Betty Furness Movies
It's very likely that Betty Furness would be forgotten today if she'd remained a film actress. The daughter of pioneering radio executive George Furness, she landed her first modeling job at 14 and an RKO-Radio film contract two years later. From 1932 through 1935, she appeared in a string of forgettable ingénue roles in Tom Keene Westerns and B-melodramas. She exhibited an unexpected flair for screwball comedy in the 1936 Hal Roach production Mister Cinderella, but wasn't able to capitalize on this career highlight and was out of pictures by 1939 (except for a cameo appearance as herself in 1957's A Face in the Crowd). She fared rather better on Broadway in the 1940s, and better still when she ventured into television in 1949. Though she still occasionally acted in the 1950s (she even starred in a "girl reporter" crime series), her TV fame rested securely on her work as a commercial spokesperson. She was most closely associated with the Westinghouse company, earning hundreds of thousand of dollars pitching kitchenware with the confident catch phrase, "You can be sure if it's Westinghouse." (It should be noted here that one of the most infamous bloopers in TV history, wherein a Westinghouse refrigerator door failed to open during a live commercial, did not happen to Furness as has often been claimed, but to another actress who was subbing for her.) During the Lyndon Johnson administration, Furness was appointed to several important executive positions in the field of Consumer Protection. While working as consumer affairs director at New York's NBC TV affiliate in 1974, she began a long association with The Today Show as consumer reporter/advocate -- a job that was terminated in 1992 when the powers-that-be callously decided that the ever-ebullient Furness "scanned old." Married three times, Betty Furness' first husband was Hollywood composer Johnny Green. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1933
An earthy, fun-loving radio pitchwoman finds it difficult to live up to her squeaky-clean public persona as the "Purity Girl of the Air." This comedy chronicles the frantic efforts of her bosses to keep her on the straight and narrow when she goes out on the town. It's not easy because she is a shameless flirt. To put the kibosh on her constant coquettishness the publicity guys come up with the idea of having her choose a "professional sweetheart" from the many male admirers who frequently write her. They choose a naive Kentucky hayseed and much to everyone's surprise the Purity Girl falls in love with him. Unfortunately, after their radio wedding, the gal plans to ditch her radio gig and live the quiet life of a country housewife leaving the publicity men in a real quandary. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ginger Rogers, Norman Foster, (more)
- 1932
A vengeful cowpoke rides out for revenge against the cattle rustlers who killed his pa in this western. Along the way, he finds and adopts a cuddly little baby. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1933
In Scarlet River, Tom Keene plays "himself," a cowboy movie star, on location in the Wide Open Spaces for his latest epic. The locals chortle and guffaw at these picture people posing as genuine Westerners, but Keene proves his worth by rescuing Dorothy Wilson from villainous ranch foreman Creighton Chaney (aka Lon Chaney Jr.). Edgar Kennedy plays the flustered director, forever tearing out what little hair he has. The film-within-a-film sequences are staged with reasonable accuracy (future consumer advocate Betty Furness shows up as Keene's on-camera ingenue), while a few shots at the RKO commissary offer glimpses of studio contractees Myrna Loy, Joel McCrea and Bruce Cabot. The basic premise of Scarlet River would be revived in several future westerns by such cowboy stars as Charles Starrett, Buck Jones and Gene Autry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billy Butts
- 1935
In her American film debut, British stage luminary Constance Collier dominates MGM's Shadow of Doubt as wealthy, reclusive Aunt Melissa, a character obviously based on "witch of Wall Street" Hettie Green. Emerging from a 20-year seclusion, Melissa announces her intention to disown her nephew Sim (Ricardo Cortez) if he marries temperamental actress Trenna (Virginia Bruce), who has been implicated in a double murder case. A ubiquitous presence throughout the picture is Sim's best friend, eternally inebriated columnist Reed Ryan (Regis Toomey), who's more than a little anxious to crack the case -- or so he claims. But the person responsible for the film's happy ending is none other than Melissa, who turns out to be a sweet old gal after all. Shadow of Doubt was one of a brief mid-1930s cycle of "female-detective" films, which included the Hildegarde Withers and Nurse Sarah Keane mysteries. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ricardo Cortez, Virginia Bruce, (more)
- 1953
An American columnist rails for the rights of a free press in this small screen drama presented as part of the "Studio One" series. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
The sixth of RKO's Fred Astaire -Ginger Rogers pairings of the 1930s, Swing Time starts off with bandleader Astaire getting cold feet on his wedding day. Astaire's bride-to-be Betty Furness will give him a second chance, providing he proves himself responsible enough to earn $25,000. Astaire naturally tries to avoid earning that amount once he falls in love with dance instructor Ginger Rogers. Numerous complications ensue, leading to the "second time's the charm" climax, with Ginger escaping her own wedding to wealthy Georges Metaxa in order to be reunited with Astaire. The film's most indelible image is that of Fred Astaire, immaculately attired in top hat and tails, hopping a freight car--a perfect encapsulation of the film's Depression-era cheekiness. The Jerome Kern-Dorothy Fields score includes such standards-to-be as "Pick Yourself Up," "A Fine Romance," "The Way You Look Tonight," "Never Gonna Dance" and "Bojangles of Harlem." The peerless supporting cast of Swing Time includes Helen Broderick, Victor Moore, Eric Blore, and Landers Stevens, the actor-father of the film's director, George Stevens. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, (more)
- 1934
Robert Young had to be the busiest leading man in Hollywood in 1934. He appeared in no fewer than nine pictures, four of them at his home studio of MGM. The Band Plays On features Young as one of four close pals, who have grown up together and are now college football champs known as "The Four Bombers". So inseparable are these chums that, when one is injured in a car accident, the remaining three quit the team. But everyone is back on the field for the inevitable Big Game, including Young, who of course scores the winning T.D. Robert Young plays a football star as realistically as he'd played a baseball star in the earlier Death on the Diamond (34)--meaning that the film relies a heavily on stunt doubles and process screens. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Young, Stuart Erwin, (more)
- 1937
Good Old Soak was based on a story by Don Marquis, creator of the immortal "Archy and Mehitabel." Wallace Beery is well-cast as town drunk Clem Hawley, a blot on the escutcheon of a small Prohibition-era Midwestern town. When a large sum of bank money is stolen, Clem immediately falls under suspicion. His previously spineless son Clemmie (Eric Linden) rushes to his dad's defense, insisting that he, and not Clem, is the thief. But the "good old soak" manages to recover the money and expose the thief, a respectable "social" drinker and stock-market swindler whose hypocrisy is in stark contrast to Clem's bibulous honesty. In one of his last film roles, Ted Healy manages to steal quite a few scenes from Beery (no small feat) as a cheerful bootlegger. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wallace Beery, Una Merkel, (more)
- 1933
In this romantic drama, set at the turn of the century, a womanizing Irish motorman ignores his marital vows, but only to a point. Though he has many affairs, he will not leave his wife. As the years pass, he holds many jobs, and many different women before he retires in Atlantic City where he becomes a moralistic fortune teller for women. He actually helps some of his clients and dies knowing he was not a total lout. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Dix, Edna May Oliver, (more)
- 1935
In early 1930s, Monogram pictures held a virtual monopoly on the bucolic novels of Gene Stratton Porter. When Monogram absorbed by the new Republic Pictures in 1935, several Porter properties were included in the merger, among them the 1875 best-seller Keeper of the Bees. In one of her largest screen roles, Emma Dunn plays backwoods faith-healer Aunt Margot. In addition to her duties as county bookkeeper, the old woman is in charge of her daughter Molly (Betty Furness) and niece Scout (Edith Fellows), who loyally protect one another when trouble arises. The story proper gets under way when disillusioned artist Jamie (Neil Hamilton) has his will to live restored by the lovely Molly and her colorful family. Keeper of the Bees was remade virtually intact in 1947. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Neil Hamilton, Betty Furness, (more)
- 1934
In this tear-jerking adaptation of Louis Bromfield's novel A Good Woman, the title character stands tall in the face of small town gossip in order to stay with her already married lover who makes promises to her he does not intend to keep. Matters get complicated when Vergie gets pregnant. At the same time, her lover begins running for political office. Not wanting scandal to destroy his promising career, Vergie begs him not to divorce the wife he doesn't love. The child, a girl, is born. Vergie and her man continue to tryst, but it is far from a perfect situation and back home, he is miserable. One day he decides enough is enough and tells his vindictive wife the truth and announces his intent to divorce her. The wife takes this poorly and her jealousy sets a terrible tragedy in motion that is only resolved at the story's end. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Harding, John Boles, (more)
The screenplay for this mystery is based upon a story suggested to Liberty Magazine by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It is the tale of a prominent lawyer who shocks his snooty friends, family and colleagues by abruptly abandoning his successful practice and his wife to find true happiness. He soon falls in love with another woman and continues to keep a low profile until he learns that his first wife stands accused of murdering him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henry Wilcoxon, Betty Furness, (more)
- 1936
Based on a Damon Runyon story, Three Wise Guys stars Betty Furness as a Broadway golddigger hired by gangster Bruce Cabot to romance playboy Robert Young, then take the sap for every penny he's got. But when Young marries Furness, he is disinherited. Furness decides she's truly in love with Young and leaves town with him. Pursued by Cabot and his henchmen, the couple takes refuge in a deserted farm. Cabot is about to exact vengeance on Furness when he discovers that she's pregnant, and due at any minute. Thus the chastened Cabot and his "wise guy" companions aid Furness in bringing her baby into the world. That's right, it's Christmas...and it's also in a little town called Bethlehem. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Young, Betty Furness, (more)
- 1937
The "they" who want to marry in this RKO Radio programmer are news photographer Jim Tyler (Gordon Jones) and cute society deb Sheila Hunter (Betty Furness). The heroine's father (Henry Kolker) disapproves of the union, requiring Gordon to take a "respectable" job in daddy's advertising agency. Our hero manages to strike out on Madison Avenue, but redeems himself with a big news scoop in the final reel. E.E. Clive has all the good lines as the Hunter family's dry-witted butler. Four decades later, leading lady Betty Furness would later make a name for herself in the journalistic world as NBC's consumer reporter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Betty Furness, Gordon Jones, (more)
- 1932
In this suspenseful drama, an embittered woman exacts revenge upon the 12 women who wronged her in college. The trouble began when the woman, who was of Japanese and Indian heritage, was ejected from a college sorority because she wasn't white. Still angry, the woman hires an astrologer to create 12 terrifying horoscopes for each of the dastardly dozen. These grim predictions terrify the victims into doing dreadful things. One commits suicide, while another commits murder. More mayhem ensues until the astrologer makes some dire predictions about the vengeful woman herself. She doesn't like it, and using her psychic powers she forces him in front of an oncoming train. She then resumes her revenge by trying to poison the son of the remaining woman. This causes a police inspector to get suspicious, and he follow the murderous woman to the train station where she plans to kill the woman. A chase ensues culminating in the evil woman's demise. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irene Dunne, Myrna Loy, (more)
