4 Shots From 4 1934 Films


4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!

Today, we pay tribute to a classic year in film.  It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 1934 Films

It Happened One Night (1934, dir by Frank Capra, DP: Joseph Walker)

The Scarlet Empress (1934, dir by Josef von Sternberg, DP: Bert Glennon)

The Merry Widow (1934, dir by Ernst Lubitsch, DP: Oliver T. Marsh)

The Black Cat (1934, dir by Edgar G. Ulmer, DP: John J. Mescall)

Pre Code Confidential #5: HOLLYWOOD PARTY (MGM 1934)


gary loggins's avatarcracked rear viewer

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One of the most bizarre films of the Pre-Code (or any) era is HOLLYWOOD PARTY. This practically plotless hodgepodge stars Jimmy Durante as jungle movie hero Schnarzan, whose films are tanking at the box office. The public has grown tired of his battles with “moth-eaten, toothless lions”, so his producer decides to buy new ones from the adventurer Baron Munchausen (radio star Jack Pearl doing his schtick). Schnarzan throws a big Hollywood party for the Baron, hoping to win his favor, but screen rival Liondola (dialect comic Georges Givot), disguising himself as the Grand Royal Duke of Peloponnesia, crashes the bash and tries to buy the lions for himself with the help of Oklahoma oil baron Harvey Crump (the perpetually perplexed  Charles Butterworth).

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All this is just an excuse for a series of unrelated comic bits featuring some of the era’s top funnymen. Durante, as the nominal star, gets the bulk of the material…

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