Suzanne Kaaren Movies
Comely Suzanne Kaaren was attracting offers from producers and impressarios interested in featuring her in their work from her early teens. Born in New York and trained as a dancer, when she was 15 she came to the attention of Florenz Ziegfeld, who offered to put her into his Follies, and would have but for her parents' refusal to allow it. She entered films in 1934 at the age of 18, usually playing dancers or small speaking roles, and even managed to get a part in M-G-M's The Great Ziegfeld, although most of her work took place in less important films. One of Kaaren's most prominent appearances took place in the Three Stooges vehicle Disorder in the Court, in which she acted and had a superb dance number. She later recalled working with the Three Stooges very fondly, remembering that they were always trying out new gags and bits of physical comedy in front of her on and off the set, to see if they were funny or not. Kaaren did two more movies with the comic trio, Yes, We Have No Bonanza and What's the Matador, sandwiched in between appearances in small (often uncredited) roles in major films such as Idiot's Delight, in which she played one of the nurses that Clark Gable kisses in the hospital sequence. Her biggest role (and best-known movie) was as the heroine in the Bela Lugosi chiller The Devil Bat, a low-budget horror film which, thanks to its public domain status (in which it is often distributed under the name Killer Bats), is still widely shown more than six decade later. Kaaren later married actor Sidney Blackmer and retired from acting. In the 1980s, she made headlines again in New York when she was one of the successful plaintiffs in a lawsuit against real estate mogul Donald Trump, and she returned to acting briefly, in a small uncredited role in the movie The Cotton Club, playing the Duchess of Park Avenue. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi- 1944
MGM intended Rationing to be an object lesson as well as a comedy, to teach the moviegoers the importance of rationing products during World War II. Wallace Beery plays a small town butcher who comes under fire from the local citizens for attempting to honor the ration system. Beery finds himself swamped in a sea of government red tape, and at times is tempted to sidestep the law, but at the end he does his patriotic duty. Like Laurel and Hardy's MGM feature Air Raid Wardens (43), Rationing tends to sacrifice laughs to get its message across. The Beery film has the added handicap of running about twenty minutes too long. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Wallace Beery, Marjorie Main, (more)
- 1942
Parodying the previous year's Blood and Sand, this two-reel comedy starred the Three Stooges as vaudeville entertainers involved with a fiery senorita (Suzanne Kaaren) and her dangerous husband while performing south of the border. The Stooges used both plot and copius stock footage from What's the Matador? in their last two-reeler, Sappy Bull Fighters, replacing the brunette Kaaren with Nordic bombshell Greta Thyssen. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- 1942
The final pairing of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, an adaptation of a Rodgers & Hart musical, stars Eddy as a playboy who fantasizes that he is romancing an angel (MacDonald). ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
- Starring:
- Nelson Eddy, Jeanette MacDonald, (more)
This campy, entertaining cheapie from PRC Pictures features Bela Lugosi as a chemist who plots an elaborate revenge scheme on his business partners, whom he feels have cheated him out of his share. To this end he develops a mutant breed of vicious, oversized bats and trains several of this breed to home in on a special chemical which he then blends with shaving lotion. Presenting gifts of the lotion to his partners as a peace offering (and browbeating them into splashing it on themselves while in his presence), he subsequently unleashes his monstrous pets to tear them to pieces. Believe it or not, this was one of PRC's more successful horror programmers, spawning a the sequel Devil Bat's Daughter. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bela Lugosi, Suzanne Kaaren, (more)
- 1941
Maintaining Republic Pictures' early-1940s predilection for corny, antiquated titles, Rags to Riches made its national debut in the late summer of 1941. Despite its Horatio Algerish cognomen, the film is a fur-hijacking melodrama, with nary a genuine "rag" in sight. Taking a break from his usual screen villainy, Alan Baxter plays honest cabdriver Jimmy Rogers, who is falsely imprisoned for his supposed complicity in a recent fur robbery. With the help of his aspiring-singer sweetheart Carol (Mary Carlisle), Rogers clears himself and exposes the suave mastermind behind the theft. Anyone who can't figure out the culprit's identity has probably never seen any film made between 1940 and 1945. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Alan Baxter, Mary Carlisle, (more)
Ace police reporter Wally Williams (Wallace Ford) is so devoted to his job that he even neglects his new bride Alice (Jean Parker) on their honeymoon. Right now, Wally is covering a suicide which he suspects is actually a murder-a suspicion apparently corroborated by a cryptic note and a second mysterious death. Deciding that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, Alice decides to help Wally solve the case. For a while it looks as though hero and heroine will become murder victims themselves, but they're rescued in the nick of time by Wally's Runyonesque gangster pals. The supporting cast of Roar of the Press includes three talented actresses who deserved better: Betty Compson, Evelyn Knapp, and Dorothy Lee. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Wallace Ford, Jean Parker, (more)
- 1939
Merlini the Magician, Clayton Rawson's crime-solving illusionist, has been singularly ill-used by Hollywood, having appeared in a mere two films, "starring" in only one. Miracles for Sale compounds the oversight by rechristening Merlini as "Michael Morgan", in the person of Robert Young. The picture starts well, with a grisly political execution revealed to be an elaborate bit of stage magic perpetrated by the personable Morgan. The story then goes into a fraud and murder scheme perpetrated by Dave Duvallo (Henry Hull), whose consummate skill with makeup and Houdinilike escape devices comes in handy for phony spiritualist Madame Rapport (Gloria Holden). The film's highlight finds Morgan exposing several tricks utilized by magicians and fortune-tellers to gull the public, a sequence which incurred the wrath of the Pacific Coast Association of Magicians, who took a dim view at having the secrets of their trade revealed for the cost of a movie ticket. Of historical interest is the fact that Miracles for Sale was the final directorial effort of Tod Browning (Dracula, Freaks etc.) ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robert Young, Florence Rice, (more)
- 1938
Blondes at Work is number four in Warner Bros.' lively "Torchy Blane" series. Glenda Farrell returns as girl reporter Torchy Blane, she of the mile-a-minute mouth, while Barton MacLane is back as Torchy's boyfriend/sparring partner, police lieutenant Steve McBride. The story revolves around Torchy's ability to constantly out-scoop her rival newshounds, thanks to tips inadvertently dropped by the loquacious McBride and his stupid assistant Gahagan (Tom Kennedy). Things come to a head when Torchy tries to get the low-down on a sensational murder case involving suspected husband-killer Louise Revelle (Rosella Towne). If the plot twists in Blondes at Work seem familiar, it's because the film is a remake of the 1935 Bette Davis vehicle Front Page Woman. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, (more)
Phantom Ranger was the last of a quartet of Tim McCoy westerns produced by Maurice Conn for Monogram release. The star is cast as federal agent Tim Hayes, assigned to round up a counterfeiting gang. The audience knows way ahead of time that McCoy will pose as an outlaw to gain the villain's confidence; funny that the villains never seemed to figure this out until the last reel. This time around, our hero must face down an unusually formidable line-up of thugs and pluguglies, including Charles King, John Merton and frog-faced Rychard Cramer. Happily, he also gets to romance the lovely Suzanne Kaaren. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Suzanne Kaaren, (more)
- 1938
Joan Bennett plays a young woman who believes she's killed bigtime crook Sidney Blackmer. She changes her hair color from blonde to brunette and escapes from San Francisco to parts unknown. Police detective Fredric March is hired to track down Bennett, which he does in the company of two assistants, wisecracking Ann Sothern and dimwitted Ralph Bellamy. March's chase takes him all over the world (courtesy of back-projected shots of Tay Garnett's recent worldwide vacation); when he catches up with Bennett, he falls in love with her. Still, when they reach Frisco again, March turns Bennett in to the authorities, convincing Bellamy and Sothern that their boss is a no-good rat. But it's actually a clever ploy by March to bring the real murderer out in the open. Trade Winds was produced by Joan Bennett's future husband Walter Wanger, who noted the popularity of Bennett's new brunette status and advised her to stay that way...which she did. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Fredric March, Joan Bennett, (more)
- 1937
Puritan Pictures seldom turned out a film that looked most expensive than it really was. The studio's Million to One appears to have been made on a budget of eight dollars and a box lunch, but that doesn't lessen its entertainment value one bit. Herman Brix (later known as Bruce Bennett) stars as Johnny Kent, a hot-shot Olympic athlete who lets success go to his head. After a dizzying cycle of wine, women and song, Johnny is no good to anyone, least of all himself. He wises up in time to qualify for a decathlon competition with his arch-rival Hale (Reed Howes). Oldtimers Monte Blue and Kenneth Harlan play key supporting roles, while the ingenue is a pretty but antiseptic newcomer named Joan Burfield. By the time Million to One made it to New York (nearly three years after it was made), Ms. Burfield was billing herself as Joan Fontaine. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Herman Brix, Joan Fontaine, (more)
- 1937
Flash Casey (Eric Linden), per his nickname, is an ace photojournalist--at least, he will be once he gets out of high school. After winning a prize in a photography contest, Flash vows that within two years of his graduation, he'll own his own newsphoto agency. To attain his goal, Flash goes after a big scoop, and nearly breaks his neck in the process. Co-starring as Eric's faithful girl is Boots Mallory, at one time the sister-in-law of James Cagney. Here's Flash Casey is an agreeable piece of non-think entertainment from the Grand National quickie mills. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Eric Linden, Boots Mallory, (more)
- 1937
Scott Colton, a good-looking young fellow whom Universal was grooming for stardom (unsuccessfully as it turned out) heads the cast of Wildcatter. Colton plays "Lucky" Conlon, who makes his living as a wildcat oil rigger, taking his young wife Helen (Jean Rogers) to wherever he can find work. Lucky falls under the spell of temptress Julia Frayne (Suzanne Kaaren), who arranges a job for our hero with her oil-magnate dad (Russell Hicks). The rest of the wildcatters resent this sort of favoritism and gang up on Lucky, who realizes at long last that he'll soon be "Unlucky" Conlon if he remains with Julia. Billed third as a corpulent oil worker named Smiley is Jack Smart, who as J. Scott Smart later starred on the radio series The Fat Man. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Scott Colton, Jean Rogers, (more)
- 1937
Generally considered one of director Ernst Lubitsch's lesser works, Angel stars Marlene Dietrich as Maria, the neglected wife of Sir Frederick Barker (Herbert Marshall), a British diplomat who travels often and seems little concerned with his spouse. Maria has nearly reached her breaking point when she travels to Paris to visit her old friend Anna Dmitrivena (Laura Hope Crews), a Grand Duchess who also operates an exclusive bordello. While in Paris, Maria meets Anthony Halton (Melvyn Douglas), a visitor from America who seems quite taken with her. While Maria enjoys Anthony's attentions, she backs off and retreats to England. Shortly after her return, Maria and Frederick attend the races and she spots Anthony in the crowd. Maria is tempted to continue her romance with Anthony (who now realizes that she's married), while Frederick begins to wonder if his wife might be growing restless. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Marlene Dietrich, Herbert Marshall, (more)
- 1937
In this musical comedy, a struggling songwriter fakes a letter of admittance into the apartment of a rich composer. It is most convenient as the successful fellow is out of town. The girl is hungry and unable to pay her own rent, so she takes full advantage until he returns and finds his well-ordered life in shambles. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Patricia Ellis, Warren Hull, (more)
- 1937
In this countrified musical, a wealthy man and his daughter try to promote the singing career of a talented hillbilly and his always smiling friend. They meet when the rich man's car breaks down while travelling across the South. The father brings the young crooner to his radio station. The singer and the daughter are obviously attracted to each other and this dismays the greedy station manager who wanted the girl to marry his son. To ensure that she does, he conspires to silence the handsome hillbilly. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Pinky Tomlin, Toby Wing, (more)
- 1937
On the whole, Joe E. Brown's vehicles for independent producer David L. Loew were distinct retrogressions from his films at Warner Bros., but When's Your Birthday? still contains some very funny moments. This time, Joe plays Douglas Willoughby, a mild-mannered astrologer who through a series of incredible plot twists becomes a prizefighter. Though he's a most unprepossessing figure in the ring, Douglas manages to box his way up to the championship -- but refuses to don gloves unless the stars are "right." This gets him mixed up with several shady characters and also plants him at the apex of a romantic triangle, with Marian Marsh and Suzanne Kaaren as his two sweeties. Original prints of When's Your Birthday include a Technical animated opening-credits sequence, courtesy of the cartoonmakers of "Termite Terrace" at Warner Brothers. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joe E. Brown, Marian Marsh, (more)
- 1936
As the Panama Canal is under construction, a group of doctors try to find a cure for yellow fever, or "Yellow Jack," a deadly disease taking its toll on the canal workers. A pet monkey accidentally frees disease-bearing mosquitoes, resulting in the death of Dr. Fontaine (Ferdinand Gottschalk). However, this leads Dr. Murray (Ian Keith) to the belief that the disease can be carried by someone who shows no symptoms. ~ Bill Warren, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ian Keith, Tala Birell, (more)
In MGM's three-hour-plus The Great Ziegfeld, William Powell stars as the titular theatrical impresario, whose show business empire begins when he stage-manages a tour for legendary strongman Sandow (Nat Pendleton). With nary a penny in the bank, he charms European stage star Anna Held (Luise Rainer) to headline his "Follies", and later marries the luscious Ms. Held. From 1907 onward, Ziegfeld stages annual editions of Broadway's most fabulous revue, dedicated to "Glorifying the American Girl" but also giving ample time to develop the comic talents of Fanny Brice (played by herself), Will Rogers, Eddie Cantor and many others. Eventually, Ziegfeld abandons Ms. Held in favor of other beauties, setting the stage for the "telephone scene" which won Luise Rainer the first of her Oscars. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- William Powell, Myrna Loy, (more)
- 1936
An operative from the Wells Fargo company goes undercover to trap a crooked sheriff and his equally nefarious hirelings in this standard B-Western from A.W. Hackel's low-budget Supreme Pictures Corp. Former gridiron star (and onetime leading man to Greta Garbo!) Johnny Mack Brown plays Steve McLain, the witness to a stage holdup. Investigating, Steve learns that crooked Sheriff Pegg (Horace Murphy) is in cahoots with the local saloon proprietor Ace Pringle (Ted Adams). Their nefarious scheme: to rob the Wells Fargo, for whom, unbeknownst to the sheriff, Steve is working . In an effort to outsmart the criminals, Steve is ambushed by a couple of Pringle's henchmen and left to drown in the river. Our hero, however, is rescued in the nick of time by lovely Linda Forbes (Suzanne Kaaren) and survives to put a permanent halt to Sheriff Pegg's criminal activities. Undercover Man was the first of Hackel's Mack Brown westerns to be distributed by newcomer Republic Pictures. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- 1935
This drama chronicles the emotionally distant relationship between a mother and her four grown children. Though they live in the same house they could not be more different. One of her sons is a conscientious provider who keeps them afloat. A different brother believes himself the greatest thespian since Barrymore. The third brother is a budding revolutionary determined to overthrow the capitalist empire. Meanwhile, the mother's daughter goes to college and returns a married woman. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- May Robson, Preston S. Foster, (more)
- 1935
A homely woman gets the best kind of revenge upon her philandering husband in this drama. Tired of his constant cheating, the woman puts on make up, takes their daughter, and starts a new, more modern life. She becomes an acclaimed dress designer while her daughter falls in love with a stodgy young doctor. The daughter then gets involved with less reputable types and mayhem ensues until she goes back and settles down with the physician. The wife eventually tires of her own life and decides to go back to her chastened husband. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Minna Gombell, Gavin Gordon, (more)
- 1934
This off-beat romantic melodrama contains elements of comedy not usually found in the genre as it tells the story of the love between a show girl fleeing from her husband, a grifter. She heads to a mining company and ends up involved with a dam engineer. When a dam accidentally breaks, the engineer's wife is conveniently swept away. Happiness ensues. The flood footage was lifted from The Johnstown Flood (1926). ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- John Boles, Claire Trevor, (more)
- 1934
In his only musical-comedy appearance, Spencer Tracy stars as fast-buck promoter Smoothie King. Our hero's latest scam is to pass off Hollywood extra Wanda Gale (Pat Patterson) and forger Limey Brook (Herbert Mundin) as British nobility, getting both of them prestigious jobs at a movie studio. Eventually Wanda becomes a big star, falling out of love with Smoothie along the way in favor of her leading man Hal Reed (John Boles). But Smoothie takes it all in stride; after all, there's still a world full of chumps and suckers, ripe for fleecing. Future film producer Harold Hecht handled the choreography, while the songs were provided by such noteworthies as Harold Adamson, Burton Lane, Richard Whiting and Gus Kahn. The slaphappy screenplay for Bottoms Up was a joint effort by producer B. G. DeSylva, director David Butler and Tracy's comedy-relief co-star Sid Silvers. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, John Boles, (more)
- 1934
Based on a novel by Frederick Nebel (of "Torchy Blane" fame), Sleepers East is largely set on a train bound for New York. The plot is set in motion by the murder trial of a man accused of killing a politician. The defendant intended to pull the trigger, but the murder was actually committed by someone else. The DA, however, isn't interested in facts: He's been ordered by the local political machine to railroad the defendant into the electric chair. The only person who can clear the poor fellow is witness Lena Karelson (Wynne Gibson), an ex-convict who is being transported to New York by train under an assumed name to prevent her death at the hands of hired gunmen. Unhappy at being a political pawn, Lena tries to escape from her bodyguards in the company of man-with-a-past Jason Everett (Preston S. Foster). She gets her chance during a train wreck, but ultimately realizes that unless she shows up to testify, she will never be able to live with herself. Sleepers East was remade in 1941 as the "Michael Shayne" series entry Sleepers West. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Wynne Gibson, Preston S. Foster, (more)
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