Sammy Blum Movies

Like the same-named 1934 and 1935 films, RKO Radio's 1945 musical George White's Scandals uses the eponymous Broadway revue as a framework for a fabricated plotline. The main story concerns the romance between stage comedienne Joan Mason (Joan Davis) and back-bay Bostonite Jack Williams (Jack Haley), which is staunchly opposed by Jack's spinsterish sister Clarabelle (Margaret Hamilton, who of course had previously costarred with Haley in The Wizard of Oz) A secondary romance involves the hot-and-cold relationship between British socialite Jill Martin (Martha Holliday) and Tony McGrath (Philip Terry), the assistant to Broadway impresario George White (played not by the real White but by Glenn Tryon). Musical specialties are provided by Gene Krupa and his band, organ virtuoso Ethel Smith and pianist Rose Murphy. The film's highlight is "Who Killed Vaudeville?", a tour-de-force for Joan Davis and Jack Haley which was later excerpted in the RKO musical pastiche Make Mine Laughs (prompting a lawsuit from Haley!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jim Lacy (Robert Mitchum), Chito Rafferty (Richard Martin), and Dusty (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams) are three cowpokes working what was then known -- in the 1850's -- as the western Utah Territory. They know cattle, not mining, and they can't help but feel like they're missing out on something amid the influx of prospectors trying to work the Comstock Lode. But then they see most of these claims come to nothing, as the surface gold always seems to run out and leave owners with nothing but useless blue waste -- and the three are prone to count their blessings. But the machinations of a crooked mining company head Cash Burridge (Craig Reynolds) and a shoot-out at a crooked casino leave the trio on the run, and Lacy -- taking the alias "Nevada" -- headed into mining country with both the law and outlaws on his trail. And that's how he crosses paths with the Ides, a prospecting family, and their pretty daughter Hattie (ancy Gates), and also with saloon singer Julie Dexter (Anne Jeffreys), who's close to Burridge but starts to like Nevada's honesty and sincerity. Burridge knows the truth about that "useless" blue slag -- it's some of the richest silver ore ever assayed in the United States -- and plans to swindle his neighbors to get control of the Comstock Lode; and Julie cares enough about Burridge that she's ready to go along, up to the point where it involves murder, especially when Burridge's cover-up of his crime may end up with Nevada at the end of a rope. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

One of the most schizophrenic films ever to come out of the Paramount "B" mill, The Monster and the Girl starts out as a white-slavery melodrama and ends up as a horror picture! Emerging from the fog, heroine Susan Webster (Ellen Drew) tells her woeful tale to the audience. A young innocent from The Sticks, Susan arrives in New York to seek work as an actress, but instead is tricked into a sham marriage with Larry Reed (Robert Paige). Awakening "the morning after", Susan is informed that her missing husband is not her husband, and that, as a fallen woman, there is only one avenue of livelihood open to her-as one of the "paid hostesses" in the stable of gangster Bruhl (Joseph Calleia). Learning of his sister's plight, church organist Scot Webster (Philip Reed) shows up in town to set things right, only to be framed for murder by Bruhl and his mob. After his execution, Scot's body is appropriated by mad scientist Dr. Parry (George Zucco), who hopes to transplant the dead man's brain into the body of a gorilla. Driven by impulses it can't resist, the big ape escapes from his cage to kill off all those responsible for Susan's ruin and Scot's death. Undeniably fascinating, The Monster and the Girl is also undeniably silly at times, especially in the opening scenes, in which the censor-plagued screenwriters work overtime not to overtly state that Susan Daniels has been forced into prostitution. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A remake of Frank Capra's Submarine (1928), Devil's Playground is a snappy Columbia "B plus" picture starring Richard Dix and Chester Morris. Submarine officers Dorgan (Dix) and Mason (Morris) battle on land for the affections of dance-hall girl Carmen (Dolores del Rio). She marries Dorgan but makes a play for Mason when her husband is on duty. The romantic rivalry is forgotten when Dorgan must rescue
Mason and his crew from a sunken sub. Devil's Playground was one of Columbia's bigger moneymakers of 1937. Excerpts from the underwater scenes later found their way into the Three Stooges two-reeler Three Little Sew and Sews (1939). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a fighter's fiancee refuses to marry him until he can overcome his insane jealousy. He does and they marry. The jealousy resurfaces when he finds his wife and her boss in a hotel room. He goes mad with rage and kills her boss. His wife is blamed for the killing. Just before the verdict is announced, the guilt-ridden man confesses and himself receives the death-penalty. Time passes and his finally hour arrives. He asks the attending priest to offer him a 10-count. Just as the priest hits nine, his voice becomes that of a referee and the boxer is seen slowly awakening from being knocked on conscious during a fight. The whole story was but a dream. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this boxing drama, a prizefighter is left by his money-grubbing showgirl wife who aspires to be a movie star. The fighter's manager is tickled by the turn of events and immediately snaps the boxer out of his love-struck funk and sets him a challenging training program. Sure enough the fighter makes a strong comeback. As soon as the fame and fortune starts rolling in, the avaricious wife shows up at his door. She fires his manager and hires her secret lover in his place. Soon the fighter begins losing again. Just before the championship bout the old manager proves that his wife is being unfaithful. That is only the beginning of the end for the champ. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. made his talkie debut in the low-budget but imaginative "exploitationer" Party Girl. Fairbanks plays carefree young bachelor Jay Roundtree, the son of a wealthy industrialist. Though Jay is in love with his dad's secretary, his class consciousness compels him to keep his distance from her. One night, he joins his fraternity pals for a wild penthouse bash, where a group of "party girls" (a 1930 code word for prostitutes) encourage the guests (mostly "dirty old men" in tuxedoes) to wash their inhibitions away with bootleg liquor. Imagine Jay's surprise when, in the course of the evening, he discovers that his office sweetheart was once a party girl herself -- though that's nothing compared to what he discovers about his own father! Though economically produced, Party Girl contains some astounding visual effects, including a hydraulic "car lift" which transports the revellers to their secret rendezvous and a remarkably convincing suicidal plunge from a skyscraper. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Rio Rita, an expensive filmization of the legendary Florenz Ziegfeld-produced Broadway musical of 1928, was the first major production for fledgling RKO Radio Studios. Bebe Daniels plays Rita, an Irish-Mexican girl (with thick Hispanic accent) who oversees a large ranch near the Mexican border. Rita's brother (Don Alvorado) is suspected of being "The Kinkajou," a notorious bandit. On the trail of the Kinkajou, an undercover Texas Ranger (John Boles) falls in love with Rita, much to the chagrin of a wealthy but despotic landowner (Georges Renavent). The villain arranges to make it appear that the Ranger is the Kinkajou, prompting Rita to consent to marriage with the cad in order to save her lover's life. The true identity of the Kinkajou is revealed at a lavish costume party, filmed in early Technicolor. Counterpointing the main plot are the antics of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, comic carryovers from the original Broadway show. Wheeler is in Mexico to arrange a quickie divorce so that he can marry his true love (Dorothy Lee). Woolsey is Wheeler's shady lawyer, who learns too late that he can't make the divorce stick. Wheeler and Woolsey have some of the film's best moments, including a riotous drunk scene and a closing musical number wherein they slap one another as their girlfriends sing inanely into the camera. Rio Rita not only made oodles of money for RKO (it was being regularly reissued throughout the 1930s), but it solidified the popularity of Wheeler and Woolsey, who'd become the studio's biggest comedy stars of the early 1930s. 1929's Rio Rita was withdrawn from circulation when MGM bought the rights for a 1942 remake, this one starring Abbott and Costello. Available only for museum screenings during the past five decades, Rio Rita has recently been released on videocassette, with its rare Technicolor sequence intact. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of a cycle of late-1920s films dealing with the Russian Revolution, Siberia stars Alma Rubens as idealistic Russian schoolteacher Sonia Vronsky. Enraptured by the communist cause, Sonia runs afoul of the Czarist authorities and is shipped off to Siberia. Here she is protected from harm by her sweetheart, military officer Leonid Petroff (Edmund Lowe). When the revolution finally comes, even loyal Leninists like Sonia are in danger of being trampled by the surging mobs. Leonid rescues the girl from this fate, and together they embark on an exciting escape across the snowy Siberian steppes and tundras. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Black Paradise begins as lifelong crook Jack Callahan (Leslie Fenton) promises that he'll reform for the sake of his sweetheart Sylvia Douglas (Madge Bellamy). But he can't, and when detective Lawrence Graham (Edmund Lowe) comes calling, Jack takes Sylvia by the hand and escapes to the safety of the schooner owned by criminal chieftain Murdock (Ed Peil Sr.), moored 12 miles outside of San Francisco. Graham boards the schooner, only to be caught by Murdock and forced to work as a crewman. The vessel ends up in the South Seas, where Jack takes up with a local native girl; meanwhile, Sylvia falls in love with the captive Graham. Murdock orders Sylvia to "give in" to him, threatening to kill Graham if she doesn't. Only the timely eruption of a volcano saves Sylvia from sacrificing her virtue to save the man she loves. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide