Alberto Morin Movies

This silent romantic adventure is set in the Sahara desert, and purports to be a sequel to the successful Beau Geste. Like the first, it is based on a story by Christopher Wren and features members from the original cast. The story begins as three Legionnaires do not return promptly from furlough and end up in the poky. There, the hero duels with a traitor and wins, causing him to gain the designation "Beau Sabreur." Later he is sent into the desert to learn the ways of the Arabs and to help forge a peace treaty. There he encounters a lovely American journalist. Meanwhile the defeated traitor tries to stop the treaty from going through. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Norwegian skating star Sonja Henie reached an early pinnacle with this romantic comedy co-starring Tyrone Power as a Ruritanian prince impersonating an American reporter. They fall in love, of course, and the whirlwind romance threatens to interrupt an important treaty between three rival principalities. In between Henie's skating extravaganzas -- which reportedly involved more that 100 skaters and a rink 100 by 145 feet in length -- vocalist Leah Ray and the company perform "My Secret Love Affair," "Over Night," and "My Swiss Hilly Billy," all by Lew Pollack and Sidney D. Mitchell, while comedienne Joan Davis takes care of "I'm Olga From the Volga" by Mack Gordon and Harry Revel. Both Thin Ice and Paramount's simultaneous (and better) Easy Living were partially based on a 1922 Hungarian play, Der Komet, leading Fox to briefly entertain the idea of suing the rival company. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

After a year-long period of starring in such heavy fare as Maid of Salem, Claudette Colbert returned to comedy with I Met Him in Paris. Colbert plays a successful American fashion designer, squired by three suitors: playwright Melvyn Douglas, playboy Robert Young and hometown lad Lee Bowman. Bowman is fourth-billed, so that lets him out. Young is already married: Strike Two. That leaves Melvyn Douglas, who is indeed the winner of this three-way race. Most of the film takes place at a vacation resort in Switzerland (actually Sun Valley, Idaho), where several minutes of humor is extracted from the three suitors' clumsiness on skis. I Met Him in Paris charmed the critics in 1937; today it seems like just another pleasant diversion, served up by experts in the comedy field. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This is an epic Darryl F. Zanuck production that plays fast and loose with historical facts regarding early 19th century French politics and the building of the Suez Canal. Tyrone Power stars as Ferdinand de Lesseps, an engineer and son of a French nobleman (Harry Stephenson). At the start of the film, he is in love with Eugenie (Loretta Young), but so is the French President Louis Napoleon (Leon Ames). After his father is appointed French consul to Egypt, the younger de Lesseps travels there and conceives the idea of a canal connecting the Mediterranean and Red seas. Back in France, he is promised help by Eugenie, now Napoleon's mistress, in exchange for Count de Lesseps' agreement to dissolve the government temporarily. Napoleon then declares himself emperor, making Eugenie his empress. The elder de Lesseps dies of shock at the political betrayal, while the younger de Lesseps starts building the canal, overcoming attacks by tribal people and severe heat. France cuts off backing, and de Lesseps has to get help from England to finish the project. A sandstorm injures de Lesseps, and his French-Egyptian lover Toni (Annabella) straps him to a post to save him, sacrificing her own life for the canal. Power and Annabella married each other after the film. The descendants of de Lesseps sued 20th Century Fox for libel, but lost. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Former doctor Jim Howard (Herbert Marshall) helps desperate Margot Weston (Barbara Stanwyck), pregnant and unmarried; when her son is born, Jim helps her place the baby with Phil Marshall (Ian Hunter) and his wife, on the condition that neither the Marshalls nor the child ever know Margot is his mother. Five years later, Margot is now a well-paid buyer for the store owned by Harriet Martin (Binnie Barnes); she meets Jim again, and a romance begins to blossom, but she's off to Paris on Harriet's behalf. There, Margot is wooed by the charming but carefree Count Giovanni Corini (Cesar Romero) and she happens to meet her son Roddy (Johnnie Russell), traveling with his aunt, as Mrs. Marshall has died. On the trip back to America, Margot and Roddy become very close, while Corini, on the same ship, continues to pursue Margot. At home, she becomes convinced that Jessica (Lynn Bari), Phil's new fiancee, doesn't love him, and will be a bad mother to Roddy, so she decides to break up the engagement, but Jim, beginning a career as a scientist, reminds her of her earlier promise not to interfere in the boy's life. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide

Gone With the Wind boils down to a story about a spoiled Southern girl's hopeless love for a married man. Producer David O. Selznick managed to expand this concept, and Margaret Mitchell's best-selling novel, into nearly four hours' worth of screen time, on a then-astronomical 3.7-million-dollar budget, creating what would become one of the most beloved movies of all time. Gone With the Wind opens in April of 1861, at the palatial Southern estate of Tara, where Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) hears that her casual beau Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard) plans to marry "mealy mouthed" Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland). Despite warnings from her father (Thomas Mitchell) and her faithful servant Mammy (Hattie McDaniel), Scarlett intends to throw herself at Ashley at an upcoming barbecue at Twelve Oaks. Alone with Ashley, she goes into a fit of histrionics, all of which is witnessed by roguish Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), the black sheep of a wealthy Charleston family, who is instantly fascinated by the feisty, thoroughly self-centered Scarlett: "We're bad lots, both of us." The movie's famous action continues from the burning of Atlanta (actually the destruction of a huge wall left over from King Kong) through the now-classic closing line, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." Holding its own against stiff competition (many consider 1939 to be the greatest year of the classical Hollywood studios), Gone With the Wind won ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress (Vivien Leigh), and Best Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American to win an Oscar). The film grossed nearly 192 million dollars, assuring that, just as he predicted, Selznick's epitaph would be "The Man Who Made Gone With the Wind." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this adventure, a courageous Canadian Mountie must bring peace an embattled miner and an unscrupulous trader whose price mark-ups are beginning to hurt the community. They fight so frequently that when the avaricious proprietor is killed, the young man becomes the prime suspect. Fortunately, the Mountie proves his innocence while catching the real evil doers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Three years after the second Thin Man entry, MGM brought back the property by popular demand with Another Thin Man. As ever, William Powell and Myrna Loy star as sophisticated sleuths Nick and Nora Charles, with the added filip of 8-month-old Nick Charles Jr. At the invitation of munitions manufacturer Colonel MacFay (C. Aubrey Smith), the Charleses spend a weekend at MacFay's Long Island estate. The Colonel is certain that his shady ex-business associate Phil Church (Sheldon Leonard) plans to do him harm, a prognostication that apparently comes true when murder rears its ugly head. Though he's promised to cut down on his drinking (after all, he's a daddy now), Nick spends an inordinate amount of time sorting out the clues and identifying the actual murderer-who, of course, is the least likely suspect (and in fact is played by an actor who seldom if ever harmed a fly in any other film). Adding to the merry mayhem is the Charleses' efforts to find a good baby-sitter, resulting in an onslaught of "help"-and additional babies!--courtesy of Nick's old Underworld cronies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Twixt and tween his Dick Tracy movies, Ralph Byrd plays a Foreign Legionnaire in Drums of the Desert. Byrd and his pal Peter George Lynn alternately fight off the Riffs and fight each other over the affections of lovely Lorna Gray. Gee...we always thought that people joined the Foreign Legion to forget women. Monogram's resident black comedian Mantan Moreland is on hand for his usual impeccably timed (albeit politically incorrect) comedy routines. Drums of the Desert was directed by veteran actionmeister George Waggner, long before he began billing himself as "George WaGGner." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the novel by Vincente Blasco Ibanez, Blood and Sand is the beautifully rendered story of the rise and fall of a young, cocksure Spanish bullfighter, played by Tyrone Power. Working his way slowly up the ladder to success, Power achieves fame when he is praised to skies by fatuous, fickle critic Laird Cregar. A country boy at heart, Power finds himself way over his head with sophisticates, and is soon torn between his pious and faithful wife Linda Darnell and sexy, mercenary Rita Hayworth. It is Darnell, however, who comforts Power after his final, fatal goring in the bull ring. The film's best scenes depict the curious combination of horror and fascination with which bullfighting aficionados treat this most barbaric of "sports." Blood and Sand was previously filmed in 1922 with Rudolph Valentino; a Valentino contemporary, Alla Nazimova, plays Power's mother in the remakes. Portions of this film turned up as stock footage in the 1945 Laurel and Hardy comedy The Bullfighters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ever on the lookout for original story ideas, the producers of the "Hopalong Cassidy" series came up with a lulu in Outlaws of the Desert. In this one, Hoppy (William Boyd) and his saddle pals Johnny (Brad King) and California (Andy Clyde), is assigned by the US government to head to Arabia, there to buy a herd of Arabian steeds. Once they've arrived in the desert, our heroes are kidnapped by swarthy Sheik Suleiman (played by future "Cisco Kid" Duncan Renaldo). In his efforts to figure a way out of his predicament, Hoppy must also attempt to rescue distressed damsels Susan Grant (Jean Phillips) and Marie Karitza (Luli Deste). Good escapist fun, Outlaws of the Desert is definitely the most unusual of the early-1940s "Hopalong Cassidy" entries (even though the film's "Arabia" is obviously located near Chatsworth, California). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the most beloved American films, this captivating wartime adventure of romance and intrigue from director Michael Curtiz defies standard categorization. Simply put, it is the story of Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), a world-weary ex-freedom fighter who runs a nightclub in Casablanca during the early part of WWII. Despite pressure from the local authorities, notably the crafty Capt. Renault (Claude Rains), Rick's café has become a haven for refugees looking to purchase illicit letters of transit which will allow them to escape to America. One day, to Rick's great surprise, he is approached by the famed rebel Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) and his wife, Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), Rick's true love who deserted him when the Nazis invaded Paris. She still wants Victor to escape to America, but now that she's renewed her love for Rick, she wants to stay behind in Casablanca. "You must do the thinking for both of us," she says to Rick. He does, and his plan brings the story to its satisfyingly logical, if not entirely happy, conclusion. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls is a romantic drama set against the turbulent tapestry of the Spanish Civil War. Gary Cooper plays Robert Jordan, an idealistic American fighting with a Spanish guerilla band. He is assigned to blow up a crucial bridge in order to halt the enemy's progress. He falls in love with Maria (Ingrid Bergman), a young peasant girl who's joined the fight after being ill-used by enemy troops. Pablo (Akim Tamiroff), the eternally drunken leader of the guerillas, resents Jordan's attentions toward Maria, and he refuses to help Jordan in his sabotage work. Pablo's wife Pilar (Oscar-winner Katina Paxinou) takes over command of the guerillas and helps Jordan by arranging horses for the band's departure after their job is done. The man supplying the horses (Joseph Calleia) is killed, and Jordan is left to finish his task minus a means to escape. For Whom the Bell Tolls was a long, faithful adaptation of the Hemingway novel, with excellent performances, torrid love scenes, and first-rate Technicolor photography. Available for many years only in the 130-minute reissue version, it was restored to nearly its full original length of 168 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide