Mathilde Comont Movies

Rivalry, romance, and brotherly love in logging camps are chronicled in this drama. The trouble begins when the brother of a lumber company owner arrives from Paris to work for him. Upon seeing the beautiful owner of the rival logging camp, the newly arrived brother immediately defects to begin working for her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A remake of the 1917 Mary Pickford vehicle of the same name, Poor Little Rich Girl stars Shirley Temple in the title role. Neglected by her widowed soap-tycoon father (Michael Whalen), lonely Barbara Barry (Temple) spends most of her time in the company of her nursemaid Collins (Sara Haden). While on a shopping excursion in the City, Collins is killed in a traffic accident, and Barbara gets lost in the crowd. She finds shelter in the warm and loving tenement home of barber Tony (Henry Armetta), where she makes the acquaintance of vaudeville entertainers Jerry and Jimmy Dolan (Alice Faye and Jack Haley). Assuming that the girl is an orphan, the Dolans invite her to join their act when they discover that she possesses considerable singing and dancing talents. As fate would have it, Jerry, Jimmy and Barbara audition for a radio program which happens to be sponsored by Barbara's dad! For all its music, charm and vivacity, Poor Little Rich Girl has an unsettling inner lining of cruelty: Not only is the plot motivated by the death of Shirley's governess, but our poor heroine spends a good portion of the film avoiding a seedy would-be child molester (John Wray)! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In her first starring role, 18-year-old Ann Rutherford plays Joan, a singer in a cheap waterfront café. Gambling-ship proprietor Ronny (Frank Albertson), on the lam from the police after accidentally shooting a treacherous underling (Grant Withers), falls in love with Joan, and he with her. Under her good influence, he decides to turn himself over to the cops and face the consequences, only to discover that he's been exonerated by his partner McFee (Charles C. Wilson). Ladling on the sentiment with a steam shovel, Waterfront Lady is a lot less hard-boiled than its title suggests. It was also the final feature-film release from Mascot Pictures before that studio merged into Republic. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set in the Washington of World War I, Escapade stars William Powell as a newspaper editor eager to sign up for an overseas assignment. Instead, he's ordered to stay in Washington to decode enemy messages. This assignment has been arranged by the dizzy niece (Rosalind Russell) of the Undersecretary of War, who has fallen in love with Powell. She later joins the harried editor in squashing a spy ring, headed by Cesar Romero and Binnie Barnes. Considering how annoying Rosalind Russell's character becomes in Rendezvous, it's understandable that role was turned down by Myrna Loy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Design for Living was based on the stage comedy by Noel Coward, though little of his dialogue actually made it to the screen. Playwright Fredric March and artist Gary Cooper both fall in love with Miriam Hopkins, an American living in Paris. Both men love the girl, and the girl can't make up her mind between the two men, so the threesome decide to move in together--strictly platonically, of course. As the men gain in success and prominence, the chasteness of the "menage a trois" begins to be threatened, and soon both March and Cooper clash over Hopkins. She reacts by marrying her wealthy but dull boss (Edward Everett Horton). Miriam is bored to tears until March and Cooper invade one of her husband's stuffy parties and chase the tiresome guests away. Miriam's husband huffily agrees to a divorce, and the girl returns to her unorthodox relationship with her two former suitors. The subtle homosexual implications of the Noel Coward stage original were dissipated by the presence of the aggressively masculine Gary Cooper and Fredric March in the film version of Design for Living. Replacing these implications were the equally subtle but more "mainstream" boudoir innuendos of director Ernst Lubitsch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

MGM had hopes of turning Metropolitan opera singer Lawrence Tibbett into a movie star, but Cuban Love Song brought this two-year project to an end. Tibbett plays a cocky marine stationed in Havana, who devotes his attention to voluptuous Cuban peanut vendor Lupe Velez. He serenades her with "The Peanut Song" several times in the course of the film, and Velez falls madly in love. But Tibbett is the "love 'em and leave 'em" type, and when World War One breaks out he drops Velez like a hot tamale and heads for Europe. Ten years pass: Tibbett returns to Cuba, only to discover that Velez has died...and then he meets a cute 9-year-old "orphan" boy whose favorite tune is "The Peanut Song". Cuban Love Song is highlighted by an uproariously graphic "castor oil" gag involving supporting actor Jimmy Durante. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Before he settled down to a long career as a jovial character actor, Lloyd Corrigan functioned as screenwriter and director on a number of Hollywood programmers. Corrigan co-directed Paramount's Along Came Youth with Norman Z. McLeod. The frothy story involves heiress Frances Dee, who balks at the wealthy marriage that her aunt is arranging. Enter Charles "Buddy" Rogers, a near-impoverished gent who takes a job as a sandwich board man. Dee assumes that Rogers is the rich man she's expected to marry, and then the fun begins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Le Chanteur de Seville is the French-language version of the Technicolor MGM musical drama Call of the Flesh. Ramon Novarro repeats his role as Juan, a young aspiring singer who is advised that he will never achieve greatness until his heart is broken. He learns the truth of this admonition when he falls in love with convent girl Lola (Pierette Caillol). Their brief, torrid romance proves to have unfortunate consequences, breaking not only Juan's heart but also his will to live. Though the original Call of the Flesh was directed by Charles J. Brabin, the French version was helmed by its star, Ramon Novarro, who did a commendable job. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"Sea Bat" is another name for the poisonous sting rays that trouble swimmers in warmer ocean climes. The story is set upon a tropical island and centers on the sister of a reef diver who was attacked under water by another diver and left to be eaten by an enormous sea bat (in reality the rays eat plankton). The distraught young woman, looking for solace, goes to a recently arrived priest, who, unfortunately is an escaped convict from Devil's Island in disguise. He and the girl's attempts to solve the murder are constantly thwarted until the title creature gets involved and sees that deep sea justice is served. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Greta Garbo appears here (in her second talking film) as an Italian singer who seduces a young priest into falling for her. She admits that she had been the kept woman of an older man, and when she returns to her former lover (to tell of her new love), her visit is misinterpreted by the priest as a liaison, prompting the priest to cast her affections aside. The film is told in narrative fashion, through the eyes of the priest when looking back to an early portion of his life. Garbo and director Clarence Brown earned Oscar nominations for their respective roles in the making of the film. ~ All Movie Guide

The 1928 production Ramona was the third film version of the Helen Hunt Jackson novel of the same name, first dramatized (in one reel!) by D. W. Griffith in 1910. Dolores Del Rio plays the title character, the ward of domineering California sheep rancher Senora Moreno (Vera Lewis). Escaping her cruel and judgmental guardian, Ramona sadly resigns herself to the probability that she will never find true happiness because she is -- gasp! -- a half-breed. Though she loves Moreno's grandson Felipe (Roland Drew), Ramona does not want him to bear the stigma of a mixed marriage, so she marries Allesandro (Warner Baxter), an Indian shepherd. Misfortune continues to befall the heroine when her husband is lynched by bigoted white ranchers; shortly thereafter, her baby dies from injuries sustained in a bandit raid because the white doctor refuses to treat an Indian infant. Suffering a total nervous breakdown, Ramona wanders into the woods, having lost all memory of her previous existence. But faithful Felipe rescues the girl, snapping her out of her amnesia by singing her favorite childhood song (courtesy of the Vitaphone soundtrack). Ramona was remade in 1936 with Loretta Young and Don Ameche. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Volcano takes forever to get to the climactic eruption. In the meantime, the audience is subjected to the travails of convent-bred Zabette de Chauvalons, who upon returning to her father's estate in Martinique discovers that daddy has died and the property is now in the hands of her evil stepmother. Because of her dusky complexion, it is assumed that Zabette is the illegitimate offspring of her French father and a local native woman, and as consequence she is forced to live in the island's mulatto district. Here she is lusted after by mulatto villain Quembo (Wallace Beery), while handsome white aristocrat Stephane Sequineau (Ricardo Cortez) vows to take the heroine away from her tawdry surroundings. On cue, a volcanic eruption solves everyone's problems -- while simultaneously laying waste to the entire island! Exceptional special effects. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Amidst much fanfare, Lillian Gish was signed to a fabulous MGM contract in 1925 which not only assured her $400,000 per picture but also gave her complete control over her productions, including choice of co-stars and directors. For her inaugural MGM effort, Gish selected La Boheme, the theatrical version of Henri Murger's 1851 novel The Latin Quarter. Thanks to copyright conflicts, MGM was unable to use the plot elements from the Giacomo Puccini opera based on the Murger book (there'd been plans to prepare a musical score based on Puccini's themes, but these fell through at the last moment), so scriptwriter Ray Doyle and Harry Behn relied almost exclusively on the original novel. Gish is cast as Mimi, the fragile little seamstress who takes up residence in Paris's "artists colony." Here she falls in love with aspiring painter Rodolphe (John Gilbert), who though professing undying devotion and dedication to Mimi cannot help but dally with other girls. To finance Rodolphe's artistic career, Mimi pawns all of her belongings and takes a series of back-breaking jobs, destroying her health in the process. Only when Mimi is on her deathbed does Rodolphe realize the extent of her sacrifices -- and of his love for her. Renee Adoree co-stars as the saucy Musette, whose double-entendre antics are toned down here, while Edward Everett Horton steals several scenes as Rodolphe's musician pal Colline. Though John Gilbert hams it up, Lillian Gish's brilliant performance is a model of restraint and subtlety. For her final scene, the actress went to appalling lengths to convincingly simulate death, going without water for three days and training herself to breathe without discernible movement (even when seen today, the effect is startlingly real). Available only for archival showings until the early 1970s, a restored version of La Boheme was reissued theatrically in 1978, while an even better restoration was made available to television in the 1990s through the auspices of the Turner Classic Movies cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide