A young African-American streetfighter rises to win the Golden Gloves and become a championship fighter in this boxing drama that stars fighter Joe Louis. The trouble comes when he proves unable to find a balance between the hedonism that comes with success and the discipline it takes to stay in shape.
Tag: 1930s
A cabaret dancer witnesses a murder and is forced to hide from gangsters by disguising herself as a male Princeton student.
Marigold Tate runs away from boarding school to stay with her retired aunt. She faces hostility from the locals, who display bigotry and snobbery towards her. During a witchcraft trial she is forced into a pool of water. The event is covered by newspaper editor Julian Barrow, who falls in love with Tate. The couple eventually move to New York, where Barrow gets a job on a newspaper.
Adapted from a play which was originally produced by the Federal Theatre Project (part of the WPA), this is a film from the Depression era which shows the disparity between life in the slums and the life of the upper class. When a young man inherits a city block in the ghetto, he begins to meet those who live there. One, a young boy, had been crippled in a fire which ripped through his tenement. He meets and falls in love with this young boy’s sister as well.
A novel by Gaston Leroux (of Phantom of the Opera fame) was the source for this film. The story takes place on the Riviera, where the title character may or may not be involved in various shades of skullduggery, including murder. The film’s highlight involves a coffin containing the body of a man who committed suicide — or, did he? Huguette Duflos played the title character, while the comedy relief was in the capable hands of Belieres. In emulation of the 1928 American film The Terror, the opening credits are not printed on screen, but instead spoken by a mysterious “ghost” voice.
In a fit of jealousy, a store clerk walks out on her boyfriend and heads for a vacation in the Alps, but not before “borrowing” a high-priced ski wardrobe. Once on the slopes, she falls in love with a truck driver, who convinces himself that this extremely well-dressed young lady is wealthy.
Pilot disobeys unsafe orders and loses his job. He then starts a flying school which receives a boost when the government launches a program which it hopes will produce 20,000 pilots a year.