Walter Connolly Movies

Veteran German director William Thiele managed to add a continental flavor to the MGM assembly-line romance Bridal Suite. Annabella stars as Luise Anzengruber, a poor but cheerful young lady who manages an Alpine hotel. When handsome playboy Neill McGill (Robert Young) checks into Luise's establishment, it's love at first (or at least second) sight. Alas, Luise's future happiness is complicated by Neill's disapproving family and his bitchy fiancee Abby Bragton (Virgina Field). Bridal Suite was originally titled Maiden Voyage, but the name was changed to capitalize on Annabella's recent real-life marriage to Tyrone Power. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In his last film assignment, portly Walter Connolly fills the title role (in more ways than one) in The Great Victor Herbert. Very little of Herbert's life story is incorporated in the screenplay (a closing title actually apologizes for the film's paucity of cold hard facts); instead, the writers allow the famed composer's works to speak for themselves. In the tradition of one of his own operettas, Herbert spends most of his time patching up the shaky marriage between tenor John Ramsey (Allan Jones) and Louise Hall (Mary Martin). Many of Herbert's most famous compositions are well in evidence, including "Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life", "March of the Toys" and "Kiss Me Again", the latter performed con brio by teenaged coloratura Susanna Foster. Evidently, the producers were able to secure the film rights for the Herbert songs, but not for the stage productions in which they appeared, which may explain such bizarre interpolations as having a song from Naughty Marietta, which takes place in New Orleans, performed before a wintry Alpine backdrop! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Spunky Joan Blondell is practically the whole show in the diverting comedy Good Girls Go to Paris. Blondell is cast as ambitious college-campus waitress Jenny Swanson, who yearns to see the sights in Gay Paree. She gets her chance by latching onto British exchange professor Ronald Brooke (Melvyn Douglas), who is en route to the City of Light. Once she sets foot on French soil, Jenny proves the veracity of the film's title by straightening out the wayward family of dyspeptic millionaire Olaf Brand (Walter Connolly)-though for a while it looks as though she's a "bad girl", merely out to take the Brands for every penny they've got. In later years, Joan Blondell ruefully recalled that the film's original title was Good Girls Go to Paris Too, but the Hays Office nixed that harmlessly suggestive monicker. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originally designed for exhibition at the 1939 World's Fair, Land of Liberty is a 137-minute compendium of filmclips from past American historical epics. The project was sponsored by the Motion Picture Producers & Distributors of America, Inc. and supervised by Cecil B. DeMille, who also edited the film with the assistance of his crack Paramount production staff. The narration was written by old DeMille hands Jeannie MacPherson and Jesse Lasky Jr. and spoken by a talented team of uncredited announcers (one of whom sounded suspiciously like old C. B. himself). Clips from such Hollywood productions as America (1924), Abraham Lincoln (1930), Alexander Hamilton (1931), Show Boat (1936), Man of Conquest (1939) and DeMille's own The Plainsman (1936), The Buccaneer (1938) and Union Pacific (1939) are woven together into a chronological continuity, tracing American history from the Revolutionary War to the "present," which is largely represented by newsreel footage of President Roosevelt, the TVA project, and other current personalities and events. In later years, Land of Liberty was redistributed on the classroom circuit, with new footage added from historical dramas of the 1940s and 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Alternating effortlessly between comedy and suspense and back again, Too Hot to Handle stars Myrna Loy as a famous aviatrix and Clark Gable as an opportunistic newsreel photographer. Gable and rival shutterbug Walter Pidgeon agree to accompany Loy on her search for her missing brother, sensing a good story and excellent photo op. Their odyssey takes them into the deepest jungles of the Amazon, where Gable's photographic prowess saves everyone's lives when hostile natives attack. Along the way, both Gable and Pidgeon fall in love with Loy. The classic opening sequence in Too Hot to Handle, in which the resourceful Gable fakes a bombing raid for the benefit of his cameras, was allegedly conceived by Buster Keaton, then a free-lance MGM gag man. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Penitentiary was the first of two remakes of Howard Hawks' 1931 prison flick The Criminal Code (the second remake was 1950's Convicted). Sent to prison on a manslaughter charge, young William Jordan (John Howard) is befriended by the man who sent him up, Judge Mathews (Walter Connolly). The judge sees to it that Jordan is given every opportunity to rehabilitate himself, though he's a bit uncomfortable when his own daughter Elizabeth (Jean Parker) falls in love with the young convict. All of this extra effort goes out the window when Jordan, adhering to the "criminal code" of never snitching on a fellow con, allows himself to be implicated in the murder of a stoolie. Jordan is saved from the hot seat by the last-minute confession from the real killer, a hard-bitten but honorable "lifer" named Finch (Arthur Hohl). In the original Criminal Code, Walter Huston, Philips Holmes, Constance Cummings and Boris Karloff essayed the roles played in Penitentiary by Connolly, Howard, Parker and Hohl. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"This is New York, Skyscraper Champion of the World...Where the Slickers and Know-It-Alls peddle gold bricks to each other...And where Truth, crushed to earth, rises again more phony than a glass eye..." With this jaundiced opening title, scripter Ben Hecht introduces his classic comedy Nothing Sacred. Fredric March plays Wally Cook, a hotshot reporter condemned to writing obituaries because of his unwitting complicity in a fraud. Anxious to get back in the good graces of his editor Oliver Stone (Walter Connolly), Cook pounces on the story of New England girl Hazel Flagg (Carole Lombard), who is reportedly dying from radiation poisoning. Actually, Hazel isn't dying at all; she's been misdiagnosed by Moscow's eternally drunk doctor (Charles Winninger). But when Cook offers to take her on an all-expenses-paid trip to New York in exchange for her exclusive story, it's too good an offer to pass up. Once in the Big Apple, Hazel is feted as a heroine by the novelty-seeking populac; she enjoys the adulation at first, but soon (and with the help of gallons of alcoholic beverages) suffers the pangs of conscience. She confesses her deception to Cook, who by now has fallen in love with her. Cook and Stone conspire to keep the public from discovering the truth, eventually dreaming up a phony suicide. Travelling incognito to avoid arrest, Wally and Hazel marry and go on a honeymoon, secure in the knowledge that New York City has forgotten all about her and moved on to their next fad. Brimming with witty, acerbic dialogue and hilarious bits of physical business, Nothing Sacred is among the best "screwball" comedies of the 1930s. The musical score by Oscar Levant both mocks and celebrates the George Gershwinesque musical style then in vogue. As an added bonus, the film is lensed in Technicolor (avoid those two-color reissue prints), allowing modern viewers to see what New York City looked liked back in 1937. Nothing Sacred was later adapted into a Broadway musical, Hazel Flagg, which in turn was filmed by Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis as Living It Up (1954), with Lewis in the Carole Lombard role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Contrary to earlier published reports, Columbia's Let's Get Married was not directed by Leo McCarey. Nor would McCarey have evinced much interest in this minor-league romantic comedy set in, of all places, a weather bureau. Ralph Bellamy plays the diligent chief weatherman who falls in love with the daughter (Ida Lupino) of a wealthy politician (Walter Connolly). The girl's father would rather she marry socially acceptable Reginald Denny. Usually neither Bellamy nor Denny ever gets the girl, but someone has to be around for the final clinch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

League of Frightened Men was the second and last entry in Columbia's short-lived mystery series based on the "Nero Wolfe" novels by Rex Stout. Taking over from Edward Arnold as crabby, corpulent consulting detective Nero Wolfe is Walter Connolly, who despite his physical resemblance to the Stout original is not all that well suited for the role. Sitting in his greenhouse surrounded by his beloved orchids, Wolfe agrees to investigate a series of murders seemingly tied in with a long-ago Harvard hazing prank that went tragically awry. Three Harvard grads have died under mysterious circumstances, and Ferdinand Bowen (Walter Kingsford) is determined not to become the fourth. Accepting Bowen's retainer, Wolfe dispatches his leg man Archie Goodwin (Lionel Stander) to start the investigation. The revelation of the killer's identity should not surprise any dyed-in-the-wool mystery fan, though Nero Wolfe seems somewhat taken aback! As a nod to the Production Code, Wolfe's famous addiction to imported beers is once more changed to a fondness for hot chocolate. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Harry Richman was a major stage and radio star of the 1930s, but his overbearing personality never clicked in films. After bombing out in 1930's Puttin' on the Ritz, he tried again six years later in The Music Goes 'Round, with marginally better results. Richman plays Harry Wallace, headliner of a Broadway revue which is just about to open. Tired of the rehearsal grind, he runs off to the South, where he happens upon a third-rate showboat troupe. Susanna Courtney (Rochelle Hudson), daughter of showboat manager Hector Courtney (Walter Connolly), mistakes Harry for an unemployed actor and hires him as a dollar-a-day bit player. Amused by the troupe's ineptitude in presenting a "serious" Civil War drama, Harry arranges for Susanna and her fellow thespians to appear in his Broadway revue as a comedy act. But when Susanna finds out she and her father are being made to look like fools in front of the sophisticated New York audience, she upbraids the roaring crowd, punches Harry in the mouth, and storms offstage. All works out okay in the end when Harry contritely begs Susanna's forgiveness. A remake of the 1928 Frank Capra film The Matinee Idol, The Music Goes 'Round is memorable today only for its catchy title song. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Josef Von Sternberg, past directorial master of movie exotica, came down to earth with The King Steps Out, a major studio musical. Set in 19th century Vienna, the plot concerns a sprightly young lady (opera star Grace Moore) who wishes to rescue her sister from marrying their cousin, the "wicked" Emperor Franz Josef (Franchot Tone). Disguised as a dressmaker, the girl instantly falls in love with the young monarch herself, and sings her way into his heart. The film is a compendium of every mittel-European operetta ever made, right down to the supporting appearance of Hermann Bing as an innkeeper named Pretzelberger. The King Steps Out was adapted from the Fritz Kreisler stage musical Cissy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The creation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission would soon render anachronistic such crime melodramas as One Way Ticket. Upon discovering that a prominent banker has absconded with his customers' funds, Jerry (Lloyd Nolan), one of the unlucky depositors, reacts by turning thief. He steals exactly the amount that he'd deposited, whereupon the cops close in and arrest him. Still feeling that he was merely getting back what was due him, Jerry bitterly stews in a jail cell until he's swept up in a prison breakout. The other escapees are killed, but Jerry manages to get away, though from this moment forward he's forced to live the toad-like life of a fugitive. Even his brief marriage to Bonnie (Peggy Conklin), the daughter of kindly prison warden Bourne (Walter Connolly), does little to alleviate Jerry's dilemma, and at the end he realizes that no one can ever truly run away from oneself. There's a great, fleeting moment in One Way Ticket wherein the protagonist calmly and philosophically discovers that his hiding place is surrounded by cops. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When he's shipped off to prison on a tax-evasion charge, millionaire Van Dyke (Walter Connolly) breathes a sigh of relief: at least he'll be free of his dizzy, spendthrift wife (Billie Burke) and spoiled-rotten daughter Carol (Joan Bennett). Once behind bars, Van Dyke strikes up a friendship with amiable reformed bootlegger Ricardi (George Raft). Since Ricardi is to be sprung first, Van Dyke suggests that the ex-crook take on the task of "taming" the incorrigible Carol. Unwilling to be stifled by a former jailbird (even a good-looking one), Carol decides to get even by persuading one of Ricardi's former cohorts, a shady character named Tex (Lloyd Nolan) to stage a fake kidnapping. Trouble is, Tex kidnaps the girl for real, obliging Ricardi to race to her rescue -- but only after deliberately breaking every traffic law known to man, so that he'll be pursued by a veritable battalion of motorcycle cops (this hilarious finale was later re-used in the 1941 Buster Keaton two-reeler So You Won't Squawk). A heady blend of screwball comedy and crime melodrama, She Couldn't Take It is one of the fastest and funniest films of 1935. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide