Allan Cavan Movies

Frank Capra's classic comedy-drama established James Stewart as a lead actor in one of his finest (and most archetypal) roles. The film opens as a succession of reporters shout into telephones announcing the death of Senator Samuel Foley. Senator Joseph Paine (Claude Rains), the state's senior senator, puts in a call to Governor Hubert "Happy" Hopper (Guy Kibbee) reporting the news. Hopper then calls powerful media magnate Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold), who controls the state -- along with the lawmakers. Taylor orders Hopper to appoint an interim senator to fill out Foley's term; Taylor has proposed a pork barrel bill to finance an unneeded dam at Willet Creek, so he warns Hopper he wants a senator who "can't ask any questions or talk out of turn." After having a number of his appointees rejected, at the suggestion of his children Hopper nominates local hero Jefferson Smith (James Stewart), leader of the state's Boy Rangers group. Smith is an innocent, wide-eyed idealist who quotes Jefferson and Lincoln and idolizes Paine, who had known his crusading editor father. In Washington, after a humiliating introduction to the press corps, Smith threatens to resign, but Paine encourages him to stay and work on a bill for a national boy's camp. With the help of his cynical secretary Clarissa Sanders (Jean Arthur), Smith prepares to introduce his boy's camp bill to the Senate. But when he proposes to build the camp on the Willets Creek site, Taylor and Paine force him to drop the measure. Smith discovers Taylor and Paine want the Willets Creek site for graft and he attempts to expose them, but Paine deflects Smith's charges by accusing Smith of stealing money from the boy rangers. Defeated, Smith is ready to depart Washington, but Saunders, whose patriotic zeal has been renewed by Smith, exhorts him to stay and fight. Smith returns to the Senate chamber and, while Taylor musters the media forces in his state to destroy him, Smith engages in a climactic filibuster to speak his piece: "I've got a few things I want to say to this body. I tried to say them once before and I got stopped colder than a mackerel. Well, I'd like to get them said this time, sir. And as a matter of fact, I'm not gonna leave this body until I do get them said." ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

In this drama, a Mexican woman attempts to live a peaceful life in California. Unfortunately, land-grabbers kill her father and begin harassing her. Desperate, she sends an impassioned plea for help to Washington, and a special aide is sent to mediate. He and the woman fall in love, and the aide does such a good job that he is elected to be the state's first governor. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Ronald Reagan is his usual sprightly self as ambitious insurance claims adjuster Eric Gregg. While diligently investigating a phony insurance racket, Gregg remains blissfully unaware that his own wife Nona (Sheila Bromley) has become deeply indebted to the crooks. Once this fact surfaces, Gregg loses both Nona and his job. Picking up the pieces is friendly cigar-stand clerk Patricia Carmody (Gloria Blondell), who ends up helping Gregg round up the villains. At the time Accidents Will Happen was released in 1938, the newspapers were jam-packed with stories about big-money insurance frauds; though the film lacks this timeliness when seen today, it remains an enjoyable trifle thanks to the always-dependable Reagan. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Having settled a feud between ranchers and homesteaders in his initial Western for Columbia Pictures, handsome Charles Starrett got himself involved in yet another B-Western perennial in his fourth: the fight between cattle ranchers and sheepmen. Lee Jamison (Starrett) and his friend Ed Randall (Edmund Cobb are the only cattlemen not opposed to sheepherders sharing their grazing land. Saloonkeeper Barney Ross (Albert J. Smith, takes umbrage to this decision and attempts to form an opposing vigilante. Blackmailing bank clerk Quigley (Ralph McCullough) into foreclosing on Jamison's ranch, Ross then purchases the place and forbids the sheepmen to enter. When Jamison protests, Ross has him framed in a bank robbery. But at the trial, Quigley is made to reveal his own part in the treachery and Ross is arrested. With the feud settled, Jamison is free to marry rancher's daughter Janet Parker (Mary Blake). Having signed a contract with Columbia in late 1935 (at a reported $400 a weak), Starrett went on to make 131 Westerns, the longest run by any cowboy star for a single studio. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

In this fluffy comedy, an innocent usherette falls for a customer whom she finally meets and eventually marries. Soon after the ceremony, she learns that he's a jewel thief about to go to jail. She then moves into a girlfriend's ultra-modern apartment that is really a front for gamblers. Again, the young woman finds herself in real trouble until her hubby is released from jail and comes to her rescue. Happiness ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The Trespasser was Gloria Swanson's first all-talking picture. All talk is right. Swanson plays a humble secretary who marries the son (Robert Ames) of a domineering millionaire (William Holden--no, not that William Holden). The father-in-law bullies Swanson into giving up his son; she agrees to step out of his life, proudly withholding the fact that she's about to become a mother. Later, Swanson enters her ex-husband's social class via an inheritance. Unfortunately, he's remarried to Kay Hammond, who is crippled and thus more needful of the man's love and comfort than self-reliant Swanson. Tearfully, Swanson gives up the man she loves, left only with her child and a bulging bank account. When Trespasser was remade by director Edmund Goulding as That Certain Woman with Bette Davis in 1937, a last-minute happy ending was tacked on--if one can call the death of wife number two a joyous event. As for the original film, Gloria Swanson proved (contrary to the popular belief engendered by Sunset Boulevard) that she could have been just as big a star in talkies as she'd been in silents (she even sings well); unfortunately her subsequent judgment in screenplay selection resulted in a string of flops. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The most tantalizing of the "lost" Tod Browning films, London After Midnight has gained a near-legendary status in recent years, especially since so many critics of the 1930s considered the film as vastly superior to its 1935 remake, Mark of the Vampire. Clearly inspired by the stage version of Dracula, the story concerns a fog-ridden London neighborhood that seems to have become a breeding ground for vampires. Ever since the mysterious death of wealthy old Mr. Balfour, strange things have been happening, prompting Scotland Yard inspector Edmund Burke (Lon Chaney) to investigate. For a while, it looks as though Burke is as stymied as the local authorities, especially when heroine Lucy Balfour (Marceline Day) is confronted with the "living corpse" of her father. But it soon develops that both Burke and Lucy are working in concert, staging an elaborate hoax to trap her dad's murderer into a confession. It is giving nothing away at this late date to reveal that Burke and the mysterious, fang-toothed "vampire man" Mooney are one in the same; indeed, this plot revelation hardly took anyone by surprise in 1927. A shooting script for London After Midnight still exists, suggesting that, if anything, the much-maligned Mark of the Vampire (in which the main "detective" role was split between Lionel Barrymore and Bela Lugosi) was an improvement on the original. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This rugged Richard Dix vehicle casts the star as rough-and-tumble sea captain Jim Bucklin. Landing at a Chinese port, Bucklin and his passengers are threatened by a marauding war lord, who intends to kill the captain and hold the others hostage as part of his campaign of destruction against all white men. Rallying the passengers and a few nervous hotel guests, our hero decides to "hang tough" and hold out against the bandit hordes. The climax finds Bucklin and the principal heavy fighting to the death, while several feet underwater! Mary Brian and Jocelyn Lee provide glamour as, respectively, the virginal Mary and the been-around Shanghai Rose (guess which one survives?) Shanghai Bound was partially remade, again with Richard Dix, as Roar of the Dragon (1932). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This melodrama from Fox stars William Russell. Jack Arnold (Russell), the secretary of a mining syndicate, is sent to the South Sea Island of Pago Tai to land an option on a black opal mine. He just manages to make the same steamer that is carrying the members of a rival company to the same destination. Clive Langdon (Frank Beal), representing the other company, is accompanied by his niece Caroline Peyton (Dorothy Devore) and her fiancé, Neal Travis (Lloyd Whitlock). Caroline pays Jack's fare and he begins to fall in love with her. Both Langdon and Travis use the pair's growing affection to trap Arnold. But they're still not able to prevent him from getting to the mine. He makes friends with its owner and is able to get the option. Caroline, meanwhile, has come to realize that she doesn't care for Travis at all, so she throws him over for Arnold. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi