Josephine Dunn Movies

A favorite of the 1930s exploitation circuit, Birth of a Baby is a simple, unadorned story of an expectant couple (Eleanor King, William Post Jr.) Concerned about the health factors of the upcoming delivery, the couple consults a kindly obstetrician (Richard Gordon). The birth takes place without a hitch, and everyone is happy. So what's the big deal? It seems that, as a means to "hype" the film, documentary footage of an actual birth was spliced into the last reel. A model of decorum by today's standards, this footage was sufficiently provocative in 1938 to permit the film's exhibitors to ballyhoo the picture as "daring" and "controversial." In many cities, it was shown to segregated-by-sex audiences: men were not allowed in the theatre when women were present, and vice versa. In itself nothing special, Birth of a Baby is a prime example of old-fashioned (and very successful) hucksterism ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adopted brothers, both cattlemen, fight over the sheep man's daughter in this low budget but acceptable Ken Maynard Western from poverty row company KBS. Maynard, as Ken Lanning, and his adopted brother Wally Thompson (Wallace MacDonald both fall for Judy Winters (Ruth Hall) despite the fact that her family has committed the almost unpardonable sin of raising sheep on the range. When neither Ken nor Wally appear to be too troubled, their foster-father, old Winchester Thompson (Walter Law), hires the notorious gunman Butch Martin (Albert J. Smith). Between Fighting Men was the second of three Westerns teaming Ken Maynard with pretty Ruth Hall who, much to Ken's chagrin, would leave the screen shortly after to marry cinematographer Lee Garmes. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Robert E. Sherwood's play This Is New York was the source for Two Kinds of Women, appropriately filmed at Paramount's Long Island studios. Miriam Hopkins stars as Emma Krull, the free-spirited daughter of a South Dakota senator (Irving Pichel). Warned by her father that New York City is a den of sin and vice, Emma decides to disprove this by heading to the Big Apple herself. Here she meets randy playboy Joseph Greshman (Phillips Holmes), and manages to wangle a proposal out of him almost immediately upon their meeting! Unfortunately, Greshman is presently married to gold-digging chorus girl Phyllis Adrian (Wynne Gibson), who doesn't intend to let him -- or his millions -- off the hook. One thing leads to another, and before long Phyllis has taken a fatal header off of a skyscraper. The ensuing scandal obliges Senator Krull to travel to New York to see what's going on. Rather than say "I told you so," the Senator embraces his daughter and secures a promise that the now-contrite Greshman will give up the Big City and settle down in South Dakota. Director William C. DeMille does a masterful job keeping the audience's mind off the fact that "daughter" Miriam Hopkins is exactly eleven years younger than her screen "daddy" Irving Pichel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A musical remake of The Marriage Circle (1924), One Hour with You stars Maurice Chevalier as a Parisian doctor and Jeanette MacDonald as his loving wife. Chevalier is scrupulously faithful, much to the chagrin of his lovely female patients. But when MacDonald's best friend Genevieve Tobin insists upon being treated by Dr. Chevalier, it looks to many of those concerned that Tobin may succeed where the other willing ladies failed. The misunderstandings and reconciliations of the plotline are playfully staged with deliberate artificiality by director Ernst Lubitsch: Characters speak in rhymed couplets, Parisian gendarmes issue orders to their minions to the beat of a ticking clock, and Chevalier regularly talks directly to the audience. One Hour With You is a tuneful confection which is just as refreshing today as it was sixty years ago. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this romantic comedy, a woman is utterly bored by her nice life and devoted husband, so she decides to find a lover. She chooses her husband's best friend, and together they plan to elope to a mountain cottage. But unbeknownst to her, the best friend is more loyal than he looks for soon after they arrive to their retreat, the husband appears and begins wooing her in earnest. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

W.B. Maxwell's novel served as a film vehicle for Alla Nazimova in 1924; in 1930 it made an even better (although underappreciated) showcase for Evelyn Brent, who always excelled at playing bad girls. Here she is May Fisher, the mistress of a wealthy man who dies before he can change his will to make her his heir. Instead, his million dollars goes to his nephew Peter Morton (Robert Ames), who runs a mission on San Francisco's Barbary Coast. May and her maid travel to Frisco so she can get her hands on the money that she feels belongs to her. By pretending to be Mary Smith, a woman on the skids, she easily infiltrates the mission and becomes Morton's assistant. She also finds herself becoming wrapped up in Morton's cause -- and falling in love with him. Morton loves her back, preferring her to his mercenary fiancée Marion (Josephine Dunn). May continues to live her lie, even marrying Morton in the process. When he discovers the truth -- that she was his uncle's lover -- he is angry and disgusted. But May proves herself when labor unrest results in a riot at the mission. She jumps in the way of a bullet intended for Morton and is wounded. She recovers, however, to see the million dollars go towards building a new mission out in the country. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This follow-up to MGM's 1928 hit Our Dancing Daughters reunites the female stars of the earlier film: Joan Crawford (in her last silent film) and Anita Page. Crawford is engaged to Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (her real-life husband at the time), but both she and her fiance fall in love with other people before the wedding takes place. Fairbanks Jr. renders Anita Page pregnant, but goes through with his wedding to Crawford all the same. Meanwhile, Crawford romances diplomat Rod La Rocque, partly in the hopes of advancing Doug's career, but mostly out of boredom. At any other studio, the romantic intrigues of Our Modern Maidens would be played out in small living rooms and cozy apartment houses. But MGM had a positive mania for placing its stars in the biggest, draftiest mansions possible, then dressing them to the nines in expensive costumes designed by the studio's own fashion arbiter Adrian. Our Modern Maidens proved successful, spawning a third in this loosely constructed series, Our Blushing Brides (one contemporary critic wondered aloud if the next film would be Our Dizzy Divorcees). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Big Time was helmed by Howard Hawks' brother Kenneth. This well-paced early talkie stars Lee Tracy as a Broadway hoofer and Mae Clarke as his actress girlfriend. Teaming up, Tracy and Clarke become stars of the Manhattan nightclub circuit. Unfortunately, Tracy can't keep his hands off scheming chorine Josephine Dunn. As a result, the act breaks up: Clarke goes to bigger and better things, while Tracy is reduced to working as a Hollywood extra. Comedy relief is supplied by Stepin Fetchit and diminuitive Laurel and Hardy "regular" Daphne Pollard. As a bonus, director John Ford shows up in a cameo as himself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a married team of vaudeville dancers break up when the wife gets a real acting job. Time passes and the duo eventually reconcile with she as a rising star, and he a prop man. They are brought together when their daughter is mortally wounded. When her daddy sings, the girl is miraculously healed. This was Universal's first all-sound musical. Songs include: "The Song of the Islands," "Here I Am," "There's Sugar Cane Round My Door," "The Boogy Man Is Here," and "Roly Boly Eyes." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Serial specialist George B. Seitz kept the wild-and-wooly proceedings in Black Magic moving at a fast clip. The film opens with a prologue, explaining how its three main characters found themselves outcasts of society. Doctor Henry B. Walthall performed an operation while drunk, killing his patient. Earle Foxe disgraced his family by seducing a virginal young lady. And Fritz Feld (long before he became Hollywood's favorite headwaiter) donned women's clothing to save himself during a shipwreck. Hoping to start their lives over again, each of the men stages a faked death with the help of a self-styled sorcerer. End of story? Not by a long shot! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Popular film lore has it that The Jazz Singer was the film that established the talkie as the pre-eminent film medium in 1927. But it was Al Jolson's follow-up film, The Singing Fool that actually introduced the sound film to the general film-going population of the United States and it was the popularity of The Singing Fool that paved the way for the wide-acceptance of sound features. Jolson plays Al Stone, a singing waiter at Blackie Joe's cafe, who writes a hit song and sky-rockets to success as a Broadway headliner. Looking ahead to unlimited success, Al falls in love with scheming golddigger Molly Winton (Josephine Dunn), whom he marries. When Molly gives him a son, Sonny Boy (Davey Lee), Al is beside himself with love for his cutey-pie offspring. But when Molly deserts him for small-time gangster John Perry (Reed Howes) and takes Sonny Boy with her, Al is heartbroken. His spirit shattered, Al becomes a bum and, after a time, regains his singing waiter job at Blackie Joe's. Back at the dive, Grace (Betty Bronson), a cigarette girl secretly in love with Al, convinces him to make a comeback. Al struggles and regains his confidence and hits the stage like a trouper -- even when he hears that his beloved Sonny Boy has died in a hospital ward. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide