Anne Cornwall Movies

Tyrone Power is a Dutchman, and Susan Hayward is an Irish lass. If you believe that, then the rest of Untamed will go down a lot easier. Power is a Boer calvary commander attempting to bring peace to his South African homeland. He has an affair with Hayward, a married woman whose husband is killed during a Zulu attack. While rescuing the survivors, Power runs afoul of Dutch farmer Richard Egan, who insists that Hayward is his property. Egan turns bandit, targeting the diamond mines. Power is bound and determined to stop Egan--and, it is hoped, to clear the path towards lasting happiness with Hayward. The Untamed is a CinemaScope adaptation of a novel by Helga Moray. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Irving Pichel's They Won't Believe Me is the flashback unfolding of Larry Ballentine's (Robert Young) witness-stand testimony in his trial for the murder of girlfriend Verna Carlson (Susan Hayward). Larry is the first to admit he's a parasitic heel, cheating on his rich wife Gretta (Rita Johnson) first with magazine writer Janice Bell (Jane Greer) and then with Verna. Though aware of Larry's affairs, Gretta cannot manage to leave him; rather, she uses her money to keep him in tow. She foils his attempt to run off with Janice by buying him a partnership in a brokerage firm. When she discovers his plan to flee with Verna, she sells her interest, leaving Larry unemployed and penniless. The lovers run off nonetheless, but Verna is killed when a truck crashes into their car. When the authorities assume the charred victim is his wife, Larry gets a sinister idea. He returns home to kill Gretta, but she is already dead, so all he has to do is hide the body. Unfortunately for him, the police come looking for the missing Verna, who they suspect was blackmailing him. They find Gretta's unrecognizable corpse, think it's Verna's, and arrest Larry. The flashback structure of this suspenseful film noir effectively creates a foreboding tension that mounts to a powerful final scene. ~ Steve Press, All Movie Guide

Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's whimsical Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play You Can't Take It With You was transformed into a paean to populism by director Frank Capra and screenwriter Robert Riskin. This is the story of the zany Sycamore household, presided over by Grandpa Vanderhof (Lionel Barrymore), a former businessman who has turned his back on commerce to enjoy life. At the Sycamores', everyone does just what he or she pleases. Penny Sycamore (Spring Byington), Grandpa's daughter, has become a novelist because someone delivered a typewriter to her home by mistake. Penny's husband makes firecrackers in his basement with the help of Mr. DePinna (Halliwell Hobbes), an iceman who showed up at the Sycamore doorstep one day and never left. Their daughter, Essie (Ann Miller), imagines that she's a prima ballerina, even though her dour teacher, Boris (Mischa Auer), assesses her work with, "Confidentially, it steenks!" Essie's husband, Ed (Dub Taylor), who'd rather play a xylophone than work, spends his free time selling Essie's candy, wrapping each package in paper from a used printing press that dispenses anarchistic slogans. The one normal member of the household is Alice Sycamore (Jean Arthur), in love with wealthy Tony Kirby (James Stewart).

Naturally, when the stuffy, aristocratic Kirbys come to the Sycamores' for dinner, the event is a disaster, capped with the arrest of everyone in the household. Hart and Kaufman's third act found the previously judgmental Kirby softening his attitude toward the freewheeling Sycamore clan, admitting that he's never had so much fun in his life. Screenwriter Riskin altered the focus of the play by throwing out the third act and concentrating upon Tony Kirby's father, Kirby Sr., who as played by Edward Arnold is transformed from a stock stuffed shirt into a ruthless, grasping tycoon, eager to buy up every house on the Sycamores' block to make room for a munitions plant. The film thus became the story of Kirby's regeneration at the hands of the carefree Sycamores. Enough of the play's screwball elements are retained to compensate for Riskin's speechifying and plot distortions (though the softening of one of the play's vital ingredients, Grandpa's refusal to pay his income tax, borders on the sacrilegious). You Can't Take It With You earned several Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director (Capra's third Oscar). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Widow from Chicago is Polly Henderson (Alice White) -- only she isn't really a widow and in fact has never been married. It's like this: Polly's police-detective brother Jimmy (Harold Goodwin), hoping to get the goods on the criminal gang run by vice lord Dominic (Edward G. Robinson), impersonates Chicago gangster Swifty Dorgan (Neil Hamilton), who is missing and presumed dead. While posing as Swifty, Jimmy is gunned down by a rival gang, right before Polly's eyes. Hoping to exact revenge, Polly pretends to be Swifty's widow and in this guise lands a job at Dominic's nightclub. And then -- get ready for the BIG SURPRISE! -- the real Swifty Dorgan shows up. Only the energetic performance by Edward G. Robinson makes this Byzantine-plotted crime yarn worth sitting through. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Heart of the Yukon was one of director W.S. Van Dyke's last independent films before he began his lengthy association with MGM. Filmed on location near Tacoma, Washington, the story is set during the Alaska Gold Rush. Plain-looking Anita Wayne (Anne Cornwall) wanders into a rowdy boomtown in search of her prospector father. Hoping to get his mitts on a gold mine that Anita has inherited, raffish saloon owner Cash Gynon (Russell Simpson) pretends to be her daddy. But hero Jim Winston (John Bowers) saves Anita from Cash's clutches, just in time for the ugly-duckling heroine to emerge as a gorgeous swan. As an added fillip, Anita is reunited with her father -- reformed town drunk "Old Skin Full" (Frank Campeau). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

College students Jimmy (Robert Agnew) and Muriel (Anne Cornwall) fall in love, but their romance is broken up when Jimmy discovers that his guardian has lost all his money in a horse race -- and that the winning horse was owned by Muriel's father Later on, Jimmy buys a horse at a circus auction, unaware that the nag is the prize racer which Muriel's dad lost during in a train wreck. Jimmy enters his horse in a handicap race as competition to Muriel's entry. But just before the race commences, Jimmy discovers that his horse technically belongs to Muriel, so he pulls out of the race. Hoping to make amends for past injuries, Muriel dons a jockey's uniform and rides Jimmy's horse to victory, restoring his family's fortunes and rekindling his love. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dashing Norman Kerry wasn't exactly what one would call a "cowboy" type, but that didn't stop his home studio of Universal from casting him in Under Western Skies. The plot centers around two basic incidents: A wild horse roundup and a championship hurdling race. Bob Erskin (Norman Kerry) captures and tames a magnificent wild stallion then rides the horse to victory in the race. Much of the climax was filmed during the real-life Pendleton Round-Up, an annual Oregon event. Critics who carped that the storyline of Under Western Skies was shaky had no complaints about the thrill-packed finale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Once he was established as a star, light comedian Douglas MacLean began producing his own films. This was one of a string of entertaining, successful pictures. Jimmy Clark (MacLean) and his pal, Algy Baker (Robert Ober), are American tourists traveling through Europe. Jimmy instantly falls in love with another American visitor, Betty Perry (Anne Cornwall), but because he accidentally hands her father (E.J. Ratcliffe) a trick cigar, he gets himself in hot water. Nevertheless he manages to meet Betty, except he is mistaken for J.K. Roberts, famed American mountain climber. The real Roberts (Lee Shumway) allows the ruse to go on, just to teach Jimmy a lesson. Thus Jimmy -- who has never climbed a hill -- is forced to scale the Alps. After many near-death experiences -- including a hilarious encounter with a bear -- Jimmy makes it to the top but then he falls, gathering snow until he becomes a human snowball. Betty gets caught up in the snowball as it rolls down the mountain, creating an avalanche. When the snowball finally comes to a stop at the foot of the mountain, it breaks open to reveal the couple embracing. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Dapper, diminutive screen comedian Monty Banks stars in Keep Smiling. The inventor of an automatically inflatable life jacket, Banks gets an opportunity to demonstrate his invention after saving the life of Rose (Anne Cornwall), the daughter of steamboat executive Ryan (Robert Edeson). Through a series of misunderstandings, Ryan is led to believe that our hero is speedboat champion. Naturally, Banks is forced to prove his prowess in the water, leading to a typically hair-raising slapstick climax. Monty Banks may not have been the most memorable comic on the silent screen, but few moviegoers could ever forget his films' action-packed finales. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The athletic George O'Brien had shot to fame as the star of The Iron Horse just a few months before the release of this standard melodrama, adapted from Robert Service's novel.. Anne Delaney, a young widow (Cleo Madison), falls in with a brutal skipper, Mad Marrat (Harry T. Morey). He lures her and her little boy, Jerry (Buddy Smith), on board, then uses a collision to claim that the child has drowned when actually he has sent him ashore. A couple of decades later, Marrat has cast Anne aside, and Jerry has grown up (played by O'Brien) to become a feisty young man. During a prize fight, he knocks his opponent unconscious and believes he has killed him. He flees by stowing away on a ship where he meets Felicity Arden (Billie Dove), who is going to the tropics to paint. Jerry is in danger of being sent back to justice, so he escapes and swims towards shore - but that marks only the beginning. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This clever comedy-drama was based on the famed stage play by Avery Hopwood. All the actors gave enjoyable performances, even the star Hope Hampton, who was never known for her histrionic talents. Wally Saunders (Johnny Harron -- brother of Robert Harron) wants to marry chorus girl Violet Dayne (Ann Cornwall). But Wally's wealthy uncle, Stephen Lee (Wyndham Standing), refuses to give the couple his approval since he's convinced that all chorus girls are gold diggers. So Violet enlists the help of fellow chorus girl Jerry La Mar (Hampton). Jerry's no gold digger, but she agrees to vamp Lee until Violet looks like an angel by comparison. But instead of being disgusted by Jerry, Lee falls madly in love with her. When he discovers he has been tricked, he's annoyed, but he finally gives Wally and Violet his blessings. And he heads for the altar himself -- with Jerry. Comedian Louise Fadenza provides comic relief as one of the other chorus girls. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Although Lois Wilson was lovely to look at, some of her best work was in character roles. Here, the 28-year-old star plays the widowed mother of 20-year-old twins. After the death of her strait-laced husband, Mrs. Stanley (Wilson) longs for romance. Her daughter Lucy (May McAvoy) and son Bob (Robert Agnew) are not of the same mind, however, and they thoroughly hate it when their mother takes up with Charles Giddings (Elliott Dexter), a college professor. They are even more horrified when Mrs. Stanley transforms from a drab lady nearing middle age into a lively woman who brightens up the furnishings of her formerly dull home. Mrs. Stanley is finally forced to choose between her love for her children and her love for Giddings. She chooses her children, but they come to realize that their mother is better off with her beau. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This picture was one of several that Sam Wood directed for Gloria Swanson, and its lavishness shows the influence of Cecil B. DeMille -- not long before, Wood had been DeMille's assistant (and Swanson, for that matter, had been his star). Unfortunately, fancy sets and gowns was just about all it had. Its wispy story was founded on the tired cliché of the lover who believes the worst about his girl. Suzanne Ornoff (Swanson) comes to America as a successful actress because her press agent, Bud Walton (Walter Hiers, providing some comedy relief), has made up a notorious past for her. Unfortunately, her sweetheart, American artist Arnold Pell (David Powell) really does believe she was "the favorite of King Fernando," and leaves her. But Suzanne has allowed Walton to make her infamous only so she can make enough money to support her poor uncle and crippled sister, Jacqueline (Anne Cornwall). The estranged couple meet up again and Pell realizes the error of his decision to leave. His brother, Lawrence (Harrison Ford), is a doctor who cures Jacqueline, along with falling in love with her. So the film ends with two happy couples. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide