Spencer Charters Movies

April Poole (Marion Davies) is a prominent magazine writer. She tells her publisher, Kerry Sarle (Conway Tearle) and editor, Ronald Kenna (Herbert Frank) that she has put them in her latest story, which unfolds as follows: April disguises herself as Lady Diana Mannister, so that the real Lady Diana (Madeline Marshall) can get married. April, meanwhile, sails to South Africa with a very large, very valuable diamond. During her journey, she meets a handsome young businessman, Sarle, while Kenna, a jewel thief, tries to get his hands on the diamond. April locks herself inside a trunk which is delivered to her aunt's in South Africa. Kenna has followed it, believing it contains the diamond, but when he opens it, he finds April confronting him with a revolver. She turns the crook in, while winning the love of Sarle -- both in her story and in real life. Not surprisingly, this picture was based on a serial (written by Cynthia Stockley) that ran in Cosmopolitan magazine -- one of the publications belonging to Marion Davies' paramour and producer, William Randolph Hearst. The relationship between Davies and Hearst was one of the '20s worst-kept secrets -- in its advice to exhibitors, trade magazine Motion Picture News significantly notes, "In advertising this picture you have the cooperation of the Hearst publications, so a good deal of your work is already accomplished." ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Newspaper magnate and movie producer William Randolph Hearst created this massive epic about the American Revolution to showcase the talents of his mistress Marion Davies. The results were far better than anyone could have imagined, given these circumstances; both film content and Marion were artistic successes. The story literally covers the whole Revolution and has Davies' character, Janice Meredith, playing a key part -- in Hearst's world, Marion/Janice is the one ultimately responsible for sending Paul Revere on his famous ride! However, America's fight for freedom (including the Boston tea party, Valley Forge, etc.) shares space with the picture's love story: Janice, who comes from a family of wealthy Tory sympathizers is in love with a servant named Charles Fownes (Harrison Ford). Fownes, of course, is a rebel and joins George Washington's (Joseph Kilgour) staff. Their love survives through many political and war intrigues until the day Fownes insists that Janice cut ties with all British associates, including her father (Maclyn Arbuckle). She refuses and goes home to marry Philemon Hennion (Olin Howland), but Fownes leads a rebel raid that thwarts the wedding. The Meredith lands are taken by the rebels and Hennion is arrested for his work with the British. Finally, as the Revolution nears its triumphant end, Janice and Fownes wind up together. W.C. Fields, as a British sergeant, provides a small bit of comic relief from all this drama. While Janice Meredith received honestly enthusiastic reviews (not just from the Hearst papers), its negative cost of nearly a million dollars -- a fortune in those days -- prohibited it from making a profit. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Magnificently restored by UCLA to its original "Grandeur" wide-screen format The Bat Whispers may not be a cinematic masterpiece but is certainly worth a second look. Opening with a series of flamboyant tracking shots, director Roland West soon enough settles down to the usual "Old House" shenanigans of sliding panels, mysterious bumps in the night, crawling hands, thunder and lightning (sounding more like an earthquake, incidentally, than a storm), etc. An official remake of the 1926 The Bat (which was itself based on an Avery Hopwood play), The Bat Whispers owed just as much to The Cat and the Canary (1927), the true grand-daddy of all haunted house mysteries. After taunting the New York City police a final time, the notorious criminal "The Bat" announces his retirement to the country. Meanwhile, in said country wealthy spinster Cornelia Van Gorder (Grayce Hampton is leasing the Courtleigh Fleming estate. The news of "The Bat" and the simultaneous disappearance of cashier Brooks Bailey (William Bakewell) shortly after a robbery at the Fleming bank set in motion a series of troubling events -- troubling especially for Miss Van Gorder's eternally frightened maid Lizzie (Maude Eburne). The missing Brooks Bailey shows up soon enough courtesy of Van Gorder's pretty niece Dale (Una Merkel), who persuades the young man to impersonate a gardener -- a disguise that fools no one. There is a mysterious doctor who speaks with an accent (Gustav von Seyffertitz); an equally alarming caretaker (Spencer Charters),; a piece of missing blueprint that leads to a secret room; and, of course, "The Bat," who appears to be prowling the estate as well. Enter into all this Detective Anderson (Chester Morris), who in his unique gritty way gets to the bottom of things. The "Grandeur" wide-screen format was lost on most movie-goers when the film premiered in late November of 1930. Exhibitors who had just spent fortunes rigging their theaters for sound were of course loath to spend even more on yet another "newfangled" invention. Of course, some of cinematographer Robert H. Planck's more breathtaking shots of "The Bat" climbing towering skyscrapers were lost in the standard 35mm prints. But cartoonist Bob Kane reportedly had this film in mind when he nine years later created his eternally popular comic-strip hero Batman. A sadly neglected craftsman, Roland West directed only 11 films before he retired at the age of 44. West (who also directed the 1926 The Bat co-starring his then-wife Jewel Carmen as the imperiled niece) left films to run a Santa Monica café with girlfriend Thelma Todd. He was questioned by the authorities but was apparently never a suspect in Todd's mysterious death in December of 1935. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

This first of four film versions of the Ben Hecht/Charlrd MacArthur Broadway hit stars Adolphe Menjou as explosive Chicago newspaper-editor Walter Burns and Pat O'Brien as his star reporter Hildy Johnson. Hildy is on the verge of getting married and retiring from Burns' dirty little tabloid, but he agrees to cover one last story: the politically motivated execution of convicted cop killer Earl Williams (George E. Stone). Thanks to the stupidity of the police, Williams manages to escape, and Johnson hides the wounded fugitive in a rolltop desk in the prison pressroom. Burns enters the scene, senses a swell story (and also a means of keeping Johnson on his payroll), and conspires with Johnson to keep Williams out of sight until they can secure an exclusive interview. Burns will do anything to keep Johnson on the scene, including having the reporter's future mother-in-law kidnapped. Complicating matters are Johnson's fiancée Peggy (Mary Brian), Williams' girlfriend Molly Malloy (Mae Clarke), and the corrupt mayor (James Gordon) and sheriff (Clarence C. Wilson), who have railroaded Williams to the death house in order to win votes and are now trying to suppress the news that the governor has commuted Williams' sentence. The Front Page was remade by Howard Hawks in 1939 as His Girl Friday, with the symbiotic relationship between Burns and Johnson changed to a sexual one by transforming Hildy Johnson into a woman (played by Rosalind Russell) with Cary Grant as her old flame Walter. It was again remade by Billy Wilder in 1974 with Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Carol Burnett, and a young Susan Sarandon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Five characters find themselves playing a lively game of musical beds in this saucy pre-Code comedy. Richard (Edward Everett Horton) is a well-known lawyer who has a rather surprising reputation as a ladykiller. Felix (also played by Horton) is a nightclub impressionist who wants Richard's permission to spoof him in his stage act. Richard tells Felix he'll grant his approval only if he can convince Mrs. Mantel (Maude Eburne) that's he's actually Richard. As Felix sets out to pull the wool over Mrs. Mantel's eyes, Richard is advising Diane (Laura La Plante), one of his clients with whom he's infatuated, that she should file divorce papers against her husband, unaware that said spouse is actually Felix. Meanwhile, while Felix is trying to fool Mrs. Mantel, Richard's wife, Madeline (Esther Ralston), shows up, and she has no trouble at all believing that Felix is her husband -- so much so that Felix ends up in bed with Madeline. Lonely Wives also stars Patsy Ruth Miller and Georgette Rhodes. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The peripatetic spouses referred to in the title are all travelling salesmen, scooting to and from their wives via train. In Detroit on business, young unmarried salesman Barry (Frank Albertson) finds himself at a wild party where his fellow drummers, husbands all, are being entertained by a bevy of call-girls. One of these cuties is Ruby (Evelyn Brent), who ends up shooting libidinous salesman Ben (Carl Miller). For a while, it looks as though the cops are going to pin the shooting on Barry, but Ruby confesses at the last moment; meanwhile, Ben recovers from his wound, but may not be able to patch up his marriage when his wife shows up unexpectedly at the scene of the crime. Some much-needed laughs are provided by Hugh Herbert, dropping his usual "woo woo" gestures in favor of a philosophical Jewish characterization. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Inspired in part by the sensational Snyder-Gray murder case (which was also the source of The Postman Always Rings Twice), The Famous Ferguson Case casts an unflattering light on the journalist "feeding frenzy" attending such crimes. A wealthy banker named Ferguson is found murdered, and his bound-and-gagged wife (Vivienne Osborne) is rescued by the police. It appears at first that the murderer was an unknown burglar, but the cops think otherwise, hypothesizing that Mrs. Ferguson actually conspired with her lover Judd Brooks (Leon Waycoff, aka Leon Ames) to murder her husband. The small town where the murder occurred suddenly becomes the center of a media circus, with reporters from all over the country grasping and clawing for a "hot scoop." At first, hard-boiled girl reporter Maizie Dickson (Joan Blondell) is no better than the rest of the journalist jackals, but she soon becomes disillusioned at the manner in which the truth has been crushed to earth by her insensitive brethren. She also has her heart broken when her husband, likewise a reporter, uses his assignment as an excuse to sleep around. The relentless media blitz eventually drives Mrs. Ferguson (whose guilt or innocence is never completely established) to kill herself and also ruins the lives of everyone around her. Once considered a relic of its period, The Famous Ferguson Case grows more timely with each passing year. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Two small-town youths head for the Big Apple and somehow get mixed up with mobsters during a visit to the title park in this episodic comedy drama filmed on location. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The most intriguing aspect of the 1932 Bert Wheeler-Robert Woolsey romp Hold 'Em Jail was that it was co-scripted by legendary humorist and frequent Marx Bros. contributor S. J. Perelman. The film bears a slight resemblance to the like-vintage Marx/Perelman collaboration Horse Feathers, in that both pictures are climaxed by a zany football game sequence. But while Horse Feathers is set at a college, Hold 'Em Jail takes place behind the cold gray walls of Bidemore Prison. Edgar Kennedy, Bidemore's warden, is all geared up for an impending all-prisoner football game; alas, his team is woefully short of talent. Kennedy puts out a call to Bidemore's "alumni," one of whom is nightclub-owner John Sheehan. When novelty salesmen Wheeler and Woolsey show up at Sheehan's club, the owner frames the two goofs on a robbery charge so that they'll be carted off to Bidemore and recruited for the football team. W&W make themselves at home in jail, securing jobs as trustees so that Wheeler can romance Kennedy's pretty daughter Betty Grable (who was 16 at the time, and looks it), while Woolsey pitches woo at Kennedy's homely sister Edna May Oliver (explaining that she's spent four years studying music in Paris, Edna confesses "I'm not a virtuoso." "Not after four years in Paris" is Woolsey's response). During the climactic gridiron activity, Wheeler and Woolsey spot the duplicitous John Sheehan on the other team, and struggle manfully to get him to sign a confession that will exonerate them. When originally previewed, Hold 'Em Jail was a musical comedy running 74 minutes; audiences laughed at the comedy scenes but groaned at the songs, whereupon the film was pared down to a 66-minute non-musical. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Three on a Match covers approximately 13 years in the lives of girlhood chums Mary Keaton (Joan Blondell), Ruth Wescott (Bette Davis) and Vivian Deverse (Ann Dvorak). Having graduated from grammar school together in 1919, the girls stage a reunion ten years later. Hard-boiled Mary is now a chorus girl, level-headed Ruth has a steady job as a secretary, and vixenish Vivian is on the verge of capriciously deserting her wealthy husband Robert Kirkwood (Warren William) and their baby in favor of sexy mob-boss Mike (Lyle Talbot). Several more years pass, during which Mary marries Henry, Ruth is hired as governess for Henry, and Vivian's son and a drug-addicted Vivian become fatally enmeshed in a kidnapping plot involving her own child. In his second Warner Bros. film, tenth-billed Humphrey Bogart essays his first sneering-gangster role. Three on a Match was remade (and considerably laundered) in 1938 as Broadway Musketeers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Broadway Bad stars Joan Blondell as a wisecracking but goodhearted chorus girl whose husband (Ricardo Cortez) is an abusive lout. Blondell's plight makes the headlines, which results in an upswing in her career. Rather than wallow in self-pity, she trades on the publicity to become a star, while hubby mutters dark promises of revenge. This film was based on the real-life relationship between Broadway star Hal Skelly and a promiscuous young actress who assumed several professional names. Though its cast and subject matter might suggest that Broadway Bad is a Warner Bros. epic, the picture was actually produced and released by Fox Studios. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Often (and accurately) described as a model of the whodunit genre, The Kennel Murder Case stars William Powell, making his fourth screen appearance as S. S. Van Dine's dilettante detective Philo Vance. This time the story involves intrigue at the Long Island kennel club. The murder victim is Robert H. Barrat, who works overtime making himself a much-hated target in the first ten minutes. With the aid of a Doberman, Vance solves not only Barrat's murder but a follow-up killing designed to deflect attention from the killer. The suspects include Mary Astor, Ralph Morgan, Jack LaRue, Helen Vinson, Paul Cavanaugh and Arthur Hohl, all of whom have "done it" from time to time in other murder mysteries (movie buffs, however, will have little trouble spotting the killer; the person in question has probably been the hidden murderer in more films than any other member of the Screen Actor's Guild). Kennel Murder Case was William Powell's last "Philo Vance" film; it would be remade in 1940 as Calling Philo Vance, with James Stephenson as Vance and a new World War II angle added to the plot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide