Anthony Pawley Movies
- 1958
This over-the-top '50s juvenile delinquency melodrama has developed a cult following for its rabid anti-marijuana message and a thoroughly enjoyable performance by teen-pic icon Dick Bakalyan as one of the teenagers gone bad. A reform-school graduate turns some long-in-the-tooth high schoolers onto the loco weed; before long, they're hopelessly addicted, with crime, insanity, and death the inevitable results. The Cool and the Crazy was shot on location in Kansas City, where Dick Bakalyan actually spent a few hours in jail when local cops thought he was a for-real bad guy and not just acting. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Scott Marlowe, Dick Bakalyan, (more)
Paradise Express is Grand Hotel out of Twentieth Century, fresh from the Republic Studio breeding farms. The titular express is a small-time freight service, struggling for survival against a larger, more streamlined rail company. Faced with bankruptcy, the owners of the underdog railroad challenge their competitors to a race, winner take all. Handsome Larry Doyle (Grant Withers) mans the controls of the Paradise Express, bearing a collection of familiar movie stereotypes. Featured in the cast is harmonica virtuoso Bob McClung, who earlier in 1937 provided off-screen assistance to Laurel and Hardy's "harmonica challenge" scene in Hal Roach's Pick a Star. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Grant Withers, Dorothy Appleby, (more)
Returning from a trip, wealthy seaman Cappy Ricks (Walter Brennan) is annoyed to find his home automated, his daughters' romances awry and his business in disarray, so he schemes with Bill (Lyle Talbot) to trap everyone aboard Cappy's yacht. Later, they fake a fire to maroon everyone on an island -- but then they end up really marooned. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Brennan, Mary Brian, (more)
- 1937
In this adaptation of the operetta by Rudolf Friml, secret agent Nina Maria Azara (Jeannette MacDonald) is working undercover for the King of Spain as a singer known as the "Mosca del Fuego" or "Firefly." Her mission is to uncover Napoleon's plot to invade Spain before it is too late. This film features a variety of songs including "Donkey Serenade," "Love Is Like a Firefly," " and "When a Maid Comes Knocking At Your Heart." ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanette MacDonald, Allan Jones, (more)
- 1936
Actual footage of the 1936 Rose Bowl game is cleverly (if not seamlessly) integrated into the action of this sports-oriented comedy. Longtime chums Paddy O'Reilly (Tom Brown) and Dutch Schultz (Benny Baker) may be heroes of the high-school gridiron, but they're persona non grata with the girls, thanks to campus lothario Ossie Merrill (Larry "Buster" Crabbe). Managing to get on the college football team in time for the Rose Bowl competition, Paddy and Dutch finally win out over Ossie by scoring the winning touchdown. Of interest in the cast as one of the campus cuties is curvaceous Priscilla Lawson, who'd previously starred as Princess Aura opposite Buster Crabbe in the Universal serial Flash Gordon. Also on hand is William Frawley, as-what else? -- a college football coach. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eleanore Whitney, Tom Brown, (more)
