William Collier, Jr.

Preston S. Foster is the "hero" of The People's Enemy only in the sense that his is the largest male role. Foster plays a detestable gangster who works his way up to millionaire status. To gain a veneer of respectability, he marries lovely Lila Lee. But when the going gets rough, he deserts both his wife and his young daughter (Sybil Elaine). Upon Foster's arrest, noble and upright Melvyn Douglas is on hand to comfort Lee and her child. The People's Enemy was independently financed by Select Productions and released through RKO Radio Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Wisecracking Public Stenographer Ann McNair (Lola Lane) spends most of her time fending off the Roamin' Fingers and Rushin' Hands of her employers. En route to another job, Ann's car stalls on a lonely stretch of road. She is rescued by handsome Jim Martin (William Collier Jr.), who at first behaves as boorishly as all the other men in Ann's life. Eventually, however, Jim falls genuinely in love with Ann, permitting her at long last to drop her hard-boiled veneer. Esther Muir, best remembered as the "wallpapered woman" in the Marx Bros.' A Day at the Races, steals the show as the heroine's best pal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

William Faulkner's bestseller Sanctuary was so taboo in some circles that Hollywood couldn't even use the title when making the first film version. Thus, Paramount's adaptation of Sanctuary went out as The Story of Temple Drake, fooling no one who could read. Miriam Hopkins plays the title role, the promiscuous daughter of a Southern judge. Temple will do anything for a thrill, which plays right into the hands of a gang of kidnappers. Coerced into a pickup date at a roadhouse, Temple is held for ransom by the lascivious Trigger (Jack LaRue) and his mob. She is raped by Trigger, whereupon she kills him. One of Trigger's earlier murders is pinned on a hapless half-wit (Irving Pichel). Called to testify in the murder trial by her former boyfriend (William Gargan), the prosecuting attorney, Temple not only confesses to Trigger's killing, but proclaims to one and all that she secretly enjoyed the rape. Even though this hot material was considerably toned down from the novel (where the villain raped Temple with a corncob!), The Story of Temple Drake was one of many films responsible for incurring the wrath of the "clean up Hollywood" brigades--resulting in the restrictive Production Code of 1934. Sanctuary was remade under its original title in 1961. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

On something of a "literary binge" in the early 1930s, low-budget Monogram Pictures acquired the screen rights for the well-known Gaborieu detective yarn File 113. Lew Cody stars as urbane Parisian detective Le Coq, who must contend with a bank robbery and blackmail scheme. Le Coq is anxious to get both cases over with in a hurry lest his love life with Mlle. Adoree (Mary Nolan) suffer from neglect. Departing from the Gaborieu original, the film ends with an exciting chase across the roofs of Gay Paree. Clara Kimball Young, who like Lew Cody had been a silent-screen favorite, does her best in an unsympathetic role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It is all but impossible to dislike a film as gloriously corny as The Phantom Express. The title is derived from an early scene in which veteran engineer Smokey North (J. Farrell McDonald) wrecks his own train while trying to avoid a head-on collision with another. Suddenly, the other train disappears into thin air -- or at least that's Smokey's story. No one believes this incredible tale, and the old man is unceremoniously fired. For the sake of Smokey's pretty daughter (Sally Blane), the railroad-company president's son (William Collier Jr.) does some investigating of his own, ultimately uncovering a diabolically clever scheme hatched by the villains. Even those viewers who are inclined to laugh out loud at the film's ridiculous dialogue will be held in thrall by the pulse-pounding climactic train chase. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Rita La Roy has good reasons to hate her philandering husband, Hooper Atchley, in this low-budget but sumptuous-looking art deco mystery directed by comedy specialist Thornton Freeland. The cool and calculated Miss La Roy isn't the only person with a grudge against the nasty Atchley, however; in fact, quite a few people come under suspicion when the philanderer is found dying from a bullet wound in his penthouse apartment. Just before he expires, Atchley manages to gasp, "Casey," referring perhaps to Arthur Jones (William Collier Jr.), whose sister (June Clyde) was one of the evil man's latest victims. In the middle of the investigation, the murder scene is plunged into darkness, a shot is fired, and when the electricity returns, yet another victim is found, with the late Mr. Atchley's pet monkey -- the secret witness -- clutching a still smoking gun. Police Captain McGowan (Purnell Pratt) is at first dumbfounded, but with the help of dizzy neighbor Una Merkel, the identity of the murderer is finally revealed. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Sporting Chance is a prime example of how once-prominent silent screen personalities ended up grasping at straws on Poverty Row. The story is built around a championship steeplechase, on which the futures of jockey Terry Nolan (Buster Collier), his sweetheart Mary Bascombe (Claudia Dell) and his romantic rival Phillip Lawrence Jr. (James Hall) are hinged. Reportedly, this film represented the first time that a steeplechase was specially staged for the cameras, though this fact took second place in the ads to the film's theme song, Old Playmates, which is sung twice too often by Claudia Dell. Only former "Our Gang" member Eugene Jackson, cast as a stablehand, seems comfortable around his equestrian co-stars. Sporting Chance was written by King Baggott, who in better times had been an important actor/director/producer but who was largely limited to bit parts in the talkie era. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this slapstick comedy set in a posh beauty salon, the owner asks her matronly sister, a postman's wife, to come and visit. She does, and brings her lovely daughter along with her. This creates problems when the fiancé of the owner's daughter falls in love with the daughter of her sister. Fortunately, it is revealed that the man is a grade-A cad and both of the girls are saved. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Elmer Rice's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Street Scene was purchased for the screen by producer Samuel Goldwyn in 1931. The entire story takes place on the street in front of a foreboding old New York brownstone, between one evening and the next afternoon. The individual fates of eight neighboring Manhattan families intertwine during this brief stretch of time. Special emphasis is given the Maurrant family: the philandering mother (Estelle Taylor), the drink-sodden husband (David Landau) and long-suffering daughter Rose (Sylvia Sidney). When the husband catches the wife "in the act" with bill-collector Russell Hopton, the resulting tragedy is not shown, but reflecting in the wildly varying reactions of neighbors and passersby. Though resisting the temptation to "open up" the play, director King Vidor nonetheless injects his cinematic know-how into the proceedings, by utilizing an entirely different camera setup or angle for each individual "take." The cast of Street Scene includes several carry-overs from the Broadway original, including David Landau, Max Montor, Matt McHugh (brother of Frank), John Qualen, George Humbert, Tom H. Manning, and Anna Konstant (Sidebar: Shirley Kaplan, the role played by Ms. Konstant, was portrayed in the London production of Street Scene by Greer Garson). Unavailable for TV for many years due to legal tangles, Street Scene was freed up for the small screen when it lapsed into public domain in the early 1980s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this romance, an impoverished, struggling writer finally leaves his humble boarding house room after he is bequeathed a large inheritance. He becomes so wealthy, that he can help out a friend who is married to a philandering husband. To help her, he buys the castle in which she lives and wins her heart. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide