Frances Drake

When Parisian actress Yvonne Orlac (Frances Drake) announces that she is leaving the stage to be a full-time wife to her concert pianist husband, Stephen (Colin Clive), brilliant surgeon Dr. Gogol (Peter Lorre), who is obsessed with Yvonne, is crushed. So when Stephen loses his hands in a train wreck, Gogol agrees to Yvonne's request to graft another pair of hands onto Stephen. But before long, Stephen realizes that his hands seem to have a mind of their own. He can no longer play the piano -- but he can throw knives with deadly accuracy! It turns out the hands belonged to an executed murderer, and they never lost the desire to kill. As Stephen slowly goes insane, Gogol professes his love for Yvonne, but she rejects him. Gogol vows to hasten Stephen's demise to drive Yvonne into his own arms.

Gangster Buck Gordon hopes his son Nick will follow in his criminal footsteps, but his efforts are foiled by his ex-wife, who has married Governor Bancroft (Standing). Furious, Buck blackmails his ex-wife, threatening to expose her shady past to her new husband. Nick comes to his mother's aid by shooting and killing his father, but refuses to give a motive, even when he is sentenced to hang for the crime. Based on the play, "The Noose."

Private eye Guy Johnson (James Stewart) is charged with tracking every move of boozing tycoon Willie Heyward (Ernest Truex) -- and ensuring that the mogul comes to no harm. But Guy runs into trouble when, after a bender, Heyward is accused of murder and Guy gets roped in as an accessory. Desperate to prove his innocence, Guy makes a daring escape from a prison train and, while on the run, kidnaps poet Edwina Corday (Claudette Colbert), who gradually warms to his cause.

Here comes the bride - there goes the groom! The night before Mary Clay's (Joan Crawford) wedding, her flaky fiancé Dillon elopes with someone else. Mary's friend Jeff grabs his chance to buck up the jilted bride - and pitch some woo. Then Dillon reenters Mary's life and she must choose between the two men. Since Clark Gable plays Jeff and Robert Montgomery plays Dillon, it's a choice any woman would love to make! The three stars prove marriage is a funny affair in this snappy, sophisticated comedy. Director W.S. Van Dyke (The Thin Man), scriptwriter Joseph L. Mankiewicz (All About Eve) and supporting comedy virtuosos Rosalind Russell, Billie Burke and Arthur Treacher put extra sparkle in the wedding punch.