After Tomorrow (1932)

Movies were only with sound for 5 years when Frank Borzage's underrated After Tomorrow came out. This may be one of my favorite movies I've seen from 1932. Really impressed me.

This movie features a standout performance by Josephine Hull, who only made a handful of pictures including Harvey with Jimmy Stewart nearly 20 years later. She's younger in this movie, but still very motherly, and quite an overbearing mother in fact.  She plays Mrs. Piper, mother to Peter Piper (Charles Farrell) and says things like, "in every man lurks a beast that can be aroused." Hey, that was pretty steamy stuff to say back then in the pre-code era.

Petey wants to get married to Sidney (Marian Nixon). But they're dirt-poor, and pinching every penny they have left. After all, this is the Depression (set in New York). Mother loves her boy so much that she tries to break up the marriage. Minna Gombell plays a much more verbally abusive mother to Sidney. And soon there is little doubt that the marriage will ever take place, even after a very funny impromptu rehearsal sequence.

Moonlight and Pretzels (1933)

Karl Freund, the legendary cinematographer (Metropolis), tried his hand at a musical with this 1933 feature, which is Busby Berkeley-esque.  The story begins in a small town with an aspiring songwriter (Roger Pryor) who writes a love song for his crush, a record store clerk (Mary Brian). He sells the song, and it becomes a huge hit. Roger then moves away from his small town and heads to Broadway, seemingly forgetting his roots - and his crush back home. I liked the scenes where she comes to audition for his new show (titled "Moonlight and Pretzels") and tries to rekindle his memory of her. Much of the rest of the film deals with the production and financial aspect of the show, which I didn't find that interesting, and the humor is lost in the second half. The movie ends with a big finale from Roger's show dealing with the Great Depression. You can watch it here:

Heroes for Sale (1933)

Richard Barthelmess plays Tom, a returning WWI veteran who experiences a series of unfortunate events - including a prison term - as he adjusts to civilian life. Without giving it all away, one of his struggles involves an addiction to morphine. How the character overcomes the addiction - and what he decides to do with his life - becomes fascinating storytelling that will leave you captivated from start to finish. The film is only 71 minutes, but it feels like 2 hours.

Tom finds his way to Chicago in the mid 1920s. He meets some interesting characters in a family-run soup kitchen (Charles Grapewin is the father; playing his daughter is the wonderful Aline MacMahon, who falls love with Tom from a distance). They are so much fun to watch. Loretta Young brings some romance to the story, and she is so lovely in this; there's a tender and humourous love-at-first sight moment.

Throughout the film are scenes that were considered heavily political for its time, including a scene of an angry mob and several Red Squad sequences. One character espouses a number of communist sympathies, yet over time he evolves, which is interesting to watch. It's as if the character was written to represent various political extremes under certain circumstances.

This movie reminded me of The Best years of Our Lives, the widely acclaimed film that defined the experience of returning American vets after WWII. Heroes For Sale has similar themes, and is one of the few films dealing with returning WW1 vets. References to newly elected president Roosevelt, lots of authentic signs and billboards: "Keep Moving: No Work Here". This is the kind of film that has the stories that your grandparents or great grandparents might tell you if they were in America during this time.

Directed by William Wellman. Highly recommended. Available on DVD in the box set series, "Forbidden Hollywood Volume 3". For another perspective, the blog Movie Classics has a great review of this film here.