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Looking Back

February 1932

Step back in time to see what our movie palaces were presenting in February 1932. Also included is interesting history about other area movie theaters. Film titles are linked to the Internet Movie Database.

"Frank Capra, Director of Hits, wins new laurels by megaphoning the greatest love story every filmed," read a Feb. 10, 1932 ad in The Ann Arbor Daily News for Forbidden, starring Barbara Stanwyck. Both the Michigan and Redford showed this movie, which "really put Stanwyck on top," wrote David Shipman in The Great Movie Stars: The Golden Years.

The month at the Michigan got off to a great start, with a held-over week-long run of Mata Hari, starring Greta Garbo and Ramon Novarro. This film later moved across town to the Wuerth. Other stars that lit up the Michigan's silver screen were Robert Montgomery (Lovers Courageous); Marie Dressler (Emma); James Cagney (Taxi!); Joan Blondell (The Greeks Had a Word for Them); William Powell (High Pressure); and Constance Bennett (Lady with a Past).

Also in Ann Arbor, a month-long experiment with German language films at the Whitney (Main and Ann) ended, after the screening of such films as Zwei Menschen, Die vom Rummelplatz, and Der Weg zur Schande. "The bulk of the support came from (University of Michigan) faculty individuals and some students," wrote Allison Ind in The Ann Arbor Daily News (Feb. 23, 1932). "For this type of trade, the location of the theater is disadvantageous."

The Redford presented some of the biggest hits of 1931, including Private Lives (Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery); The Champ (Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper); and Delicious (Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell). The newest film entertainment at the Redford was a Feb. 26-27 double bill of The Rainbow Trail (George O'Brien) and File 113 (Lew Cody). Another crowdpleaser was Ladies of the Big House (Sylvia Sidney), one of several movies to appear on Sundays with vaudeville acts.

At the Wilson Theater (now the Music Hall), the stage play The Band Wagon starred Fred and Adele Astaire, along with Frank (The Wizard of Oz) Morgan. The Shubert showed a Talkie version of the 1925 silent movie The Big Parade.

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