Reviews

The Bad Sister (1931) features the debut of Bette Davis. While Ms. Davis is given the good sister role with little to do in the movie, Sidney Fox takes the title role. The movie is thoroughly entertaining and showcases some great performances (David Durand and Zasu Pitts). The worse part is the end of the movie. When the climax arises, everything is then resolved in 3 minutes with some sort of Deux Ex Machina. Nevertheless, it is worth watching if only for the early appearences of Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart.

Surely, it is not the best movie of the earlie talkies era. Nevertheless, The Drums of Jeopardy sets a fairly good pace since the beginning. Despite the mediocre script, the movie is enjoyable and keeps you entertained throughout its 65 minutes lenght. The players perform decently for the early 30's standards. I did get a few laughs from Clara Blandick's performance. I was, also, thrilled to see a character of a woman over 50 with a prominent role in a 1931 movie.

The story brings you back to its time when women would get paid ten cents a dance. The movie soon falls into the story of the troubled marriage between Barbara O'Neill (Stanwyck and Eddie Miller (Owsley). While the Dance Hall scenes are enjoyable, the melodrama of the main plot lowers the value of this picture. Barbara Stanwyck is surprinsingly good given the material and the fact that she was just starting in movies. The rest of the cast is solid enough but nothing spectacular. Make sure you give it a watch if you are mad about golden Hollywood.

Segundo Víctor Aurelio Chomón y Ruiz (17 October 1871 in Teruel - 2 May 1929) was a pioneering Spanish film director. He produced many short films in France while working for Pathé Frères and has been compared to Georges Méliès, due to his frequent camera tricks and optical illusions.

I was surprised by this one. I've been searching for old movies for quite a while and often I found interesting movies based on how many years they have. But this one (we are talking 106 years ago!) is actually entertaining. A refreshing use of camera tricks for its time and a good 6 minutes watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zo2EKNRIQlE&feature=endscreen&NR=1