Mike Donlin

Wallace Ford plays Terry McCall, a small-town baseball star with a monumental ego. Terry's gift for self-aggrandizement alienates him from everyone in town, including his waitress sweetheart May Malone (Barbara Kent). After suffering a concussion during a baseball game, Terry goes blind, whereupon he bitterly retreats from the world. Fortunately, May's kid brother Billy (Dickie Moore), who has always idolized Terry, helps the now-humbled ballplayer to find a reason for living. That Swell-Head was obviously filmed several years before its 1935 release is proven by the presence in the cast of former baseball pro "Turkey" Mike Donlin, who'd been dead since 1933. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"I'm the finest woman who walked the streets," declares bejeweled, hip-swishing Lady Lou (Mae West) at the beginning of She Done Him Wrong. Lou works as a singer at the Gay Nineties saloon of Gus Jordan (Noah Beery Sr.), who plies her with diamonds to keep her by his side. She runs afoul of stalwart mission captain Cummings (Cary Grant), who warns her that she's on the road to perdition. Mae West's first starring film, She Done Him Wrong literally saved Paramount Pictures from bankruptcy. It would remain the best of her feature films, most of which were severely watered down by the Production Code (whose renewed stringency of 1933 was brought about in great part by West herself). She Done Him Wrong was based on West's own stage play, Diamond Lil, which ran on Broadway for 97 weeks. West sings "Frankie and Johnny," "I Like a Man Who Takes His Time," and ""I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone."" ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

William Powell plays a condemned murderer who is being transported from Hong Kong to San Quentin by way of a luxury liner. Also on board is the lovely Kay Francis, who is suffering from a fatal heart condition. The sympathetic detective (Warren Hymer) escorting Powell allows the prisoner to roam the decks without handcuffs, an opportunity Powell exploits by arranging an escape with two of his old cronies (Frank McHugh and Aline MacMahon). But when he meets Francis, Powell falls in love. Francis is equally smitten, and the two conduct an exquisite shipboard affair, neither telling the other of their impending doom. Powell makes his escape, but is halted in mid-flight when Francis has a heart attack. He rushes Francis back on board ship to her doctor, knowing full well that this will mean his recapture. As they bid goodbye, Powell and Francis promise to meet again one year later in Agua Caliente--a rendezvous that neither will survive to keep. A year passes. At a bar in Agua Caliente, two cocktail glasses suddenly shatter, as if having been joined in a toast by unseen hands. One Way Passage was remade in 1940 as 'Til We Meet Again. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this boxing drama, a prizefighter is left by his money-grubbing showgirl wife who aspires to be a movie star. The fighter's manager is tickled by the turn of events and immediately snaps the boxer out of his love-struck funk and sets him a challenging training program. Sure enough the fighter makes a strong comeback. As soon as the fame and fortune starts rolling in, the avaricious wife shows up at his door. She fires his manager and hires her secret lover in his place. Soon the fighter begins losing again. Just before the championship bout the old manager proves that his wife is being unfaithful. That is only the beginning of the end for the champ. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The exciting world of horse-racing provides the setting for this lively comedy that centers on luckless Bud Doyle, a jockey who was falsely accused of cheating and barred from the track. Desperate for work, the fellow becomes a singing waiter in Tijuana. Eventually he is allowed back and ends up winning the Big Race by encouraging his horse with a few rousing "Whoop-tee-dos" which inspire his charger to run a little faster. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Quite a bit of stock footage accompany this aerial melodrama from Columbia, which was directed by low-budget action specialist Albert S. Rogell. Pretty TWA air hostess Kitty King (Evalyn Knapp) falls in love with and marries dashing stunt pilot Ted Hunter (James Murray), despite the young man's rather rough lifestyle. She willingly accepts his plans for building a new kind of airplane in Albuquerque, NM, but upon arrival there finds him in the arms of a haughty socialite (Thelma Todd). A dejected Kitty hurriedly boards a train for home, unaware it is headed straight for a collapsing bridge. Learning of the possible disaster, Ted takes to the air in a final effort to warn the train's engineer. But the latter ignores the roaring plane and Ted is forced to crash land right on the tracks. None the worse for wear, the heroic pilot apologizes to Kitty for his bad behavior and they fly home to happiness. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Helen Twelvetrees became a major star in this laundered version of the "naughty" Broadway play Frankie and Johnny. A singer in a Havana dive, Frankie is fought over by the proprietor, Johnny (Ricardo Cortez), and Dan O'Keefe (Phillips Holmes), an American sailor who sees some good in the girl. When Frankie decides to leave Havana with Dan, Johnny has his henchmen abduct the couple, but is himself accidentally killed in the ensuing melee. A successful combo, Twelvetrees and Cortez were reunited with director Tay Garnett for the gangster melodrama Bad Company (1931). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The Widow from Chicago is Polly Henderson (Alice White) -- only she isn't really a widow and in fact has never been married. It's like this: Polly's police-detective brother Jimmy (Harold Goodwin), hoping to get the goods on the criminal gang run by vice lord Dominic (Edward G. Robinson), impersonates Chicago gangster Swifty Dorgan (Neil Hamilton), who is missing and presumed dead. While posing as Swifty, Jimmy is gunned down by a rival gang, right before Polly's eyes. Hoping to exact revenge, Polly pretends to be Swifty's widow and in this guise lands a job at Dominic's nightclub. And then -- get ready for the BIG SURPRISE! -- the real Swifty Dorgan shows up. Only the energetic performance by Edward G. Robinson makes this Byzantine-plotted crime yarn worth sitting through. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Only three minutes of the 74-minute Noisy Neighbors contains any dialogue; the rest of the film has hardly any noise at all. Written for the screen by F. Hugh Herbert (of Kiss and Tell and The Moon is Blue fame), the story focuses on a family of second-string vaudevillians, played by genuine vaudeville trouper Eddie Quillan and his real-life family. Inheriting a Southern plantation, Quillan and his brood land in the middle of a raging hillbilly feud. One of the mountain patriarches is played by old DeMille reliable Theodore Roberts, in his final screen appearance; he died shortly before the film's release. Also in the cast is pert ex-Sennett bathing beauty Alberta Vaughan (who appeared in a swimsuit in the film's production stills, but not on screen), and bombastic comedian Billy Gilbert, in his movie debut. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

All evidence suggests that Riley the Cop was a delightful vehicle for John Ford "regular" J. Farrell McDonald. New York policeman James Riley is asked to retrieve neighborhood boy Joe Smith (David Rollins), who skipped town after being falsely accused of theft and is now living a sinful life in Berlin. It isn't long before Riley himself succumbs to charms of the German metropolis, whereupon he magnanimously allows Joe to stay in Berlin long enough to win the heart of aristocratic Mary Coronelli (Nancy Drexel). Riley himself also finds romance, in the form of gawky German damsel Lena (Louise Fazenda). Little does he realize that Lena is the sister of his hated rival -- police officer Hans Krausmeyer (Harry Schultz). If the synopsis is any indication, the present unavailability of this John Ford comedy is a real loss. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Wallace Beery appeared in this silent film with intertitles, a dark drama of hobo life. Jim (Richard Arlen), a wanderer, comes upon young Nancy (Louise Brooks), who has just killed the guardian who was trying to rape her. Disguised as a boy, she takes off with Jim and rides the rails to a hobo camp led by Arkansas Snake (Robert Perry). When Oklahoma Red (Beery) takes over the camp, he begins to pursue Nancy, but before he can take her from Jim, the detectives show up to arrest her. He escapes with Nancy and Jim, and when he sees how much they love each other, Red helps them escape by creating a diversion, during which the detectives kill him. ~ Nicole Gagne, 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

Silent film star Colleen Moore and Charlie Plumb's comic strip character Ella Cinders had two basic things in common: their dutch-bob haircuts and their winsome, wide-eyed charm. As played by Ms. Moore, Ella is a moviestruck small-town girl who wins a talent contest purportedly sponsored by a film studio. First prize is a trip to Hollywood and a screen test, but when Ella arrives in Tinseltown, she discovers that the contest was a fraud. Momentarily disheartened, Ella vows to get into pictures by any means possible. Finally wangling a screen test, Ella convinces producers that she is a great dramatic actress by reacting in terror to a fire that has accidentally broken out on the set. She realizes her dream of becoming a star--at least until her hometown boyfriend Lloyd Hughes offers a "lifetime contract" of his own. A thoroughly delightful minor effort, Ella Cinders displays Colleen Moore at her peak, notably in one sequence in which she imitates her contemporary Lillian Gish; there's even time left over for a brief cameo from comedy great Harry Langdon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide