Dana Burnet Movies
Filmed independently in 1939, The Great Commandment finally attained released in 1942 via 20th Century-Fox. Set in 30 AD, the story concerns the burgeoning Christian movement, and its effects on young Judean scholar named Joel (John Beal). A hotheaded reactionary, Joel spearheads an uprising against the Romans, but his warlike impulses melt away under the influence of Jesus of Nazareth. Joel even "turns the other cheek" when dealing with the warrior who murdered his brother. Director Irving Pichel later helmed such inspirational church-basement fare as 1952's Martin Luther and 1954's Day of Triumph. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Beal, Maurice Moscovich, (more)
- 1938
The second motion picture version of a Saturday Evening Post story by Dana Burnet, this romantic melodrama was also the second pairing of actors James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan. Stewart plays Private Bill Pettigrew, a naïve young Texan in New York for basic training prior to being shipped overseas to fight in WWI. When he is nearly run over by an automobile, he meets its owner, Daisy Heath (Sullavan). A sophisticated entertainer, Daisy is taken with Bill's sweet, uncomplicated nature, and she agrees to a ruse when Bill asks her to pose has his girl in order to impress his Army bunkmates. Daisy's real boyfriend, Sam Bailey (Walter Pidgeon), is at first amused by Daisy's new friendship, but he soon becomes jealous of Bill's growing affection for Daisy. When Bill receives his orders, he begs Daisy to marry him, and although she doesn't really love him, Daisy can't reject a soldier who may be about to meet his maker, so a quickie ceremony is arranged. When word later comes that Bill has been killed on the front lines, a heartbroken Daisy realizes that she and Sam are taking each other for granted. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, (more)
- 1934
Based on John Golden's stage play Four Walls, MGM's Straight is the Way offers the monumentally miscast Franchot Tone as tough ex-convict Benny Horowitz, who announces his plans to go straight. This warms the heart of Benny's Jewish mama (May Robson), but his ex-moll Shirley (Gladys George) is unable to join in the happiness, since she is now the mistress of Italian gang boss Monk (Jack LaRue). Despite his efforts to stay out of trouble, Benny is required to bump off Monk before he can lead a clean life. Meanwhile, nominal heroine Bertha (Karen Morley), Benny's stepsister, pines away of unrequited love. The original Four Walls had starred Paul Muni, who was certainly better suited to the ethnicity of the piece than the markedly WASPish Franchot Tone. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Franchot Tone, May Robson, (more)
- 1931
Nancy Carroll's popularity enabled her to survive the melodramatic excesses of Stolen Heaven with little if any damage to her career. Carroll plays Mary, the streetwalker sweetheart of born-loser Joe (Phillips Holmes). Engineering a $20,000 robbery, Mary and Joe draw up a pact to spend all the money foolishly and then commit suicide. But as time passes, they decide that they might as well live. Joe confesses to the robbery and willingly marches off to jail, secure in the understanding that Mary will await his return. Louis Calhern makes an excellent first impression as the film's nominal villain, only to completely disappear from view in the final scenes. The 1938 musical drama Stolen Heaven is not a remake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nancy Carroll, Phillips Holmes, (more)
- 1930
This version of Shakespeare's most famous love story is set in Scarsdale, New York. This time, the heroine comes from an old monied aristocratic family. Trouble ensues when the hero's newly wealthy, and terribly unsophisticated family from Iowa moves in next door. The young woman becomes interested in the young man when she hears him playing the ukulele. She asks him to teach her to play, and romance ensues. Naturally her snooty parents disapprove of the young man and his family of rubes. They remind the girl that she is already betrothed to a French count. This does not deter the young lovers who elope the night before her marriage to the count. Eventually the family's reconcile their differences and prosperous harmony ensues. Songs include: "I'm In The Market For You," "Eleanor," "High Society Blues," "Just Like In A Story Book," "The Song I Sing In My Dreams," and "I Don't Know You Well Enough For That." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, (more)
- 1929
Adapted from Richard Connell's short story A Friend of Napoleon, Seven Faces was a tour de force for the multitalented Paul Muni (in his second screen appearance). Although only 33 at the time, Muni is most convincing as elderly Papa Chibuou, caretaker of a Parisian wax museum. When the museum goes bust, its most popular wax effigies go on the auction block. Unable to meet the price demanded for his favorite statue, that of Napoleon Bonaparte, Chibou steals the statue and is convicted of theft. Defense attorney Georges Dufeyl (Russell Gleason), who happens to be in love with Helene (Marguerite Churchill), the daughter of the trial judge (Lester Lonergan, who also co-directed the film), sympathetically takes Chibou's case on a pro bono basis. The film's best scene finds Chibou dreaming that he is offering Dufeyl and Helene romantic advice in the guises of six of the museum's wax figures, including Napoleon, Don Juan, Svengali and Franz Schubert. Although shown to excellent advantage, Paul Muni wasn't happy with the film medium and stayed off screen for over a year after the completion of Seven Faces. If Muni was unhappy, imagine the discomfort of Broadway headliner Tom Patricola, whose supporting role in the film went completely uncredited. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Muni, Marguerite Churchill, (more)
- 1928
Shopworn Angel was the first of three film versions of the Dana Burnet short story Private Pettigrew's Girl. Nancy Carroll stars as footloose cabaret entertainer Daisy Heath, who is totally oblivious to world affairs until she sees a parade of soldiers marching off to WWI. Later on, she inaugurates a casual romance with Texas-born private William Tyler (Gary Cooper). Daisy treats their brief affair as "just one of those things," but Tyler falls deeply in love with her. Panicking when Daisy begins keeping time with Broadway roue Bailey (Paul Lukas), Tyler goes AWOL on the eve of his embarkation to France. He seeks out and finds Daisy, whereupon the two spend a romantic day and night together. At last realizing that she is genuinely in love with Tyler, Daisy agrees to marry him but faints just before the preacher is able to complete the ceremony. Borne off by the MPs, Tyler is bundled onto his transport ship and sent off to the battlefields of France. Her outlook on life profoundly changed by this experience, Daisy forsakes her carefree ways, promising to wait faithfully for Tyler's return. Shopworn Angel was remade in 1938 with Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart, then again in 1959 as the Sophia Loren vehicle That Kind of Woman. A silent film, the 1929 Shopworn Angel was released with a handful of musical sequences, including Nancy Carroll's solo rendition of A Precious Little Thing Called Love. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nancy Carroll, Gary Cooper, (more)
- 1928
Starring Joan Crawford and John Gilbert, this suspenseful, silent crime-drama follows the exploits of a gangster who does his time for manslaughter and emerges from prison determined to reform. Unfortunately, he soon finds it is easier said than done when his former colleagues pay him a call. Fortunately, his loyal gal gives him enough love and support to see that he succeeds. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Gilbert, Joan Crawford, (more)
- 1926
Though his glory days as a matinee idol were well behind him in 1926, Francis X. Bushman cut quite a dashing figure in the romantic drama The Marriage Clause. Bushman is cast as Broadway impresario Barry Townsend, who takes it upon himself to make a star out of aspiring actress Sylvia Jordan (Billie Dove). Rival producer Max Ravenal (Warner Oland) spirits Sylvia away from Townsend, signing her to a three-year contract. But there's a hitch: the contract has a "marriage clause," prohibiting Sylvia from getting married during those three years. Feeling somewhat betrayed (especially since he's fallen in love with the girl), Townsend retires from show business, whereupon Sylvia falls into a personal and professional slump, culminating in her on-stage collapse during opening night of her biggest show. Ultimately, of course, Townsend and Sylvia are reunited, and the no-marriage clause is instantly nullified. The Marriage Clause represented a cinematic comeback for pioneering woman director Lois Weber, whose own career ironically went on the skids after her divorce from actor-director Phillips Smalley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billie Dove, Francis X. Bushman, (more)
- 1923
Although rotund Walter Hiers was frequently seen in motion pictures all throughout the silent era, he was generally playing a supporting role. In this light comedy feature, however, he gets top billing. John Percival Billings (Hiers) is a haberdashery clerk who falls in love with Suzanna, a beautiful South American girl, when he sees her in a newsreel. His infatuation for her causes him to stay at the theater too long and he is fired from his job. Billings manages to make his way to the South American republic, where the girl, Suzanna Juarez (Jacqueline Logan), lives with her father, who is the country's president (Josef Swickard). Predictably, there is a revolution going on, and Billings' antics somehow manage to keep President Juarez in office. The victory wins him Suzanna's hand and leaves him fabulously wealthy. The picture ends with Billings returning to the store where he once worked, buying it, and forcing his old boss to take a floorwalker's position. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Hiers, George Fawcett, (more)
- 1923
This comedy-drama was just one of dozens made in the early '20s which cautioned against the evils of jazz while showing its wickedness in loving detail (by the middle of the decade, jazz baby Clara Bow made moralizing films like this one seem ridiculous). As Bessie Bowden, Marguerite de la Motte starts off as a nice, old-fashioned young lady. The equally nice, old-fashioned John Hargraves (Pat O'Malley) proposes to her and she accepts. But then Bessie becomes infatuated with jazz hound Austin Trull (Allan Forrest), and overnight she becomes a frivolous flapper. Hargraves, to his dismay, can't seem to get her attention. Bessie's father (William V. Mong) modernizes the family home and tries to keep up with Bessie's new pals in an attempt to keep his daughter around, and he encourages Hargraves to do the same. But Bessie only wakes up when she becomes the subject of a very risqué portrait. Realizing that she is at risk of losing her good name, she returns to Hargraves and respectability. Early silent comedienne Alice Howell adds comic relief as the family maid. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marguerite de la Motte, William V. Mong, (more)
- 1919
This film's plotline bears a lot of similarities to Eyes of the Soul, which was released at the same time. Ethel Clayton plays chorus girl Daisy Heath who is being courted by a millionaire (Charles Gerard). Although she doesn't love the man, she's willing to marry him until she meets Private Pettigrew (Monte Blue). Pettigrew, a lonely soldier on leave in New York, meets her by chance at the theater where she's performing. The vivacious Daisy finds that her millionaire's lobster dinners pale in comparison with Pettigrew's ice cream dates. She vows to wait for Pettigrew while he goes off to fight, and because this film was made just after the end of WWI, of course she's there when he returns. Pettigrew's Girl, however, is notable because the millionaire is not portrayed as an out-and-out villain -- a rarity in those days. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
