Richard Arlen Movies

This drama centers on the fight for certain post-Prohibitionist groups to gain total control over the liquor industry. Much of the tale is focused upon a family endeavoring to keep their little brewery. Their tiny beer- making operation was first jeopardized by the racketeers they refused to join. Film, history and sports buffs should keep an ear out for a continuity glitch in the story. In a Prohibition speakeasy, a radio plays the broadcast of the landmark Jess Willard-Jack Dempsey fight. Actually the fight occurred before Prohibition was in effect. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a rich man's wife finds herself victimized by her cruel mother-in-law who doesn't think the girl is good enough for her son. Not only does she try to destroy their marriage, the meddlesome mom also tries to steal their baby. The wife takes the baby and flees. In the end, the couple overcomes their difficulties and happily reunite. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

It is difficult to determine who is the more ferocious character in this film: The real shark seen in the underwater sequences, or star Edward G. Robinson. Robinson plays a Portuguese tuna boat skipper--the self-styled "best dam' fisherman in the Pacific"--who years earlier had lost his hand to a shark while rescuing best friend Richard Arlen. Robinson promises to look after the daughter (Zita Johann) of a recently deceased crew member. He proposes marriage; she accepts, more out of gratitude than love. The girl eventually falls for Robinson's pal Arlen, who wants to break off the relationship before Robinson gets hurt. But Robinson catches the lovers together, and vows to kill Arlen. In attempting to throw his ex-friend to the sharks, Robinson is accidentally pulled overboard to his own death. Warner Bros. would unofficially remake Tiger Shark several times over the next ten years; while the professions of the two leading male characters would change, the basic "triangle" plot remained the same. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A star football player in college, Garry King (Richard Arlen) finds post-college life very different; he betrays the trust of his best friend Steve (Preston S. Foster), finally losing his job. Meanwhile, his younger brother Bob (John Darrow), also a football star, is on the same track to ruin; when Garry reforms himself, events give him the opportunity to help Bob as well. Many football players and coaches of the time appear as themselves. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide

In the wake of such cinematic Calamity Janes as Jean Arthur and Doris Day, it comes as a shock to find a film in which the famed frontierswoman is played by someone who actually looks the part. Matronly, granite-visaged Louise Dresser stars as Calamity in Caught, an early-talkie psychological western. According to this film, Calamity is a cattle rustler, wanted by the US cavalry. Halfway through this movie the plotline turns into a sagebrush Madame X The young trooper (Richard Arlen) sent to track down Calamity is the woman's long-lost son! It took four writers to cook up this heady brew of motherly love and blazing six-shooters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this gridiron drama, a college football coach and ex-All American will stop at nothing to have a winning team. The trouble begins as Dastardly Dan Curtis sends an injured player into a big game. The ploy works and the team wins; unfortunately, the player ends up hospitalized. Later he changes his ways and proves it during an important game by refusing to send a player with a massive head injury into the game. They lose the game, but he regains the respect and affection of those around him. The film includes clips of several football legends including Jim Thorpe, Roy Riegels, Howard Jones and Russ Saunders. The story is based on a novel by Francis Wallace, a former member of Knute Rockne's coaching staff. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Conquering Horde is a remake of the 1924 western epic North of 36, using generous amounts of stock footage from the original. The story takes place in post-Civil War Texas, where the local cattlemen are suffering from their inability to get their livestock to market. Dan McMasters (Richard Arlen), a Yankee war hero, is sent from Washington to help set up a safe and efficient passageway for the cattle drovers -- thereby earning himself the enmity of the local land barons who've been charging the cattlemen exorbitant fees to trek across their land. A romantic subplot involves McMasters and Yank-hating rancher Taizie Lockhart (Fay Wray). The Conquering Horde was remade in 1938 as The Texans, which like its predecessor was heavily reliant upon action highlights from North of 36 (including the spectacular panoramas of the last major cattle drive in the United States). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Light of Western Stars goes a long way towards using Paramount's fledgling sound system creatively; some scenes are filmed in complete darkness, allowing voices and sound effects to carry the day. Otherwise, this is a pleasantly familiar western concerning the relationship between drunken-cowpuncher Richard Arlen and new ranch-owner Mary Brian. Arlen's best friend was Brian's brother, who was killed under suspicious circumstances. Fred Kohler is the villain, but he's not as easily subdued as Arlen would prefer. Light of Western Stars was co-directed by Otto Brower and Edwin H. Knopf, but there seems to have been no dissension between these two journeymen; it was based on a novel by Zane Grey, which had previously been filmed twice and was good for another go-round in 1940. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Considered the best of the all-star "studio" musicals of 1929 and 1930, Paramount on Parade utilized the talents of practically everyone on the Paramount Pictures payroll. Under the supervision of British musical-comedy favorite Elsie Janis, 11 top directors contributed to the project: Dorothy Arzner, Otto Brower, Edmund Goulding, Victor Heerman, Edwin H. Knopf, Rowland V. Lee, Ernst Lubitsch, Lothar Mendes, Victor Schertzinger, Edward Sutherland and Frank Tuttle. Introduced by masters of ceremonies Jack Oakie, Skeets Gallegher and Leon Errol, the film is a vaudeville-like maelstrom of musical duets, comedy sketches, occasional dramatic interludes, and spectacular production numbers. To mention all the highlights would take a book in itself but among them are Nancy Carroll's rendition of "Dancing to Save Your Sole" (performed inside a giant shoe!); Maurice Chevalier (and chorus) soaring heavenward in "Sweeping the Clouds Away" ; child actress Mitzi Green's dead-on impersonations of Chevalier, George Arliss, Moran & Mack and Helen "Boop-a-doop" Kane; Ernst Lubitsch's witty staging of an Apache dance in the style of a polite boudoir farce, with Chevalier (again) and Evelyn Brent; Clara Bow's saucy "I'm True to the Navy Now" ; the wish-fulfillment sketch "Impulses," in which George Bancroft and Kay Francis delightedly upset a dinner party by saying what's really on their minds; and best of all, "Murder Will Out," a murder-mystery parody wherein Fu Manchu (Warner Oland) bumps off Sherlock Holmes (Clive Brook) and Philo Vance (William Powell) when they refuse to give him proper credit for his killing of Jack Oakie. Only the dramatic sketch with Frederic March and Ruth Chatterton truly creaks when seen today. Originally released at 102 minutes, Paramount on Parade is presently available only in an 80-minute version, with all its Technicolor sequences missing: casualties include the elaborate "Drink to the Girl of My Dreams" number, directed by Edmund Goulding and featuring Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur and Fay Wray, and Harry Green's dialect song "Isadore the Toreodor". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Joseph Conrad's novel Victory inspired some of this South Sea drama. Alma (Nancy Carroll), a violinist hired to play at an island resort, is pressured to make herself available to its male visitors. She flees and hides in a skiff belonging to the reclusive Heyst (Richard Arlen), who is said to have hidden a stash of gold. The men in pursuit of Alma -- and of Heyst's gold -- force a confrontation with Heyst and they all wind up dead or arrested; Heyst, who actually has no gold, winds up with Alma. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide

Paramount star Richard Arlen heads a strong cast in this early talkie western about a sheepherder falsely accused of killing an Indian. Luckily for the hero, two little children (Mitzi Green and Junior Durkin) witnessed the murder and can point the sheriff in the direction of the true culprit. The film was unusual in that Mexican characters were allowed to speak Spanish. Reviewers at the time, however, didn't buy it and pointed out that leading lady Rosita Moreno quite obviously "had a good knowledge of English." Both Mitzi Green and Junior Durkin were admired child stars at the time; the latter, who portrayed Huck Finn in both Tom Sawyer (1930) and Huckleberry Finn (1931), sadly lost his life at the age of 19, the victim of a car accident near San Diego, California that also claimed the lives of producer-director Robert J. Horner and the father of child star Jackie Coogan. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Bearing no relation to the popular torch song of the same name, The Man I Love is a prizefight picture, courtesy of Paramount production exec David O. Selznick. Richard Arlen stars as Dum-Dum Brooks, a tank-town boxer who journeys to New York in hopes of cracking the Big Time. Along for the ride is Dum-Dum's long-suffering but ever-faithful wife Celia (Mary Brian). After licking Champ Mahoney (Charles Sullivan) in an exhibition bout, Dum-Dum is given a chance to win the title for real. His road to success is temporarily blocked off by seductive Sonia Baranoff (Olga Baclanova), giving poor Celia even more to worry about. Among the real-life pugilists seen in The Man I Love is ubiquitous stunt man and bit player Sailor Vincent, who remained in films well into the late 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide