Mike Donlin Movies

Brave and Bold is an apt description for leading man George Walsh (brother of director Raoul Walsh). Walsh plays a government agent in search of munitions racketeers. At one point, he climbs up and over the Fort Pitt Hotel in Pittsburgh in search of the baddies. Figuring into the proceedings are leading lady Regina Quinn and former big-league ballplayer "Turkey" Mike Donlin. Brave and Bold was based on The 4:40 at Fort Penn, a short story by Perley Poore Sheehan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Richard (Herbert Rawlinson), the son of Judge Garbin (David Torrence), is railroaded into prison. He angrily swears vengeance against Corton (Mike Donlin), the man who sent him and his prison mate up the river. Escaping, he returns to his father, who sends him to finish out his prison term at the home of Hugh Dunster (Alfred Fisher). Dunster forces him to do a lot of menial labor around the lonely mansion, but somehow he still finds the time to fall in love with the man's daughter Joan (Esther Ralston). Through Joan's good influence, he decides to drop his plan of vengeance, and Garbin sends his son on a boat to South America, where he can start his life anew. Mike Donlin -- the film's heavy -- was a former ballplayer for the Giants. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Reginald Denny seems to be doing a Harold Lloyd impersonation in this comedy, right down to the glasses, and maybe he was -- the plot concerns a hypochondriac, like Lloyd's 1923 hit Why Worry?. Although Rufus Billop (Denny) is convinced he will die at any minute, he has outlived his whole family with the exception of his Aunt Beulah (Lucille Ward). While visiting her he decides he desperately needs a doctor. After fighting against the tough manipulations of a towering woman chiropractor (Blanche Payson), he finds a " real" doctor (Clarence Geldert) who agrees that he needs serious care. The only thing holding Billop back from entering a sanitarium is a lack of funds -- he will inherit 750,000 dollars in three years, but if he dies any earlier all the money goes to charity. After the doctor assures a trio of lenders (Otis Harlan, William V. Mong, and Tom Ricketts) that there's really nothing wrong with Billop, they front him a hundred thousand if they will wind up with his whole fortune. So Billop happily takes on a full time nurse and lays in bed all day with a book and a thermometer. But when the first nurse, "Death Watch Mary" (Martha Mattox), doesn't work out, he is given pretty Dolores Hicks (a young and inexperienced Mary Astor). Billop falls in love with her, and when the maid (Helen Lynch) informs him that women like men who "aren't afraid of nothin'," he stops languishing in bed and starts racing cars and riding motorcycles. His brushes with death almost kill his lenders, who will lose their investment if he dies before he receives his inheritance. Dolores finally gets a lawyer to make out a fair contract, and she convinces the three men to sign it as they helplessly watch Billop painting a flagpole some 20 or so stories above a busy street. Although Denny's performance may owe something to Lloyd, this picture was actually based on the novel by Harry Leon Wilson. In addition a successful play about a hypochondriac, The Nervous Wreck, ran on Broadway in 1924, and it later became the musical Whoopee!, a stage and screen hit for Eddie Cantor -- clearly hypochondriacs were marketable entertainment at the time! ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

The Unnamed Woman stars veteran film player Leah Baird, who also wrote the script. The actress plays the greedy, covetous wife of wealthy businessman Herbert Rawlinson. Unhappy with his mercenary spouse, Rawlinson begins keeping time with Katherine MacDonald. Though the relationship is quite innocent, Baird believes otherwise, and sets about to destroy MacDonald's reputation. Only when MacDonald tries to commit suicide does Baird come to her senses, promising to become a better and less self-centered helpmate to her long-suffering hubby. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This silent screen adaptation of "Moby Dick" features John Barrymore in action as Captain Ahab Cooley, played against one of the most famous denizens of the deep, Herman Melville's great white whale. At the beginning of the story, Ahab and his step brother Dererk (George O'Hara) compete for the affections of a winsome minister's daughter, Esther Wiscasset (Dolores Costello). Meanwhile, the albino whale has been eluding harpooners, and bears the scars of many failed attacks against him. His fame has reached epic proportions. One day, Ahab and Derek are on the same whaler as the whale hoves into view. With the visual drama enhanced by the water and pitching boat, Ahab raises his harpoon to kill the beast. At that moment, Derek pushes him overboard and Ahab loses a right leg to the whale. In this scene, Barrymore's portrayal of agonizing pain as an antiseptic is poured over what remains of his leg contributed to his fame as a silents actor. Not long after this incident, the shallow Esther rebuffs Ahab as her suitor once she catches sight of his peg leg. Heartbroken at this turn of events, Ahab blames neither Esther nor his brother - instead he transfers blame and an undying hatred onto the whale. The following saga of Ahab's pursuit of the whale takes on the aura of a super-human quest, far beyond the proportions of its first motivation. One of the most popular of Barrymore's films, this version extends the story beyond the final battle of man versus whale in a variation on Melville's book. Adding publicity to the film was a bit of early Hollywood hype, unintentional though it may seem. The actress Priscella Bonner was fired by Barrymore from the role of Wiscasset, and in a curious parallel to Ahab and the mighty whale, she successfully sued the studio and won a considerable out-of-court settlement. Doubtless due to the popularity of this film, another was released in 1930 under Melville's original book title, with Barrymore again in the role of Captain Ahab. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, 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

Directed by Fred C. Newmeyer, Warming Up is an early baseball film starring Richard Dix and Jean Arthur. After pitcher Bert Tolliver (Dix) is heckled by the members of a major-league team he's trying out for, he comes to believe that one of the players has hexed him. Luckily, a pretty girl named Mary (Arthur), who happens to be the daughter of the man who owns the Green Sox, discovers Bert at the local park, where he's amazing concession stand customers with his pitching accuracy. When it's time for the Green Sox to play the last game of the series, the team manager is forced by unforseen circumstances to let Bert pitch. As he faces the batter, Mary signals her love for him, in doing so giving Bert the inspiration he needed to end the jinx. Warming Up also features Claude King, Philo McCullough, and Billy Kent. ~ Tracie Cooper, 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

Thunderbolt was Josef von Sternberg's first American talking picture. George Bancroft, a von Sternberg regular (despite frequents clashes between the two men), plays a death row inmate who may be on the eve of eternity, but who has still one more murder on his mind. He plans to kill the young lover (Richard Arlen) of his former girl friend (Fay Wray); fortuitously the lover is incarcerated in the same prison where Bancroft awaits the chair. ~ Hal Erickson, 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

This drama is set during the mid Twenties when gangsters were a bit more genteel than their 1930s counterparts. Based on a true story, it profiles the experiences of a young gangster who, after getting caught during a robbery is given a choice: he can either go to prison or join the military and fight. He chooses the military. There he becomes a hero. But when he returns home, he immediately returns to gangster life. Trouble ensues when he falls for an aristocratic woman with a daughter. Their happiness is interrupted by an old enemy who kidnaps the girl. The protagonist successfully saves the girl and kills his enemy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Rita La Roy has good reasons to hate her philandering husband, Hooper Atchley, in this low-budget but sumptuous-looking art deco mystery directed by comedy specialist Thornton Freeland. The cool and calculated Miss La Roy isn't the only person with a grudge against the nasty Atchley, however; in fact, quite a few people come under suspicion when the philanderer is found dying from a bullet wound in his penthouse apartment. Just before he expires, Atchley manages to gasp, "Casey," referring perhaps to Arthur Jones (William Collier Jr.), whose sister (June Clyde) was one of the evil man's latest victims. In the middle of the investigation, the murder scene is plunged into darkness, a shot is fired, and when the electricity returns, yet another victim is found, with the late Mr. Atchley's pet monkey -- the secret witness -- clutching a still smoking gun. Police Captain McGowan (Purnell Pratt) is at first dumbfounded, but with the help of dizzy neighbor Una Merkel, the identity of the murderer is finally revealed. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, 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