anything I will go back to.

Actress Peg Entwistle jumped off the H in the Hollywood sign to her death two days after this film’s release, making her the first person to do so.

Island of Lost Souls (1932)

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Island of Lost Souls
Directed by Earle C. Kenton
Written by Waldemar Young and Philip Wylie from a novel by H.G. Wells
1932/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel

Dr. Moreau: Mr. Parker, do you know what it means to feel like God?

This Pre-Code classic gives the Universal monster films a run for their money and wins.

Sailor Edward Parker (Richard Arlen) had been on his way to Apia to meet his fiancée (Leila Hyams).  He was then washed overboard and picked up by a cargo boat carrying both animals and deformed humans to an uncharted island.  Parker gets in a dispute within the captain and is thrown overboard onto the waiting skiff on the cargo’s owner Dr. Moreau (Charles Laughton).

The good doctor is not too happy to have a witness to his gastly experiments with evolution in the House of Pain.  He gets a fiendish idea linking Arlen and the most advanced of his creations and the story gets even scarier.  With an unrecognizable Bela Lugosi as the Sayer of the Law (“Are we not men?”).

This is a true horror classic with a timeless performance by Charles Laughton as the sadistic and polymorphously perverse Dr. Moreau. Also features an unrecognizable Bela Lugosi as The Sayer of the Law. This the kind of movie that asks you to imagine the worst and it is both horrifying and icky.  I’m quite sure it could not have been made after the enforcement of the Code.  Recommended.

Missing title track

The Old Dark House (1932)

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The Old Dark House
Directed by James Whale
Written by Benn W. Levy from a novel by J.B. Priestley
1932/US
IMDb page
Universal Pictures
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel

Rebecca Femm: No beds! They can’t have beds!
Horace Femm: As my sister hints, there are, I’m afraid, no beds.

James Whale was definitely on a winning streak.

A group of travelers is forced to take shelter in a terrible storm and finds themselves in the title abode among the strangest family imaginable. With a boffo cast including: Boris Karloff, Charles Laughton, Melvyn Douglas, Ernest Thesinger, Raymond Massey, Gloria Stewart, Lillian Bond, and Eva Moore.

I adore this movie! It is just the perfect amalgam of thrills and wit. The screenplay and all the performances are spot on. Have a potato! The Criterion Channel is featuring a Pre-Code Horror collection this month and there are some great selections to dip into.  This film is also available for free on YouTube.

A Bill of Divorcement (1932)

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A Bill of Divorcement
Directed by George Cukor
Written by Howard Estabrook and Harry Wagstaff Gribble from a play by Clemence Dane
1932/US
RKO Radio Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Sydney Fairfield: It’s in our blood, isn’t it?

Katharine Hepburn was a little bit too mannered in her film debut. But boy did she light up a screen!  Fourth-billed after David Manners, she was definitely a shimmering star in the cinema firmament from her first line of dialogue.

Billy Burke was divorced long ago from institutionalized shell-shocked lunatic John Barrymore. It is the eve of her wedding day to the man she loves. Daughter Katharine Hepburn is happily engaged to David Manners.

Of course, Barrymore escapes from the asylum that same day expecting to find his wife waiting. Much drama ensues.

I enjoyed this mostly for the performances of Hepburn and Burke. Barrymore is fascinating to watch but takes his character right over the top.

Red-Haired Alibi (1932)

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Red-Haired Alibi
Directed by Christy Cabanne
Written by Edward T. Lowe from a novel by Wilson Collison
1932/US
Tower Productions
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube

Like all New York hotel lady cashiers she had red hair and had been disappointed in her first husband. — Al Capp

Cigarette-stand girl Merna Kennedy gets hired by man-about-town Theodore van Eltz to pose as his wife at critical moments. She is unaware he’s a gangster. Eventually, she marries a straight-arrow widower and forms a mutual admiration society with his toddler daughter (Shirley Temple in her film debut). Complications ensue.

Actors are appealing. Plot is kind of meh.

A star is born

Night After Night (1932)

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Night After Night
Directed by Archie Mayo
Written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Vincent Lawrence from a story by Louis Bromfield, additional dialogue by Mae West
1932/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Hatcheck girl: Goodness, what beautiful diamonds!
Maudie: Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie.

The way Mae West lights up the screen in her debut is the main reason to see this film. She wakes up this rather meh love triangle whenever she appears. George Raft said she stole everything but the camera!

Raft plays Joe Anton an ex-boxer who invested his winnings to buy a lavish mansion and convert it into a speakeasy. He’s not a gangster but he has many chances to stand up to them. Leo (Roscoe Karns) is his valet and enforcer.

Joe is seeing a floozy named Iris Dawn (Wynne Gibson). But he longs for the finer things and takes lessons in proper grammar and culture from Miss Mabel Jellyman (Alison Skipworth).

Joe spots beauty Jerry Healy (Constance Cummings) sitting alone a table in the club every night. It turns out the club is operating in the house where she spent a very happy childhood. The tables turned and now she is going to marry a rich man she doesn’t love (Louis Calhern).

Joe is instantly drawn to Jerry and invites her to tour her old home. The chemistry is right until Jerry informs Joe she is going to marry for money. Then he thinks she is no better than Iris and tells her so. Iris is also not about to let Joe go without a fight.

West’s character acts mostly as a way to entertain Mrs. Jellyman while Joe is off romancing Jerry. She slings around the double entendres with her customary boldness.

This was Raft’s first major role and he does a workman like job without being too exciting. The romance is pretty standard. But if you want to see West before she put on about 20 pounds this the place to do it. She looks gorgeous in her slinky gowns.

 

If I Had a Million (1932)

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If I Had a Million
Directed by James Cruze, H. Bruce Humberstone, Ernst Lubitsch, Norman Z. McLeod, Stephen Roberts, William A. Seiter, and Norman Taurog
Written by a host of different writers including Joseph L. Mankiewicz
1932/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Mrs. Mary Walker: You wouldn’t fool an old lady, would you?
John Glidden: Not for a million dollars.

This is an anthology film meant to showcase the creative talent at Paramount Pictures.

The gimmick is that an ailing old multimillionaire (Richard Bennett) is on his last legs. He cannot find anybody worthy to take over his business. So he decides to start handing out million dollar checks to random strangers. It’s not so easy cashing a million dollar check. The effect of the gift varies in each story.

The cast includes: Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton, George Raft, Jack Oakie, Charles Ruggles, Alison Skipworth, W. C. Fields, Mary Boland, Roscoe Karns and May Robson.

The stars are appealing and you get to see a lot of them even if it’s only in bits and pieces.


Tribute to Wynne Gibson with very good big band music from Artie Shaw

Broken Lullaby (1932)

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Broken Lullaby (AKA “The Man I Killed”)
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
Written by Samson Raphaelson and Ernest Vajda from a play by Maurice Rostand
1932/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

“Nobody should try to play comedy unless they have a circus going on inside.” – Ernst Lubitsch

I have never seen a Lubitsch melodrama. I hope never to see one again.

The film begins with images from the Armistice festivities following the German surrender in WWI. Paul Renard (Phillips Holmes) was a French soldier in the war. He is wracked with horrible guilt for killing German soldier Walter Holderin, whom he attended music conservatory with in France.

Paul travels to Germany to ask Walter’s family for forgiveness. We learn that Walter’s death has left his father (Lionel Barrymore), mother (Louise Carter) and fiancee Elsa (Nancy Carroll) with bitterness and unending grief. Dad also hates the French with a passion. So Paul does not get a warm reception.

But before Paul can pour his heart out, the family misunderstands his story and are absolutely joyful to meet anyone from whatever country that knew their son. Paul can’t bring himself to tell the full story. Then he falls in love with Elsa and she with him. Will Paul’s real story come out? And then what?

There are a couple of short sequences in this film where the Lubitsch touch can be detected – the beginning WWI montage and a 5-minute sequence in the middle of gossips up and down a street discussing the possible romance between Paul and Elsa.

I was moaning, groaning and complaining throughout the rest of the film. I like the actors very much but here they all wrench every bit of melodrama out of every overwrought line. I’m quite sure Lionel Barrymore was never this bad before or since. I wonder why Lubitsch did not restrain his players.

So I hated this movie. It has an IMDb rating of 7.6/10. Go figure.

 

Shanghai Express (1932)

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Shanghai Express
Directed by Josef von Sternberg
Written by Jules Furthman based on a story by Harry Hervey
1932/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb Page
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Shanghai Lily: Well, Doc, I’ve changed my name.
Captain Donald ‘Doc’ Harvey: Married?
Shanghai Lily: No. It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily.

Von Sternberg avoids the excesses of some of his later films and puts together an exciting fast-paced thriller. But the highlight as always is the way von Sternberg’s camera makes love to Dietrich’s face. Anna May Wong is also iconic in this one.

In a rather “Stagecoach”-like plot, several strangers board the train from Peking to Shanghai during the Chinese Civil War. These include the notorious Shanghai Lily (Dietrich); shady Chinese Lady Hui Fei (Wong); Captain Donald Harvey (Clive Brook), embittered former lover of Lily; Sam Salt (Eugene Pallette) a gambler; Mr. Carmichael a disapproving preacher; and Henry Chang (Warner Oland) a duplicitous Eurasian.

Lily and Donald encounter each other early on and spar and argue throughout the film. Mid-trip Chang reveals himself to be a rebel leader and wants to find a passenger influential enough to trade for a comrade captured by the other side. The women are as pawns but in the end it is they that vanquish the bad guys.

I’m prepared to be corrected but I think this may possibly be the most beautiful and glamorous Dietrich ever looked on film. Sternberg seems to be in a frenzy of sado-masocistic delight as he films her in and through every conceivable sheer fabric.

The one weak point in the film was Clive Brook. He comes off as stiff, stodgy, haughty and the last man on earth someone like Dietrich would take up with. I enjoy this one whenever I see it and highly recommend it.

The Criterion Channel is featuring a collection of pre-Code films produced by Paramount this month, several of which I have never seen. I’ll be dipping into that here and there.

Clip

Vampyr (1932)

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Vampyr
Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer
Written by Christen Jul and Carl Theodor Dreyer from a book by Sheridan Le Fanu
1932/Germany/France
Tobis Filmkunst
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Criterion Collection
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Title Card: This is the tale of the strange adventures of the young Allan Gray, who immersed himself in the study of devil worship and vampires. Preoccupied with superstitions of centuries past, he became a dreamer for whom the line between the real and the supernatural became blurred. His aimless wanderings led him late one evening to a secluded inn by the river in a village called Courtempierre.

Probably Dreyer’s most inexplicable movie but one of his most beautiful.


A susceptible young man runs into vampires at a country inn. It is not all that easy to identify the vampire or the other elements of a conventional story even after multiple viewings. It is more in the nature of the protagonist’s dream. The images are the thing here. Dreyer and his cinematographer Rudolph Maté have created a film full of some of the most exquisite, spare, and evocative black and white photography ever. It is as if Dreyer thought up every symbol of death there is, made it beautiful, and put it on screen to gently creep us out. Recommended.