William Collier, Jr. Movies

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

When speedboat driver William Collier, Jr. declines to throw a race he gets into trouble. ~ 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

Peter Piper (Charles Farrell) and Sidney Taylor (Marian Nixon) are deeply in love, and saving to get married, but their mothers have other ideas. Mrs. Piper (Josephine Hull) is jealous of Sidney, refusing to allow the couple to move in with her after they marry. Elsie (Minna Gombell), Sidney's mother, is disgusted with her husband Willie (William Collier, Sr.) and has an affair with their border Mr. Jarvis (William Pawley); she wants Sidney to marry a rich man. When he fears his embezzlement will be found out, Jarvis persuades Elsie to leave the country with him. After they're gone, Willie finds the note Elsie left for Sidney in which she reveals she never loved him; as a result Willie has a heart attack. Peter and Sidney are forced to use their savings for his hospitalization, and then Sidney fears Peter is attracted to another woman. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide

William Collier Jr. stars as an ambulance surgeon, forced by circumstances to work for a gang of criminals. What the villains don't know is that Collier is in league with the police, informing the authorities of the crooks' every move. To rescue nurse Barbara Kent from harm, our hero is forced to admit his duplicity, very nearly buying himself and the heroine a one-way ticket to the river. Evidently the film's entire budget was expended on the climax, an exciting car chase between the criminals and the "radio patrol." Little Bobby Hutchins, best known as Wheezer in the "Our Gang" comedies, has a good supporting role. ~ Hal Erickson, 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 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

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

Cimarron was the first Western to win the Oscar for Best Picture--and, until Dances with Wolves in 1990, the only one. The film begins on April 22, 1889, the opening day of the great Oklahoma Land Rush on the Cherokee Strip. Boisterous Yancey Cravat (Richard Dix) is cheated out of his land claim by the devious Dixie Lee (Estelle Taylor). Instead of becoming a homesteader, Cravat establishes a muckraking newspaper, and with pistols in hand he becomes a widely respected (and widely feared) peacekeeper. He also displays a compassionate streak by coming to the defense of Dixie Lee, who is about to be arrested for prostitution. Cravat's insistence on sticking his nose into everyone's affairs drives a wedge between him and his young wife Sabra (Irene Dunne), but she stands by him--until he deserts her and her children, ever in pursuit of new adventures. Sabra takes over the newspaper herself, and with the moral support of her best friend, Mrs. Wyatt (Edna May Oliver), she creates a powerful publishing empire. Cimarron makes the mistake of placing most of the action early in the film, so that everything that follows the spectacular opening land-rush sequence may feel anti-climactic. While it's always enjoyable to watch Irene Dunne persevering through the years, it's rather wearing to sit through the overblown performance of Richard Dix, who seems to think that he can't make a point unless it's at the top of his lungs. Cimarron creaks badly when seen today, but it still outclasses the plodding 1960 remake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide