Sound Films G

Lewis Stone

Leslie Banks

NEW SPECIAL NO FRILLS OFFER – NO ARTWORK OR CASES, SHIPPED IN PAPER SLEEVES. 3 FILMS FOR £20.00, 5 FILMS FOR £30.00 OR 10 FILMS FOR £50.00 AND NO ADDITIONAL POSTAGE CHARGES ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD!! NEW

NEW HAVE YOUR FILMS DELIVERED BY FILE TRANSFER DIRECTLY TO YOUR HOME COMPUTER FOR JUST £5.00 PER TITLE NEW

 

Gambler’s Choice (1944)

Starring Chester Morris……£7.49

 

Gambling With Souls (1936)

Starring Wheeler Oakman……£7.49

 

Gang’s All Here, The (1943)

Directed by Busby Berkeley and starring Alice Faye, Carmen Miranda, Phil Baker, Benny Goodman, Charlotte Greenwood, Eugene Pallette and Edward Everett Horton this film has a runtime of 99 mins and the print quality is excellent.

Plot: Playboy Andy Mason, on leave from the army, romances showgirl Eadie Allen overnight to such effect that she's starry-eyed when he leaves next morning for active duty in the Pacific. Only trouble is, he gave her the assumed name of Casey. Andy's eventual return with a medal is celebrated by his rich father with a benefit show featuring Eadie's show troupe, at which she's sure to learn his true identity...and meet Vivian, his 'family-arrangement' fiancée. Mostly song and dance.

Review: There are films whose plots are much worse. At least this film has funny moments with Charlotte Greenwood and whenever Carmen Miranda is on the screen.
But this film is a showcase for the two sequences choreographed by Busby Berkeley. Much has been written about them, but watching them never ceases to stimulate and amaze my senses. Berkeley's sense of space is so elastic -- you feel as if he could pan and zoom through miles of space and fill it with people, trees, bananas, anything! I don't think any of his Warner Bros. films used the zoom camera with as much daring (supposedly Carmen Miranda almost got knocked off the painted donkey during rehearsals of "The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat").
What is so special for me in these dance sequences is that the images and music are so well-constructed that you loose interest in following the plot and just revel and enjoy the images. People cease being human forms and become elements of color on a painted canvas, and then resume being human once again. It's all incredibly magical and more abstract than Berkeley had been or was able to achieve in the future. Stunning!...£7.49

 

Gangster Story (1960)

Starring Walter Matthau……£7.49

 

Gangway (1937)

Starring Jessie Matthews……£7.49

 

Garden of Allah, The (1936)

Starring Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer……£7.49

 

Gasbags (1941)

Starring the Crazy Gang……£7.49

 

Gay Bride, The (1934)

Directed by Jack Conway and starring Carole Lombard, Chester Morris, Zasu Pitts and Leo Carillo, this film has a runtime of 80 mins and the print quality is excellent.

Review: Chester Morris is "Office Boy," a sort of assistant to Nat Pendleton's head gangster. Pendleton has the hots for chorus girl Carole Lombard and is eventually persuaded (not easily!) to marry her.
The relationship between Office Boy and Lombard's Mary hovers between unfriendly and hostile for the majority of the picture, and is well summed up by the wedding gift with which Office Boy presents her: a chisel! Yes, Mary is strictly out for the money, and poor boy Morris—a loyal employee but nobody's fool—lets her know that he sees through her phony hysterics and overblown romantic antics. –Well, it's pretty obvious from this point that the situation, shall we say, is bound to develop.
The plot isn't much. Lombard's character is unsympathetic, at times downright annoying. The supporting cast frustrates, too: Leo Carillo's Greek gangster butchers English pronunciation but is more irritating than funny or sinister, and Zasu Pitts is only given one good scene in what could have been an ideal role for her as Lombard's friend and confidante. Pendleton is energetic but dumber than you'd think a mob boss could possibly be.
So when things really do start to pop, it's difficult to throw your sympathies, much less belief, behind what's happening. However, Carole Lombard successfully pulls it off: her early hamming is only a setup for her excellent late scenes in which her character's genuine warmth pushes aside the cold-hearted faker previously on display. We can almost believe that Morris's character would actually fall for her. Morris, by the way, is excellent throughout—a straight man among caricatures, he holds his own and is never overshadowed.
It's kind of a silly movie, certainly uneven and not close to entirely successful in the way it veers back and forth between comedy and melodrama. But as a fan of both Lombard and Morris, I wouldn't want to miss it. Ultimately, neither star disappoints….£7.49

 

Germany Year Zero (1948) UPGRADE – **Much improved print **

Directed by Roberto Rossellini and starring Edmund Moeschke, Ernst Pittschau, Ingetraud Hinze and Franz-Otto Kruger this film has a runtime of 73 mins and the print quality is excellent. This is an Italian language film with English subtitles.

Plot: Edmund, a young boy who lives in war-devastated Germany after the Second World War has to do all kinds of work and tricks to help his family in getting food and barely survive. One day he meets a man who used to be one of his teachers in school and hopes to get support from him, but the ideas of this man do not lead Edmund in a clearer or safer way of living...

Review: As a child of the post war Berlin ruins myself, I confess this film had a special relevance. But nothing could have prepared me for the sheer impact that Germany Year Zero has upon the soul. Roberto Rosselini captured a tragedy that has been largely ignored and his haunting work screams the pain of post war civilian suffering in Berlin louder than any documentary.
Not only filmed in the very streets where a million died only months before, all those appearing in Stunde Null were quite clearly living the very experience they were enacting. These were not actors. Their performances are clumsy and strained without the polish of professional training or Hollywood editing. But that was the magic of this production. This was not drama but rather a window of reality. Their faces were scarred by the terrors they had just survived and one can only wonder at their courage to enact their own daily suffering for the entertainment of others.
The essence of the plot is simple enough. It is the story of ordinary German civilians trying to survive the starvation and deprivations of 1945 Berlin. The central character is a 12 year old boy, Edmund, who has to endure anything and everything in order to provide for his family. And in the end.....
Well nobody knows what really happened to Edmund Moeschke, the ex Hitler Jugend who was playing himself. After filming the external shots in Berlin the entire cast were taken to Rome in 1946 where the interior scenes were put together. And of course most of them attempted to remain there. Edmund disappeared from history and probably met his end somewhere in the Roman streets. Certainly he has never emerged to claim the accolades that would undoubtedly be poured upon him were he to only mention his name.
But Edmund will never be forgotten because his tragic story touches the soul and speaks for millions of other youngsters who were so cruelly sacrificed in that terrible conflict. This is not a film: it is a masterpiece….£7.49

 

Get Cracking (1943)

Starring George Formby and Dinah Sheridan……£7.49

 

Ghost Train (1941)

Starring Arthur Askey. Mismatched travellers are stranded overnight at a lonely rural railway station. They soon learn of local superstition about a phantom train which is said to travel these parts at dead of night, carrying ghosts from a long-ago train wreck in the area. The travelers eventually get to the bottom of the things that go bump in the night. In between the scary bits, comedian Arthur Askey plays the gags with his Vaudeville style humor, to the constant irritation of his fellow passengers……£7.49

 

Ghoul, The (1933)

Starring Boris Karloff……£7.49

 

Gilda (1946)

Starring Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford……£7.49

 

Girl From The Marsh Croft, The aka Das Mädchen vom Moorhof (1935)

Directed by Douglas Sirk and starring Hansi Knoteck, Ellen Frank, Friedrich Kayßler and Theodor Loos, this film has a runtime of 78 mins and the print quality is good to very good, This German silent has German intertitles with hardcoded English subtitles.

Plot: In this rural film drama, an unwed mother, shunned by her conservative community, goes to court to try to salvage her reputation.

Review: The core of this film is a girl's sacrifice, a motive familiar from the better-known Lagerlof adaptation "The Phantom Carriage". It is perhaps interesting that this story was also previously adapted as a silent film by Victor Sjostrom.
The movie is quite faithful to the book. There are only minor differences, where Sirk uses nicely advantages of visual presentation; for example the scene of committing perjury at the beginning is followed by a close-up of a woman's hands, twitching in fear of witnessing a deadly sin. Also, several references to supernatural things are added, which is a nice nod to other Lagerlof works (a short story about an elf guarding farmers' houses; unfortunately I don't know its English title).
All in all, enough reasons for lovers of classic movies / adaptations / romances to see this one too….£7.49

 

Girl In The Red Velvet Swing, The (1955)

Starring Joan Collins and Ray Milland……£7.49

 

Girl O’ My Dreams (1934)

Directed by Ray McCarey and starring Mary Carlisle, Sterling Holloway, Edward J.Newton, Arthur Lake, Lon Chaney Jr and Tom Dugan, this film has a runtime of 63 mins and the print quality is very good to excellent.

Plot: Rawley College's star hurdler, Larry Haynes, has it all--looks, talent and popularity. According to his girl friend Gwen, he would be perfect if not for his ego, a sentiment shared by teammate Bobby Barnes and Spec Early, the editor of the school newspaper, the Rawley Razz . Sure that Larry will win the Joe Senior Popularity Contest, Barnes asks Spec to stuff the ballot box against Larry as a way of deflating his ego. Gwen decides to take her own action and starts to pay attention to dull-witted shot-putter Don Cooper, even though Don's girl friend Mary is a friend and sorority sister. The election goes to Don, and the subsequent attention from the media as well as from Gwen begins to have a negative effect on his game. As retaliation against Gwen, Mary asks Larry to the big dance, which is being held on the eve of the big meet. At the dance, after a great deal of rivalry, Gwen becomes engaged to Don, while Mary becomes engaged to Larry. Then, at the meet, both Don and Larry lose their first events, and Mary and Gwen send notes breaking their respective engagements. On the second events, Don and Larry are victorious, but the final meet results hinge on the performance of high jumper Barnes. On the promise that Larry will tell him how to tell the twins he has been dating apart, Barnes wins the event, and Rawley wins the meet. At the victory dance, Gwen and Mary are reunited with their original partners, but Barnes, who was assured by Larry that the twin he was in love with had a mole on her shoulder, discovers to his dismay that both twins have moles on their shoulders.

Review: This a great cast - and every character in the film is likable. Cute story surrounding college jocks and their girlfriends. Quite a bit of comedy that kept me giggling throughout the film. It's even better than I imagined it would be.
Creighton Chaney's last role under his real name. He plays a typical jock in this one - worried more about his sport than his girl until she gets upset about it and ends up with his best friend Bobby Barnes' (Arthur Lake). Ironically his best friend Bobby's girlfriend just got upset with him and ends up with Dan. Basically Bobby and Gwen are a couple, Dan and Mary are a couple because the ladies get upset. There is a switch in men (trying to create jealousy to win back the guys they are in-love with). It all gets straightened out in the end but the way everything happens is quite comical.
I must mention Sterling Holloway as Spec Early... what a fun character he is. Spec ends up with Kittens (Jeanie Roberts) and it's unclear if he really wants to be with her or not in the very end. LOL.
Overall a really fun film - lighthearted, romantic comedy that I enjoyed watching….£7.49

 

Glenn Miller Story, The (1955)

Starring James Stewart……£7.49

 

Glorifying The American Girl (1929)

Early musical starring Mary Eaton, Eddie Cantor, Helen Morgan and Rudy Vallee……£7.49

 

Go Into Your Dance (1935)

Starring Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler……£7.49

 

Go West (1940)

Madcap Marx Brothers Comedy……£7.49

 

God’s Country and the Man (1931)

Starring Tom Tyler……£7.49

 

God’s Country and the Man (1937)

Starring Tom Keene……£7.49

 

God’s Gift To Women (1931)

Starring Louise Brooks and Laura LaPlante……£7.49

 

Going My Way (1944)

Starring Bing Crosby……£7.49

 

Gold (1934)

Directed by Karl Hartl and starring Brigitte Helm, Hans Albers, Friedrich Kayßler and Michael Bohnen, this film has a runtime of 103 mins and the print quality is very good. This is a German language film with English subtitles.

Plot: After his colleague and a mentor, Prof. Achenbach dies in a set-up accident, while trying to produce gold from lead, Werner Holk seeks revenge. Meanwhile, a British millionaire suggests that Holk work with him on a similar project.

Review: Science fiction from the early Nazi era. Film production had been turned over to the Nazis in 1933 and all Jews and foreigners had been barred from the industry. There isn't much propaganda in this particular film, although the villain is a Brit. The British in general aren't depicted as terrible except for the villain. Hans Albers stars as a scientist who, along with his partner, has nearly perfected atomic alchemy, the ability to turn lead into gold. Their experiment goes suspiciously wrong, and Albers ends up barely alive. His partner isn't as lucky. After Albers recovers, a British billionaire (Michael Bohnen) offers him the opportunity to repeat the experiment in England, and Albers immediately suspects him of involvement in the original accident. In England, he meets and nearly falls in love with Bohnen's daughter (Metropolis' Brigitte Helm), which distracts him from his own German wife (Lien Deyers). This is more a slow burning drama than hard sci-fi, but there are big, electrical, Frankenstein-esque machines (Frankenstein having already been made, obviously). It's a decent film with a very good lead performance, some good cinematography and a good climax. Helm is probably the main point of interest for many, and it is nice to hear her speak. She's probably in it less than ten minutes, though….£7.49

 

Golden Boy (1939)

Starring Barbara Stanwyck and William Holden……£7.49

 

Gone With The Wind (1939)

Starring Clark Gable, Olivia DeHavilland and Vivien Leigh……£7.49

 

Good Companions (1933)

Starring Jessie Matthews……£7.49

 

Good Morning Boys (1937)

Wonderful British comedy starring Will Hay and Graham Moffatt. There's also a small early role for Charles Hawtrey.  A schoolteacher and his pupils visit Paris where they outwit a gang of crooks. Will Hay returns as Dr Benjamin Twist who this time is the head of a errant school for boys. Life is easy for Dr Twist, he bets with the boys on the races but gets rings run around him when it comes to trying to teach them anything. Into this comes Col Willougby-Gore ex Bengal Lancer and who is intent on ousting the "Incompetent" Dr Twist who infuriates him……£7.49

 

Grand Hotel (1932)

Starring Greta Garbo, John Barrymore and Joan Crawford……£7.49

 

Grass Is Greener, The (1960)

Starring Cary Grant and Robert Mitchum……£7.49

 

Great Caruso, The (1951)

Starring Mario Lanza and Ann Blyth……£7.49

 

Great Dictator, The (1940)

Starring and directed by Charles Chaplin. In Chaplin's satire on Nazi Germany, dictator Adenoid Hynkel has a double... a poor Jewish barber... who one day is mistaken for Hynkel……£7.49

 

Great Divide, The (1929)

Directed by Reginald Barker and starring Dorothy Mackaill, Ian Keith, Myrna Loy, Creighton Hale, Lucien Littlefield, George Fawcett and Claude Gillingwater, this film has a runtime of 72 mins and the print quality is very good to excellent. This is the sound version of the film, it was also released as a silent.

Plot: Steven Ghent has decided to sell the mine he's owned for fifteen years, located at the border of Mexico where the Great Divide ends. When the representatives are delayed for a few days, he visits the annual Fiesta for the last time, and he encounters Ruth Jordan, the daughter of his long-dead partner, and discovers that she is a decadent, world-weary society girl. He decides that she's in need of reforming, and that a dose of the Greats Outdoors might do it - so he kidnaps her.

Review: This one is worth watching for several reasons. Even though the sound mix is Vitaphone, it shows how a skilled hand could give the perception of motion and movement and an "outdoor-like" quality to a film even if none of these things were actually possible at the time.
Also, this one is actually a semi-musical, but so sneakily a musical that not even film historians mention it as such. It keeps the numbers short and to the point and fitting for the plot. The plot is pretty simple too. Set in the present -1929 that is -Ian Keith plays Steve Ghent, a miner where the Continental Divide reaches Mexico. Steve is selling his mine after 15 years of being sole proprietor. Before he signs the final papers transferring ownership and leaves town he decides to visit the local annual "Fiesta" one last time. Simultaneously, the daughter of his old partner, Dorothy McKail as Ruth Jordan, is traveling with a group of people, one of which is the buyer of Steve's mine. She also decides to visit the fiesta.
Steve and Ruth have a chance meeting at the Fiesta and Steve decides to have some fun with her and pretend to be a Mexican bandito. Of course, he is neither. He doesn't have much trouble wooing her, and he finds all of this amusing until he finds out she is his old partner's daughter. Understandably, Steve is disgusted with the way Ruth has turned out - a loose mouthy thrill-seeker. Not so understandably he decides kidnapping her and forcing her to rough it in the wilderness is the way to mend her character. Steve should have realized that the men of the town, still steeped in the values of the old West, will not look kindly upon a man kidnapping a lady no matter what his motives and tend to have only one solution to this problem if they catch up to him. A hint - it involves a tree and a rope. How does this work out? Watch and find out.
Fun things to look for - Claude Gillingwater as the future owner of the mine playing his familiar feisty character. Also look for Myrna Loy, who must have been soooo glad when her contract with Warner Brothers was up and she could try to branch out into roles other than clingy vengeful vamps who never seem to be able to attract the objects of their affection. In this case it is Steve who treats her like she is a rattle snake. All in all a fun film that moves along briskly, particularly for an early talkie….£7.49

 

Great Gabbo, The (1928)

Starring Erich Von Stroheim……£7.49

 

Great Game, The (1930)

Directed by Jack Raymond and starring John Batten, Renee Clama, Jack Cock and Randle Ayrton (also featuring in a minor role, 22 year old Rex Harrison), this film has a runtime of 73 mins and the print quality is excellent.

Plot: Dicky Brown (John Batten) is a young, aspiring footballer who plays for a struggling side, the fictional Manningford Football Club, a team in the midst of a successful cup run. He manages to charm the daughter of the chairman and thus breaks into the side, and ultimately wins the Cup for his team.

Review: Whenever people talk about football (soccer) films this early prototype is ludicrously overlooked. It was made at time when clichés weren't yet clichés in this genre. Released in the UK in 1930 (ten years after the very similar silent movie 'The Winning Goal' by George Samuelson) it features several popular players of the day, including John 'Jack' Cock of Millwall, as well as his well-known former Chelsea teammates Andy Wilson, Albert Thain and Sam Millington, and players from other clubs. The plot set the tone for many of the type since. John Batten's young wannabe battles to break into a struggling league side during a successful cup run. He taps off with the daughter of the chairman (who favours spending money on players that are the finished article, such as Cock's Jim Blake) and gradually charms his way into the team in time for the cup final, which of course his team wins. The joy in this film, though, lies in its deliberate evocation of a behind-the-scenes feel - the illuminating training sessions filmed at the old Stamford Bridge, the dressing room banter, the boardroom clashes, the self-conscious airing of philosophical schisms at the heart of the beautiful game and, of course, the live action. The players' acting is mostly wooden, naturally, though not as disarming as Renée Clama's voice: her elegantly trained accent frequently slips hilariously to reveal working class roots. There are a one or two good character actors - notably Wally Patch's grizzled trainer and Kenneth Kove's 'silly arse' board member - and Rex Harrison making his credited debut. How 'The Arsenal Stadium Mystery' (1940) can be described as the first football film is in itself a riddle. This long-ignored, pioneering movie deserves much wider attention….£7.49

 

Great Guns (1941)

Directed by Monty Banks and starring Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Sheila Ryan and Dick Nelson, this film has a runtime of 70 mins and the print quality is very good. The film has a discreet logo throughout. Their films from this period are much criticized, however it is still Stan and Ollie so it is still worth a watch.

Plot: Laurel and Hardy work for sickly heir Dan Forrester, who has been diagnosed with a myriad of debilitating allergies. However, when the draft board sees things differently and he seems very happy to leave the confines of his sick room, his loyal employees join him in the U. S. Army. He seems to thrive on Army chow and regimen and even becomes a rival to the growling Sergeant Hippo for the affections of beautiful post employee Ginger Hammond. The bumbling Stan and Ollie also get a chance to redeem themselves when they participate in the all-important war game manoeuvers….£7.49

 

Great Guy (1937)

Starring James Cagney……£7.49

 

Great Mike, The (1944)

Starring Stuart Erwin……£7.49

 

Great Rupert, The (1950)

Starring Jimmy Durante……£7.49

 

Greed of William Hart, The (1948)

Starring Tod Slaughter……£7.49

 

Green Goddess, The (1930)

Directed by Alfred E.Green and starring George Arliss, Ralph Forbes, H.B.Warner and Alice Joyce, this film has a runtime of 73 mins and the print quality is excellent.

Plot: An airplane carrying three Brits--Major Crespin, his wife Lucille, and Dr. Trahern--crash lands in the kingdom of Rukh. The Rajah holds them prisoner because the British are about to execute his three half-brothers in neighboring India. His subjects believe that their Green Goddess has given them the lives of the three Brits as payment for the lives of the Rajah's brothers. They will execute them when the brothers are executed. Trahern and the Crespins must figure a way to use the Rajah's radio to call India for help.

Review: A small plane is forced down somewhere near the Himalayas. On board are an English major, his young wife and their doctor friend. The plane lands in the tiny Princedom of Rukh, ostensibly under the British Viceroy, but actually ruled by a curiously deranged old Raja. The three visitors find themselves at the mercy of the Raja and are caught up in his lustful plots & plans.
Review: This very early talkie is an interesting little curio and still fun to watch. George Arliss is a fascinatingly sardonic Raja. His every word & gesture entertain the imagination. Mr. Arliss was a very important & distinguished English actor working in Hollywood in the 1930's, although now he's sadly neglected. This was his first talkie - (but was released after DISRAELI). All of his Warner Brothers movies are very entertaining, if you can find them.
In the supporting cast are Ralph Forbes as the heroic doctor; H.B. Warner & Alice Joyce as the callous Major & his estranged wife; gaunt Nigel de Brulier as a suspicious temple priest; and Ivan Simpson as the Raja's wicked butler….£7.49

 

Groom Wore Spurs, The (1951)

Starring Ginger Rogers and Jack Carson. Lawyer Ginger Rogers is hired to keep dumb cowboy Jack Carson out of trouble……£7.49

 

Guest Wife (1945)

Starring Don Ameche and Claudette Colbert……£7.49

 

Gung Ho (1943)

Starring Randolph Scott and Robert Mitchum. Seven weeks after Pearl Harbor, volunteers form the new 2nd Marine Raider Battalion whose purpose is to raid Japanese-held islands. The men selected come from different walks of life but have toughness in common. Under command of Colonel 'Thorwald', they're trained in all imaginable forms of combat. Then, after a perilous submarine journey, they face a daunting first mission: to annihilate the much larger Japanese garrison on Makin Island, in a lengthy battle sequence……£7.49

 

Gunga Din (1939)

Starring Cary Grant……£7.49

 

Ready to buy? Email your choices to silentfilmdvd@gmail.com and we will send you a paypal invoice. We also accept payment by cheque within the UK.

 

Prices including p&p are as follows:

 

Within UK  

1 disk £7.49

3 disks £20.00

5 disks £30.00

10 disks £50.00

10 + disks  £5.00 per disk

 

Outside UK  

1 disk £8.99

3 disks £20.00

5 disks £30.00

10 disks £50.00

10+ disks £5.00 per disk

 

File transfer

£5.00 per title

 

If you want more information on any of the titles then please email us, we'll be happy to help.

 

Please remember if you need a film to be NTSC to make this clear when ordering

 

wp2039744f.jpg
wp8e10b908_0f.jpg

Email: silentfilmdvd@gmail.com