1940 - THE MARK OF ZORRO - excellent period costume adventure

A remake of the Douglas Fairbanks silent film and every bit as good.  Tyrone Power is the Robin Hood of old Los Angeles Zorro.  The film is basically a rob from the rich and give to the poor tale but it is made with a lot of skill. 

 

Rouben Mamoulian directed and Daryl F. Zanuck produced this picture, two Hollywood legends who at this point in their career couldn't do a whole lot wrong.

The film had one of Fox's biggest stars in Tyrone Power.  The love interest was played by Linda Darnell and Basil Rathbone played the villain.  In real life Rathbone was apparently an expert fencer and it shows,  the sword fighting scenes are very exciting.

 

The cinematography was by one of Hollywood's best cameramen Arthur Miller.  John Taintor Foote wrote the screenplay.  The film runs 94 minutes.

1932 - LOVE ME TONIGHT, outstanding film musical

This musical is one of the best film musicals I can recall seeing in a very long time.  The director Rouben Mamoulian used about every cinematic trick in the book,  The score is by Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart.  

 The story is certainly musical silly, Maurice Chevalier is a tailor who gets mistaken for a European nobleman.  He falls in love with a princess played by Jeanette MacDonald before she signed with MGM,  the studio that promptly sucked the sexiness out of her. 

The rest of the cast is a compendium of 1930's stars.  Myrna Loy, Charles Ruggles, Charles Butterworth and in a rare singing part C.Aubrey Smith of all actors.  Ernest Lubitsch was usually considered the master of the Paramount musical but I would have to say that Mamoulian and his production team easily topped him.

 

The screenplay was Samuel Hoffenstein George Marion Jr., and Waldemar Young.  The film runs 104 minutes.