Wesley Ruggles Movies

Newspaper reporter Marion Hargrove's best-selling novel was adapted to the screen by MGM as a vehicle for Robert Walker. The story is basically a series of humorous anecdotes about Hargrove's tenure at boot camp in the early days of World War II. Keenan Wynn is terrific as Hargrove's topkick, and Robert Benchley is no less superb as the father of Hargrove's girl friend (Donna Reed). See Here, Private Hargrove not only secured the stardom of Robert Walker, but launched Marion Hargrove on a lengthy career as a Hollywood screenwriter (his son, Dean Hargrove, has carried on the tradition into TV). The film was followed by a lesser 1946 sequel, What Next, Corporal Hargrove?, which followed the leading character to France. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Unable to convince their isolationist New York editor (Charles Dingle) that America must be alerted to the threat of encroaching Nazism, pugnacious war correspondents Johnny and Kirk Davis (Clark Gable and Robert Sterling) are relieved of their European assignments. Back in the USA, Johnny inagurates a rogueish flirtation with Paula Lane (Lana Turner), an aspiring reporter who has harbored a long-standing crush on Johnny. Even so, Paula enters into a romantic relationship with Kirk, prompting Johnny to break up the affair-for Kirk's own good, of course. Paula's hopes for a lasting romance with Johnny are crushed when he refuses to discourage her from accepting an assignment in IndoChina. Later on, both Johnny and Kirk are sent off to cover the war in the Far East, where they are reunited with Paula, now busily shepherding Chinese war orphans to safety. The action moves to Bataan, where Kirk is killed in service of his country, leaving Johnny to write a passionate tribute to his brother-and, by extention, everyone else who has lain down his or her life for the cause of Democracy. During production of Somewhere I'll Find You, Clark Gable's actress-wife Carole Lombard was killed in a plane crash while participating in a war-loan drive; the impact of the tragedy is painfully obvious in Gable's performance, which becomes abruptly less playful and more somber in the final reels. New MGM recruits Van Johnson and Keenan Wynn make impressive appearances in uncredited roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Wesley Ruggles's Arizona is an epic western set in an impoverished Arizona outpost. It tells the story of the feisty, no-nonsense Phoebe Titus (Jean Arthur). Wearing leather breeches, with a bullwhip and gun, she can out-shoot and out-fight nearly every bad hombre in town, and manages to transform the down-and-out community into Tuscon, one of the most respected towns in the West. When handsome Peter Muncie (William Holden) arrives, on his way to California, Phoebe asserts that he is the perfect person to help her run her cattle ranch, and the two fall in love. But one obstacle makes their plans extremely difficult: con man Jefferson Carteret (Warren William), who secretly hatches a plan to cheat Phoebe out of the property and annihilate Peter on the couple's wedding day. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Irene Dunne plays an impulsive society girl; Fred MacMurray plays a no-frills prizefighter. They marry (just like Jack Dempsey and his many trophy wives) in the waning days of the Roaring 20s. MacMurray begins training so diligently for the championship that he neglects his wife and son (Billy Cook). Fed up, mother and child walk out. Ten years later, MacMurray, looking not one scintilla older, finally gets his championship bid. He also regains his family, after all concerned promise to pay more attention to one another. Invitation to Happiness is what Variety used to call a "Four-Hanky Picture." Sidebar: The director was Wesley Ruggles, who refused to allow a certain member of the supporting cast--Wesley's big brother Charlie Ruggles--to inject any "funny stuff." Charlie begged for one brief comic sequence, and Wesley complied; he just didn't bother to tell Charlie that the scene would be cut even before the first preview. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Carole Lombard stars as Helen Bartlett, a compulsive liar who always tips the audience to an oncoming whopper by sticking her tongue in her cheek. Helen is married to a Kenneth Bartlett, a scrupulously honest lawyer whose integrity has always held him back professionally. Hoping to help Kenneth get ahead, Helen confesses to a murder she obviously didn't commit, confident that he'll get her off and make his reputation. But things don't go exactly as planned, thanks largely to a mysterious eccentric named Charley (John Barrymore), who assures the heroine over and over that she'll "fry." Once considered a prime example of screwball comedy, True Confession is now regarded by film buffs as one of Carole Lombard's worst pictures: it wasn't much better when remade by Betty Hutton in 1946 as Cross My Heart. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After It Happened One Night, Claudette Colbert seemed to make a career out of playing plucky heiresses with minds of their own, which sums up her character well in this romantic comedy. When her wealthy father goes broke, Jeanette Desmereau (Claudette Colbert) decides she should find a job of her own, applying for work as a writer at a magazine edited by hot-headed Cyrus Anderson (Fred MacMurray). Jack Bristow (Robert Young), one of the staffers, tells Cyrus about Jeanette's misfortunes, and while he's not initially swayed by this tale of woe, Cyrus buckles under and hires her, primarily because Jack has lobbied strongly for her (which might have something to do with the fact he finds her attractive). While Jeanette and Cyrus don't get along well at first, when the irresistible force meets the immovable object, something has to give and before long the two fall in love. Cyrus and Jeanette make tentative plans to marry, but when Jeanette decides to do Cyrus a favor and clean up his very sloppy bachelor apartment, Cyrus becomes furiously angry and calls off the wedding. After this, Jeanette is just as angry with Cyrus and Jack, waiting in the wings, steps in; she impulsively decides to marry Jack, and they hit the road for Indiana for a date with the Justice of the Peace. Cyrus realizes just how big a mistake he has made, and points his motorcycle toward Indiana to stop the marriage before it's too late. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this romantic comedy, Marilyn David (Claudette Colbert) is a stenographer who has become good friends with Peter Dawes (Fred MacMurray), a newspaper reporter who takes the same subway as she does each morning. While Peter is crazy about Marilyn, she has her eye on Charles Gray (Ray Milland), a wealthy Englishman. Charles is the son of Lloyd Granville (C. Aubrey Smith), a titled British nobleman, which means Charles is rich, good looking, and minor royalty, tipping the scales in his favor. Charles proposes marriage to Marilyn, but after a sudden argument, she turns him down. Peter is ecstatic at this bit of news and publishes an article about the working girl who passed on a chance to marry into money and nobility. Marilyn is suddenly famous as "The No Girl," and is even able to turn her sudden notoriety into a new career as a nightclub performer. Marilyn's fame causes Charles to take a second look at her; he asks her to reconsider, but Marilyn wonders if she might be better off with Peter after all. The Gilded Lily was the first co-starring vehicle for Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray, who would go on to make seven movies together. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Bolero stars George Raft as Raoul de Barre, an arrogant dancer who rises to fame in the years prior to, during, and after WW I. Raoul is helped along the way by his promoter brother Mike (William Frawley) and scores of willing females, matriculating from two-bit gigolo to the greatest ballroom dancer in Paris. Determining that nothing will stand in his way to the top, he regularly fires any female dancing partner who has the misfortune to fall in love with him -- until the last of his partners, the beautiful Helen (Carole Lombard) beats him to the punch by walking out on him. His heart weakened during the war, Raoul aspires to open his own nightclub, despite warnings that if he ever dances again the consequences will be fatal. On opening night of his new establishment, Raoul dances Maurice Ravel's "Bolero" with Helen, now the wife of a British nobleman. Having reached his emotional and professional pinnacle, Raoul collapses and dies in his dressing room -- as the nightclub patrons, oblivious to his fate, loudly demand an encore. Surprisingly, George Raft and Carole Lombard's dancing is doubled by others, but the same cannot be said of the inimitable Sally Rand, whose famous fan dance is tastefully re-created here. Raft and Lombard later reteamed in 1935's Rumba. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Mae West's second starring vehicle, I'm No Angel casts the divine Miss West as the star performer in a seedy circus. Though she lives with Ralf Harolde, West allows herself plenty of time for other men. When Harolde runs afoul of the law, West secures extra money by becoming a lion tamer. While thus employed, West is "discovered" by playboy Kent Taylor; she willingly accepts his gifts and other favors, but she only has eyes for Taylor's cousin Cary Grant. Still, love takes second place to commerce in West's life, and she ends up suing Grant for breach of promise. When Grant allows her to win the case, she realizes she's truly in love with him after all. By rights, I'm No Angel should have been as big and bawdy a success as West's earlier She Done Him Wrong, but by late 1933 the censors were beginning to have their way with Hollywood. Several of the more ribald (and more hilarious) elements of the film were toned down--not least of which was the title, which was supposed to have been It Ain't No Sin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Directed by Wesley Ruggles, the musical sendup of College Humor centers around the blooming love between a college professor (Bing Crosby) and one of his students (Mary Carlisle). Feeling stilted, the school football star (Richard Arlen) is temporarily unable to concentrate on his game. Fortunately for the team, Crosby's romantic interest has a football-loving brother (Jack Oakie) who saves the day. Husband and wife team Gracie Allen and George Burns appear as themselves, stopping by to create mayhem at a fraternity dance. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

No Man of Her Own represented the only time that Clark Gable and Carole Lombard co-starred in the same picture (at the time the film was made, both were married to other people; their romance and subsequent marriage was several years in the offing). Gable plays a crooked cardsharp who takes it on the lam from the New York constabulary. He hides out in a small town, where he falls in love with librarian Lombard. Endearing himself to Lombard's family, Gable pretends to be an out-of-town broker. He takes his new bride Lombard back to New York, where he resumes his dishonest activities, all the while keeping his one-and-only in the dark. The fly in the ointment is Gable's ex-lover and former partner in crime Dorothy Mackaill, who threatens to expose Gable to the law. Rather than appear to be a cad in his wife's eyes, Gable turns himself in, telling Lombard that he's about to embark on a long business trip. The truth is revealed sometime before the final reel, but Lombard is willing to forgive and forget so long as Gable promises to go straight. Given the usual wiseacre urbanity of Gable's and Lombard's separate starring vehicles, No Man of Her Own seems unusually banal and sentimental. Still, the film is an opportunity not to be missed by latter-day "Golden Age of Hollywood" aficionados. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The 1916 Alice Duer Miller play Come Out of the Kitchen, previously filmed in 1921 with Marguerite Clark, was expertly transformed into early musical Honey. The story takes place in a poverty-stricken Virginia household, where blue-blooded brother and sister Olivia and Charles Dangerfield (Nancy Carroll and Skeets Gallagher) are reduced to renting out their mansion. Pretentious Yankee dowager Mrs. Falkner (Jobyna Howland) moves in with her spunky daughter Cora (Lillian Roth) in tow, while Olivia and Charles remain as servants. It isn't long before Cora has fallen in love with Charles, and Olivia has done likewise with Cora's former fiancee Burton Crane (Stanley Smith). The songs range from the self-spoofing "In My Little Hope Chest" to the lively "Sing You Sinners" (later used as a jazzy leitmotif in several Popeye and Betty Boop cartoons!) The Alice Duer Miller original was filmed again in 1934 as the British comedy Come Out of the Pantry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide