Max Davidson Movies

Jewish comic Max Davidson stars in this Hal Roach farce that would most likely have been completely forgotten had not Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, and Charley Chase turned up in cameo appearances. Davidson, wife Lillian Elliott, and son Spec O'Donnell are attempting to sell their house, which is located right next door to an insane asylum inhabited by a group of would-be radio announcers (the Messieurs Laurel, Hardy, Chase and James Finlayson). At the end of their ropes, the Davidsons finally find a buyer willing to swap houses, "no questions asked." The proud little family takes possession of their new abode, the street number of which is 1313, but it proves to be a lemon of gargantuan proportion where everything is topsy-turvy. A housewarming party ends in a free-for-all that nearly wrecks the house, and, after surveying the damage, the Davidsons discover that the insane asylum has relocated as well -- to right next door. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Although based on a story by William Colt McDonald, the creator of The Three Mesqueteers, this Tim McCoy effort from Columbia was a conventional Western at best. McCoy played Tim Madigan, a cowpoke coming to the aid of Jerry Norris (Alberta Vaughn), whose father (Murdock MacQuarrie) is in trouble with a gang of cattle rustlers. The leaders of the rustlers, Hugo Distang (Robert Ellis) and Bull Bagley (Richard Alexander), prove to be the very same villains Madigan was trailing. Aided by a new friend, Jughandle (Wallace MacDonald), Madigan manages to catch the rustlers red-handed. The bandits are carted off to jail and Jughandle proves to be an agent for the Cattlemen's Association. McCoy offered a competent and believable performance but this time the material was not quite up to his usual high standard. Future Three Stooges menace Vernon Dent appeared as an ill-fated bartender. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this action drama, set on San Francisco's notorious Barbary Coast, a girl gets deeply entangled with gangsters. A professional writer understands why she got involved with the criminals; he tries to help her get out of that seedy life. It is not easy. Action and violence ensues before she eventually succeeds. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this followup to the earlier one-reeler Our Gang: Night 'N' Gales, comedian Johnny Arthur reprises his role as Darla Hood's long-suffering father. It's Mr. Hood's birthday, and he has been eagerly anticipating a quiet dinner at home with his family. Alas, Darla has invited a "few friends" to the celebration: Our Gang-ers Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Eugene "Porky" Lee, Philip Hurlic, and Leonard Landy. The well-meaning quartet drive poor Mr. Hood to distraction with loud and interminable choruses of "Happy Birthday, Mr. Hood", but this is nothing compared to the presents they've brought: a frog, a duck, and a cat, all of which get into a noisy confrontation with the family dog. When the kids aren't arguing over their favorite comic-strip characters, they're busily devouring Mr. Hood's birthday dinner; the poor fellow doesn't even get a slice of his own cake! Feed 'Em and Weep was orginally released on May 7, 1938. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Stan Laurel had quit acting -- at least temporarily -- to focus on his work as a writer and director. This Hal Roach comedy got him back in front of the cameras and legend has it that the role he played here -- as Summers, the valet to Harry Myers -- was originally meant for Oliver Hardy. Hardy, however, had burnt himself in a cooking accident and was unavailable, so Laurel was pressed into service. Once Laurel was back acting, it wasn't long before he and Hardy would be appearing together and making film history. Orvid Joy (Myers) is on a ship returning to America so he can collect his inheritance. During the voyage, he falls in love with a girl (Eugenia Gilbert) and they marry. In the States, his lawyer, Issac Goldberg (Max Davidson), has arranged a marriage because Joy cannot collect his inheritance without a bride. He wires Joy that his "wife" will be waiting for him when the ship docks. Joy's new bride misunderstands and thinks he's a bigamist so she storms off. Joy is in a panic because he can't get married to someone else -- that would really make him a bigamist. All he can do, it seems, is hire a female impersonator. His valet, Summers, is forced into a dress, but he proves to be a highly uncooperative bride. Fortunately, Joy's real bride returns just in time to make everyone happy. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

During the mid-'20s, Monte Blue and Patsy Ruth Miller starred together in a number of pleasantly entertaining comedy-dramas for Warner Bros. This one is typical of the bunch -- it's well made and has a lot of thrills -- but it's not great filmmaking. Patsy Ryan (Miller) is engaged to fighter Lefty O'Brien (Blue) against the wishes of her father (Willard Louis). Ryan wants to see his daughter marry someone wealthy so she can leave the Lower East Side behind. When Patsy is injured, Lefty calls for Dr. Franklin (Nigel Barrie), who begins to court her. But the doctor is not an honorable man, and when he invites Patsy and her father to his country lodge, Lefty follows after the train in his car. The auto is wrecked, and the train runs wild. To save the day -- and his sweetheart -- Lefty hires an aeroplane and leaps onto the train. In spite of all the danger they are in, Dr. Franklin has chosen this time to try to force himself on Patsy, and Lefty shows up in time to beat him up and stop the train before it hits a landslide. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Sometime during the shooting of the landmark The Birth of a Nation, filmmaker D.W. Griffith probably wondered how he could top himself. In 1916, he showed how, with the awesome Intolerance. The film began humbly enough as a medium-budget feature entitled The Mother and the Law, wherein the lives of a poor but happily married couple are disrupted by the misguided interference of a "social reform" group. A series of unfortunate circumstances culminates in the husband's being sentenced to the gallows, a fate averted by a nick-of-time rescue engineered by his wife. In the wake of the protests attending the racist content of The Birth of a Nation, Griffith wanted to demonstrate the dangers of intolerance. The Mother and the Law filled the bill to some extent, but it just wasn't "big" enough to suit his purposes. Thus, using The Mother and the Law as merely the base of the film, Griffith added three more plotlines and expanded his cinematic thesis to epic proportions. The four separate stories of Intolerance are symbolically linked by Lillian Gish as the Woman Who Rocks the Cradle ("uniter of the here and hereafter"). The "Modern Story" is essentially The Mother and the Law; the "French Story" details the persecution of the Huguenots by Catherine de Medici (Josephine Crowell); the "Biblical Story" relates the last days of Jesus Christ (Howard Gaye); and the "Babylonian Story" concerns the defeat of King Belshazzar (Alfred Paget) by the hordes of Cyrus the Persian (George Siegmann).

Rather than being related chronologically, the four stories are told in parallel fashion, slowly at first, and then with increasing rapidity. The action in the film's final two reels leaps back and forth in time between Babylon, Calvary, 15th century France, and contemporary California. Described by one historian as "the only film fugue," Intolerance baffled many filmgoers of 1916 -- and, indeed, it is still an exhausting, overwhelming experience, even for audiences accustomed to the split-second cutting and multilayered montage sequences popularized by Sergei Eisenstein, Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, Joel Schumacher, and MTV. On a pure entertainment level, the Babylonian sequences are the most effective, played out against one of the largest, most elaborate exterior sets ever built for a single film. The most memorable character in this sequence is "The Mountain Girl," played by star on the rise Constance Talmadge; when the Babylonian scenes were re-released as a separate feature in 1919, Talmadge's tragic death scene was altered to accommodate a happily-ever-after denouement. Other superb performances are delivered by Mae Marsh and Robert Harron in the Modern Story, and by Eugene Pallette and Margery Wilson in the French Story. Remarkably sophisticated in some scenes, appallingly naïve in others, Intolerance is a mixed bag dramatically, but one cannot deny that it is also a work of cinematic genius. The film did poorly upon its first release, not so much because its continuity was difficult to follow as because it preached a gospel of tolerance and pacifism to a nation preparing to enter World War I. Currently available prints of Intolerance run anywhere from 178 to 208 minutes; while it may be rough sledding at times, it remains essential viewing for any serious student of film technique. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though Ginger Rogers' starring vehicles always turned a profit for RKO Radio, many filmgoers thought of Rogers only in terms of "Fred Astaire's partner." Others considered her a delightful comedienne, but no great shakes as a dramatic actress. Thus it was both a personal and professional triumph when Ms. Rogers walked home with an Oscar for her performance in Kitty Foyle. Based on Christopher Morley's Story of an American Girl, the film, told in flashback, relates the progress of working-girl Kitty Foyle (Ginger Rogers) as she pursues her Cinderella dreams. While employed at a department store, Kitty is wooed by Dennis Morgan, scion of a wealthy Philadelphia family. She flirts with the notion of marrying Morgan for his money, but decides that he's a bit too weak-willed for her tastes. Kitty enters into a romance with poor-but-dedicated doctor James Craig, then does an about-face by accepting Morgan's proposal. She quickly runs afoul of Morgan's snobbish family, who are so tightly bound by centuries-old tradition that Kitty is moved to exclaim "You mean to say you let all those dead people tell you what do?" She walks out on Morgan, then discovers that she's pregnant. Even after the trauma of delivering a stillborn child, Kitty is too proud to go back to Morgan. When true-blue Craig comes back into her life, Kitty, repeating her favorite phrase "By Judas Priest!", decides to forego money for love. Though successful to the tune of an $860,000 profit in 1940, Kitty Foyle seems stilted and over-rehearsed when seen today, save for the refreshing spontaneity of Ginger Rogers' performance. The film's best scene is the opening montage of the American Woman's "progress" once she enters the workplace (an uncredited Heather Angel is the central character in this delightful pantomimic vignette). Featured in the cast of Kitty Foyle is director Sam Wood's daughter Katherine Stevens, better known as K.T. Stevens. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The success of this "Our Gang" comedy is due in great part to the performances of two adult comedians, Edgar Kennedy and Max Davidson. Warning the Gang members to stay away from an old, crumbling condemned house, Officer Kennedy suggests they dig for buried treasure. They do --- in the same house that Kennedy had told them to avoid. Once inside the ramshackle structure, the kids are terrorized by a crazy but harmless old hermit (Davidson), who eats invisible meals, emits loud and eerie howls, and periodically makes the curious announcement "I know --- but I won't tell ya!" The best gags involved a pair of Chinese handcuffs, which manage to incapacitate both Kennedy and the zany hermit. Initially released on December 7, 1929, "Moan & Groan Inc." was originally included in the "Little Rascals" TV package, but has since been withdrawn due to a handful of mild ethnic jokes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

At the start of this comic short, the Three Stooges are unemployed. They've been sleeping in the awning of a swap shop and are rudely awakened when the shop owner unrolls it. After turning the store into a disaster area, the trio run away. They escape to city hall and exit as census takers. Excited over their four-cents-per-head fee, they get working. One place they invade is a mansion during a party. Curly, who has been flirting with the maid in the kitchen, mixes the punch and sweetens it with alum, which he mistakes for powdered sugar. Meanwhile, Moe and Larry somehow get collared by the hostess into playing bridge. When the card players drink the alum-saturated punch, their mouths shrivel up, which makes bidding very difficult. Curly and the maid get into a spat and the hostess, who is in the wrong place at the wrong time, winds up with a dress soaked with punch. The Stooges dash off and find a stadium full of spectators watching a football game. The potential income from all these surveys is very appealing, so the boys sneak into the stadium and start off by trying to survey the players. This doesn't go over very well with the team, and after the Stooges have disrupted the game, the players chase them out of the stadium and into the street. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

The Rag Man proved to be a popular release, so Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer quickly put together this sequel. The studio's brand new starlet Joan Crawford stars alongside young Jackie Coogan and old Max Davidson. When we last saw Tim Kelly (Coogan) and Max Ginsberg (Davidson), the ex-rag pickers had struck it rich. But the copper stock in which they have invested takes a dive and they are compelled to go back into the junk business. They take in the penniless Mary Riley (Crawford) as a roomer and she hits it off so well with them that she winds up becoming a partner in their little company. Mary falls in love with Nathan Burke (Alan Forrest), a young broker, but his mother (Lillian Elliott) opposes the match. Eventually it is revealed that Mrs. Burke came from a poor background herself, and her long-ago sweetheart was Ginsberg. After this discovery, she gives the couple her blessings. The copper stock soars in value once again, so Kelly and Ginsberg are back in the money. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Between 1934 and 1936, Producer/director Bernard B. Ray ground out 19 westerns starring flinty-eyed Tom Tyler. 1936's Roamin' Wild was neither the best nor worst; if you liked Tyler, you'd like the picture. The title is an apt description of the plot, which roams from one wild fistfight or gun duel to the next, with little rhyme or reason. Tyler upholds his dignity throughout, even when the other actors muff lines and the sound quality wavers between adequate and tin-can-and-a-string. The photography is gorgeous, especially when seen in a good print. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide