Baby Face (1933)

Directed by Alfred E. Green and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Baby Face is a pre-code drama following the misadventures of Lily Powers as she uses her feminine wiles to improve her social standing. On June 25, 1932, MGM released Red-Headed Woman. Starring Jean Harlow – who was working from a joyously racy script by Anita Loos – the film was a monumental […]

The First Annual Valentine’s Day “Meet-Cute” Blogathon: Bringing Up Baby (1938)

Directed by Howard Hawks, Bringing Up Baby stars Cary Grant as harried palaeontologist Dr. David Huxley, and Katharine Hepburn as heiress Susan Vance in this screwball classic. This post is part of The First Annual Valentine’s Day Meet-Cute Blogathon, hosted by the excellent Phyllis Loves Classic Movies. In the Spring 1996 edition of The Paris Review, famed director Billy Wilder described a meet cute as […]

Grand Hotel (1932)

Directed by Edmund Golding, Grand Hotel is a pre-code drama with an all-star cast of Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery and John & Lionel Barrymore. It follows the inhabitants of the eponymous Grand Hotel as their lives unexpectedly overlap and unravel. The story of Grand Hotel has its origins in Vicki Baum’s novel Menschen im Hotel, which was published in 1929. MGM wunderkind Irving Thalberg […]

The Thin Man (1934)

Directed by W. S. Van Dyke, and starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, The Thin Man follows a retired detective and his wife as they pursue the trail of a missing inventor. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett, which was released in January 1934. Hammett’s writing was inspired by his […]

The Shop Around The Corner (1940)

Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, The Shop Around The Corner is a classic romantic comedy set in the Matuschek and Company store in Budapest. It stars James Stewart as salesman Alfred Kralik, and Margaret Sullavan as shopgirl Klara Novak. The two employees despise each other, without realising that they are one another’s anonymous pen pal, and have fallen in love by mail. The story is adapted from the play Illatszertár by […]

She Done Him Wrong (1933)

Directed by Lowell Sherman, She Done Him Wrong stars Mae West in her most iconic role as Lady Lou, an indomitable and seductive burlesque singer, and an early career Cary Grant as Captain Cummings, the local temperance league leader. It follows Lou as she contends with several troublesome past suitors, including a jealous and obsessive escaped convict (played by Owen Moore). West’s play Diamond […]

Exit Smiling (1926)

Directed by Sam Taylor and starring Beatrice Lillie as Violet and Jack Pickford as Jimmy Marsh. Exit Smiling is a silent comedy set amongst a theatre troupe as they traverse the country by train, performing their popular melodrama ‘Flaming Women’. Violet longs to become the lead actress, but instead is the drudge of the company, cooking their meals, ironing their clothes, and being […]

The Journey Begins

Thanks for joining me! Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton