Edgar Dearing Movies

Thanks for Everything is an unjustly forgotten lampoon of media promotional stunts. Jack Haley wins a contest sponsored by an ad agency, which is looking for the perfect "average American." The contest's avaricious promoters (Adolphe Menjou and Jack Oakie) use poor Haley as a merchandising tool by having him endorse all sorts of products. When Haley's girl friend (Arleen Whelan) realizes that the hapless fellow is being exploited as a means of controlling the advertising industry, Haley insists that the promoters cease and desist or he'll blow the whistle. The promoters respond by discrediting Haley as a crackpot, but justice triumphs in the end. Thanks for Everything is capped by a bizarre sequence in which Menjou and Oakie convince Haley that World War II has broken out--a sequence filmed one year before this actually occurred! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this collegiate romance, the love affair between two seniors is threatened by their different graduation plans. The fellow and his roommate are planning a two-year trek through Europe after the ceremony. This doesn't set well with the young woman who uses all her feminine wiles to convince him to stay. She succeeds and happiness ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Joan Fontaine was still two years away from full stardom when she appeared in the B-plus comedy Maid's Night Out. Future cowboy star Allan Lane plays Bill, a millionaire's son who, to win a bet with his father (George Irving), sets out to prove that he can succeed without his family's money. While working as a milkman, Bill offers a lift to Sheila (Fontaine), whom he takes to be a housemaid. In fact, Sheila was also born into wealth, but she doesn't let Bill know that, fearful that she'll lose his love; Bill likewise keeps his actual identity a secret for the same reason. Adding to the fun is the presence of Hedda Hopper, making one of her final acting appearances before devoting herself full-time to her gossip columnist. Film buffs will also enjoy a fleeting but hilarious jibe at Hopper's number-one rival Louella Parsons. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this WW II era drama, a timid, pacifistic clerk is befriended by a gutsy circus barker while they are in the military. Tensions arise between the friends after they fall for the same woman. The circus man is captured by the Germans and shortly thereafter, the clerk marries the girl. In time, the clerk finds courage he never knew he had and becomes a legendary hero. The war ends, but by the time, the clerk is returned to civilian life, he has come to like killing others. Unable to adjust, he becomes a gangster, something he conceals from his wife. Years pass and he runs into his old friend the circus barker, who has become the owner of his own circus. By this time the gangster's wife has learned of his profession and she teams up with the ringmaster to help straighten him out. When all else fails, she turns him into the cops. To earn money while he serves his time, the woman joins the other man's circus. It's all innocent, but the gangster, having just busted out of prison, doesn't realize this. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The Big City is an improbable urban melodrama which takes place during a "taxi war" between honest independent cabdrivers and graft-ridden taxi monopolies. Looking for a scapegoat for a recent gangland bombing, crooked city officials deport the foreign wife (Luise Rainer) of rabble-rousing cabbie Spencer Tracy. Desperately seeking a reprieve for his wife, Tracy goes to the mayor, who is in the process of addressing a banquet of retired boxers. The ex-pugilists take Tracy's side, head down to the wharf to pummel the gangsters responsible for the bombing, and rescue Tracy's wife from being shipped back to her homeland. To avoid confusion with a 1948 MGM film of the same name, the 1937 Big City has been retitled Skyscraper Wilderness for television. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

One is immediately aware that The Plainsman is a Cecil B. DeMille production in the opening scene, wherein President Abraham Lincoln (Frank McGlynn Sr.), on the verge of signing crucial legislation which will determine the future of the American West, is dragged away from his Cabinet by a scolding Mrs. Lincoln (Leila McIntyre), who informs her husband that he'll be late for the theater! The story proper picks up in the years just following the Civil War, as crooked arms dealer John Lattimer (Charles Bickford) schemes to sell a huge shipment of repeating rifles to the Indians. Constantly thwarting Lattimer's schemes is lawman Wild Bill Hickok (Gary Cooper), who soon forms a strong alliance with Indian scout Buffalo Bill Cody (James Ellison). Rambunctious Calamity Jane (Jean Arthur) is crazy about Wild Bill, but he refuses to have anything to do with her, contemptuously wiping his mouth whenever he kisses her. He prefers the company of winsome Louisa (Dorothy Burgess), but gallantly steps aside when Louisa marries Buffalo Bill. Upon learning that a band of Indians armed with Lattimer's rifles have attacked a military garrison, Wild Bill tells General Custer (John Miljan), who in turn sends Buffalo Bill to the garrison with a consignment of weapons. Wild Bill then tries to arrange a peace conference with Indian chief Yellow Hand (Paul Harvey), but is sidetracked when he sees Calamity Jane being captured by two Indian braves. Riding to her rescue, Wild Bill is himself captured and tortured in the hope that he'll reveal the whereabouts of Buffalo Bill and his weapons. He refuses to talk, but Calamity, horrified at the agony endured by Wild Bill, tells all. Her breach of confidence leads indirectly to Custer's death at the Little Big Horn (not seen, but described by a young Indian played by DeMille's then son-in-law Anthony Quinn), whereupon Wild Bill disgustedly breaks off all communication with her. Hoping to make up for her past sins, Calamity warns Wild Bill that Lattimer has come to town a-gunning for him. Wild Bill makes short work of Lattimer, only to be shot in the back by the villain's snivelling confederate Jack McCall (Porter Hall). As he breathes his last, Wild Bill forgives Calamity for revealing the whereabouts of the ammunition; with tears in her eyes, Calamity plants a kiss on Wild Bill's lips that he'll never wipe off. As can be seen, accuracy is not the strong suit of The Plainsman; DeMille, like Buffalo Bill before him, was more interested in putting on a helluva good show than offering a dry history lesson. Unfortunately, the film often promises more than it can deliver, thanks to DeMille's insistence upon filming more of his big scenes indoors and relying far too heavily on grainy process screens. Still, the DeMille version of The Plainsman is infinitely more entertaining than the 1966 remake with Don Murray and Abby Dalton. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Directed by Edwin L. Marin, Married Before Breakfast follows the hectic life of young inventor Tom Wakefield (Robert Young). After a leading razor company pays Wakefield (Young) $250,000 in order for him not to publicize his latest invention, a hair-removing shaving cream that rendors razors useless, he takes his socialite fiance June Baylin (June Clayworth) on a glamorous world cruise. June (Clayworth) hopes Tom's (Young) newfound wealth will encourage him to settle down, but Tom is determined to improve the lives those around him, including steamship employee Kitty Brent's (Florence Rice) romantic relationship. Informing Kitty (Rice) she'll be married by noon the next morning, Tom throws himself into a heap of trouble, loses June in the process, and nearly ends up in jail. Somewhere within the fiasco, Tom and Kitty realize it's each other they love. Kitty is married by noon the next morning--to Tom. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

In this comedy, the shady editor of a newspaper does all he can to keep his best reporter from marrying a journalist from a rival paper. In spite of the editor, the wedding day finally comes. The happy couple is at the alter when suddenly the woman gets news of a big scoop. Without a backward glance she leaves her groom to get the story first. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Jean Harlow offers her final screen performance in this witty and -- in retrospect -- quite moving racetrack comedy-drama co-starring Clark Gable and Walter Pidgeon. When her father dies shortly after losing his horse farm to Duke Bradley (Gable), Carol Clayton (Harlow) refuses the handsome bookmaker's offer to forget the debt and instead vows to pay him back in full. She even forbids her stockbroker fiancé, Harley Madison (Pidgeon), to make wagers that may benefit Duke, but promises to marry him once her champion horse wins at Saratoga. But against all the odds, Carol falls in love with Duke and when he appears in danger of ruination, she finds herself rooting for the competitor to win the all-important race. Saratoga, which was finished using both onscreen and voice doubles for Jean Harlow, was partially filmed on-location at Lexington and Louisville, KY, and in Saratoga Springs, NY. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Newlywed Carolyn Martin (Barbara Stanwyck) has been raised to expect the finer things in life, but these are things that can't be provided by her working-stiff husband Michael (Gene Raymond). Hoping to supplement the family coffers, Carolyn offers to take a job, but the chauvinistic Michael won't hear of it, insisting that the couple live on his measly 35 dollars per week, causing no end of trouble when wifey overextends her bank account. When millionaire Hugh McKenzie (Robert Young) enters her life, Carolyn is sorely tempted to walk out on her husband -- and, as indicated by the film's title, she does. Ultimately, however, money flies out the door when love flies back in the window. Counterpointing the marital travails of our hero and heroine is the contentious union between Mattie and Paul Dodson (Helen Broderick and Ned Sparks), who've learned to be happy while miserable. Black comic actor Willie Best is prominently billed in The Bride Walks Out, but his role was cut down to a mere walk-on. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Owen Davis Jr. plays Bunker Bean, a meek and mild office worker who loves the boss' daughter (Louise Latimer) from afar. Bunker impulsively visits a mystic, who gazes into a crystal ball and determines that Mr. Bean is the reincarnation of such past leaders of men as Napoleon and an Egyptian Pharaoh. Armed with new confidence, Bunker charges back into his office, gives his boss (Robert McWade) a piece of his mind, and becomes a hotshot businessman. Several reverses later, Bunker Bean realizes that he doesn't need to rely on his imaginary "past lives" to make good and to win the girl. Based on the novel by Harry Leon Wilson (and its stage adaptation by Lee Wilson Dodd), Bunker Bean was the third film version of this enjoyable "worm turns" fable. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This second of MGM's Thin Man films reteams William Powell and Myrna Loy as, respectively, bibulous private detective Nick Charles and his socialite wife Nora. The Charleses are sucked into another murder case via Nick's lovely cousin Elissa Landi, whose husband Alan Marshall has vanished. Hubby has been conducting an affair with nightclub thrush Dorothy McNulty (later known as Penny Singleton) and is also blackmailing gangsterish Joseph Calleia. When the corpses begin piling up, Nick and Nora try to piece the clues together, with the earnest assistance of Jimmy Stewart, who carries a torch for Landi. You won't believe who turns out to be the murderer in this one--then again, given the plot's strict adherence to "least likely suspect" formula, you probably will. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this airborne adventure, three pals from WW I team up to run a commercial airline. They have also been working on a new design for a plane and unbeknownst to them, enemy agents are watching them. Later a good-guy is assigned to stop the spies. During the exciting climax, the hero accomplishes his task in mid-air. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi