Jules Cowles Movies

Viennese-born Luise Rainer plays a young Parisian girl who attends an exclusive drama school, working nights at a factory to pay the tuition. Despite the jealousies of her fellow students, Luise allows nothing to discourage her from her goal to become as great an actress as her idol (Gale Sondergaard). The girl wins the coveted role of Joan of Arc in an upcoming play, but the victory has a bitter taste when she realizes she's beaten out her idol for the part. At the end, Luise manages to have both a happy career and a successful marriage, even though her friends (and enemies) insist that such a combination is impossible. Dramatic School is a film buff's banquet; virtually every bit player in the cast (Ann Rutherford, Lana Turner, Dick Haymes, Hans Conried, etc.) later graduated to show-biz prominence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy with musical numbers set in the Old South, Bing Crosby plays a singer (talk about a casting stretch!) from Philadelphia named Tom Grayson, who has fallen in love with Southern heiress Elvira Rumford (Gail Patrick). Tom wants to marry Elvira, but a man called Major Patterson (John Miljan) has announced his desire to do the same, and he challenges Tom to a duel to decide who will have Elvira's hand. Tom is not at all agreeable to this idea, which leads Elvira's father (Claude Gillingwater) to proclaim Tom to be a coward and deny him permission to wed his daughter. Elvira's sister Lucy (Joan Bennett), who is infatuated with Tom, thinks that he's merely being sensible, but Tom thinks that Lucy is too young for a serious relationship. In need of work and not especially welcome in the Rumford's community, Tom takes a job performing on a riverboat piloted by the blustery Commodore Orlando Jackson (W.C. Fields). One night, Tom finds himself in a barroom brawl with a man named Captain Blackie (Fred Kohler), who dies accidentally from a shot fired by his own gun. Hoping that his infamy will draw crowds, Jackson begins billing Tom as "The Singing Killer." Tom comes to realize that Lucy may be the right woman for him after all, but Lucy is not interested in a man with blood on his hands, and now Tom must convince her that he's not a killer at all. Noted gambling aficionado Fields has a hilarious poker-playing bit, and he steals most of his scenes from the rest of the cast. Mississippi was loosely based on the play "Magnolia" by Booth Tarkington. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Directed by former screenwriter Ford I. Beebe, this Tim McCoy Western from Columbia co-starred Robert Allen, a handsome studio contractee groomed for Western stardom. Allen played Johnny Kane, an escaped prisoner wrongly convicted of murder. McCoy, as Texas Ranger Tim McDonald, believes in Johnny's innocence and prevents a fellow lawman (Charles "Slim" Whitaker) from killing him. Kicked out of the corps for helping Johnny escape, Tim goes to Mill Valley where he takes over the local newspaper, bequeathed to him by Alexander (Samuel S. Hinds), the slain publisher of "the Ledger." He lands in the middle of a political struggle between two factions, one of whom is headed by Daniel Heston (Guy Usher), a corrupt politician, and the man who killed the publisher. Tim takes up the fight against Heston, who hires gunslinger Garvey (Jack Rockwell) to assassinate him. The former ranger is saved by Johnny, who arrives at the last moment to rope the gun from Garvey's hand. Heston retaliates by revealing Tim to have been dishonorably discharged from the rangers and "the Ledger" is mysteriously fire-bombed. Despite the odds, Tim and Gloria (Billie Seward), Alexander's daughter, manage to print an election day edition by using old wallpaper. A button found at the scene of a crime proves to belong to Heston and both Tim and Johnny are vindicated. Leading lady Billie Seward would appear in a total of five Tim McCoy Westerns, Robert Allen in three. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Previously filmed with Lillian Gish in 1926, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter was given a remarkably faithful treatment by low-budget Majestic Pictures in 1934. In her last film appearance, Colleen Moore stars as 17th-century Salem resident Hester Prynne, who when she delivers a child out of wedlock is forced by the prudish townspeople to wear the scarlet "A" for adultery. The father of the baby is none other than Reverend Dimmesdale (Hardie Albright), who wants to confess to his indiscretion but is prohibited from doing so by the pious Hester. Things come to a sorry pass when Hester's long-missing husband Roger Chillingworth (Henry B. Walthall, repeating his role from the 1926 version) returns to Salem and demands a few immediate answers. The film's colonial-era milieu is not always realized, due to inconsistent period costumes and phraseology; also, the direction and acting ranges from adequate to stilted. Still, this Scarlet Letter is a lot more worthwhile than Demi Moore's vanity remake of 1995. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A vengeful cowpoke rides out for revenge against the cattle rustlers who killed his pa in this western. Along the way, he finds and adopts a cuddly little baby. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A couple of silent screen "names," Edmund Burns and Molly O'Day flounder badly in this penny-ante shipboard melodrama from Poverty Row producer Larry Darmour. Second-billed Burns plays Richard Charters, a young man imprisoned for a murder he didn't commit. Escaping, Richard dons a beard and while hiding out in a dockside dive overhears a plot to steal a sunken treasure after it had been salvaged by Captain McCall (James Donnelly). After a chance meeting with the captain's flirtatious daughter, Ann (star-billed O'Day), and her pet monkey, Richard stows away on McCall's ship. His presence, however, is revealed when he comes to the rescue of Ann, who is being mauled by Johnson (Walter Long), the villainous first mate. Although cornered by the crooks, Richard manages not only to save the day for Captain McCall and Ann but also catch the villain, Killer Lundgren (William F. Moran), who sent him to prison in the first place. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a young man slated to inherit a big fortune is conned into dressing up as Napoleon by his aunt and uncle who tell him he is to attend a costume ball. Instead, they take him to an asylum and have him committed. Fortunately, he, a nurse, and several inmates manage to escape and return to his home where he manages to get rid of his troublesome relatives. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Sal of Singapore contains only two reels' worth of dialogue, but it was enough to prove that Phyllis Haver's decision to retire from films in 1929 was a wise one. Haver plays the title character, a saloon habitue who catches the eye of burly Captain Ericcson (Alan Hale). Invited on board Ericcson's boat, Sal assumes it's business as usual, but she's wrong: A baby has been left in the Captain's care, and Sal has been "elected" to care for the infant. Her latent maternal instincts aroused, Sal of Singapore metamorphoses into a model of respectability. Viewers with long memories quickly recognized Sal of Singapore as a remake of the Richard Barthelmess vehicle Scarlet Seas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Canine star Rin-Tin-Tin had dozens of movie competitors and imitators. One of the best of these was FBO Studios' Ranger the Dog,, the "hero" of 1928's Dog Law. Ranger races to the rescue when human protagonist Robert Sweeney is framed on a murder charge. The actual killer is Jules Cowles (previously a prominent blackface comedian), whom the faithful Fido chases to the edge of a cliff. Cowles falls to his death, but not before Sweeney has been proven innocent by heroine Mary Mabery. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

George McManus' long-running domestic comic strip Bringing Up Father was brought to the screen by William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan Pictures. Reportedly, Hearst had approached vaudeville's Three Keatons (Joe, Myra and young Buster) to star in this project back in 1916, but Joe Keaton hated films and turned the newspaper mogul down flat. This 1928 film stars J. Farrell McDonald and Polly Moran as nouveau riche Irish-Americans Jiggs and Maggie, with Gertrude Olmstead as their pretty daughter Ellen. Despite his wealth, Jiggs prefers keeping company with his old drinking buddies at the greasy-spoon emporium owned by Dinty Moore (Jules Cowles), but social-climbing Maggie has loftier ambitions, among them a wealthy marriage between Ellen and a hand-kissing Count (Andres de Segurola). With Jiggs' covert help, Ellen is able to spend her time with her true love Dennis (Grant Withers), leading to a wealth of farcical complications. The magnificent Marie Dressler is wasted in the comparatively minor role of Dinty Moore's wife Annie, a role created solely for the purpose of reteaming Dressler with her Callahans and the Murphys cohort Polly Moran. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Road to Romance is a heavily Hollywoodized adaptation of the Joseph Conrad/Ford Maddox Ford novel Romance (which served as the film's title in Great Britain). Ramon Novarro stars as Jose Armando, a Spanish dragoon captain who goes undercover to save the fair Seranida (Marceline Day) from a forced marriage to corrupt judge Don Balthasar (Roy D'Arcy). Posing as a buccaneer, Jose travels to a lawless Caribbean island, where he is able to wander amongst the villains with impunity, biding his time until his final assault on Balthasar's stronghold. Just as the judge is about to have his way with the girl, Jose reveals his true colors, setting the stage for a grand-scale swashbuckling conclusion. The casting of Ramon Novarro necessitated the changing of Conrad and Ford's English-aristocrat hero into a high-born Spaniard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the classic American novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, this silent period drama was put together by star Lillian Gish, who was forced by Louis B. Mayer to assure religious groups that the still-controversial material would not offend their sensibilities. Gish plays heroine Hester Prynne, who becomes the object of affection for Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale (Lars Hanson) in 17th century colonial Massachusetts. Hester is in a loveless marriage to Roger Prynne (Henry B. Walthall), who has not followed her to the colonies. After a trip home to England, Dimmesdale returns to discover that Hester has given birth to his daughter, Pearl, and has been branded with a scarlet letter "A" (for adultery) that she is forced to wear visibly on her person at all times. Hester forces the tortured Dimmesdale to keep the secret of Pearl's paternity, and the sudden appearance of Roger, who was shipwrecked and kidnapped by natives, further complicates matters. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide