Joyce Kay Movies
- 1937
In this drama, a millionaire heir finds himself in trouble deep after during a night of drunkenness he pledges his fortune to charity. To keep from having to honor his pledge--and to avoid the luscious golddigger that pursues him--the young lout disguises himself as janitor and begins working at a nearly bankrupt nursery school. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jean Parker, Douglass Montgomery, (more)
- 1937
Merry-Go-Round of 1938 was the first (and last) of a proposed series of films spotlighting top Broadway talent. Three headliners from the Great White Way--comedian Bert Lahr, pantomime artist Jimmy Savo and monologist Billy House--team with veteran Hollywood scene-stealer Mischa Auer. The storyline has our four heroes taking care of a cute little girl, but the plot is forgotten amidst a series of choice specialty acts, including Lahr's legendary "Woodman Spare That Tree." Universal took a bath with Merry-Go-Round of 1938, which explains why you never saw the 1939 edition. As for the stars, Bert Lahr went on to Wizard of Oz; Jimmy Savo returned to Broadway; Billy House became a Hollywood character actor; and Mischa Auer continued to be everyone's favorite "Gloomy Russian." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bert Lahr, Jimmy Savo, (more)
- 1936
One of the few non-western releases from Sam Katzman's Victory Productions, Put on the Spot stars Eddie Nugent as G-Man Bob Andrews. When Joe Bradley (George Walsh) is railroaded into prison for a murder he didn't commit, Andrews takes it upon himself to clear the man. Digging up new evidence, our hero discovers that culprits are involved in smuggling activities along the Rio Grande. The script allows Andrews to travel several hundred miles along both sides of the border, though it is clear that most of the picture was filmed in Chatsworth California. Based on a novel by Peter B. Kyne, Put on the Spot went into production as Rio Grande Romance. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Eddie Nugent, Maxine Doyle, (more)
- 1936
In this crime drama, a G-man goes on vacation and ends up pursing a crook disguised as an honest lawyer. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Eddie Nugent, Maxine Doyle, (more)
Warner Baxter plays Dr. Samuel Mudd, American history's most famous victim of circumstance. In 1865, Dr. Mudd, a known Confederate sympathizer, sets the broken leg of a mud-caked stranger who stumbles into his home. The injured man turns out to be John Wilkes Booth, and Mudd is accused of conspiring to murder President Lincoln. Sentenced to hang with the genuine conspirators, Mudd finds his sentence commuted to life imprisonment at the very last moment. He is shipped to Shark Island, a brutal penal colony. Subject to the cruelties of a guard (John Carradine) who hates Mudd because of his "complicity" in Lincoln's death, the doctor suffers the torments of the damned, while outside Shark Island his wife (Gloria Stuart) campaigns desperately to get her husband pardoned. During a Yellow Fever breakout on Shark Island, Dr. Mudd performs heroically to save the survivors. For his humanitarian efforts, Mudd is finally released and reunited with his wife. While the script glosses over the fact that Dr. Mudd had never been officially pardoned by the US government (the pardon wouldn't be granted until years after this film was made), Prisoner of Shark Island strives long and hard to exonerate the man for whom the phrase "your name is mud!" was coined. Dr. Samuel Mudd's story was retold in the 1952 feature Hellgate, with Sterling Hayden as a (fictional) doctor, and in the 1980 TV movie The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd, starring Dennis Weaver in the title role. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Warner Baxter, Gloria Stuart, (more)
