Spencer Charters Movies

Sonja Henie, the Norwegian skating star, reportedly played second fiddle to no one at Fox in the late '30s, and this backstage musical extravaganza is all Henie. Taking a leaf from producer David O. Selznick, Consolidated Pictures send public relation expert Tyrone Power in search of an unknown to star in the studio's upcoming production of Girl of the North. Power returns to Hollywood with Minnesota schoolmarm (and figure skating expert) Trudy Hovland in tow, and then manufactures a romance between the girl and stolid leading man Roger Maxwell (Rudy Vallee). The ensuing complications are quickly solved and the new star is able to perform a flashy finale to Irving Berlin's "The Song of the Metronome." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Dorothy Lamour had been playing "sarong girls" long enough to parody her screen character in 1939's Best of the Blues. Tired of portraying jungle princesses, a temperamental Broadway star (Lamour) runs out on her manager (Jerome Cowan) and joins a Mississippi showboat under a phony name. Incredibly, none of the showboat audiences recognize this supposedly world-famous star, and she becomes the toast of the South--as well as the object of boat owner Lloyd Nolan's affections. When the truth comes out, Nolan spurns Lamour, but they're back together for the musical finale. Best of the Blues is the television title for St. Louis Blues; the change was made to avoid confusion with the 1958 biopic of W.C. Handy, also titled St. Louis Blues. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Cagney stars in the humorous Western The Oklahoma Kid, set during the land rush of 1893. John Kincaid (Hugh Sothern) and his son, Ned (Harvey Stephens), try to settle on a plot of land, but they are met by the villainous Whip McCord (Humphrey Bogart) and his band of miscreants. McCord runs a saloon and ends up turning the town of Tulsa into a haven of gambling and drinking. Wanting to clean up the town, John runs for mayor and Ned runs for sheriff. McCord doesn't want to lose his power, so he has John framed, jailed, and eventually lynched. Soon, Jim Kincaid (James Cagney) shows up in town and joins his brother Ned in seeking revenge for his father's murder. They stage a big shoot-out in McCord's saloon in order to bring him to justice. Also starring Rosemary Lane as Ned's girlfriend Jane, the daughter of the good Judge Hardwick (Donald Crisp). This movie features James Cagney singing the tunes "Rockabye Baby" and "I Don't Want to Play in Your Yard." ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

In this offbeat western, a cowboy heads into the genteel East to fulfill his dream of becoming a polo player. While there, he begins managing a posh Long Island estate. The trouble begins when he falls in love with a beautiful heiress who also loves the game. Unfortunately, the cowboy's debut day is a bust and he is so humiliated that he joins a traveling Wild West show. There he indulges his obsession with polo by getting the cowboys and Indians to stage matches. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a vengeful woman searches for the man she blames for her sister's suicide. To get at him, the woman masquerades as a mousy maid in the tiny hotel where he stays. The story is set in Gallacia during WW I and while she enacts her plan, the Russians and Austrians take over the town. This does not stop her from getting revenge. This is a remake of a 1927 film of the same title. In Hollywood it has the legend of being a cursed production in that it suffered endless production problems and major changes in cast and crew. Originally Marlene Dietrich was to play the title role, but she and director Henry Hathaway were constantly at loggerheads. With the help of Paramount head Arthur Lubitsch, she got Hathaway to rewrite the script with Grover Jones. The new story was called I Loved a Soldier and things resumed. Unfortunately, Lubitsch had been fired and Dietrich, still miserable, abruptly quit, costing Paramount, a fortune. All production ceased, but later they resurrected the original script and tried again to make the film with Margaret Sullavan. Unfortunately, Sullavan and a co-star were horsing around one day on the set and she ended up with a broken arm. The studio heads demanded she perform the role in a sling. This was too much for Hathaway who immediately quit. Soon after, Dietrich returned with her long-time director Josef von Sternberg and said she was now willing to make Hotel Imperial. The studio heads refused and eventually the lead was given to Italian actress Isa Mira. A major sex symbol in Italy, she made this her U.S. debut. Unfortunately, she spoke little English and was forced to recite her lines phonetically. Meanwhile her co-star Ray Milland nearly died during a scene in which he had to lead a cavalry charge. During the run, he was thrown off his horse and tossed head first into a brick pile. Fortunately he only suffered a concussion. Later Hotel Imperial was remade as Five Graves to Cairo Sometimes, as in this case, the history behind the film is more interesting than the film itself, no? ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a young woman is determined to spend a weekend with her lover before he takes off to Europe for his new job. Her mother, a devout feminist, disapproves of her daughter's plan. When her daughter learns that her mother had a similar youthful affair with a poet years before, she uses that to convince her mother to change her mind. The two spend their weekend, but nothing much happens until they return to find her family is in an uproar. The girl then heeds her grandmother's advice and travels with her lover across the Atlantic. While aboard the ship, the two get married. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Based on Memory of Love, a novel by Bessie Breuer, In Name Only is soap opera par excellence, blessed with a peerless cast. Carole Lombard plays widow Julie Eden, who meets and falls in love with unhappily married Alec Walker (Cary Grant). Having married Alec solely for his wealth and family prestige, his manipulative wife, Maida (Kay Francis), has managed to convince everyone -- even Alec's parents -- that she is the victimized one and that Alec is an irresponsible philanderer. Making matters worse, Maida refuses to give Alec a divorce so that he can find happiness in the arms of the sweet, unassuming Julie. Almost miraculously, Maida agrees to let Alec go, only to capriciously renege at the last minute and sue Julie for alienation of affections. Disconsolately, Alec goes on a bender, falling asleep in front of an open window and contracting pneumonia. As Alec lays seriously ill in a hospital bed, Julie tearfully agrees to give him up if only Maida will try to make him happy. But Maida isn't about to give up this moment of triumph, cheerfully bragging about her underhanded methods and her intention to take Alec for every penny that he has. Without giving away the outcome, it can be noted that, figuratively speaking, loose lips sink ships. Though In Name Only could have been a wallow in bathos, the performances by the stars -- and the knowing direction of John Cromwell -- elevate the production to the level of "romance classic." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this cautionary tale from the late 1930s, a woman surgeon must rush to the hospital on her wedding anniversary to save a life. Her husband is quite upset and goes off to a party hosted by a seductive woman. He finds himself attracted to her and as his wife becomes increasingly involved in her career he succumbs to temptation. He then files for divorce. Not wanting to lose her family, the doctor abandons her career and begins working to reassemble her family. Their renewed bond is cemented when her daughter falls off a horse and is critically injured. While her husband flies their plane to a hospital, the doctor performs surgery upon her daughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Few will argue with the contention that RKO Radio's 1939 adaptation of Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame was the best of the many screen versions of the Hugo classic. We say this even allowing for certain liberties taken with the source material-liberties calculated by scenarists Sonya Levien and Bruno Frank to draw parallels between 15th century Paris and 20th century Europe. Thus, Claude Frollo (Cedric Hardwicke), the villain of the piece, is no longer merely a religious hypocrite unable to control his own carnal desires. Instead, Frollo is a bush-league Hitler, warning that the invention of the printing press is dangerous in that it will encourage the rabble to think for themselves, and plotting the persecution and destruction of the "undesirable" gypsies. In the same vein, Gringoire the Poet (Edmond O'Brien in his film debut) has been transformed into an agit-prop "Group Theatre" activist, bent on bringing the unvarnished truth to the ignorant Parisians. Many of Hugo's subplots have been dispensed with, the better to concentrate on the grotesquely deformed Quasimodo (Charles Laughton), bell-ringer of Notre Dame Cathedral, and his puppylike loyalty towards imperiled gypsy dancer Esmerelda (Maureen O'Hara, in her first American film appearance). The schism between the haves and have-nots in the walled city of Paris is illustrated in broad, visually dynamic strokes by director William Dieterle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Ford's fine direction distinguishes this highly fictionalized account of the early life of Abraham Lincoln. The film shows Lincoln (Henry Fonda) as he rises from a country boy born in a log cabin to a lawyer in Springfield, Illinois defending two young men unjustly accused of murder. The film, produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, received an Academy Award nomination for "Best Original Screenplay" for its screenwriter Lamar Trotti. Henry Fonda perhaps the most American of actors, is at his best playing Lincoln as the quintessential, compassionate American hero. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

In this lively musical western, a cowboy's wife heads for Reno for a quickie divorce. Meanwhile her husband finds himself in competition with a suave Easterner who has fallen in love with her. The cowboy is dismayed and embarrassed when the city-slicker easily out rides him during a bronc-riding exhibition. Fortunately, for the red-faced cowboy, his wife comes back and happiness ensues. Songs include: a snippet from "La Boheme", "I Gave My Heart Away", "Ridin' Home" and "Tonight Is The Night" (Jimmy McHugh, Harold Adamson). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The financial exploitation of Canada's Dionne Quintuplets rolled ever forward with 20th Century-Fox's Five of a Kind, the third Dionne feature-length vehicle. Under the watchful eye of kindly obstetrican Dr. Dafoe (Jean Hersholt), the lovable quints, now 4 1/2 years old, play with their pets and toys, and even sing and dance. Meanwhile, reporter Christine Nelson (Claire Trevor) and radio commentator Duke Lester (Cesar Romero) battle over the exclusive rights to the Dionne girls' life story. The story ends with an experimental television broadcast, a rarity for a 1938 film. Knowing what we know now about the Dionne Quintuplets' far from happy home lives and difficult transitions to adulthood, it is hard to watch Five of a Kind objectively today. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Stablemates is a typically treacly vehicle for Wallace Beery, who goes through his usual slobbery paces as an eternally inebriated ex-veterinarian named Tom Terry. Aspiring jockey Mickey (Mickey Rooney) idolizes Tom, who reciprocates by passing along horsemanship advice to the boy. The film's dramatic high point is the scene in which Tom, his judgement benumbed by years of alcohol abuse, tries to pull himself long enough to perform a delicate operation on Mickey's beloved horse Lady-Q. It goes without saying perhaps that the film culminates in the standard Big Race, with Mickey and Tom pinning their hopes on the obligatory "long shot." Just as Mickey Rooney has replaced Jackie Cooper as Beery's juvenile costar in Stablemates, so too has Margaret Hamilton supplanted the late Marie Dressler as Beery's romantic sparring partner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide