Anne of Green Gables (1934)
Anne Shirley, an orphan, is fostered by farmer Matthew Cuthbert and his sister Marilla, who were expecting a boy to be sent them to help with their farm work. They accept Anne, who quickly endears herself to them and to the local villagers.
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You won't be disappointed!
Memorable, crazy movie
it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.
It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
This is a short, sentimental highlights package that turned out to be RKO's sleeper hit of 1934. Anne Shirley is Anne Shirley (she used her character's name for the rest of her screen career), the cheery, melodramatic, eternally appealing redhead created by L. M. Montgomery. Mistakenly placed with adoptive parents who were rather hoping for the boy they'd requested, her hot temper proceeds to get her into scrapes with friends, neighbours and that cheeky, good-looking boy in her class. There are production and pacing issues. The first hour is a little lacking in atmosphere, then - upon finding loads of the stuff - the film proceeds to race through the rest of the narrative at breakneck speed, with a succession of short scenes that cover five years in about five seconds. It also omits the most memorable bit of the book: Anne dyeing her hair green. For all that, this is a really gentle and rewarding movie, with absolutely charming performances, particularly from Shirley and O. P. Heggie, best-known for his turn as the blind hermit in Universal's seminal Bride of Frankenstein the following year.
Never viewed this film and consider it a great Classic with great veteran actors. In the period that this film was made, people in America were different, there was no TV or all the modern things we have today, except the Radio and the starting out of great films being made in Hollywood. Sweet innocent tales of young romance between a young girl or guy was viewed differently than it is today. Ann Shirley,"Murder My Sweet",'44 played a young orphan gal who was called Carrot Top because of her red hair and found herself being taken into a home of two elderly folks, who were like two wise owls and watched over Ann Shirley. It was a small town and everyone knew everyone and if anything happened, the entire town found out about it within minutes. It is a down to earth film with nice decent people trying to help each other in a very very simple way of living. Today, it seems very corn ball and stupid, but believe me, this was the way people were in America during the 1920'. & 30's and they were a great generation that loved good family films.
Director: George Nichols Jr., Novel: Lucy Maud Montgommery, Script: Sam Mintz, Cast: Anne Shirley, O.P. Heggie, Tom Brown, Helen Westley I bought this film mostly out of curiosity because we have the 1985 Keven Sullivan version which my wife and I both enjoy so we wanted to see what this early version was like. Although the 1985 version is better, this is better than I thought it would be. I haven't had a chance to read the book so I don't know how either film relates to the book but the 1934 version is only about 80 minutes long whereas the 1985 one is 3 hours long. Consequently, much is cut out in this earlier film. Ann's friendship with Diana Berry is way underdeveloped and before you know it, she is already in college! The 1985 version is much more of a coming of age film. A lot of time is spent on the relationship between Ann and Diana.The acting is pretty good in this film. It doesn't really compete with the 1985 film because that has an absolute perfect cast but they were good here also. Much of the lines in this film are the exact same as the 1985 version. O.P. Heggie and Helen Westly did a fine job as Matthew and Marilla. Their perceived characters are much like Richard Farnsworth and Colleen Dewhurst in the 1985. Anne Shirley was played by--well--Anne Shirley. Her birth name was Dawn O'Day. She changed it to Anne Shirley after this film. She had a cute personality in this film. If you are a fan of the 1985 version, you might want to get this also. The shorter length is another reason to buy this DVD. The 1985 version is of epic length so watching it is more like an event. So this one is good if you want just a small dose of Anne. IMDb also lists a silent version from 1919 but it is stated that there are no known prints of the film. That is a shame.
As a big fan of the books before I even saw the 80's versions of the movie, I think that the 1934 movie is a fairly good depiction. There is one deviation that they made which bugged me throughout the whole movie. Diana Barry's mother was Miss Rachel in the movie instead of them being 2 separate people. Also Diana had blonde hair, but that I could get past. I'm amused that the actress who played Anne Shirley (with an "e") just so happened to be named Anne Shirley, and she does an excellent job playing the character...it's almost as if the character Anne was modeled after the actress Anne. This movie sticks to the storyline very well, so as to quote many lines from the book. Also, Gilbert is still fairly handsome :)