A deep dive into Hollywood's early years
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.
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.
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.
Hollywood Boulevard, 1933
It’s that time of year! Here are a few of my favourite Christmas movies from early Hollywood.
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).
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’.