Helene Costello Movies

The stringent censorship imposed upon Hollywood of the mid-1930s dictated that gangsters could no longer be the "heroes" in any crime film. Public Hero No. 1 reflects this restriction. G-Man Chester Morris poses as a crook to infiltrate the notorious Purple Gang, a band of hoodlums which preys upon other hoodlums. Orchestrating the jailbreak of the Gang's leader (Joseph Calleia), Morris joins him in a Dillinger-like flight across the country. The bloody denouement, which occurs in a vaudeville theatre, is likewise drawn from the Dillinger saga (that particular gentleman was of course killed in front of a movie house). Also featured in Public Hero No. 1 is Jean Arthur as the heroine (a comic role) and Lionel Barrymore as a drunken gang doctor. The film was remade as The Getaway in 1942. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a junkman, Maurice Chevalier in his American film debut, rescues a drowning boy from the Seine. The boy's mother had been attempting to kill herself and her son as well. The junkman cannot save the mother. He takes the boy to his grandfather. There he encounters the boy's aunt with whom he falls in love. The junkman is spotted while singing in the Flea Market and is hired to sing in a music hall. One of the owners is afraid that the junkman will fall for one of the chorines and begs him to leave, but the junkman is hooked and will not leave. Songs include: "Yes, We have No Bananas", "Les Ananas", "Dites-Moi, Ma Mere", "Louise", "Wait Till You See My Cherie", "It's A Habit of Mine", and "On Top of the World Alone" and "Valentine". ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Broken Barriers was produced by Excellent Pictures, which did not necessarily describe the quality of the film. Gaston Glass stars as a tough newspaperman who tries to expose political corruption in an unspecified major American city. When a "machine" candidate is murdered, suspicion naturally falls upon a big-time ward heeler. Glass's efforts to prove the guilt of the suspect are stymied when he falls in love with the alleged murderer's daughter (Helene Costello). In a hardly salutary comment on American journalism, Glass's publisher destroys all evidence pointing to the suspect so that the romance between the hero and the heroine can progress unimpeded. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Basically a filmed vaudeville presentation, The Show of Shows was Warner Bros.' entry in the "all star, all talking, all singing and all dancing" sweepstakes of 1929. Though slightly better than MGM's Hollywood Revue of 1929, the Warners entry pales in comparison to Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 and Paramount on Parade, due mainly to the film's master of ceremonies, the insufferable Frank Fay. Some of the individual acts seen in Show of Shows were pretty good, notably Winnie Lightner's delightful Singing in the Bathtub (a spoof of Hollywood Revue of 1929's Singin' in the Rain) and John Barrymore's brilliant rendition of Richard III's soliloquy from Shakespeare's Henry VI. Also easy to take was "Floradora Sextette," featuring such luminaries as Myrna Loy, Patsy Ruth Miller and cross-eyed comedian Ben Turpin, and "Eight Sister Acts," including such Hollywood siblings as Dolores and Helene Costello, Sally Blane and Loretta Young and Shirley Mason and Viola Dana (also teamed in this number are Ann Sothern and Marion Byron, who were not sisters). But for the most part, the acts are on a par with "Skull and Crossbones," a boring production number showcasing entertainer Ted Lewis, and "Recitations," a one-joke affair in which three different anecdotes (related by Frank Fay, Louis Fazenda, Lloyd Hamilton and Bea Lillie) are melded into one. Show of Shows was originally released in two-color Technicolor but now exists only in black in white, save for the "Chinese Fantasy" number featuring crooner Nick Lucas and Warner Bros. contractee Myrna Loy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though conceived and executed as a silent film, The Circus Kid was outfitted with a sound prolog and music and sound-effects track so it could pass muster as a talkie. Pint-sized Frankie Darro, no mean acrobat in real life, stars as a preteen circus performer. Darro becomes an unwilling sidelines observer of a romantic triangle involving equestrienne Helene Costello, lion-tamer Joe E. Brown (in a rare dramatic performance) and circus newcomer Sam Nelson. The climax finds Brown being mauled to death by his own lions (a sequence that sparked Brown's first real-life heart attack-though not because of the lions, who were relatively benign). One critic summed up The Circus Kid with a terse "You can sleep through it." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When a wealthy recluse apparently commits suicide, his trusted friend Rex Lease is put in charge of the estate. Lease is ordered to locate the dead man's long-lost son and daughter and inform them of their legacy. The two beneficiaries turn out to be the owners of a run-down racetrack. Falling in love with the daughter (Helene Costello), Lease tries to rejuvenate the track with a high-stakes horse race. Complications ensue when a crooked lawyer tries to undo all of Lease's good works. The film's surprise ending is virtually the only original aspect of Phantom of the Turf. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Contrary to popular belief, no one speaks into microphones hidden in vases in this, the first 100% "all-talking" feature film, although an oversized telephone prop is rather conveniently placed near the actors in one long sequence. Although not nearly as crude as its tattered reputation, Lights of New York is far from thrilling, however. Not so much due to the later so maligned sound-on-disc Vitaphone system, but mainly because this was really a quickie B-Movie helmed by a first time director, Bryan Foy, who seems to have been little more than an inefficient traffic cop. Not that there is all that much traffic in this stage-bound melodrama about Eddie (Cullen Landis), a young kid from Upstate New York conned into fronting for a speakeasy on Broadway. There is the inevitable chorus-girl with a heart of gold (top-billed Helene Costello), the downtrodden floozy (Gladys Brockwell), and a cop-killing gangster boss, Hawk Miller (Wheeler Oakman), whom screenwriters Hugh Herbert and Murray Roth furnished with the film's one memorable line. With the cops closing in on him, Hawk needs a patsy. Planting contraband in poor Eddie's shop, the gang leader then instructs his henchmen to "take. . .him. . .for. . .a. . .ride!" Oakman speaks this much parodied line slowly and in a stentorian manner, lest the audience should fail to understand the grave implications. But Eddie escapes his "ride," and there is a final confrontation. Just as all hope seems lost, Hawk is killed by persons unknown. The murder weapon, however, belongs to the chorus girl and she is about to be arrested by no-nonsense Detective Crosby (Robert Elliott), when the real murderer -- the downtrodden floozy -- gives herself up. The performances in this historic talking picture run the gamut from inept (Costello, Landis) to over-the-top (Brockwell) to adequate (Oakman, comic sidekick Eugene Palette). Perhaps due to the newness of it all, the actors keep flubbing their line -- the poor Miss Costello being the worst offender, with Tom Dugan, a veteran supporting player, a close second. Why Warner Bros. should have chosen this pedestrian gangster melodrama as the first full-length talking picture remains a mystery. The best explanation is that the studio was merely testing the waters. Rather than a prestige project like the previous year's groundbreaking part-talkie The Jazz Singer, Lights of New York was produced for a paltry $23,000 and released not on a reserved-seat basis but in a mere grind house. But to everyone's surprise, the film went on to gross over a million dollars in its first run, proving once and for all that talkies had come to stay. Today, Lights of New York remains a museum piece but despite its tattered reputation, the gangster melodrama is really no worse than the majority of low-budget early talkies. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Warner Oland took time out from his customary screen villainy to play the title character in the sentimental backstage drama Good Time Charley. A small-time provincial actor, Charley has an ego that far outdistances his talent. Meanwhile, his old nemesis John Hartwell (Montague Love), the man indirectly responsible for the death of Charley's wife, has scaled the heights as a top Broadway producer. Spotting Charley's talented daughter Rosita (Helene Costello) in a cheap cabaret revue, Hartwell offers to make her a star. Though he'd prefer that she stay with him, Charley refuses to stand in Rosita's way. By and by, the girl marries Hartwell's son (Hugh Allen), who is disowned by the flint-hearted Hartwell Sr. Out of loyalty, Rosita quits Hartwell's show, only to be blacklisted from show business. When Charley hears about this, he insists that his longtime vaudeville partner Bill (Clyde Cook) give Rosita the money Charley had been saving for a crucial eye operation. Never realizing that her father is going blind, Rosita accepts the money and heads to England, where she and Hartwell Jr. start life anew. Existing stills indicate that the highlight of Good Time Charley was a top-hatted song-and-dance turn featuring Warner Oland and Clyde Cook. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The David Belasco play had been filmed twice previously, in 1915 and in 1921, before Warner Bros. made this version with the fetching Dolores Costello in the role made famous by Mrs. Leslie Carter. Maryland Calvert (Costello) is a true belle of the South, so when the Civil War breaks out, there is no doubt that her allegiance remains with the Confederacy. Not so Alan Kendrick (Jason Robards Sr.), her sweetheart, who joins the Union army. Thorpe, who also loves Maryland (Warner Richmond), is kicked out of the army and becomes a Confederate spy. It is Thorpe who orchestrates Kendrick's arrest. He is imprisoned and sentenced to be shot, but Maryland comes to the rescue. As her lover makes his getaway, she rushes to the alarm bell and desperately clings to its clapper to keep it from ringing and announcing his escape. Union and Confederate alliances are washed away as the couple are happily united. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Legendary (and, to some, infamous) African-American comedian Stepin Fetchit made his first screen appearance in In Old Kentucky. This second cinemazation of Charles T. Dazey's war-horse play throws out most of the original plot in favor of a new yarn involving a returning soldier (James Murray), who rescues his family estate from rack and ruin. The play's famous Kentucky Derby finale remains, however, and it's as pulse-pounding as ever. Stepin Fetchit's role of "Highpockets" provides a few oases of welcome comedy relief. In Old Kentucky would be filmed for a third time in 1935, rewritten to accommodate the talents of Will Rogers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Historically important as the first film to carry a Vitaphone sound track (consisting of music and sound effects, but no dialogue) Don Juan is a first-rate production by any standards, and would have been just as good with or without musical accompaniment. John Barrymore plays the legendary lover Don Juan, raised by his cynical father (also played by Barrymore) to "love 'em and leave 'em", and to never trust any woman. All of this changes when he meets the beautiful Adriana Della Varnese (Mary Astor). When it seems that Adriana has betrayed him in favor of a wealthy marriage to the lecherous Count Donati (Montague Love), Don Juan renounces her and returns to his rakish ways. What he doesn't know is that Adriana is a political pawn, who has been forced into an alliance with Donati by the calculating Borgias (Estelle Taylor and Noah Beery Sr.). By the time Don Juan finds out that his true love is still true, he has been tossed in prison for killing Donati in a spectacular duel. He breaks out, rescues Adriana from the Borgias' torture chamber, and escapes with his beloved to the safety of Spain. The plot is, of course, more complicated than that, but so fascinating is John Barrymore's performance that it's difficult to concentrate on anything else. The film's highlights include the out-sized duel between Barrymore and Montagu Love, capped by Barrymore's spectacular leap from the top of a huge staircase, and the torture chamber sequences, wherein Barrymore sneaks past the Borgia guards by assuming the facial characteristics of fiendish torturer Gustav von Seyfertitz--and this without makeup. "In the know" film historians may read a lot more into the Barrymore/Mary Astor love scenes than is readily apparent, forearmed as they are with the knowledge that John and Mary had once been passionate lovers offscreen. Scenarist Bess Meredyth used the Lord Byron poem Don Juan as a mere stepping stone for this imaginative, exquisitely filmed romantic adventure. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Canine star Rin Tin Tin Jr. finds himself in foggy London town in this fast-paced meller. The story doesn't make much sense, but it seems to have something to do with a vicious "ape man" who holds the city in thrall. The hirsute villain overpowers hero Walter Merrill and abducts heroine Helene Costello, whereupon Rinty springs into action. The dauntless doggie nearly tears the ape man to shreds before the London bobbies catch up with him. According to contemporary reviews, none of the human stars received as many close-ups as Rin Tin Tin, leading one wag to suggest that the dog star had inherited Gloria Swanson's press agent. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It's hard to determine who plays the title role in The Love Toy, though chances are the designation refers to the regal heroine, Princess Patricia (Helene Costello). Escaping an unwanted marriage, roguish American Peter Remsen (Lowell Sherman) finds himself in the mythical kingdom of Luzania. Making the best of the situation, he ends up taking over the nation's army and rescuing Patricia from unfriendly invaders. Lowell Sherman was at the time married to leading lady Costello, the daughter of former matinee idol Maurice Costello and the sister of Warner Bros. star Dolores Costello. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide