Louise Carver Movies

The Three Stooges are tree surgeons in this comic short. An irascible old man is driving both his wife and his nurse up a wall. But instead of being concerned about his own illness, he's worried about his tree, a rare "puglis persimmon." The Stooges, also known as the Elite Painless Tree Surgeons ("the biggest Grafters in town"), show up, force the nurse out of the room, and get to work. The wife and nurse believe the Stooges are real surgeons and they panic when they hear that Moe is determined to "saw off a limb." Actually, the tree isn't really in need of surgery -- it's just lonely. The only female puglis persimmon, however, is located on the South Sea island of Rhum Boogie. The old man offers the boys ten thousand dollars to bring it back, so they head for the island. Once they get there, they discover Rhum Boogie is infested with cannibals -- and unless Curly marries the chief's ugly sister, they will be the next meal. The guys manage to get away, but the little boat they escape in promptly sinks. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Alice Faye, Frances Langford, and Patsy Kelly play three humble factory workers (with a Hollywoodized wardrobe beyond the budget of any genuine factory girl) who occasionally sing together for the fun of it. They harbor dreams of becoming famous, but the prospect isn't likely until bandleader George Raft hears the girls harmonizing. He promotes the girls into top radio stars, while each of the girls entertains romantic thoughts about Raft. (And yes, he does win one of them romantically, at the end of the picture). The likable but unimportant Every Night at Eight sparked a minor controversy in the rarefied world of 1960s film criticism. "Auteur" theorist Andrew Sarris pointed out a brief scene in which star George Raft awakens from a nightmare, cited other such scenes in the work of director Raoul Walsh, and used this "evidence" to support his theory that Walsh was a true auteur who left his "signature" on each of his films. Anti-auterist Pauline Kael spoke for many when she advised Sarris to go fly a kite. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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

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

The delightful Winnie Lightner was afforded her own movie vehicle in Side Show. Lightner stars as Pat, one of several members of a traveling carnival troupe managed by the eternally besotted Colonel Gowdy (Guy Kibbee). A Jill-of-all-trades, Pat does everything from high-diving to hula dancing, with time left over for a romance with meek-and-mild Sidney (Charles Butterworth), a man incapable of uttering an intelligent remark. There are moments of melodrama and pathos -- especially when Pat tries to save her younger sister, Irene (Evelyn Knapp), from a lecherous carny barker -- but comedy predominates throughout, culminating in a slapstick big-top finale. Unseen for many years, Side Show was resuscitated in the early '90s by the Turner Classic Movies cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The difference between social classes provides the basis for this comedy. The trouble begins when a drunken sot wanders into the fancy home of a woman who is hosting a gala dinner. She had invited 13 guests, and so hired Blankely's, a professional company to send her a sophisticated 14th guest. Naturally she mistakes the drunk for the hired guest and invites him to dine. Mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Sap is Edward Everett Horton, a small-towner with big plans, but lacking the wherewithal to put them in motion. Even worse, Horton allows everyone to take advantage of him, further driving the nails into the coffin of his ambitions. When his brother-in-law gets mixed up with an embezzlement scheme, the Sap loyally takes the rap, going so far as to conspire with a couple of crooks to replace the money. This time, however, things turn out to our hero's advantage -- though just how this happens isn't entirely clear, even when one sees the movie. Co-starring in The Sap is silent-film ingenue Patsy Ruth Miller, an old friend of Edward Everett Horton, who'd previously appeared with Horton's California-based repertory theatre along with such mutual chums as Mary Astor, Laura LaPlante and Franklin Pangborn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a dancer's brother is wounded during a church robbery; the town doctor appears, rats on the boy and then lets him die. Later the doctor and the dancer become lovers which makes the boy's partner insane with jealousy. He attacks the physician, and believing he is dead, blackmails the woman into becoming his bride. Fortunately for her, the doctor lives, goes to the police, and saves her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This romantic silent comedy was produced by small time Trinity Pictures, according to whom the answer to the title's question was a resounding: Yes! Wealthy Buddy Shaw is fought over by scheming Lorraine Eason and pretty but naive Pauline Garon. The former attempts to win the boy away from the latter by placing him in a compromising situation in an isolated mountain cabin. Miss Garon, however, smells a rat and pulls a few tricks of her own. The only "name" in the cast, Pauline Garon was a 1923 WAMPAS Baby Star who enjoyed a brief vogue in Cecil B. DeMille comedies. After the changeover to sound, the Canadian-born actress mainly appeared in French language versions of Hollywood films. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Chorus girl Barbara Bedford is left broke and stranded by a crooked producer in Backstage. Her good-hearted stage manager pal allows her and the other cast members to stay in his apartment until another job comes along. Unfortunately, our heroine's nerdish boyfriend William Collier Jr. doesn't grasp the situation. Most showbiz films of the 1920s were essentially excuses to show off plenty of female epidermis, and Backstage is no exception. Its pulchritude quotient notwithstanding, the film is quite innocent when compared to such contemporary efforts as Showgirls. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gawky American teenager Daphne Carroll (Edith Roberts) is shipped off to an expensive education in Paris. By the time she returns, Daphne has metamorphosed into a sleek, poised fashion plate. She has also picked up a few "radical" notions about love and fidelity, which embarrass her hometown sweetheart, politician Curtis Lee (Harland Tucker). Worried that Daphne might hurt his chances at re-election, Curtis begins neglecting her. She gets even by crashing one of Curtis' dinner parties, posing as escaped lunatic Sally Long (Louise Carver). Worried about Daphne's bizarre behavior, Curtis puts her under the care of a nurse -- who turns out to be the real Sally Long. Rescued from a grisly fate, Daphne promises to behave more conservatively in the future -- but one detects a gleam in her pretty blue eyes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This silent era classic was based on the swashbuckling adventure novel by Rafael Sabatini, the author whose works later inspired such renowned genre favorites as Captain Blood (1935) and The Sea Hawk (1940). Andre Moreau (Roman Novarro) is a law student during the time of the brewing French Revolution who politically supports his dissatisfied fellow citizens. During a confrontation with the Marquis de la Tour d'Azyr (Lewis Stone), a feared nobleman sympathetic to the royalist cause, the blue blood murders Andre's agitator friend. Unable to engage in swordplay against the legendary prowess of the Marquis, Andre vows revenge and joins a local circus troupe, hiding behind the guise of Scaramouche, a clown, while training in the art of fencing with a master. Andre also falls in love with a woman smitten by the dashing Marquis, but she returns to the troupe when she learns of the nobleman's infidelity. As political unrest boils over into rebellion, Moreau and the Marquis cross steel. Scaramouche (1923) was remade often, most notably in 1952, which features the cinema's longest sword battle and costarred Stone in a different role. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Warner Bros. was hoping that this epic rendition of the Sinclair Lewis novel would become a blockbuster to rival the big releases from United Artists (Robin Hood) and Paramount (The Covered Wagon). That it didn't come close says more about the competition, really, than it does about this honestly well-produced effort. When sophisticated, artistic city girl Carol Milford (Florence Vidor) marries Will Kennicott, a rather dull small town doctor (Monte Blue), it's clear right away that they are mis-matched. Although Carol moves with Kennicott to his hometown of Gopher Prairie, she can't quite leave the city behind. She sets out to educate the townsfolk, who not only have no desire for an "education," they believe she is putting on airs. Although Kennicott adores Carol, he doesn't understand her needs. Only one person, Erik Valborg (Robert Gordon), is willing to listen to Carol and they become friendly. Erik falls in love with her and tries to convince her to run away with him. She refuses, but their meeting is interrupted by Erik's father, Adolph (Noah Beery Sr.), who has never liked Carol or her husband. He denounces Carol in front of the whole town, but Will immediately comes to her defense. He makes the crowd ashamed of their ill feelings towards his wife, and Erik completely exonerates her from any wrongdoing. Carol finally comes to realize how deeply her husband loves her, and to accept the fact that people just can't be changed. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide