Kathryn Crawford Movies
Beautiful brunette Kathryn Crawford appeared in the chorus of the Broadway musical Hit the Deck prior to making her screen debut opposite Glenn Tryon in Universal's The Kid's Clever (1929), a silent comedy about the inventor of a fuel free engine who falls in love with a car manufacturer's daughter. Crawford was perky enough as the lovesick debutante and downright exotic as Ken Maynard's leading lady in Señor Americano (1929), also from Universal. But she was wasted in the gigantic King of Jazz (1930) and rather upstaged by co-stars Carole Lombard and Virginia Bruce in the musical comedy Safety in Numbers (1930). Having left films in 1933, Kathryn Crawford should not be confused with the later television actress Katherine Crawford. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
A girl reporter discovers that her own father runs a shady "school of fine arts" (read brothel) in this independently made potboiler directed by former silent screen actor Elmer Clifton. When several naive young girls turned "nightclub entertainers" end up dead, snoop sister Nora Page (Astrid Allwyn) enrolls herself in the Crescent School of Fine Arts, a recruiting center for King Peterson's (Philip Van Zandt) notorious nitery. Things get a bit dicey when Nora's ally, a young district attorney (John Archer), is found in a compromising situation with one of the girls (Patricia Knox) but Nora, with the assistance of Police Captain McVeigh (H. B. Warner), follows a different trail, a trail that leads directly to her own father, a supposedly upstanding theatrical agent (Boyd Irwin). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- H.B. Warner, Astrid Allwyn, (more)
- 1933
Monogram's Skyway stars Ray Walker in his usual role as a brash troublemaker who can't hold down a job. This time he's a hot-shot aviator who loses a bank-clerk job, much to the chagrin of his sweetheart Kathryn Crawford, the bank-president's daughter. Making matters worse, Walker is being held responsible for thousands of dollars in missing funds. Climbing into his trusty plane, our hero chases down the actual miscreant, an embezzling vice president, simultaneously saving his reputation and his romance in the process. The film moves quickly enough for audiences to happily ignore the many plot holes. Elements of both Skyway and the like-vintage Ray Walker vehicle He Couldn't Take It were later reworked into the inaugural Bowery Boys entry Live Wires (1946). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arthur Vinton, Jed Prouty, (more)
- 1932
Emma is a turn-of-the-century domestic drama completely dominated by star Marie Dressler. She plays the maid of an upper middle class family, keeping her wits about her as her employers suffer crisis after crisis. When the master of the house (Jean Hersholt), a prominent inventor, is widowed, he proposes marriage to Emma. Shortly afterward, Hersholt dies, and Emma, who has married "out of her class", is accused of murder by Hersholt's jealous children. Cleared of the accusation, Emma turns over her inheritance to the selfish children and heads off to work for another family, once again making the best of any and all bad situations. Emma very nearly won Marie Dressler her second Academy Award; five minutes into the film, the modern viewer will be amazed that Ms. Dressler lost--even taking in consideration that the winner in 1932 was Katharine Hepburn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marie Dressler, Richard Cromwell, (more)
- 1932
New Morals for Old was the teasing title for a somewhat sedate film about the ongoing rejection of middle-class values by the youth of America. Robert Young, Myrna Loy, Donald Cook and Margaret Perry are among the freethinking young folk whose attitudes clash with those of their elders (including Lewis Stone, Laura Hope Crews and Jean Hersholt). The film's main crisis is nothing more scandalous than Robert Young's plans to pursue an art career over his father's objections. In an ironic coda, the younger people eventually marry, settle down, and become moralistic fuddy-duddies themselves. New Morals for Old was based on the John Van Druten play After All, which was set in London and thus added class consciousness to the basic generation-gap theme. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Young, Margaret Perry, (more)
- 1931
Flying High was a nonsensical Broadway musical hit of 1930 starring Bert Lahr. The film version, made one year later by MGM, made a few efforts to "cinematize" the stage original, but the focus was on Lahr, re-creating his Broadway performance virtually verbatim -- except for his famous (and notorious) gag sequence involving a urinalysis! Lahr plays the goofy inventor of an "aerocopter" flying machine, who is compelled to prove the efficiency of his invention in a slapstick cross-country airmail delivery race. While Lahr's original Broadway co-star Kate Smith does not appear in the film, he was more than amply matched comedically by Charlotte Greenwood. The musical numbers for Flying High were choreographed by Busby Berkeley; one of his more engaging routines was later excerpted for the 1934 Ted Healy/Three Stooges two-reeler Plane Nuts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bert Lahr, Charlotte Greenwood, (more)
- 1930
Anita Garvin, the willowy brunette comedienne who graced many a Laurel & Hardy comedy, once remarked with a mixture of pride and sarcasm that she'd been in "the worst film ever directed by Leo McCarey."Red Hot Rhythm isn't quite as bad as Garvin remembered, but it certainly isn't representative of McCarey at his best. Alan Hale heads the cast as a duplicitous songwriter who makes his living stealing the tunes of others and passing them off as his own. He makes the mistake of his life, however, when he double-crosses heroine Katherine Crawford. Nominal leading man Walter O'Keefe later became a popular Los Angeles radio and TV host. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Josephine Dunn, Walter O'Keefe, (more)
- 1930
In this lightweight musical comedy, an aspiring songwriter tries to make it big on Broadway. Later his uncle decides to show him all about the world and so hires three gorgeous show girls to take him around the Big Apple. All three of the opportunistic young lasses find themselves attracted to the man; of course it doesn't hurt that he is heir to $350 million. He does choose one of them. Songs include: "My Future Just Passed", "The Pickup" "Business Girl", "Pepola", "I'd Like to Be a Bee in Your Boudoir", "You Appeal to Me" and "Do You Play, Madame?" (George Marion, Jr., Richard A. Whiting, sung by Buddy Rogers). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Kathryn Crawford, (more)
- 1930
Hoot Gibson's final film for his old Alma Mater, Universal, this early sound Western was played solely for laughs. Ranch hand Gibson is in love with a radio songstress (Kathryn Crawford) and bets his colleagues that he can make her marry him. All dressed up and on his way to propose, the Concentratin' Kid learns that the ranch has been rustled and the songbird kidnapped and caged. The kidnapper (James Mason) needs the girl to help decorate his home! "The Hooter" left his longtime employer after fifteen years of filling Carl Laemmle's coffers. His bitterness was understandable, but Gibson was no longer in the bloom of youth and following a series of very low-budget oaters produced by poverty row company Allied between 1931 and 1933, he spent the remainder of his career in supporting roles. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hoot Gibson, Kathryn Crawford, (more)
- 1930
Western hero Ken Maynard lifted his voice in a campfire song, making the near tone-deaf actor the first "singing cowboy." Other than Ken's warbling and sound in general, Mountain Justice told the rather timeworn Western story of a young man searching for his father's killer. Jud McTavish (Otis Harlan) is ambushed and shot on his Oklahoma ranch. The only clue to the killer's identity is a letter of warning and the old man's dying words: "Kettle Creek -- Kentucky!" Young Ken McTavish travels to Kettle Creek posing as deaf in the hope that handwriting will disclose the author of the mysterious letter. It does -- in time -- but an old feud between the McTavishes and the Harlands complicates matters. As it turns out, the letter was written by lovely Coral Harland (Kathryn Crawford, who sings several songs in the film) and the two youngsters fall in love. Universal, who resumed production of series Westerns after acquiring the services of Maynard, gave the star more or less free reign on this film, which was released as a "Ken Maynard Production." Thus, Maynard was responsible for the appearance in this film of black comedian Blue Washington, whose stereotyped mugging remains awfully hard to accept for modern audiences. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ken Maynard, Otis Harlan, (more)
- 1930
The Climax is based on the 1909 play of the same name by Edward Locke. Kathryn Crawford plays Adela Donitelli, an aspiring singer who is coached to stardom by Italian voice teacher Golfanti (Jean Hersholt), who'd performed the same miracle for Adela's opera-diva mother. Along the way, our heroine falls in love with Golfanti's son Pietro (John Reinhardt), only to toss the boy aside in favor of handsome Dr. Gardoni (LeRoy Mason). When her voice begins failing her, Adela submits to an operation, to be performed by the brilliant Gardoni. Unfortunately, Gardoni's less-talented assistant bungles the operation, rendering the girl voiceless. Feeling responsible for this tragedy, Gardoni marries Adela, but gallantly steps aside when she regains her voice and renews her romance with Pietro. One suspects that this wasn't believable even in 1930 -- or 1909, for that matter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Hersholt, Kathryn Crawford, (more)
- 1930
In this drama, a convict breaks out of jail and winds up going to college. There he joins the rowing team and helps them to win. Unfortunately, just as he is preparing to row the big race, a pursuing detective appears to arrest him. The detective makes him an interesting deal: if he deliberately loses the race, he will be freed; if he wins, he must return to prison. The convict cannot bear to deliberately lose the race and so wins it anyway. The detective then tells him that he only did that to see if the young man had really gone straight. He passed the test in flying colors and is freed. Songs include: "Just You and I" (Sam Perry,Clarence J. Marks), and "Wandering Onward." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kathryn Crawford, Carl Stockdale, (more)
- 1929
Two-reel comedy producer Hal Roach was too busy switching over to sound in 1929 to bother with making feature films, which is one of the reasons that popular Roach star Charley Chase made his first and only starring feature, Modern Love, at Universal. The spindly Mr. Chase plays John Jones, the husband of dress designer Patricia Brown (Kathryn Crawford). For business purposes, Patricia is forced to pretend that she isn't married, leading to all manner of ticklish complications for her hapless husband. John poses as Patricia's butler, waiting until after midnight to try to sneak into his own wife's boudoir -- if the nosy neighbors will let him, that is. Featured in the cast is statuesque comedienne Anita Garvin, one of Charley Chase's favorite co-stars on the Hal Roach lot. That Modern Love apparently no longer exists is a genuine tragedy for comedy lovers in general and Charley Chase fans in particular; although he would later play choice supporting roles in such Roach features as Sons of the Desert and Kelly the Second, this brilliant, underrated funster would never again be afforded the opportunity to carry a picture any longer than two or three reels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charley Chase, Jean Hersholt, (more)
- 1929
Not a remake of the pre-1920 film of the same name, The Kid's Clever was Glenn Tryon's last silent vehicle; he would pursue a brief talkie acting career before going behind the cameras as a producer. On this occasion, Tryon plays Bugs Raymond, a would-be inventor who has developed a car that runs without gasoline or any other kind of fuel. Through the auspices of Ruth Decker (Kathryn Crawford), daughter of automobile magnate John Decker (Russell Simpson), Bugs is able to stage a demonstration of his invention. The test run goes disastrously wrong, but it turns out that this is the handiwork of Bug's crooked rival Ashton Steele (Lloyd Whitlock). Things are set aright when Bugs and Ruth virtually kidnap Decker and force him to take another test ride -- this one a smashing success. Black comedian Stepin Fetchit is seen in a tiny role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Russell Simpson
- 1929
Though Universal temporarily abandoned its western product when talkies came in, a few of its 1929 silent sagebrushers were released with audible sequences. Completed as a silent, Senor Americano was 85% reshot for the benefit of the microphone. Set in Old California, the film concerns the exploits of U.S. Cavalry officer Ken Maynard, who is dedicated to keeping the territory safe from bandits and plunderers. Top-billed Katherine Crawford is cast as the fair senorita whose heart is captured by the dashing "Senor Americano". Both Maynard and Crawford are given ample opportunities to sing, which both do with enthusiasm if not great skill (Maynard, however, would continue to inflict cowboy ballads on his faithful fans for the next ten years). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ken Maynard, Kathryn Crawford, (more)
- 1929
One of Hoot Gibson's final silent westerns (and a sequel to the popular Chip of the Flying U (1926)), King of the Rodeo presented the canny star as a rodeo champion from Montana getting himself ready for the big Chicago meet. There are, of course, a couple of bad guys to be dealt with along the way (including Monte Montague, here playing a character aptly named Weasel) and at one point, Gibson chases one of them through the traffic-jammed streets of Chicago. With the hayseed Slim Summerville and veteran slapstick comic Harry Todd to take care of the laughs and character actress Bodil Rosing as Gibson's devoted ma, wringing out a tear or two, a good time was had by all. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
