Milton Berle Movies

The Perils of Pauline was not the first movie serial ever made, but it is perhaps the best known -- though that doesn't mean it was the best. The throughline of this 18-episode chapter play was disarmingly simple: Pauline Harvin (Pearl White) has fallen heir to a fortune, all of which will go to her family lawyer and "trusted friend" Koerner (Paul Panzer) should anything happen to her. Naturally, Koerner wants to get his mitts on the money as soon as possible, so he concocts innumerable diabolical schemes and adopts countless "clever" disguises, the better to do away with Pauline. Fortunately, all-around hero Harry Marvin (played by future screenwriter/director Crane Wilbur) is on hand to rescue Pauline from her various perils, which include abductions by Gypsies, Indians, and demented pirates. Equally fortunate, Pauline is supremely capable of taking care of herself whenever Harry isn't around. To prove this at one point, she enters and wins an international motor race. In the final episode, the despicable Koerner is hoist on his own petard, while Pauline (who never suspected that her lawyer was behind all of her troubles!) enjoys a climactic embrace with faithful Harry. Poorly directed and miserably photographed in some of the least attractive locations in New Jersey, The Perils of Pauline wouldn't have been worth anyone's time had it not been for the presence of Pearl White, a truly appealing and charismatic actress who invariably seemed better and more intelligent than her material. Of the 18 episodes, only nine survive (all of them self-contained stories, and none of them "cliffhangers"); these were culled from a French re-release version, which contained some of the most illiterate subtitles in screen history. (At one point, a character suggests that Pauline's "immoral strength" be tested; of course, he meant "immortal," but the French translator didn't know that!) The title Perils of Pauline was reused in 1934 for an unrelated talkie serial; in 1947, for a filmed biography of Pearl White with Betty Hutton; and in 1967, for a TV pilot starring Pamela Austin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Arguably the best of Charlie Chaplin's 12 Lone Star/Mutual comedies, Easy Street gives us a look at the environment in which Chaplin grew up, the slums of South London. Indeed the title of the film is likely a reference to the street where Chaplin was born, East Street in Walworth. Charlie begins this film as he seldom does, as a truly down-and-out derelict, huddled sleeping at the steps of the Hope Mission. The sounds of a service in progress draws him wearily inside. After the sermon, he is entranced by the beautiful mission worker and organist, Edna Purviance and stays after the service. Inspired by their ministrations he vows to reform, returning the collection box he has slipped into his capacious pants. Out on Easy Street a gang is pummeling members of the police department, removing their uniforms for the coins in their pockets. Toughest of all is the Bully, Eric Campbell, who menaces the other toughs, taking the spoils for himself. Charlie, passing the Police Station sees the recruitment sign outside and eventually builds up his resolve sufficiently to apply. His beat is Easy Street. He encounters the Bully who threatens him and is impervious to the blows that Charlie delivers with his nightstick. In a display of his great strength, the bully bends a gas streetlamp in two, whereupon Charlie leaps on the Bully's back, covering his head with the lamp and turns on the gas. (Chaplin was injured during the filming of this scene; the lamp hit him across the bridge of the nose, holding up production for several days).

As the Bully slumps to the ground, Charlie takes his pulse and decides to give him one more shot of gas for good measure. The squad is called to retrieve the unconscious Bully and Charlie is, for the moment, cock-of-the-walk, frightening away the other street toughs by simply spinning around to face them. His work also entails charity, as he helps a woman, (who turns out to be the Bully's wife) who has stolen food from a street vendor by stealing more food for her. Edna happens by and helps Charlie get her upstairs to her tenement flat. He's rewarded for his efforts by her ingratitude, nearly dropping a flower pot on his head. Edna takes Charlie across the way to another apartment where a couple have a large brood of children whom Charlie helps to feed by scattering bread crumbs among them as if he were feeding chickens. Meanwhile, the Bully awakens at the Police Station and despite multiple blows from the collective nightsticks of the cops, he escapes and returns to Easy Street. His fight with his wife draws Charlie from across the street and a chase begins, the Bully seeking revenge for his earlier capture. Charlie drops a stove on the Bully from a second-story window, knocking him out, but the street toughs capture Edna and toss her down some steps into a subterranean speakeasy. She is threatened there by a dope addict who injects himself with cocaine. Exiting the Bully's flat Charlie is mugged by the gang and himself tossed down into the cellar. Landing accidentally on the addict's upturned needle, Charlie becomes supercharged, defeating the junkie and all the denizens of the cellar, rescuing Edna. Peace is restored to Easy Street and a new mission is in evidence. The Bully and his wife, dressed in their finest, make their way to the services, under Charlie's approving eye. Edna approaches and Charlie greets her joyously and the pair stroll arm in arm towards the welcoming minister and missionary of The New Mission. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide

It's hard to believe that this picture and the 1946 Humoresque were based on the same Fannie Hurst novel -- they're completely different in focus. There's no Joan Crawford, or Joan Crawford-type in this picture, but there is an older woman who walks away with the acting honors: Vera Gordon, who plays Mama Kantor, the mother from New York's Jewish ghetto, who prays for a son that will become a musical genius. Her prayers are answered, and her boy brings fortune to his family while acquiring a sweetheart, Gina Berg (Alma Reubens). But when war breaks out, he enlists and returns from action with a wounded arm. He tells Gina that they cannot marry because he cannot work. But when she faints, he catches her and realizes that he can use his arm after all. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Sparrows, Mary Pickford's 1926 release, superbly combines the two elements--sentiment and adventure--that characterized Pickford's best work. At first glance, the film seems to be a horror picture, as satanic potato farmer Grimes (Gustav Von Seyfertitz) crushes a child's doll with his thumb and forefinger and tosses the plaything into the dismal swamps surrounding his lands. We learn that Grimes has been exploiting the children from a local orphanage, forcing them to work his farm day and night. Though collecting a hefty maintenance pay for the orphans, Grimes dresses them in rags and feeds them a starvation diet. Happily, Mary Pickford, the oldest of the orphans, has enough gumption to stand up to Grimes and prohibit him from inflicting any further atrocities. The plot thickens when a kidnaped child is left in Grimes' care in exchange for a generous portion of the ransom money. Mary rescues the abducted child, as well as all the other orphans, by leading them through the alligator-infested and quicksand-festooned swamp--a truly frightening sequence, made even more so by the use of real gators. Sparrows falters only in those scenes where Pickford, with genuine but somewhat misguided piety, "converses" with the Almighty, and in the final motorboat-chase sequence, which seems prolonged (and unnecessary!) after that heart-pounding swamp escape. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

New Faces of 1937 was supposed to be the vanguard of a series of annual musical comedies -- RKO Radio's latest attempt to revive its long-dormant "Radio City Revels" concept. The plot is based on an old show-business legend, later immortalized in Mel Brooks' The Producers: Crooked Broadway producer Robert Hunt (Jerome Cowan) deliberately produces flops so that he can pocket the backers' money himself. His next sure-fire disaster is a show built around talented unknowns (there actually was such a "New Faces" series on Broadway, yielding such stars-to-be as Imogene Coca and Henry Fonda, but it was produced on the up-and-up). When the show threatens to become a hit, the producer desperately seeks a method to sabotage the production. The various subplots involve such vaudeville and radio comedians as Milton Berle (who performs a side-splitting "stockbroker" sketch with Richard Lane), Joe Penner, Bert "Mad Russian" Gordon and Parkyakarkus (aka Harry Einstein, the father of present-day comedians Bob Einstein and Albert Brooks). Among the New Faces displayed herein are 14-year-old dancer Ann Miller, The Brian Sisters, The Three Choclateers and the Four Playboys. Perhaps the fictional Robert Hunt would have been pleased to find out that New Faces of 1937 was a box-office bomb, precluding any follow-ups. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jack Oakie is near the top of his form as Boley Bolenciecwcz, the best college football player to come down the pike in a generation. But Boley has two problems -- he likes to sleep a lot when he's not training, and he isn't terribly bright, and might just fail his examinations and become inelligible to play. So the president of his college, under the gun to produce a winning team, comes up with a solution -- he sends Boley to live with Professor Murray (onald Meek), an eccentric member of the faculty (who practices magic tricks when he isn't teaching economics), whose daughter Louise (Linda Darnell) is head of the pep-squad and will tutor Boley. Enter Jimmy M'Gonnigle (George Murphy), a dancer and ex-college player himself, who's sent to the college by the hood (Sheldon Leonard) who owns the club where he was working, to keep an eye on Boley and make sure his playing is what it's written up to be. Jimmy falls in love with Louise, and manages to romance her in between her playing nursemaid to Boley -- meanwhile, a pair of grifters (Raymond Walburn, Ruth Donnelly) sent to back Jimmy up get mixed up with Louise's grandfather (Walter Brennan), a Civil War veteran who isn't always sure what year it is. And then secondary hood "Sea Biscuit" (Milton Berle) arrives to put the boss's plan into operation, kidnapping Boley so he can't play. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Cesar Romero plays an outwardly tough prohibition-era gangster who in reality wouldn't hurt a fly. He maintains his "killer" reputation by planting evidence of his involvement at the scenes of other crooks' crimes. Romero begins aspiring for respectability when he falls in love with Virginia Gilmore and adopts the orphaned Stanley Clements. Through his own non-homicidal means, Romero redeems himself by wiping out a genuinely nasty gangster boss (Sheldon Leonard). Tall, Dark and Handsome was remade in 1950 as Love That Brute, with Paul Douglas in the Cesar Romero role--and with Romero playing the villain! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

If MGM's Red Skelton could make the mystery/comedy Whistling in the Dark, 20th Century-Fox's Milton Berle could show up in the mystery/comedy Over My Dead Body (Berle's reputation for lifting gags from other comics now extended to lifting plot material). Berle plays a mystery writer who forever writes himself into corners and is never able to finish a story. While visiting his wife (Mary Beth Hughes) at the office where she works, Berle overhears several men discussing the suicide of a coworker. Struck with a brilliant notion, Berle decides to confess to the murder of the dead man, certain that he'll be able to wriggle out of the situation and thereby have plenty of material for a story. Alas, it turns out that the deceased gentleman was murdered, and Berle is nearly sent to the chair. In emulation of the Bob Hope/Willie Best combination in The Ghost Breakers Milton Berle is teamed with a "scared" black elevator operator, played by a superb African-American radio and vaudeville comedian named Wonderful Smith. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Clare Booth Luce's once-timely stage comedy Margin for Error was indifferently transferred to the screen in 1943. Milton Berle stars as Moe Finkelstein, a Jewish Brooklyn policeman assigned to guard Nazi consul Karl Baumer (Otto Preminger) in pre-WW II New York. Baumer is not only an anti-Semitic brute, but he's also a crook, siphoning off German consulate funds for his own use. His perfidy is well known by his wife Sophie (Joan Bennett), who married Baumer only to save her family from a concentration camp, and by Baumer's assistant Baron von Alvenstor (Carl Esmond). Thus, when Baumer is found dead of poison, stabbing and gunshot wounds, Sophie and the Baron are immediately suspected of murder. But Finkelstein comes to the rescue by piecing together the clues and coming up with a bizarre, but credible, solution to the crime. Having previously directed himself as Karl Baumer in the Broadway version of Margin for Error, Otto Preminger felt qualified to do the same in the film version: as a result, Preminger has no one but himself to blame for his shamelessly hammy performance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Milton Berle was enjoying the first flush of his television success when his musical-comedy movie vehicle Always Leave Them Laughing hit the screens. Though his character name is Kip Cooper, Uncle Miltie more or less plays himself: an ambitious comedian who rises to fame by stealing other performers' material. Surprisingly, Berle seems to delight in painting himself in as unsympathetic a light as possible, though the audience can be assured that he will find redemption before fadeout time. In contrast, Bert Lahr turns in a warm-hearted performance as an ageing burlesque comic who teaches Berle the ropes--whereupon our "hero" repays the favor by wooing Lahr's avaricious young bride Virginia Mayo. Ultimately, it is nice girl Ruth Roman who wins Berle's heart, though she certainly has her work cut out for her. Featured in the cast are such veteran troupers as Grace Hayes(the mother of Peter Lynd Hayes), Julius Tannen and Wally Vernon. But it's Berle's show all the way, and he makes a feast of it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Irregularly scheduled on NBC from 1954 through 1957, Producers' Showcase was a series of lavish, full-color 90 minute specials, bringing the best of Broadway to the 21 inch screen. On November 14, 1955, the series digressed from its usual format to present Dateline 2, the second annual variety show produced by NBC in cooperation with the Overseas Press Club. The theme of the program is "Freedom of the Press", and the subject matter ranges from the front page to the editorial column to the comics section. Highlights include a new Irving Berlin song composed for the occasion, "Free"; Robert Frost, poetically discussing "The Right to Know"; John Steinbeck's eulogy of legendary combat photographer Robert Capa, who had been killed on the job the previous year; and a one-act play, based on the Korean War experiences of correspondent Marguerite Higgins. On a lighter note, Janet Blair sings a paean to the funny pages, backed by a "Li'l Abner" ballet choreographed by Tony Charmoli (the Broadway musical version of Al Capp's hillbilly comic strip was still one year in the future). William Holden serves as master of ceremonies, with John Wayne delivering the opening remarks. Originally telecast live, Dateline 2 reportedly still exists in kinescope form, though prints are hard to come by for general audiences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Let's Make Love is a breezy comedy about an off Broadway musical production. Jean-Marc Clement (Yves Montand) is the richest man in the world and looking for someone who loves him instead of his money. He reads in Variety he is to be satirized in the new production and tries out for the part. The producers hire him, unaware of his real identity. He hires Bing Crosby, Milton Berle and Gene Kelly to coach him for the role. Amanda (Marilyn Monroe) is the poor aspiring actress who lands a part in the play. Her opening number is the classic "My Heart Belongs To Daddy". Unaware of his fabulous wealth, she falls for the playboy billionaire during the rehearsals for the show. Tony Randall plays Montand's fussy public relations agent and tries to keep his boss from embarassment. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide