Murray Alper Movies
Supporting actor Murray Alper's earliest screen credit was 1930's The Royal Family of Broadway. For the next 35 years, Alper was an inescapable movie presence, playing dozens of cab drivers, bookies, cops and GIs. One of his few credited appearances in an "A" picture was in The Maltese Falcon; he plays the friendly cabbie who drives Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) on a mid-film wild goose chase. Frequently seen in comedies, Alper showed up in eight Bowery Boys farces of the 1940s and 1950s, and was prominently featured in the Three Stooges' Trick Dicks (1953) and The Outlaws is Coming (1965, as Chief Crazy Horse!). One of Murray Alper's least characteristic roles was the judo instructor in Jerry Lewis' The Nutty Professor (1963). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1935
In the wake of Shirley Temple, every Hollywood studio scrambled to find a child star who might possibility match Temple's selling power. Warner Bros.' candidate was South Africa-born Sybil Jason, who starred in several of the studio's short subjects and was headlined in a handful of features like Little Big Shot. Here she is cast as Gloria Gibbs, whose daddy is knocked off by gangsters early in the picture. Left in the care of confidence tricksters Steve Craig (Robert Armstrong) and Mortimer Thompson (Edward Everett Horton), it doesn't take long for Gloria to twist her surrogate "parents" around her little finger. With the help of Steve, Mortimer and lunch-counter waitress Jean (Glenda Farrell), our heroine not only puts the finger on the gang responsible for her father's demise, but collects a huge reward as a result. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sybil Jason, Glenda Farrell, (more)
- 1935
The George M. Cohan-Earl Digger Biggers theatrical comedy/mystery Seven Keys to Baldpate had already been filmed in 1915, 1917, 1925 and 1929 when this 1935 version made its appearance. It turned out to be the second of four talkie remakes of the Cohan-Diggers piece, if one includes the misbegotten 1983 adaptation House of the Long Shadows. The 1935 edition stars Gene Raymond as author William Magee, who wagers that he can write a mystery novel in 24 hours. At the suggestion of his agent, Magee heads to the remote and reportedly deserted Baldpate Inn so he can work undisturbed. Unfortunately, a steady stream of eccentric and highly suspicious characters, including a minor-league crook (Murray Alper) a duplicitous detective (Eric Blore), a damsel in distress (Margaret Callahan) and a murder victim-to-be (Erin O'Brien-Moore) converge upon the inn, all apparently in search of a cache of stolen money. The amusing double-surprise ending works just as well here as it did in all other versions of the Cohan-Diggers play. At the time of this film's release, RKO Radio issued a study guide to schoolrooms, noting with pride that all the "dated" slang in the original Seven Keys to Baldpate had been carefully weeded out -- unmindful that the "improved" rewrite would seem even more dated 60 years hence! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Raymond, Margaret Callahan, (more)
- 1935
In this lively comedy, a cocky reporter follows a gangster aboard an ocean liner. While on board, the overconfident fellow mentions his purpose to a ship's manicurist with whom he's fallen in love. Later they get married and the reporter loses his job causing a fight between the newlyweds. He then decides to divorce her. Unwillingly to let the marriage die so easily, the manicurist gives a manicure to a gangster who is supposed to be dead. Her husband then reports the news, but more mix-ups occur and he is fired again. Blaming it all on his wife, he continues with his divorce proceedings until she is able to prove once and for all the illusive gangster is very much alive. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Arthur, George Murphy, (more)
- 1935
After nearly a decade of nominal "leading lady" roles, Carole Lombard landed her first genuine starring vehicle with Hands Across the Table. Reasoning that the way to a man's heart is through his cuticles, Regi Allen (Carole Lombard) takes a job as a manicurist at a fancy barbershop, unabashedly admitting that she hopes to use this position to snag a rich husband. Sure enough, Regi's charms prove irresistable to Allen Macklyn (Ralph Bellamy) a wealthy and charming invalid, who knows that the girl is a golddigger but doesn't care. The other man in Regi's life is Theodore "Ted" Drew III (Fred MacMurray), who though born into a wealthy family is stone broke, and on the verge of marrying a rich debutante (Astrid Allwyn) to replenish his lost fortune. Hoping to briefly escape this fate and his other financial problems, Theodore hides out in Regi's apartment. It is, of course, a platonic relationship: Having been burned in the past, Regi doesn't want to get romantically entangled with a pauper, while Ted is already promised to someone else. But, as is often the case in 1930s comedies, things don't quite turn out the way that either Regi or Ted expect. Full of delightful, unexpected touches, Hands Across the Table proved to be a major boost for Carole Lombard's career, and didn't exactly do any harm to up-and-coming Fred MacMurray either. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurray, (more)
- 1931
Though he'd been given top billing at other studios, Charles Ruggles attained star status at his home lot of Paramount for the first time in 1931's The Girl Habit. Hoping to escape the murderous wrath of a gangster, wealthy middle-aged playboy Charlie Floyd (Ruggles) tries to get himself arrested. He finally succeeds, only to be thrown into the same cell as the gangster! Then there's the problem of getting out of jail, which comes about when Charlie uncovers evidence revealing the warden to be a crook. And all of this comes about simply because Charlie's sweetheart Sonya (Tamara Geva) tried to cure our hero of his flirtatiousness. Based on a play by A.E. Thomas and Clayton Hamilton, The Girl Habit was something of a enigma, garnering huge laughs in some theaters and stony silence in others. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlie Ruggles, Tamara Geva, (more)
- 1930
Royal Family of Broadway was an abridged but otherwise literal translation of the George S. Kaufman/Edna Ferber Broadway hit The Royal Family. The title referred not to kings and queens but to a prominent theatrical family named Cavendish--based none too loosely on the famed Barrymore clan. Ina Claire plays the "Ethel Barrymore" counterpart, a beloved stage star who wishes to renounce the theatre to marry a millionaire and move to South America. Fredric March steals the show as the "black sheep" of the family, obviously patterned after the rambunctious John Barrymore (March has John Barrymore's legendary gestures and petulant temper tantrums down pat). When it looks as if the Cavendish legacy will break up with the daughter's marriage and the son's peccadillos, the Cavendish matriarch (Henrietta Crosman) delivers an impassioned "show must go on" speech from her deathbed, reuniting the fragmented family. Reportedly, The Royal Family angered Ethel Barrymore to the point of a threatened lawsuit. She need not have worried; despite the histrionic excesses of the Cavendishes in The Royal Family of Broadway, these ersatz Barrymores are depicted with amusement and affection. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ina Claire, Fredric March, (more)
