“When you’re dead you get a hunk of Earth. When you’re alive you wanna hang on to your hunk of blue. That’s all I’ve got in the world. That’s all anybody’s got, is that hunk of blue.” When Bill (Spencer Tracy) and Trina (Loretta Young) meet in a city park, it’s clear to him that she’s seen better days. Starving and with no place to … Continue reading Man’s Castle (1933)
Agnes “Aggie” Appleby (Wynne Gibson) is a hard luck gal. She’s about to be evicted from her apartment, and on top of that, her boyfriend Red (William Gargan) is being arrested for assaulting two policemen. Aggie makes do by sneaking into the apartment building where her friend Sibby (Zasu Pitts) works as a maid. She sleeps in an empty room… but is soon found by … Continue reading Aggie Appleby, Maker of Men (1933)
Young and lovely June Dale (Mary Brian) is being pursued by the wealthy but far-too-pushy Kenneth Van Dusen (Guy Kibbee). When June’s friend Kay (Glenda Farrell) walks in and puts a stop to Kenneth’s attempts to woo June, he leaves them at their fancy Palm Beach hotel, sticking them with the bill. Luckily for Kay and June, their old showgirl “pal” Daisy Bradford (Peggy Shannon) … Continue reading Girl Missing (1933)
Steve (Pat O’Brien) is in love with Elaine (Myrna Loy)… but she’s left him and married someone she thinks is a better suitor. Mary (Irene Dunne), likewise, is in love with a man named Aubrey (Lester Vail)… but he’s left her behind for someone else. Heartbroken Steve and Mary become friends, finding comfort in their shared unhappiness at being left behind by those they adored. … Continue reading Consolation Marriage (1931)
Millie Blake (Helen Twelvetrees) is a popular young girl who, soon after her father’s death, accepts a proposal from the wealthy Jack Maitland (James Hall) and the two decide to elope. They move to New York to begin their lives together. Flash forward a few years and Millie has become a mother to a baby girl named Connie. Troubled by her husband’s tendency to stay … Continue reading Millie (1931)
Progress has been pretty slow on the Barbara Stanwyck Filmography Project, and part of the problem has been my seeming inability to find Stanwyck’s films that I had already seen before the project began, to re-watch them for review. I’ve been trying to remedy this problem, so I hopped at the chance to re-watch Ladies They Talk About when it popped up on WatchTCM after … Continue reading Second looks: Ladies They Talk About (1933)
Adell Hamilton (Constance Bennett), the youngest daughter of the Hamilton family, finds herself attracted to a lawyer named David Norton (Neil Hamilton). But their romance is no walk in the park. David is eventually assigned as the prosecutor in a murder case of which Adell has become a suspect, though her siblings were actually the ones involved in it. Will Adell risk losing her love … Continue reading Two Against the World (1932)
