Bebe Daniels Movies

Hoping to repeat the success of its 1929 musical spectacular Rio Rita, RKO Radio reteamed leading lady Bebe Daniels and the comedy team of Bert Wheeler & Robert Woolsey for the equally lavish Dixiana. Set in antebellum Louisiana, the film casts Daniels as the title character, a lovely and charming circus entertainer. Dixiana is loved by Carl Van Horn (Everett Marshall), the son of plantation owner Cornelius Van Horn (Joseph Cawthorn). Though Cornelius approves of his son's choice, his imperious wife (Jobyna Howland) orders Dixiana out of her house, much to the delight of crooked gambler Royal Montague (Ralf Harolde), who has his own wicked designs on our heroine. Fired by her circus, Dixiana is forced to go to work at Montague's gambling establishment, and it is here that the love-struck Carl catches up with her. Hoping to bankrupt Carl and force him to relinquish the deed to the Van Doren plantation, Montague engages the young man in a crooked card game, but Dixiana turns the tables on the villain. Elected queen of the Mardi Gras, Dixiana is kidnapped by the disgruntled Montague, who intends to goad Carl into a duel, knowing full well that the boy's guns have been tampered with. Dixiana is the film debut of Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, who performs a "stair dance" routine during the Technicolor Mardi Gras finale. Incidentally, the film's final color reels were for many years considered lost, with only the black-and-white scenes remaining: thus, many TV prints of Dixiana come to an end long before the plot has been resolved. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Rio Rita, an expensive filmization of the legendary Florenz Ziegfeld-produced Broadway musical of 1928, was the first major production for fledgling RKO Radio Studios. Bebe Daniels plays Rita, an Irish-Mexican girl (with thick Hispanic accent) who oversees a large ranch near the Mexican border. Rita's brother (Don Alvorado) is suspected of being "The Kinkajou," a notorious bandit. On the trail of the Kinkajou, an undercover Texas Ranger (John Boles) falls in love with Rita, much to the chagrin of a wealthy but despotic landowner (Georges Renavent). The villain arranges to make it appear that the Ranger is the Kinkajou, prompting Rita to consent to marriage with the cad in order to save her lover's life. The true identity of the Kinkajou is revealed at a lavish costume party, filmed in early Technicolor. Counterpointing the main plot are the antics of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, comic carryovers from the original Broadway show. Wheeler is in Mexico to arrange a quickie divorce so that he can marry his true love (Dorothy Lee). Woolsey is Wheeler's shady lawyer, who learns too late that he can't make the divorce stick. Wheeler and Woolsey have some of the film's best moments, including a riotous drunk scene and a closing musical number wherein they slap one another as their girlfriends sing inanely into the camera. Rio Rita not only made oodles of money for RKO (it was being regularly reissued throughout the 1930s), but it solidified the popularity of Wheeler and Woolsey, who'd become the studio's biggest comedy stars of the early 1930s. 1929's Rio Rita was withdrawn from circulation when MGM bought the rights for a 1942 remake, this one starring Abbott and Costello. Available only for museum screenings during the past five decades, Rio Rita has recently been released on videocassette, with its rare Technicolor sequence intact. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bebe Daniels once again plays an intrepid -- and somewhat foolhardy -- girl reporter in Paramount's What a Night!. A spoiled socialite, Dorothy Winston (Daniels) decides to prove that she's a valuable member of society by becoming a news hound. She manages to get the goods on mobster boss Mike Corney (Wheeler Oakman) but nearly ends up in a cement kimono as a result. Her efforts win both the respect and love of her hard-bitten city editor Joe Madison (Neil Hamilton). The subtitles for What a Night! were penned by Herman J. Mankiewicz, a former New York newspaperman who certainly knew whereof he wrote. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bebe Daniels was at the peak of her silent stardom when she appeared in this comedy, which was really more slapstick than farce. Ginette (Daniels) is a waitress at Pierre's café. She is in love with Lucien (Douglas Gilmore) and hates getting attention from anyone else. Whenever another man tries to kiss her, she angrily starts throwing glassware. The restaurant's patrons find this amusing, and Leon Lambert (Henry Kolker) makes a bet that he will be able to kiss her. He finally does the deed in a taxi, but Ginette's response is so fierce that the cab crashes into Pierre's. Lambert buys Ginette the restaurant, expecting that she will be grateful, but of course she isn't. Circumstances dictate that Ginette must pose as Lambert's daughter. He really wants her out of his home now, so he plots with a pal, Henri (Richard Tucker), to make it appear that she has been compromised by the primly proper Maraval (Chester Conklin). After a lot of complications, and lot more broken glassware, Ginette and Lucien finally wind up together. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

She's a Sheik borrows more than a little from the Rudolph Valentino vehicle, Son of the Sheik, but refreshingly, the Valentino character here is a woman, played by the dashing comedienne Bebe Daniels. She is Zaida, half-Spanish and half-Arab, and determined to marry a Christian man. The Arabian bandit Kada (William Powell doesn't care what she wants -- he's determined to have her as his own. Zaida, as swashbuckling as any male, goes sword-to-sword with him...and comes out ahead. She meets up with the French Captain Colton (Richard Arlen), decides he is for her, and kidnaps him to her desert camp. After spending a few days in captivity, Colton finally succumbs to Zaida's formidable charms. The film climaxes with a battle between French and Arab troops, with the French outwitting the Arabs, helped out by a pair of motion-picture showmen (played by Bill Franey and James Bradbury, Jr.). The company runs a clip of an attacking army on a large screen; this is enough to frighten the naive Arabs. Meanwhile Zaida and Colton close out She's a Sheik with the requisite clinch. A lot of people, though, would have preferred to see Daniels and Powell together at the end -- the pair had a real chemistry in the few films in which they appeared together. The good-looking Arlen just didn't have Powell's flair. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Herman J. Mankiewicz was one of the screenwriters of the sprightly Bebe Daniels vehicle Stranded in Paris. Daniels is cast as New York salesgirl Julie McFadden, who wins a free trip to Paris, sponsored by a French perfume company. En route to Europe by boat, Julie enjoys a shipboard romance with wealthy Robert Van Wye (Robert Ames). Upon arrival in Paris, our heroine discovers to her horror that the perfume company has been closed down, whereupon her purse and luggage are stolen by thieves. With nary a penny to her name, Julie takes a job in a fancy modiste. She is sent to Deauville to deliver a shipment of clothes, but through a series of misunderstandings she finds herself in an entirely different town, where through an additional series of misunderstandings she is forced to pose as one Countess Paseda. Things look bad for Julie when the real Countess shows up, assumes that our heroine has been fooling around with her husband the Count, and prepares to shoot everyone in sight. At the last possible moment, Julie is rescued by her shipboard sweetheart Robert Van Wye, making one wonder why she doesn't greet his entrance with a harsh "Where the heck have you been for the past six reels?" ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

George Barr McCutcheon's novel had already been filmed a couple of times (and would be filmed several times more after the advent of talkies). To make it a vehicle for Bebe Daniels, writer Monty Brice threw the story out the window and just kept the basic premise. Polly Brewster (Daniels) is working as a film extra when she gets word from Thomas Hancock (Warner Baxter) that she has inherited a million dollars from a rich uncle. The only problem is that she is supposed to invest the whole sum, taking only 30 dollars a week to live on -- about the same amount she is earning as an extra. But then Ned Brewster (Ford Sterling) shows up to inform her that yet another rich uncle wants to give her five million dollars -- providing she spend the first million she received in just 30 days. Polly makes a mad rush to get rid of the sum, and winds up sinking a good portion of it into a film company. Unfortunately, at the end of the 30 days, it turns out that the uncle with the five million has gone bankrupt. Polly is saved from the poorhouse when Mr. Brent, the production company's director (Andre de Beranger), comes up with a hit film. Polly is in the money again, and she and Hancock get married. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

The Palm Beach Girl is Emily Bennett (Bebe Daniels), the poor Iowa relation of wealthy Florida dowager Aunt Jerry (Josephine Drake). Invited to spend the winter with her aunt, Emily boards the southbound train; en route, her face is blackened by a passing tugboat, compelling her to ride in the "Jim Crow" car with the African American passengers (this egregious example of de facto segregation is treated as a joke in this film!) Upon arriving in Palm Beach, Emily is given the cold shoulder by her snooty relatives and doesn't make matters any better with her unintentionally boorish behavior. Ultimately, she gives up high society in favor of handsome motor-boat mechanic Jack Trotter (Lawrence Grey), helping the boy win an important boat race and simultaneously showing up the snobs for the phonies that they are. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When Billy Laidlaw (Kenneth Harlan) sees Peggy Laurence (Bebe Daniels) and her partner, Matt Wilde (T. Roy Barnes), performing at a Bowery amateur night, he resolves to help them. They do well on Broadway, thanks to Laidlaw, who begins falling in love with Peggy, even though he already has a wife, Grace (Helen Lee Worthing). World War I breaks out and Laidlaw enlists. Peggy becomes a "Y" entertainer so she can be near him, while Grace becomes a Red Cross nurse. There is an enemy attack, and Peggy has to choose between saving Laidlaw and saving an entire battalion. She chooses the battalion and becomes temporarily blinded in the fray. Grace nurses her back to health and they both assume that Laidlaw has been lost. When he shows up, Peggy does the right
thing and sends him back to Grace. This drama was based on the play by Channing Pollock and Edgar Selwyn. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

After a few films that did not showcase her talent well, Bebe Daniels was able to redeem herself in this comedy based on the F. Tennyson Jesse stage play Quarantined. Although Pamela Gordon (Eden Gray) is engaged to explorer Tony Blunt (Harrison Ford), she gets tired of waiting for him to come back from an expedition and accepts the proposal of Mackintosh Josephs (Alfred Lunt). But Blunt returns from Africa two weeks before the wedding, and, to avoid causing a scene, Pamela makes plans to elope with him. To keep everyone in the dark about her elopement with Blunt, however, she convinces Blunt to court her tomboyish sister, Diana (Bebe Daniels). Diana believes that Blunt has really fallen in love with her, and tricks him so that he marries her. (He thinks he is marrying Pamela.) She then boards a ship with her aunt, Amelia Pincent (Edna May Oliver), and hides from Blunt temporarily. When he discovers he has married Pamela's sister, he is furious, but, by then, the ship has been quarantined. By the time the quarantine is over and Pamela arrives, Diana has won Blunt over. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Bebe Daniels is Colette Girard, a French actress who is traveling to London to visit her friend Gloria (Diana Kane). On the train she meets Gloria's fiancé, Bob Hawley (Kenneth MacKenna). Hawley is posing as his friend, Larry Charters (Robert Frazer), a musician who is trying to dodge his many female fans. Colette and Hawley get left at a station and they ask the town's mayor where they can spend the night. The mayor misunderstands and marries them. Since Hawley has written Charters' name on the license (which he mistook for a hotel register), Colette isn't sure whom she is married to. Back in Paris, Charters meets Colette and is immediately taken with her, but when his friend Bertie Bird (Raymond Griffith) shows up with a couple of young women, a lot of confusion ensues. Then Gloria arrives for more mix-ups. Colette has fallen for Charters herself, and after testing his love (and accidentally winding up in a bed with Bird), everything is straightened out and they get married for real. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

It seems like every word Zane Grey ever put to paper eventually wound up on screen during the silent days. Although there's a romance involved between Bebe Daniels and Lloyd Hughes in this Western, two of the era's finest character actors, Ernest Torrence and Noah Beery Sr. are really the whole show. The year is 1876 and Holderness (Beery), "tyrant of the desert" (according to the Moving Picture World review), is trying to force August Naab (Torrence) to sell his property -- there are water rights involved, of course. Naab's feisty daughter, Mescal (Daniels), has been pushed into a loveless marriage, and as she is trying to escape, she is captured by Holderness' men. Jack Hare (Hughes), a soldier of fortune from the East, was saved from dying in the desert by Naab, and he comes to Mescal's rescue. He and Naab round up a group of Indians and battle it out with Holderness' forces. Naab is victorious and Hare wins Mescal. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide