The Divorcee/A Free Soul

This Forbidden Hollywood disc had two Norma Shearer movies The Divorcee and A Free Soul.  In The Divorcee Norma Shearer gets a divorce from her husband but ends up still having feelings for the jerk.  I didn't like the ending.  In A Free Soul Norma Shearer falls for mobster Clark Gable.  Lionel Barrymore won the Oscar for his performance of a drunk. He does a very good job. Norma Shearer discovers Clark is a creep, then more things happen including murder.  I like Norma Shearer.  I feel that Hollywood didn't know what to do later in her career.  However this disc represents when she had good material.

Ship Ahoy

Eleanor Powell plays a spy who is also a dancer.  Red Skelton plays the love interest and a writer.  Tommy Dorsey and his band star.  Frank Sinatra sings two songs.  It's interesting to see him here before he began a big movie star.  This was just ok.  I don't know much about Eleanor Powell.  I hope to see more movies of her in the future. 

Sunday in New York

Sunday in New York is a sex comedy.  Jane Fonda (who is very lovely in this role) plays a virgin who tries to seduce a man while she is visiting her brother in New York.  Only her boyfriend comes over and proposes.  What is she supposed to do?  Jane Fonda is good in this. 

The Safecracker

So So Ray Milland movie.  He plays a man who makes safes during the weekdays and is hired to break into them during the weekends.  He ends up in prison but then he gets out to open a safe during World War II. X-The Man with the X ray eyes is a better Milland movie although he didn't direct that one. 

Shadow on the Wall

A young girl witnesses a murder of her mother.  Her only clue is a shadow on the wall.  Ann Sothern her aunt who was the murderer tries to destroy the girl.  The girl is currently in a hospital and Nancy Davis (later Nancy Reagan) tries to help the girl to get well.  I was surprised by Nancy's performance.  I wrote off her movie career.  Perhaps that wasn't something I should have done. Sothern steals the show though. 

Sins of Rachel Cade

Angie Dickinson plays a religious nurse in the Congo who has two men after her, Peter Finch and a surgeon.  It was sad.  I saw Peter Finch recently in Far from the Madding Crowd and here he is again as a rejected suitor. I liked the ending.  It went a different route than the usual predictable ending.  Angie does a good job here.  The movie also mentions genital mutilation which I thought was courageous for an old movie to mention. 

Other Men's Women

A man cheats on his best friend's wife (Mary Astor.)  Then the husband becomes blind. The movie ends on a tragic note. It was ok.  James Cagney and Joan Blondell have supporting roles.  This was before they made it.  They nearly steal the show.