Jane Cowl Movies

A woman is torn between a comfortable lie and the painful truth in this drama. After she is abandoned by her unfaithful boyfriend Stephen Morely (Lyle Bettger), Helen Ferguson (Barbara Stanwyck) discovers that she's pregnant, and she has no choice but to go home to her family. Shortly after boarding the train, Helen meets Hugh and Patrice Harkness (Richard Denning and Phyllis Thaxter), a recently married couple who are travelling to visit Hugh's parents, who have yet to met his bride. Patrice, who is also with child, strikes up a conversation with Helen, and allows her to try on her beautiful wedding ring. Moments later, the train becomes involved in a terrible accident in which Hugh and Patrice are killed; because she was still wearing Patrice's ring, Helen is mistaken for the late Mrs. Harkness by Hugh's parents (Jane Cowl and Henry O'Neill), and is taken home with them as she recovers and has her baby. Helen begins to feel a part of the family until Stephen arrives, demanding money to keep her true identity a secret. No Man of Her Own was remade in 1996 as the comedy Mrs. Winterbourne. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

After the film-noir melodramatics of Lady in the Lake and Ride the Pink Horse, actor/director Robert Montgomery turned to comedy in Once More, My Darling. Montgomery plays a former movie idol hired by the government to woo a young heiress (Ann Blyth). Someone had previously given the girl some jewelry stolen by the Nazis during the war, and the government wants to find out who that someone was. In the grand tradition, Montgomery pursues Blyth until she finally catches him. Produced by longtime Alfred Hitchcock associate Joan Harrison, Once More, My Darling is more conservatively directed than Montgomery's earlier works, though the director earns at least one laugh by playing a clever editing joke. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director Sidney Franklin originally adapted Jane Murfin and Jane Cowl's play Smilin' Through for the silver screen in a 1922 silent film starring Norma Talmadge and (the other) Harrison Ford. Remaking his own film, Franklin directed Norma Shearer in this 1932 talkie. Leslie Howard plays John Carteret, an old man whose fiancée (Shearer) was killed on their wedding day by her jilted former suitor (Fredric March). Years later, Carteret is forced to take care of his orphaned niece Kathleen (also Shearer), who looks exactly like his his former betrothed. The niece soon falls in love with Kenneth Wayne (also March), the son of the jilted suitor. Filled with bitterness and resentment about the past, Carteret does all that he can to stand in the way of the blossoming romance. Smilin' Through was once again adapted in a 1941 version directed by Frank Borzage and starring Jeanette MacDonald. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Disillusioned by her own failed romances, a stern, aged aunt refuses to grant her niece permission to marry a young soldier who is preparing to fight WW I in France. To further convince her, the aunt brings forth her diary and hands it to the willful girl. Most of this silent melodrama tells the aunt's sad story. It began during the Civil War when she was a young bride. Her husband's brother is having an affair with a married woman. In order to stop the matter, the aunt's husband visits the woman. Unfortunately, her husband walks in and thinking that the fellow is the philanderer, shoots him dead. Meanwhile, the poor aunt, who knew nothing about the incident was left believing that her husband was cheating upon her. Utterly crushed, the aunt turns away from foolish notions of romance. She hopes she can prevent her niece from making the same mistake. Things look bleak until the niece finds an unopened letter that explains the whole situation and allows the ailing old aunt to die with her faith in true love restored. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide