88% (2) Ruggles of Red Gap 90 min, [Comedy, Romance] [Leo McCarey] [08 Mar 1935]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 77%, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%, External Reviews
Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 3 wins.
Actors: Charles Laughton, Charles Ruggles, Mary Boland, Zasu Pitts
Writer: Harry Leon Wilson (novel), Walter DeLeon (screenplay), Harlan Thompson (screenplay), Humphrey Pearson (adaptation)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English, French Country: USA
Plot: While visiting Paris in 1908, upper class Lord Burnstead loses his butler playing poker. Egbert and Effie Floud bring Ruggles back to Red Gap, Washington. Effie wants to take advantage of Ruggles' upper class background to influence Egbert's hick lifestyle. However, Egbert is more interested in partying and he takes Ruggles to the local 'beer bust'. When word gets out that "Colonel Ruggles is staying with his close friends" in the local paper, the butler becomes a town celebrity. After befriending Mrs. Judson, a widow who he impresses with his culinary skills, Ruggles decides to strike out on his own and open a restaurant. His transition from servant to independent man will depend on its success.
Rotten Tomatoes: Previously filmed in 1918 and 1923, Harry Leon Wilson's novel achieved movie classic status when it was remade by Leo McCarey in 1935. The story opens in Paris, circa 1908. Ruggles, beautifully underplayed by Charles Laughton, is the ultra-obedient manservant to the bibulous Earl of Burnstead (Roland Young). During one of the Earl's nocturnal forays, nouveau riche American cattle baron Egbert Floud (Charles Ruggles) wins Ruggles in a poker game. Terrified at the prospect of being bundled off to the Wild West, Ruggles' resolve is weakened somewhat when he and the raucous but ingratiating Egbert spend a wild night on the town. (The besotted butler's periodic exclamations of "Whoopee!" are priceless.) Back in the frontier "boom town" of Red Gap, a misunderstanding obliges Egbert's social-climbing wife Effie (Mary Boland) to pass off Ruggles as an aristocratic British army officer, immediately arousing the suspicions of priggish social arbiter Charles Belknap-Jackson (Lucien Littlefield). The longer he spends in America, the more Ruggles grows to like the concept of democracy and self-determination. Of the film's many highlights, two are standouts: the scene in which Ruggles silences a rowdy saloon crowd with his recitation of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, and the droll, semi-improvised vignette in which dancehall girl Nell Kenner (Leila Hyams) teaches the Earl of Burnstead how to play the drums. Ruggles of Red Gap was filmed for a fourth time in 1950 as the Bob Hope-Lucille Ball musical Fancy Pants.
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87% (2) Pride and Prejudice 118 min, Approved, [Drama, Romance] [Robert Z. Leonard] [26 Jul 1940]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 74%, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%, External Reviews
Awards: Won 1 Oscar. Another 1 win.
Actors: Edna May Oliver, Greer Garson, Laurence Olivier, Mary Boland
Writer: Aldous Huxley (screen play), Jane Murfin (screen play), Jane Austen (novel), Helen Jerome (based upon the dramatization of Jane Austen's novel written by)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Mr. and Mrs. Bennet have five unmarried daughters, and Mrs. Bennet is especially eager to find suitable husbands for them. When the rich single gentlemen Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy come to live nearby, the Bennets have high hopes. But pride, prejudice, and misunderstandings all combine to complicate their relationships and to make happiness difficult.
Rotten Tomatoes: Long before 19th-century novelist Jane Austen became a hot property in Hollywood, MGM produced this opulent and entertaining adaptation of one of Austen's best-known novels. The elegant and slyly satirical comedy of manners gets under way when socially conscious Mrs. Bennet (Mary Boland), with the begrudging assistance of her husband (Edmund Gwenn), begins seeking out suitable (and suitably wealthy) husbands for her five daughters: Elizabeth (Greer Garson), Jane (Maureen O'Sullivan), Lydia (Ann Rutherford), Kitty (Heather Angel), and Mary (Marsha Hunt). One of the least likely matrimonial prospects is Mr. Darcy (Laurence Olivier), a rich, handsome, but cynical and boorish young man. Naturally, Elizabeth Bennet, the strongest-willed of the Bennet girls, is immediately fascinated by him, and she sets out to land him -- but only on her own terms, and only after she has exacted a bit of genteel revenge for his calculated indifference to her. Though Austen's novel was set in 1813, the year of its publication, the film version takes place in 1835, reportedly so as to take advantage of the more attractive costume designs of that period. Not surprisingly, a few changes had to be made to mollify the Hollywood censors (eager to find offense in the most innocent of material): the most notable is the character of Mr. Collins (Melville Cooper), transformed from the book's hypocritical clergyman to the film's standard-issue opportunist.
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86% (2) The Women 133 min, Not Rated, [Comedy, Drama] [George Cukor] [01 Sep 1939]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 80%, Rotten Tomatoes: 92%, External Reviews
Awards: 1 win.
Actors: Joan Crawford, Mary Boland, Norma Shearer, Rosalind Russell
Writer: Clare Boothe Luce (from the play by), Anita Loos (screen play), Jane Murfin (screen play)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English, French Country: USA
Plot: Wealthy Mary Haines is unaware her husband is having an affair with shopgirl Crystal Allen. Sylvia Fowler and Edith Potter discover this from a manicurist and arrange for Mary to hear the gossip. On the train taking her to a Reno divorce Mary meets the Countess and Miriam (in an affair with Fowler's husband). While they are at Lucy's dude ranch, Fowler arrives for her own divorce and the Countess meets fifth husband-to-be Buck. Back in New York, Mary's ex is now unhappily married to Crystal who is already in an affair with Buck. When Sylvia lets this story slip at an exclusive nightclub, Crystal brags of her plans for a still wealthier marriage, only to find the Countess is the source of all Buck's money. Crystal must return to the perfume counter and Mary runs back to her husband.
Rotten Tomatoes: Mary Haines (Norma Shearer) can't believe her husband's having an affair with salesgirl Crystal (Joan Crawford). But when Sylvia (Rosalind Russell) and Edith (Phyllis Povah) deliver the gossip firsthand, Mary heads to Reno for a divorce. En route she meets Countess de Lave (Mary Boland) and Miriam (Paulette Goddard), who coincidentally is having an affair with Sylvia's husband. Once in Reno, the Countess finds another beau, Sylvia shows up for a divorce and Mary plots to win back her man.
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70% (1) New Moon 105 min, PASSED, [Musical, Romance, Adventure] [Robert Z. Leonard, W.S. Van Dyke] [28 Jun 1940]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 70%, External Reviews
Actors: George Zucco, Jeanette MacDonald, Mary Boland, Nelson Eddy
Writer: Oscar Hammerstein II (book), Frank Mandel (book), Laurence Schwab (book), Jacques Deval (screen play), Robert Arthur (screen play)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Marianne de Beaumaniour is on her way to New Orleans from Paris to inspect the plantation she inherited from her uncle. On the ship with her are bondsmen, that are to be sold for slavery. Charles, Duc de Villiers, a political enemy of the king, is also aboard posing as a bondsman. Charles is bought by Marianne's plantation manager and she is quickly taken by Charles' charm. Marianne soon discovers Charles' true-identity and she sets him free, before the French officers find him. Marianne decides to sail back to Paris with the Police Captain on the ship, 'New Moon', but they must first stop at Martinique. After Martinique, the ship is invaded by pirates. Marianne is shocked to see that Charles is the leader. That night, a fierce storm occurs, and everyone is ship-wrecked. Now, Charles is the leader and the fun begins...
Rotten Tomatoes: Previously filmed in 1930 with Lawrence Tibbett and Grace Moore, the robust Sigmund Romberg operetta New Moon was given another airing in 1940 as Nelson Eddy-Jeanette MacDonald vehicle. Set in 18th century Louisiana, the story concerns the relationship between haughty plantation owner Marianne de Beaumanoir (MacDonald) and her handsome bondservant Charles (Eddy). Actually a French nobleman in disguise, Charles leads his fellow bondsman in revolt, commandeering a ship and heading out to sea. He ends up capturing a vessel carrying Marianne and a cargo of mail-order brides. Though the bondsmen and the brides get along just fine, the romance between Marianne and Charles is noticeably strained, but the French Revolution comes along to solve everyone's problems. The soaring Romberg musical score includes such favorites as "One Kiss", "Stout-Hearted Men" and "Lover Come Back to Me", all performed con brio by the stars. Comedian Buster Keaton, whose supporting role was cut from the final release print of New Moon, can still be glimpsed among the bondsmen.
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69% (1) Six of a Kind 62 min, PASSED, [Comedy] [Leo McCarey] [09 Feb 1934]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 69%, External Reviews
Actors: Charles Ruggles, George Burns, Mary Boland, W.C. Fields
Writer: Keene Thompson (story), Douglas MacLean (story), Walter DeLeon (screen play), Harry Ruskin (screen play)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: When a respectable middle-class couple take a cross-country trip by auto, they share expenses with a decidedly oddball couple, none of whom know the car carries embezzled funds.
Rotten Tomatoes: Planning a motor vacation to California, Charlie Ruggles and Mary Boland advertise for a couple to help drive and share expenses. That couple turns out to be George Burns and Gracie Allen, accompanied by Allen's surly great dane. Ruggles is driven to near-insanity by Allen's intrusiveness and stupidity.
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68% (1) Three Cornered Moon 77 min, [Comedy] [Elliott Nugent] [08 Aug 1933]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 68%, External Reviews
Awards: 1 win.
Actors: Claudette Colbert, Mary Boland, Richard Arlen, Wallace Ford
Writer: Ray Harris, S.K. Lauren, Gertrude Tonkonogy (play)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Nellie Rimplegar has to tell her grown children that due to her bungled handling of their finances, the family has been wiped out by the Stock Market crash. Friend and family doctor, Alan Stevens, tells them they'll all need to eliminate their extravagant ways and get jobs. Stevens also rents a room in their house more as a way to be near pretty Elizabeth Rimplegar, than to help their finances. Stevens faces competition from Elizabeth's beau, Ronald, a free-loading writer who remains oblivious to her money woes.
Rotten Tomatoes: In this screwball comedy, Claudette Colbert stars as the only level-headed member of a wacky Brooklyn family. Her mother loses the family fortune in the stock market, forcing Colbert's knuckleheaded brothers to look for work. Unfortunately, the boys seem interested only in jobs for which they're uniquely unsuited.
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66% (1) In Our Time 110 min, APPROVED, [Drama] [Vincent Sherman] [19 Feb 1944]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 66%, External Reviews
Actors: Ida Lupino, Mary Boland, Nancy Coleman, Paul Henreid
Writer: Ellis St. Joseph (original screenplay), Howard Koch (original screenplay)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: It is early 1939 in Poland when Mrs. Bromley and Jennifer come to buy antiques for her business in London. Jennifer meets Count Stephen and they wine, dine and see the sights though out the city. He wishes to marry, but his family is against plain Jennifer. When she tries to leave, he catches her at the train station and they are married. To be self sufficient, they modernize the family farm with tractors and increase production, but then Germany starts the war.
Rotten Tomatoes: More a romantic melodrama than the uplifting propaganda piece the producers perhaps envisioned, In Our Time stars Ida Lupino as Jennifer Whittredge, a young antique buyer marrying a Polish count, Stephan Orvid (Paul Henried), after a whirlwind romance in a Warsaw at the brink of World War II. The count's old-fashioned family in general and his aristocratic uncle (Victor Francen) in particular resist the union, but Jennifer brings a breath of fresh air and a sense of good Anglo-Saxon values into the stagnant rooms of the Orvid estate and soon the farm is prosperous once again. When the German military might finally enters Poland, Jennifer and Stephan join the country's scorched earth defense by burning both their property and are soon among the refugees waiting for the day when Poland is once again free from Fascism.
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