RICH MAN’S FOLLY – George Bancroft, Frances Dee

Rich Man’s Folly (1931)
Direction: John Cromwell
Screenplay: Grover Jones and Edward E. Paramore Jr.; from Charles Dickens’ novel Dombey and Son
Cast: George Bancroft, Frances Dee, Robert Ames, David Durand, Juliette Compton, Dorothy Peterson
 

Directed by the respected John Cromwell and based on Charles Dickens‘ Dombey and Son, Rich Man’s Folly features George Bancroft as a ruthless, egotistical shipping tycoon whose only concern is his work, all the while grooming his young son so he’ll one day take over the family business. In the meantime, the rest of family is completely ignored.
That is the kind of role Bancroft did best: Larger-than life, driven, and arrogant men who usually meet a towering, humbling defeat in the final reel. Also in the [...]

by James Bazen | November 2, 2009   
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A LADY TO LOVE – Edward G. Robinson, Vilma Banky

A Lady to Love (1930)
Direction: Victor Sjöström
Screenplay: Sidney Howard; based on his play They Knew What They Wanted
Cast: Vilma Banky, Edward G. Robinson, Robert Ames, Richard Carle, Lloyd Ingraham, Anderson Lawler
 

Edward G. Robinson, Robert Ames, Vilma Banky in A Lady to Love
 

Edward G. Robinson was only 37 years old when he gave this hammy, scene-stealing, over-the-top performance as Tony, a middle-aged Italian grape grower in Napa Valley, California, in Victor Sjöström’s A Lady to Love. Robinson is loud, peripatetic, hyperkinetic, and his accent sometimes sounds a bit too much like Chico Marx’s. But it all works. It’s believable and true, even if not always sympathetic.
When Tony notices a pretty blonde waitress, Lena (Vilma Banky), at a [...]

by Danny Fortune | July 21, 2009   
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