Gregg Toland Movies
The most influential and innovative cinematographer of the sound era, Gregg Toland was born May 29, 1904, in Charleston, IL. He began working as an office boy for mogul William Fox at the age of 15, first making a name for himself in 1924 by creating a soundproof camera housing which blocked any mechanized noise from reaching recording equipment, a major advance in the new era of sound, as it allowed directors to film intimate moments without accidentally capturing the winding of film as well. By the age of 27, Toland was the youngest first-unit cameraman in Hollywood, and by the end of the 1930s, he was perhaps the most sought-after director of photography in the business, with an Oscar under his belt for his work in 1939's Wuthering Heights; ultimately, MGM chief Samuel Goldwyn was even forced to share Toland's services with other studios for fear of losing him permanently.Toland's fame rested on his gifts for innovative lighting techniques and crystalline deep-focus photography. His work was remarkably evocative, spanning the urban sprawl of William Wyler's 1937 effort Dead End to the documentary-like grit of John Ford's 1940 adaptation of John Steinbeck's Dust Bowl-era novel The Grapes of Wrath. His Expressionistic work with Ford on 1940's The Long Voyage Home set the stage for his towering achievement, 1941's Citizen Kane. After offering his services to writer/director Orson Welles, Toland was given free rein to experiment on Kane, using coated lenses and arc lights to create a depth of focus staggering in its clarity and ability to capture the minutiae of each scene. Additionally, he revamped the Mitchell BNC camera to include a new anti-noise device which allowed even greater flexibility of movement and control, eliminating the need to intercut between scenes and enabling Welles to create long, continuous shots.
Toland was duly rewarded for his innovations on Kane by receiving credit alongside Welles at the film's close -- the director's clear acknowledgment of the crucial importance of Toland's work -- and it has often been suggested that the film's brilliance was as much a product of his vision as it was Welles'. However, deep focus was slow in sweeping across Hollywood. It was never a common practice; still Toland remained its leading proponent in features ranging from 1941's The Little Foxes to 1946's The Best Years of Our Lives. Ultimately, his techniques reached their fullest application in the medium of television. Sadly, Toland did not live to see his vision become the small-screen industry standard. He died of heart disease in Hollywood on September 28, 1948. His final effort, 1948's Enchantment, was issued posthumously. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1937
History is Made at Night has been described as a romantic tragedy, which it indeed is, up to a point. The film begins deceptively in screwball-comedy fashion with socialite Jean Arthur and handsome head waiter Charles Boyer "meeting cute." But there's nothing cute about Arthur's estranged husband, shipbuilder Colin Clive. Insanely jealous, Clive arranges for the ship on which his wife and her lover are travelling to hit an iceberg--then, aghast at what he has done, Clive commits suicide. As the ship lists dangerously close to sinking beneath the waves, the terrified passengers--Boyer and Arthur included--huddle on the deck. The fog-enshrouded scene in which Charles and Jean affirm their love in the face of death is among the most heartrending sequences ever filmed (the director was Frank Borzage, a past master at transforming potential maudlin material into high-gloss art). Even the happy ending of History is Made at Night does not diminish the power and poignancy of that shipboard scene. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Boyer, Jean Arthur, (more)
- 1937
This early feminist tale was a box-office flop that was released after years of script doctoring. Producer Samuel Goldwyn insisted that the story be made into film, because he wanted to pair his romantic stars Joel McCrea and Miriam Hopkins for a fifth time. Hopkins plays Virginia Travis, an architect who is chafing at the gender bias keeping her career in check. She approaches an aging, inept real estate developer, B.J. Nolan (Charles Winninger), promising to turn his latest suburban housing project into a winner. But Nolan is in debt, and his millionaire son Kenneth (McCrea) won't loan him any money. Virginia recruits two movie theater ushers to pose as the elder Nolan's servants in order to convince Kenneth that his dad is on the road to success. Virginia must also defeat Nina Tennyson (Leona Maricle), an attractive woman who is after Kenneth's money. Virginia gets Kenneth drunk and then has him sign a contract that will rescue the housing development. As they transact business, they fall in love. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miriam Hopkins, Joel McCrea, (more)
Adapted by Lillian Hellman from Sidney Kingsley's Broadway play, Dead End concerns itself with several denizens of New York's East River district. Here the elite and the slum-dwellers rub shoulders due to the close proximity of the riverfront tenements with the East Side luxury hotels. Slum girl Drina Gordon (Sylvia Sidney) tries to prevent her younger brother Tommy (Billy Halop) from wasting his life as a member of the local street gang. Tommy and the other kids idolize Baby Face Martin (Humphrey Bogart), a onetime East- sider who has hit the "big time" as a notorious gangster. Dodging the cops, Martin makes a sentimental journey to the neighborhood to visit his mother (Marjorie Main) and his old girlfriend Francie (Clare Trevor). But Martin's mother coldly tells him to get lost, while Francie reveals herself to be a consumptive prostitute. Despite his depressed state, Martin is still admired by the local kids; this displeases sign painter Dave Connell (Joel McCrea), who hopes to escape the slums via his romance with wealthy Kay Burton (Wendy Barrie). Attempting to kidnap a rich boy who'd earlier been beaten up by the street kids, Martin is prevented from making the snatch by Dave, who shoots Martin down. Receiving a large reward, Dave decides to give the money to Drina so that she can afford a lawyer to defend her brother Tommy, who has wrongfully been accused of masterminding the beating of the rich kid. His outlook on life altered by this unselfish act, Dave gives up his mercenary romance with Kay Burton, choosing instead the poverty-stricken Drina. The film introduces the Dead End Kids--Billy Halop, Leo Gorcey, Gabe Dell, Huntz Hall, Bernard Punsley and Bobby Jordan--all of whom were veterans of the Broadway version of Dead End and would be metamorphosed into the East Side Kids and The Bowery Boys. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sylvia Sidney, Joel McCrea, (more)
- 1936
Set in the French trenches, this WWI melodrama was cowritten by William Faulkner and directed by Howard Hawks. Hard-drinking Captain La Roche (Warner Baxter) delivers the same hollow speech to each wave of fresh soldiers assigned to his command, only to see them senselessly slaughtered by the Germans. La Roche's new officer is chipper Lieutenant Denet (Fredric March), who doesn't comprehend the futility of his assignment. Both men fall for beautiful nurse Monique La Coste (June Lang), who prefers Denet. La Roche's troops welcome "Private Moran" (Lionel Barrymore), the eldest private in the army and a grizzled veteran. In reality, Moran is La Roche's father. In a battle, La Roche is blinded. His father helps him direct artillery fire at the front, but both men are slain. Although he has won the girl and La Roche's command, Denet is forced to give the same pointless speech to his doomed recruits. Although Hawks had directed an earlier film of the same title, The Road to Glory (1936) was not a remake of that picture, but of a popular French war movie, Les Croix des Bois (1932), from which studio executives cannibalized combat footage for use in the new version. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fredric March, Warner Baxter, (more)
- 1936
Musical comedy star Eddie Cantor stars in this story, well suited to his talents, as Eddie Pink, a meek gentleman who works as a tailor and has a terrible crush on Joyce (Ethel Merman), a nightclub singer. Eddie buys a book (through the mail, of course) called Man or Mouse: What Are You?. Taking its advice, he tries to become more confident and assertive, and his new, outgoing personality helps him get a job running an amusement park called Dreamland. But when racketeers move in for a piece of the action on the park's slot machines, he wonders if he's gotten himself in deeper waters than he can safely navigate. Cantor sings four songs in Strike Me Pink, three of them with co-star Merman. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Cantor, Ethel Merman, (more)
Set in the woodlands of Wisconsin, Come and Get It stars Edward Arnold as a logger-turned-lumber tycoon. In his rise to the top, Arnold loses out on a chance for lasting happiness by spurning earthy dance hall girl (Frances Farmer), who marries his best pal (Walter Brennan) on the rebound. Marrying for position rather than love, Arnold becomes a society leader in Milwaukee. His son (Joel McCrea) falls in love with the daughter of Arnold's first love (Frances Farmer plays both mother and daughter). Himself smitten by the daughter, Arnold battles with his son over the girl's affection, only to be shocked back into his senses when the girl reprimands his son, "Don't hit him! He's an old man!" Based on a novel by Edna Ferber, Come & Get It carries two directorial credits: William Wyler was dismissed early on by producer Sam Goldwyn, and when Howard Hawks took over, it was on the proviso that Wyler be given co-directing billing. For his performance as Edward Arnold's Scandinavian cohort, Walter Brennan won the first-ever "best supporting actor" Oscar. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward Arnold, Joel McCrea, (more)
- 1936
This lavishly appointed Sam Goldwyn soap opera is set in Ireland during "the troubles." Irish rebel leader Dennis Reardon (Brian Aherne) falls in love with Lady Helen Drummond (Merle Oberon), the aristocratic daughter of British diplomat Lord Athleigh (Henry Stephenson). Reardon's underground associates, not so romantically inclined, assume that their leader has sold out to the enemy, when in fact he is working tirelessly for an honorable and equitable end to the hostilities. His best friend O'Rourke (Jerome Cowan) is given the job of assassinating Reardon, leading to a tragic climax more suited to an Italian opera than an Irish political meller. Beloved Enemy was very loosely based on the exploits of Irish patriot Michael Collins, who of course was the subject of the far more accurate 1996 biopic starring Liam Neeson and Julia Roberts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Merle Oberon, Brian Aherne, (more)
- 1936
Lillian Hellman's 1934 Broadway play The Children's Hour was such a hot potato that film producer Samuel Goldwyn was denied Production Code permission to use the play's original title. The reason was the story's lesbian theme, a factor that also blocked The Children's Hour from winning a Pulitzer Prize. In the original story, lifelong friends Martha Dobie and Karen Wright manage an exclusive girl's boarding school. Spoiled rotten student Mary Tilford, angered at being disciplined, fabricates a story that casts a questionable light on the women's friendship. In attempting to defend themselves against the accusations of the little girl's wealthy and powerful aunt, Martha and Karen lose everything in court. By the time the girl has admitted her lie and the aunt has come to apologize, it is too late. After confessing that she has harbored "unnatural" feelings towards Martha, Karen commits suicide. In adapting her play to the screen, Lillian Hellman expertly weeded out all hints of lesbianism, and also eliminated Karen's self-inflicted death ("suicide as a plot solution" was another Production Code no-no). In the revised version, Mary Tilford (played with unbridled venom by Bonita Granville) spreads a rumor that Martha (Miriam Hopkins) has been carrying on an illicit affair with doctor Joseph Cardin (Joel McCrea), the boyfriend of Karen (Merle Oberon). The end result is essentially the same -- the school is destroyed, along with Martha and Karen's reputation -- but Karen manages to survive to fade-out time. In defending the evisceration of her play, Hellman defended herself by noting that her original point was not to force a lesbian subtext down the throats of the audience, but to show how a vicious lie -- any vicious lie -- can have disastrous consequences. While it makes a good story, it is probably not true that, when informed that the leading characters in The Children's Hour were lesbians, producer Goldwyn replied, "Who cares? We'll make them Americans." These Three was refilmed in 1961 by its director William Wyler, under its original title The Children's Hour, with Hellman's original text -- lesbianism and all -- intact; ironically, the censor-ridden earlier film is the far superior version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miriam Hopkins, Merle Oberon, (more)
- 1935
The stringent censorship imposed upon Hollywood of the mid-1930s dictated that gangsters could no longer be the "heroes" in any crime film. Public Hero No. 1 reflects this restriction. G-Man Chester Morris poses as a crook to infiltrate the notorious Purple Gang, a band of hoodlums which preys upon other hoodlums. Orchestrating the jailbreak of the Gang's leader (Joseph Calleia), Morris joins him in a Dillinger-like flight across the country. The bloody denouement, which occurs in a vaudeville theatre, is likewise drawn from the Dillinger saga (that particular gentleman was of course killed in front of a movie house). Also featured in Public Hero No. 1 is Jean Arthur as the heroine (a comic role) and Lionel Barrymore as a drunken gang doctor. The film was remade as The Getaway in 1942. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lionel Barrymore, Jean Arthur, (more)
- 1935
In his first American film, Peter Lorre portrays egg-bald Dr. Gogol. A brilliant and highly respected surgeon, Gogol would give up everything he has in life for the love of Yvonne Orlac (Frances Drake), star of the Parisian Horror Theatre. But Yvonne is deeply in love with her husband, concert pianist Stephen Orlac (Colin Clive). When Orlac loses his hands in a train accident, Yvonne pleads with Gogol to save her husband. Perversely, he does so by grafting the hands of a recently executed murderer onto Orlac. Not only is Orlac unable to resume his musical career, but he has suddenly developed a peculiar talent for throwing knives; he also has a bad habit of attempting to win arguments by throttling his opponents. Gleefully exploiting his patient's torment, Gogol disguises himself as the executed killer and tries to convince Orlac that he, Orlac, was responsible for a recent murder. In a effort to prove her husband's innocence, Yvonne goes to Gogol's home and switches places with a lifesize replica of herself that the obsessive Gogol keeps in his living room. Only the last-minute intervention of Orlac saves Yvonne from being strangled by the crazed Gogol. The first of several film versions of Maurice Renard's The Hands of Orlac, Mad Love was directed by cinematographer Karl Freund. Its deployment of certain visual elements that would later (consciously or otherwise) be adopted by Orson Welles in Citizen Kane brought Mad Love a surfeit of latter-day attention when Pauline Kael annotated the resemblances in her 1971 New Yorker article on Kane (Ms. Kael's assessment of Mad Love as a "dismal, static horror film" is both unfair and untrue). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Lorre, Frances Drake, (more)
- 1935
Samuel Goldwyn's The Dark Angel is a sumptuously produced soap opera with a poignant "Enoch Arden" style denouement. Fredric March, Merle Oberon and Herbert Marshall star respectively as Alan Trent, Kitty Vane and Gerald Shannon, friends since childhood. Though Gerald is deeply in love with Kitty, it is Alan who wins her hand in marriage. But before the wedding can take place, WW I intervenes, and both Alan and Gerald march off with their regiments. Blinded on the battlefield, Alan gallantly pretends to have been killed so that Kitty will not feel obligated to care for him. Eventually, however, she discovers that he's still alive, which leads to the film's most memorable scene, in which the proud Alan painstakingly arranges all the furniture and bric-and-brac in his room to make it seem as though he can still see. Though the film is set in the late teens and early '20s, Merle Oberon is garbed throughout in the latest 1935 fashions -- an endearingly anachronistic Sam Goldwyn trademark. Oscar nominations went to star Oberon and art director Richard Day, with the latter taking home the gold statuette. Adapted by Lillian Hellman and Mordaunt Sharp from a stage play by Guy Bolton (written pseudonymously as H. B. Treveleyen), The Dark Angel was previously filmed by Goldwyn in 1925. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fredric March, Merle Oberon, (more)
- 1935
For 20 years, Jeff Williams (Clark Gable) has been in love with his childhood playmate Mary Clay (Joan Crawford). Alas, Jeff has never said as much, thus Mary becomes engaged to another childhood friend, Dill Todd (Robert Montgomery). Returning from a trip to Spain for the purpose of proposing to Mary, Jeff is taken aback when he learns of the impending marriage. Stout fellow that he is, however, he agrees to act as Dill's best man. Comes the day of the wedding, and Dill leaves Mary at the altar to run off with his mistress Connie (Frances Drake). Jeff stays behind to console Mary -- yet he still doesn't tell her how much he loves her. Small wonder, then, that a chastened Dill is able to rekindle his romance with Mary and plan a second ceremony. Disillusioned, Jeff is about to return to Spain, when at the last minute, comedy-relief Charles Butterworth tells Mary what's up with Jeff. "Suddenly everything is clear!" says Mary -- 84 minutes after the MGM lion introduced Forsaking All Others. Its plot absurdities aside, this star vehicle is splendidly glossy entertainment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, (more)
- 1935
Richard Boleslawski directed this lavish adaptation of Victor Hugo's oft-filmed epic novel. Fredric March stars as Jean Valjean, who is hauled into prison for stealing a loaf of bread. After ten years at hard labor, he escapes from the merciless prison but the years have taken their toll and Valjean is now a hard and embittered man. Valjean regains his compassion after the kindly Bishop Bienveenu (Cedric Harwicke) refuses to prosecute him for the theft of his candlesticks. Under an assumed name, Valjean becomes a widely liked and respected mayor. He devotes his life to helping others and adopts a young girl as his own. But the town's chief of police, Javert (Charles Laughton) is suspicious about the mayor and one day, after Valjean lifts a wagon off of a man, Javert remembers Valjean from his days on the prison galley. Javert sets out to uncover the mayor's true identity, but Valjean beats him to it -- when a man who claims to be Valjean is put on trial, Valjean appears at the court and reveals his secret. But before he is arrested, he escapes with his adopted daughter Eponine (Frances Drake) to Paris. In Paris, he assumes yet another identity. Eponine falls in love with student radical Marius (John Beal) and Javert, assigned to Paris to keep an eye on the revolutionaries, latches onto Valjean's trail once again. As Paris simmers in revolution, Valjean and Javert reveal themselves to each other for a final confrontation. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fredric March, Charles Laughton, (more)
- 1935
In this Samuel Goldwyn production directed by King Vidor, the studio's intent was to make Russian-born Anna Sten a star, but it didn't succeed. Sten plays Manya Nowak, a Polish farm girl attracted to Tony Barrett (Gary Cooper), a novelist with writer's block who has retreated to a Connecticut farmhouse to find his muse. Barrett's wife Dora (Helen Vinson) misses the city and returns there, while Tony decides to use Manya as a character in his next novel. They become friends, and Tony learns that her straightlaced father Jan (Sigfried Rumann) has betrothed Manya to Fredrik Sobieski (Ralph Bellamy), whom she does not love. Manya and Tony spend a chaste night together when a blizzard shuts them in. Her father drags her home and demands that she marry Fredrik immediately. Many arguments and disagreements ensue. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Cooper, Anna Sten, (more)
- 1935
This romantic comedy-drama is set -- typical for producer Samuel Goldwyn at the time -- among the upper class. Joel McCrea plays Brighton Lorrimore, son of a well-to-do American family who returns from a trip abroad with a new wife, Phyllis Manning (Miriam Hopkins). Brighton's parents are dismayed because they had hoped that their son would restore the faltering Lorrimore fortunes with a marriage to society girl Edith Gilbert (Ruth Weston). Although Phyllis urges Brighton to pursue his dream career as a writer, Brighton's mother pushes him unhappily into a finance job, at which he does not excel. Mrs. Lorrimore also schemes to create romantic sparks between her new daughter-in-law and her son's superior, Martin Deering (Paul Cavanaugh), hoping that an affair will improve her son's fortunes and refill the family's coffers. Written by Rachel Crothers from her unproduced play, Spendor (1935) featured the first significant role on screen for actor David Niven. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miriam Hopkins, Joel McCrea, (more)
We Live Again was based on Tolstoy's Resurrection; the title was changed upon producer Sam Goldwyn's theory that it meant the same thing as Resurrection and was easier to understand. The film was meant as an introductory showcase for Goldwyn's latest discovery, Russian actress Anna Sten. The story, much laundered from the Tolstoy original, depicts the downfall of a peasant girl who is seduced by a Russian prince (Fredric March). The once-callous nobleman tries to make amends for the hurt he has inflicted on the girl, who has wound up in prison for solicitation. The first American version of Resurrection, directed by D. W. Griffith, was made in 1909 and lasted ten minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Sten, Fredric March, (more)
- 1934
In this handsomely-staged adaptation of the story by Emile Zola, Anna Sten plays Nana, a woman of the streets who is spotted by noted theatrical producer Gaston Greiner (Richard Bennett). Greiner is so impressed by Nana's beauty that he gives her a part in his latest revue. Almost overnight, Nana is the toast of Paris and a star of the highest magnitude; however, fame and fortune brings her little happiness, as two brothers, Lt. George Muffat (Phillips Holmes) and Col. Andre Muffat (Lionel Atwill), both vie for her affections, leading to a bitter rivalry that ends in tragedy. Russian actress Anna Sten was brought to America as a protégé of producer Samuel Goldwyn, who sought to make Sten the "next Garbo." The resounding box office failure of Nana and Sten's next two vehicles led Goldwyn to drop her contract two years after bringing her to Hollywood, though she continued to work sporadically in films for another 25 years. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Sten, Phillips Holmes, (more)
- 1934
Based on Lea David Freeman's play Ruby, Lazy River takes place somewhere in the Mississippi River Valley. Jean Parker plays Sarah, a young Bayou girl who tries to guide three ex-convicts to moral redemption. Two of Sarah's charges, Gabby (Ted Healy) and Tiny (Nat Pendleton), seem to be beyond help, but there's still hope for Bill Drexel (Robert Young) a wealthy young man who's taken the wrong path in life. All three men prove that their hearts are in the right place by robbing the safe of crooked riverboat owner Sam Kee (C. Henry Gordon) then turn the money over to a needy widow. Producer Lucien Hubbard's screenplay manages to work in an alien-smuggling angle which jars with the rest of the picture -- and also artificially bloats the film's running time to 75 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Parker, Robert Young, (more)
- 1933
Easily the best of Eddie Cantor's gargantuan musical comedies for producer Sam Goldwyn, Roman Scandals begins in the middle-America community of West Rome, where our hero Eddie (Cantor) is employed as a delivery boy. A self-styled authority of Ancient Roman history, Cantor bemoans the fact that the local shanty community is about to be wiped out by scheming politicians, certain that such an outrage could never have happened during Rome's Golden Days. After a blow on the head, Cantor wakes up in Imperial Rome, where he is sold on the slave auction block to good-natured tribune Josephus (David Manners). Cantor soon discovers that the evil emperor Valerius (Edward Arnold) is every bit a crook and grafter as the politicians in West Rome, and he intends to do something about it. He gets a job as food taster for Valerius -- a none-too-secure position, inasmuch as the emperor's wife Agrippa (Veree Teasdale) is constantly trying to poison her husband -- and does his best to smooth the path of romance for Josephus and recently captured princess Sylvia (Gloria Stuart). Cantor's well-intentioned interference earns him a session in the torture chamber, but he escapes and commandeers a chariot, setting the stage for a spectacular slapstick climax. On the verge of recapture, Cantor wakes to find himself in West Rome U.S.A. again, where he quickly foils the modern-day despots and brings about a happy ending for all his friends.
Co-written by George S. Kaufman, Robert E. Sherwood, George Oppenheimer and Arthur Sheekman (the soon-to-be husband of leading lady Gloria Stuart), Roman Scandals manages to get off a few clever satirical licks, but essentially it's a "lappy" lowbrow vehicle for Eddie Cantor, and in this it succeeds immensely. The Busby Berkeley-staged musical numbers, written by Harry Warren, Al Dubin and L. Wolfe Gilbert, must be seen to be believed: In "No More Love", Ruth Etting, playing the Emperor's cast-off mistress Olga, sings a plaintive torch song as dozens of enslaved Goldwyn Girls (including Lucille Ball and Barbara Pepper), wearing nothing but long, blonde wigs, are chained to a rotating pedestal; and in "Keep Young and Beautiful", these same maidens gleefully cavort around a Roman bathhouse in the near-altogether while Cantor, in blackface, hops about, rolls his eyes and claps his hands -- just before a jet of steam "shrinks" him, at which point he metamorphoses into midget Billy Barty! The quintessence of Depression-era escapism, Roman Scandals is must-see entertainment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Co-written by George S. Kaufman, Robert E. Sherwood, George Oppenheimer and Arthur Sheekman (the soon-to-be husband of leading lady Gloria Stuart), Roman Scandals manages to get off a few clever satirical licks, but essentially it's a "lappy" lowbrow vehicle for Eddie Cantor, and in this it succeeds immensely. The Busby Berkeley-staged musical numbers, written by Harry Warren, Al Dubin and L. Wolfe Gilbert, must be seen to be believed: In "No More Love", Ruth Etting, playing the Emperor's cast-off mistress Olga, sings a plaintive torch song as dozens of enslaved Goldwyn Girls (including Lucille Ball and Barbara Pepper), wearing nothing but long, blonde wigs, are chained to a rotating pedestal; and in "Keep Young and Beautiful", these same maidens gleefully cavort around a Roman bathhouse in the near-altogether while Cantor, in blackface, hops about, rolls his eyes and claps his hands -- just before a jet of steam "shrinks" him, at which point he metamorphoses into midget Billy Barty! The quintessence of Depression-era escapism, Roman Scandals is must-see entertainment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Cantor, Ruth Etting, (more)
- 1933
Marie Dressler plays the title character, tugboat captain Annie Brennan, in this 1933 Hollywood box office hit. Her husband Terry (Wallace Beery) is a lazy, bragging drunk. Robert Young plays their son Alec, who has big ambitions and winds up as captain of a fancy ocean liner. The ocean liner's owner is Red Severn (Willard Robertson), whose daughter Pat (Maureen O'Sullivan) is the object of Alec's longings. Young tries to get his mother to leave his father and join him on the ocean liner, but she refuses out of love for her husband and her tugboat. Terry crashes the tugboat while drunk one night, and it is sold at an auction, then repaired and converted into a garbage boat. Sequels were made in later years, with Marjorie Rambeau and later Jane Darwell in the title role, and it was made into a TV series in the 1950s. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, (more)
- 1933
In this comedy, an oily tongued sleazy lawyer, who specializes in injuries, makes sure all of clients, regardless of the size of their injuries, make it big in court. He is assisted by a thoroughly convincing doctor who can make the smallest bruise look like life-threatening internal bleeding. The lawyer is so successful, that one of the companies he constantly sues attempts to get him disbarred. To prove that he's a shyster, the company hires a pretty woman to seduce the truth out him. Unfortunately, they end up falling in love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Tracy, Madge Evans, (more)
- 1933
In an interesting precursor to his later vehicle The Prisoner of Zenda, Ronald Colman essays a dual role in Goldwyn's The Masquerader. Colman is cast as Member of Parliament Sir John Chilcote and his identical cousin, a newspaper journalist also named John. A mean-spirited alcoholic and drug addict, Sir John needs time to try to recover from his multitude vices. Thus with the help of the MP's faithful butler Brock (Haliwell Hobbes), the "good" John agrees to take his cousin's place -- doing the job so well that he even convinces and wins Sir John's estranged wife Eve (Elissa Landi). Based on a novel by Katherine Cecil Thurston (previously adapted as a play by John Hunter Booth), The Masquerader proved to be a box-office disappointment, a fact that made Ronald Colman hesitant to star in A Tale of Two Cities until he was assured that he wouldn't have to play both Sidney Carton and Charles Darnay. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ronald Colman, Elissa Landi, (more)
- 1932
In director Leo McCarey's film The Kid From Spain, actor Eddie Cantor plays mischievious college boy Eddie Williams, who, with his buddy Ricardo (Robert Young), is kicked out of college for sneaking into the women's dormitory. Ricardo (Young), on his way back to Mexico, suggests Eddie (Cantor) come along. First, however, Ricardo must stop at the local bank for some cash. Unfortunately, the bank is robbed as the two boys are leaving, and the fleeing thieves mistake Eddie for their getaway driver. In a panic, Eddie races off towards the Mexican border in hopes of getting way from them. Realizing that the bank robbers will go after him--Eddie, after all, is the only one who saw their faces--he convinces a skeptical border guard that he, too, is a Mexican. Once in Mexico, he's mistaken for a renowed bullfighter, and plays along with his newly assigned identity in order to avoid the American detective on his trail. Mayhem ensues, and Eddie eventually falls in love with Rosalie (yda Roberti), a young Mexican woman with an over-protective father. The musical numbers in The Kid From Spain were staged by a young Busby Berkeley and feature the oldwyn Girls, whose ranks in this film include Betty Grable, Paulette Goddard, and Jane Wyman.
~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Cantor, Lyda Roberti, (more)
- 1932
In her first film under contract to Warner Bros., Kay Francis plays Lois Ames, a magazine editor whose husband Fred (Kenneth Thomson) is too busy with his polo friends to pay her much attention. But when her secretary (Charlotte Merriam) suddenly leaves, Lois hires handsome Tom Sheridan (David Manners), who has arrived to demonstrate a new rowing machine. Sharing work brings boss and employee closer together and they soon fall in love. Tom's dumbbell fiancée, Ruth (Una Merkel), does not take this development very well and threatens to tell Fred. But the latter is discovered making love to the uppity Ann Le Maire (Claire Dodd) and Lois is able to obtain a divorce. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kay Francis, David Manners, (more)
- 1932
A very young Loretta Young stars in this domestic drama in which a naïve department store clerk falls for an inveterate gambler. The clerk, Buster Green, falls in love with handsome Wallie Dennis (Norman Foster) at a dance and marries him after a whirlwind romance. But their wedded bliss is ruined by Wallie's gambling habit and a pregnant Buster is forced to return to the Mayfield Department Store counter. In an effort to salvage her crumbling marriage, Buster plays on a dark horse to win the Big Race but is cheated out of her prize by unscrupulous bookie Martie Happ (Noel Madison). An angered Wallie picks a fight with Happ and is arrested by the police. Buster, meanwhile, delivers a baby girl and Wallie, who has been released due to the happy circumstances, bets that their next child will be a boy. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Loretta Young, Winnie Lightner, (more)
