The Arizona Kid is a 1930 American pre-Code Western film directed by Alfred Santell. It was produced by Fox Film Corporation. The original idea was for the film to be a sequel to In Old Arizona (1928), in which Warner Baxter played the Cisco Kid, a character from O. Henry’s 1907 short story The Caballero’s Way. His performance earned him… Read more →
Just Imagine is a 1930 American pre-Code science fiction musical-comedy film, directed by David Butler. The film is known for its art direction and special effects in its portrayal of New York City in an imagined 1980. Just Imagine stars El Brendel, Maureen O’Sullivan, John Garrick and Marjorie White. The “man from 1930” was played by El Brendel. The film… Read more →
The Unholy Three is a 1930 American pre-Code melodrama directed by Jack Conway and starring Lon Chaney. Its plot involves a crime spree. The film is a sound remake of the silent 1925 film of the same name, with both films based on the novel The Unholy Three, by Tod Robbins. In both versions, the roles of Professor Echo and… Read more →
The Criminal Code is a 1931 American pre-Code romantic crime drama film directed by Howard Hawks and starring Walter Huston and Phillips Holmes. The screenplay, based on a 1929 play of the same name by Martin Flavin, was written by Fred Niblo Jr. and Seton I. Miller, who were nominated for Best Adaptation at the 4th Academy Awards. The film… Read more →
The Chain Gang is a 1930 Mickey Mouse animated film produced by Walt Disney Productions for Columbia Pictures, as part of the Mickey Mouse film series. It was the twenty-first Mickey Mouse short to be produced, the sixth of that year. It is one of a group of shorts produced by Disney immediately after Ub Iwerks left the studio. The… Read more →
The Divorcee is a 1930 American pre-Code drama film directed by Robert Z. Leonard. It was written by Nick Grindé, Zelda Sears, and John Meehan, based on the 1929 novel Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott. At the 3rd Academy Awards, The Divorcee received nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Writing (Meehan), and Norma Shearer won the award for Best… Read more →
The Royal Family of Broadway is a 1930 American pre-Code comedy film directed by George Cukor and Cyril Gardner and released by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was adapted by Herman J. Mankiewicz and Gertrude Purcell from the 1927 play The Royal Family by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman. It stars Ina Claire, Fredric March, Mary Brian, Henrietta Crosman, Arnold… Read more →
Our Blushing Brides is a 1930 American pre-Code society comedy/romantic melodrama directed and produced by Harry Beaumont and starring Joan Crawford, Robert Montgomery, Anita Page and Dorothy Sebastian. The film follows Our Dancing Daughters (1928) and Our Modern Maidens (1929), which also starred Crawford, Page and Sebastian, though they portray different characters in each film. Although the two previous installments… Read more →
Whoopee! is a 1930 American pre-Code comedy musical Western film photographed in two-color Technicolor. It was directed by Thornton Freeland and stars Eddie Cantor, Ethel Shutta and Eleanor Hunt. The film’s plot closely follows that of the 1928 stage show produced by Florenz Ziegfeld. The Walter Donaldson song “My Baby Just Cares for Me” was introduced in the film version… Read more →
For the Defense is a 1930 pre-Code crime drama film starring William Powell as a lawyer whose ethics are challenged when the woman whom he loves kills a pedestrian while driving with another suitor. New York criminal defense attorney William Foster is so successful that prosecutors regard him as a menace. He holds himself to high ethical standards but is… Read more →
