Sound Films R
Ramon Novarro
Lars Hanson
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Racketeer, The (1929)aka Love’s Conquest
Directed by Howard Higgin and starring Robert Armstrong, Carole Lombard, Roland Drew and Paul Hurst, this film has a runtime of 65 mins and the print quality is good to very good. Also featured are Hedda Hopper and John Loder.
Plot: Tough mobster Mahlon Keane practically runs crime in New York City. He meets
broke ex-
Review: Stiff early talkie shows its age and some of the growing pains of the transition
from silent to sound. Like many early films it packs a lot of story in its brief
running time, sometimes too much. The story is run of the mill but moves at a breakneck
pace so it never drags.
You can see some of the difficulties encountered in the switch
over to sound in the setup of scenes, often people are right on top of each other
when they speak and the lack of natural movement of some players. Even the usually
loose and animated Lombard seems constrained. A small piece of trivia: this was the
last time she was billed as Carol rather than Carole. When the film opened she saw
her name misspelled on a marquee liked the look of the alternate spelling feeling
it made it more distinctive and adopted it from that point on.
The film is an ordinary
programmer but it you're a fan of Lombard it's worth seeking out once….£7.49
Rain (1932)
Starring Joan Crawford and Walter Huston. Sadie Thompson is a prostitute quarantined with other passengers on Pago Pago Island. While she gets along with American military stationed there, the missionaries Davidson make her life miserable. The Reverend Davidson finally forces Sadie to repent, then rapes her, then commits suicide. Sadie is then able to accept Sergeant O'Hara's genuine love for her....£7.49
Randy Rides Alone (1934)
Starring John Wayne. Randy is jailed for murders he didn't commit. Knowing he is innocent, Sally Rogers breaks him out. Fleeing the Sheriff, he stumbles into the murderers hideout where he is accepted as part of the gang. Learning of the bosses secret identity by comparing handwritten notes, he has a plan that will enable the Sheriff to round them all up....£7.49
Raven, The aka Le Corbeau (1943)
Directed by Henri Georges Clouzot and starring Pierre Fresnay and Ginette Leclerc, this film has a runtime of 87 mins and the print quality is very good. The film is French language with English subtitles.
Storyline: A vicious series of poison-
Review: Le Corbeau is directed by Henri-
We
are in a small French town, the actual name of which is not known and is inconsequential.
A series of poison pen letters are being sent out to the town dignitaries, accusing
them of all sorts of inappropriate operations. The letters are signed by someone
calling themselves Le Corbeau (The Raven), and pretty soon the town starts to implode
as suspicion and mistrust runs wild.
Famously it was the film that saw Clouzot banned
from making films, the then young director receiving flak from all quarters of the
Vichy Government -
Clouzot and Chavance tap into the troubling
fallibility of the human race, portraying a town quickly submerged in moral decay.
There is caustic observations on the higher echelons of society, a clinical deconstruction
of a town quick to cast aspersions without thinking of consequences, while the script
boasts frank intelligence and no fear of censorship. That a town so ripe in respected
denizens could become so diseased, so quickly, makes for powerful viewing. All are
guilty as well, nobody escapes, even the youngsters are liars or cheats, thieves
or rumour spreaders, this be a Hades town where negativity runs rife and leads to
broken bodies, broken souls and broken human spirits.
Very much a bastion of proto-
Reaching For The Moon (1930)
Directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Douglas Fairbanks, Bebe Daniels, Edward Everett Horton, Claud Allister, Jack Mulhall and Bing Crosby, this film has a runtime of 73 mins and the print quality is very good to excellent.
Plot: Wall Street wizard Larry Day, new to the ways of love, is coached by his valet. He follows Vivian Benton on an ocean liner, where cocktails laced with a "love potion," work their magic. He then loses his fortune in the market crash and feels that he has also lost his girl.
Review: Reaching for the Moon will never make anyone's list of top ten films, but
it is valuable piece of Hollywood History because it contains one of Douglas Fairbanks's
few sound films and it is the solo debut of Bing Crosby.
Joe Schenck who was a partner
of Fairbanks in United Artists got Irving Berlin to write an original score for this
film and to do the screenplay. Fairbanks is a wizard of Wall Street who falls head
over heels for aviatrix Bebe Daniels and chases after her on an ocean liner to England.
Along for the ride is Edward Everett Horton who plays his butler/sidekick.
During
production it was decided to scrap Berlin's score with only one song remaining, When
the Folks High Up Do a Mean Low Down. Bing Crosby sang a chorus of it and then passed
it over to Bebe Daniels and bit player June McCloy. At the time of the filming Crosby
was appearing at the Cocoanut Grove at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles with his
Rhythm Boy trio.
Fairbanks was 48 when this was made and the athleticism that characterized
his best silent films was a bit annoying here. But that's what his public expected
of him. His role is the kind of part that Cary Grant could later play in his sleep.
Bebe
Daniels is pretty much forgotten today. But she was a beautiful woman and had a great
singing voice. If people remember her at all it was as Dorothy Brock who breaks her
ankle in 42 Street and allows Ruby Keeler to walk on stage a youngster and come back
a star. Soon after 42nd Street, Daniels left the U.S. with her husband Ben Lyon for
Great Britain where as expatriates they became very big stars there.
Nothing fabulous
about Reaching for the Moon, but it's a curiosity and a bit of history rolled in
one….£7.49
Red Inn, The aka L’Auberge Rouge (1951)
Starring Fernandel and Francoise Rosay, this is an excellent print of the film with a runtime of 100 mins. It is in French language with English subtitles.
Plot: A group of travelers, including a monk, stay in a lonely inn in the mountains. The host confesses the monk his habit of serving a soporific soup to the guests, to rob their possessions and to bury them in the backyard. The story unfolds as the monk tries to save the guest's lives without violating the holy secrecy of the confession…..£7.49
Regain (1937) aka Harvest
Directed by Marcel Pagnol and starring Fernandel, Gabriel Gabrio, Orane Demazis, Marguerite Moreno and Édouard Delmont, this film has a runtime of 137 mins and the print quality is excellent. This is a French language film with English subtitles.
Review: In the 30s, a small village in the South of France (Provence) is losing its
inhabitants (and so its life) because young people prefer to go to the city to find
easy jobs and escape from being farmers living in relative poverty. Only a few old
people and the poacher Panturle (Gabriel Gabrio) remain. Panturle dreams of bringing
the village back to life, finding a wife, founding a family and work as a farmer.
One day, the village is visited by a traveling knife-
Regain (which
means renewed in French) is a wonderful movie by its simplicity and generosity. It
glorifies modesty in life, the love for the land and honest work. As always in the
work of Jean Giono (the writer of the novel on which the film is based), the story
is a hymn to nature and ordinary people. The plot of the movie is reduced to its
simplest form. It is the story of two people finding their right place on Earth and
the right person to spend their life with. Marcel Pagnol shows that this simple story
is enough to make a good movie.
The whole movie is built on the theme of a counter-
This movie reminds us that Marcel Pagnol also was a Panturle in his own
way. At a time when all movies (in France) were made in Paris studios by big companies,
Marcel Pagnol was the first independent director of the talking movie era, founding
his own studios in the south of France and controlling all the process of filmmaking
(writing, producing and filming on location). For his style as a director, it has
been said that he had inspired the Italian neo-
Wonderful. Highly recommended 10/10....£7.49
Rich and Strange (1931)
Directed by Alfred Hichcock. Fred and Emily Hill lead a boring life in the London suburbs. They decide to escape from it all by writing to a rich relative and asking for their inheritance in advance. Using the money they go on a world cruise and get into a series of misadventures....£7.49
Rich Relations (1937)
Directed by Clifford Sanforth and starring Ralph Forbes, Frances Grant, Barry Norton, Muriel Evans, Franklin Pangborn and Wesley Barry, this film has a runtime of 63 mins and the print quality is good to very good.
Plot: A secretary finds herself being romanced by a "ladies man". What she doesn't know is that it's her boss who really loves her.
Review: New employees are always trouble, that's the feeling of the office girls
in this tale of office politics gone sour. Frances Grant is Nancy Tilton, a basically
decent stenographer who attracts the attention of two men in the office where she
has just been hired. Barry Norton is the playboy Don Blair who flirts with her instantly
(inciting the snarled wrath of office troublemaker Muriel Evans), while supervisor
Ralph Forbes (as Dave Walton) is far more noble in his attentions to her. Evan's
Trixie gives Grant a polite but firm warning after the end of the first day, but
it soon becomes apparent that she's a volcano about to explode over Norton's attentions
to Grant rather than Evans. The theft of a purse puts suspicion on Grant, but it's
obvious that she was framed. Realizing that this whole mess is more than she wants
to handle during an 8 hour work day, Grant leaves town but is followed separately
by both Norton and Evans which comes just as money from the company's safe disappears.
Oh,
I can't forget Grant's little white lie about being related to Chicago's top society
doyenne, and Norton's mother's attempts to social climb through this little tidbit.
The assumptions that the same last name automatically makes people related isn't
necessarily Grant's fault, but it sets her up to take the blame for the theft. Franklin
Pangborn is only slightly prissy (as compared to normal) as the office manager, while
Evans is downright loathsome as the vindictive Trixie. While I detested Trixie from
the very beginning, I couldn't fault Evans for her deliciously malevolent performance.
Jeanie Roberts adds stereotypical "dumb bunny" comic relief as Grant's one office
friend. It's obvious that Forbes' Dave is far more deserving of Grant's affections
than the pathetic Norton, but sometimes infatuation can blind people to the truth.
The film does leave a few unanswered questions but has a few delicious exit lines
which makes it all the more enjoyable….£7.49
Riders of Destiny (1933)
Starring John Wayne. Kincade controls the area's water supply and is about to force the ranchers into contracts at exorbitant rates. Government Agent Saunders has a plan that will open up the lost river and dry up Kincade's supply. So he gets the ranchers to insist on a clause that Kincade's land will revert to the public if he fails to deliver water....£7.49
Rio Rita (1929)
Directed by Luther Reed and starring Bebe Daniels, John Boles, Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Dorothy Lee and Don Alvarado, this film has a runtime of 102 mins and the print quality is good to very good. The film has long Technicolor sequences which are also in decent shape.
Plot: Capt. James Stewart pursues the bandit "The Kinkajou" over the Mexican border and falls in love with Rita. He suspects, that her brother is the bandit.
Review: When movies began to talk a whole new vista of motion pictures opened up
with the musical. Not that musical properties hadn't been done before, most famously
Rudolf Friml's Rose Marie was done as a silent film with Joan Crawford in the lead.
The Student Prince was also done with Norma Shearer. But singing and dancing was
something new and it's no accident that the first talking film, The Jazz Singer was
a musical.
The guy who made the best musicals back in those days was Florenz Ziegfeld.
One of his best was the operetta Rio Rita which ran for 494 performances in 1927-
Rio Rita was the newly formed RKO Studios
big budget film for 1929 and it starred John Boles and Bebe Daniels and Rio Rita
was her talking picture debut. She surprised the world with a really nice soprano
voice doing those Harry Tierney-
Repeating their roles from
the stage show are the comedy team of Wheeler and Woolsey who also make their screen
debut as well. The team itself was a creation of Florenz Ziegfeld and he used them
in one of his Ziegfeld Follies editions. They're involved in a subplot about playboy
Wheeler getting a Mexican divorce and getting into the clutches of a shyster attorney
in Woolsey.
I could see that both of them were individual performers because Bert
Wheeler gets himself a fine song and dance number in Out On The Loose. He was quite
the dancer, something we rarely saw in his comedy films with Robert Woolsey. Still
it was as a team that they have come down to us.
The main plot involved Texas Ranger
captain John Boles going across the border to ferret out and apprehend a bandit called
El Kinkajou and finding romance with Bebe Daniels. Like the first version of Rose
Marie though his main suspect is her brother and Texas Rangers like Canadian Mounties
put duty first.
The film is a photographed stage musical essentially, just like the
first two Marx Brothers films, The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers. But the opulence
of a Ziegfeld Show is preserved and that is the main reason to see Rio Rita. The
last half hour is in color and we can thank the Deity that was preserved.
So for
film historians and those who want a glimpse at the showmanship of Florenz Ziegfeld,
don't miss Rio Rita when broadcast….£7.49
River and Death, The (1954) aka El Rio y La Muerte
Directed by Luis Bunuel and starring Columba Domínguez, Miguel Torruco and Joaquín Cordero, this Mexican film in Spanish language has English subtitles. It has a runtime of 91 mins and the print quality is very good.
Plot: A useless and bloody vendetta has been going on for ages between two families
in this mexican village. Men, sons, have killed each other for generations, for a
so-
Now, today, there are only two sons left, one in each family.
One has become a doctor in the big city and his culture is modern. The other last
one -
When the doctor finally
comes to the village, because of his mother influenced by the villagers, he faces
the other son who challenges his courage. First he refuses, but they have this fight
on the island across the river. Just wounds. Finally the doctor convinces his opponent
to make peace in front of the whole village and not listen to the opinion of the
other villagers….£7.49
Rocket Ship X-
Starring Lloyd Bridges. Tagline: The screen's FIRST story of man's conquest of space! Astronauts (Lloyd Bridges, Osa Massen, John Emery, Noah Beery, Jr., and Hugh O'Brien) blast off to explore the moon on. Because of craft malfunction and some fuel calculations, they end up landing on Mars. On Mars, evidence of a once powerful civilization is found. The scientists determined that an atomic war destroyed most of the Martians (Who suprisingly look like humans). Those that survived reverted to a caveman like existence....£7.49
Rocky Marciano v Jersey Joe Walcott (1952)
This is the world heavyweight title fight between Rocky Marciano and Jersey Joe Walcott in Piladelphia. The quality is good and the runtime is 43 mins….£7.49
Romance (1930)
Directed by Clarence Brown and starring Greta Garbo, Lewis Stone, Gavin Gordon and Elliott Nugent. It has a runtime of 76 mins and the print quality is excellent.
Plot: Young Harry is in love and wants to marry an actress, much to the displeasure of his family. Harry thinks that Bishop Armstrong knows nothing about love so Armstrong tells him the story of Rita and himself. Rita was an Opera Star singing in New York who was at a party given by Cornelius. Armstrong was a 28 year old rector. He fell for Rita when he saw her and after six weeks he wanted to marry her. Naive as he was, he thought that all of Rita's "relationships" were in the distant past, but Rita lives for the moment and knows that she can never marry Armstrong.
Review: Although Greta Garbo in her 17 year-
It is a film loosely based on the life of the
opera singer Lina Cavalieri (1874-
Garbo was Oscar nominated for this role in 1930 along with
her role of Anna Christie, but, unfortunately lost to Norma Shearer, another female
star of the time whose role in "The Divorcée" occurred to be a smashing success.
As an opera diva, Signora Cavallini, you may find Garbo a bit unconvincing due to
her looks that purely stress a beautiful gentle woman than a "well built" opera singer.
Although Signora Cavalieri might have been an exception from the stereotype, Garbo
is the least convincing as opera diva. Besides, for some people, she may occur a
bit overemotional due to her lines being said with the utmost dramatization. Therefore,
when you look at those certain flaws and inaccuracies, one would expect a failure
rather than a success. However, that was never the case with great Greta!
When you
watch Garbo carefully and trust her as a viewer, you will experience something wonderful
that only Garbo had. She knew the very moment when to call viewers' attention, when
to change the mood and highlight desirable emotions and you get rid of all possible
doubts. What is left is a pure admiration. This skill that Garbo had is something
that still touches us and proves the fact that her acting was something of a genius,
something you never get bored with. She had that combination of dignity and a very
humane, affectionate attitude. If you decide to see ROMANCE, pay attention to the
growing feelings and changing emotions that Garbo beautifully depicts. Also, her
witty moments with a pet monkey and the final moment when she stands upright at the
fireplace are an absolute must see. It is possible to express with words only to
a certain degree but you will never describe her unless you see her. The Garbo we
find here is also a great job by cinematographer William Daniels who photographed
the Swedish beauty as no one else could have ever done and the subtle direction by
Clarence Brown, Garbo's favorite director. It is important to state here that these
were the people, except for Salka Viertel of course, whom Garbo really trusted.
Garbo's
leading man is, for the only time, Gordon Gavin. He is not bad as bishop Tom Armstrong
who opens a little box with a perfume of romance before a young inexperienced man,
Harry, who seeks advice in a desperate situation. The scenes of Gavin and Garbo are
quite stagy, there is hardly any chemistry between them; yet some moments are worth
attention. For instance, don't skip the sentimental moment when Tom shows Rita the
souvenirs from his childhood days that his mother kept and cherished so much. This
affectionate kiss...it was for the sweet boy in the picture, not for Tom... Sweet
as it may seem, the both characters have something timeless in common: both of them
find the first and true love and are so grateful to each other.
I think that a mention
should be made of an exceptional actor, such a characteristic mainstay in Garbo's
films, Lewis Stone. Again, he does a splendid job here as Cornelius, an elegant 51
year-
ROMANCE is an underrated must see as yet another example of how charming
the cinema was in the good old days. Don't lose it, dear viewer, whoever you are
and whatever your movie preferences are. ROMANCE is something that can warm your
heart, make your day as a story of the greatest thing in the world with the greatest
queen of MGM. Don't lose it for you'll not regret…..£7.49
Ronde, La (1950)
Directed by Max Ophuls and starring Anton Walbrook and Simone Signoret this is a French film with English intertitles that has a runtime of 105 mins and the print quality is good.
Plot: An all-
Review: I first saw La Ronde in 1950, at an art theatre, when I was completely caught
up in the concept and progression of scenes, but only a novice at critical analysis.
Consequently, it was one of the first (Beta) videotapes in my collection.I viewed
it again last night, for only the second time. I can understand the reactions of
those, especially contemporary viewers who expect romantic scenes to be more explicit.
(The French were doing that very well long before Hollywood, so the lack in this
film does not result from reticence.) Yet after 53 years the film has lost little
of its charm for me: (I notice that older viewers tended to rate La Ronde higher
than those who are younger.) The linking device came from Schnitzler, not from the
film scripter, so could hardly have been avoided, and the segments varied in quality.
It seems that the actors did not take the film or themselves too seriously, which
was quite appropriate. I recall that the only full-
Rules of the Game, The aka La Regle du Jeu (1939)
Directed by Jean Renoir and starring Marcel Dalio, Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Mila Parély and Odette Talazac, this film has a runtime of 106 mins and the print quality is very good to excellent. This is a French language film with English subtitles.
Plot: On the brink of WWII, the record-
Review: This is a film, like many other good films, that must be seen several times
to be appreciated. The complexity and symmetry of the many plot lines become more
evident on each viewing, similar to Smiles of a Summer Night, which it resembles
in some ways. There are some great characters. Marcel Dalio (the Casablanca croupier)
as the Count is superb in his childlike qualities, while scrupulously adhering to
the rules of society and good manners. Jean Renoir, the director, who also has a
key role as Octave, is delightful as the friend and go-
Rumba (1935)
Directed by Marion Gering and starring George Raft, Carole Lombard, Lynne Overman, Gail Patrick and Jameson Thomas, this film has a runtime of 71 mins and the print quality is very good.
Plot: A bored society girl sets her sights on a dancer in a Broadway show.
Review: The team of George Raft and Carole Lombard who at the time this film was
made were doing a little off set kanoodling had scored well in Bolero, so much so
that Paramount decided another dance film was in order for them. Instead of in Europe
like Bolero, Rumba takes place in Cuba and then New York City, taking advantage of
the current dance craze sweeping the country.
Raft's a half Cuban, half American living
down there because he fled the country to avoid some gangsters he'd run afoul of.
He's dancing first with Iris Adrian and then with Margo, but rich heiress Carole
Lombard sweeps him off his nimble feet.
Carole and George do a mean Rumba in the film
as well. The ending here unlike Bolero is not as dramatic or tragic, but that in
itself makes Rumba a lesser feature. Lynne Overman is around as a former newspaperman
and Raft's manager. Overman is quite adept at creating a media frenzy for Raft, in
fact his talents are what causes the climax to occur.
It's not as good a film as Bolero
and the team of Raft and Lombard broke up off screen as well so no more films were
made with the two of them. Still it's a pleasant enough film and a chance to see
George Raft the dancer on screen….£7.49
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