Category Archives: 1932

State’s Attorney
Directed by George Archinbaud
Written by Gene Fowler and Rowland Brown; story by Louis Stevens
1932/US
RKO Radio Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

“It was all Mrs. Bumble. She would do it,” urged Mr. Bumble; first looking round, to ascertain that his partner had left the room.

That is no excuse,” returned Mr. Brownlow. “You were present on the occasion of the destruction of these trinkets, and, indeed, are the more guilty of the two, in the eye of the law; for the law supposes that your wife acts under your direction.”

If the law supposes that,” said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, “the law is a ass — a idiot. If that’s the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is, that his eye may be opened by experience — by experience.”― Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist

John Barrymore is defense attorney/“mouthpiece” to the mob and a very clever one at that. His live-in mistress Helen Twelvetrees tries to redeem him but he is incorrigible and also a chronic drunk. The mob boss decides Barrymore may be even more useful to him as a prosecutor and gets him a job as Assistant District Attorney. From there he hopes to get elected as District Attorney and then campaign for the Governorship. His political ambitions wreck his relationship with Twelvetrees. Can it be saved?

Barrymore looks like he was on a really bad bender throughout. He’s one bundle of nerves and slurs his speech even when he’s not drinking on screen. On the other hand, I’m becoming a big fan of Helen Twelvetrees. She is so lovely and natural. But no actor could really have saved this ho-hum effort.

Little Women
Directed by George Cukor
Written by Sarah Y. Mason and Victor Heerman from the novel by Louisa May Alcott
1933/US
RKO Radio Pictures
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Every version of this timeless story makes me weep. This is a particularly good one.

Four teenage girls in Massachusetts and their wise and kind mother “Marmee” hold down the fort at the March house while their preacher father is comforting troops during the American Civil War. The family has fallen on hard times, but somehow finds it possible to be charitable to  those still more unfortunatel. The girls are Meg (Frances Dee), the maternal one; Jo (Katharine Hepburn), the clever one; Beth (Jean Parker), the shy one: and Amy (Joan Bennett), the conceited one. During the course of the story, the girls will be given many opportunities to fight against their little vices and become virtuous young women (This is not near as pious as it sounds!).

The Marches live next door to wealth, stern Mr. Laurence (Henry Stephenson).  He shares his home with grandson “Laurie” (Douglass Montgomery) and Laurie’s tutor John Brooke.  Jo is a free thinker and a tom boy who is up for anything and becomes fast friends with Laurie.  She works for her even more cantankerous Aunt March (Edna May Oliver).  The aunt is impossible but has all but promised Jo she will take her along on her next visit to Europe.

I will stop here.

I don’t know what it is about this story that chokes me up so but I cry at every version. This time I was in tears almost all the way through. It’s kind of hard to rate a movie that hits you so deep. I probably read the novel 10 times as a child.

Any way, all the acting is superb with Katharine Hepburn having been born to play her character and Edna May Oliver so perfect as a crusty aunt with a heart of gold. Cukor did a fine job with this material.

The damn trailer makes me cry! (Several spoilers)

Montage of scenes from early in the movie featuring Hepburn.

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I also watched Blessed Event (1932), a very good “newspaper” movie starring Lee Tracy as an unscrupulous gossip columnist.  I saw it the last time I did a Pre-Code binge.  It is reviewed here.

Rain
Directed by Lewis Milestone
Written by Maxwell Anderson from a play by John Colton and Clemence Randolph and a story by W. Somerset Maugham
1932/US
Feature Productions
IMDb Link
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime Rental

Sadie Thompson: No hurry. Lots of time. There’s so much time lying loose around this island, somebody ought to bottle it up and send it back to were they need some.

Somerset Maugham story about redemption and temptation on a steamy South Sea island has its merit.

A varied group of passengers is stranded at Joe Horn’s (Guy Kibbee) South Sea island general store, inn and saloon when the ship has an outbreak of cholera. Prostitute Sadie Thompson (Joan Crawford) is quick with a wisecrack and very handy at breaking up the monotony produced by the incessant tropical rain. She is very popular with the sailors stationed on the island and one in particular (William Gargan) is sweet on her.

Davidson, a reformist preacher (Walter Huston), his straight-laced wife (Beulah Bondi), and an idealistic young couple complete the party.  Sadie refuses to tone down her behavior for anybody. Davidson takes it upon himself to save or cast Sadie out, possibly both.  He has found out that Sadie is a fugitive from justice having fled a three-year term at San Quintin.  She must be saved or be shipped off on the next boat to San Francisco.  In the end, Davidson is demanding both she must be saved and prove she is redeemed by doing penence in the pokey.  I won’t say more.

This is based on a stage play and it shows though the director does a heroic job in maintaining visual interest. The performances are also impressive. Huston in particular made me want to smack him hard. His character is such a hypocrite. This is also one of Crawford’s better performances in my book.

One Way Passage
Directed by Tay Garnett
Written by Wilson Mizner and Joseph Jackson based on a story by Robert Lord
1932/US
Warner Bros.
IMDb page
First viewing/My DVD collection

Joan: Remember our first?
Dan: We thought it was our last. You never can tell.

One of the great doomed romances of classic Hollywood.

Dan Hardesty (William Powell) is a fugitive from justice who has been fleeing a death sentence. He meets Joan Ames (Kay Francis) in a Hong Kong bar and instantly they only have eyes for each other. They part wishing that luck will bring them together again.

Soon after, Dan is apprehended by U.S. police officer Steve Burke (Warren Heimer). Dan is handcuffed to his captor until the ship is well out of port. Joan has one of those inevitably fatal movie illnesses where the sufferer looks gorgeous at all times and merely daintily faints at appropriate moments. She is sailing back to the U.S. to suffer her fate. Her doctor has ordered total lack of excitement, smoking. drinking etc. But when she spots Powell aboard she throws caution to the wind, determined to live fully until she dies. Thus begins the most romantic of love stories, with each half of the couple waiting until almost the end of the cruise to reveal his/her secret.  With Alene MacMahon as a fake countess/conwoman who owes Powell a favor, Frank McHugh as a comic drunk, and Warner Hymer as the cop who is bringing Powell back to justice.

The plot summary sound melodramatic and I guess it is. But the story is so romantic that one doesn’t mind. All the actors do themselves proud keeping the basic mood light throughout. I love Kay Francis and she is really lovely in this one. The romantic leads certainly had chemistry.  Recommended.

One Hour with You
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
Written by Samson Raphaelson from a play by Lothar Schmidt
1932/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/my DVD collection

Dr. Andre Bertier: [singing] I can squeeze you here, I can squeeze you there, And I’m never told to handle with care, I don’t have to stop when I kiss your hand.
Colette Bertier: It’s lawful!
Dr. Andre Bertier: Oh, it’s grand…

The last of Ernst Lubitsch’s pre-Code musicals maintains the high standard of all the others.

The setting is Paris, France.  The story begins with a policeman interrupting Colette (Janette MacDonald) and Andre Bertier (Maurice Chevalier) from their make-out session on a park bench.  They have no problem finding another place to make love.  They are married and simply head for home.  Their ardor seems to have withstood their three years of marital bliss.

Then Colette introduces Andre to her so-called best friend Mitzi Olivier (Genevieve Tobin). Mitzi begins a relentless pursuit of her friend’s husband.  This suits Mitzi’s husband (Roland Young) to a tee as he is seeking grounds for divorce.  With Charlie Ruggles as Andre’s friend who is sweet on Colette.

There is nothing wrong with this movie and it certainly has the Lubitsch touch in spades. The songs are also quite nice. I just personally had a hard time finding the homewrecker/infidelity premise all that funny.

One Hour with You was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar

The Mummy
Directed by Karl Freund
Written by John L. Balderston from a story by Nina Wilcox Putnam
1931/US
Universal Pictures
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Helen Grosvenor: Save me from that mummy! It’s dead!

Another great performance from Boris Karloff as a classic Universal monster.

The movie begins at the site of a British Museum archeological expedition.  First, they find a mummy and then a cursed scroll that brings the mummy of Imhotep (Karloff) back to life. The sight of him drives one young explorer mad and the mummy walks off into the night.  He reappears as modern Egyptian Ardath Bey.  Bey points the explorers to the undisturbed tomb of Princess Ankh-es-en-amon containing her mummy.  The loot becomes the property of the Cairo Museum.

The action moves to Cairo where Ardath Bey meets Helen Grovsvenor (Zita Johann) who bears a striking resemblance to his beloved Princess.  Bey has a mysterious, almost hypnotic, effect on Helen.  Both Frank (David Manners), who is sweet on Helen, and Egyptologist Dr. Muller (Edward van Sloan) spend the rest of the movie trying to get to the bottom of things and save Helen.

While some of the acting is pretty ham-handed, Karloff is effective and even moving, Zita Johann is probably the most intriguing of all the Universal horror ingenues, and the cinematography is first rate. I definitely prefer this one to Dracula.

The Mask of Fu Manchu
Directed by Charles Brabin and Charles Vidor
Written by Irene Kuhn, Edgar Allan Wolfe, and John Willard from a story by Sax Rohmer
1932/US
Cosmopolitan Productions for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Fu Manchu: [Pointing to blonde female captive] Would you have maidens like this for your wives?
Horde of Asians: Yeah!
[Roars in approval, some waving swords]
Fu Manchu: Then conquer and breed! Kill the white man and take his women!

If you can overlook the yellow face, racial stereotyping, and sinister Chinese trope, this movie is just a ton of camp fun which I cannot recommend highly enough to those interested in that kind of thing.

Dr. Fu Manchu (Boris Karloff) has long been hell-bent on discovering the tomb of Genghis Kahn.  The tomb contains the great warrior’s death mask and scimitar which will allow the evil genius to rule the world!  Fu lives in elaborate, almost fantasy, Chinese luxury and is assisted by his sadistic nymphomaniac daughter Fah Lo See (Myrna Loy).

The British Secret Service is on to Fu’s plan and sends an archeological expedition with strict instructions to discover the tomb first and deliver the mask and scimitar to Britain. The team discovers the tomb easily.  But Fu and his many spies are ever ready to capture team members and deliver them up for torture by Fu.  With Lewis Stone as a Secret Service man, Lawrence Grant as the head of the archeological team, Karen Morley as his daughter who is engaged to Charles Starret the youngest member of the team, and Jean Hersholt as a kindly German professor.

This is full of creepy torture, juicy dialogue, and an unforgettable performance by Myrna Loy.  The setting and costumes are lavish.  It’s a horror movie of sorts but the tone reminds me more of a Flash Gordon flick.

This was Loy’s last of several roles as an Oriental femme fatale.  Next year she would become Norah Charles.