Joseph Cawthorn Movies
Joseph Cawthorn launched his seven-decade show business career at age four as a performer in "variety" revues (the precursor to American vaudeville). At age five, Cawthorn was appearing in minstrel shows, and at seven he moved to England, where he became a successful child performer. Back in America, he toured in vaudeville as a "Dutch" comic, fracturing audiences with his Yiddish dialect and hyperkinetic gestures. He first appeared on Broadway in the 1895 musical Excelsior Jr; two years later he got his biggest break when he replaced William Collier as principal comedian in Miss Philadelphia (1897). A popular Broadway attraction for the next 25 years, Cawthorn starred or co-starred in such tuneful extravaganzas as Victor Herbert's The Fortune Teller (1898), Mother Goose (1903, in the title role!), Little Nemo (1910), The Sunshine Girl (1913), The Girl From Utah (1914) and Rudy Friml' s The Blue Kitten (1922). By the time he appeared in the 1925 Marilyn Miller vehicle Sally, however, Cawthorn was being written off as a "fading star. Rather than stubbornly cling to his Broadway fame, Cawthorn moved to Hollywood in 1927, where he began a whole new career as a movie character actor. He revived his old dialect routines as Cornelius Van Horn in Dixiana (1930) and Joe Bruno in Peach o' Reno; both of these films starred Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, who'd known Cawthorn "way back when" in New York (Woolsey in fact had supported Cawthorn in The Blue Kitten). Not always confined to "Dutch" roles, he was effectively cast as Shakespearean suitor Gremio in the Mary Pickford/Doug Fairbanks version of Taming of the Shrew(1929) and as a French physician in Lubitsch's Love Me Tonight (1932). Nor was he limited to comedy parts: he was most persuasive in the largely serious role of Dr. Bruner, the "Van Helsing" counterpart in Bela Lugosi's White Zombie (1932). Because of his celebrated Broadway past, Cawthorn was often cast in period "backstage" musicals, essaying such roles as the title character's father in The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and Leopold Damrosch in Lillian Russell (1940). Joseph Cawthorn died peacefully at his Beverly Hills home in 1949. His wife, actress Queenie Vassar, lived until 1960. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1942
Stolen way back in 1880, a sack of United States mail is discovered in an old attic in 1942. The letters are finally delivered, profoundly affecting the lives of the recipients. The most affected is young farmer Dan Carter (Richard Travis), who falls heir to huge sum of money intended for his father. Romance also blossoms for Carter in the form of stamp collector Julie Martin (Brenda Joyce), who has likewise benefited from the rediscovered mail. An interesting premise inadequately worked out, The Postman Didn't Ring might possibly have been the main inspiration for the much later (and far better) made-for-TV movie The Letters(1973). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Travis, Brenda Joyce, (more)
The Nazis are clearly the villains in So Ends Our Night, but since the film was made before America's entry into World War II, Adolph Hitler goes unmentioned (we wouldn't want to lose those foreign markets, would we?) Based on Erich Maria Remarque's novel Flotsam, the film zeroes in on three German refugees. Frederic March despises the Nazis on ideological grounds; Margaret Sullavan, a Jew, is fleeing for her life; and Glenn Ford, born of a Jewish mother and Aryan father, is racked with confusion and torn loyalties. The three separate as they move from country to country in Europe, just a step or so ahead of the advancing Nazis. As Sullavan and Ford fall in love, March puts his life on the line by trying to arrange a reunion with his ailing wife Frances Dee, who has remained in Germany. Had So Ends Our Night been released a few months after the US entry into the war, it might have done better at the box office. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fredric March, Margaret Sullavan, (more)
Lillian Russell is the sanitized musical biopic of the legendary (and much-married) 19th century musical comedy star. Discovered in 1880 by bandleader Tony Pastor (Leo Carrillo), Lillian Russell (Alice Faye) wastes no time rising to fame and fortune on the Broadway stage. Along the way, she curries the favor of such eligible bachelors as newspaperman Alexander Moore (Henry Fonda), composer Edward Solomon (Don Ameche), and railroad tycoon Diamond Jim Brady (Edward Arnold). She marries the first two, and has a high old time (albeit chastely) with the third. The story ends with Russell's retirement in 1912, and her reunion with the one true love of her life. The film's hands-down highlight is a timeworn but classic routine involving those two Broadway comedy giants Joe Weber and Lew Fields, both of whom had appeared on-stage with the real Lillian Russell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alice Faye, Don Ameche, (more)
- 1940
This early Judy Canova vehicle was conceived along the same lines as the 1937 20th Century-Fox musical Kentucky Moonshine. A movie studio sends its talent scouts to hillbilly country, there to find a new singing star. Actually it's all a publicity stunt; the studio has planted a Hollywoodite in the hills to await a phony discovery. But the scouts come upon genuine mountain girl Judy Canova instead, and it is she who makes the grade in Tinseltown. Canova's crowning moment in Scatterbrain is the scene in which she washes a floor gliding about on roller skates with brushes tied to them, while singing that top-40 favorite "Benny the Beaver". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judy Canova, Alan Mowbray, (more)
- 1936
In this lively campus comedy, a stern rowing coach sets up a rigorous practice schedule for his team and insists they lead strictly disciplined lives (meaning no girls and no fun) so that they will become winners and thereby save his endangered job. Unfortunately, a seductive coed keeps leading his lambs astray. Things look bleak until the coach devises an ingenious method to recruit new oarsmen. Things really get in synch when jazz bandleader George E. Stone becomes the swingin' new coxswain. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank McHugh, Patricia Ellis, (more)
In MGM's three-hour-plus The Great Ziegfeld, William Powell stars as the titular theatrical impresario, whose show business empire begins when he stage-manages a tour for legendary strongman Sandow (Nat Pendleton). With nary a penny in the bank, he charms European stage star Anna Held (Luise Rainer) to headline his "Follies", and later marries the luscious Ms. Held. From 1907 onward, Ziegfeld stages annual editions of Broadway's most fabulous revue, dedicated to "Glorifying the American Girl" but also giving ample time to develop the comic talents of Fanny Brice (played by herself), Will Rogers, Eddie Cantor and many others. Eventually, Ziegfeld abandons Ms. Held in favor of other beauties, setting the stage for the "telephone scene" which won Luise Rainer the first of her Oscars. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Powell, Myrna Loy, (more)
- 1936
In this comedy a sneaky salesman tries to sell an inventor's newest product, a water-based fuel. Before the inventor can finish testing the product he needs cash, so the salesman desperately endeavors to come up with some by creating a phony stock promotion. When he announces that the great invention has finally been perfected, investors begin handing him money hand-over-fist. The salesman then uses the cash to create a phone corporation complete with a fake board of directors. Just as their success seems assured, the inventor is abducted. The salesman must then find him or end up in prison. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ross Alexander, Beverly Roberts, (more)
- 1936
A remake of the French comedy Monsieur Sans-Gene, One Rainy Afternoon gets under way when film-actor Phillippe Martin (Francis Lederer) heads to a darkened Parisian movie theater for a romantic rendezvous with his married sweetheart Yvonne (Countess Live de Margaret). But our hero sits in the wrong seat and kisses the wrong young lady: Monique Pelerin (Ida Lupino), the daughter of a powerful publisher Joseph Cawthorn. This innocent mistake snowballs into a national scandal, fomented by the hatchet-faced president (Eily Malyon) of the Purity League, with Phillippe earning the onus of "The Kissing Monster." It all culminates in one of those zany courtroom trails which proliferated in screwball comedies of the 1930s, wherein Phillippe defends himself by insisting that it is in a Frenchman's nature to be romantic, even with perfect strangers -- and as a result he becomes an international hero! One Rainy Afternoon was the first of a handful of United Artists talkies personally produced by studio vice-president Mary Pickford. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Francis Lederer, Ida Lupino, (more)
- 1936
Ross Alexander, whom Warner Bros. was obviously grooming for big-time stardom, is cast as Bill McAllister, the ne'er-do-well nephew of wealthy apple merchant Fred Schultz (Joe Cawthorn). Cut off without a cent, Bill soon finds out who his real friends are and wins the hand of Hazel Robinson (Anita Louise), who isn't at all interested in money. Since the film is based on a 1925 stage comedy, it should come as no surprise that our hero makes good and strikes it rich sometime during the third act. Alas, the promising career of Ross Alexander was cut tragically short by his suicide at the age of 29. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ross Alexander, Anita Louise, (more)
- 1936
In this British gangster movie, a Chicago gang goes to cool their heels in London. There they try to overtake the town. Meanwhile the mob boss searches for the perfect job. He convinces a millionaire, the owner of a department store, to help his gang rob the store blind. The plot fails and the gangsters battle it out with the bobbies. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joseph Cawthorn, Basil Sydney, (more)
- 1935
With little plot but incredible photography and choreography, Gold Diggers of 1935 was exactly what you would expect a Busby Berkeley movie to be--visually stimulating, awe-inspiring and almost Freudian in its obsession toward perfection. The Titanic scale of Berkeleian choreography was especially apparent in the "Lullaby on Broadway" number, showing the last day in the life of a "Broadway Baby" before she kills herself. This scene has some of the most precise choreography ever filmed. This was the second of the Gold Diggers films and it remains a classic for the startling technological display found in all Berkeley efforts. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dick Powell, Gloria Stuart, (more)
- 1935
The 1929 Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein Broadway musical Sweet Adeline has generally been credited as the vanguard for the "Gay 90s" nostalgia fad of the early 1930s. By the time the film was adapted to the screen in 1935, that fad had pretty much played itself out, making the property seem more old-fashioned than ever. Irene Dunne takes over from Broadway's Helen Morgan as beer-hall entertainer Adeline Schmidt, whose romance with songwriter Sid Barnett (Donald Woods) undergoes an inordinate number of setbacks in the course of the film's 85 minutes. Much of the play's libretto has been scrapped in favor of an espionage angle, as Adeline tries to avoid assassination at the hands of a Spanish spy named Elysia (Wini Shaw). Contemporary critics carped that Irene Dunne was unable to match Helen Morgan's delivery of such torch songs as "Why Was I Born"; this is true enough, but Warner Bros. deserves credit for endeavoring to cast Dunne against type. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irene Dunne, Donald Woods, (more)
- 1935
William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan Productions moved from MGM to Warners with Page Miss Glory--along with Cosmopolitan's biggest commodity, actress Marion Davies. The plotline has something to do with a composite photo prepared for a magazine contest: The combined facial attributes of Garbo, Dietrich, Harlow and Kay Francis make up this picture, which wins an award for photographer Pat O'Brien. When pressed to produce his fictional "Miss Glory," O'Brien scours the country in search of the girl whose face matches the composite. And that's where lowly chambermaid Marion Davies comes in. After a dizzying taste of fame and fortune, Davies renounces her new celebrity for the love of Dick Powell. The title song of Page Miss Glory was given a more entertaining showcase in the "art deco" Warner Bros. cartoon Miss Glory. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marion Davies, Pat O'Brien, (more)
- 1935
Produced on a reasonably lavish scale by the usually parsimonious Mascot Pictures, Harmony Lane was the first of three filmed biographies of 19th-century songwriter Stephen Foster (the others were Fox's Swanee River [1939] and 1952's I Dream of Jeannie, produced by Mascot's successor, Republic Pictures). Douglass Montgomery stars as Foster, with Evelyn Venable and Adrienne Ames as the women in his life and William Frawley as minstrel impresario E.P. Christy (the part played by Al Jolson in Swanee River). The film follows Foster from his early attempts to study for the ministry to his first flush of success in the years just prior to the Civil War, ending with his death in drunken poverty in New York. Just what was it that so attracted Hollywood to this melancholy tale? Perhaps it was the fact that Stephen Foster's songs were in the Public Domain, thereby allowing producers to sidestep expensive copyright and licensing fees. Harmony Lane was written and directed by Joseph Santley, a prolific if uninspired helmsman of early-talkie musicals. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Douglass Montgomery, Evelyn Venable, (more)
- 1935
Socialite Pat Reynolds (Ida Lupino) is forced to become the "smart girl" of the title when her wealthy father commits suicide, leaving nothing but a pile of debts. Pat sets up a successful hat-designing business, providing the sole support for herself and her sister Kay (Gail Patrick). So devoted is Pat to Kay's welfare that she stands by in stoic silence as Kay begins romancing Pat's sweetie Nick Graham (Kent Taylor). But a quick glance at the billing order of the stars should be indication enough as to which sister ends up with Nick at the fade-out. Comedy relief is provided in ample doses by old-timer Joseph Cawthorn and bespectacled crooner Pinky Tomlin, cast as father-and-son haberdashers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ida Lupino, Kent Taylor, (more)
- 1935
The first of MGM's phenomenally profitable Jeanette MacDonald-Nelson Eddy musicals, Naughty Marietta takes several beneficial liberties with the libretto of the original Victor Herbert operetta. MacDonald plays an 18th-century French princess who escapes an arranged marriage by posing as a "cake girl," a mail-order bride sent to the New World to marry a colonist. En route, MacDonald and the other brides are captured by pirates, but are rescued by mercenary Eddy and his roistering companions. To avoid marrying some lowly farmer or frontiersman, simon-pure MacDonald intimates that she is a woman with a "history," which makes her attractive to the glitterati of old New Orleans. Only Eddy sees through MacDonald's feigned "naughtiness," and in the end claims her for his own. The most memorable of the Herbert songs retained for the film version of Naughty Marietta was "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life", which remained one of Jeanette MacDonald's signature tunes ever afterward. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, (more)
- 1935
Rudy Vallee made his third feature-film starring appearance in the breezy Warner Bros. musical Sweet Music. Vallee is appropriately cast as singer-bandleader Skip Houston, who falls in love with aspiring dancer Bonnie Haydon (Ann Dvorak). Though Bonnie feels the same way about Skip, the two leads indulge in a movie-long quarrel before the long-awaiting final clinch. This is one musical comedy where there's definitely more comedy than music, what with a chucklesome supporting cast including Ned Sparks, Allen Jenkins, Alice White and veteran vaudevillians Joseph Cawthorn and Al Shean (of "Gallegher and Shean" fame). Despite such heady competition, the film is stolen by the hilarious Frank and Milt Britton Band, a zany precursor to the Spike Jones aggregation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rudy Vallee, Ann Dvorak, (more)
- 1935
Joe E. Brown's extensive circus and burlesque training serve him well in this familiar but likeable yarn. Brown and Ann Dvorak stars as small-time vaudevillians Joe and Fay Wilson, presently employed by a seedy burlesque troupe. Also on tour with the Wilsons is society girl Peggy (Patricia Ellis), who's merely joined the troupe for a few laughs. Publicity agent Daniel Wheeler (William Gargan) offers Joe a big-time contract, but only if he will team up with Peggy. Surprisingly, Fay goes along with this, though she soon has reason to regret her generosity. The film's many intrigues give way to slapstick when Joe commandeers an airplane to expedite a reconciliation with his ever-loving spouse. The film's comic highlight is Joe E. Brown's "drunken mouse" routine, which later caused him courtroom trouble when comedian Bert Wheeler insisted that the bit was his personal property. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe E. Brown, Ann Dvorak, (more)
- 1934
Dying New England millionaire Cabot Barr (George Arliss) doesn't trust any of his relatives as they flock to his bedside, and not without justification. Barr realizes that there's a few roses among the thorns, notably his good-hearted granddaughter (Charlotte Henry) and his likeable adopted nephew (Frank Albertson), but the rest of the batch are whining, greedy and manipulative. With the covert aid of his secretary (Ralph Morgan) and his Runyonesque valet (Edward Ellis), Barr decides to teach his family a few lessons by manipulating them to do the opposite of what he pretends he wants them to do. As a result, the granddaughter and the nephew fall in love, while the less-appealing relatives are enmeshed in their own webs of deceit. The best, however, is saved for last. After Barr's death, the family discovers that he's left behind a "living will:" a reel of film in which the old gent jovially announces his bequests -- and with equal joviality settles a few old scores. This climactic "gimmick," later repeated in such films as 1979's Cat and the Canary and 1985's Brewster's Millions, is the highlight of this consistently charming and delightful George Arliss vehicle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Arliss, Edna May Oliver, (more)
- 1934
The 1932 Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein Broadway hit Music in the Air was brought to the screen two years later by Fox Studios. Temperamental Bavarian prima donna Frieda (Gloria Swanson) and equally volatile lyricist Bruno (John Boles) spend half their time quarrelling and the other half making love. To arouse each other's jealousy, Frieda and Bruno pair off respectively with music teacher Lessing's (Al Shean) virginal daughter Sieglinde (June Lang) and her schoolmaster fiancee Karl (Douglass Montgomery). The impressionable young couple respond to the attentions heaped upon them until they realize they're being used, whereupon the tables are turned upon the main characters. Though boasting such lilting tunes as "The Song is You" and "I've Told Every Evening Star" and the stylish direction of Joe May (perhaps his best American film), audiences didn't respond to Music in the Air; as a result, star Gloria Swanson vowed for the millionth time to "permanently" retire from pictures, a promise she kept to herself for a whole seven years. Incidentally, one of the screenwriters of Music in the Air was Billy Wilder, who later co-wrote and directed Swanson's 1949 "comeback" feature Sunset Boulevard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gloria Swanson, John Boles, (more)
- 1934
A satire on radio crooners, Twenty Million Sweethearts stars Dick Powell as a singing waiter--fake handlebar mustache and all. Publicity man Pat O'Brien discovers Powell and gets him a radio gig, leading to nationwide adulation for the nonplused tenor. All of this jeopardizes Powell's happy marriage to Ginger Rogers, but he proves faithful to her despite the twenty million sweethearts (i.e. female radio fans) referred to in the title. Twenty Million Sweethearts is fitfully amusing, with some of the best moments concentrated at the beginning wherein the Radio Rogues imitate several popular personalities of the airwaves. This film was remade in 1949 as My Dream Is Yours, with Doris Day (!) in the Dick Powell role but with the same "signature" tune, "I'll String Along with You." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pat O'Brien, Dick Powell, (more)
- 1934
A pre-stardom Bette Davis struggles mightily as the "other woman" in this rather obvious divorce court drama from Warner Bros. George Brent stars as William Reynolds, a hardworking but markedly unmotivated office manager whose wife, Nan (Ann Dvorak), manages to make ends meet with the little she's got. Enter Patricia Berkeley (Davis), a high-powered advertising exec, with whom William falls madly in love. Does he leave the little wife for the glamorous co-worker? Well almost, but all bets are off when young Buddy Reynolds (Ronnie Cosbey) is hit by a car and nearly killed. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Brent, Bette Davis, (more)
- 1934
Another of director William Wyler's "apprenticeship" films, Glamour is based on a story by Edna Ferber. The original story covered 24 hours in the life of actress Linda Fayne (Constance Cummings), who is so busy with her career that there's no time left over for her baby. This plotline was used as a small component of Doris Anderson's screenplay, wherein we discover how Linda came to be a mother in the first place. During her climb to the top of the acting profession, our heroine falls in love with aspiring songwriter Victor Banki (Paul Lukas). Having read somewhere that no actress has ever reached greatness until after she became a mother, Linda all but forces Valenti to impregnate her. Sure enough, she becomes an overnight star, whereupon she marries Victor. Later on, Linda leaves her husband in favor of handsome singer Lorenzo Valenti (Philip Reed), but her maternal instincts win out and she returns to Victor and her child. No way that all this could happen within 24 hours! Bobby Watson, foremost Adolph Hitler impersonator of the 1940s, shows up in Glamour as a gay dance director, a characterization he'd previously done in Wheeler and Woolsey's Hips Hips Hooray. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Lukas, Constance Cummings, (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)
