Joseph J. Dowling Movies

Just because Humphrey Bogart had been promoted to the A-list by way of The Maltese Falcon (1941), that didn't mean that he was completely free of such minor potboilers as The Big Shot. Bogart stars as mob leader Duke Berne, a three-time loser who tries in vain to reorganize his old gang upon being sprung from prison. Falling in love with Lorna Fleming (Irene Manning), the wife of crooked attorney Martin Fleming (Stanley Ridges), Berne ends up back behind bars for life, thanks to the vengeful Fleming's courtroom chicanery. Escaping during a prison variety show (dominated by Chick Chandler as an incarcerated blackface comedian), Berne makes a beeline for Lorna, who deserted the duplicitous Fleming when the latter railroaded an innocent young man into jail. Hoping to find happiness in a remote mountain hideaway, Berne ultimately realizes that he's no good for Lorna and spends the rest of the picture atoning for past sins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

G-Man Bill Collins (Preston Foster) swings into action when a crooked sweepstakes racket begins insinuating itself upon the honest citizenry of the US. The crooks have flooded the market with counterfeit lottery tickets, reducing many an unwary speculator to poverty. When he's not tracking down the miscreants, Collins finds time to romance Linda Parker (Irene Harvey), who is innocently involved in the bogus ticket operation. The whole thing winds up in an exciting car chase, which later showed up via stock footage in several Universal serials. Missing Evidence was scripted by Dorrell and Stuart McGowan, later the prime movers of TV's Death Valley Days. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The saga of the Jones Family continues in 1937's Borrowing Trouble. When Pa Jones's drugstore is robbed, the evidence points to orphan kid Tommy Stevens (Marvin Stephens). This comes as quite a disappointment for Pa (Jed Prouty) and Ma (Spring Byington), who'd welcomed poor Tommy into their home, treating him as one of their own children. As it happens, however, Tommy is merely shielding the actual culprit -- his older brother Lester (Gregory Walcott). Thank heaven for Granny Jones (Florence Roberts), who never fails to cut through all the pathos and bathos with her cynical put-downs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

According to the Paramount publicity mill, Joseph Hergesheimer wrote this unoriginal tale of California's early days especially for Pola Negri. Like all too many of Negri's Paramount vehicles, this drama was not worthy of her talents. Don Geraldo y Villalon (Joseph Dowling) hates Americans because he believes they robbed him of his mine. While he sequesters himself at his ranchero, his daughter Carlotta (Negri) yearns for excitement. When she insists on attending a ball that is being held at the mine, her father kills himself. Carlotta falls in love with John Basset (Youcca Troubetzkoy), the superintendent of the mine, but he has no use for her. So she goes to San Francisco where she becomes a dancehall girl and attracts the attention of vigilante leader Luke Rand (Warner Oland). He offers to get the mine back for her if she gives him what he wants. Carlotta agrees, but when she realizes that Rand's efforts will mean Basset's death, she helps defend the mine instead. Rand nevertheless comes to collect what he feels that Carlotta owes him, and Basset shoots him. After being exonerated of the villain's death, Basset is united with Carlotta. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Olympe (Betty Compson) is a cabaret dancer who offers her services to France when her country goes to war. She becomes a spy and provides valuable intelligence information during World War I by winning the confidence of a German officer. Hugh Warren (Wallace MacDonald) is the American soldier who falls for Olympe. She allows him to believe she is a simple peasant and reveals nothing of her career as a spy. The two fall in love and are married, but the villainous German agent De Montinrich (Theodore Kosloff) reveals to her husband's family that she is a tawdry club dancer. Unable to reveal her role in espionage, Olympe is ostracized by her friends and family. When the French government honors Olympe for her wartime bravery, her family no longer considers her a blemish on their sterling reputation. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Director Victor Sjöström gave MGM this well-crafted adaptation of Alphonse Daudet's novel, Kings in Exile. The King of Illyris (Lewis Stone) weds the princess from a neighboring mythical kingdom, making her his Queen (Alice Terry). She is disgusted to discover that he has a mistress, Sephora (Helena D'Algy), and turns to Prince Alexei (John Bowers) for friendship. A revolution flares up in the little nation, and the King is willing to abdicate, but the Queen wants the crown for the sake of their son. The royals escape to Paris, and the King finally begins to grow on the distrustful Queen. In spite of his behavior, the King admits that he has always loved her. It turns out that Sephora is in league with the revolutionists, and this puts the King's life in danger. He decides to abdicate in favor of his son, and the Queen resolves to stick by his side. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This drama was based on the novel Cape Cod Folks by Sarah P. McLean Greene. Jonathan Swift (Frank Keenan) is a wealthy fish packer who resides in a New England fishing village with his son, Noah (Eddie Phillips), and daughter, Emily (Barbara Bedford). Noah is in love with Becky (Renee Adoree), the daughter of Captain Bijonah Keeler (Joseph J. Dowling), a lighthouse keeper. Swift does not approve of the match because he feels that the Keelers are below his station. Meanwhile, Emily is being courted by Joe Cradlebow (Robert Frazer), a captain whose attention she spurns. In order to break up the romance between Noah and Emily, Swift has his son shanghaied and taken aboard a ship. Soon a storm blows in and the ship is wrecked. Cradlebow rescues Noah, winning Emily's admiration. When Swift discovers that Becky is pregnant, and that Noah has promised to marry her, he relents and gives the union his approval, while Cradlebow weds Emily. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Wallace Beery displayed a special talent for playing villains, and he has an especially good one here. However, the other aspects of the picture, from the plot to the direction to the bad Indian makeup of Cleo Madison, don't live up to Beery's fine performance. Drifter Jean Scholast (Beery) goes to work for Armand Le Quintrec (Jack Rollens), a wealthy French mine owner. Le Quintrec falls ill and undergoes a delicate operation. Because Scholast shorts out the electricity, the lights go off during the operation and Le Quintrec dies. Scholast weds his widow (Fontaine La Rue), then sells all her belongings and flees to Arizona, constantly haunted by spirits wishing to avenge Le Quintrec's murder. But they aren't the only ones pursuing Scholast -- Le Quintrec's son, Georges (Joseph Dowling), is also looking for him. In Arizona, Scholast marries a squaw, Matoaka (Madison). Years later, Georges catches up with him and the men have a brutal fight. Georges is getting the worst of it until Scholast sees the spirit of Le Quintrec, sending him into heart failure and frightening him to death. Georges marries Scholast's half-breed daughter to give an upbeat note to the ending. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Marshall Neilan may not have been the best director for this Thomas Hardy tragedy; he was better with subject matter that wasn't quite so heavy. But he and his then-wife Blanche Sweet still made a good and financially successful film. Tess (Sweet) comes from a poor family. When her father, the town drunk, finds out that they are distant relatives of the aristocratic D'Urbervilles, he sends Tess to them to find work. She is hired as a maid by Alec D'Urberville (Stuart Holmes), who betrays her. She leaves and has a child that dies soon after it is born. After she gets work as a milkmaid, she meets Angel Clare (Conrad Nagel) and they fall in love. Although she writes a letter confessing her past to Angel, he never gets it -- a fact that Tess doesn't realize until their wedding night. She proceeds to tell him the truth, and, disillusioned, he leaves her and goes to Brazil. In the meantime, Alec D'Urberville decides to atone for his mistreatment of Tess and offers to marry her. She accepts and begins making plans to divorce Angel. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This bizarre seafaring melodrama starred the ill-fated John Bowers (in 1936 he committed suicide by walking into the ocean, supposedly becoming the inspiration for A Star Is Born). Captain Martin Manning (Bowers) is told he must get his ship, the Sparrow, out of Mariner's harbor -- there is a dark superstition surrounding it. Manning goes to the Mariner's Home to tell the real story behind the ship. Years before, when he was a new mate, the ship's owner, David Rollins (Joseph J. Dowling), wanted to cure his son, Harry (Edward Burns), of a drug problem. The Sparrow's then-skipper, Thorne Wetherell (Spottiswood Aitken), agreed to take the young man on board. When Manning brought Harry to the ship, he discovered that the crew had mutinied and they were under the spell of voodoo practitioner Serpent Smith (Sheldon Lewis). Manning, Harry, and Wetherell's daughter, Marjorie (Marguerite de la Motte), worked together to overcome Smith and the crew. They succeeded and Manning won Marjorie. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Except for one low-budget production, Miriam Cooper had been away from the screen for over a year when she signed up with producer B.P. Schulberg. She made three films for Schulberg, and in her autobiography, Dark Lady of the Silents, claims that this crime drama was her favorite, even though she plays her usual stock character -- a nice girl gone wrong. When Sheila Weston (Cooper) meets Ray Underhill (Gaston Glass) at a dancehall, she has no idea he's a car thief. They fall in love and quickly marry, but as soon as the ceremony ends, Underhill is arrested, as is Sheila, who the police assume is his accomplice. Both of them wind up in jail, and although Sheila serves her full term, Underhill breaks out with another con, Martin Norries (Kenneth Harlan). After Sheila is finally released, Underhill tracks her down and gets arrested again, but before going to jail, he tells her the location of a fortune hidden away by Norries. Sheila steals as much of it as she can, then travels to South Africa, where she falls in love with the owner of a diamond mine -- who also happens to be Norries. Thinking Underhill has died, she and Norries wed and return to the States. It turns out Underhill is still alive, and around long enough to admit his wrongdoings before being killed by another ex-con; Sheila finally confesses her own theft and goes on to lead an honest life with Norries. Cooper permanently retired within a year of this film, which was unfortunate since her performances were often lauded by critics. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Having achieved fame and fortune in a series of bucolic country-boy roles, Charles Ray decided he was ready to become his own producer. For a while, Ray did all right by himself, turning out "typical" vehicles that pleased his fans. Then he became fatally ambitious-and the result was the infamous fiasco The Courtship of Miles Standish. It's the old story, as set down by Longfellow, of John Alden's (Ray) suit for the hand of Priscilla Mullens (Enid Bennett) on behalf of his tongue-tied friend Miles Standish (E. Alyn Warren). Oodles of money were spent on this costumer, but seemingly no effort was exerted to make the story interesting or involving. The film bankrupted Charles Ray, forcing him to become a "hired hand" for other producers; by the 1930s he was a has-been, reduced to bits and extra roles. Though Courtship of Miles Standish no longer exists, viewers can still get a few yocks out of Hal Roach's 1924 two-reel parody, Courtship of Miles Sandwich. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide