Chester Conklin Movies

While in Hawaii, Velez begins the film as a risque nightclub act and due to her involvement with a group of sailors becomes a beauty queen. ~ All Movie Guide

This is the first of two filmed adaptations of Al Capp's classic comic strip, in which the title hillbilly (Granville Owen) does his best to avoid the marital advances of girlfriend Daisy Mae (Martha O'Driscoll). ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

With comedian Stan Laurel temporarily off his payroll due to a contract dispute, Hal Roach hastily put together a solo starring vehicle for Laurel's longtime partner Oliver Hardy. Digging into his files, Roach pulled out Zenobia's Infidelity, an H.C. Bunner story originally purchased as a vehicle for Roland Young. Hardy was cast in the semi-serious role of John Tibbitt, a 19th century Mississippi doctor whose heart is bigger than his bank account. At the insistence of travelling carnival man Professor McCrackle (played by former silent comedy star Harry Langdon, then under contract to Roach as a gag writer), Tibbitt tends to the Professor's ailing elephant, Miss Zenobia. Once cured, the precious pachyderm refuses to leave Dr. Tibbitt's side-whereupon McCrackle sues the doctor for alienation of Zenobia's affections! The ensuing scandal plays right into the hands of Mrs. Carter (Alice Brady), the town's richest and snobbiest woman, who has long opposed the romance between her son John (James Ellison) and Tibbitt's daughter Mary (Jean Parker). All problems are resolved during the climactic courtroom trial, despite occasional interruptions by Miss Zenobia and the dizzy interpolations of Tibbitt's wife (Billie Burke). The film's intended highlight, the recitation of the Declaration of Independence by black child Philip Hurlic, was obviously inspired by Charles Laughton's "Gettysburg Address" scene in Ruggles of Red Gap (1935). Evidently sensing that Zenobia was doomed from the start, producer Hal Roach stirred up some publicity by encouraging the notion that he was creating a new comedy team consisting of Oliver Hardy and Harry Langdon-even though the characters never function as a team in the course of the story. A major box office disappointment, Zenobia (British title: Elephants Never Forget) is a pleasant but utterly inconsequential effort; still, it's worth seeing once, if only for the quietly subdued performance by Oliver Hardy, who is very good indeed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The inimitable Preston Sturges originally scripted Hotel Haywire with George Burns and Gracie Allen in mind, but by the time the film went before the cameras, the Burns and Allen roles had been recast with Benny Baker and Colette Lyons -- and significantly abbreviated in the process. A dentist named Parkhouse (Lynne Overman) plays a practical joke on a poker-playing buddy by sending him home with a lady's chemise stuffed in his coat pocket. The gag backfires, whereupon Parkhouse finds himself in hot water with his own wife (Spring Byington). Threatened with divorce, Parkhouse is advised by a zany astrologer to frame Mrs. P. in a compromising situation at the Hotel Haywire, enlisting amateur detectives Bert and Genevieve Sterns (Baker and Lyons) in his scheme. Things get really hectic when Parkhouse's daughter Phyllis (Mary Carlisle) and her sweetheart Frank (John Patterson) show up at the same hotel. The film is dominated by the antics of larcenous astrologer Zodiac Z. Zippe, played with comic ferocity by Leo Carrillo. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Paramount spent a record one million dollars on its 1937 Mae West vehicle Every Day's a Holiday. La West portrays a turn-of-century confidence trickster who poses as a famous French chanteuse to avoid arrest. In this guise, she manages to expose crooked police chief Lloyd Nolan and smooths the path for reform mayoral candidate Edmund Lowe. A strong cast of supporting comedians, including Charles Winninger, Charles Butterworth and Walter Catlett, match Mae quip for quip. Elaborately produced and snappily directed by Eddie Sutherland, Every Day's a Holiday should have been the hit that Mae West needed to save her flagging film career. Unfortunately, her vogue had passed, plus she was under fire from America's bluenoses because of her previous "racy" vehicles and her recent "lewd and lascivious" appearance on Edgar Bergen's radio show. (When heard today, West's "Adam and Eve" sketch seems harmless enough, but remember the formidability of the Bible Belt back in 1938.) As a result, Every Day's a Holiday lost every penny it cost and then some -- and effectively ended Mae West's relationship with Paramount, the studio she had single-handedly rescued from bankruptcy with She Done Him Wrong back in 1933. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This episodic satire of the Machine Age is considered Charles Chaplin's last "silent" film, although Chaplin uses sound, vocal, and musical effects throughout. Chaplin stars as an assembly-line worker driven insane by the monotony of his job. After a long spell in an asylum, he searches for work, only to be mistakenly arrested as a Red agitator. Released after foiling a prison break, Chaplin makes the acquaintance of orphaned gamine (Paulette Goddard) and becomes her friend and protector. He takes on several new jobs for her benefit, but every job ends with a quick dismissal and yet another jail term. During one of his incarcerations, she is hired to dance at a nightclub and arranges for him to be hired there as a singing waiter. He proves an enormous success, but they are both forced to flee their jobs when the orphanage officials show up to claim the girl. Dispirited, she moans, "What's the use of trying?" But the ever-resourceful Chaplin tells her to never say die, and our last image is of Chaplin and The Gamine strolling down a California highway towards new adventures. The plotline of Modern Times is as loosely constructed as any of Chaplin's pre-1915 short subjects, permitting ample space for several of the comedian's most memorable routines: the "automated feeding machine," a nocturnal roller-skating episode, and Chaplin's double-talk song rendition in the nightclub sequence. In addition to producing, directing, writing, and starring in Modern Times, Chaplin also composed its theme song, Smile, which would later be adopted as Jerry Lewis' signature tune. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hopalong Cassidy's young sidekick, Johnny Nelson, is falsely accused of robbing the Bar 20 in this the fourth installment of the long-running Western series. Nelson (James Ellison) had left the ranch in high dudgeon over a perceived slight and fallen in with a gang headed by Shanghai (George Hayes) and Sam Porter (Al Bridge). Since the gang's aim is to rob the Bar 20, Johnny's sudden appearance is seen as a golden opportunity. The youngster is drugged and his easily identifiable neckerchief prominently displayed as the gang unsuccessfully attempts to rob the ranch safe, wounding owner Buck Peters (Howard H.Lang) in the process. When Hoppy (William Boyd) learns of Johnny's assumed culpability, he vows to bring the youngster to justice. Johnny, meanwhile, has managed to escape the gang and is holed up on a spread belonging to innocent Linda McHenry (Muriel Evans), who, unbeknownst to him, is Shanghai's daughter. He is found there by Porter who concocts a devilish plan to kill the boy and establish an alibi for himself at the same time. Luckily, Cassidy arrives to save his young friend in the nick of time and the gang is finally hunted down. Shanghai, who has decided to go straight, is shot in a struggle with Porter, but survives to clear Johnny of any wrongdoing in the attempted robbery. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this musical comedy, Fred Von Wellingen (Ben Lyon), the scion of a wealthy German family, has fallen in love with Lia Toerrek (Marilyn Miller), a poor but beautiful girl who has gladly agreed to marry him. However, when Fred's father Otmar (Ford Sterling) decides to hold a banquet to celebrate his son's imminent marriage, he's thoroughly appalled by Bela Toerrek (W.C. Fields), Lia's father and a man with a severe lack of good breeding. When Bela announces that he earns a living as a barber and that Lia is a barmaid, the assembled bluebloods are less than amused, and their ire turns to disgust when Bela grabs some of the dinnerware and uses it to demonstrate his juggling techniques. Otmar wants to call the wedding off and offers his son a high-paying job in the family business if he leaves Lia for good. Fred breaks off the engagement, and Lia meets another wealthy man, Baron von Schwarzdorf (Leon Errol), who offers to marry her. However, both Lia and Fred are miserable without each other, and when he learns that she is to wed, he leaps into action to win her back. Field's juggling routine provides the high point of this film, which marked his first appearance in a sound feature. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Advertised as an "all star" film, Swing High is hardly that: The biggest name in the picture, both in terms of popularity and sheer marquee space, was Helen Twelvetrees. A variation of the 1926 German classic Variety, the film casts Twelvetrees and Dorothy Burgess as sisters Maryan and Trixie, a team of circus aerialists. When the two girls have a falling out over the affections of handsome Gerry (Fred Scott), it looks as though one of them will be taking a fall for real. This does eventually happen, but it ends up an act of fate rather than malice. It's amazing that the dramatic portion of the film is given any space at all, what with five musical numbers and the interminable comic antics of diminutive Daphne Pollard and phlegmatic Stepin Fetchit. Mack Sennett-graduates Chester Conklin and Ben Turpin make fleeting appearances, as do several genuine circus performers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed at glorious locations on the Navajo reservation at Tuba City and in Flagstaff, AZ, this Zane Grey adaptation stars square-jawed Jack Holt as a lawman going undercover to ferret out a notorious cattle rustler. In his second American film, aristocratic British actor John Loder plays the villain, a foppish rancher-turned-cattle rustler. Sunset Pass was remade in 1933 as a vehicle for Randolph Scott, and again in 1946, starring James Warren. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The gruff but lovable Wallace Beery starred in this Zane Grey adaptation from Paramount. He plays the prototype outlaw with a Heart of Gold, sacrificing his own life for the happiness of two young people in love. The young lovers were played by relative newcomers Jean Arthur and Phillips Holmes. Arthur had been spotted by Paramount while working in Grade-"Z" independent westerns and as a co-ed in The Poor Nut (1927). She was to enjoy a legendary career as a sophisticated comedienne, but the Jean Arthur of Stairs of Sand was still the squirrel-like little brunette who had decorated obscure westerns such as Drugstore Cowboy (1925) and Tearin' Loose (1926). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Adolphe Menjou's final silent film was the imitation-Lubitsch Marquis Preferred. Characteristically dressed up like a million dollars (before taxes), Menjou is cast as the Marquis D'Argenville, a dapper but impoverished nobleman. Hoping for a quick financial turnover, the Marquis agrees to wed Gwendolyn Gruger (Lucille Powers), the daughter of a pair of title-chasing Americans. But the Marquis' heart will forever belong to Peggy Winton (Nora Lane), who does her best to hide her disappointment. Much to the delight of Peggy (and the moviegoers), our hero decides at the last minute that you can't put a price tag on true love. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gary Cooper, as a lanky Wyoming ranch and foreman, places his gun on a poker table after being insulted by one of the gamblers and intones, "If you want to call me that . . . smile." That much quoted line's origin is in this early sound version of the Owen Wister novel, The Virginian, directed by Victor Fleming. When the Virginian meets his old friend Steve (Richard Arlen), he gives him a job on his crew at the Box H Ranch near Medicine Bow, Wyoming. Newly arrived in town is the new schoolmarm, Molly Wood (Mary Brian), and both men take notice. Afterwards, in a saloon, The Virginian encounters the evil Trampas (Walter Huston), and the two get into an argument over a dancer. The Virginian calls Trampas' bluff but, although Trampas backs down, he seethes inside. Afterwards, following a christening party, The Virginian walks Molly back home, and a friendship grows between the two that burgeons into love. But when Steve joins up with Trampas and his gang of rustlers and is captured by a posse, The Virginian is forced to supervise Steve's lynching. After that, Molly spurns The Virginian. However, when The Virginian is wounded, Molly forgets all that, and nurses him back to health. They decide to finally marry, but Trampas interferes with their plans --Trampas wants The Virginian to leave town, and he is out gunning for him. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide