Karl Dane Movies

MGM's highly popular comedy team of Karl Dane and George K. Arthur starred in this silly but enjoyable silent comedy in which Dane's goofy gob (named "Stupid McDuff," no less) is hypnotized by Arthur's vaudeville magician Rollo the Great. The rangy Danish Dane and the diminutive British Arthur made a fine team, especially in service comedies. Both comedians found the sailing less smooth after the changeover to sound, however. Arthur's veddy English accent did not suit his carefully built-up persona, and Dane's Scandinavian accent was so thick that it was practically incomprehensible. Their quick fall from grace took its toll especially on Dane, who apparently due to lack of work, committed suicide in April of 1934. The team's usual foil, Josephine Dunn, lent her usual fine support to All at Sea. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The Rafael Sabatini swashbuckler Bardelys the Magnificent served as an excellent vehicle for MGM's top male star John Gilbert. Set during the regime of France's King Louis XIII, the story concerns a bold young braggart named Bardelys (Gilbert), whose sexual conquests have become legendary. When informed that there is at least one member of Louis' court who will not succumb to Bardelys' charms, our hero wagers that he will able to melt this "ice princess," a regal beauty named Roxelanne de Lavedas (Eleanor Boardman). But before he can concentrate his efforts on Roxelanne, Bardelys agrees to deliver some important diplomatic documents on behalf of a dying man named Lesperon. When it turns out that Lesperon was a traitor to the throne, Bardelys is sentenced to hang. In the final scenes, our hero desperately tries to escape his fate, while Roxelanne tearfully prepares to marry the only man who can clear Bardelys' name. Unfortunately, Bardelys the Magnificent no longer exists, though a tantalizingly brief excerpt appears in the Marion Davies comedy Show People. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Circus Rookies was a by-the-numbers vehicle for MGM's Mutt-and-Jeff comedy team of George K. Arthur and Karl Dane. As indicated by the title, our heroes -- this time playing a reporter named Francis Byrd and an animal trainer named Oscar Thrush -- join a travelling circus, where they are put to work as menial laborers. Francis and Oscar are smitten by pretty aerialist Belle (Louise Lorraine), prompting both men to perform some rather foolhardy feats of valor. Despite their monumental stupidity, the boys manage to save Belle and everyone else in the circus when a crazed gorilla (played by cowboy star Fred Humes!) goes on a rampage in a runaway train. Circus Rookies was followed in short order by two more Arthur-Dane epics, Brotherly Love and All at Sea, each film cut from the same formula cloth. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cowboy Mark King (Tom Mix) comes to the aid of an old miner, Honeycutt (George Berrell) who, in gratitude, reveals the location of a secret gold mine. To get to the mine, however, King must fight an evil claim jumper, Gratton (Robert Cain), whose fiance, Gloria (Alice Calhoun), he once saved from falling off a cliff. The hero defeats Gratton in a showdown and wins both the gold and the girl. Despite the trite plot, the trade-paper Motion Picture New classed Everlasting Whisper as "distinctly high grade." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Norma Shearer, who hadn't yet become the queen of the MGM lot (or won mogul Irving Thalberg as her husband), stars in this comedy with Lew Cody. Ruth Lawrence (Shearer) is the stenographer for David Colman (Cody) and John Sloden (Willard Louis). The two men are less than impressed with Ruth's appearance, since she wears dowdy clothes and no makeup. Colman, in fact, says he wouldn't kiss her for a thousand dollars. Ruth overhears his remark and decides to teach him a lesson. While on a business trip with Sloden, Ruth finds a beauty specialist and undergoes a transformation. Now that she is breathtakingly gorgeous, she brings Colman to his knees. He calls on her, but she has conspired with the janitor (Karl Dane) that as soon as Colman begins kissing her, he will show up and claim that she is his wife. Finally, Ruth confesses the trick to Colman and they end the film together. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Joan Crawford and Johnny Mack Brown star in this high budget horse opera from M-G-M. She is Joan Prescott, a spoiled debutante en route to the family ranch in Montana and he is the cowboy she meets and marries after impulsively departing the train at a whistle stop. Surprising everyone, Papa Prescott (Lloyd Ingraham) is only too willing to welcome Larry Carrigan (Mack Brown) into the family, Larry being exactly the opposite of the slick society swells that Joan usually dates. But our Joan just can't help cutting the rug with old beau Jeff Pelham (Ricardo Cortez) and a jealous Larry slugs him. An angry Joan hops the next train back to New York but suddenly finds herself a victim of a gang of outlaws. A gang that seems mighty familiar! Co-written by executive producer Irving Thalberg's sister Sylvia, Montana Moon comes complete with songs by house composers Arthur Freed, Nacio Herb Brown and Herbert Stothart, including "The Moon is Low", "Happy Cowboy" and "Let Me Give You Love". ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Certainly the best-known of the out-and-out WWI propaganda films, My Four Years in Germany is also one of the silliest of the batch. The film was based on the book by James W. Gerard, who from 1913 to 1917 served as the American ambassador to Germany. Gerard, an avowed and somewhat rabid anti-German, also worked on the film; according to historian Kevin Brownlow, the former ambassador helped director William Nigh locate the actors who most closely resembled their real-life German counterparts (Gerard himself was played by Halbert Brown). Concentrating on the most extreme examples of German brutality -- the POW camps, the mass executions, the systematic humiliation of conquered countries -- the film "authenticated" its images by constantly flashing subtitles reading "FACT, NOT FICTION!" Not above resorting to caricature to make its points, the film depicts the Kaiser (Louis Dean) as a leering Devil Incarnate, and his General Staff as a collection of inbred morons. For example, Admiral Triplitz is seen playing with toy battleships, while Chancellor Von Bethmann-Holweig (played by Swedish actor Karl Dane, long before his prominence as a screen comedian) is likewise shown wasting his time in childish pursuits (Conversely, the enthusiastic bayonetting of half a dozen "Huns" by an American soldier, a scene that cannot be watched today without wincing, was treated as perfectly normal behavior!) While the atrocities of WWI were quite real, however, the re-creation of those outrages in My Four Years in Germany were purely the product of the filmmakers' imaginations, notably the scene in which German doctors blithely permit a group of POWs to die of typhus and even help spread the disease. The finished film proved so shocking that Major Metellus Lucullus Cicero Funkhouser, Chicago's official police censor, ordered that several of the more lurid scenes be removed. George Creel, chairman of the U.S. Government Committee of Public Information (popularly known as the Creel Committee), counterdemanded that Funkhouser be asked to resign, stopping just short of calling the Chicago-based censor a "pro-German." As it happened, Funkhouser was eventually removed from office for unrelated reasons (neither he nor Creel were precisely selfless saints), and his replacement, William Ludhardt, restored My Four Years in Germany to its original length. It is this restored version, running well over two hours, that survives today, an often ludicrous but undeniably powerful document of the prevailing national sentiments during the "War to End All Wars." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gangly Karl Dane and diminutive George K. Arthur were teamed up for the first time in MGM's Rookies. Clearly conceived to cash in on the success of Paramount's Wallace Beery-Raymond Hatton service comedy Behind the Front, this Dane-Arthur vehicle finds our mismatched heroes cast as a sergeant and private during WWI. After several hilarious if disjointed slapstick misadventures, the boys are set adrift in a reconnaissance balloon. There was hardly an original moment in Rookies, but that's not to say it wasn't funny. The film was an enormous box-office hit, spawning a series of equally well-received feature films starring Dane and Arthur. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the most popular baseball films ever made, Slide, Kelly, Slide also solidified the stardom of MGM leading man William Haines. In his usual brash, cocky manner, Haines is cast as Jim Kelly, a self-styled baseball whiz who talks himself into a job with the New York Yankees. Though his boundless braggadocio is backed up by his talent on the baseball field, Kelly soon alienates himself from the rest of his teammates, who can't stand his arrogant behavior. Veteran Yankee catcher Tom Munson (Harry Carey) -- also the father of Kelly's sweetheart Mary (Sally O'Neil) -- tries to set the young upstart straight, but Kelly isn't interested. Upset because he feels the team isn't on his side, Kelly gets drunk on the eve of an important game in Chicago. Mary doesn't want him to get fired, so she hides him in her hotel room. When Tom shows up he tries to talk some sense into Kelly, but the hot-headed young player unleashes his invective on Tom, calling the aging player an old has-been in full earshot of the entire team. This shameful display thoroughly disillusions Yankee batboy Mickey (Junior Coghlan) who, up to that moment, worshipped Kelly.

After quitting the team, Kelly makes himself scarce during the deciding World Series game. When the team runs out of pitchers, little Mickey decides to seek out Kelly and beg him to return -- only to be struck down by a truck. Realizing that Mickey will recover only if he redeems himself, Kelly returns to the Yankee roster and scores the winning run without resorting to his usual show-off tactics. As the recovered Mickey is wheeled into Yankee Stadium, Kelly reverts to his old boastful self, but by now, everyone -- including Mary -- realizes that our hero is truly a reformed man. Filmed on location at the Yankee's spring training camp in Florida and at Los Angeles' Wrigley Field (one of the best minor-league stadiums in America), Slide, Kelly, Slide boasts cameo appearances from such real-life baseball luminaries as Mike Donlin, Irish Meusel, Bob Meusel, Tony "Poosh-em-Up" Lazzeri, and umpire John "Beans" Reardon. As a bonus, football-star-turned-actor Johnny Mack Brown makes his film debut in a one-scene bit part. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Not the first of the prison pictures, but the one that truly put the genre on the map. Playboy Kent (Robert Montgomery), driving drunk, kills a couple of pedestrians and is sentenced to a 10-year manslaughter term. His cellmate is forger Morgan (Chester Morris), a tough but essentially decent con; the cell-block leader is Butch (Wallace Beery), whose outer oafishness hides a cruel, calculating mind. Butch lives for the day that he can bust out and doesn't care who gets hurt along the way. Panicking, Kent "rats" on Butch and is murdered during the climactic breakout as a consequence. Morgan behaves courageously, saving the warden (Lewis Stone) and the guards from Butch's wrath; as a reward, Morgan earns a reduced sentence and the love of Kent's sister Anne (Leila Hyams). Remarkably brutal for an MGM film, The Big House (a double Oscar winner, for best screenplay and sound recording) established not only the grimy mise-en-scene of prison life, but also a whole new glossary of slang terms and a veritable menagerie of movie "types," from the firm but kindly prison chaplain to the embittered lifer. The film was gloriously lampooned by Laurel & Hardy's Pardon Us, in which Walter Long played the Beery counterpart. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Directed by James Cruze, this silent drama stars William Haines as Duke, a wealthy young heir who takes up prizefighting in order to prove that he doesn't need his father's money to make it in life. However, when he meets a beautiful college co-ed named Susie (Joan Crawford), he decides to halt his boxing plans and enroll in college. Most of the co-eds' curiosities are piqued by their new student's chauffeur and house full of servants, but Duke (Haines) is only interested in Susie. Despite her initial dislike, the feeling eventually becomes mutual. Unfortunately for the both of them, Duke's trainer falsely informs Susie that Duke is dating a New York chorus girl. Things come to a head when Duke emerges victorious from a highly-anticipated San Francisco fight, and Susie learns that the student Duke is actually the boxer Duke--and that there is no chorus girl. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide