Pre-Code Hollywood

Agatha Christie's Miss Marple One of the most enduring characters in crime drama is an old woman by the name of Miss Marple - quintessentially English and understated. The pace of the tales is from a different age but thoroughly engaging. While many have played her over the years, the definitive Miss Marple was undoubtedly her characterisation by Joan Hickson in shows made in the 1980's. Here's three of the best...

(1950) All About Eve Drama - A seemingly timid but secretly ruthless ingénue insinuates herself into the lives of an aging Broadway star and her circle of theater friends. OK, so it's not a pre-code movie, but it is a masterpiece that will probably be best appreciated by the visitors to this channel more than my Cult Classics channel. - Bette Davis... Margo - Anne Baxter... Eve - George Sanders... Addison DeWitt - Celeste Holm... Karen https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042192/

(1932) The Crowd Roars Sports car speedway action drama. - James Cagney... Joe Greer - Joan Blondell... Anne Scott - Ann Dvorack... Lee Merrick - Eric Linden... Eddie Greer - Guy Kibbee... Pop Greer - Frank McHugh... Spud Connors https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022792/

(1932) Shopworn A poor woman and a man from an upper-class family fall in love, but his mother will go to any lengths to stop their marriage. - Barbara Stanwyck... Kitty Lane - Regis Toomey... David Livingston - Zasu Pitts... Dot - Clara Blandick... Mrs Livingston - Lucien Littlefirld... Fred https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023464/

(1933) Duck Soup Comedy - Rufus T. Firefly is named president/dictator of bankrupt Freedonia and declares war on neighboring Sylvania over the love of wealthy Mrs. Teasdale. - The Marx Brothers - Margaret Dumont... Gloria Teasdale - Raquel Torres... Vera Marcal https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023969/

(1932) Back Street Relationship Drama - A woman's love for and devotion to a married man results in her being relegated to the "back streets" of his life. Let's just say this ain't no comedy - hankies at the ready. - Irene Dunne... Ray Schmidt - John Boles... Walter Saxel https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022651/

(1933) International House Comedy - Assorted wacky characters converge on a Chinese hotel to bid on a new invention, television. - Peggy Hopkins Joyce... Peggy - W.C. Fields... Prof Henry R Quail - Rudy Vallee... Rudy - Stuart Erwin... Tommy Nash - George Burns... Dr Burns - Gracie Allen... Nurse Allen https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024183/

(1932) Let Me Explain Dear British Comedy - A man tries to fake an accident in order to claim insurance money, but things soon go awry. Middle-aged woman in the river taxi "Young man, I'm getting wet"... the reaction of the other passengers shows their minds were just as dirty as ours, LOL. - Gene Gerrard... George Hunter - Viola Lyel... Angela Hunter - Claude Hulbert... Cyril Merryweather - Jane Carr... Mamie https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023130/

(1931) Man of the World A young American girl visits Paris accompanied by her fiancee and her wealthy uncle. There she meets and is romanced by a worldly novelist; what she doesn't know is that he is a blackmailer who is using her to get to her uncle. - William Powell... Michael Trevor - Carole Lombard... Mary Kendall - Wynne Gibson... Irene Harper - Lawrence Gray... Frank Reynolds https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022119/

(1933) The Sin of Nora Moran Nora Moran, a young woman with a difficult and tragic past, is sentenced to die for a murder that she did not commit. She could easily reveal the truth and save her own life, if only it would not damage the lives, careers and reputations of those who she loves. - Zita Johann... Nora Moran - John Miljan... Paulino - Alan Dinehart... D.A. John Grant - Paul Cavanagh... Gov. Dick Crawford https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024561/

(1932) The Mask of Fu Manchu Englishmen race to find the tomb of Genghis Khan before the sinister Fu Manchu does. No real Chinamen were harmed in the making of this movie, LOL... yes, very much of its time, but isn't that why we love these old movies - to be taken to a time different from our own? I just love this too much to criticise it... enjoy. I think the whipping scene was censored for a while, but restored for DVD / digital release. - Boris Karloff... Dr Fu Manchu - Lewis Stone... Nayland Smith - Karen Morley... Sheila Barton - Charles Starrett... Terrence Granville - Myrna Loy... Fah Lo See - Jean Hersholt... Von Berg https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023194/

(1932) The Beast of the City Crime Thriller - Police Chief Jim Fitzpatrick ruthlessly goes after organized crime and is prepared to use brutal and violent methods to fight it. - Walter Huston... Jim Fitzpatrick - Jean Harlow... Daisy Stevens - Wallace Ford... Ed Fitzpatrick - Jean Hersholt... Sam Belmonte https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022660/

[ Video ] (1915) Pool Sharks Comedy Short (10 mins) Silent movie - WC Fields first time on film - restored and looking like it was filmed yesterday, not 105 years ago.

- PREDATOR ALERT - bring a gun if you think you're hard enough... It wasn't just the Alien Xenomorphs that ruled the sci-fi scene of the 80's and 90's... there was also the Predator - Predator (1987) and Predator 2 (1990) are essential viewing, then after that it really depends what mood you're in because the Predator franchise has been served more poorly than Alien has been e.g. I will never again watch AVP2 - it's bad filming, lazy storytelling, and doesn't even fit in the "so bad it's good" category... utter crap. That said, there are redeeming factors in pretty much all the other Predator movies, so here we goooooo!!!

(1933) Secret of the Blue Room Mystery - 20 years after three murders occur in a castle's "blue room", three men who each want to marry a beautiful girl decide to spend a night in the room to prove their bravery to her. - Lionel Atwill... Robert von Helidorf - Gloria Stuart... Irene von Helidorf - Paul Lukas... Capt. Walter Brink - Edward Arnold... Commissioner Forster https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024538/

(1934) The Cat and the Fiddle Musical - A romance between a struggling composer and an American singer. This is the first film to experiment with Technicolor, but it was considered too expensive to shoot the entire movie in colour, so they only used it for the movie's finale. - Ramon Novarro... Victor - Jeanette MacDonald... Shirley - Frank Morgan... Daudet - Charles Butterworth... Charles https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024960/

(1932) Lighthouse Love Comedy short

(1932) The Dentist W.C. Fields comedy short - This is the one that got Fields in big trouble with the censors. The scene towards the end where the woman wraps her legs around his waist as he tries to extract her tooth was considered too vulgar and suggestive and was cut, issuing all sorts of threats to Fields if he were ever to try something like that again. A copy of the edit was found and here it is back in its original uncensored form.

(1933) The Pharmacist W.C. Fields comedy short

(1933) The Barber Shop W.C. Fields comedy short