All of my classic movie reviews are listed below with the most recent posts at the top of the list. I choose this as the default view because I like to think of my newest article as my best article. Some of the oldies aren’t bad either, but you’re much more likely to run into straight plot summaries or since revised opinion the deeper you get into this main list.
This page used to include a tabbed feature showing alternative ways to view my list of reviews, but this list grew so long that the page began to crash. I’ve kept the alternative views on the site, but now you’ll have to click over to other pages to browse them:
- Reviews Sorted by Quality Rating (my favorite!)
- Reviews Sorted Alphabetically by Title
- Reviews Sorted by Earliest Release Date
- Reviews Sorted by Most Recent Release Date
If you are new to the site you will quickly notice that I mostly write about movies released during the 1930s. I’m especially fond of the early ’30s pre-Code films, though I don’t necessarily like every movie that I’ve written about. While I do cover the occasional Silent Film or sometimes work my way into the 1950s, I spend most of my spare time with the ’30s stuff and the volume of those posts will reflect that.
Following is the default view with most recently created posts appearing at the top of the page. Visit the links above to view them in different orders.
- Rebecca (1940) and My Du Maurier Kick
- The Story of Temple Drake (1933) – Paramount Adapts Faulkner’s Sanctuary
- Remember the Night (1940) Starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray
- The Wolf Man (1941), Lon Chaney Jr., and the Universal Horror Legacy
- Three on a Match (1932), A Second Look: Bogart, Action, Warren William
- Pick-Up (1933) Starring Sylvia Sidney and George Raft
- Are These Our Children? (1931) Starring Eric Linden and Arline Judge
- The Woman Accused (1933) Starring Nancy Carroll and Cary Grant
- No Man of Her Own (1932) Starring Clark Gable and Carole Lombard
- Terror Aboard (1933) – Grand Hotel of Murder on the High Seas
- My Woman (1933) Starring Helen Twelvetrees, Wallace Ford
- Man Made Monster (1941) Introduces Lon Chaney Jr to Universal Horror
- Change of Heart (1934) Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell One Last Time
- Special Investigator (1936) – Richard Dix Stars in Erle Stanley Gardner Story
- Red-Headed Woman (1932) Reveals New Jean Harlow
- ‘One Sunday Afternoon’ With Cagney & Co. in ‘The Strawberry Blonde’
- The Roaring Twenties (1939) Starring James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart
- Attorney for the Defense (1932) – Edmund Lowe’s Fallon for Columbia
- Behind the Green Lights (1935), Cops Vs. Mouthpiece in Mascot Indie
- 6 Hours to Live (1932) for Warner Baxter in Rare Fox Film
- The Vice Squad (1931) Starring Paul Lukas, Kay Francis, Judith Wood
- Babbitt (1934) Starring Guy Kibbee, Aline MacMahon
- Ten Cents a Dance (1931) Starring Barbara Stanwyck
- What Price Hollywood? (1932) Starring Constance Bennett, Lowell Sherman
- Viña Delmar and Uptown New York (1932) – World Wide’s Bad Girl
- The Widow from Chicago (1930) Starring Alice White
- Girl Missing (1933) Starring Glenda Farrell, Mary Brian
- The Cat Creeps (1930) – Universal’s (Mostly) Lost Dark House
- Josef von Sternberg’s Underworld (1927) Starring George Bancroft
- Young Bride (1932) Starring Helen Twelvetrees and Eric Linden
- Wild Boys of the Road (1933) Meets “Boy And Girl Tramps of America”
- The Good Fairy (1935) Starring Margaret Sullavan and Herbert Marshall
- Ace of Aces (1933) Starring Richard Dix and Elizabeth Allan
- The Wedding Night (1935) Starring Gary Cooper and Anna Sten
- The Patent Leather Kid (1927) Starring Richard Barthelmess and Molly O’Day
- Manhattan Melodrama (1934) Starring Clark Gable, William Powell, Myrna Loy
- Show Them No Mercy (1935) Starring Rochelle Hudson and Cesar Romero
- King Kong (1933) in New York, March 1933
- Blood Money (1933) Starring George Bancroft, Frances Dee
- The Murder Man (1935) Starring Spencer Tracy
- The Mind Reader (1933) Starring Warren William
- Good Dame (1934) Starring Sylvia Sidney and Fredric March
- Child of Manhattan (1933) Starring Nancy Carroll, John Boles
- They Gave Him a Gun (1937) Starring Spencer Tracy, Gladys George, Franchot Tone
- Secret of the Chateau (1934) Universal Murder Mystery Starring Claire Dodd
- Blonde Crazy (1931) Starring James Cagney and Joan Blondell
- Lady and Gent (1932) Starring George Bancroft and Wynne Gibson
- Captains Courageous (1937) Starring Freddie Bartholomew and Spencer Tracy
- The Man Who Played God (1932) Starring Mr. George Arliss
- A Yank at Eton (1942) Starring Mickey Rooney with Freddie Bartholomew
- J. Edgar Hoover’s Persons in Hiding (1939) With Patricia Morison
- The Cat and the Canary (1927) – Old Dark House Classic Starring Laura La Plante
- White Woman (1933) Starring Charles Laughton and Carole Lombard
- Arsène Lupin (1932) Starring John and Lionel Barrymore
- Dark Hazard (1934) Starring Edward G. Robinson and Genevieve Tobin
- Born to Be Bad (1934) Starring Loretta Young, Cary Grant
- H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941) – King Vidor Brings John P. Marquand Bestseller to Life
- The Films of Helen Twelvetrees – Capsule Reviews of 20 Movies
- Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932), Universal Horror With Bela Lugosi
- The Mad Doctor of Market Street (1942), Universal Horror With Lionel Atwill
- Men Against the Sky (1940) – Richard Dix’s Ace of Aces Goes Modern
- One Night at Susie’s (1930) – Movie Compared to Short Story, Plus Helen Ware Biography
- Five and Ten (1931) Starring Marion Davies and Leslie Howard
- Downstairs (1932) Starring John Gilbert, From a Story by John Gilbert
- She Had to Say Yes (1933) Starring Loretta Young
- The Mouthpiece (1932) – Warren William Becomes a Star; 1932 William J. Fallon Cycle Begins
- The Last Flight (1931) – John Monk Saunders Hijacks Hemingway’s Lost Generation
- Gladys George Is Madame X (1937), Plus Brief Biography
- Blessed Event (1932) – Lee Tracy as Early Version of Winchell
- Hot Saturday (1932) with Cary Grant and Nancy Carroll
- Lady by Choice (1934) Starring Carole Lombard and May Robson
- Black Fury (1935) – Paul Muni Stars in Another Ripped from the Headlines Story
- A House Divided (1931) – Walter Huston Stars in Early Talkie from William Wyler
- James Cagney is Jimmy the Gent (1934)
- Majestic’s The Sin of Nora Moran (1933) Starring Zita Johann
- Frank Capra’s Broadway Bill (1934) Starring Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy
- Secret Service (1931) – William Gillette’s Civil War Melodrama Comes to RKO
- Test Pilot (1938) Starring Clark Gable, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy
- Lust for Life (1956) – Van Gogh from Irving Stone to Kirk Douglas
- Elsie Ferguson’s Only Talkie, Scarlet Pages (1930)
- Richard Dix Reckons Himself The Public Defender (RKO, 1931)
- Tyrone Power and Alice Faye – In Old Chicago (1937), Alexander’s Ragtime Band (1938) and Rose of Washington Square (1939)
- More Jessie Matthews – There Goes the Bride (1932), The Good Companions (1933), First A Girl (1935) and Gangway (1937)
- His Greatest Gamble (1934) Starring Richard Dix
- Vivacious Lady (1938) Starring Ginger Rogers and James Stewart
- Our Blushing Brides (1930) Caps Joan Crawford Trilogy
- Gentleman’s Fate (1931) Starring John Gilbert and Louis Wolheim as Unlikely Brothers
- Winner Take All (1932) from Warner Archive’s Latest Wave of James Cagney
- I Married a Doctor (1936) Attempts to Update Main Street
- Shirley Temple in 1934, Part 2: The Movies
- City Streets (1931) Starring Gary Cooper and Sylvia Sidney
- Snowed Under (1936) Chemistry Highlights Hilarious Warner Farce
- Brief Impressions: King for a Night (1933) – Big Hearted Herbert (1934) and Father Is a Prince (1941) – Confessions of Boston Blackie (1941)
- Helen Twelvetrees is Millie (1931) – With Joan Blondell and Lilyan Tashman
- Sweepings (1933) and Mamie’s Christmas Counter Freak-Out
- Five Star Final (1931) Starring Edward G. Robinson
- Don’t Bet on Blondes (1935) Starring Warren William and Claire Dodd
- Lon Chaney, Jr. in Dead Man’s Eyes (1944) – An Inner Sanctum Mystery
- The Walking Dead (1936) – Lindbergh Heart Resurrects Boris Karloff
- Murder by the Clock (1931) Starring William “Stage” Boyd and Lilyan Tashman
- Secret of the Blue Room (1933) With Lionel Atwill and Gloria Stuart
- The Witching Hour (1934), Hypnotized by John Halliday
- Blondie Johnson (1933) Starring Joan Blondell and Chester Morris
- Clear All Wires! (1933) – Journalism in Classic Film Blogathon
- The Devil’s Holiday (1930) Starring Nancy Carroll
- The Human Comedy (1943) Starring Mickey Rooney
- The Constant Nymph (1943) Starring Joan Fontaine and Charles Boyer
- MGM’s Hardy Family Series #8 – Judge Hardy and Son (1939)
- Gambling Lady (1934) for the Barbara Stanwyck Blogathon
- Best Picture Cavalcade (1933) Sets Stage for Upstairs, Downstairs and Beyond
- First Impressions: King Vidor’s The Big Parade (1925)
- Death on the Diamond (1934) – Baseball, Murder and Robert Young
- Eric Linden Comes of Age in MGM’s Ah, Wilderness! (1935)
- Big City Blues (1932), Pre-Code Party in Depression-Era New York
- Man Wanted (1932) – Charles Kenyon Updates The Office Wife (1930)
- The Lost Squadron (1932) Starring Richard Dix, With Erich von Stroheim
- The Office Wife (1930) Starring Dorothy Mackaill and Lewis Stone
- Her Man (1930) Starring Helen Twelvetrees and Phillips Holmes
- The Sin Ship (1931) – Astor’s Frisco Kitty Makes for Holy Wolheim
- The Penalty (1941) Starring Gene Reynolds and Edward Arnold
- Public Enemy’s Wife (1936) and Bullets for O’Hara (1941)
- G Men (1935) Starring James Cagney, Margaret Lindsay, and Ann Dvorak
- How Green Was My Valley (1941) and the Black Slag of Time
- Brief Impressions: No Other Woman – Side Streets – Evelyn Prentice – Millionaires in Prison
- Night Court (1932) Starring Phillips Holmes and Walter Huston
- Evergreen (1934) – Gaumont British Musical Starring Jessie Matthews
- Brief Impressions, 1934 Edition: A Wicked Woman – Housewife – Success at Any Price
- Panama Flo (1932) With Brief Biography of Star Helen Twelvetrees
- In Brief: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Does Impressions in Our Modern Maidens (1929)
- The Racket (1928) Starring Thomas Meighan, Louis Wolheim and Marie Prevost
- Paramount’s 24 Hours (1931) with Clive Brook, Kay Francis, Miriam Hopkins
- The Corpse Came C.O.D. (1947) and the Hollywood Gossip Columnists
- The Farmer’s Daughter (1947) Starring Loretta Young and Joseph Cotten
- The Phantom of Crestwood (1932) with Ricardo Cortez and Karen Morley
- RKO’s Hell’s Highway (1932) Beats Other Chain Gang Movie to Theaters
- First Impressions: Little Women (1933) Starring Katharine Hepburn
- First Impressions: Little Men (1940) Starring Kay Francis
- RKO’s Jalna (1935) Inspires Craving for More Mazo de la Roche
- Midnight Mary (1933) Starring Loretta Young, Ricardo Cortez, Franchot Tone
- Gallant Sons (1940) Starring Jackie Cooper, Bonita Granville and Gene Reynolds
- MGM’s Hardy Family Series #7 – Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever (1939)
- MGM’s Hardy Family Series #6 – The Hardys Ride High (1939)
- MGM’s Hardy Family Series #5 – Out West with the Hardys (1938)
- MGM’s Hardy Family Series #4 – Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938)
- MGM’s Hardy Family Series #3 – Judge Hardy’s Children (1938)
- MGM’s Hardy Family Series #2 – You’re Only Young Once (1937)
- Show Girl in Hollywood (1930) Starring Alice White as Dixie Dugan
- Safe in Hell (1931), Talkie Triumph for Tough Dorothy Mackaill
- Washington Merry-Go-Round (1932) with Lee Tracy and Constance Cummings
- Mary Burns, Fugitive (1935) Starring Sylvia Sidney with Melvyn Douglas
- Dracula (1931) – Bela Lugosi and the Dark, Still Chilling
- Paramount’s The Night of June 13th (1932), Street Scene of the Suburbs
- The Half Naked Truth (1932) Starring Lee Tracy and Lupe Velez
- Johnny Apollo (1940) starring Tyrone Power and Dorothy Lamour
- Dr. Monica (1934) Starring Kay Francis, Warren William and Jean Muir
- Smart Money (1931) Starring Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney
- Night Flight (1933) with John and Lionel Barrymore, Gable and More
- Kings Row (1942) with Robert Cummings, Ronald Reagan and Ann Sheridan
- Penthouse (1933) Starring Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy
- John Ford’s Stagecoach (1939) Starring John Wayne and Claire Trevor
- Lewis Milestone’s The Purple Heart (1944) Starring Dana Andrews
- The Solitaire Man (1933) Starring Herbert Marshall and Lionel Atwill
- Down to the Sea in Ships (1922) – Whaling Action and Clara Bow
- Kind Lady (1935) Starring Aline MacMahon and Basil Rathbone
- Stablemates (1938) – MGM Rides Seabiscuit to Hit with Beery and Rooney
- Warner Baxter as The Crime Doctor: A Crime Doctor Episode Guide
- Crime Doctor (1943) Starring Warner Baxter with Dr. Ordway’s Origins
- Government Girl (1943) Starring Olivia de Havilland and Sonny Tufts
- Flesh (1932) Starring Wallace Beery and Karen Morley
- The Richest Girl in the World (1934) Starring Miriam Hopkins and Joel McCrea
- It Happened in Hollywood (1937) Starring Richard Dix and Fay Wray
- The Doorway to Hell (1930) Starring Lew Ayres and James Cagney
- Night World (1932) Starring Mae Clarke, Lew Ayres and Boris Karloff
- The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944) Starring Fredric March
- Freddie Bartholomew is Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936)
- Laughing Sinners (1931) With Joan Crawford, Neil Hamilton, Clark Gable
- Adam Had Four Sons (1941) Starring Warner Baxter and Ingrid Bergman
- The Voice of Bugle Ann (1936) Starring Lionel Barrymore with Maureen O’Sullivan
- Going Highbrow (1935) With Guy Kibbee, ZaSu Pitts, Edward Everett Horton
- The Devil Is a Sissy (1936) Starring Freddie Bartholomew, Jackie Cooper, Mickey Rooney
- Piccadilly Jim (1936) Starring Robert Montgomery and Madge Evans
- Cecil B. DeMille’s Cleopatra (1934) Starring Claudette Colbert
- Silver Dollar (1932) Starring Edward G. Robinson, Aline MacMahon and Bebe Daniels
- The Wet Parade (1932) Dramatizes the Evils of Liquor … and Prohibition
- Jewel Robbery (1932) – Kay Francis and William Powell for a Sixth Time
- Abandon Ship (1957) aka Seven Waves Away – Tyrone Power Commands This Lifeboat
- One Way Passage (1932) – Glass Stems & Spoilers: The Final Minute
- One Way Passage (1932) Starring William Powell and Kay Francis
- Stage Struck (1936) Starring Dick Powell and Joan Blondell
- The Razor’s Edge (1946) Starring Tyrone Power, A Success Story
- Henry Hull is the Werewolf of London (1935)
- The World Changes (1933) Starring the Many Faces of Paul Muni
- The Dragon Murder Case (1934) Article Posted at Warren-William.com
- Bright Leaf (1950), Gary Cooper Takes Over Big Tobacco
- I Married a Witch (1942) Starring Fredric March and Veronica Lake
- Lawyer Man (1932) Starring William Powell and Joan Blondell
- Somerset Maugham’s The Narrow Corner (1933) Starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
- Baseball Movie The Stratton Story (1949) Starring James Stewart
- Stranger in Town (1932) – Chic Sale Takes on a Big Grocery Chain
- Lust for Gold (1949) Starring Ida Lupino and Glenn Ford
- Call Her Savage (1932) Stars Clara Bow as Pre-Code Dynamite
- The Mole People (1956) starring John Agar and Hugh Beaumont
- Symphony of Six Million (1932) starring Ricardo Cortez
- A Dispatch from Reuters (1940) – Plus the Real Reuter vs. Edward G. Robinson
- The Valley of Decision (1945) starring Greer Garson and Gregory Peck
- The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, & Observation of David Copperfield the Younger (1935)
- Them! (1954) featuring Edmund Gwenn vs. Giant Ants
- Red Light (1949) Starring George Raft and Virginia Mayo
- Devil and the Deep (1932) Starring Charles Laughton and Tallulah Bankhead
- Woman Wanted (1935) Starring Maureen O’Sullivan and Joel McCrea
- Eleven Men and a Girl (1930) starring Joan Bennett and Joe E. Brown
- Remembering Jackie Cooper, 1922-2011, with Peck’s Bad Boy (1934)
- The Criminal Code (1931) Starring Walter Huston with Boris Karloff
- Personal Property (1937) Starring Jean Harlow and Robert Taylor
- Watching Wings (1927) for the First Time
- Employees’ Entrance (1933) starring Warren William and the Franklin-Monroe Department Store
- The Conquerors (1932) Starring Richard Dix and Ann Harding
- Moments of Horror as Boris Karloff Stars as The Mummy (1932)
- More on That Forsyte Woman (1949), Especially an Altogether Different Errol Flynn
- A Family Affair (1937) Introduces Judge Hardy’s Family
- First Impressions: Princess O’Rourke (1943) with Olivia De Havilland
- First Impressions: Arrowsmith (1931) with Ronald Colman and Helen Hayes
- First Impressions: Mrs. Parkington (1944) with Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon
- First Impressions: Andy Hardy’s Private Secretary (1941)
- First Impressions: Bright Leaf (1950) Starring Gary Cooper
- In Old Chicago (1937) starring Power, Ameche, Faye, with a Biographical Aside about Oscar Winner Alice Brady
- Captain Blood (1935) Action Energized by Errol Flynn and Korngold’s Score
- My Name Is Julia Ross (1945) starring Nina Foch and George Macready
- James Dunn and Claire Dodd star in The Payoff (1935)
- Double Wedding (1937) Starring William Powell and Myrna Loy
- Big Cast in MGM’s 1951 anthology It’s a Big Country
- Cass Timberlane (1947) starring Spencer Tracy and Lana Turner
- Mary Astor Stars in Smart Woman (1931); Screen Husband Robert Ames Dies Soon After Release
- The Women star in Westward the Women (1951) with Robert Taylor
- Robert Taylor and Janet Gaynor star in Small Town Girl (1936)
- Walter Huston is Dodsworth (1936) with Ruth Chatterton and Mary Astor
- Kay Francis and Ian Hunter in I Found Stella Parish (1935)
- Ronald Colman stars in A Tale of Two Cities (1935)
- The Tip-Off (1931) with Eddie Quillan, Ginger Rogers and Turkey Mike Donlin
- William Powell and Myrna Loy star in The Thin Man (1934)
- Charles Laughton stars in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933)
- China Seas (1935) starring Clark Gable and Jean Harlow
- Union Depot (1932) starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr and Joan Blondell
- The Southerner (1945) starring Zachary Scott and Betty Field
- Edward G. Robinson in The Sea Wolf (1941) with Alexander Knox
- The Whole Town’s Talking (1935) starring Edward G. Robinson and Jean Arthur
- Peggy Hopkins Joyce, W.C. Fields, et al., in Paramount’s International House (1933)
- Edward G. Robinson’s Incredible Performance in Two Seconds (1932)
- Tyrone Power breaking out in Lloyd’s of London (1936)
- My Woman (1933) Starring Helen Twelvetrees and Wallace Ford
- The Story of Louis Pasteur (1935) starring Paul Muni with Josephine Hutchinson
- Cheela the Ape stars in Captive Wild Woman with John Carradine
- The Invisible Ray (1936) starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi
- Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) starring Bela Lugosi and Sidney Fox
- Arsene Lupin Returns (1938) starring Melvyn Douglas, Virginia Bruce, Warren William
- Peter Lorre stars in MGM’s Mad Love (1935)
- Reflections after The Magic Box – What classic movies inspire you?
- Robert Donat stars in Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps (1935)
- Tyrone Power in Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake (1942)
- Diamond Jim (1935) starring Edward Arnold as Diamond Jim Brady
- Louise Brooks stars in William Wellman’s Beggars of Life (1928)
- Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels starring Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake
- King Vidor’s Our Daily Bread (1934) more than just a big finish
- Clive Brook adapts, directs, and stars in On Approval (1944)
- Lana Turner and John Garfield in The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
- Fritz Lang’s Fury (1936) Starring Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sidney
- Early Frank Capra on TCM today, we go earlier with The Matinee Idol (1928)
- Edward Arnold as Blind Detective Duncan Maclain in Eyes in the Night (1942)
- Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich and Charles Laughton in Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
- Ronald Colman is The Late George Apley (1947)
- Cary Grant in Night and Day (1946)
- Charles Laughton as Ruggles of Red Gap (1935)
- The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) starring Errol Flynn
- Merrily We Go to Hell starring Fredric March and Sylvia Sidney
- Search for Beauty (1934) starring Ida Lupino and Buster Crabbe
- Viewing The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) for Leslie Howard’s Birthday
- Larceny, Inc. (1942) starring Edward G. Robinson and Jane Wyman
- The Beast of the City (1932) starring Walter Huston and Wallace Ford
- Twentieth Century (1934) starring John Barrymore and Carole Lombard
- Three on a Match (1932) starring Warren William and Ann Dvorak
- The Young in Heart (1938) starring Janet Gaynor and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
- A Free Soul (1931) starring Norma Shearer and Lionel Barrymore