An American Tragedy 1931  N/R, 96 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Josef von Sternberg
Cast: Phillips Holmes, Sylvia Sidney, Frances Dee, Irving Pichel, Claire McDowell, Frederick Burton, Wallace Middleton, Emmett Corrigan, Lucille La Verne, Charles Middleton
Based on Theodore Dreiser's novel, this is a drama about Roberta Alden's murder. Her story is told through flashbacks during the ensuing trial. The story was remade in 1951 as "A Place in the Sun." The remake is the better of the two versions.
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Broken Lullaby 1932  N/R, 77 min.
Genre: Drama
aka: The Man I Killed
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Nancy Carroll, Phillips Holmes, Louise Carter, Tom Douglas, Emma Dunn, Lucien Littlefield, Tully Marshall, Zasu Pitts, Frank Sheridan, George Bickel, George Irving, Lillian Elliott
A French soldier Paul Renaud (Phillip Holmes) kills enemy soldier Walter Holderlin (Tom Douglas) during a World War I battle. While trying to make it up to the dead man's parents (Lionel Barrymore and Loiuse Carter), he meets Walter's fiancee Elsa (Nancy Carroll) and falls in love with her. Well-told tale.
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The Criminal Code 1931  N/R, 95 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Howard Hawks
Cast: Walter Huston, Phillips Holmes, Constance Cummings, Mary Doran, Boris Karloff, DeWitt Jennings, John Sheehan, Otto Hoffman, Arthur Hoyt, Paul Porcasi
An innocent man (Phillips Holmes) is jailed, and the warden (Walter Huston) is faced with problems when his own daughter falls in love with his prisoner. This film was remade as "Convicted" in 1950, while film footage is used in 1968's "Targets."
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 Dinner at Eight 1933 N/R, 110 min.
Genre: Comedy / Drama / Romance
Director: George Cukor
Cast: Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, Lionel Barrymore, Lee Tracy, Edmund Lowe, Billie Burke, Jean Hersholt, Madge Evans, Karen Morley, Louise Closser Hale, Phillips Holmes, May Robson, Grant Mitchell
Millicent Jordan (Billie Burke) arranges a dinner party that she believes will help her husband Oliver's (Lionel Barrymore) career. Among the guests are business executive Dan Packard (Wallace Beery) and his wife Kitty (Jean Harlow) who just happens to be having an affair with another guest, Dr. Wayne Talbot (Edmund Lowe). Also at the dinner party are matinee idol Larry Renault (John Barrymore), who is involved with the Jordans' daughter Paula (Madge Evans), and aging stage actress Carlotta (Marie Dressler). The personal lives of the guests at this dinner party are scrutinized, and the result is a highly entertaining, sophisticated comedy.
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 Great Expectations 1934 N/R, 100 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Stuart Walker
Cast: Henry Hull, Phillips Holmes, Jane Wyatt, Florence Reed, Alan Hale, Rafaela Ottiano, Jackie Searl, Walter Brennan, Francis L. Sullivan, Harry Cording, George Barraud, Douglas Wood, Forrester Harvey, George P. Breakston, Eily Malyon
This is an early film of Charles Dickens' classic that follows the life of orphan Pip (George P. Breakston as young Pip and Phillips Holmes as older Pip) who is the foster child of blacksmith Joe Gargery (Alan Hale) and his not-so-nice wife, Mrs. Joe (Rafaela Ottiano) who befriends and comes to the aid of escaped convict Magwitch (Henry Hull). Pip falls in love with his childhood friend Estrella (Jane Wyatt) who is being raised by the bitter Mrs. Havisham (Florence Reed) to have higher expectations for her life than those of Pip. Later, Pip gains wealth through the help of a mysterious benefactor who, it turns out, is Magwitch repaying Pip for his friendship, and, by story's end, Pip is doing well in the Victorian world of the social elite.
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Nana 1934 N/R, 87 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Dorothy Arzner
Cast: Anna Sten, Phillips Holmes, Lionel Atwill, Richard Bennett, Mae Clark, Muriel Kirkland, Reginald Owen, Jessie Ralph, Lawrence Grant, Helen Freeman
This is the film adaptation of Zola's tragic story about an aristocratic Parisian, Nana (Anna Sten), and her decision to stop at nothing to reunite two brothers.
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Penthouse 1933  N/R, 90 min.
Genre: Comedy / Drama
Director: W.S. Van Dyke
Cast: Warner Baxter, Myrna Loy, Charles Butterworth, Mae Clarke, Raymond Hatton, Phillips Holmes, C. Henry Gordon, Nat Pendleton, George E. Stone, Samuel S. Hinds
A lawyer works for the Mob and then finds himself the object of a murder frame-up. Good flick.
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| 1. An American Tragedy (1931)
2. Broken Lullaby (1932)
aka: The Man I Killed
3. The Criminal Code (1931)
4. Dinner at Eight (1933)
5. Great Expectations (1934)
6. Nana (1934)
7. Penthouse (1933)
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