George "Slim" Summerville Movies

It's The Champ all over again, with Wallace Beery as a down-and-out prizefighter and Dean Stockwell as the small boy whom he adopts. Mighty McGurk also borrows from Beery's earlier The Bowery (33) by placing its story in that New York neighborhood in 1900. The final echo from Wally Beery's movie past is Aline McMahon, who costarred with Beery in Ah, Wilderness (35). The plot of Mighty McGurk involves Beery's rescuing of the orphaned Stockwell, an English lad, from the clutches of his evil guardian Edward Arnold. The boy in turn inspires Beery to return to the boxing ring after several years of boozy grub work as a Bowery waiter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A sleepy hay-seed filled Arkansas town gets spotlight fever when a local sow bears an unprecedented 10 piglets. Suddenly poor Pitchfork is inundated with greedy interlopers anxiously rooting around trying to make silk purses out of the unusual situation. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this cornball musical comedy, a hillbilly gal and her uncle struggle to keep sly city slickers from getting their land. It is an uphill battle as their farm is located on Fifth Avenue, New York City. The slickers then resort to trickery by offering the girl a phony singing gig on the radio. Unfortunately for them, something goes wrong and the girl's heartfelt singing is heard all over the town. Of course she is a big hit. Songs include: "Hey Junior", "You're Telling I", "Manhattan Holiday", and "Puddin' Head" (all by Eddie Cherkose, Sol Meyer, Jule Styne). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Welcome to Midville, an appropriately named small town that has carried moderation to extremes. Run for over a generation by a bluenose civic league, the town doesn't allow driving faster than 12 mph -- and drivers can get a summons for not having a running-board, a part of a car that went out of style after the 1920s; no movies start after dark, and there are no late nights allowed at the soda shop or in the park. It's so bad that the soldiers from the nearby army base shoot right through the town for parts far away when they go on leave, and there hasn't been a wedding in the town in two years, because it's impossible for anyone under the age of 60 to start a romance, much less consummate one. One young couple (Richard Clayton, Elyse Knox) who would like to marry are thinking of leaving town, and that's the last straw from Miss Pandora Polly (ZaSu Pitts), who likes both of them -- she's as prim and proper a small-town spinster as you'll ever see, but that doesn't mean she wants everyone to be that way. And with unintended help from an intoxicating beverage brewed up by her comically inept gardener (Slim Summerville), she loses enough of her inhibitions to finally take a stand. At the next meeting of the civic league, she shows up ready to throw a few stones back at the bluenoses sitting in judgment of the town, and turn over a few rocks littering their pasts. Pitts and Summerville, who'd previously worked together in the Hal Roach-produced comedy Niagara Falls, prove just as effective here as a comedic elderly couple, and Pitts is at her most charming and beguiling in this gentle satire of small-town living, made on the eve of America's entry into World War II and all the more nostalgia-laden because of it. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Erskine Caldwell's once-scandalous novel Tobacco Road resulted in an equally steamy stage play by Jack Kirkland, which became one of the longest-running productions in Broadway history. This story of indigence and amorality amongst inbred "poor whites" (based on people Caldwell had known while growing up in Georgia) had to be heavily expurgated for movie consumption, put there was plenty of comedy and colorful characterizations to suit the purposes of director John Ford. Charley Grapewin stars as Jeeter Lester, shiftless patriarch of a large backwoods clan. The Lesters are about to be thrown off their land for nonpayment of rent, but anyone who tries to help them--or to alter their lifestyle--is chased away by the poverty-stricken but intensely proud Jeeter. Tobacco Road succeeded on the basis of its title alone, even though no one expected the film to be anywhere near as earthy as the stage version (it would have been impossible under prevailing censorship to include the play's famous opening scene, in which the family watches intently while a teenage girl masturbates!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The second of Hal Roach's "streamliners" (feature films running 45 minutes or so), Niagara Falls serves as a showcase for Roach protegee Marjorie Woodworth. The action takes place at a honeymoon hotel in-where else?--Niagara Falls. Gangly Sam Sawyer (Slim Summerville), newly married to matronly Emmy Sawyer (ZaSu Pitts), is constitutionally incapable of minding his own business. As a result, he decides to play cupid for young singles Margie Blake (Woodworth) and Tom Wilson (Tom Drake), contriving to force the couple to share a single room for a single night. It's all very innocent, in the "Imagine my embarrassment" fashion of Hal Roach's old Charley Chase 2-reelers. Roach's daughter Margaret, who later pursued an acting career as Diana Rochelle, plays a minor role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This third installment in MGM's "Maisie" series finds eternally stranded showgirl Maisie Revere (Ann Sothern) stuck in a deserted mining camp. Here she links up with Davises, an impoverished migrant family which hopes to strike gold somewhere in the neighboring hills. Their efforts are resisted by hard-hearted local rancher Bill Anders (Lee Bowman), who orders the family off his property. With Maisie's assistance, the Davises are offered the opportunity to launch a cooperative farming project, with Anders' blessing. Evidently inspired by The Grapes of Wrath, Gold Rush Maisie is hardly in the same league, but it passes the time painlessly. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sidney Toler made his second appearance as oriental sleuth Charlie Chan in the above-average Charlie Chan in Reno. It all begins when nervous young Mary Whitman (Pauline Moore) shows up in Reno to seek a divorce from husband Curtis Whitman (Kane Richmond). Before long, Jeanne Bentley (Louise Henry), another divorce-seeker, is found slain, and the police are certain that Mary, or her estranged husband, is responsible. It so happens that the Whitmans are from Honolulu, the stamping grounds of Charlie Chan, which is why our wily hero shows up in Nevada with son Jimmy (Victor Sen Yung) in tow. Every so often, the mystery slows down long enough for an amusing battle of wits between Chan and local sheriff Fletcher (Slim Summerville), who admittedly has only half the necessary ammunition. The billing order of the supporting cast is as usual a giveaway of the true killer's identity, but this doesn't lessen the enjoyment of this well-crafted programmer. Charlie Chan in Reno was based on Death Makes a Decree, a story by Philip Wylie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this lively boxing comedy, Steve Bishop is a cowboy who works a waiter in an Italian restaurant. He agrees to participate in a prizefight for charity. He has a lucky punch and knocks out his famous opponent. This leads him to become a famous and wealthy prizefighter. What he doesn't know is that gamblers have fixed all of his fights. Thinking he is indeed a champion, the fighter soon acquires an ego to match his reputation. This inspires the ire of female sportswriter Julie Harrison. She really likes him, but decides to teach him a humbling lesson before things get too out of hand. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Two imprisoned con men become ace football players on the prison team in this comedy. They get into real trouble when the duo decides to bust out to keep the mother of a fellow inmate from getting conned by a gang of crooks. When the warden finds out, he is steaming mad because he has bet his entire fortune on an upcoming game and without his two stars, the team will surely lose. Fortunately for him, the two hustle back to prison and get there just in time to win the Big Game. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Those zany Ritz Brothers are at it again--good news or bad, depending on one's feelings toward the team. This time they're a trio of Manhattan entertainers who can't get anywhere because hillbilly acts are "in" with radio and theatrical producers. Also left out in the cold by the new fad is singer Marjorie Weaver. Weaver and the Ritzes decide to pass themselves off as hillbillies, and to do this head for the Kentucky hills in order to be discovered. They land smack-dab in the middle of one of those mountain feuds so beloved of comedy filmmakers. Radio star Tony Martin, who has been sent southward to find genuine hayseed talent, spots the Ritzes and Weaver and brings them back to New York. The truth comes out at last, but the Ritz boys redeem themselves with a rib tickling "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" radio sketch--easily the highlight of this wildly uneven film. When reminiscing about Kentucky Moonshine in 1978, director David Butler remembered that team member Al Ritz refused to perform a barefoot hillbilly dance unless he was outfitted with rubber feet! The producers should have recreated that true-life bit in the film and gotten rid of the tiresome opening routine in which the Ritzes play poker using hospital progress charts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide