Alfred Delcambre Movies
- 1935
Former child star Jackie Coogan made a somewhat awkward transition to adulthood in Home on the Range. Based on Zane Grey's novel Code of the West, the film casts Coogan and Randolph Scott as the Hatfield brothers, Tom and Jack. Owners of a racing stable, the boys figure that one of their ponies, a magnificent animal named Midnight is a sure winner. Before they're able to prove this, however, Tom and Jack fall victim to a gang of race-fixers who use high-powered rifles to ensure that their horses will win. This doesn't stop Tom from risking his life to ride Midnight to victory. Radio crooner Joe Morrison, whose chief claim to fame was the western ballad "Last Roundup", shows up in Home on the Range long enough to sing the title tune. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Coogan, Randolph Scott, (more)
- 1935
In his first starring role (after being second-billed to Claudette Colbert in The Gilded Lily), Fred MacMurray plays officer Ross Martin of the Michigan State Police. After completing his training, Martin is pitted against dignified Professor Anthony (Sir Guy Standing), who uses his academic status as a cover for his bank-robbery activities. Keeping himself abreast of police maneuvers by listening to car radios and unobtrusively hanging around headquarters, Anthony ultimately uses his technological know-how to paralyze the police communications systems. But with the cooperation of the Massachusetts police department, whose radios are in full working order, rookie Martin and rustic sheriff Pete Arnot (Frank Craven) combine forces for a final assault upon Anthony's hideout. Its sometimes illogical plot twists notwithstanding, the screenplay is based on a series of factual articles, first published in Saturday Evening Post. Also given a career boost in Car 99 is another new Paramount contractee, Ann Sheridan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred MacMurray, Guy Standing, (more)
- 1935
Radio baritone Joe Morrison was being groomed for stardom by Paramount when he was top-billed in One Hour Late. Morrison is cast as shipping clerk Eddie Blake, whose girlfriend Betty Dunn (Helen Twelvetrees) is secretary to big boss Stephen Barclay (Conrad Nagel). A trusting soul, Betty sees nothing wrong in accepting Barclay's invitation to visit his home for the weekend. But Eddie suspects the worst and tags along to make sure that Betty's virtue remains intact. As it happens, Eddie's fears are groundless -- as are those of Barclay's wife Ellen (Gail Patrick), who was poised to walk out on her husband at the first sign of extramarital hanky-panky. The script contrives to have a radio station located in the building where Eddie works, permitting Joe Morrison to croon a medley of his hit "The Last Roundup." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Morrison, Helen Twelvetrees, (more)
- 1935
Adapted from Norman Krasna's Broadway hit A Small Miracle, Four Hours to Kill is a multi-plotted effort that can best be described as "Grand Hotel goes to the theater." Richard Barthelmess stars as Tony, a condemned murderer, who is handcuffed to Detective Taft (Charles Wilson) while en route to the death house. Tony breaks loose and heads for the theater, where the man who squealed on him is attending a play. As the killer prepares to rub out the stoolie, the action cuts away to the romance between a hatcheck boy (Joe Morrison) and his girlfriend (Helen Mack), which is complicated by the clerk's allegedly pregnant former love (Dorothy Tree). Another subplot involves unfaithful wife Gertrude Michael and her lover Ray Milland. All the various plotlines are knitted together in the climax, wherein Tony closes in on his intended victim. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Barthelmess, Joe Morrison, (more)
- 1935
This Zane Grey adaptation stars Dean Jagger as Adam and Gail Patrick as Ruth, two rugged individuals heading to gold country by riverboat. The couple's burgeoning romance is interrupted when Adam inadvertently gets involved in a murder. On the lam from the authorities, he links up with grizzled old prospector Dismukes (Edward Ellis), the titular wasteland wanderer. In typical Zane Grey fashion, hero and heroine are ultimately reunited by a series of convenient coincidences -- but there's still villainous Big Ben (Buster Crabbe) to contend with. Hefty vaudeville headliner Trixie Friganza also shows up in a choice supporting role. Previously filmed by Paramount in 1924 (in Technicolor, no less), Wanderer of the Wasteland was remade by RKO Radio in 1945. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dean Jagger, Gail Patrick, (more)
- 1935
So Red the Rose is a Civil War drama that plays like a warm-up for Gone With the Wind--and, unlike Wind, has two genuine Southerners in the leading roles. Margaret Sullavan is the aristocratic mistress of a sprawling Southern plantation, whose sheltered lifestyle is rent asunder by the War. All that sustains her during the conflict's darkest days is her love for her distant cousin, a Confederate officer played by Randolph Scott. Despite the incursions of Yankee troops (most of whom are portrayed as one step above gorillas), Sullavan holds her family together even after her mansion is burned to the ground. She even manages to talk her slaves out of rebelling, in a scene that must have caused embarrassment for everyone concerned in later years. The fact that So Red the Rose died at the box office (industryites dubbed the picture "So Red the Ink") was the principal reason why so many producers turned down Gone with the Wind a few years later. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margaret Sullavan, Walter Connolly, (more)
- 1935
MGM loaned Myrna Loy to Paramount to co-star with Cary Grant in the roller coaster-paced romantic drama Wings in the Dark. Loy plays daredevil aviatrix Sheila Mason, who marries Ken Gordon (Grant), a flyer with serious aspirations to set groundbreaking world records. When Ken is accidentally blinded just before he jets off for Paris, Sheila prompts him to continue working at any cost. He decides to become a writer, dictating his work and mailing it off to several magazines; all he receives for his trouble is a pile of rejection slips, but Sheila doesn't let him know that. In the mean time, he works out a fantastic invention -- a plane designed for "blind flying," which enables the pilot to command the craft without the use of his eyes. His plane is repossessed for lack of payment, cluing him into what Sheila has been up to with his articles. Infuriated, he severs all communication with her. In an effort to drive Grant out of her mind, Sheila then undertakes a Moscow-to-Manhattan flight and thus attempts to set a new world record of her own. But on the last leg of her journey -- over Boston -- she becomes surrounded by thick blankets of heavy fog, and cannot locate the airport. At the last moment, Ken steals his own plane from Roosevelt Field, takes it up, and uses it to guide Sheila back to the ground, where he declares his undying love and devotion to her. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Myrna Loy, Cary Grant, (more)
- 1934
Adapted from an earlier European film, Wharf Angel stars Dorothy Dell as Toy, a golden-hearted prostitute stranded in San Francisco. Toy finds hope for redemption when she falls in love with Como (Preston S. Foster), a sailor on the lam from a murder charge. In Madame Butterfly fashion, the heroine promises to wait for Como until he is able to clear himself. The fly in the ointment is Como's buddy Turk (Victor McLaglen), who has known Toy (in the Biblical sense) for several years. An inexpensive but fairly credible reconstruction of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake (courtesy of legendary art director William Cameron Menzies) caps this intriguing little romantic melodrama. Alas, leading lady Dorothy Dell was killed in a car crash after appearing in only three films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victor McLaglen, Dorothy Dell, (more)
Adapted from a Zane Grey story, Wagon Wheels is a remake of the 1931 Gary Cooper starrer Fighting Caravans. Randolph Scott assumes Cooper's role, playing a trail guide named Clint Belmet. The plot follows the progress of a typical wagon train journey from Missouri to Oregon, with the usual quote of Indian attacks and outlaw treachery. Murdock (Monte Blue), the main villain, foments trouble between the whites and Indians on behalf of a carter of foreign fur traders, adding a bit of international intrigue to the proceeding. Gail Patrick, still in her "ingenue" period, portrays the heroine along more intelligent and self-reliant lines than usual. Generous amounts of stock footage from Fighting Caravans were liberally sprinkled throughout the 57-minute time span of Wagon Wheels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Randolph Scott, Gail Patrick, (more)
- 1934
W.C. Fields stars in a remake of his silent comedy So's Your Old Man. Fields plays Sam Bisbee, an erstwhile inventor who is the laughingstock of his small town. Returning in defeat from a disastrous big-city demonstration of his latest invention, Sam makes the acquaintance of a beautiful young woman (Adrienne Ames) who happens to be an incognito foreign princess. After Bisbee tells her of how he'd like to be a success for the sake of his family, the princess decides to use her celebrity to Sam's benefit. She arrives in his town and lets it be known of her high regard for the downtrodden Bisbee. Suddenly Sam is the town's big shot, enabling him to merchandise his inventions and do right by his wife and daughter. Sam earns the respect he's so long deserved--but he's never completely convinced that the princess is who she claims to be, and keeps congratulating her on her "racket." Based on a story by Julian Street, You're Telling Me is climaxed by a sidesplitting recreation of W.C. Fields' Ziegfeld Follies golf routine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- W.C. Fields, Joan Marsh, (more)
