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Looking Back

October 1931

Step back in time to see what area movie theaters were presenting in October 1931. Film titles are linked to the Internet Movie Database.

For more information about these theaters, see Cinema Treasures or Water Winter Wonderland.

"The 1931 Nut Crop is Ready!" shouted The Ann Arbor Daily News about the Oct. 18 Michigan opening of Monkey Business, with The 4 Marx Brothers (Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Zeppo). "The plot, to be sure, is warped and twisted around the fantastic capers of the riotous brothers until it looks as though it had been put through a wringing machine," wrote Allison Ind in the Oct. 17 News (video courtesy of TCM).

The Michigan also had stage shows with its movies, including a twin bill of New York musical comedy star Roy Cummings live in One Afternoon and Joe E. Brown in the movie Broadminded. Comedian Frank Libuse, "The Colonel of American Nuts in Command of a Regiment of Laughs!" shared the spotlight with the film Guilty Hands (Lionel Barrymore). And movie star Fifi D'Orsay used her time between films to include the Michigan on a personal tour.

"The composite heroine of the confession films of the early Thirties was a woman who gave up her chastity in cold blood," wrote Richard Griffith and Arthur Mayer in the 1957 book The Movies. The Redford twice presented the Queen of the Confession Film, Constance Bennett, in The Common Law and Bought. Other popular Redford movies were The Smiling Lieutenant (Maurice Chevalier and Claudette Colbert) and Bad Girl ("A Human Life Story!"), with Sally Eilers and James Dunn.

On Oct. 1, the Publix theater chain that included the Redford opened its newest neighborhood theater—the Eastown (Harper at Van Dyke). Sporting Blood, with Clark Gable, was the opening night attraction. "Three New Shows Every Week!" read the Detroit News ad for the theater. "Tremendous multi-featured shows that have made Publix entertainment famous the world over! At new low prices!" (15 cents afternoons, 25 cents weekday evenings, 35 cents weekend evenings, and always 10 cents for children).

In downtown Detroit, the Paramount hosted two of the most publicized movies of the month. Oct. 8 saw the world premiere of Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise), with Greta Garbo and Clark Gable ("The Stars of the Hour in the Year's Greatest Screen Event!"). Three weeks later, this film gave way to Frank Capra's Platinum Blonde, starring Loretta Young and Jean Harlow.

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