Snitz Edwards Movies

William Wellman's landmark gangster movie traces the rise and fall of prohibition-era mobster Tom Powers. We are first shown various episodes of Tom's childhood with the corrupting influences of the beer hall, pool parlor, and false friends like minor-league fence Putty Nose. As young adults, Tom (James Cagney) and his pal, Matt Doyle (Edward Woods), are hired by ruthless but innately decent bootlegger Paddy Ryan (Robert Emmett O'Connor). The boys quickly rise to the top of the heap, with all the accoutrements of success: custom-tailored tuxedoes, fancy cars, and gorgeous girls. All the while, Tom's loving (and somewhat addlepated) mother (Beryl Mercer) is kept in the dark, believing Tommy to be a good boy, a façade easily seen through by his older brother Mike (Donald Cook). Tommy's degeneration from brash kid to vicious lowlife is brought home in a famous scene in which he smashes a grapefruit in the face of his latest mistress (Mae Clarke). Some dated elements aside, The Public Enemy is as powerful as when it was first released, and it is far superior to the like-vintage Little Caesar. James Cagney is so dynamic in his first starring role that he practically bursts off the screen; he makes the audience pull for a character with no redeeming qualities. The film is blessed with a superior supporting cast: Joan Blondell is somewhat wasted as Matt's girl, Mamie; Jean Harlow is better served as Tom's main squeeze, Gwen (though some of her line readings are a bit awkward); and Murray Kinnell is slime personified as the deceitful Putty Nose, who "gets his" in unforgettable fashion. Despite a tacked-on opening disclaimer, most of the characters in The Public Enemy are based on actual people, a fact not lost on audiences of the period. Current prints are struck from the 1949 reissue, which was shortened from 92 to 83 minutes (among the deletions was the character of real-life hoodlum Bugs Moran). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Jules Verne's fantastic 19th century novel Mysterious Island provided the title and little else for this spectacular filmization. Lionel Barrymore plays an altruistic scientist who has built an underground city, hoping to use the modernistic devices he has installed to bring about world peace. But evil Slavic nobleman Montagu Love, whom Barrymore regards as a friend, has other plans. He kidnaps Barrymore's daughter and forces the kindly scientist to gear up his inventions to make war. With the help of hero Lloyd Hughes, and with the unexpected assistance of a race of duck-like underwater humanoids, Barrymore destroys his subterranean domain and foils the villain's plans--at the cost of his own life. Though essentially a silent film, Mysterious Island includes several well-integrated sound sequences; its highlight was a Technicolor submarine ride, which unfortunately exists only in black and white today. The 1961 version of Mysterious Island has absolutely nothing to do with the 1929 version beyond its claim (again) to be based on the Verne original. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

While merely a program picture, this drama features an excellent cast and an entertaining story. Before the Great War, Max (John Harron) and his partner, Nick (Eddie Gribbon), had a sleight-of-hand act on vaudeville. After the war's end, the pair find themselves out of work and starving in Vienna. Out of desperation, Max puts his talents to use illicitly and becomes a thief. Business is good and Max and Nick prosper. But when they get involved with a pretty waif, Anna (Alice Day), things start to fall apart. Anna loves Max and Nick's feelings towards her are ambivalent -- on one hand, he believes her to be an intruder, on the other hand he's jealous that Max has won her heart. Anna puts their livelihood at risk when she catches Max stealing a diamond brooch. She forces him to return it and gets arrested herself. Nick, surprisingly, is the one who comes to her rescue and takes her place in the cell. After the situation is resolved, the three of them go straight and team up as an act. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

The silent comedy feature College stars Buster Keaton as a scholarly young man who doesn't know beans about sports. When he arrives in college, Buster finds that all the Big Men on Campus are jocks. To impress pretty coed Anne Cornwall, Buster tries and fails to join all the school teams. Even when he attempts to take a job at the campus soda fountain, Buster is a washout. Through the kindness of dean Snitz Edwards, Keaton is placed on the varsity rowing team where, despite several clumsy moments, he manages to win the big race. This infuriates his athletic rival Harold Goodwin, who seizes Cornwall and runs off with her. In racing to her rescue, Buster is compelled to repeat all the sports activities at which he'd previously failed--and does so, magnificently. He bursts into Goodwin's dorm room and saves Cornwall from the usual worse-than-death fate. Hero and heroine kiss--at which point this lighthearted film takes a sudden, chilling turn. As always, Buster Keaton performs his own stunts in College, except for the pole-vaulting bit, which was accomplished by Olympic champ Lee Barnes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Battling Butler has to be the strangest of Buster Keaton's silent features. Based on the musical comedy of the same name, the film casts Keaton as wimpy millionaire Alfred Butler, who goes on a vacation in the mountains in the company of his faithful valet (Snitz Edwards). While communing with nature, Alfred falls in love with a beautiful young girl (Sally O'Neil), who barely acknowledges his existence. Without his master's knowledge, the valet tries to smooth the path of romance by telling the girl that Alfred is, in reality, boxing champion Battling Butler (Francis McDonald). The real champ, a mean-spirited sort, gets wind of this deception and decides to allow Alfred to continue the charade, fully intending to mop the floor with the puny millionaire in the boxing ring. But on the night of the big fight, Alfred suddenly gets tired of being pushed around and turns into a savage opponent, leaving the bullying Butler positively groggy. At this point our hero discovers that the girl would have loved him whether he was Battling Butler or not, and all ends well. Played as traditional Keaton comedy for most of its running time, Battling Butler goes dramatic with a vengeance in the climactic fight scene, with Keaton really giving his ring opponent a going over. The final scene is all the more powerful because it is so completely unexpected; if it surprises today's audiences, one can only imagine the effect it had on Buster Keaton's fans way back in 1926. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Ralph Ince both directs and stars in Jack London's oft-filmed tale of the sea. The Ghost, a seal-poaching schooner, has as its captain the brutal Wolf Larsen (Ince). Humphrey Van Weydon (Theodore Von Eltz), a soft and passive young man, is picked up at sea by the Ghost and he is given the task of cook's assistant, while being served rough treatment by Larsen and his crew. Maud Brewster (Claire Adams) survives a wreck only to be rescued by Larsen's men -- a fate seemingly worse than death. Although Larsen himself lusts after her, she falls in love with Van Weydon. The couple suffer through a number of terrible adventures on the ship until finally it catches fire and Larsen dies in the inferno. Along the way, Van Weydon has proven his manliness, and when he and Maud are rescued, they are united for good. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

One of the few surviving films of Leatrice Joy, the wife of screen heartthrob John Gilbert, The Clinging Vine is a typically frothy '20s comedy: Mannish and efficient executive secretary Antoinette Allen (Joy), known colloquially as A.B., is the real power behind Bancroft Paint ("the kind that comes in a bucket," as an intertitle helpfully explains). A.B. fires Grandpa Bancroft's carefree grandson, Jimmy (Tom Moore), via Western Union and Bancroft (Robert Edeson) leaves it up to the youngster to charm the secretary into giving him his job back. Jimmy, of course, assumes A.B. to be a sexless spinster in sensible shoes and doesn't recognize the flirtatious beauty he meets at the Bancroft garden party. With a lot of help from Grandma Bancroft (Toby Claude, who, a title explains, "crosses a lemon with a dressmaker's bill and produces a peach"), A.B. has become Antoinette, a "clinging vine" who only knows two sentences: "Do go on!" and "Aren't you wonderful!" Do Antoinette and Jimmy fall in love at first sight? Why, of course they do, and now it is truly up to Antoinette to become the woman behind the man. It is all extremely silly, slightly chauvinistic, and at times quite beguiling. Grandma Bancroft is the kind that glides down the banister and a rather trying comedian named Snitz Edwards is high up in the Bancroft corporation. Enough said. Neither Joy nor director Paul H. Sloane are much remembered but The Clinging Vine's executive producer is: Cecil B. De Mille. In fact, the comedy harkens back to the kind of fluffy make-believe De Mille used to do with his star discovery Gloria Swanson. And while Leatrice Joy is perhaps no Swanson, she is mightily believable as both the before and after Antoinette and a natural comedienne. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Artistic backgrounds and trick photography were the draws in this romantic drama, based on The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. As Ben Ali, Ramon Novarro practically disappears in the midst of all the camera work and set design, as does his co-star Kathleen Key (who, incidentally, was a descendent of Francis Scott Key). The film's titles are, more often than not, direct quotes of the Rubaiyat's verses. As a result, the plot sticks pretty much to the original Edward Fitzgerald translation -- Ben Ali, the son of Omar (Frederick Warde), is engaged to Sherin (Key), but lusty old sheik Hassan Ben Sabbath (Edwin Stevens) wants Sherin for himself. Although Ben Ali gets the girl, Edwin Stevens walks off with the acting honors, and occasionally another actor's presence emerges memorably in the midst of all the fancy backgrounds and harems, most notably funny-faced character actor Snitz Edwards as Omar's servant. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

Buster Keaton plays a young lawyer who will inherit $7 million at 7 o'clock on his 27th birthday--provided he is married. Long before discovering this, Keaton has pursued a lifelong courtship of Ruth Dwyer, whose refusals have become ritualistic over the years (the passage of time is amusingly conveyed by showing a puppy grow to adulthood). He proposes again, but this time she turns him down because she thinks (mistakenly) that he wants her only so that he can claim his inheritance. The doleful Keaton is thus obliged to spend the few hours left before the 7 PM deadline in search of a bride--any bride. He has no luck whatsoever until his pal T. Roy Barnes prints the story of Keaton's incoming legacy in the local newspaper. As a result, literally hundreds of women, bedecked in veils and bearing bouquets, chase Keaton through the busy streets of Los Angeles. When Keaton's producer Joseph M. Schenck bought the film rights to the Roi Cooper Megrue stage play Seven Chances, Keaton opted to forego most of the play's plot complications, devoting his energies to the bride-hunting vignettes and the climactic slapstick chase. The final scenes originally laid an egg with preview audiences--until the sequence was saved by "three little rocks." During the closing moments of the chase, Buster accidentally dislodged three small stones in the ground, which rolled after him as he escaped the thundering herd of would-be brides. The audience laughed immoderately at the tiny rocks, thereby inspiring Keaton to reshoot the ending, utilizing scores of huge, rolling boulders. The extra effort worked beautifully; while not his best silent feature, Seven Chances contains one of Keaton's most hilarious finales. Watch for Jean Arthur in a bit as a receptionist. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Virile House Peters stars in this melodrama based on the stage play by Lincoln J. Carter. Tornado (Peters) has come to a lumber camp to work as a foreman because he wants to escape his heartbreak -- through lies and manipulation, his former friend, Ross Travers (Richard Tucker) won the hand of his sweetheart, Ruth (Ruth Clifford). But his past comes back to haunt him when Travers and Ruth show up in the lumber town. Travers does everything he can to keep Tornado and Ruth apart, but finally Ruth learns the truth about her husband's deception. Tornado sees the brutal way that Travers treats Ruth, and threatens him. Travers and Ruth take an early train out of town, but a cyclone rears up. Tornado single-handedly saves the town by breaking the log jam, but the logs also destroy a bridge just as the train is going over. It falls in the water and Tornado goes to the rescue. He saves Ruth and then goes back for Travers but he is too late -- which conveniently makes Ruth a widow. She is now free to be with Tornado for the requisite happy ending. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

This action picture has everything anyone could possibly want out of a Richard Talmadge picture -- a lot of stunts and death-defying feats, and just enough convoluted plot to keep it all together. Because his love for prize fighting interferes with his studies, Perry Whitman, Jr. (Talmadge) is expelled from college. He then gets in trouble with his father (Charles Clary) for throwing a wild party which is raided by the cops. Attending the party is Barbara (Mildred Harris), who needs a hundred dollars so she can return home. Perry carries her over the roof to elude the police. When news of the party hits the papers, the senior Whitman gives his son a hundred dollars to go away, but the bill blows into a fight arena and Perry has to battle the crowd to get his hands on it. His performance is so impressive that he is signed on to fight the Bolivian Bull (Jack Herrick), who he defeats. Barbara, meanwhile, is due to inherit a fortune, and Drexel Craig, a crooked lawyer (Sheldon Lewis), has made it appear that she must marry Reginald Chicester (Douglas Gerrard) to get the money. Craig's plot is foiled when Barbara marries Perry instead. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

Estelle Taylor stars as a stenographer who marries her boss in this maudlin melodrama. When her husband is called away to Mexico on business, his lecherous assistant juggles the books to frame his unsuspecting boss on embezzlement charges. Jean Perry, Tully Marshall, and Ben Daly co-star with Snitz Edwards, Wilfred Lucas, and Fred De Silva in this sentimental sob story. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi