Latest movies by ClarenceBrown

The Yearling (film)

01 01 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Movie Title: The Yearling (film)

Movie Language: English

Movie Length: 128 min

Movie Synopsis:
The Yearling is a 1946 family film drama made by MGM. It was directed by Clarence Brown and produced by Sidney Franklin. The screenplay was by Paul Osborn and John Lee Mahin (uncredited), adapted from the novel by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. It tells the story of a boy who adopts a fawn as a pet and stars Gregory Peck, Jane Wyman, Claude Jarman Jr., Chill Wills and Forrest Tucker.The Yearling won Academy Awards for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color (Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse, Edwin B. Willis) and Best Cinematography, Color and was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Gregory Peck), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Jane Wyman), Best Director, Best Film Editing and Best Picture. Jarman Jr., who gets the most screen time, was awarded a special "Juvenile Oscar".The film was remade as a television movie by CBS in 1994 starring Peter Strauss, Jean Smart and Wil Horneff as Penny, Ory and Jody Baxter respectively.The Yearling is a timeless Pulitzer Prize winning story with earthy dialect about the Baxter family set in the south in the middle of a slew of southern escapades. The Baxter son, Jody Baxter, asks for something more than their comfortable home, a pet, in fact a fawn named Flag.Penny Baxter, a rebel soldier, (Gregory Peck) and his wife, Ory (Jane Wyman), become pioneer farmers in Florida after the American Civil War. Jody Baxter (Claude Jarman Jr.), a boy in his pre-teen years, is their only surviving child. Jody has a wonderful relationship with his warm and loving pa. Ory, however, is still haunted by the deaths of the three other children of the family; she is very somber and hard-hearted and is (strangely) afraid that Jody will end up dying if she shows her parental love to him. Jody finds her somewhat unloving and unreasonable.With all of his siblings dead and buried, Jody longs for a pet to play with and take care of. Penny is sympathetic and understanding, but Ory is rather disgusted. One day, when a rattler bites Penny, they kill a doe and use its organs to draw out the poison. Jody asks to adopt the doe's orphaned fawn; Penny permits it but warns Jody that the fawn will have to be set free when it grows up.Jody goes to ask his frail friend Fodderwing to name the fawn only to find he has recently died. However Fodderwing's father says he always said that if he had a Fawn he would name him Flag, for the critter's waving white tail.Soon, he and Flag are inseparable. One year later, Flag grows up and becomes a total nuisance to the household and farm; it eats newly-grown corn, destroys fences, and tramples on tobacco crops. Penny orders Jody to take the deer out into the woods and shoot it to death. Jody takes the deer out, but does not have the courage to kill it; he orders the deer to go away and never return instead. But Flag comes back to their property. Finally, Ory (who Jody believes had always hated his pet) takes the gun and shoots it but only wounds the deer. Penny orders Jody to put the deer out of its misery. Rather than let his pet deer be in agonizing pain, he follows his father's orders.The loss of Jody's beloved pet deer proves too much for him to handle; overwhelmed with anger and despair, he runs away from home. Three days later, he is rescued by a friendly boat captain and returns home. He and Penny quickly make up, and Penny tells him that Ory had been out searching for him. Just before Jody goes to bed, Ory returns and sees that he is back. She becomes filled with happiness and emotion, knowing that her huge fear of losing her last child is now over. She happily runs into Jody's room and showers him with more affection than she ever gave him. She is no longer afraid to show her parental love to him.

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Wife vs. Secretary

01 01 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Movie Title: Wife vs. Secretary

Movie Language: English

Movie Length: 88 min.

Movie Synopsis:
Wife vs. Secretary (1936) is a comedy film directed by Clarence Brown and starring Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Myrna Loy, and May Robson. The film was the fifth of six collaborations between Gable and Harlow and the fourth of seven collaborations between Gable and Loy. The film was also one of the first memorable roles for James Stewart, who played Harlow's boyfriend. After being unavailable for over a decade, the film was released on DVD on June 20, 2006.Magazine publisher Van Stanhope (Gable) and his wife Linda (Loy) are celebrating their third wedding anniversary. They are very much in love and Van gives Linda a diamond bracelet. However, Van's secretary, the beautiful Helen "Whitey" Wilson (Harlow), is thought by Van's mother to be a temptation to Van. Linda refuses to listen to all of her friends and Van's mother as she trusts Van. In truth, she has all the reason in the world to trust him, as his relationship with Whitey is strictly business. Meanwhile, Whitey's beau, Dave (Stewart), is very uncomfortable about her relationship with Van as he calls one night while they're having dinner to ask that Whitey help him finish work at a party. When Dave asks Whitey to marry him, Whitey refuses, and buries herself further in her work. When Van has to be very secretive to buy J. D. Underwood's weekly, for fear that his rival will buy it instead, only Whitey is permitted to know, providing still more conflict between Van and his wife. When Van returns from his business meeting with Underwood and tells Linda that he has been at the club all day, Linda discovers that he has not been at the club but rather has been out with Whitey, who was merely helping him prepare for his discussion with Underwood. At a skating party, Linda is too sick to skate, but hears from one of the wives there that Van and Whitey are most likely having an affair as Van and Whitey skate. When Linda and Van get into the car, they fight when Linda requests that Van have Whitey moved to another employer. Van refuses and Linda ignores him for the rest of the evening until she calls him back to make up. Van plans a trip for himself and Linda, but when he learns that Underwood is at a conference in Havana, changes his plans and won't permit Linda to accompany him while he works. Whitey learns of important information regarding the rival paper, which results in Van bringing her to Havana to close the deal. While celebrating the successful closing of the deal, they develop a drunken attraction to each other but do not consummate this attraction. When Linda calls, Whitey answers the phone, and she assumes they are having an affair. Van returns to New York only to have Linda ignoring him entirely and asking for a divorce. Lonely, he asks Whitey to accompany him to Bermuda as a friend, which she, having fallen in love with Van, agrees to. But realizing that Van will never love her as much as he loves Linda, she visits her on the boat that Linda has planned to take her to Europe. Whitey tells her to go back to Van, telling her that she would be a fool to let him go. After resistance, Linda meets him in his office and they make up. Whitey is then met by Dave where they make up as well.

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The White Cliffs of Dover (1944 film)

01 01 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Movie Title: The White Cliffs of Dover (1944 film)

Movie Language: English

Movie Length: 126 min.

Movie Synopsis:
The White Cliffs of Dover is a 1944 film made by Loew's and MGM. It was directed by Clarence Brown and produced by Clarence Brown and Sidney Franklin. The screenplay was by Claudine West, Jan Lustig and George Froeschel, based on the Alice Duer Miller poem entitled The White Cliffs with additional poetry by Robert Nathan.It tells the story of an American girl who travels abroad to England and falls in love with an English aristocrat. The girl marries the Englishman but their honeymoon is cut short on its first day as World War I breaks out. The husband goes to war in France, sees his bride only once more and then is killed in action near the end of the war. In the meantime the wife has his son, that she raises along with the father's mother. A scene in the movie approximating the early 30s shows adolescent German boys, part of an exchange program, visitng the English family's country estate. Insinuating they were part of early Nazi invasion plans, the movie has the boys let it slip in conversation that they are contemplating how the estate's large lawns would be ideal for troop gliders to land on.Starring Irene Dunne, Alan Marshal, Roddy McDowall, Frank Morgan, Van Johnson, C. Aubrey Smith, Gladys Cooper, Peter Lawford, Dame May Whitty, Elizabeth Taylor and Norma Varden, the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography in Black and White.

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Sadie McKee

01 01 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Movie Title: Sadie McKee

Movie Language: English

Movie Length: 93 min.

Movie Synopsis:
Sadie McKee is a 1934 motion picture, directed by Clarence Brown, and starring Joan Crawford, Gene Raymond, Franchot Tone and Edward Arnold. In the film, Crawford plays the title character—a young working girl suffering through three troubled relationships on her road to prosperity.Sadie McKee works as a serving maid in the same household where her mother is a cook, and is admired by the son of her employer, lawyer Michael Alderson. However, when Michael talks badly of her boyfriend, Tommy Wallace, during a family dinner, Sadie openly denounces her employers as snobby and insensitive. Sadie then flees to New York City with Tommy, who was fired from his job in the Alderson factory for alleged cheating. Nearly broke, Sadie and Tommy are befriended in New York by Opal, a hardened club performer, who takes them to her boardinghouse. The next morning, Sadie leaves the boardinghouse to look for a job but makes plans with Tommy to meet at the marriage license bureau at noon. Soon after she leaves, however, neighbor Dolly Merrick hears Tommy singing in the bathroom and seduces him into joining her traveling club act, which is leaving town that morning. Heartbroken and embittered by Tommy's desertion, Sadie struggles to find reputable employment but eventually joins Opal as a dancer in a nightclub. Ten days later, Jack Brennan, a jovial, rich alcoholic, helps Sadie handle an abusive customer and then demands that she sit at his table, which he is sharing with a friend—Michael Alderson. Still angry at Michael, Sadie ignores his speech to leave his intoxicated companion alone and goes home with Brennan that evening. Soon after, Sadie marries the adoring Brennan and, while enjoying her newfound wealth, does her best to handle his constant drunkenness. Then one afternoon, Sadie, who has been following Tommy's crooning career, goes to see him performing with Dolly at the Apollo Theater and is thrilled by the loving looks he throws her during his number. However, when Sadie returns home that evening, she learns from Michael and the family physician that unless Brennan stops drinking, he will die within six months. Sobered by the diagnosis, Sadie sacrifices her chance to reunite with Tommy and, after rallying the servants to her side, imprisons her husband in his house and forces him to quit drinking. Later Sadie goes with Michael and the now recovered Brennan to the club where she used to dance and is startled to see Dolly there performing without Tommy. After she confronts Dolly and finds out that Tommy was dumped in New Orleans, Sadie confesses to Brennan that she is in love with another man and wants a divorce. The understanding Brennan grants Sadie her request, and Michael, anxious to win her forgiveness, undertakes to find Tommy. Michael eventually locates Tommy in the city and deduces that he is suffering from tuberculosis. Aided by Michael, Tommy is admitted to a hospital. By the time Sadie is allowed to see him, Tommy's condition has suddenly worsened, and he dies after telling her that it was Michael who had helped him. Four months later, Michael celebrates his birthday with Sadie and her mother, and looks into Sadie's forgiving eyes before making his birthday wish.

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Of Human Hearts

01 01 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Movie Title: Of Human Hearts

Movie Language: English

Movie Length: 100-103 minutes

Movie Synopsis:
Of Human Hearts is a 1938 film directed by Clarence Brown and starring Walter Huston, James Stewart and Beulah Bondi. Bondi was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.In the days leading up to the American Civil War, a young man clashes with his poor preacher father and neglects his supportive mother.

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National Velvet (film)

01 01 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Movie Title: National Velvet (film)

Movie Language: English

Movie Length: 123 min.

Movie Synopsis:
National Velvet is a 1944 film based on the novel by Enid Bagnold, first published in 1935. It stars Mickey Rooney, Donald Crisp and a young Elizabeth Taylor. In 2003, National Velvet was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".National Velvet is the story of a twelve-year girl, Velvet Brown, living in Sewels in Sussex, England, who saves a horse from the knacker's yard and trains it for the Grand National steeplechase, aided by her father's hired hand, a young drifter, Mi Taylor. The fictional horse which Velvet Brown trained and rode in the National is called "The Pie". However, when she discovers that the Latvian jockey hired to ride the Pie doesn't believe he can win, she disguises herself as a male jockey and rides the horse to victory herself.

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A Free Soul

01 01 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Movie Title: A Free Soul

Movie Language: English

Movie Length: 91 min.

Movie Synopsis:
A Free Soul (1931) is a Pre-Code film which tells the story of an alcoholic defense attorney who must defend his daughter's ex-boyfriend on a charge of murdering the mobster she had started a relationship with; a mobster whom her father had previously gotten an acquittal for on a murder charge. A Free Soul stars Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, Lionel Barrymore and Clark Gable (the first screen appearance together of the future Ashley Wilkes and Rhett Butler).The movie was adapted by Becky Gardiner and John Meehan (dialogue continuity) from the play by Willard Mack, which was based on the book by Adela Rogers St. Johns. It was directed by Clarence Brown.A Free Soul became famous for a 14-minute uninterrupted take where Barrymore delivers a monologue that is said to be the main reason he won the Academy Award for Best Actor that year. (Norma Shearer was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role and Clarence Brown for Best Director.) Gable made such an impression in the role of a gangster who pushes Shearer around that he was catapulted from supporting player to leading man, a position he held for the rest of his career.A Free Soul was released on DVD by Warner Home Video on March 8, 2008 (along with The Divorcee, also starring Norma Shearer), as one of five Pre-Code films in the "TCM Archives - Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol. 2" DVD box set.

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Flesh and the Devil

01 01 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Movie Title: Flesh and the Devil

Movie Language: English

Movie Length: 109 min. (USA), 113 min. (UK)

Movie Synopsis:
Flesh and the Devil (1926) is an MGM silent film starring Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Lars Hanson, and Barbara Kent, directed by Clarence Brown, and based on the play The Undying Past by Hermann Sudermann.In 2006, Flesh and the Devil was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".The film was a melodrama about two childhood friends who grow up to be soldiers in Germany. After returning to civilian life, one of the friends, Leo, (Gilbert) becomes infatuated with Felicitas (Garbo) the wife of a powerful count. After Leo kills the count in a duel over the love and honor of Felicitas, he is punished by the military and sent away to Africa for three years. He asks his friend, Ulrich (Lars Hanson) to take care of Felicitas' needs while he's away, but Ulrich - unaware that his friend is in love with Felicitas, falls in love with her himself and marries her. Upon Leo's return, he finds himself torn between temptation for Felicitas -- which the young woman encourages -- and his friendship for Ulrich. Condemned by a local pastor for carrying on an affair with Felicitas, Leo eventually loses control of his emotions and tries to kill the woman, leading to a climactic duel between the two boyhood friends.

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Edison, the Man

01 01 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Movie Title: Edison, the Man

Movie Language: English

Movie Length: 107 minutes

Movie Synopsis:
Edison, the Man was a 1940 biographical film depicting the life of inventor Thomas Edison, who was played by Spencer Tracy. Much of the film's script fictionalizes or exaggerates the real events of Edison's life.In 1869, anxious to be more than a tramp telegraph operator, Edison travels to New York at the prompting of an old friend, Bunt Cavatt. He goes to work for Mr. Els (Henry Travers). He tries to persuade financier Mr. Taggart (Gene Lockhart) to fund the development of his inventions, but Taggart has no interest in financing “green electrical workers”. However, General Powell, the president of Western Union, does.Edison eventually sells an invention to Taggart and Powell for $40,000, enabling him to get married and open his own “invention factory” at Menlo Park. In the next few years, he perfects the phonograph with his devoted staff.Trouble arises when Bunt brags to reporters that Edison has invented the electric light. Since he hasn't yet, he is condemned by the scientific community (encouraged by Taggart, whose gas stocks are threatened by the announcement). Edison “leaves science behind”, and with a Herculean trial-and-error effort, finally succeeds in inventing a practical electric light. However, his subsequent plans to light New York are again hindered by Taggart, who arranges it so that Edison is only given six months to complete the entire task. However, Edison finishes the job within the time allotted.

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The Eagle (film)

01 01 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Movie Title: The Eagle (film)

Movie Language: Silent

Movie Length: 80 minutes

Movie Synopsis:
The Eagle is a 1925 silent movie directed by Clarence Brown and starring Rudolph Valentino, Vilma Bánky, Louise Dresser and James A. Marcus. It was based on the story Dubrovsky by Alexander Pushkin.Vladimir Dubrovsky (Rudolph Valentino), a Cossack serving in the Russian army, comes to the notice of the Czarina (Louise Dresser) when he rescues Mascha (Vilma Bánky), a beautiful young lady, and her aunt trapped in a runaway stagecoach. He is delighted when the Czarina offers to make him a general but horrified when she tries to seduce him. He flees and the Czarina puts a price on his head.Soon afterwards he receives a letter from his father informing him that the evil nobleman Kyrilla Troekouroff (James A. Marcus) has taken over his lands and is terrorizing the countryside. Hurrying home, Vladimir learns that his father has died. Vowing to avenge his father and help the victimized peasantry, he adopts a black mask and becomes the Black Eagle, a Robin Hood figure. Discovering that Kyrilla is Mascha's father, he pretends to be her French tutor and becomes part of Kyrilla's household. As Vladimir's love for Mascha grows, he becomes more and more reluctant to continue seeking revenge against her father, and the two eventually flee the Troekouroff estate. Vladimir is captured by the Czarina's men, but the Czarina, once determined to have him executed, has a last minute change of heart, and Vladimir and Mascha leave Russia for Paris under an alias.

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Conquest (1937 film)

01 01 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Movie Title: Conquest (1937 film)

Movie Language: English

Movie Length: 113 min

Movie Synopsis:
Conquest (also called Marie Walewska) is a 1937 film which tells the story of a Polish countess who becomes the mistress of Napoleon in order to influence his actions towards her homeland. It stars Greta Garbo, Charles Boyer, Reginald Owen, Alan Marshal, Henry Stephenson, Leif Erickson, Dame May Whitty, George Zucco, and Maria Ouspenskaya.The movie was adapted by S. N. Behrman, Samuel Hoffenstein, Helen Jerome and Salka Viertel from the novel Pani Walewska by Waclaw Gasiorowski. It was directed by Clarence Brown and Gustav Machatý (uncredited).It was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Charles Boyer) and Best Art Direction. This movie was Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's biggest money losing movie prior to 1949. Its worldwide gross amounted to $2,141,000. But its massive budget led to a loss of $1,397,000.After a brief informal meeting two months earlier when they were impressed with each other, Countess Marie Walewska (Garbo) formally meets Napoleon Bonaparte (Boyer) at a ball in Warsaw. When Napoleon notes her husband, Count Walewski (Stephenson), is three times her age, and as he is taken with her charms, he unsuccessfully tries to seduce her. She ignores his frequent letters and flowers until a few grim Polish leaders led by Senator Malachowski (Zucco) urge her to give into his desires as a personal sacrifice in order to save Poland. She goes to him despite the humiliation of her husband, who leaves for Rome to annul their marriage. They are extremely happy for a while; Napoleon divorces childless Empress Josephine and Marie eventually becomes pregnant. She is about to tell Napoleon about her baby when he tells her he decided to marry Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria. He explains it will be a political marriage to insure his future son could rule securely with Habsburg blood in him. It will not affect their relationship, he says, but Marie Walewska leaves to have her baby alone without telling Napoleon she is expecting his child.

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Ah, Wilderness! (film)

01 01 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Movie Title: Ah, Wilderness! (film)

Movie Language: English

Movie Length: 98 minutes

Movie Synopsis:
Ah, Wilderness! (1935) is an adaptation of the Eugene O'Neill play of the same name. The movie was filmed in Grafton, Massachusetts, directed by Clarence Brown, stars Wallace Beery as the drunken uncle later portrayed on Broadway by Jackie Gleason, and features Lionel Barrymore, Eric Linden, Cecilia Parker, Spring Byington, and a young Mickey Rooney. Rooney also starred in MGM's musical remake Summer Holiday (1948).The film holds the dubious distinction of being the first to advertise in trade papers for Academy Award nominations, depicting a cartoon of MGM's Leo the Lion holding an Oscar and proudly stating "You've given so much, Leo ... Get ready to receive!" Despite, or perhaps because of the ad campaign, the film failed to receive a single nomination.

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The Last of the Mohicans

01 01 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Movie Title: The Last of the Mohicans

Movie Language: Silent

Movie Length: 1:13:00

Movie Synopsis:
As Alice and Cora Munro attempt to find their father, a British officer in the French and Indian War, they are set upon by French soldiers and their cohorts, Huron tribesmen led by the evil Magua. Fighting to rescue the women are Chingachgook and his son Uncas, the last of the Mohican tribe, and their white ally, the frontiersman Natty Bumppo, known as Hawkeye.

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