Harry Bannister Movies
A popular Broadway actor who scored in his first show The Passing Show of 1921 (1920) and later starred in such productions as Czarina, White Cargo, and The Bat, Harry Bannister was nevertheless more famous as the husband of stage and screen star Ann Harding. They co-starred in Her Private Affair (1929), an early talkie from Pathé (later RKO) and a major success, and The Girl of the Golden West (1930), but unlike Harding, Bannister did not find favor with moviegoers, who apparently agreed with columnist Adela Rogers St. Johns' rather unkind description of him as "a handsome, vain actor of the old-fashioned scenery-chewing school." Suffering the indignity of being banned from the set of his wife's East Lynne (1931), Bannister returned to New York, where he produced the Broadway play Late One Evening (1933). He later managed the American Music Hall Theatre Group, whose famous revival production of the old barnstormer The Drunkard would run for more than a year. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide- 1953
Richard Coogan plays a newspaper reporter whose managing editor has been murdered. Accused of the crime, Coogan escapes in order to find the real killer. The trail of evidence leads to a carnival, where several of the performers seem to have strong connections to the town's biggest power brokers. Rosemary Pettit plays Coogan's secretary, who helps to solve the mystery. Filmed in 1961, Girl on the Run should not be confused with the 1957 77 Sunset Strip pilot film of the same title. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Ronald Colman won an Academy Award for his portrayal of an off-the-beam actor in A Double Life. A beloved stage star, Anthony John (Colman), has problems with his private life due to his unpredictable outbursts of temper. This trait has already cost him his wife, Brita (Signe Hasso), and threatens to sabotage his career. Nonetheless, Anthony makes his peace with Brita, and the two actors star in a new Broadway staging of Othello. The play is a hit, running over 300 performances, but the pressures of portraying a man moved to murder by jealousy takes its toll on Anthony. In a fit of delirium, he strangles his casual mistress, Pat (Shelley Winters), but retains no memory of the awful crime. Press agent Bill Friend (Edmond O'Brien), unaware that Anthony is the killer, uses Pat's murder as publicity for Othello. Anthony becomes enraged at this cheap ploy, and attacks Friend. At this point, Anthony realizes that he has been living "a double life" and is in fact Pat's murderer. A Double Life was written for the screen by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, who occasionally digress from the melodramatic plotline to include a few backstage inside jokes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ronald Colman, Whit Bissell, (more)
- 1931
The patience of a long-suffering wife is finally rewarded in this drama. The devoted wife has known that her husband has been having an affair for years but she has passively allowed it to continue, believing that eventually her husband will come back to her. Her belief is unshakable and when he asks for a divorce, she refuses to grant it causing him to leave her and move in with the other woman. She does allow him to visit the children, but when he comes, she treats him as a guest. Eventually, the mistress kills herself and the errant husband does indeed return to his patient wife. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clive Brook, Charlie Ruggles, (more)
- 1931
Coney island vendors Baltimore Clark (Bill Boyd), Dutch Herman (Robert Armstrong) and Skeets O'Reilly (James Gleason) spend their off-hours (and some of their on-hours) carrying on a friendly rivalry for the affections of pert drugstore counter girl Sally (Ginger Rogers). But when America enters WW1, our three heroes leave Sally behind and join the Navy. Before long, Baltimore, Dutch and Skeets find themselves smack in the middle of an ongoing conflict between the German U-boat fleet and a shadowy "mystery" ship. Naturally, the boys are crewmen on the aforementioned mystery vessel, which is used as a decoy to bring the enemy out into the open. Despite this tense situation, the film spends a goodly amount of time showing the three protagonists cheerfully cheating on Sally with fetching foreign damsels in other ports of call. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Armstrong, James Gleason, (more)
- 1930
In this, its third cinema incarnation, David Belasco's hoary old Girl of the Golden West received the full swagger treatment from the otherwise lady-like Ann Harding as the gun-toting saloon belle who falls for a handsome outlaw (James Rennie). Again, the story's climax is the dramatic poker game between Harding and Sheriff Jack Rance, the stakes of which is the outlaw's freedom. Unfortunately, Miss Harding insisted that her husband, phlegmatic stage actor Harry Bannister, play the sheriff, a casting decision that somewhat upset the story's apple cart. A Broadway veteran but a cinematic novice, Bannister reportedly insisted on lecturing director John Francis Dillon on the finer aspects of art in general and film-making in particular. Needless to say, Mr. Bannister's screen career, like his marriage to Ann Harding, proved short-lived. The "Girl" herself, however, enjoyed incredible stamina and would experience two subsequent remakes: a lavish 1938 musical version starring (of course) Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy (with Walter Pidgeon as Rance) and a 1942 war-time Italian production featuring Isa Pola, Michel Simon and Rossano Brazzi as the leads. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Harding, James Rennie, (more)
- 1930
In her second film, Broadway actress Ann Harding plays the vacationing wife of a judge who finds herself blackmailed by a notorious gigolo. Leaving her husband after a quarrel, Vera Kessler (Harding) dallies rather innocently with Arnold Hartman (Lawford Davidson). Hartman, however, engages in a bit of blackmail and when Vera confronts him, a scuffle breaks out. In the heat of the moment, Vera picks up a gun and the gigolo ends up dead. The butler is arrested for the crime, and although the poor man is acquitted in court, Vera's guilt drives her to leave her husband. But the good judge (Harry Bannister) overhears his wife confessing the truth to the rather confused factotum and forgives her. Despite the mediocre plot and an overstuffed production, Her Private Affair proved a huge box-office success and boded well for Harding's future in Hollywood. Harry Bannister was "Mr. Harding" in private life at the time. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Harding, Harry Bannister, (more)
