Joseph Crehan Movies
American actor Joseph Crehan bore an uncanny resemblance to Ulysses S. Grant and appeared as Grant in a number of historical features, notably They Died With Their Boots On (1941) and The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944). Appearing in hundreds of other films as well, the short, snappish actor's field-commander personality assured him authoritative roles as police chiefs, small-town mayors and newspaper editors. Because he never looked young, Joseph Crehan played essentially the same types of roles throughout his screen career, even up until 1961's Judgment at Nuremberg. Perhaps Joseph Crehan's oddest appearance is in a film he never made; in West Side Story (1961), it is Crehan's face that appears on those ubiquitous political campaign posters in the opening Jets vs. Sharks sequences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1934
This is the second movie version of Willa Cather's Pulitzer Prize winning novel that tells the story of a bride-to-be whose fiance is near-fatally injured by the jealous husband of a woman he had an affair with. The poor young woman is so upset by the situation that she swears she will never love another and takes off to live in an isolated mountain retreat. There she feels terribly sorry for herself. One day she is moping along a rough trail, falls and hurts herself. Fortunately, she is rescued by an elderly lawyer who helps her heal both physically and psychologically. The grateful girl ends up marrying him. Unfortunately she meets a handsome young man with whom she falls passionately, but chastely in love. Now she regrets marrying the old attorney. She decides to tell the lawyer her true feelings. When she is finished he promptly keels over with a heart attack. It might be noted that after Cather saw this film, she forbade the further sale of her works to Hollywood. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Stanwyck, Frank Morgan, (more)
- 1934
James Cagney runs a shady missing-heir tracing service, occasionally providing phony heirs in order to collect his fee. He suffers a tinge of jealousy when he takes a gander at the offices of a legitimate tracing firm, where his former girlfriend (Bette Davis) has taken a job. Jimmy soon learns that the reputable organization's boss (Alan Dinehart) is more crooked than Jimmy ever was, but he can't convince the girl of this fact. Using his own street smarts, Cagney exposes the "honest" heir tracer and agrees to go straight if his girl will come back to him. At the time Jimmy the Gent was filmed, James Cagney was getting tired of the formula pictures being handed him; rather than go on suspension, he expressed his displeasure by shaving his hair almost down to the bone, which is why he appears in this film with an uncharacteristic buzz-cut. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, Bette Davis, (more)
- 1934
After briefly enjoying an "A" budget as Mae West's vis-a-vis in Belle of the Nineties, Johnny Mack Brown returned to the "B"-picture mills with Columbia's Against the Law. Brown plays ambulance driver Steve Wayne, whose devotion to his interne pal Bert Andrews (George Meeker) supersedes all else in his life, including his romance with Martha Gray (Sally Blane). When Bert gets mixed up with gangsters, Steve tries to bail him out, nearly losing his job as a result. Ultimately Bert is bumped off by the villains, leading to a pulse-pounding climax as Steve commandeers his ambulance to bring the mob to justice. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Johnny Mack Brown, Sally Blane, (more)
- 1934
Another of western star Tim McCoy's non-westerns for Columbia, Voice in the Night casts McCoy as telephone-company owner Tim Dale. The hero's operation is a small one, but it offers formidable competition for the rival firm owned by Tim's distant relative Robinson (Joseph Crehan). The plot thickens when Tim falls in love with Robinson's daughter Barbara (Billie Seward). In an exciting climax, Tim is obliged to stretch a telephone wire across a sickeningly deep canyon -- and if there's any doubt that he accomplishes this, it's only because the doubter has never seen the star in action. Voice in the Night may not technically be a western, but Tim McCoy remains tall in the saddle even while driving a roadster. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Billie Seward, (more)
- 1933
Hopscotching between westerns and modern-dress actioners in 1933, Tim McCoy once more finds himself at large in the Big City in Hold The Press. The bane of the police department, crime reporter McCoy insists upon conducting his own investigation when a baffling murder occurs. At one point, he is knocked out while snooping where he doesn't belong; at another, he feigns drunkenness (even unto smearing his lips with booze) to throw the bad guys off the track. It goes without saying that not only does our hero gather enough evidence to convict the villains, but also wins the heroine (Shirley Grey). Real-life journalists tended to treat films like Hold The Press derisively, though one suspects they secretly enjoyed them. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Shirley Grey, (more)
- 1931
In this drawing room drama, an impetuous heiress goes on a cruise and ends up marrying a Latin gigolo on a whim. Her father then dies, and as soon as her devoted husband discovers that the old man died destitute, he takes off. Now the girl must work; she gets a job as her father's best friend's wife's social secretary. The former socialite finds herself tormented by her boss's rotten daughter. Even so, when the mean young woman finds herself involved in a murder, it is the ex-socialite who tries to help her cover up the crime. Later the heroine's conniving ex-husband tries to blackmail her boss with the information. Trouble ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudette Colbert, Herbert Marshall, (more)
- 1931
Nancy Carroll's popularity enabled her to survive the melodramatic excesses of Stolen Heaven with little if any damage to her career. Carroll plays Mary, the streetwalker sweetheart of born-loser Joe (Phillips Holmes). Engineering a $20,000 robbery, Mary and Joe draw up a pact to spend all the money foolishly and then commit suicide. But as time passes, they decide that they might as well live. Joe confesses to the robbery and willingly marches off to jail, secure in the understanding that Mary will await his return. Louis Calhern makes an excellent first impression as the film's nominal villain, only to completely disappear from view in the final scenes. The 1938 musical drama Stolen Heaven is not a remake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nancy Carroll, Phillips Holmes, (more)
- 1916
Desperately tired of playing man-eating "vamps," Theda Bara begged to play Ouida's 1901 Foreign Legion heroine, "Cigarette," in the fourth screen version of this enduring drama. The Legion's mascot, Cigarette falls for an Englishman, Bertie Cecil (Herbert Heyes), and when he is sentenced to a firing squad, she heroically takes the bullet herself. Directed by Bara regular J. Gordon Edwards (the step-grandfather of Blake Edwards), Under Two Flags was a major critical and popular success despite obvious Long Island locations standing in for the North African desert. Making his screen debut in this film, handsome but somewhat stodgy Herbert Heyes embarked on a long career than lasted until the late '50s; he is perhaps best remembered for playing Montgomery Clift's millionaire uncle in A Place in the Sun (1951). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
