Emma Dunn Movies

French filmmaker Maurice Tourneur was already an internationally recognized cinematic artist when, in 1914, he made his American debut with Mother. Produced at the New Jersey-based World Film Company, the film was based on a stage play by Jules Eckert Goodman. Repeating her star-making stage role, Emma Dunn plays the title character, a careworn widow presiding over a huge and troublesome brood. Inasmuch as Dunn is best known to contemporary film buffs for her small supporting roles in such talkies as Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and The Great Dictator, it would no doubt be quite a revelation to see her essaying a full leading role. Featured in the cast of Mother was a 2-reel comedy ingenue named Priscilla Dean, a scant few years before she became the "queen" of the Universal Studios lot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Although this sentimental tale of the sea came from an original story by Booth Tarkington and its stars were Thomas Meighan and Lois Wilson, it wasn't one of Paramount's better releases for 1924. The Malones are in charge of most of the industries of the coastal town of Oldport, and Jack (Meighan) is the family pet. Jack is the only one in his clan who looks to the sea for a career and he signs on as second mate on the ship Langland. Both Jack and the first mate, Charles Crosby (Cyril Ring), are in love with Patty Thomas (Lois Wilson) and Crosby is very much put out when Jack is promoted over him. A storm blows up at sea and because Captain Clarke (George Fawcett) is drunk, the ship is lost. Crosby claims that Jack was also inebriated and both he and the captain are fired. The villagers back home are all against Jack, except for the children. Jack is ultimately vindicated and his brothers purchase a ship for him. As he sails off, Patty agrees to wait for him. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

With a title like The Texan and a star like Gary Cooper, one might assume that this 1930 actioner is a western -- and one would be wrong! Set in 1885, the film stars Gary Cooper as Enrique, alias Quico, alias the Llano Kid. Whatever the name, he's a bold and daring bandit, and after shooting a young gambler in self-defense he's got a price on his head. Looking for a safe hideout, the Llano Kid agrees to a scheme hatched by a crooked lawyer named Thacker (Oscar Apfel). Our hero agrees to pose as the long-lost son of Mexican aristocrat Senora Ibarra (Emma Dunn), a role for which he is extensively coached by Thacker, who stands to collect a huge reward when he delivers the "son" to the old woman. Upon learning that the real son was the gambler he killed, the Llano Kid calls off the scheme, whereupon Thacker hires a band of thugs to steal Senora Ibarra's fortune. With the help of his long-time adversary, Bible-quoting sheriff John Brown (James Marcus), the Llano Kid foils Thacker's plan and in the bargain wins the hand of Senora Ibarra's lovely niece Consuelo (Fay Wray). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Loretta Young briefly contemplates using her sexual allure to get ahead in business in this sometimes frank but ultimately old-fashioned comedy-drama from Warner Bros. Packing her new husband, bandleader Johnny Saunders (Frank Albertson), off to Paris, Claire McIntyre (Young) sets her sight on her boss, wolfish advertising maven Robert J. Clayton (Ricardo Cortez). The latter's clumsy attempt to seduce the girl is interrupted by an enraged Johnny, however, and Claire comes to her senses. But Clayton doesn't take no for an answer and concocts a plan to sabotage the union. Big Business Girl was based on a College Humor magazine story by Patricia Reilly and H.N. Swanson. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The third of Metropolitan Opera star Lawrence Tibbett's MGM vehicles, The Prodigal casts the star as Jeffry, the proverbial black sheep of an aristocratic Southern family. After several years on the bum with his buddies Doc (Roland Young) and Snipe (Cliff Edwards), Jeffry returns home, where he immediately falls in love with Antonia (Esther Ralston), the young wife of his hateful older brother Rodman (Purnell B. Pratt). Though he knows she'd be happier with him, Jeffry finally acquiescences to family honor and walks out of Antoina's life. The film's best-remembered musical number was "Without a Song", originally composed for the never-completed MGM epic Great Day. Also released as The Southerner, The Prodigal was retitled Wandering Son for television, to avoid confusion with the 1955 Biblical spectacle of the same name. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A naive, wealthy small-town girl, bored with her routine life, falls for a dashing con artist who has come looking for fresh marks to swindle. He soon charms her into faking her prominent father's name on a letter of endorsement, which he presents to the other local merchants. They willingly give him all sorts of goodies and he prepares his escape, but not before conning the girl into becoming his wife. After their wedding night in a sleazy hotel, he abandons her. Fortunately, by the story's end, she is able to reassemble her shattered life and find happiness. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

With a blonde wigged Joan Crawford offering one of her more high-handed performances, and veteran silent star Pauline Frederick doing her best to keep up, audiences are in for MGM soap-opera at its 1931 zenith. Reunited with her long-lost mother in Paris, Crawford fails to realize that the loving and dignified woman is actually kept by a Parisian roué Albert Conti. Although she briefly falls in with a fast crowd, headed by the alcoholic Monroe Owsley), Crawford, a good girl at heart, falls in love with visiting Harvard graduate Neil Hamilton, and he with her. But Hamilton's stern, puritanical parents (Hobart Bosworth and Emma Dunn) frown upon Crawford's Parisian friends, who rudely spoil a dignified but deadly dull evening of superficial conversation and bridge. When a disgusted Hamilton informs his upcoming bride about her mother's true metier, Crawford is at first disbelieving and then huffily breaks the engagement. A penitent Frederick agrees to leave her life as a kept woman, but when she realizes that her daughter still carries a torch for the stuffy Hamilton, she pretends to willingly return to Conti. Denouncing her mother, Crawford goes on a tryst with Owsley, but is returned by Hamilton, who reunites her with the self-sacrificing Miss Frederick. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Based on a novel by Marie Belloc Lowndes, this drama chronicles the tangled web woven by a poisonous New York socialite who tires all her means to escape the unwanted attentions of a would-be lover before resorting to murder. Joan Crawford stars as the title character whose travails begin during a South American vacation after she meets the handsome Emile (Nils Asther). For her own amusement, she dallies with him and even writes him a few passionate letters before boredom overtakes her and she decides to return to the Big Apple--without her new lover. Unfortunately, Emile has become obsessed with her and to force he to stay threatens to use her impassioned letters to socially embarrass her back home. This only increases her icy determination to return home. On the long cruise northward, she meets and falls in love with Robert Montgomery and they get engaged. Crawford has no idea that Emile has taken a plane to New York so he can greet her at the dock. He then begins stalking her and constantly threatening her with those damning letters until she decides she has had enough and puts a permanent end to his badgering. Unfortunately, her action is not without repercussions and ultimately, she must put her trust in her fiance and her mother with whom she has been emotionally estranged. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Blessed Event is one of several early-1930s films inspired by the meteoric rise to fame of gossip columnist Walter Winchell--and like most such films, its title is based on a Winchell tag line. Lee Tracy plays a glib-tongued reporter who is conducting a feud with popular singer Dick Powell (making his film debut). Along the way, Tracy offends a powerful gangster, and in so doing becomes entangled with chorus girl Mary Brian. The film is at its best when parodying commercial radio of the era (notably an inane jingle for "Shapiro Shoes" warbled by Dick Powell). The original Broadway stage version of Blessed Event was written by Manuel Seff and Forrest Wilson--and reportedly inspired by the career of Ruby Keeler, who rose to stardom thanks in part to the patronage of a New York mobster. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A wealthy theatrical producer entices a desperately poor young woman to visit his penthouse. The innocent girl doesn't realize that the lecherous fellow is planning to do much more than have a drink with her. Fortunately, her friend the grocery boy isn't so naive and manages to arrive in the nick of time. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Bette Davis was on loan from Universal when she appeared in this little juvenile delinquent melodrama from independent producer B.F. Zeidman. Although Davis earned above-title billing (along with Pat O'Brien), Junior Durkin is the real star, a teenager who is sent to juvenile prison after being caught in a raid on a bootlegging establishment operated by Kelly (O'Brien). At juvenile hall, Jimmy befriends Shorty (Frank Coghlan Jr.), a sickly youth who is subsequently sent to solitary confinement. When it appears that Shorty will die without medical attention, Jimmy escapes and manages to contact Kelly's kindhearted girlfriend, Peggy Gardner (Davis). The latter goes to the newspapers and the resulting uproar helps change the inhuman conditions in the country's youth detentions. Unfortunately, the efforts come too late for Shorty, who has already died from the abuse. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Joe E. Brown plays Elmer Kane, a rookie ballplayer with the Chicago Cubs whose ego is matched only by his appetite. Because he is not only vain but naive, Elmer's teammates take great delight in pulling practical jokes on him. Still, he is so valuable a player that the Cubs management hides the letters from his hometown sweetheart Nellie (Patricia Ellis), so that Elmer won't bolt the team and head for home. When Nellie comes to visit Elmer, she finds him in an innocent but compromising situation with a glamorous actress (Claire Dodd). She turns her back on him, and disconsolate Elmer tries to forget his troubles at a crooked gambling house. Elmer incurs an enormous gambling debt, which the casino's owner is willing to forget if Elmer will only throw the deciding World Series game. Elmer brawls with the gambler and lands in jail, where he learns of a particularly cruel practical joke that had previously been played on him. Out of spite, he refuses to play in the Big Game, and thanks to a jailhouse visit by the gamblers, it looks as though Elmer has taken a bribe. But when he shows up to play (after patching things up with Nellie), Elmer proves that he's been true-blue all along. Based on the Broadway play by Ring Lardner and George M. Cohan, Elmer the Great betrays its stage origins in its static early scenes, but builds confidently to a terrific climax during a rain-soaked ball game. This enjoyable film was the second in Joe E. Brown's "baseball trilogy" (see also Fireman Save My Child and Alibi Ike). Elmer the Great was remade in 1939 as Cowboy Quarterback, with Bert Wheeler in Joe E. Brown's part and with football substituting for baseball. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide