Betty Compson Movies

Silent star Betty Compson had her own production company, and it was responsible for this exotic but somewhat overwrought drama, based on a story by Perley Poore Sheehan. Celia Thaxter (Compson) is an American vaudeville actress who is on a journey to Egypt. On the voyage, she becomes engaged to Reginald Stanhope (Gerald Pring). Once they reach the Sahara desert, the couple becomes part of a treasure hunt led by another passenger, Kelim Pasha (Macey Harlam), a native of the region. During the trek, Pasha starts coming on to Celia. Stanhope does nothing to help her and it turns out that he was merely a tool of Pasha's. Ultimately, Stanhope forsakes Celia, who finds her virtue, if not her life, in grave danger. She is saved only by another woman in the party, who kills Pasha. Celia finds true romance at last with an American whose life she had saved while on the steamer. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Chesterfield Films, one of the busiest (though not necessarily one of the best) poverty-row operations of the 1930s, was responsible for the amiable comedy August Week-End. 19-year-old Valerie Hobson is top-billed, but the film's real star is G. P. Huntley Jr., playing a British business entrepreneur. Deciding that he's outgrown his bourgeois wife and family, Huntley spends a summer weekend living the high life in the company of adventuress Hobson. He sees the error of his ways when he runs afoul of the IRS. Though partially financed by British investors, August Week-End was lensed in Hollywood over a period of six or seven days. The film was based on a short story by Faith Baldwin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set during the turn of the century, The Belle of Broadway starts out in Paris, where celebrated stage star Madame Adele (Edith Yorke) is making her debut in "DuBarry." During the performance, Mme. Adele's musician husband abruptly walks out of the theater, never to return. The husband takes their young son to America, where he grows into manhood. Meanwhile, Mme. Adele's career goes into sharp decline, and by 1926 she is eking out a miserable existence as a bit player. A Broadway theatrical agent who recalls the actress' glory days tells Adele that he would stage a revival of "DuBarry" in a minute -- if only Adele could recapture her lost beauty. While all this is going on, young drama student Marie Duval (Betty Compson) happens to don one of Adele's old costumes -- and her resemblance to the faded star is so striking that a scheme is hatched to pass off Marie as Adele in the newly staged "DuBarry." Soon Marie is besieged by Adele's former admirers, who can't believe that their onetime idol has retained her good looks for lo these 30 years. When one of these admirers, the Count De Parma (Armand Kaliz), makes clear his intentions to seduce Marie, the girl is saved by the timely arrival of handsome young Paul Merlin (Herbert Rawlinson) -- who, of course, turns out to be Mme. Adele's long-lost son. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Blondes at Work is number four in Warner Bros.' lively "Torchy Blane" series. Glenda Farrell returns as girl reporter Torchy Blane, she of the mile-a-minute mouth, while Barton MacLane is back as Torchy's boyfriend/sparring partner, police lieutenant Steve McBride. The story revolves around Torchy's ability to constantly out-scoop her rival newshounds, thanks to tips inadvertently dropped by the loquacious McBride and his stupid assistant Gahagan (Tom Kennedy). Things come to a head when Torchy tries to get the low-down on a sensational murder case involving suspected husband-killer Louise Revelle (Rosella Towne). If the plot twists in Blondes at Work seem familiar, it's because the film is a remake of the 1935 Bette Davis vehicle Front Page Woman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on Danny Ahearn's short story "Back in Circulation", Republic's Bulldog Edition stars Ray Walker as Ken Dwyer, two-fisted circulation manager for a great metropolitan newspaper. Though Dwyer's methods always attract customers, they are also the bane of the existence of dyspeptic managing editor Hardy (Regis Toomey). In addition, Dwyer and Hardy continually duke it out over the affections of staff cartoonist Randy (Evelyn Knapp). The story proper gets under way when Dwyer takes on a rival newspaper whose editor is in cahoots with gangster boss Enright (Cy Kendall). One thing leads to another, and before long Randy is kidnapped by the villains, necessitating an oversized shoot-out climax. From its impressive opening titles to its explosive finale, Bulldog Edition is four-star entertainment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

June Travis plays a trapeze star who becomes the romantic bone of contention between Robert Livingston and Charles Jerome. Silent movie veterans Betty Compson and Charlie Murray lend their expertise to this Republic 7-reeler. The aerialist scenes are performed by the Escalante Family Troupe, who also contributed their breathtaking skills to such Hollywood films as Tarzan, the Ape Man (1932),and the Marx Bros.' At the Circus. One of the scripters of Circus Girl was Bradford Ropes, author of the quintessential backstage yarn 42nd Street. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Counsel for Defense is set in a graft-ridden town, where the crooked politicians railroad the local doctor (Jay Hunt) into prison. The villains want to take over the town waterworks, and this they can't do if the doctor is nosing around spotting health violations. When a typhoid epidemic inevitably breaks out, the imprisoned doctor's daughter (Betty Compson) launches a reform campaign in the local newspaper. The rascals are thrown out, the doctor's reputation is restored, and the daughter marries the newspaper's editor (House Peters). Filmed in 1925, Counsel for Defense lay on the shelf for over a year before it found a distributor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this episode of the Three Mesquiteers series of westerns the trio must help two rival sides involved in a range war settle their differences. The story is set in 1906, and the rivals are homesteaders trying to take advantage of Roosevelt's Reclamation Act and the landowners who oppose the act and want to see the Act repealed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Columbia's The Desert Bride was adapted from The Adventuress, an original story by Ewart Adamson (whose other contributions to the studio included several Three Stooges comedies!) Betty Compson stars as Diane Duval, the niece of a British army officer stationed in Egypt. Two men vie for Diane's attention: Captain Maurice de Florimont (Allan Forrest), head of British Intelligence, and Kassim Ben Ali (Otto Matiesen), a scheming Arab chieftain. Eventually, Diane and De Florimont join forces to foil Kassim Ben Ali's plans to destroy the British outpost. The slam-bang finale features many more extras than was customary at pinchpenny Columbia Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The outwardly respectable middle-aged couple behind Hollywood's most successful escort service finds their lucrative empire unexpectedly threatened when their daughter returns home from a surprise visit in the arms of an undercover investigator from the District Attorney. For the right price, Ruth Ashley and Greg Stone will find any man a suitable companion. Their clandestine prostitution business presided over by stealthy ex-con Breezy Nolan, Ruth and Greg use their wealth to send unsuspecting daughter June away to an expensive boarding school in hopes of protecting her from the ugly truth. When June drops in for a surprise visit with handsome beau Drake Hamilton, however, the seams in the ruse finally begin to show. Unbeknownst to June, Drake is an undercover investigator from the District Attorney's office who's been sent to gather enough evidence to have the business shut down, and her parents prosecuted. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Former Miss America Irene Ware stars in the standard Chestefield Pictures social drama False Pretenses. Ware is cast as lunch-counter waitress Mary Beekman, who intends to crash society and land a wealthy husband. She is helped along by affable millionaire Kenneth Alden (Sidney Blackmer), who loves Mary but won't admit it. Our heroine winds up with retired bootlegger Pat Brennan (Russell Hopton), who mistakenly believes that Mary is a bonafide member of the "The 400." What starts out dramatically ends comically, with everyone -- even the unsympathetic characters -- getting what he or she really wants out of life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Federal Bullets is a leisurely paced Monogram crime melodrama with not a few clever plot twists. The FBI, represented by Milburn Stone and William Harrigan, investigates a seemingly respectable charitable organization. In fact, the enterprise is a front for a crime ring, headed by Ma Barker clone Zeffie Tilbury (Trivia note: Ms. Tilbury was totally blind, and had to learn her "blocking" by rote). Agent Stone poses as a crook in order to infiltrate Zeffie's mob. Federal Bullets was directed by Karl Brown, a onetime cinematographer who learned his craft under the tutelage of D. W. Griffith. The film was based on a story by federal operative Maj. George F. Elliot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide