Symona Boniface Movies
Her pompous Grande Dame ego constantly deflated by having a pie hurled in her face, brunette American comedy actress Symona Boniface became for the Three Stooges what Margaret Dumont was for the Marx Brothers. Surprisingly, Boniface had been a noted stage actress and playwright before the 1929 stock market crash wiped her out financially. Moving to Hollywood, she toiled in anonymity doing bit parts and extra work until signing a stock contract with Columbia Pictures in 1935. A major addition to the studio's thriving short subject department, Boniface popped up in two-reelers all over the place but is today mostly associated with the Stooges, who regularly flattened her haughty demeanor. The quintessential Boniface characters were the snobbish Mrs. Van Bustle of Crash Goes the Hash (1944) and the conceited dowager Mrs. Smythe-Smythe in 1947's Half-Wits Holiday, the latter featuring her being furiously pelted with pies dropped from the ceiling. A talented but much overlooked part of the Stooges legacy, Symona Boniface died less than three years later at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA, but continued, eerily, to figure prominently in Stooges shorts through the middle of the decade due to the generous doses of stock footage added to keep mounting costs down. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide- 1936
French actress Simone Simon made her American film debut in Girls' Dormitory. Simon portrays a twentyish student in a Swiss private school, harboring a secret passion for headmaster Herbert Marshall. For her own amusement, Simon writes an intense love letter to an imaginary beau; the letter falls in the hands of two snoopy teachers, who suspect the worst. Running away from her accusers, Simone has a chance meeting with Marshall, who reveals that he is in love with her. The official studio synopsis for Girl's Dormitory states that Simone nobly steps aside to allow a middle-aged teacher (Ruth Chatterton) to marry Marshall, but in the film itself Simon ends up with Marshall after all. The synopsis barely mentions Tyrone Power, appearing in his first film for 20th Century-Fox. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Herbert Marshall, Ruth Chatterton, (more)
The distinguished Henry B. Walthall, a major star of the early silent screen, headlined this cheap whodunit that fully capitalized on his remaining box-office pull in the hinterlands. Walthall plays Professor Mysto, a carnival magician warned by his boss, Carr (Lynton Brent), that a group of reformers headed by the police commissioner (Joseph W. Girard) and a teetotalist councilman (Sam Flint) are after him. When the latter is murdered, both Mysto, Carr, and a concessionaire (John Elliot) are among the suspects, the last mentioned admitting ownership of a .45-calibre gun. The concessionaire, however, is released when it becomes clear that the lethal bullet came from a .38-calibre weapon. Newspaperman Jerry Ross (John Harron), who is in love with the commissioner's pretty daughter (Phyllis Barrington), attempts to scoop the competition by unmasking the killer, but is knocked unconscious by a hooded figure. Carr, who is guilty of selling bootleg liquor in his establishment, manages to flee the law but is eventually killed by a jealous employee. None of this leads Jerry closer to the killer, who, it later turns out, has invented a device that equips a .45-calibre gun to fire .38-calibre bullets. In the end, however, the killer is unmasked and Jerry proposes to the police commissioner's daughter. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1934
On the day that he is scheduled to perform a violin solo at a swank bridge luncheon held by his social-climbing mother, rich kid Wally Albright opts instead to play football with the Our Gang kids. With Wally's help, the kids win the game, but his expensive clothes are covered with mud. Unofficial "Gang" leader Spanky McFarland declares that he and his pals are perfectly capable of washing Wally's duds on their own --- and the result is a slapstick smorgasbord, culminating in a typically outsized Hal Roach traffic jam. Originally released on September 29, 1934, "Washee Ironee" was the only "Our Gang" comedy helmed by perennial Laurel and Hardy director James Parrott --- which may explain the presence of stalwart L & H supporting players Ellinor Van der Veer and Tiny Sandford in the cast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wally Albright, George "Spanky" McFarland, (more)
- 1933
If MGM could cast an Olympic champion it its Tarzan series, so could Sol Lesser's Principal Pictures. Thus it was that Larry "Buster" Crabbe, gold-medal winner for the 400 meter free-style swimming event in the 1932 L.A. Olympics, played the title role in Principal's 15-chapter serial Tarzan the Fearless. One of the few Tarzan epics actually based on a story by Edgar Rice Burroughs, this one finds the Lord of the Jungle protecting pulchritudinous heroine Mary Brooks (Jacqueline Wells) from the villainous machinations of the High Priest (Mischa Auer) of Zar, God of the Jeweled Fingers. Tarzan must also avoid Jeff (Philo McCullough), a bounty hunter who has been offered a huge reward to bring the ape man to Civilization -- dead or alive! This 60-minute feature-length version of Tarzan the Fearless is mostly comprised of the first four chapters, with a rather abrupt wrap-up of several plotlines in the final two reels; another feature version, running 86 minutes, was prepared for television in 1960. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Jacqueline Wells, (more)
- 1929
Boris Karloff played a red herring in this the final silent serial from chapter play specialist Mascot, who reportedly spared all expenses this time around. Helene Costello, a former Warner Bros. star now down on her luck, starred as Dorothy Rogers, the daughter of a banker (George Periolat) who disappeared mysteriously while reading a novel entitled "The Fatal Warning." The vanished Rogers was accused of absconding with 100,000 dollars in cash and Dorothy hired private investigator Russell Thorne (Ralph Graves) to clear her father's good name. Suspects abounded, of course, including bank president John Harmon (Tom Lingham), a clerk (Karloff), the inevitable butler (Sid Crossley), a two-bit femme fatale (Symona Boniface), and sundry other nefarious types, all of whom proved to be innocent. In the tenth and final chapter, "Unmasked," Thorne discovered that Rogers had been guiding the investigation from his hiding place and the identity of the real culprit was revealed. Since The Fatal Warning appears to be among the lost, we may in good conscience reveal his identity here as well: seemingly stalwart businessman Leonard Taylor (Phillips Smalley). In addition to the presence of a pre-Frankenstein Boris Karloff, The Fatal Warning is also noteworthy for an early appearance by future Three Stooges foil Symona Boniface. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1927
Lonely rich boy Joe Cobb wants a baby brother more than anything, but his parents are too busy and self-involved to discuss the matter. Sensing that Joe needs a few friends his own age, the family nursemaid (Anita Garvin) takes him to visit the Our Gang kids, whose latest money-making venture is an elaborate baby-minding -- and baby-washing -- operation. Upon learning that Joe is willing to pay good money for a kid brother, the crafty Allen "Farina" Hoskins "borrows" a black infant and paints it white -- a deception that literally comes out in the wash. When the black child's mother arrives, her anger makes it clear to the kids that they'd better get going while the going is good. Despite all indications to the contrary, the story ends happily -- or at least satisfactorily. Originally released in June of 1927, the silent, two-reel Our Gang comedy Baby Brother still delivers plenty of laughs, even though several of the infants are clearly uncomfortable and unhappy during the baby-washing sequence. Fringe benefits include a brief cameo by Oliver Hardy as the nursemaid's roguish boyfriend and the first Our Gang appearance by Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Cobb, Farina Hoskins, (more)
- 1925
Charley Chase plays a young married man with a suspicious wife (Katherine Grant) in this Hal Roach silent. The couple's car finally bites the dust (and their garage along with it), so Charley take it to a secondhand sales lot. He gets a tough looking character (the imposing George Siegmann) to buy it and it immediately collapses into pieces. Unfortunately for Charley, that's not the last he's seen of the tough, whose wife (Symona Boniface) is carrying on with Charley's boss (William J. Kelly). Charley winds up driving the philandering young lady to the mountains, with his boss following after -- along with her husband and Charley's wife. In their attempts to escape, Charley and the tough's wife both disguise themselves to look like the lodge's caretaker (James Parrott, Chase's real-life brother). In addition, there's also a "prohibition sleuth" (James Finlayson), who dresses up like the caretaker, too. The result is a hilarious chase throughout the lodge involving four caretakers and mass confusion. Charley makes his getaway, but not unscathed -- his wife knocks him senseless before taking him home. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charley Chase, Katherine Grant, (more)
