San Francisco, The Petrified Forest, Dodsworth, The Prisoner of Zenda

San Francisco, produced by M-G-M in 1936, was easily one of the biggest thrillers in years. The cast included Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Jeanette MacDonald, and Jack Holt, with W. S. Van Dyke directing.

Robert E. Sherwood's The Petrified Forest was transferred to the screen by Warner Brothers in 1936. Archie Mayo directed the film in a slow but tense style. The performances were also first-rate, especially Humphrey Bogart's. This was one of his first films, and he played the character that he had created on Broadwav.

Another successful transference from stage to screen was Sidney Howard's Dodsworth, from the Sinclair Lewis novel. William Wyler handled the direction, and Walter Huston, Mary Astor, and Ruth Chatterton turned in excellent performances. United Artists released this Goldwyn production in 1936.

Despite a rather sickening advertising campaign, "Garbo loves Robert Taylor in Camille," it was a first-rate refilming of the old Dumas fils classic. Garbo's performance was one of her best, and George Cukor's direction one of his best. Metro release the film in 1936.

The really super-production of 1936 was M-G-M's screen biography of Florenz Ziegfeld, The Great Ziegfeld. Robert Z. Leonard handled the massive job of direction, and William Powell played the name part, with Myrna Loy as Billie Burke, and Luise Rainer as Anna Held.

When Anthony Hope wrote The Prisoner of Zenda, the Edison Kinetoscope had just been exhibited to the public. The two--the story and the moving picture--were to meet many times in future years. Ramon Novarro, for one, played it in 1922. In 1937 it reappeared on the screen, this time with Ronald Colman in the title role, with Madeleine Carroll as the heroine. John Cromwell directed it for Selznick.

With Victor Fleming directing, M-G-M produced a film version of Rudyard Kipling's epic of New England, Captains Courageous. Spencer Tracy won an Academy award for his performance, while Freddie Bartholomew proved that his success in David Copperfield had been no accident.