Wanda Tuchock Movies

Frank Yerby's Foxes of Harrow was one of those long historical novels so popular in the 1940s. 20th Century-Fox boiled the novel down into 118 minutes' worth of essentials for this film version. In antebellum New Orleans, roguish Irish gambler Rex Harrison buys his way into society--something he couldn't do in his homeland because he is illegitimate. Sequestering himself in a mansion won in a card game, Harrison courts Southern belle Maureen O'Hara, but their subsequent marriage is befouled by Rex's incessant womanizing. Though tempted to walk out for good, O'Hara stays by her husband's side after he loses his fortune, hoping that the impoverished Harrison will now behave more responsibly. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this prison drama, a stern hanging judge is assigned to take over a chaotic prison. There he imposes an almost inhumanly strict regimen of discipline on the inmates. He is similarly rigid and harsh with his own two children. Later his compassionate daughter befriends a wrongfully convicted model prisoner who works as the warden's chauffeur. His son becomes a hardened criminal and ends up incarcerated in his father's prison. There he and several other inmates conspire to bust out. Later he sees inmates threatening his father and sacrifices his life to save him. The enraged judge then shoots the convict who killed his son. In the end, the experience changes the judge who becomes a more humane warden in favor of prison reform. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this musical comedy, a soldier falls in love with a very young woman who in turn has a crush on an older, more sophisticated man. When the older gent goes to New York, she follows as does her younger suitor. While in the Big Apple, the soldier encounters the older man's ex-wife who is still in love with him. The soldier helps bring the couple back together and is rewarded by being united with his true love. The story was adapted from a Sinclair Lewis play. Songs include: "Gremlin Walk," "It's the Girl," "Yippee-I-Vot," "With a Song in My Heart," "All or Nothing at All," "You're a Lollapalooza," "At Sundown," and "L'Amour Toujours L'Amour." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Also known as Ladies in Washington, this 61-minute quickie utilizes the services of several 20th Century-Fox contractees. Set in the nation's capital, the film delves into the living and working conditions of the girls employed in wartime government jobs. Jerry (Sheila Ryan), a Washington secretary, is in the doldrums because of an unhappy affair with her married employer. Michael (Anthony Quinn), a secret agent for the enemy, uses Jerry to get information on her boss. All of this has an adverse effect on Jerry's roommates, especially her best friend Carol. The whole mess ends in a bloody gun battle, exacting a heavy toll on both the innocent and the guilty. Halfway down the cast list of Ladies of Washington is former Miss America Jo-Carroll Dennison, who later became the wife of comedian Phil Silvers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this musical comedy, a young woman is sent to a National Youth Administration camp after her father is arrested for making moonshine. While there, a local developer endeavors to buy up the camp. To save it, the young woman stages an elaborate camp show. The developer is enchanted and changes his mind. More trouble ensues when the developer's payroll is purloined. Fortunately, the girl's father escapes from prison and brings the crooks to justice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Though it may be difficult for modern audiences to understand or appreciate the appeal of canary-voiced boy soprano Bobby Breen, the fact remains that he was one of the most popular box-office attractions of the 1930s. Adapted from Don Blandings' novel Stowaways in Paradise, Hawaii Calls stars Breen as shoe-shine boy Billy Coulter, who in the company of his young newsboy pal Pua (Pua Lani) stows away on a Honolulu-bound ocean liner. Here he finds an unexpected ally in the form of persimmon-faced musician Strings (Ned Sparks), who conspires to hide Billy and Pua from irascible Captain O'Hare (Irvin S. Cobb). Once the ship arrives in Hawaii, Billy eludes the authorities by hiding with Pua's native family. The plot goes off on a new tangent when foreign spy Blake (William Harrigan) steals valuable Navy secrets from young Commander Milburn (Warren Hull). Billy and Pua save the day by locating the thieves' hideout and alerting Milburn. Before this happens, Bobby Breen sings ever so many Hawaiian tunes, this best of which include "Down Where the Trade Winds Blow" and the title song. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Another of MGM's Wallace Beery-Jackie Cooper assault on the tear ducts, O'Shaugnessy's Boy casts Beery as oafish but lovable circus animal trainer Windy O'Shaughnessy. Believing himself happily married to acrobat Martha (Sara Haden), Windy is shocked to discover that Martha has walked out on him with their young son Stubby (Jackie Cooper). Conditioned by his nasty mother and nastier aunt (Leora Maricle) to think that Windy is a no-good, Stubby grows up despising his father, who has been reduced to a mere circus roustabout. Windy's comeback with a brand-new animal act coincides with his lachrymose reconciliation with his beloved so -- but not before one of those nick-of-time rescue scenes so beloved by MGM's scenario department. Cast as "Stubby as a Child" is Spanky McFarland, who like Jackie Cooper was a member of Hal Roach's Our Gang Kids. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The scandalous doings behind the high-toned exterior of a private school for rich young women provides the framework for this interesting but turgid drama. Much of the story centers on an unhappy socialite and her smart-alecky, world-wise roomy who has no morals at all when it comes to getting what she wants. This of course, puts her at odds with the school's overly class-conscious administration, who live in mortal fear of scandal. As a result, the staff is encouraged to remain cool and aloof, something that causes the lonely socialite, who longs for her parents love, to become deeply depressed. Unfortunately, her father doesn't seem to care and her mother is too busy climbing the social ladder to notice. The socialite becomes increasingly despondent and thinks of suicide. Still she is not immune to the girlish pranks and gaiety of her peers. Her life also improves when she falls in love with the handsome med student who works at the school as a waiter. Unfortunately, things get bad again when he accidentally impregnates her. Fortunately, it all works out for her in the end. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Based upon the phenomenally successful Harold Gray comic strip, Little Orphan Annie covers a lot of ground in its short 60 minutes. Annie (played by 12-year-old Mitzi Green) is a spunky and spirited child who runs away from the orphanage where she is mistreated and manages to come under the watchful eye of Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks (Edgar Kennedy), one of the wealthiest men in the world -- or he is until the stock market crash ruins him. Having plenty of spunk and determination himself, Warbucks leaves Annie to go out West and search for gold. Annie helps another young orphan get adopted, goes through an animated dream sequence, and is eventually reunited with Warbucks, who has succeeded in rebuilding his fortune. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide

New Morals for Old was the teasing title for a somewhat sedate film about the ongoing rejection of middle-class values by the youth of America. Robert Young, Myrna Loy, Donald Cook and Margaret Perry are among the freethinking young folk whose attitudes clash with those of their elders (including Lewis Stone, Laura Hope Crews and Jean Hersholt). The film's main crisis is nothing more scandalous than Robert Young's plans to pursue an art career over his father's objections. In an ironic coda, the younger people eventually marry, settle down, and become moralistic fuddy-duddies themselves. New Morals for Old was based on the John Van Druten play After All, which was set in London and thus added class consciousness to the basic generation-gap theme. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Clark Gable went from supporting actor to star in the space of one year with Sporting Blood, adapted from a novel by Frederick Hazlitt Brennan. Gable is top-billed as a gambling house proprietor named Rid Riddell. When the owner of a prize thoroughbred loses heavily in Riddell's establishment, he is forced to give up the horse to the gambler as security. Rid enters the horse in several honest races, then pulls the animal during a crucial race in order to collect big money on the losses; then he plans to dope up the horse to assure future wins. But when the horse loses, the gambler, deeply in debt to mobsters, transfers ownership to one of his female dealers (Madge Evans), and then drops out of the plotline. Clark Gable isn't really the lead in Sporting Blood--actually he's something of a rat--but he's the one whom everybody in the audience remembers long after the final fadeout. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It was once theorized by critic Andrew Sarris that this 1931 Greta Garbo vehicle was subtitled "Her Fall & Rise" rather than the expected "Rise & Fall," because Hollywood--and by extension, the public--could not tolerate a failure. Whatever the case, modern audiences will latch onto Susan Lennox not because of its cumbersome title but because of its one-time-only pairing of Garbo and Clark Gable. Fleeing an arranged marriage with Alan Hale, Sr.,, Swedish farmer's daughter Garbo takes temporary refuge in a cabin in the woods, occupied by engineer Gable. Though it is love at first sight, Garbo hastily runs out of Gable's life when her uncle and her betrothed show up. Again a fugitive, Garbo joins a seedy carnival, becoming the kept woman of carney owner John Miljan. By chance, she is reunited with Gable, who spurns her because of her tawdry station in life. Years pass: Garbo has worked her way up the courtesan ladder, becoming the mistress of politician Hale Hamilton. This relationship comes to a sudden halt thanks to Hamilton's muckraking enemies, so it's back to the road for Garbo, who by now will settle for no man but her long-lost Gable. The protagonists finally manage bury the past in the jungle community where the drink-sodden Gable has retreated to "lose himself." Greta Garbo's performance in Susan Lennox: Her Fall and Rise is up to standard, but Clark Gable seems extremely uncomfortable, almost as if suffering an impacted molar. The film was adapted by four screenwriters from a novel by David Graham Phillips. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Previously filmed in 1923, the George S. Kaufman-Marc Connelly stage comedy Dulcy was remade as a talkie in 1929 under the new title Dulcy. Marion Davies stars as Dulcinea, the illogical, cliché-spouting young housewife created by newspaper humorist Franklin P. Adams. Hoping to help her fiance George (Elliot Nugent) get ahead in business, Dulcy invites taciturn executive Forbes (played by William Holden -- no, not that William Holden) for a dinner party. The event turns into a disaster, and it is only through the intervention of Dulcy's butler (George Davis), an ex-convict, that the day is saved. Marion Davies comic expertise is matched by Franklin Pangborn as an epicene novelist and Donald Ogden Stewart (a future Oscar-winning screenwriter) as a libidinous financier. Not So Dumb was remade under the original title Dulcy as an Ann Sothern vehicle in 1940. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide