Florence Wix Movies

Robert Young stars as a WW2 pilot named Hank, who accompanies his pal Jerry (Bill Williams, in his film debut) on a furlough. Jerry introduces his girlfriend Helen (Laraine Day) to Hank, a notorious and unrepentent womanizer. In a twinkling, Hank tries to steal Helen away from Jerry-but succeeds only after proving that he's a nice guy after all. Ann Harding, one of RKO Radio's leading star of the early 1930s, returns to her old studio to play Helen's all-knowing mother. Those Endearing Young Charms is based on a Broadway play by Edward Chodorov, originally purchased for the screen by independent producer Sam Goldwyn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jinx Falkenburg supplies the music and beauty and Bert Gordon provides the chuckles in Columbia's Laugh Your Blues Away. In his standard "Mad Russian" characterization ("How do you doooooo!"), Gordon plays an unemployed actor who poses as one Count Boris Rascalnikoff at the home of Texas cattleman Conklin (Dick Elliot). Also along for the ride is the actor's pretty sister Pam (Ms. Falkenburg), who impersonates the Countess Olga. It's all part of a scheme engineered by the social-climbing mother (Isobel Elsom) of Jimmy Westerly (Douglass Drake) to marry off her son to Conklin's daughter Priscilla (Phyllis Kennedy). But when Jimmy falls in love with Olga-er, Pam-the borscht hits the fan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Strange but true: Norma Shearer turned down the title role in Mrs. Miniver to star instead in the insignificant trifle We Were Dancing. Loosely based on two Noel Coward playlets originally presented as part of the omnibus production Tonight at 8:30, the story concerns the romance between socialite Vicki Wilomirsky (Norma Shearer) and Nicki Prax (Melvyn Douglas), an impoverished baron who supports himself as a "professional guest." Nicki steals Vicki away from her stuffy attorney fiance Hubert Tyler (Lee Bowman), but their subsequent marriage comes to an end when Vicki spots Nicki in the arms of his ex-lover Linda Wayne (Gail Patrick). Returning to Tyler, Vicki is on the verge of a second marriage, when Nicki once again waltzes into her life?.and on and on it goes, where it will stop, nobody knows. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This soapy drama stars Hedy Lamarr as a would be model who meets a research doctor en route to the US from Europe. They meet when Dr. Spencer Tracy prevents her from taking a suicidal plunge from the upper decks of the ocean liner. It seems that Lamarr had been involved with married man Kent Taylor. When he reneged on his promise to divorce his wife Mona Barrie, she decided to end it all. Finding her extraordinarily beautiful, the doctor suggests she join him in his research. The two end up at a slum clinic and it doesn't take long for the doctor to fall completely in love with her. He convinces her to marry him and soon after the wedding, he exchanges life in the clinic for an upscale practice uptown. Servicing the rich is lucrative and soon he has provided his high maintenance wife with a luxurious life. Unfortunately for him, she appreciates his work and sacrifices not a whit, and as soon as she can attempts to respark a romance with Taylor whom she has never stopped loving. Fortunately for the doctor, Lamarr eventually comes to her senses and marital bliss ensues. This film had a troubled history with all of it due to Louis B. Mayer's obsession with making Lamarr the brightest star in the MGM galaxy. Originally the film was directed by Joseph von Sternberg, but he grew frustrated and tired by Mayer's constant interference and quit the film as did the next director, Frank Borzage. As a result an enormous amount of footage was discarded. Finally reliable W.S. Van Dyke was placed on the production and it was completed. Unfortunately, despite all that effort, the film bombed at the box office. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Based on Memory of Love, a novel by Bessie Breuer, In Name Only is soap opera par excellence, blessed with a peerless cast. Carole Lombard plays widow Julie Eden, who meets and falls in love with unhappily married Alec Walker (Cary Grant). Having married Alec solely for his wealth and family prestige, his manipulative wife, Maida (Kay Francis), has managed to convince everyone -- even Alec's parents -- that she is the victimized one and that Alec is an irresponsible philanderer. Making matters worse, Maida refuses to give Alec a divorce so that he can find happiness in the arms of the sweet, unassuming Julie. Almost miraculously, Maida agrees to let Alec go, only to capriciously renege at the last minute and sue Julie for alienation of affections. Disconsolately, Alec goes on a bender, falling asleep in front of an open window and contracting pneumonia. As Alec lays seriously ill in a hospital bed, Julie tearfully agrees to give him up if only Maida will try to make him happy. But Maida isn't about to give up this moment of triumph, cheerfully bragging about her underhanded methods and her intention to take Alec for every penny that he has. Without giving away the outcome, it can be noted that, figuratively speaking, loose lips sink ships. Though In Name Only could have been a wallow in bathos, the performances by the stars -- and the knowing direction of John Cromwell -- elevate the production to the level of "romance classic." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Missing Guest is the first of two remakes of the 1933 melodrama Secret of the Blue Room. The audience knows what it's in for when they're introduced to the hero (Paul Kelly), a hotshot reporter named "Scoop" (what else?) When a young man mysteriously disappears in the "forbidden room" of a supposedly haunted mansion, Scoop arrives on the scene to investigate. After two people meet horrible deaths in the aforementioned room, our hero suspects that the killer isn't supernatural in nature. He's right, but the audience could have told him this from the get-go. Constance Moore is the hand-wringing heroine, while William Lundigan also plays a pivotal role (hint, hint). The Missing Guest was refilmed in 1944 as the old-dark-house musical (!) Murder in the Blue Room--same plot, and even the same killer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Financier J.B. Ball (Edward Arnold) -- known in the press as "the Bull of Broad Street" -- may be one of the wealthiest investment bankers in the country, but he also knows the value of a dollar. And when his wife (Mary Nash) spends 50,000 of them on a sable coat, he is driven into such a fury in the ensuing argument on the roof of their Fifth Avenue townhouse, that he throws the coat into the street -- where it promptly lands on the head of Mary Smith (Jean Arthur), a clerk-typist on her way to work, riding on the upper deck of a double-decker bus, ruining her hat in the process. She jumps off the bus to try to return the coat, but Ball insists that she keep it. What she really needs, however, is not a 50,000-dollar sable coat so much as a ride to work -- as she doesn't even have a dime for bus fare -- and perhaps a new hat. Ball obliges, taking her to one of the top clothing stores in New York, buying her an expensive fur hat to go with the coat, and then dropping her at work in his limo. Her superiors, seeing her decked out in a sable coat and a new hat, and getting out of the chauffeured car, conclude that Mary is a kept woman, and, therefore, unfit to work for the boys magazine where she is employed, and they fire her. Now out of work and virtually broke, she seems to have become a victim of random fate, but suddenly the scales start to tip the other way from the very same misunderstanding that got her fired. Having been seen in the company of J.B. Ball -- whose name she didn't even get -- she is rumored to be his mistress; the prissy clothing store proprietor (Franklin Pangborn) spreads this story, and that turns Mary into the object of attention for Mr. Louis Louis (Luis Alberni), the owner of a failed luxury hotel on which Ball's bank holds the mortgage, and is about to foreclose. For reasons that she can't begin to understand, since there is nothing going on between her and J.B. Ball (whose name she doesn't even know), or between her and anyone, Louis moves her into the most luxurious suite in his hotel for a dollar a day, asking her only to inform "that certain someone" of how she loves living there. Mary has no idea of who "that certain someone" is, or what Louis is talking about, but she needs a place to live, and Louis is insistent. She still needs to eat, and, while trying to get a meal at the automat, she crosses paths with a handsome, well-meaning, but inept waiter (Ray Milland), who gets fired for helping her. She takes him into her suite so he has a place to stay, and the two fall in love in the course of finding out about each other. She knows that he is John Ball Jr., but doesn't realize that he is the son of J.B. Ball, trying to make it on his own, nor does she yet realize who J.B. Ball is, in terms of being the man who gave her the coat and the new hat, or one of the wealthiest men in the country. But after the elder Ball spends an innocent night at the Hotel Louis, a gossip columnist named "Wallace Whistling" (William Demarest) prints that he is keeping a woman at the hotel, and suddenly the Hotel Louis, perceived as a fashionable playground for the upper-crust, is filled with guests. This multiple case of mistaken identity plunges through two or three new layers, eventually bringing about an impending stock market crash to rival 1929, before Mary discovers who her would-be benefactor and her would-be fiancé are. She bails them out of the jam that they're in, also restoring the Ball's marriage, her own reputation, and her romance with Ball's son in the process. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

In this crime comedy, a street-savvy gangster involves himself with a Miami socialite. Together, they conspire to turn her familial mansion into a secret gambling casino. The hood is convinced her beauty will draw customers and with the ensuing profits, the two will be able to pay their debts. Unbeknownst to him, his own gang members, fearing that he will abandon his "roots" in favor of the high-life, are conspiring to break up his partnership with the girl. They hire two grifters to impersonate a British colonel and his niece; they then try to convince the hood that he and the high-society dame are a bad match. When the gangster meets the "niece," he falls head-over-heels in love and forgets all about the socialite. When she, who is really after his money, returns his affections, the gang suddenly realizes that their scheme has backfired. Fortunately, by the story's end, the hood figures it all out and returns to the loyal socialite whose love remained undaunted. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In spite of its unbelievable storyline, She Goes to War manages to sustain interest from first reel to last. During WWI, spoiled socialite Joan Morant (Eleanor Boardman) heads to France, hoping to be reunited with her soldier sweetheart Reggie (Edmund Burns). Her presence is resented by Reggie's CO, Lieutenant Tom Pike (John Holland), who endeavors to prove to the heroine that social standing means nothing in the face of war. When Reggie turns coward and refuses to march into battle, the newly-responsible Joan, hoping to save Reggie's honor, dons a uniform and marches off in his place! Through a bizarre turn of events, Joan ends up saving the lives of everyone else in the regiment. Currently available from several public-domain videocassette sources, She Goes to War is worth seeing if only for its brief talkie sequences, in which the voice of actress Alma Rubens (cast as ukelele-plucking Rosie Cohen) was heard for the first and only time; within two years, Rubens would be dead, having lost her ongoing battle with drug addiction. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

George O'Hara was never a big star, but he was a good, reliable "bread-and-butter" performer for small but wiry FBO Pictures. The story takes place at a country estate, where stranger Alan Brooks, identifying himself as a detective, warns the residents to be on the lookout for jewel thieves. In fact, Brooks is a thief himself, but only handsome house guest O'Hara seems to glom onto this. For a while, it looks as though O'Hara will be arrested for Brooks' crimes, but eventually the good guy prevails, winning the love of heroine Kathleen Myers in the bargain. Two-reel comedian Jimmy Aubrey shows up in a surprising "straight" role as the family butler. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After a series of less-than-stellar pictures, Norma Talmadge tried something a little different with this sentimental romance, which spans a period of nearly 60 years. Mary Carlton (Talmadge) is in her seventies and her husband, John (Eugene O'Brien), is deathly ill. While writing in her diary, Mary falls asleep and dreams about her life with John, starting from their romance in 1865, when he was a clerk for her father, William Marlowe (George Nichols). Because of parental disapproval, the couple elopes, leaving England for the American West. Their ranch is attacked several years later by outlaws and their baby dies. After years of struggle the couple succeeds, has four children, and returns to England. Mary's faith in the marriage is shaken when she discovers that John has had an affair with Mrs. Manwaring (Gertrude Astor) -- and that she wasn't the only one. Mary suffers through it (it's not a Norma Talmadge film unless she suffers) and forgives her husband. When she awakens from her dreams, the doctor tells her that John has passed the crisis and will recover. Nine years later, in 1933, Mary Pickford would remake this film as a talkie with Leslie Howard. It was Pickford's last film. Frank Borzage directed both versions. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide