Madge Evans Movies

In this brutal prison drama a hen-pecked husband is sentenced to prison after getting caught with his hand in the company till. He is sent to a high-rise facility in LA. It seems the fellow was only following the instructions of his domineering, constantly nagging wife who, as soon as he is put away, takes up with a more successful businessman. This causes her new lover's ex-lover to get insanely jealous and kill the conniving wife. The businessman decides to take the blame for the death and he is sent to the same jail as the dead woman's husband. One of the two meets a violent end. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The beauty-parlor craze of the early 1930s was given a good going-over in MGM's Beauty for Sale. Madge Evans, Florine McKinney and Una Merkel star as Letty, Jane and Carol, three employees of a swank Manhattan beauty salon. While Carol wisecracks her way through life, Letty takes things more seriously -- too seriously, in fact, when it comes to matters of the heart. She falls in love with wealthy Mr. Sherwood (Otto Kruger), who unfortunately is already married to Mrs. Sherwood (Alice Brady). Surprisingly, Letty is permitted a happy ending, which is more than can be said for the equally romantically reckless Jane. Based on a novel by Faith Baldwin, the film boasts some exceptional "glamour" photography by James Wong Howe. In a reversal of the usual chronology, Beauty for Sale hit the screens after a "B"-movie variation of the same basic material, 1932's Beauty Parlor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this football drama, a tough steelworker's son wins a scholarship to Yale and attempts to use his talent on the football field to become popular. His ploy doesn't work. He cannot even con the girl of his dreams into going out with him. After four years, he finally grows up and his future begins looking brighter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

"Are you listening?" was the catchphrase of early-1930s radio personality Tony Wons. Though Wons does not appear in the 1932 MGM programmer Are You Listening?, the film is concerned with the burgeoning broadcast industry. William Haines plays a wise-cracking radio writer who is tricked into confessing on the air that he murdered his wife. Whenever an actor normally associated with comedy roles plays a murderer (either actual or implied) in a film, it's usually a sign that his studio contract has come to an end. Such was the case of Are You Listening?, which proved to be William Haines' swan song at MGM, where he'd been employed since 1925. Perhaps as a going-away present, J.P. McEvoy's script contrives to give Haines three leading ladies: Madge Evans, Anita Page and Karen Morley (nobody outside the industry knew that Haines was in fact a homosexual, and MGM was determined to keep it that way). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Zoë Akins' archetypal "gold-digger" stage comedy The Greeks Had a Word for It was transferred to the screen in 1933, with the "It" changed to "Them" in the title, reportedly at the insistence of over-cautious producer Sam Goldwyn (this became a moot point in the 1940s, when the film was reissued as Three Broadway Girls). Ina Claire, Madge Evans, and Joan Blondell star as ex-showgirls Jean, Polaire, and Schatze, who pool their resources to rent a luxurious penthouse apartment. Their strategy is as follows: if they live like millionaires, dress like millionaires and act like millionaires, they'll be able to attract wealthy boyfriends. The original play ended with all three girls continuing their gold-digging activities unto eternity, while the film concludes with one of the three finding true love in the arms of Dey Emery (David Manners). The Greeks Had a Word for Them was later remade (and considerably rewritten) as How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), with Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe, and Lauren Bacall. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This drama, set in Vienna during WW I, a soldier endures ostracism from his commanding officers after he travels over enemy lines to see his girl and tell her that he is deeply sorry to have killed her brother during an aerial dogfight. At first she kicks him out, but then invites him back in. After all, he did risk it all to see her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

An young boy is en route to Bombay with his wealthy father when they are ambushed by highwaymen and his father is mortally wounded. Just before he dies, he hands his son a large diamond. The boy then continues on to the city. By the time he gets there he is ragged and dirty. A crooked merchant, wanting the boy's diamond, tries to frame him for theft, but an Englishman vouches for the boy. The boy then continues his struggle to become wealthy and powerful. Along the way, he suffers an ill-fated love affair with a beautiful British lady. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The play by William C. deMille and Margaret Turnbull was filmed once before in 1914. This version features Richard Barthelmess as the star and some scenes were actually shot at West Point. Duncan Irving Jr. (Barthelmess) is the son of the village postmaster (Claude Brooke) in a small southern town. He's in love with Sylvia Randolph (Madge Evans, finally old enough to play ingenues), who comes from a wealthy, snobbish family. Her cousin, Bert Stafford (Reginald Sheffield), dislikes the modest Duncan. Duncan goes to West Point and when he's an upper classman, Bert enrolls. Bert hates being ordered around, especially by Duncan, who he considers his social inferior. One day he angrily insults Duncan, who hits him. Bert fakes blindness, then takes off for South America on an expedition. Duncan is expelled and Sylvia refuses to hear his explanations. To save face, Duncan and some of his friends travel to South America to find Bert, who has become lost. After a lot of hardship and adventure, they find him and they return to the States. Bert finally tells the truth about what happened and Duncan is reinstated at West Point. He also reconciles with Sylvia and after he gets his commission, they are wed. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

In one of her best pre-adult roles, little Madge Evans was cast as nine-year-old troublemaker Clarissa Leigh. Our heroine pauses in her deviltry long enough to play matchmaker for her older sister Ruth (Violet Palmer) and college boy Paul Harding (Johnny Hines). After several misadventures, Clarissa finally manages to do the right thing at the right time for a change. The trade magazine Variety lavished praise upon director Frank H. Crane for his ability to extract a convincing performance from Madge Evans), rather than succumbing to the temptation of having the girl behave like a "miniature adult." Also given kudos was the performance of Johnny Hines, who would soon become one of screendom's most popular light comedians. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Having spent several years at World Films, the studio owned by her Broadway-producer father William A. Brady, Alice Brady took a step upward in the film world when she signed on with Lewis J. Selznick's Select Pictures. One of Brady's first Select endeavors was Woman and Wife, a sporadically literal adaption of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. After enduring a miserable boarding-school childhood, Jane Eyre (Brady) becomes the governess for the daughter of the mysterious, brooding Edward Rochester (Elliot Dexter). Though at first put off by Rochester's sullen truculence, Jane eventually falls in love with him, and he with her. But on the day of their wedding, it is revealed that Rochester's first wife, whom Jane has been led to believe is dead, is alive, albeit hopelessly insane and locked up in her husband's attic. The spectacular fire which highlighted the original novel (and all subsequent film versions of Jane Eyre) was absent from this production. Here, the first Mrs. Rochester accidentally drowns, clearing the path for a happy reunion between Jane and Rochester -- who, unlike his literary counterpart, is not temporarily blinded as punishment for his past sins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

True Blue begins with the marriage of black-sheep British nobleman Gilbert Brockhurst (Charles Clary) to the daughter of a Western rancher. When he learns that he has inherited his father's title and estate, Brockhurst deserts his wife (Frances McKeever) and young son Bob. Upon attaining adulthood, Bob (now played by William Farnum) becomes the boss of his grandfather's ranch. Outwardly a "hail fellow well met" type, Bob has never gotten over his father's desertion, and has sworn to get revenge on his "old man." Many reels pass before Bob and his dad are reconciled -- and when Bob is given a long-awaited opportunity to move to London to take charge of his ancestral estate, he chooses instead to remain with his friends and loved ones in the Wild West. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fired up by the story of Joan of Arc, eight-year-old Mary ("Baby"Marie Osborne) decides to "do her bit" when America enters WWI. Before long, Mary has organized her schoolmates into an auxiliary army. The kids prove that they aren't "summer soldiers" when they rush to the rescue of an old inventor (Herbert Standing) whose aerial torpedo is stolen by a German spy. Setting a precedent for such future children's entertainments as Emil and the Detectives the kids converge upon the "Hun" and save the day. But the story isn't over yet: the inventor turns out to be Mary's grandfather, and by fadeout time the diminutive heroine has orchestrated a reconciliation between the old man and her mother (Marian Warner). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide