Nance O'Neil Movies

As indicated by its "catchphrase" title, Okay America is one of several early-1930s films based on the exploits of gossip columnist Walter Winchell. The big surprise here is that the Winchell counterpart is played not by W.W. look-alike Lee Tracy, as was usually the case, but by baby-faced Lew Ayres. Caring little how many lives he's destroyed in his pursuit of sensationalism, columnist Larry Wayne (Lew Ayres) is arguably the most-hated man on Broadway -- and in some circles, the most influential. Wayne sticks his nose in everyone's business, including Caponelike gangster Alsotto (Edward Arnold) and the grief-stricken family of a kidnapped girl (Margaret Lindsay). Motivated by his lust for power and publicity, Wayne offers to rescue the kidnap victim, and in so doing absolves himself of his past misdeeds -- but not soon enough to avoid the terrible vengeance of the unforgiving Alssoto, whom he has double-crossed along the way. Its downbeat ending intact, Okay America was effectively remade as Risky Business in 1939. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A starry-eyed girl marries an impoverished but talented young writer. Though easily frustrated and given to temperamental outbursts, the wife's presence soothes him and their marriage is happy. Then she gives birth to their daughter. The child grows up to be a mischief maker and this causes the break up of the marriage. Following the divorce, the woman marries a wealthy man. Many years pass before the former lovers meet again. With both in more stable circumstances, it doesn't take long for their old love to reemerge. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Three years before Sam Goldwyn's overpublicized Anna Sten vehicle We Live Again, Leo Tolstoy's Resurrection was filmed under its original title by Universal (it had previously been filmed no fewer than times, most recently with Dolores Del Rio and Rod LaRocque in 1926). Set in 19th-century Russia, this is the story of innocent peasant girl Katusha (Lupe Velez), who is seduced and abandoned by the dashing Prince Dmitri (John Boles). Disgraced in the eyes of everyone, Katusha descends into prostitution, while Dmitri's reputation remains unbesmirched. When the former lovers are brought together by chance years later, Dmitri magnanimously suggests that Katusha redeem herself by embracing the Church, but she spurns his empty piety. Eventually, however, she finds God and is able to turn herself around -- and even forgive the self-righteous Dmitri. In addition to We Live Again, Resurrection would be filmed twice more, once in a 1934 Spanish-language version with Gilbert Roland, and again in 1963 by Soviet director Mikhail Shveister. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, a moll tells her imprisoned gangster lover that she is leaving him for another whom she really loves. He is a wealthy boy who marries her without knowledge of her past life. The happy couple soon has a baby. Their happiness is destroyed when the gangster escapes from prison and goes out looking for revenge on his ex-moll. When her hubby's parents discover the truth about her they are appalled and enraged. They strongly pressure her to give up the baby and leave her husband forever. Her husband goes to Paris for a divorce and the woman becomes a nightclub singer. Trouble ensues when the gun-toting gangster shows up to shoot her down. Fortunately a fast-shooting detective is there and kills the gangster first. Later her husband comes back from Paris and decides that he doesn't care about her past. The little family is happily reunited. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a bored wife amuses herself with a lover from Spain. Later she writes a letter to her spouse explaining her actions. As she posts the letter, she learn that her lover is also involved with a peasant girl. Later the girl's irate father shoots the Spaniard and the wife decides to mend her ways. First she needs to stop that letter, unfortunately she finds herself being blackmailed. Mayhem ensues until at last she confesses all to her husband. Fortunately he forgives her and all is well. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Reformed gold-digger Barbara Stanwyck falls in love with a womanizing and wealthy aspiring artist and tries to convince him that she has really changed in this romantic Frank Capra drama. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The last of three back-to-back Ramon Novarro musicals, Call of the Flesh (aka The Singer of Seville) casts the star as aspiring opera singer Juan. Juan is advised by his mentor Esteban (Ernest Torrence) that he will never truly be a great singer until his heart is broken. This comes about when our hero falls in love with nun-in-training Maria (Dorothy Jordan), genteelly abducting her from the convent with romance in mind. But the Call of God is stronger than the Call of the Flesh, and Novarro must relinquish the love of his life -- but oh, how magnificently he sings on the occasion! Credibility is not this film's strong suit, but Novarro, once considered a leading rival to Rudolph Valentino, is in fine form, especially when he dances a sultry tango with Renee Adoree (in her last film). Originally filmed in Technicolor, Call of the Flesh is presently available only in black and white. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Metropolitan opera star Lawrence Tibbett headed the cast of The Rogue Song, an opulent Technicolor adaptation of the Franz Lehar operetta Gypsy Love. Set (vaguely) in 19th-century Russia, the film stars Tibbett as Yegor, dashing leader of an outlaw band called "The Robbing Larks." During one of his excursions into Moscow, Yegor falls in love with beautiful Russian princess Vera (Catherine Dale Owen). But when Yegor's sister (Florence Lake) is betrayed by Vera's brother Prince Serge (Ulrich Haupt), the bandit kills the prince and kidnaps the princess. Upon her rescue, she orders Yegor's arrest and has him flogged. As the defiant bandit merrily sings away while the whip tears across his back, Vera realizes that she's still in love with him. Knowing that they can never live together as man and wife, Vera bids Yegor a tearful farewell as he rides off into the sunset with his comrades. After previewing the rough cut of Rogue Song, MGM realized that the film was in desperate need of comedy relief, so the studio borrowed Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy from Hal Roach, casting the team as two members of Yegor's outlaw gang. Written and directed without credit by Hal Roach himself, Laurel & Hardy's scenes wear spotted throughout the picture, bearing only the faintest relevance to the plot. In typical fashion, the two comedians tried to eat a wheel of cheese while being plagued by pesky flies, attempted to shave one another while being distracted by pretty girls and a flock of chickens, shared a darkened cave with a surly bear, and in general behaved more like "Stan and Ollie" than a pair of Russian bandits. Critics were divided as to the merits of Laurel & Hardy's contributions to the film, but audiences loved their antics, and indeed they were billed above star Lawrence Tibbett on some movie marquees. No matter what the reason, The Rogue Song was a huge moneymaker for MGM, earning a "Best Picture" Oscar nomination in the bargain. Alas, the film has apparently vanished from the face of the earth; the negative was destroyed decades ago, and no original prints are known to survive. In the mid-1970s, the film's soundtrack discs were rediscovered, and in the early 1980s a Laurel & Hardy collector came across a worn Technicolor dupe of a three-minute routine. A few years after that, a black-and-white print of the film was found in a Czechoslovakian archive -- with all the musical numbers and Laurel & Hardy scenes removed! One of the ten highest-priority titles on the American Film Institute's "most wanted" list of lost movies, The Rogue Song may indeed turn up intact some day, but the chances grow slimmer with each passing year. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on Olympia, a 1928 Ferenc Molnar stage soufflé, His Glorious Night has gone down in history as having more or less single-handedly caused the downfall of silent-screen matinee idol John Gilbert, whose ardent declarations of "I love you, I love you" to an overly inert Catherine Dale Owen were parodied twenty-odd years later in MGM's otherwise highly apocryphal Singing in the Rain (1952). Owen, from the Broadway stage, plays Princess Orsolini, who refuses an arranged marriage in favor of dallying with Kovacs (Gilbert), a dashing cavalry officer. But on the advice of her mother (stage luminary Nance O'Neil), the princess reluctantly informs Kovacs that she cannot love the offspring of a peasant. In revenge, the latter indulges in a bit of blackmail, but true love wins out in the end -- to the energetic strains of Franz Von Suppé's "Light Cavalry Overture". Rumors to the contrary, the problem was not with Gilbert's voice but with screenwriter Willard Mack's overly florid dialogue, which might have been fine as subtitles but sounded downright embarrassing to audiences when spoken by a cast suffering from the stilted direction of a microphone-conscious Lionel Barrymore. His Glorious Night was rather more successful in three foreign-language versions: Olimpia featuring Maria Alba and José Crespo, Olympia with Nora Gregor and Theo Schall, and Si L'empereur Savait Ça featuring Françoise Rosay and André Luguet. The story was remade by director Michael Curtiz in 1960 as A Breath of Scandal starring Sophia Loren and John Gavin. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Based on the classic revenge tale by Alexander Dumas, this film was one of the first feature-length American movies, and starred notable stage actors, including James O'Neill as the title character. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide