Steffi Duna Movies
Invariably cast as a hot-blooded Latin or tropical temptress, Steffi Duna was actually born in Budapest. By the time she was 13, Steffi was already well known in the rarefied world of the European ballet. In films from 1931, Duna was prominently featured in the pioneering Technicolor projects La Cucaracha (1935) and The Dancing Pirate (1936). She also appeared in the mammoth Anthony Adverse (1936) as the title character's cast-off mistress. In 1935, she performed an unforgettable song and dance in La Cucaracha, a Technicolor short. In 1940, she married actor Dennis O'Keefe and retired from films. They remained married until his death in 1968. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Given the omnipresence of the Motion Picture Production Code in 1940, the second film version of Robert E. Sherwood's Waterloo Bridge would have to be laundered and softened to pass muster. In the original, made in 1931, the heroine is nothing more or less than a streetwalker, patrolling London's Waterloo Bridge during World War I in hopes of picking up the occasional soldier. She falls in love with one of her clients, a young officer from an aristocratic family. Gently informed by the young man's mother that any marriage would be absolutely impossible, the streetwalker tearfully agrees, letting her beau down gently before ending her own life by walking directly into the path of an enemy bomb. In the remake, told in flashback as a means of "distancing" the audience from what few unsavory story elements were left, the heroine, Vivien Leigh, starts out as a virginal ballerina. Robert Taylor, a British officer from a wealthy family, falls in love with Vivien and brings her home to his folks. This time around, Taylor's uncle (C. Aubrey Smith), impressed by Vivien's sincerity, reluctantly agrees to the upcoming marriage. When Taylor marches off to war, Vivien abandons an important dance recital to bid her fiance goodbye, losing her job as a result. Later, she is led to believe that Taylor has been killed in battle. Thus impoverished and aggrieved, she is given a motivation for turning to prostitution, a plot element deemed unecessary in the original-which indeed it was. Now the stage is set for her final sacrifice, though the suicidal elements are carefully weeded out. Waterloo Bridge was remade for a second time in 1956 as Gaby, with Leslie Caron and John Kerr. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vivien Leigh, Robert Taylor, (more)
- 1940
The second entry in MGM's three-film "Nick Carter" series, Phantom Raiders is undeniably the best, and not just by default. In this one, super-sleuth Nick Carter (Walter Pidgeon) arrives in Panama to investigate the destruction of several Allied supply vessels. It's going to be an uphill battle for our hero, who must not only defeat erudite saboteur Al Taurez (Joseph Schildkraut) but also the villain's dumb but deadly henchman Gunboat Jackson (Nat Pendleton). The film builds up skillfully to an exciting conclusion, in which Carter corners the bad guys on a ship doomed for extinction. Donald Meek provides a few laughs as Nick's overenthusiastic assistant Bartholomew the Bee Keeper, who in the film's best scene convinces the heavies that he's a homicidal maniac! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Pidgeon, Joseph Schildkraut, (more)
- 1940
Set in the Central American jungle, Lucille Ball plays plantation owner Joan Grant in The Marines Fly High. When a platoon of US Marines need a safe place to stay, Joan (Ball) allows them inside of her home, oblivious to the fact that two of the Marines would later compete for her affections. All conflict must be put aside, however, after she's kidnapped by a gang of bandits. The troop of Marines quickly unite, and immediately set off to save her. The Marines Fly High was directed by Ben Stoloff and George Nichols Jr., and also includes actors Richard Dix, Chester Morris, Steffi Duna, John Eldredge, and Paul Harvey. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Dix, Chester Morris, (more)
- 1940
No relation to the 1929 Fox talkie of the same name, Republic's The Girl From Havana offers blonde-bombshell Claire Carleton (normally relegated to supporting roles) as the title character. The film charts the exploits of two oil-drilling buddies, Woody Davis (Dennis O'Keefe) and Tex Moore (Victor Jory) as they ply their trade in sunny Cuba. Woody and Tex come to blows over the affections of the gorgeous Havana (Claire Carleton), but eventually set aside their differences when the plot takes a melodramatic turn. The climax finds Woody posing as a gun-runner in order to expose a Nazi spy ring operating in the Carribean. Steffi Duna, wife of star Dennis O'Keefe, shows up to warble the "authentic" Cubano number "Querido, Take Me Tonight." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis O'Keefe, Victor Jory, (more)
- 1940
Previously filmed in 1920 and 1931, James Oliver Curwood's River's End was given a third go-round by Warner Bros. in 1940. Dennis Morgan plays a dual role as falsely accused murderer John Keith and stalwart Canadian mountie Sgt. Conniston. When Conniston is accidently killed, Keith takes his place, and while in Redcoat guise manages to solve the murder for which he was accused. George Tobias dominates the proceedings as French-Canadian Andy Dijon, who spends most of his time trying to get into trouble to get out of an unwanted marriage. The heroine is Elizabeth Earl, of whom little was heard after River's End ran its course; the same could not be said of supporting player James Stephenson, who would skyrocket to stardom in 1940 by virtue of his performance in William Wyler's The Letter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis Morgan, George Tobias, (more)
- 1940
The moral of Preston Sturges' first directorial effort The Great McGinty seems to be: If you're a crook, stay a crook, because honesty will get ya every time. Brian Donlevy plays Dan McGinty, a Chicago hobo who is hired by local political bosses as a "professional voter", casting ballots under a variety of assumed names in various districts. McGinty chalks up $74 worth of votes, and when local ward heeler William Demarest can't pony up, McGinty takes direct action by trying to beat up The Boss (Akim Tamiroff). Though the two men can't get through an entire day without trying to kill each other, McGinty and the Boss are impressed by each other's raw abilities and become political partners. Through the Boss' patronage, McGinty works his way up to the mayor's office, with his politically expedient bride (Muriel Angelus) at his side. Though he never goes so far as to fall in love with his "arranged" wife, Donlevy is fond of both her and her children by a previous marriage, and for their sake he begins to reform--much to the dismay of the Boss. With the Governor's mansion within his grasp, McGinty makes the fatal error of fessing up to a graft-ridden bridge contract. It is this impulsive moment of honesty, rather than any of his past crimes, that gets McGinty thrown in the slammer, sharing a cell with the blood-in-his-eye Boss. Demarest separates the two combative men long enough to arrange an escape to South America, but not before McGinty has assured the financial security of his wife and family. The story is told in flashback form in a seedy South American dive, where McGinty works as a bartender and the Boss is the manager. The film ends with the two friendly enemies duking it out over a minor infraction, while bouncer Demarest looks on in disgust. Sick to death of watching other directors mangle his screenplays, Preston Sturges sold this rollicking political satire to Paramount only on the condition that he be allowed to direct (for the princely sum of $10). Paramount hedged its bets by giving Sturges a slim budget and inexpensive stars; as a result, the film made back its cost several times over, and Preston Sturges' directorial career was off and running. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brian Donlevy, Muriel Angelus, (more)
Also known as Beasts of Berlin and Hitler: Beast of Berlin, this was the inagural effort of Producers Distributing Corporation-later to become famous (or infamous) as PRC Pictures. Set in Germany, the story concerned a dedicated group of anti-Nazis devoted to circulating propaganda literature. The leaders of the group are Roland Drew and his wife Steffi Duna. After a terrifying sojourn in a concentration camp, hero and heroine are smuggled into Switzerland so that they may carry on their work in the Free World. Based on the novel Goose Step by Shepard Traube, this little quickie was among the earliest American films to cast Nazi Germany in a villainous light. That it wasn't the best hardly mattered to the various Bundists in the US, who lobbied to have the film banned. Billed fourth in Beast of Berlin was young Alan Ladd, who was advertised as the film's star when it was reissued in the early 1940s as Hell's Devils. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roland Drew, Steffi Duna, (more)
- 1939
If not the best of the Hopalong Cassidy films, Law of the Pampas is certainly one of the better-known entries. This time around, Hoppy (William Boyd) and his pal Lucky (Russell Hayden) head to South America to look after a herd of cattle sold by Cassidy's boss to an Argentine rancher. Villain Ralph Merritt (Sidney Blackmer) wants to get his mitts on that cattle, and he's not above hiring the scum of the earth to do his bidding. Fortunately, Hoppy, Lucky and their new Latino buddy Fernando (Sidney Toler, in a delightful comic characterization) make short work of the bad guys in an outsized barroom brawl. Hungarian-born Steffi Duna is convincing as an Argentine senorita, while an uncredited Rychard Cramer plays a memorably nasty bit role. Contrary to previously published reports, David Niven does not appear in Law of the Pampas, unbilled or otherwise. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William "Hopalong" Boyd, Russell Hayden, (more)
- 1939
In this western, a dashing caballero makes a wager with his gang that he can court a beautiful dancer and lure her back to their lair. Unfortunately the woman loves another so the outlaw kidnaps them both. At the Mexican border, he has a change of heart and sets the lovers free. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leo Carrillo, Tim Holt, (more)
- 1939
In this lively programmer a con man hires a character actor to masqueraded as the recently assassinated dictator of a tiny Latin American country so he can bilk an arriving American ambassador out of his fortune. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Akim Tamiroff, Lloyd Nolan, (more)
Way Down South ranks as among the better Bobby Breen musicals, if only because of its impressive production credits. The film is set in antebellum Louisiana, where young Tim Reid's (Breen) inheritance is highly coveted by crooked attorney Martin Dill (Edwin Maxwell). With the help of kindly Cajun innkeeper Jacques Bouton (Alan Mowbray), Tim is able to foil the villain, with time left over for a number of Southern-fried tunes. The film's attitudes towards slavery-to a man, the "darkies" are blissfully content with their lot in life-is astonishing, inasmuch as the film was cowritten by Clarence Muse (one of the more militant black performers in Hollywood) and African American poet Langston Hughes! The screenwriters were also responsible for the songs, including "Louisiana" and "Good Ground." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bobby Breen, Alan Mowbray, (more)
- 1939
Panama Lady is a cleaned-up remake of the 1932 Helen Twelvetrees vehicle Panama Flo. Lucille Ball essays the old Twelvetrees role as Lucy, a nightclub "hostess" stranded in Panama by her ex-lover Roy (Donald Briggs). Victimized by a shakedown orchestrated by Roy, oil rigger McTeague (Allan Lane) holds Lucy responsible. To avoid landing in jail, Lucy agrees to accompany McTeague to his oil camp as his housekeeper. Assuming she's been brought to this godforsaken spot for sexual purposes, Lucy eventually realizes that McTeague's intentions are honorable: All he wants is his money back, and he expects our heroine to work off the debt on her feet! Ultimately Lucy and McTeague fall in love, but not before the scurrilous Roy re-enters her life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lucille Ball, Steffi Duna, (more)
- 1938
Perhaps the best of Jane Withers' 20th Century-Fox vehicles, Rascals is also the one that pops up most frequently on televisoin. Withers plays Gypsy, the youthful queen of a band of wandering vagabonds. Joining Gypsy and her fellow gypsies is amnesia victim Margaret Adams (Rochelle Hudson), who soon becomes the tribe's top fortune-teller. The gypsies finance an operation that will restore Margaret's memory, only to discover that she has been slated for a loveless marriage with a buffoonish baron (Jose Crespo). She is rescued from this fate by the resourceful Gypsy, who orchestrates a romance between Margaret and the misogynistic Tony (Robert Wilcox). Musical highlights are provided by the always-delightful Withers and by harmonica virtuosos Borrah Minevitch and His Gang. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane Withers, Rochelle Hudson, (more)
- 1938
Flirting with Fate is one of the lesser Joe E. Brown vehicles for independent producer David L. Loew. Brown is cast as Dixon, the manager of a third-rate vaudeville troupe stranded in a mythical South American country. Completely broke, Dixon hits upon a plan to finance the actors' trip home: he'll take out a huge life insurance policy, then arrange to get himself killed by bandit chieftan Sancho (Leo Carrillo). Unfortunately, Sancho has no interest whatsoever in knocking off our hero, nor can he be insulted into committing the deed. By the final reel, of course, Dixon has decided to go on living-and that's when his life is really in danger, courtesy of a cannister of nitroglycerine. Hungarian-born Steffi Duna provides unintentional laughs as an offkey Latin American songstress. The title Flirting with Fate had previously been used by Douglas Fairbanks in 1917; coincidentally, that film also had a leading character with suicidal notions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe E. Brown, Leo Carrillo, (more)
- 1937
This musical presentation features the British version of the Leoncavallo opera in English translation. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1937
In this pastoral drama, a ruthless gang of fugitives, hide from the law on a remote farm. There they find themselves profoundly affected by the old blind man and his loyal dog that lives there. They also gradually begin to respect the honest toil and simple rewards of country life. When the gang leader finally asks them to come out of hiding, the former criminals turn him in. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Hall, Anne Nagel, (more)
- 1936
Dancing Pirate was the second feature-length production by Pioneer Pictures, whose earlier effort Becky Sharp was the first three-strip Technicolor feature. Pirate was likewise filmed in the three-strip process, but the film is currently available only in its black-and-white reissue version. London and Broadway musical comedy favorite Charles Collins stars as Jonathan Pride, a mild-mannered dance instructor in 1820 Boston. En route to visit relatives, Jonathan is shanghaied by a band of zany pirates and forced to work as a galley boy. When the pirate vessel arrives at the port of Las Palomas, Jonathan, clad in buccaneer's garb, makes his escape. Everyone in Las Palomas, including Governor Alcalde (Frank Morgan) and fetching senorita Serafina (Steffi Duna), assumes that Jonathan is the pirate chieftain, leading to a series of typical comic-opera complications. Featured in the cast are the Dancing Cansinos, whose daughter Rita Hayworth was just beginning her own screen career. The Rodgers & Hart score, like the film itself, is pretty lackluster, but Charles Collins is a pleasing screen personality who should have gone much farther in movies than he did. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Collins, Frank Morgan, (more)
Dennis Morgan, still billed as Stanley Morner, essays his first leading role in the Halperin Brothers' I Conquer the Sea. The star is cast as Tommy, a harpooner on a whaling ship who loses an arm during one excursion. Rosita (Steffi Duna) is in love with Tommy, while Tommy's younger brother Leonard (Douglas Walton) is in love with Rosita. Realizing that he'll never be able to properly support Rosita, Tommy sacrifices his own happiness (and his life) for the sake of his brother. A subplot involving prejudice against the whaling community's Portuguese residents wends its way in and out of the plotline. The otherwise pedestrian I Conquer the Sea is enlivened by some authentic (and rather gory) whaling footage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steffi Duna, Stanley Morner, (more)
- 1936
John Carroll made his screen debut in the RKO Radio musical actioner Hi Gaucho. Set in 19th-century Argentina, the story concerns the Romeo-and-Juliet romance between Lucio (Carroll) and Inez (Steffi Duna), respectively the son and daughter of feuding ranchers. At first despising Lucio, Inez grows fonder of him after he rescues her from the bandits who weave their way in and out of the storyline. Though not officially a western, there are plenty of western-like thrills and spills before a happy ending (and another rescue of the heroine, this time from an arranged marriage) can be reached. Featured as the bold bandit chieftain is silent-screen matinee idol Rod LaRocque, who ten years earlier might have been the star of the show. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Carroll, Steffi Duna, (more)
- 1936
In this drama, a famed clown gets jealous and murders his wife and her lover, a soldier. It is notable for its early use of color sequences at the beginning and end of the film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1936
When David O. Selznick produced the film version of the 1000-plus page novel Gone with the Wind, he declared he could not make a film running any less than 222 minutes. When Warner Bros. adapted the even longer Hervey Allen best-seller Anthony Adverse, the studio managed to pack everything--except the most censorable passages, which had made Allen's novel a best-seller in the first place--into 139 minutes. Surprisingly, the film version of Anthony Adverse moves rather smoothly, though it is nowhere near as involving (or as much fun) as Gone with the Wind. Fredric March stars as Anthony Adverse, the illegitimate offspring of Anita Louise, the wife of Spanish nobleman Claude Rains. When Adverse comes of age, he inherits the prosperous business run by his kindly foster father Edmund Gwenn, which he abandons for an aimless trip around the world after his heart is broken by childhood sweetheart Olivia De Havilland. Sinking deeper into the morass of alcohol and degeneracy in the West Indies, Adverse is regenerated when he is reunited with De Havilland, now the mistress of Napoleon Bonaparte. Suddenly enervated, Adverse battles the efforts of Claude Rains and Gwenn's duplicitous former assistant Gale Sondergaard to take over Gwenn's business. Along the way, he learns that Gwenn was actually his grandfather and that De Havilland has born him a son (Scotty Beckett). Instead of dying, as he does in the novel, Anthony Adverse takes his son to America to start life anew. Whew! Though no award winner itself, Anthony Adverse enabled Gale Sondergaard to win the first-ever "best supporting actress" Oscar. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fredric March, Olivia de Havilland, (more)
- 1936
In this Argentine western, a South American gaucho saves a beautiful girl from a shady bandido who masquerades as the Spanish don to whom she is betrothed. Songs include: "Little White Rose," "Song of the Open Road," "Bandit Song," and "Panchita." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1936
This beautifully rendered cinemadaptation of Pagliacci is sung in English, with the Leoncavallo music newly arranged by Hans Eisler. The noted counter tenor Richard Tauber is Signor Canio, head of a comic-opera troupe touring the Italian provinces. On stage Canio, dressed as a clown, is expected to laugh everyone's troubles away: offstage, he is tormented with the knowledge that his beautiful young wife (Steffi Duna) is in love with handsome soldier Silvio (Arthur Margetson). These real-life travails eventually spill over onto the stage, with tragic consequences. The film's high point, of course, is Richard Tauber's plaintive rendition of the famous aria "Veste la Giubba". Unlike so many other filmed operas, Pagliacci is thoroughly cinematic, with carefully chosen camera angles and attractively designed compositions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Tauber, Steffi Duna, (more)
- 1935
In this western, a cowpoke from Wyoming rides into the big city to look for a wife. Instead he finds himself investigating the mysterious death of a man in the hotel room next to his. In the corpse's room, the cowpoke found a lost bracelet. He and the hotel phone operator use this clue to solve the mystery. Later he marries the operator and they return back to wild Wyoming. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Franchot Tone, Una Merkel, (more)
- 1935
Poverty-row director Wallace Fox came up in the world a bit when he signed on to helm RKO Radio's Red Morning. Steffi Duna, playing the tomboyish daughter of sea captain Mitchell Lewis, is abandoned on the shores of New Guinea when her dad's crew mutinies and scuttles the ship. Wasting little time, Duna sheds her "civilized" clothes for more exotic duds, encounters surly natives, and rescued in the nick by her fiance Regis Toomey. This very economically made film was design to utilize footage of a never-completed Merian C. Cooper adventure epic, and to put idle RKO contractee Steffi Duna to work as quickly as possible. Wallace Fox cowrote the crazy-quilt screenplay of Red Morning with John Twist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
