John Lodge Movies
The grandson of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, he practised law until he began appearing in films in 1932; usually cast in supporting roles, he had a memorable lead opposite Marlene Dietrich in Von Sternberg's The Scarlet Empress (1934). During his short career he appeared in American, British, French, and Italian films. His career was interrupted by service in World War Two, during which he served as liaison officer between the American and French fleets. After the War he gave up acting to pursue politics. From 1946-48 he was in the House of Representatives (from Connecticut). From 1950-54 he was Governor of Conecticut. From 1955-61 he was Ambassador to Spain, and from 1969-73 he was Ambassador to Argentina. In 1979 he was appointed Ambassador to Switzerland. In 1984 he was named a delegate to the United Nations. His wife was actress Francesca Braggiotti. ~ All Movie Guide- 1941
The British maritime meller Pirate of the Seven Seas first saw the light of day as Queer Cargo in 1938. John Lodge stars as Captain Harley, a slick pearl-smuggler saddled with a rebellious crew. Harley's men finally mutiny at the precise moment that their vessel is boarded by pirate leader Cabini (Kenneth Kent) and his band of cutthroats. Faced with choosing the lesser of two evils, Harley's crew finally decides to cast their lot with the captain, who has become the film's hero by default. Though filmed nearly two years before the outbreak of WW2, Pirate of the Seven Seas was foresighted enough to include a German villain in its cast of characters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Lodge, Kenneth Kent, (more)
- 1940
Director Max Ophuls managed to get three productions before the cameras in 1940, the best of which was De Mayerling a Sarajevo. In his characteristic pageant-like fashion, Ophuls traces the fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire by spiritually linking the tragic 19th century romance of Crown Duke Rudolph and Baroness Maria Veretsa to the 1914 assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and the subsequent outbreak of WW1. According to the film, Ferninand (played by American actor John Lodge) was no slouch in the romantic department himself; but unlike his predecessor Rudolph, the Archduke is permitted to marry his mistress (Edwige Feuilliere), who thereby becomes the Duchess of Hohenberg. Mistrusted by his aristocratic peers because of his progressively democratic notions, Ferdinand seems destined to be martyred at the hands of his enemies, in much the same way that Rudolph's non-royal impulses brought about his demise. One of Ophuls' favorite cinematic devices, the "court dance", is cunningly utilized in De Mayerling a Sarajevo when the lovers are prevented from attending a palace ball, symbolizing the irreparable schism between the modernistic Ferdinand and the hidebound Hapsburgs-and also presaging the deaths of the Archduke and his Duchess. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Lodge, Aimé Clariond, (more)
- 1940
This lightweight but elaborately produced musical melodrama was originally released in Great Britain as Premiere. While watching the opening night of a Parisian stage extravanganza, the show's principal backer is murdered. Inspector Bonnard (John Lodge) deduces that the fatal shot was fired from the stage-meaning that everyone involved in the production is a suspect. Bonnard demands that the cast and crew restage the play so that he can witness the proceedings and ascertain the killer's identity. One thing is certain: heroine Carmen (Judy Kelly) is not the guilty party, though she should have shot whoever designed her unflattering costumes and makeup. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Lodge, Judy Kelly, (more)
- 1939
The title and subject matter of L'Esclave Blanche (White Slave) are one in the same. Set in the pre-WWI Ottoman Empire, the film stars Vivian Romance as the newly wed French wife of Ottoman official John Lodge. Subject to the edicts set down by local sultan Marcel Dalio, the fiercely independent Romance finds that, as a woman, she has no legal rights, and must bow to her husband in all decisions -- even unto standing by helplessly as he welcomes his mistress into their household. Thus it is that, though she lives in comfort and luxury, the heroine is little more than a "white slave" in a male-dominated society. How she comes to grips with this realization is the dramatic crux of the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Viviane Romance, Mila Parély, (more)
- 1939
American leading lady Gertrude Michael tops the cast of the British Just Like a Woman. Reprising her misbehavior in Hollywood's The Notorious Sophie Lang, Michael plays jewel thief Ann Heston, who purloins a string of valuable pearls right from under the long noses of the law. She is then pursued halfway around the world by insurance investigator Tony Walsh (John Lodge), who doesn't know what the audience does-that Ann is actually the daughter of his boss. Predictably, Ann is revealed to be operating with the best of intentions, allowing for a satisfying romantic finale. Perhaps inspired by the film's "Yankee" leads, the British cast members of Just Like a Women adopt mid-Atlantic accents throughout most of the story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gertrude Michael, John Lodge, (more)
- 1938
This breezy British action comedy stars Gordon Harker as Albert Rughouse, cockney conductor of a passenger bus running the Victoria Station-Epping Forest route. In his spare time, Albert indulges in magic tricks, become rather proficient at sleight-of-hand. This talent serves him well when his bus is commandeerd by foreign spies bent on stealing valuable government aviation plans. Proving that the hand is quicker than the eye, Albert flummoxes the villains and makes the world safe for Democracy once more. No mere programmer, The Lightning Conductor is exceptionally well cast, with such reliables as John Lodge, Sally Gray, Ernst Thesiger and Steven Geray going through their usual expert paces. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gordon Harker, John Lodge, (more)
- 1938
A minor effort from a major director, Bank Holiday is little more than a series of anecdotes involving middle-class Brightoners on holiday. Margaret Lockwood and Hugh Williams played the largest roles, as a couple who find love during their one-day respite from work. Comic relief (which in this film is superior to the straight plotting) is provided by several reliable character actors, notably Wilfred Lawson as an officious constable. The film's major purpose is to poke gentle fun at the foibles of the working class, and as such it doesn't amuse as much as it did back in 1938. Bank Holiday was released in the U.S. as Three on a Weekend. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Lodge, Margaret Lockwood, (more)
- 1937
A Somerset Maugham novel was the source of the British The Tenth Man. John Lodge plays George Winter, a self-made businessman who lets nothing get in the way of his climb to the top. Whenever he meets a competitor who can't be bought, Winter destroys the man through methods both legal and underhanded. When one of his victims threatens to expose his tactics, Winter kills him -- just seconds before learning that his desperate gesture was thoroughly unnecessary. Not an entirely successful Maugham adaptation, The Tenth Man is worthwhile if only to see the usually heroic John Lodge in a thoroughly despicable role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Lodge, Antoinette Cellier, (more)
After making his first appearance as the title character in Paramount's "Bulldog Drummond" series, John Lodge was rushed to England to star in the quota quickie Bulldog Drummond at Bay. Though lacking the polish of Hollywood's Drummond pictures, this one is closer to the original concept of series creator H. C. Neile (aka "Sapper") than any other film. The plot is motivated by the nefarious activities of a gang of munitions smugglers, disguised as a pacifist organization. The leader of the gang is Gregoroff (Victor Jory), justifiably nicknamed "The Mystery Man of Europe." Gregoroff masterminds the kidnapping of the inventor of a revolutionary new robot airplane. Adopting strong-arm tactics that border on the fascistic, soldier-of-fortune Bulldog Drummond (Lodge) tackles the villains, while Scotland Yard remains in the background, presumably twiddling its collective thumbs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Lodge, Dorothy Mackaill, (more)
- 1936
Future Connecticut governor John Lodge stars in the British crime drama Sensation. Lodge plays a hotshot reporter who devotion to his job is messing up his private life. Despite warnings from his girl friend that she'll walk out if he follows up one more hot scoop, Lodge tries to flush out the murderer of a waitress. A packet of incriminating love letters is the "maguffin" in this one. Based on a play by Basil Dean and George Munro, Sensation packs an awful lot of story in its 54 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Lodge, Diana Churchill, (more)
- 1936
Hollywood leading-man John Lodge later became governor of Connecticut. Before he turned to politics, however, Lodge found time to squeeze the British melodrama River of Unrest into his schedule. Lodge plays a county inspector, smack in the middle of yet another set-to between the British and the Irish. John Loder, a British officer in love with Irish colleen Antoinette Cellier, is force to shoot rebel-fighter Niall MacGinnis. Loder has no inkling that MacGinniss was the brother of Cellier. She uses his ignorance to lure Loder into a trap, cursing herself all the way but remaining loyal to her people. River of Unrest was based on The Trouble, a play by Dudley Sturrock and Noel Scott. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Antoinette Cellier, Niall MacGinnis, (more)
Shirley Temple's first costume picture -- and one of her best pictures of any kind -- was 1935's The Little Colonel. The story begins in 1870, when unreconstructed Southerner Colonel Lloyd (Lionel Barrymore) disowns his daughter Elizabeth (Evelyn Venable) when she stubbornly marries damn-Yankee Jack Sherman (John Lodge). Several years pass, during which time the Shermans' daughter, Lloyd (Temple), dubbed "the little colonel," is born. When Jack and Elizabeth suffer a series of financial reverses, they are compelled to move into a small cottage owned by Elizabeth, near her father's estate. As tenacious and opinionated as her grandpa, little Lloyd befriends the crusty old codger and tries to effect a reunion between the colonel and Elizabeth. Her efforts at first meet with failure, but when the ailing Jack is imperiled by all-around villain Swazey (Sidney Blackmer) does the colonel race to the rescue, with the "little colonel" leading the way. The film's brief Technicolor finale, long missing from TV prints, was restored in the mid-'80s. Why Fox felt that Technicolor was needed is a mystery; Shirley Temple's name in and of itself was the principal drawing card of The Little Colonel, while Temple's famous stair-dance duet with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson was worth the admission price in itself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shirley Temple, Lionel Barrymore, (more)
- 1934
Not to be confused with Universal's 1932 The Menace, Paramount's 1934 Menace does however included a "revenge" motif similar to the plotline of the earlier film. A mental patient, who has sworn vengeance on the wealthy British family he holds responsible for his brother's death, escapes on a dark and stormy night. His intended victims are holding a party at the time of the escape. No one knows what the mental patient looks like, so each of the male guests falls under suspicion. For a while, it looks as though the butler (Halliwell Hobbes) is the murderer, but we can write him off under the category of "obvious red herring." The menace of Menace reveals himself in a finale rich with thunderclaps, lightning strokes, and hideous maniacal laughter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gertrude Michael, Paul Cavanagh, (more)
Of the two 1934 film versions of the life of Russia's Catherine the Great, Josef von Sternberg's The Scarlet Empress was the most opulent and exotic. Marlene Dietrich plays the German-born Catherine, who is required to marry Russia's mad Grand Duke Peter (Sam Jaffe, decked out in a Harpo Marx wig). As if her joke of a marriage isn't torment enough, Catherine must endure the excesses of her new mother-in-law, Empress Elizabeth (Louise Dresser). Eventually, Catherine finds solace -- and romance -- in the form of Count Alexei (John Lodge). But even this balm is denied her when the ambitious Alexei begins wooing the much-older Elizabeth. When the old Empress dies, Catherine ascends to the Russian throne, knowing full well that her addled husband would kill her at the slightest provocation. Soon her power outstrips Peter's, and the opportunistic Alexei now comes back into her life. The finale finds Catherine emerging triumphant over all her enemies -- and, in the film's least subtle sequence (which is saying a lot!), the new Empress is shown astride a horse, to whom she displays far more affection than any of her human compatriots. The Scarlet Empress has even less to do with accuracy than Paul Czinner's Catherine the Great of the same year, which starred Elizabeth Bergner. Watch for Dietrich's real-life daughter Maria Sieber (aka Maria Riva) as the 7-year-old Catherine in the early scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marlene Dietrich, John Lodge, (more)
- 1933
On the eve of her marriage to Cary Grant, socialite Nancy Carroll is visited by her sadistic ex-lover Louis Calhern, who threatens to have his gangster pal Jack LaRue rub out Grant if Carroll doesn't give up her marriage plans. She responds by killing Calhern with a piece of statuary; a sympathetic housekeeper helps Carroll hide all evidence of the crime, but LaRue, whom Calhern had telephoned just before the killing, has heard all. While on her honeymoon ocean voyage with Grant, Carroll is accosted by John Halliday, a friend of Calhern's who suspect her of being responsible for Calhern's death. Halliday's cat-and-mouse game comes to an ugly head during a mock trial held by the partying passengers. Carroll confesses, but the passengers think she's just playacting. Later on, Grant is informed that Carroll's confession was for real. The couple are met at dockside by Halliday, who has produced LaRue as a witness to the crime. Grant strongarms LaRue into changing his testimony; with no evidence, the DA is compelled to free Carroll. Had this labyrinthine melodrama been made after the Production Code went into effect, not only would Nancy Carroll have paid for her crime, but Cary Grant would also have spent a few years in stir for witness tampering. A Woman Accused is based on one of those "committee" literary works (a la The President's Mystery and Naked Came the Stranger) wherein each chapter is written independently by a different author. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nancy Carroll, Cary Grant, (more)
- 1933
Insanely jealous of his wife, wealthy zoologist Lionel Atwill uses his knowledge of animals to dispose of any would-be rivals. Atwill brings his latest collection of wild animals to a major metropolitan zoo. Here he continues his homicidal ways, dispatching his wife's lover (John Lodge) with the severed head of a poisonous snake. When his wife (Kathleen Burke) gathers up enough evidence to go to the police, Atwill unceremoniously dumps her in the zoo's alligator pit. A young animal specialist (Randolph Scott) and the zoo owner's daughter (Gail Patrick) suspect foul play and get the goods on the villain. Attempting to escape, Atwill accidentally locks himself in the python cage, and.....Despite the drunken comedy relief of Charlie Ruggles, Murders in the Zoo is a genuine spine-tingler, from its first scene--in which Atwill sews a man's lips shut and leaves him to be devoured by jungle wildlife--to the last. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlie Ruggles, Lionel Atwill, (more)
George Cukor directed this classic adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's sentimental novel with a shimmering lavishness that is a prime example of the classic Hollywood style at its best. The story concerns the lives of four New England sisters -- Jo (Katharine Hepburn), Amy (Joan Bennett), Meg (Frances Dee), and Beth (Jean Parker) -- during the time of the Civil War. Jo desires to leave home to become a writer, but decides to stay to help the family. But Meg announces her plans to get married, so Jo leaves for New York City. As she settles down to a writing career, she meets Professor Fritz Bhaer (Paul Lukas), who helps her with her work. While Jo is away, Amy falls in love and marries Jo's old flame Laurie Laurence (Douglass Montgomery). But Jo is forced to return to New England when she discovers Beth is dying. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, (more)
- 1933
This western is an adaptation of a Zane Grey novel and chronicles the exploits of a simple-minded cowpoke who proves his mettle and wins the heart of his employer's daughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
