The Barretts of Wimpole Street 1934  N/R, 110 min.
Genre: Drama
aka: Forbidden Alliance
Director: Sidney Franklin
Cast: Norma Shearer, Fredric March, Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Sullivan, Katharine Alexander, Ian Wolfe, Ralph Forbes, Una O'Connor, Ferdinand Munier, Leo G. Carroll
This film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, and Norma Shearer was also nominated for Best Actress. The story relates the love affair and marriage of Elizabeth Barrett (Norma Shearer) and Robert Browning (Fredric March).
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The Divorcee 1930  N/R, 80 min.
Genre: Drama / Romance
Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: Norma Shearer, Chester Morris, Conrad Nagel, Robert Montgomery, Florence Eldridge, Helene Millard, Robert Elliott, Mary Doran, Tyler Brooke, George Irving, Zelda Sears, Judith Wood, Theodor Von Eltz
Shortly after their whirlwind courtship and marriage, Jerry (Norma Shearer) discovers that her husband Ted (Chester Morris) is having an affair with Janice (Mary Doran). Jerry's solution is to kick Ted out of her bed and sleep with Ted's best friend Don (Robert Montgomery). Now, other lovers become part of Jerry's life until she finally returns to Ted and all is forgiven. While this film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Writing, it was Norma Shearer who walked away with the Oscar for Best Actress for 1929/30.
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Escape 1940 N/R, 105 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Norma Shearer, Robert Taylor, Conrad Veidt, Alla Nazimova, Felix Bressart, Albert Bassermann, Philip Dorn, Bonita Granville, Edgar Barrier, Blanche Yurka
This is Ethel Vance's bestseller brought to the screen. It is the story about a young man who uses the mistress of a Nazi general to sneak his mother out of a concentration camp.
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The Flapper 1920  N/R, 57 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Alan Crosland
Cast: Olive Thomas, Warren Cook, Theodore Westman Jr., Katherine Johnston, Arthur Housman, Louise Lindroth, Charles Craig, William P. Carleton, Marcia Harris, Bobby Connelly, Norma Shearer
The fun and adventures of girls at a seminary are depicted in this film, centered on Ginger (Olive Thomas). Thomas played a girl of 16, nearly 10 years younger than her age. She would die later that year (1920) under mysterious circumstances. Norma Shearer's first screen appearance.
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A Free Soul 1931 N/R, 91 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Clarence Brown
Cast: Norma Shearer, Lionel Barrymore, Leslie Howard, Clark Gable, James Gleason, Lucy Beaumont, Claire Whitney, Frank Sheridan, Edward Brophy, George Irving, Roscoe Ates, Bess Flowers, James Donlan, Henry Hall, Lee Phelps
Lionel Barrymore won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the boozing lawyer, Stephen Ashe, whose daughter (Norma Shearer) becomes part of a romantic triangle with gangster Ace Wilfong (Clark Gable) and her fiance, Dwight Winthrop (Leslie Howard). This film was later remade as "The Girl Who Had Everything."
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The Hollywood Review of 1929 1929 N/R, 130 min.
Genre: Musical
Director: Charles Riesner
Cast: Conrad Nagel, John Gilbert, Joan Crawford, Bessie Love, Marion Davies, Marie Dressler, Jack Benny, Norma Shearer, Lionel Barrymore, Buster Keaton
This was the premier for a series of films starring Hollywood production company stars. Silent-screen M.G.M. stars appear in speaking roles, and musical numbers contribute to the film.
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Idiot's Delight 1939 N/R, 100 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Clarence Brown
Cast: Norma Shearer, Clark Gable, Edward Arnold, Charles Coburn, Joseph Schildkraut, Burgess Meredith, Virginia Grey, Laura Hope Crews, Richard "Skeets" Gallagher, Fritz Feld
Set in the early days of World War II, this is the film adaptation of Robert E. Sherwood's play about vaudevillians Irene (Norma Shearer) and Harry (Clark Gable) who meet years after their brief affair when both are guests at a European hotel. Gable steals the show in his performance of "Puttin' on the Ritz."
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The Last of Mrs. Cheyney 1929 N/R, 94 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Sidney Franklin
Cast: Norma Shearer, George Barraud, Basil Rathbone, Herbert Bunston, Hedda Hopper, Moon Carroll, Madeline Seymour, Cyril Chadwick
An exclusive band of jewel thieves work among the elite of London society. Mrs. Cheyney (Norma Shearer), one of the members, is caught by Lord Arthur Dilling (Basil Rathbone) who, instead of turning her over to the authorities, marries her.
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Marie Antoinette 1938 N/R, 160 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: W.S. Van Dyke
Cast: Norma Shearer, Tyrone Power, John Barrymore, Robert Morley, Anita Louise, Joseph Schildkraut, Gladys George, Henry Stephenson, Reginald Gardiner, Cora Witherspoon
Set in pre-revolutionary France, MGM spared nothing on its opulent sets, French antiques, and expensive costumes in presenting this story of the doomed Austrian princess (Norma Shearer) who became Queen of France just as it became a "crumbling" empire.
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Riptide 1934 N/R, 90 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Edmund Goulding
Cast: Norma Shearer, Robert Montgomery, Herbert Marshall, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, Richard "Skeets" Gallagher, Ralph Forbes, Lilyan Tashman, Halliwell Hobbes, Helen Jerome Eddy, Walter Brennan
An American, Mary (Norma Shearer), marries a British noble, Lord Rexford (Herbert Marshall), and then is lured by Tommie (Robert Montgomery) to leave Rexford. This is an overall entertaining film. Watch for Walter Brennan as the chauffeur.
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Romeo and Juliet 1936 N/R, 126 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: George Cukor
Cast: Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, John Barrymore, Edna May Oliver, Basil Rathbone, C. Aubrey Smith, Andy Devine, Reginald Denny, Ralph Forbes, Henry Kolker
This is a good version of Shakespeare's tragedy about star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet (Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer). Academy Award nominations were received for Best Picture, Actress (Shearer), and Supporting Actor (Basil Rathbone).
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Smilin' Through 1932 N/R, 98 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Sidney Franklin
Cast: Norma Shearer, Fredric March, Leslie Howard, O.P. Heggie, Ralph Forbes, Beryl Mercer, Margaret Seddon, Forrester Harvey, David Torrence, Cora Sue Collins
John Carteret's (Leslie Howard) bride was killed on their wedding day; since then he led a lonely life until he agreed to raise his orphaned niece, Kathleen (Norma Shearer). As she grows to adulthood, Kathleen is the image of John's long-deceased bride, and John falls in love with his niece. But complications arise when Kenneth (Fredric March) enters the picture.
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Strange Interlude 1932 N/R, 110 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: Norma Shearer, Clark Gable, Alexander Kirkland, Ralph Morgan, Robert Young, May Robson, Maureen O'Sullivan, Henry B. Walthall, Mary Alden, Tad Alexander
Based on Eugene O'Neil's play, this story is about 70 years in the life of Nina Leeds (Norma Shearer) who marries Sam (Alexander Kirkland) but has a son fathered by Ned (Clark Gable).
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Strangers May Kiss 1931 N/R, 82 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: George Fitzmaurice
Cast: Norma Shearer, Robert Montgomery, Neil Hamilton, Marjorie Rambeau, Irene Rich, Jed Prouty, Henry Armetta, Ray Milland, Hale Hamilton, Conchita Montenegro
Lisbeth (Norma Shearer) loves Alan (Neil Hamilton), but her love is not returned. Nevertheless, she follows him to the ends of the earth before she realizes what true love really is.
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Way Down East 1920 N/R, 145 min.
Genre: Drama / Romance
Director: D.W. Griffith
Cast: Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Lowell Sherman, Burr McIntosh, Creighton Hale, Kate Bruce, Mary Hay, Emily Fitzroy, Porter Strong, George Neville, Edgar Nelson, Norma Shearer, Vivia Ogden, Josephine Bernard, Mrs. Morgan Belmont
Poor country girl Anna Moore (Lillian Gish) leaves her home in Maine and visits Boston where she is tricked into a sham marriage to Lenox Sanderson (Lowell Sherman). After Anna becomes pregnant, Lenox leaves her, she gives birth, and the baby dies. Anna finds shelter at Squire Bartlett's (Burr McIntosh) estate and falls in love with his son David (Richard Barthelmess). When the Squire, who is a religious zealot, learns about Anna's background, he is furious and orders her out of the house and into a fierce snowstorm. David searches for Anna, finds her being swept down the river on an ice floe, saves her life, and asks her to marry him.
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 The Women 1939 N/R, 134 min.
Genre: Comedy / Drama
Director: George Cukor
Cast: Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Paulette Goddard, Mary Boland, Joan Fontaine, Lucile Watson, Ruth Hussey, Marjorie Main, Butterfly McQueen, Phyllis Povah, Virginia Weidler, Virginia Grey, Muriel Hutchison, Hedda Hopper
After Mary's (Norma Shearer) friend Sylvia (Rosalind Russell) arranges for her to get the information that Mary's husband is having an affair, Mary heads for Reno to obtain a divorce. When she returns home to New York, she learns that her husband has married his mistress Crystal Allen (Joan Crawford), and now Mary plots to win her husband back. This all-female-cast movie is a classic.
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| Oscar: Best Actress for The Divorcee (1930) |
1. The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934)
aka: Forbidden Alliance
2. The Divorcee (1930)
3. Escape (1940)
4. The Flapper (1920)
5. A Free Soul (1931)
6. The Hollywood Review of 1929 (1929)
7. Idiot's Delight (1939)
8. The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1929)
9. Marie Antoinette (1938)
10. Riptide (1934)
11. Romeo and Juliet (1936)
12. Smilin' Through (1932)
13. Strange Interlude (1932)
14. Strangers May Kiss (1931)
15. Way Down East (1920)
16. The Women (1939)
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