Matt McHugh Movies
Actor Matt McHugh was born into a show business family, joining his parents, his brother Frank, and his sister Kitty in the family stock company as soon as he learned to talk. Matt came to Hollywood to repeat his stage role in the 1931 film adaptation of Elmer Rice's Broadway hit Street Scene. He continued to have sizeable film assignments for the next few years (notably the bourgeois Italian bridegroom Francesco in Laurel and Hardy's The Devil's Brother [1933]) before settling into bits and minor roles. A dead ringer for his more famous brother Frank McHugh, Matt projected an abrasive, sardonic screen image; as such, he was utilized in such rough-edged roles as cab drivers, bartenders and mechanics. Matt McHugh's best screen opportunities in the '40s came with his supporting roles in the 2-reel comedy output of Columbia Pictures; he appeared in the short comedies of Andy Clyde, Hugh Herbert, Walter Catlett, The Three Stooges and many others, most often cast as a lazy or caustic brother-in-law. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Elmer Rice's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Street Scene was purchased for the screen by producer Samuel Goldwyn in 1931. The entire story takes place on the street in front of a foreboding old New York brownstone, between one evening and the next afternoon. The individual fates of eight neighboring Manhattan families intertwine during this brief stretch of time. Special emphasis is given the Maurrant family: the philandering mother (Estelle Taylor), the drink-sodden husband (David Landau) and long-suffering daughter Rose (Sylvia Sidney). When the husband catches the wife "in the act" with bill-collector Russell Hopton, the resulting tragedy is not shown, but reflecting in the wildly varying reactions of neighbors and passersby. Though resisting the temptation to "open up" the play, director King Vidor nonetheless injects his cinematic know-how into the proceedings, by utilizing an entirely different camera setup or angle for each individual "take." The cast of Street Scene includes several carry-overs from the Broadway original, including David Landau, Max Montor, Matt McHugh (brother of Frank), John Qualen, George Humbert, Tom H. Manning, and Anna Konstant (Sidebar: Shirley Kaplan, the role played by Ms. Konstant, was portrayed in the London production of Street Scene by Greer Garson). Unavailable for TV for many years due to legal tangles, Street Scene was freed up for the small screen when it lapsed into public domain in the early 1980s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sylvia Sidney, William Collier, Jr., (more)
- 1932
Eric Linden is a bellhop who has the extreme misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time in gangster era of Chicago. After witnessing an assassination staged by gangsters, Linden becomes a pawn, being pushed back and forth by corrupt authorities and the mob. Tension mounts as the possibility that the blame for the crime may eventually rest on Linden. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Linden, Sidney Fox, (more)
The genesis of MGM's Freaks was a magazine piece by Ted Robbins titled Spurs. The story involved a terrible revenge enacted by a mean-spirited circus midget upon his normal-sized wife. In adapting Spurs for the screen, writers Willis Goldbeck, Leon Gordon, Edgar Allan Wolf, and Al Boasberg retained the circus setting and the little man-big woman wedding, all the while de-vilifying the midget and transforming the woman into the true "heavy" of the piece. German "little person" Harry Earles plays Hans, who falls in love with long-legged trapeze artist Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova). Discovering that Hans is heir to a fortune, Cleopatra inveigles him into a marriage, all the while planning to bump off her new husband and run away with brutish strongman Hercules (Henry Victor). What she doesn't reckon with is the code of honor among circus freaks: "offend one, offend them all." What set this film apart from director Tod Browning's earlier efforts was the fact that genuine circus and carnival sideshow performers were cast as the freaks: Harry Earles and his equally diminutive sister Daisy, Siamese twins Violet and Daisy Hilton, legless Johnny Eck, armless-legless Randian (who rolls cigarettes with his teeth), androgynous Josephine-Joseph, "pinheads" Schlitzie, Elvira, Jennie Lee Snow, and so on. Upon its initial release, Freaks was greeted with such revulsion from movie-house audiences that MGM spent the next 30 years distancing themselves as far from the project as possible. For many years available only in a truncated reissue version titled Nature's Mistakes, Freaks was eventually restored to its original release print. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, (more)
- 1932
James Cagney was originally pegged to play brash Broadway columnist Jimmy Russell in this pleasant if somewhat lightweight newspaper yarn, but when director William Wellman called "action," Douglas Fairbanks Jr. had replaced him. In love with pretty actress Mary Wodehouse (Frances Dee), Jimmy can only watch as gangster Eddie Shaw (Lyle Talbot) takes on the girl's mounting debt. Sending Jimmy on a wild goose chase to Atlantic City, Shaw then attempts to lure Mary to his penthouse but is instead confronted with the girl's gun-toting Aunt Hattie (Cecil Cunningham). Jimmy manages to escape Shaw's goons and arrives at Shaw's apartment just in time to watch Aunt Hattie hide the murder weapon. There is an attempt at a coverup, and the eventual ruling of the court reads suicide. The ambitious Mary, meanwhile, marries theatrical entrepreneur Max Boncour (André Luguet) and Jimmy vows to stay away from the "love racket" for good. Or at least until gal-pal Sally (Ann Dvorak) can convince him otherwise. Although George Raft is listed in most credits for Love is a Racket, he is not in the surviving print. The drama was retitled Such Things Happen for release in Great Britain, where the word "racket" meant something entirely different. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Ann Dvorak, (more)
- 1932
A huge box office success and a key film in James Cagney's rise to stardom, this drama stars Cagney as Matt Nolan, a gritty New York City cab driver who is being squeezed by a monopolistic taxi trust which uses force to run him and other independent cabbies away from the most profitable locations. Nolan joins forces with Pop Riley (George Kibbee), whose cab is smashed by a truck when he refuses to cooperate with the syndicate. Kibbee is sent to prison for shooting at the truck driver. Nolan is dating his daughter, Sue (Loretta Young), and they enter a Peabody dance contest at a local nightclub. Cagney dances on screen for the first time, and so does George Raft as Willie Kenny, another dancing tough guy who was a friend of Cagney's, who pushed Warner Bros. to give Cagney the role. Nolan marries Sue Riley, and she tries to get him to cool down. But the taxi trust goons kill his brother Danny (Ray Cooke), and Nolan goes on a rampage. In several filmed gun battles, live machine-gun bullets are used, as they were in Cagney's famed The Public Enemy. This is the last time Cagney allowed that. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, Loretta Young, (more)
- 1932
Barbara Stanwyck, displayed in all her pre-Code glory, once again plays "damaged goods" in Warner Bros.' The Purchase Price. Hard-boiled nightclub singer Joan Gordon (Stanwyck) gets fed up being the kept woman of her married boss, bootlegger Ed Fields (Lyle Talbot). Fleeing New York City, she ends up in North Dakota as the mail-order bride of wheat farmer Jim Gilson (George Brent). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, (more)
- 1932
In this WW II drama, the commander of the French cruiser Lafayette is sunk by a German U-boat. Following the rescue of the survivors, the commander undergoes an investigative hearing to determine his culpability in the sinking. He didn't know it at the time, but his philandering young wife was trysting with a handsome young officer and ended up stuck on the cruise. The woman survived the incident. To save her husband's career, she tearfully admits her adultery in court. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lil Dagover, Walter Huston, (more)
- 1932
About to die in the electric chair, John Allen (Edward G. Robinson) uses the last two seconds of his life to recall the events leading up to his present predicament. A $62.50-per-week riveter ("That's more than most college professors make!"), Allen gets drunk at a speakeasy and impulsively marries his steady date Shirley Day (Vivienne Osborne), who almost immediately begins cheating on him with dance-hall proprietor Tony (J. Carroll Naish). When his co-worker pal Bud Clark (Preston S. Foster) tries to warn him of this hanky-panky, Allen angrily takes a punch at Clark, whereupon the other man falls to his death from a skyscraper girder. Told by his "repentant" wife that she's been messing around with Tony so as to borrow money from him, Allen begins playing the horses, earning just enough money to pay off his debts. With money in hand, he heads to Tony's place, only to discover that Shirley has been lying to him all along. In a fit of jealousy, he kills Shirley and subsequently is sentenced to the chair. As the executioner pulls the switch, Allen philosophizes that he's been the victim of the "postman always rings twice" syndrome: He escaped prosecution for Clark's unjustified death, only to be punished for his justifiable murder of Shirley ("It isn't fair to let a rat live and kill a man!") Edward G. Robinson overacts outrageously throughout Two Seconds, but that's part of the charm of this fascinating antique. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward G. Robinson, Preston S. Foster, (more)
Virtually everybody except President Roosevelt was in the lavish MGM backstage musical Dancing Lady. Joan Crawford stars as Janie Barlow, an impoverished dancer reduced to working in a seedy Manhattan burlesque house. While on a slumming party with his society friend, wealthy young Tod Newton (Franchot Tone) spots Janie in the burleycue chorus line and immediately falls in love with her. When the joint is raided, Tod pays Janie's bail, but she resists his entreaties to become his mistress, promising instead to pay back every cent she owes him "honestly." With Tod's help, Janie is able to secure work in a big-time Broadway musical being staged by Patch Gallegher (Clark Gable), who is certain that the girl is an untalented opportunist and does everything he can to sabotage her audition. When he realizes that the girl "has something," he refuses to admit it but does, grudgingly, hire her for the show. Through a combination of skill and damned hard work, Janie ends up as the star of the show, whereupon Tod, worried that he'll lose the girl to the Great White Way, buys the show and promptly closes it. But Janie, who's fallen in love with Patch, teams with her new sweetheart to restage the show with their own meager savings -- and surprise of surprises, it's a smash hit. Truly an embarrassment of riches, Dancing Lady introduced Fred Astaire to the movie-going public, solidified the popularity of MGM's new tenor Nelson Eddy, and offered a wide berth for the comedy antics of Ted Healy and his Three Stooges -- Moe Howard, Curly Howard and Larry Fine (Larry, performing his role in a Jewish dialect, has a wonderful double-take bit with a jigsaw puzzle which turns out to be a portrait of Adolf Hitler). As a bonus, the film offers spectacular musical production numbers, not to mention the enduring song hit "Everything I Have is Yours." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, (more)
- 1933
Hard to Handle stars James Cagney as a fast-talking promoter who pounces upon every current fad and foible to make a quick buck. He promotes marathon dances (where spectators feel cheated because no one drops dead), crash diets, reducing creams and treasure contests, finagling his way into the confidence of high rollers and money men. In a cute "inside" joke harking back to a choice Cagney moment in The Public Enemy, our hero at one point takes up the promotion of grapefruits! Like most conners, Cagney isn't aware when he is being conned himself, and he falls victim to his marathon-dance business partner, who absconds with the winnings. The contest winner is pretty Mary Brian, whose mother (Ruth Donnelly) tries to extract payment by forcing Cagney to marry her daughter. He does, but only after eight reels of high-pressure wheeling and dealing. In the tradition of Jimmy Cagney's other early-1930s, Hard to Handle is socked over by the energetic insouciance of its star. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, Mary Brian, (more)
- 1933
Top-billed Bela Lugosi has only a minor role in this routine variant on the Old Dark House scenario, playing a mysterious Indian mystic who is but one of numerous eccentric characters lingering about in an eerie mansion, stalked by an unseen murderer. Other potential victims/suspects include a reporter, a pair of exotic house servants, a fetching heroine, even an extra psychopath thrown in as a red herring. The real killer is eventually discovered and destroyed but, in an inventive and chilling twist, comes back to life to speak directly to the audience in the film's surprise coda -- the only real moment of interest in this otherwise humdrum who-done-it. Also known as He Lived to Kill. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bela Lugosi, Sally Blane, (more)
- 1933
Based on an 1830 opera entitled "Fra Diavolo" by Daniel F. Auber, the parts of two bit bandits were built up for Laurel and Hardy, but this was still just a minor effort--a few good laughs but nothing spectacular that wasn't done better elsewhere. Released later as Bogus Bandits and The Virtuous Tramps, changing the title didn't improve the product. A classic impersonation film, it has the comic duo servants to a bandit who is impersonating a Marquis to get his hands on the jewels worn by the upper crust. Standard dual identity film is similar to The Scarlet Pimpernel. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, (more)
- 1933
A man on the wrong side of the law has a chance to turn over a new leaf in this crime drama. Edward Carson (Spencer Tracy) is a gangster who made a fortune in bootlegging; however, his lawyer turned on him and set him up on a tax evasion charge that earned him a long stay in prison. While Carson is in stir, prohibition is repealed, and with illegal booze no longer a money-maker, Carson's underlings take up kidnapping as a way to earn a living. When the gang abducts Thomas and Lila Penfield (Howard Lally and Mary Mason) -- the son and daughter of Judge Penfield (Ralph Morgan), who presided at the trial that put Carson behind bars -- Carson is given a chance to redeem himself. He's released on the condition that he help the police track down his former partners in crime before the Judge's children can be harmed. Jane Lee (Claire Trevor), a crusading journalist covering the kidnapping, gets to know Carson, and before long, they develop a close bond both professionally and personally. Keep an eye peeled for Kathleen Burke, who won a substantial cult following for her performance the same year as Lota the Panther Woman in the horror classic The Island of Lost Souls. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Claire Trevor, (more)
- 1933
The Man Who Dared was inspired by the career of Chicago mayor Anton Cermak, here called "Jan Novak" and played by Preston S. Foster. The first portion of the film dwells upon Novak's early years in Chicago's Bohemian community, then follows him on the political trail. In the face of governmental corruption, Novak is scrupulously honest; despite the pressures of big-business barons, Novak tirelessly champions the working man. Elected mayor of Chicago during the Prohibition era, Novak stands his ground against gangsterism. At the end, he is shot down by a sniper who was aiming at President-elect Roosevelt (just as Anton Cermak was shot at the Chicago Century of Progress exhibition in 1933). As Novak dies, he expresses no regrets, declaring his gratitude that Roosevelt was spared. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Preston S. Foster, Zita Johann, (more)
- 1934
In this thriller, a young woman marries a dashing young man who, unbeknownst to her, is a jewel thief. After his latest job, he takes off and leaves her to take the rap. In court she is found guilty. She is riding a train en route to prison when the train crashes. Her identity is confused with that of a wealthy young man's fiancee. The two soon fall in love. They are later confronted by the real fiancee, her thieving husband, the fiancee's brother and the police. Somehow the girl is extricated from the mess with her name and reputation intact. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Neil Hamilton, Florence Rice, (more)
- 1934
Will Rogers stars as Judge William "Billy" Priest, the common-sense Kentucky jurist created by humorist Irvin S. Cobb. The Judge's easygoing manner bothers many of the self-righteous good citizens of his small 19th-century hometown, imperiling his chances for re-election. The anecdotal plot boils down to a single storyline involving orphaned Anita Louise, reclusive David Landau (secretly Louise's father), and young attorney Tom Brown.The testimony that saves Landau from a murder charge is delivered by Civil War veteran H.B. Walthall, whose stirring loyalty to the Confederacy inspires everyone in town to organize an impromptu parade! Some of the best scenes are highlighted by Will Rogers' affectionate rapport with stereotyped black-actors Stepin Fetchit and Hattie McDaniel, though these scenes are frequently removed from TV showings of Judge Priest due to their undeniably racist overtones. If you haven't guessed by the first frame of the film that John Ford was the director, you'll recognize Ford's personal stamp the moment Will Rogers kneels by his wife's grave and carries on a warm conversation with his long-departed bride. Ford would remake (and improve upon) Judge Priest in 1953 as The Sun Shines Bright, with Charles Winninger as the judge. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Tom Brown, (more)
- 1934
Miriam Hopkins plays a showgirl who witnesses a gangland slaying. Bing Crosby and Elliot Nugent are somewhat over-aged Princeton University students who agree to hide Miriam. They disguise her as a boy (a remarkable achievement) and manage to pull the wool over the eyes of the dean (Henry Stephenson) and even the dean's daughter (Kitty Carlisle). Before the killers are vanquished and Hopkins' life is out of danger, Crosby gets to introduce the hit song "Love in Bloom," which ever after would be associated not with Crosby but with Jack Benny. Based on the Broadway hit by Howard Lindsay, She Loves Me Not was remade in 1942 as True to the Army with Judy Canova, and again in 1955 as How to Be Very, Very Popular with Betty Grable. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bing Crosby, Miriam Hopkins, (more)
- 1934
Harold Lloyd plays Ezekial Cobb, a missionary's son who has spent his entire life in China. Cobb is sent to his father's home church in California, where it is hoped he will find a wife. A true babe in the woods, Cobb is befriended by politician Jake Mayo (George Barbier). Mayo is a cog in a crooked political machine whose bosses plan to set up a "reform" candidate for mayor, so that they can continue their underhanded activities unmolested. The candidate drops dead, so Mayo sets up the innocent Cobb as the mayor-to-be--a "cat's paw" to deflect attention from the system's corruption. But once elected, Cobb takes his duties quite seriously and begins to clean up the town. The machine frames Cobb with planted evidence of wrongdoing, destroying the lad's political career. Undaunted, Cobb remembers the story of an ancient Chinese leader, who, similarly disgraced, took the law in his own hands and executed all known criminals in his last days of power. Cobb orders that every crook in town be rounded up and brought to a dark cellar. He insists that they confess their crimes or face instant death--and backs up his words by "beheading" two of the crooks on the spot! Actually, these executions are cleverly designed magical illusions, and no one is really killed; but the terrified criminals are so hoodwinked by Cobb's apparent cold-bloodedness that they literally climb over one another to confess. Cobb is exonerated, and honesty is restored to his administration. While not Harold Lloyd's best feature film, The Cat's Paw is definitely his most unorthodox. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harold Lloyd, Una Merkel, (more)
- 1934
Based on a Zane Grey story, The Last Trail stars virile cowboy hero George O'Brien in a largely anti-heroic role. Escaping from a posse, the "good bad man" (O'Brien) boards an Eastbound train, where he strikes up a friendship with a genial gangster (J. Carroll Naish). Later on, the cowboy returns to the West as a member of the gangster's gang. He poses as the heir to a vast cattle ranch, never dreaming that he really is the heir. When the truth is revealed, the wayward cowboy switches to the side of the Law, while another of the gangster's flunkeys (Claire Trevor) reveals herself to be an honest newspaperwoman -- and thus a suitable candidate for romance. Like all of Fox's Zane Grey programmers, The Last Trail boasts excellent production values and crystal-clear photography. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George O'Brien, Claire Trevor, (more)
- 1935
Screenwriter Preston Sturges never lets the facts get in the way of a good story in this colorful filmed biography of turn-of-the-century millionaire Diamond Jim Brady. The hearty Edward Arnold stars as Brady, who parlays a small-time railroad supply firm into a thriving financial empire. Once he's in the chips, Diamond Jim indulges in his every whim, lavishing his money on wine, women, song and food -- lots and lots of food. Alas, for all his business acumen, he is never able to find true romance, striking out twice with coquettish Emma (Jean Arthur) and her more sedate look-alike Jane (also Jean Arthur). Along, the way, Diamond Jim also has a casual fling with the fabulous Lillian Russell (Binnie Barnes), but theirs is more a friendship than an affair. Having paid no attention to the truth throughout the film, writer Sturges felt no need to accurately portray Brady's ultimate demise, so he borrows a page from the old George Arliss vehicle Old English by having Diamond Jim deliberately eat himself to death. Edward Arnold would repeat his Diamond Jim Brady characterization opposite Alice Faye in 1940's Lillian Russell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward Arnold, Jean Arthur, (more)
- 1935
Elissa Landi plays an opera star (she's dubbed by Nina Koshetz) who marries arrogant millionaire Cary Grant (dubbed by himself). Grant's dreams of connubial bliss are shattered when he's forced to trail along while Landi tours the world with a huge entourage; he's also not happy with his wife's frequent temperamental outbursts. The limit comes when Cary is ordered to walk his wife's dog while she schmoozes with the press. He files for divorce, finding solace with lovely Sharon Lynne. Landi craftily arranges for the new couple to attend her first performance of the season, where Grant immediately falls under her spell again. Promising to be more attentive in the future, Landi wins Cary back. Enter Madame was hurried into production to capitalize on the success of Columbia's films with real-life diva Grace Moore. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elissa Landi, Cary Grant, (more)
- 1935
Perhaps the best of Mascot Pictures' feature-film releases, Ladies Crave Excitement is also one of the fastest 69 minutes ever put on film. Norman Foster and Eddie Nugent play Don and Bob, a pair of ace newsreel cameraman for The March of Events, forever keeping one step ahead of their competition. Swept up in the boys' adventures is thrill-seeking heiress Wilma Howell (Evalyn Knapp), who eventually proves to be a valuable member of the team. After a dizzying series of hairbreadth escapes, Don once again scoops his rivals by rounding up a gang of crooks, with the not inconsiderable help of the resourceful Wilma. One interesting aspect of Ladies Crave Excitement is the suggestion that newsreel photographers regularly "stage" events to make things more exciting; in one amusing scene, a storm at sea is re-created on a studio soundstage, as "captain" Christian Rub is doused with bucket after bucket of cold water. Future TV favorites Milburn Stone and Marie Wilson pop up unbilled as a sailor and his date, while perennial Superman villain Herb Vigran appears as a wisecracking photographer. Serving as film editor on Ladies Crave Excitement was director-in-training Joseph H. Lewis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Norman Foster, Evelyn Knapp, (more)
Lost in the Stratosphere is one of three Monogram vehicles for James Cagney's look-alike brother William (later a successful producer). Inspired by the U.S. Army's recent experiments with atmospheric balloons, the film stars Cagney and Edward Nugent as inveterate practical jokers Cooper and Wood. Their friendship cleft in twain by the arrival of pretty Evelyn (June Collyer). The climax occurs when one of the boys' pranks misfires, sending both of them aloft in a fragile weather balloon. By the time they've managed to land the darned thing, they've become heroes. The film's laughable special effects (one can see the process-screen clouds "bleed" through the actors) are counterbalanced by the overall energy and enthusiasm of its stars. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Cagney, Eddie Nugent, (more)
