Spencer Charters Movies
Burly, puffy-cheeked American actor Spencer Charters entered films in 1923, after decades of stage experience. In his first talkie appearances (Whoopee [1930], The Bat Whispers [1931], etc.), Charters was often seen as an ill-tempered authority figure. Traces of this characterization continued into such mid-'30s efforts as Wheeler and Woolsey's Hips Hips Hooray, but before the decade was over Charters was firmly locked into playing such benign types as rustic sheriffs, bucolic hotel clerks and half-asleep justices of the peace. Advancing age and the attendant infirmities made it difficult for Charters to play anything other than one-scene bits by the early '40s. At the age of 68, he ended his life by downing an overdose of sleeping pills and then inhaling the exhaust fumes of his car. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1932
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
- 1932
George S. Kaufman's sturdy stage comedy The Butter and Egg Man was the inspiration for no fewer than four Warner Bros. talkie versions. The first of these was The Tenderfoot, starring Joe E. Brown as a wealthy but naive cowboy alone in the Big Apple. The producers of a down-and-out musical revue hope to convince Brown to put his money in their show, sending out cute chorine Ginger Rogers as the "convincer." After having his heart broken a few times and tangling with gangsters, Joe comes through and the show goes on. Warners followed The Tenderfoot with a 1937 musicalization of Butter and Egg Man, Dance Charlie Dance; this in turn was remade as An Angel From Texas in 1942. The final variation on this theme (so far!) was Three Sailors and a Girl (53). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe E. Brown, Ginger Rogers, (more)
- 1932
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
- Starring:
- Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, (more)
- 1932
This imitation-Lubitsch romantic comedy stars William Powell as an elegant jewel thief plying his trade in Vienna. Powell's latest victim is bored baroness Kay Francis, who is much taken by the gentleman crook's handsomeness and poise. Since Francis is casting about for a new lover and newer thrills, Powell meets her qualifications, criminal or no. But the lady's husband (Henry Kolker) is not so easily charmed, and he sets about to bring Powell to justice. Jewel Robbery was based on a play by Ladislas Fodor, previously filmed in an Austrian version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Powell, Kay Francis, (more)
- 1932
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
- Starring:
- Joan Blondell, Warren William, (more)
The "Crooked Circle" gang consists of a dozen or so hooded villains, all of whom have sworn revenge on the Sphinx Club, a dedicated anti-criminal organization. It's difficult to differentiate the heroes and the villains without a score card: sinister swami Yoganda (C. Henry Gordon), for example, turns out to be an operative for the secret service. The story comes to a head in a supposedly haunted house, where hero Brand Osborne (Ben Lyon) and heroine Thelma (Irene Purcell) try to make sense of things before ending up victims of the Crooked Circle. Rather top-heavy with comedy relief, the film features ZaSu Pitts and James Gleason during their usual ZaSu Pitts and James Gleason imitations. The Crooked Circle was written by Ralph H. Spence, who borrows heavily from his own stage comedy-melodrama The Gorilla. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Lyon, ZaSu Pitts, (more)
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
- Starring:
- Adolphe Menjou, Pat O'Brien, (more)
- 1931
Any movie that teams Robert Armstrong with Jean Arthur is certainly worth at least one look. Armstrong plays Chester Binney, a small-town rube who hopes to impress local beauty Ethel Simmons (Arthur). Aware that Ethel is ga-ga about "men of the world," Chester invents a shady past for himself and poses as a citified roue. He is forced to prove the veracity of his fabricated past when movie queen Letta Lardo (Lola Lane) shows up in town for a location shoot. Our hero is rescued from making a total fool of himself when it turns out that his rival (Jason Robards Sr.) for Ethel's affections turns out to be an even bigger phoney-baloney than he is. Ex-Bad Boy is based on John Emerson and Anita Loos' stage play The Whole Town's Talking (which ironically served as the title for an unrelated 1935 film, likewise co-starring Jean Arthur). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Armstrong, Jean Arthur, (more)
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
- Starring:
- Edward Everett Horton, Esther Ralston, (more)
- 1931
Eddie Cantor plays Eddie Simpson, a shy and jumpy young fellow who spontaneously bursts into song whenever he gets nervous. He works with the sly Yolando, a phony but successful psychic. The trouble in this lively musical farce begins when Yolando attempts to swindle the owner of the local bakery. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Cantor, Charlotte Greenwood, (more)
- 1931
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
- Starring:
- Evelyn Brent, Frank Albertson, (more)
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
- Starring:
- Spencer Charters, Chester Morris, (more)
- 1930
Adapted from Owen Davis's stage comedy The Nervous Wreck (itself filmed in 1927), Flo Ziegfeld's musical spectacular Whoopee! was one of the solid hits of the 1928-29 Broadway season, thanks largely to the irrepressible Eddie Cantor. The property was transferred to film virtually intact in 1930, again produced by Ziegfeld (in collaboration with Sam Goldwyn) and again starring Cantor. The star plays Henry Williams, a wide-eyed hypochondriac who heads to a western resort town in the company of his long-suffering nurse Mary Custer (Ethel Shutta). Meanwhile, Wanenie (Paul Gregory), the son of an Indian chief, pines away out of love for white heiress Sally Morgan (Eleanor Hunt), who has been forbidden to marry Wanenie because of their racial differences. One of the most unsympathetic heroines in screen history, Sally coerces Henry into helping her elope then allows the poor boob to be accused of kidnapping. All sorts of zany complications ensue, not least of which is the side-splitting scene in which Henry, disguised as an Indian, adopts a thick Jewish accent while trying to sell a rug to a tourist. The Sally/Wanenie dilemma ends happily when the young man turns out not to be Indian after all, while Henry, cured of his ills by all the excitement, marries nurse Marie. The "Ziegfeld Touch" is most obvious in the final reels, when the story stops dead in its tracks to offer a long, drawn-out parade of "Glorified" Follies girls wearing enormous headdresses and precious little else. But the film's highlight is Eddie Cantor's sly, insinuating rendition of the title song, in which he details in humorous fashion the pitfalls of "makin' whoopee" with the wrong girl. Featured among the Goldwyn Girls are such future stars as Claire Dodd, Virginia Bruce, and 14-year-old Betty Grable, who energetically performs the very first chorus of the very first song in the film. Lensed in eye-pleasing early Technicolor, Whoopee was a success, launching a long and fruitful cinematic collaboration between Eddie Cantor and Sam Goldwyn. It was remade by Goldwyn in 1944 as Up in Arms, a showcase for the producer's "new Cantor" Danny Kaye. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Cantor, Eleanor Hunt, (more)
- 1926
Believe it or not, Betty Bronson, who starred in the title role of Peter Pan, was the first choice to play jazz baby Kittens Westcourt, the part which eventually went to Clara Bow. Kittens was the second lead, but Bow turned her into a sympathetic character and stole the show from the film's star, Alice Joyce. This society drama, based on the Broadway hit by Edgar Selwyn, probably wouldn't have been much without Bow and Joyce, but they raised it above soap opera level and helped make it one of the defining films of the 1920s. Ethel Westcourt (Joyce) is a very nice, still-lovely society matron whose womanizing husband, Hugh (Norman Trevor), is keeping a mistress, Irma (Elsie Lawson). Ethel's daughter, Kittens (Bow), takes after her father and begins carrying on with Jerry Naughton (Conway Tearle), a man about town. Ethel finds out about all this and decides to fight fire with fire. She becomes a bit jazzy herself and steals Naughton away from her daughter. The family has an emotional confrontation in Naughton's apartments. Although Hugh and Kittens eventually decide to reconcile with Ethel, she takes off for Europe and leaves them behind -- quite an independent way for a female character to end a film in 1926. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alice Joyce, Conway Tearle, (more)
- 1924
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
- Starring:
- Marion Davies, Harrison Ford, (more)
- 1923
This charming and expensively made historical romance was one of Marion Davies' best films. She spends much of the picture disguised as a boy, something she also did effectively in several other films. A young Irish lad, Patrick O'Day (Stephen Carr), inherits a fortune, providing he travels to New York to claim it within a certain period of time. His father, John (J.M. Kerrigan), manages to scrape together the money to send himself, his son, and daughter, Patricia (Davies), across the Atlantic. But the boy is sick and dies en route to New York. In order to get the money, John convinces Patricia to disguise herself as her brother. They arrive just in time to claim the inheritance, which frustrates cousin Larry Delevan (Harrison Ford), who would have received it had Pat not shown up. Although Delevan is not thrilled with his cousin's arrival, they become fast friends anyhow, and he never suspects that Pat is really a girl. Delevan wants to invest in Robert Fulton's steamship, the Clermont, and Pat loans him the money. But Delevan then wagers on a fight between Bully Boy Brewster (Harry Watson) and the Hoboken Terror (Louis Wolheim). The match is an uneven one and it looks like Delevan will lose all his money, so Pat rings a false alarm to break up the fight. When her deed is discovered, the mob drags her out to be whipped. She takes it for a few lashes before revealing that she's really a girl. Delevan falls in love with her and they marry. Contrary to popular belief, many of Marion Davies' films made money, and Little Old New York was one of them. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marion Davies
- 1920
Number 17 is one of those "Tong War" melodramas which proliferated in the 1920s. George Walsh (brother of director Raoul Walsh) stars as a crusading reporter, assigned the Chinatown beat. Leading lady Mildred Reardon is the daughter of Charles Mussett, who has the bad manners to antagonize several venerable Chinese families. When the minions of these families threaten to kill Mildred in retribution, Walsh comes to the rescue. Extremely racist by today's standards, Number 17 is redeemed by its well-staged action sequences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1920
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
