The Prince and the Pauper (1937)

After a few unhappy movies, I decided that my best bet was to pick a story I already knew to have a happy ending. At the same time, it had to be a story I didn't know too terribly well -- no more A Christmas Carol versions for me. Not having read the Mark Twain book, I relied on vague memories of capsulized kiddie adaptations and parodies. The gist was that the strangely identical young title characters who happened to meet were tired of their lots in life, traded places on purpose, and learned the hard way that they preferred their previous stations (a questionable lesson indeed if it equates the travails of monarchy with those of poverty), right?

Well, not exactly. In this telling, the boys don't even realize how alike they look until they've swapped outfits for fun, and they have no intention of fooling anyone; but the prince (Bobby Mauch) injudiciously exits the room alone, and you can guess what happens next. Both boys insist on their true identities, even as their insistence mostly makes matters worse for them. Sure, pauper Tom Canty (Billy Mauch) enjoys some luxuries and a lack of beatings by guards or his irredeemable father (Barton MacLane), but he can't help worrying, not least as the Earl of Hertford (Claude Rains), the prime courtier who knows Tom's not mad, plots to manipulate him -- and end the threat of the real prince returning -- when the old king (Montagu Love) dies. The moral has more to do with recognizing how little separates the highest from the lowest, with a hint that this could duly increase the elite's sympathy for common folk.

Mr. Skeffington (1944)

I immediately found this title a little odd, because Bette Davis's face takes up the poster. Indeed, her character of Fanny Trellis/Skeffington gets the bulk of the screen time and is no less interesting than Claude Rains as Job Skeffington. Why not Mrs. Skeffington? Surely her marriage in the first act comes as no surprise to any viewer, especially those who read even the briefest summaries.

Fanny starts out as the most sought-after bachelorette in New York in 1914. Little do her suitors know that her aristocratic parties hide the truth: Her good-for-nothing brother Trippy has spent the bulk of their fortune, and his crimes to acquire more only dig them deeper. But Trippy's titular boss already takes an interest in Fanny and offers himself as a rich and forgiving husband -- even letting her continue to entertain suitors. Of course, marriages of "convenience" have a habit of being inconvenient in other ways.

Kings Row (1942)

This love story was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Picture; Best Director (Sam Wood); and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White. That said, it's probably best remembered for something else: a young Ronald Reagan putting on possibly the best performance in his acting career and certainly the first to gain him much attention. He's not quite the male lead, though, and I'm not sure he ever was.

Taking place from 1890 to 1900, the book-based film focuses primarily on one Parris Mitchell from childhood to early doctorhood (by which time he's played by Robert Cummings) but also considerably on his friend Drake McHugh (Reagan in adulthood), a less career-focused party animal. One thing they turn out to have in common, besides their upscale childhood neighborhood, is an interest in hard-to-get ladies, specifically the daughters of two local doctors. One doctor (Charles Coburn) doesn't see much potential in Drake; the other (Claude Rains) likes Parris well enough as a student but is beyond overprotective toward his daughter. You might or might not be surprised at how much drama ensues.