The Sign of Four: Sherlock Holmes' Greatest Case

Another Sherlock Holmes Classic old Movie from 1932.

young woman turns to Sherlock Holmes for protection when she's menaced by an escaped killer seeking missing treasure. However, when the woman is kidnapped, Holmes and Watson must penetrate the city's criminal underworld to find her.

Watch Movie - Sherlock Holmes - The Sign of Four: Sherlock Holmes' Greatest Case

The Sign of Four: Sherlock Holmes' Greatest Case is a 1932 British film directed by Graham Cutts and starring Arthur Wontner and Ian Hunter. The movie is based on Arthur Conan Doyle's second Sherlock Holmes story.

The film is also known as The Sign of Four.

Storyline of the book;

The story is set in 1887 or 1888. The Sign of Four has a complex plot involving service in East India Company, India, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, a stolen treasure, and a secret pact among four convicts ("the Four" of the title) and two corrupt prison guards. It presents the detective's drug habit and humanizes him in a way that had not been done in A Study in Scarlet. It also introduces Doctor Watson's future wife, Mary Morstan.

The Sign of Four has had three productions till now, the second and third being in 1987 and 2001 respectively.

 

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Freaks

Freaks (1932)

Cult Classic Old Movie - Ultra Rare - In this horror movie who are the monsters, the Freaks or Society?

A circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.
Despite the extensive cuts, the film was still negatively received by audiences, and remained an object of extreme controversy.
Today, the parts that were removed from it are considered lost. Browning, famed at the time for his collaborations with Lon Chaney and for directing Bela Lugosi in Dracula (1931) had trouble finding work afterward, and this in effect brought his career to an early close. Because its deformed cast was shocking to moviegoers of the time, the film was banned in the United Kingdom for 30 years.Beginning in the early 1960s, Freaks was rediscovered as a counterculture cult film; throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the film was regularly shown at midnight movie screenings at several movie theaters in the United States.
In 1994, Freaks was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It was ranked 15th on Bravo TV's list of the 100 Scariest Movie Moments.Among the characters featured as "freaks" were Peter Robinson ("the human skeleton"); Olga Roderick ("the bearded lady"); Frances O'Connor and Martha Morris ("armless wonders"); and the conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton. Among the microcephalics who appear in the film (and are referred to as "pinheads") were Zip and Pip (Elvira and Jenny Lee Snow) and Schlitzie, a male named Simon Metz who wore a dress mainly due to incontinence, a disputed claim. Also featured were the intersexual Josephine Joseph, with her left/right divided gender; Johnny Eck, the legless man; the completely limbless Prince Randian (also known as The Human Torso, and mis-credited as "Rardion"); Elizabeth Green the Stork Woman; and Koo-Koo the Bird Girl, who suffered from Virchow-Seckel syndrome or bird-headed dwarfism, and is most remembered for the scene where she dances on the table).


Cult reaction

Owing to its cult status in the late-20th century, Freaks has been referenced explicitly in popular culture expressions from 1970s onward, from songs by other self-proclaimed "freaks", such as the Ramones ("Pinhead" "Gabba, gabba, we accept you, one of us."), Marillion ("Freaks", "Separated Out"), David Bowie ("Diamond Dogs"), and Devo ("Jocko Homo"), to "cult" comic strips like Zippy the Pinhead (a reference to the aforementioned microcephalic), and episodes of many TV series, including South Park and The Big Bang Theory (s2e7). The chant of "One of us!" is commonly used as a reference to the film. Clips from the movie were included in the entrance video of former World Wrestling Federation faction Oddities. (Wikipedia)

Watch Cult Classic; Freaks!



In a side-show circus, where the greatest attractions are deformed people, the gorgeous trapeze artist Cleopatra is the lover of the strong Hercules. She plays as if she liked the German midget Hans, who is in love with her, to borrow his money and get expensive gifts he gives to her. When the jealous German midget Frieda, who loves Hans, asks Cleopatra to spare Hans from a great deception, she accidentally discloses that he is an heir of a great fortune. Cleo decides to get married with Hans to poison him and get his inheritance. In the wedding feast, Cleopatra openly flirts with Hercules and mocks the side-show performers. When a very ill Hans is saved by a doctor that tells that he has been cruelly poisoned, the other freaks snoops in Hans trailer and they find what Cleopatra is doing with him. In a stormy night, all the freaks join forces and transform Cleopatra in the Feathered Hen. Although not shown in the DVD, which has the commercial alternative version, in the original story Hercules is castrated and becomes a soprano singer.

 


MGM had purchased the rights to Robbins' short story Spurs in the 1920s at Browning's urging. In June 1932, MGM production supervisor Irving Thalberg offered Browning the opportunity to direct Arsène Lupin with John Barrymore. Browning declined, preferring to develop Freaks, a project he had started as early as 1927. Screenwriters Willis Goldbeck and Elliott Clawson were assigned to the project at Browning's request. Leon Gordon, Edgar Allan Woolf, Al Boasberg and an uncredited Charles MacArthur would also contribute to the script. The script was shaped over five months. Little of the original story was retained beyond the marriage between midget and an averagely sized woman and the wedding feast. Myrna Loy was initially slated to star as Cleopatra, with Jean Harlow as Venus. Ultimately Thalberg decided not to cast any major stars in the picture. (IMDB)

Cover of Freaks

Freaks began filming in October 1931 and was completed in December. Following disastrous test screenings in January 1932 (one woman threatened to sue MGM, claiming the film had caused her to suffer a miscarriage), the studio cut the picture down from its original 90-minute running time to just over an hour. Much of the sequence of the freaks attacking Cleopatra as she lay under a tree was removed, as well as a gruesome sequence showing Hercules being castrated, a number of comedy sequences, and most of the film's original epilogue. A new prologue featuring a carnival barker was added, as was the new epilogue featuring the reconciliation of the tiny lovers. This shortened version - now only 64 minutes long - had its premiere at the Fox Criterion in Los Angeles on February 20, 1932

Tarzan the Ape Man

Tarzan the Ape Man (1932) is an action adventure film featuring Edgar Rice Burroughs' famous jungle hero Tarzan and starring Johnny Weissmuller, Neil Hamilton, C. Aubrey Smith and Maureen O'Sullivan. The movie is loosely based on Burroughs' novel Tarzan of the Apes, with the dialogue written by Ivor Novello. The movie was directed by W. S. Van Dyke (who later went on to direct The Thin Man and the first three of its five sequels). It was remade twice, first in 1959 and later in 1981.

I Loved Tarzan as a kid (and still do!), - Watching the Johnny Weissmuller movies with the Chimp Cheeta is so nostalgic and brings up so many memories of my childhood. With all the mega special effects of modern cinema there is still nothing to compare to the enjoyment of watching a classic old movie such as Tarzan of the Apes. 
I loved the bit where he takes Jane to his tree house, which inspired me to make a tree house of my very own, where i used to gather all my secret store of provisions (biscuits, sweets, fruits and nusts which i would steal froom Mum's kitchen and pretend i had gathered them in the Jungle - my imagination was sparked into living out the thought that i was surviving in the Jungle and i used to enjoy thinking how long i could survive in my tree house with all i had gathered. My Mum would always comment out loud thatshhe wondered where all the dried foodstuffs were disappearing to and ask me with an inquiring look if i knew anything about it - to which i would innocently say "no mum".

Tarzan the Ape Man was the first Tarzan film to star Weissmuller and O'Sullivan, and marked the first appearance of the character of Cheeta the chimpanzee, and the animal actor who created it, Jiggs. The character of Cheeta was created for this film, never having appeared in the original Burroughs novels.
The film was the first of a long series of franchised Tarzan films running from 1932 into the 1970s, initially starring Weissmuller and later other actors.
Tarzan's distinctive call was first heard in this film; it was reportedly created by sound recordist Douglas Shearer using special audio effects, including an Austrian yodel played backwards at quickened speed. Weissmuller himself always claimed he had created the trademark Tarzan yell in a yodeling contest he won while he was a boy. He later learned to mimic the famous call so well people assumed that he was the one doing the yell in the films. (Wikipedia)

Watch the Classic Movie - Tarzan The Apeman



James Parker (C. Aubrey Smith) and Harry Holt (Neil Hamilton), in Africa on a quest for the legendary elephant burial grounds (and their ivory), are joined by Parker's daughter Jane (Maureen O'Sullivan). Holt, attracted to her, tries somewhat ineffectively to protect her from the jungle's dangers, notably failing to prevent her abduction by the jungle's guardian, the mysterious Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller) and his ape allies. The experience is terrifying to Jane, yet she finds herself missing the ape man after she is returned to her father. When the expedition is captured by a tribe of pygmies she sends Tarzan's ape friend Cheeta (Jiggs) for help, bringing Tarzan to the rescue. In the end, she elects to stay in the jungle with Tarzan.

Tarzan is still one a favourite Adventure Movie for Kids of all ages, and will be as far into the future as Movies exist i believe!

Below pic; Tarzan, Jane and Cheeta

Tarzan's New York Adventure  Johnny Weissmuller: Twice the Hero   Tarzan & Jane 

Image via Wikipedia

Cast; Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller) Harry Holt (Neil Hamilton) Jane Parker (Maureen O'Sullivan) James Parker (C. Aubrey Smith) Mrs. Cutten (Doris Lloyd) Beamish (Forrester Harvey) Riano (Ivory Williams) Cheeta (Jiggs - uncredited) Ape (Ray Corrigan - uncredited) Bird Creature (Johnny Eck- uncredited) Edgar Rice Burroughs (left picture); (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.