Betty Compson Movies
A stunningly beautiful blond superstar of the silent era, Betty Compson was billed as the "Vagabond Violinist." She started her career on vaudeville at age 15. Three years later she landed a continuing role in movies as the heroine of dozens of Al Christie's comedy shorts, work she continued for three years. Her rise to stardom as a dramatic actress began with her role opposite Lon Chaney in The Miracle Man (1919). She went on to be one of Hollywood's top stars in the '20s, earning as much as $5000/week. Her career was an up-and-down affair, and several times she was labelled "washed up" only to bounce back again. She was nominated for a "Best Actress" Oscar for her work in The Barker (1928). She made the transition into the sound era, but after 1941 made only a few additional films, retiring from the screen after a bit part in the 1948 "B"-movie Here Comes Trouble. She later became a successful California businesswoman. ~ All Movie Guide
The first of four Tom Keene westerns for Monogram release, God's Country and the Man is fine, virile stuff in the old William S. Hart tradition. Keene is cast as wandering cavalier Jim, who finds himself in the Tall Timber territory of Canada. Here he runs afoul of scurrilous gunslinger Gentry (Charles King), the scourge of the Mounties. Not only does Jim neutralize Gentry, but he also helps a poor blacksmith (Billy Bletcher) stake a valuable gold claim. For his initial Monogram outing, Keene is favored with two leading ladies: Charlotte Henry, the onetime star of Alice in Wonderland, and silent-screen favorite Betty Compson, here given an opportunity to display her skill with the violin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Keene, Betty Compson, (more)
- 1937
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
- Starring:
- Milburn Stone, Zeffie Tilbury, (more)
- 1936
A small community is terrorized by an unknown serial killer, one "Mr. Zero," who has held the populace in thrall for several weeks. The mysterious murderer takes refuge in the storage area of a department store, where Linda Allen (Mary Brian) works as a store detective. When jewelry-department manager Tommy Braddock (Russell Hardie) is suspected of being Mr. Zero, Linda endeavors to clear his name, and in so doing follows the trail of clues to the real killer. Inasmuch as Zero has already murdered a snoopy shoplifter, he has no qualms about putting his fingers 'round Linda's lovely throat..To give away the killer's identity would be unfair; suffice to say that the actor will be quite familiar to western and serial buffs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Brian, Russell Hardie, (more)
- 1936
Hollywood Boulevard is a trenchant look at the underside of Tinseltown. Though the nominal hero is a disillusioned screenwriter played by Robert Cummings (whose dialogue anticipates the lines spoken by William Holden in 1950's Sunset Boulevard), the focus of the story is John Halliday as a washed-up film star. Desperately, Halliday accepts the offer from a sleazy "tell all" magazine to write his memoirs. The actor's estranged family is devastated by the resultant scandal, and out love for his daughter (Marsha Hunt), Halliday tries to break his contract. But the publisher (C. Henry Gordon) threatens to ruin Halliday's comeback attempt if he refuses to write the rest of his memoirs. In a scuffle, the publisher kills Halliday, and the blame falls on the actor's daughter. But wise guy screenwriter Cummings gets to the truth of the mystery. A slick B-plus crime melodrama, Hollywood Boulevard has the added bonus of several well-known silent film personalities (Charles Ray, Francis X. Bushman, Maurice Costello, Mae Marsh etc.) in cameo roles, as well as a guest appearance by Gary Cooper. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Halliday, Marsha Hunt, (more)
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
- Starring:
- Valerie Hobson, Paul Harvey, (more)
- 1936
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
- Starring:
- Ray Walker, Evelyn Knapp, (more)
- 1936
Singer-bandleader Phil Regan, Republic Pictures's answer to Dick Powell, stars in Laughing Irish Eyes. Regan plays Danny O'Keefe, a pugnacious County Cork blacksmith who rises to prizefighting fame in the U.S. Fight manager Pat Kelly (Walter C. Kelly) isn't above using his pretty daughter Peggy (Evelyn Knapp) to keep Danny happy, but things turn out OK when the boxer and the girl fall in love for keeps. The film is predicated on the notion that every true Irishman is a fighter or a singer at heart, a notion that worked just fine in 1936 but which might not go over quite as well in these more ethnically sensitive times. Serving as film editor on Laughing Irish Eyes was future cult-favorite director Joseph H. Lewis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Phil Regan, Walter "Judge" Kelly, (more)
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
- Starring:
- Irene Ware, Sidney Blackmer, (more)
- 1934
A lover selflessly dumps her boy friend so that he will obey the wishes of his wealthy benefactor and marry someone more suitable. If he fails to marry an approved woman, his wealthy guardian will no longer pair for his support. Meanwhile, the heartbroken lover ends up marrying a creepy gambler. One day the gambler is shot and killed leaving the girl accused of the crime. Will her true love be able to save her from the death penalty? ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marian Marsh, Betty Compson, (more)
- 1933
An oil rigger, laboring in the Singapore swamps, falls in love with an English socialite and causes all kinds of problems in this exciting romance. Though he already has a lover, he cannot help but pursuing the lady. Meanwhile her brother falls in love with the rigger's lover and when the latter objects, the brother shoots him. The aristocrats flee. Fortunately, the lover returns to the recovering rigger and happiness ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Betty Compson, Weldon Heyburn, (more)
- 1933
This film offers melodrama on the high-seas as it follows the miraculous salvation of a becalmed ship filled with bootleg liquor. To make matters worse, they are out of fresh water, the captain and mate drowned during a storm, and the boat is sinking. The bo'sun has taken charge, and the crew is growing mutinous. Things couldn't get any worse when a mysterious stowaway suddenly crawls out from the hold. He tells the crew that the casks really contain fresh water, not liquor. He then uses a strange power to save the ship. He next uses the power to straighten out the crew. He then disappears. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pat O'Brien, Ralph Bellamy, (more)
- 1932
This socially-conscious drama is set in a slum and centers on the events that lead a parsimonious slum lord to change her ways. It all begins when a little boy stumbles down three flights of rickety stairs. The landlady is later approached by a lawyer who tries to collect damages for the child. She refuses to pay, causing her more compassionate uncle to argue on behalf of the boy. The woman won't listen and ends up stomping out. She is then mugged on the street. Afterwards, the police arrest her because she appears drunk; she is sentenced to 30 days. While in jail she meets a slum resident who is jailed after taking the fall for the injured lad's mother who had been stealing food for her poor boy. The heartless woman is finally touched and sees the error of her ways. After she is released, she marries and begins a kinder, gentler life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maureen O'Sullivan, Betty Compson, (more)
- 1931
The Gay Diplomat was an attempt by RKO Radio to make a movie star out of Ivan Lebedeff, a Russian actor better suited to supporting roles as gigolos and stuffed shirts. Lebedeff plays a Russian military officer sent to Rumania to dispose of a beautiful female spy. Genevieve Tobin plays the suspected espionage agent; not surprisingly, Lebedeff falls in love with her and finds himself unable to carry out his mission. Just as well, since the real spy is another woman, played by Betty Compson. Henry Hobart, the original production supervisor of Gay Diplomat, was so upset by the film's inadequacies and by Lebedeff's lack of star quality that he walked off the project. His replacement was Pandro S. Berman, later the principal producer of RKO's wonderful Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers musicals. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ivan Lebedeff, Genevieve Tobin, (more)
In this melodrama, a British aristocrat befriends a woman and hires her to begin distracting his son away from a conniving golddigger. She does, but finds herself falling in love with her titled boss instead. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1931
Virtuous Husband was adapted from Apron Strings, a play by Dorrance Davis. Though his mother has been dead several years, wealthy young Daniel Curtis (Elliot Nugent) has never been able to cut himself loose from her smothering influence. Even when he marries the lovely Barbara Otwell (Jean Arthur), Daniel bases all his decisions upon letters left behind by his late mother. One of the missives even offers advice as to how to successfully orchestrate the couple's honeymoon night! Only when Barbara rears up and destroys the letters does Daniel learn to stand on his own two feet. Reportedly, Elliot Nugent had been violently opposed to playing the part of namby-pamby Daniel, but upon being forced to do so, admitted "it didn't kill me." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elliott Nugent, Jean Arthur, (more)
- 1931
Silent star Betty Compson takes on a Swedish accent in this romantic melodrama based on a story by Martin Flavin. She is immigrant Helga Larson, arriving in New York to marry John Hanson (Conrad Nagel), a bank teller rooming with her aunt (Bodil Rosing). But while good dependable John slaves away studying to become a lawyer, Helga dallies with his carefree colleague Phil (Robert Ames). When John, who has been speculating in the market, learns that he will lose all his savings if unable to come up with $10,000 that very night, he surrenders to temptation and steals the funds from Phil's cash drawer. Our hero is soon wrecked with guilt -- that is, until Helga announces that she has accepted Phil's proposal. Phil is imprisoned, John marries Helga and becomes successful and five years go by. But the past has a way of catching up with even with the best of folks. Three Who Loved proved one of the final films of Robert Ames, who tragically committed suicide later that same year. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Conrad Nagel, Robert Ames, (more)
- 1930
"Boudoir Diplomat" was, of course, a 1930s euphemism for a wealthy man who slept around. Ian Keith plays Baron Valmi, who uses his charms to rise to the top of the aristocracy ladder. The Baron is required to romance a series of eligible high-born ladies, but he's careful never to become emotionally involved. And then the lovely Helene (Betty Compson) enters his life. Based on a play by Rudolph Lothar and Fritz Gottwald, Boudoir Diplomat was directed by Mal St. Clair, one of the best of the silent era's Lubitsch wanna-bes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Betty Compson, Ian Keith, (more)
- 1930
Though it eventually collapsed under the weight of mounting debts, the small firm of Sono Art-World Wide managed to turn out several worthwhile films in the first two years of the talkies. The company's first 1930 release was Blaze o' Glory, adapted from a story by Thomas Boyd. Broadway star Eddie Dowling (who later staged and appeared in the first production of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie) heads the cast as vaudeville entertainer Eddie Williams. Just before being shipped off to WWI, Eddie weds his sweetheart Helen (Betty Compson), serenading his lady love with one of the film's four songs. By the time the film is two-thirds over, war-hero Eddie is on trial for murder, raising the fascinating issue of whether or not the killing of a wartime enemy really is murder. The fact that all of Eddie's army buddies were entertainers like himself is excuse enough for a variety of specialty acts, including one little ditty (Welcome Home) sung in English, Italian and Yiddish. The hits keep on coming, even during Eddie's trial, with heroine Helen offering her defense in song! As bizarre as this film must have seemed to American audiences, it must have been positively incomprehensible when refilmed for Spanish-speaking filmgoers as Sombras de Gloria. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Dowling, Betty Compson, (more)
- 1930
Ostensibly based of the life and violent death of glamorous New York mobster Arnold Rothstein, this early talkie from Universal featured Broadway actor John Wray as Mort Bradstreet, a powerful but crooked political boss whose friendship with Jay Grant (John Harron) turns sour when Grant is revealed to be a muckraking newspaper reporter. Scheming to have the reporter "taken care of," Mort is himself gunned down by a rival gang. In the mistaken belief that the gangster will recover, Grant readies his exposé, but when Mort is pronounced dead, the reporter decides that their friendship would not permit him to submit the story. Instead, he leaves the paper and begins a new life with Mort's erstwhile moll, Connie (Betty Compson). Directed by William J. Craft, a longtime Universal hack who had helmed scores of inexpensive Westerns in the silent days, The Czar of Broadway proved an especially leaden entry in the first wave of "all-talking" gangster melodramas. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Wray, Betty Compson, (more)
