Stanley Fields Movies

Terrified at the prospect of making her talking-picture debut, silent-screen queen Norma Talmadge spent several months taking diction lessons before shooting commenced on New York Nights. The results were negligible: though she managed to keep her thick Brooklyn accent in check, Talmadge was ultimately defeated by the banalities of the script. Based on the stage play Tin Pan Alley, the film casts Talmadge as Broadway musical star Jill Deverne, the wife of struggling composer Fred Deverne (Gilbert Roland). Her new husband's drinking problem causes our heroine to seek solace in the arms of gangster Joe Prividi (John Wray), but after a bloody gangland shootout (filmed on location at New York's 125th Street Station), Jill is more than happy to return to the now-repentant Fred. After a second talkie attempt, Dubarry: Women of Passion, Norma Talmadge, a millionaire several times over, wisely elected to retire from films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Poor but honest district attorney Fredric March, sick of the "one law for rich, one law for poor" imbalance, sentences selfish society girl Claudette Colbert to ten years in prison for vehicular manslaughter. The sentence is reduced to two years due to political pressure; nonetheless, Claudette feels humiliated by March and vows revenge. While incarcerated, the girl learns a few lessons in humility, and by the time she has completed her sentence she has become most popular and kindhearted inmate in the joint. Upon her release, Claudette seeks out March and declares her love for him. Based on a story by Alice Duer Miller, Manslaughter had been previously filmed by Cecil B. DeMille in 1922; the great director used the plotline as an excuse for an extended (and gloriously pointless) flashback to Ancient Rome. This 1930 talkie remake is infinitely more tasteful and restrained than the DeMille version--but not quite as much fun to watch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first "talkie" gangster movie to capture the public's imagination, Mervyn LeRoy's Little Caesar started a cycle of crime-related movies that Warner Bros. rode across the ensuing decade and right into World War II with titles such as All Through the Night (1941). At the start of the picture, Caesar Enrico "Rico" Bandello (Edward G. Robinson, made up to look a lot like the real-life Al Capone) and his friend Joe Massara (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) are robbing a gas station -- later on, at a diner, they're looking over a newspaper and see a story about Diamond Pete Montana (Ralph Ince), a gangster so well known that he gets headlines and stories written about how powerful he is. That's what Rico wants, more than money or anything else: to be czar of the underworld and "not just another mug." Joe admits that sometimes he just thinks of trying to become what he wanted to be when he started out: a professional dancer. They head east to Chicago (which is never named, but with the talk of the north side and the territories, you know what city it is) and Rico talks his way into the local mob run by Sam Vettori (Stanley Fields). The leader has his doubts over how quick Rico is to go for his gun, but also thinks he might be useful if he is as fearless as he says and can be kept under control.

Soon Rico is Sam's top enforcer and bodyguard, but it isn't long before he starts acting like the boss, questioning other members' loyalty and bravery and pushing into Sam's role as leader. He also commands the loyalty of the gang through his resourcefulness at planning and pulling jobs that are tough and risky, and getting away with them; the only exception is Joe, their respectable "front man," who has found romance with an actress (Glenda Farrell) and a career, and wants out of helping the gang. Rico won't let him leave, and pushes him to help them on a brazen New Year's Eve robbery of a restaurant, during which the new crime commissioner is shot dead by Rico. Now the heat is on, but instead of keeping a low profile, Rico seizes control of the gang from Sam and secures his power by ruthlessly rubbing out the only member (William Collier) who seems likely to squeal, gunning the man down on the steps of a church. Before long, Rico is the first among equals among the local mob chieftains, sharing a dais at a dinner honoring him with his nominal boss and one-time idol Diamond Pete. He's also making enemies by the bushel -- Flaherty (Thomas E. Jackson), the cop heading the investigation into the murder of the commissioner, won't let up and makes it his personal business to nail Rico, and the rival chieftains don't like the publicity Rico's getting or the attention it brings to all of them. Rico survives attempts on his life and consolidates his hold on the streets, and is suddenly on the edge of achieving his goal -- the "Big Boy" (Sidney Blackmer), the wealthy social Brahmin who really controls crimes in the city, invites him to a meeting to tell him that Diamond Pete is finished. Rico is going to be in charge of the rackets across the entire city and making sure the local bosses stay in line. He is at the pinnacle of his career, and then Rico overreaches -- he can still be nailed for the murder of the commissioner, and is paranoid enough not to trust Joe, even though Joe helped saved Rico's life and insists that he'll never squeal; Rico also plans on supplanting the Big Boy. His rise to power unravels as fast as it happened, in an outburst of violence that drives him underground. But with an ego as big as his, Rico can't stay hidden for too long, and Flaherty is waiting for him.

The violence in Little Caesar may seem tame by today's standards -- although seeing a proper print of the movie, such as the 2005-issued DVD, does restore some of that impact -- but it was shocking at the time, and proved riveting and even seductive, especially because it was tied to a very charismatic performance by Robinson. Between his portrayal and the sounds of pistols and Thompson submachine guns, the movie was a sensory revelation and literalized the violence that had been suggested purely by visuals in such silent gangster classics as Josef Von Sternberg's Underworld (1927), itself yet another telling of a version of Capone's story. The language was also something newly coarse and bracing in movies, at a point when talkies were only a couple of years old. There's also a slightly homoerotic undertone to aspects of the character relationships that managed to get past the censors: Rico doesn't drink and seems uninterested in women; his fixation on Joe Massara, and his seeming competition for Massara's loyalty with the latter's fiancée, are couched in what seem like almost romantic terms; and his feeling of betrayal when Massara says he wants to leave the mob to get married seem almost more appropriate to someone caught in a romantic triangle. This is all made especially vivid when Rico laments not having killed Massara, admitting that he's been undone over "liking a guy too much." It's all nearly as striking as some of the more pointed psychological elements in subsequent gangster movies, including Tony Camonte's incestuous fixation on his own sister in Scarface (1932) and, at the far end of the cycle, Cody Jarrett's mother-fixation in White Heat (1949). ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Mammy features Al Jolson as the star of a travelling minstrel show, appearing in a small Southern town. Jolson falls in love with an actress in the troupe (Lois Moran), but she loves another. One of Jolson's fellow minstrels (Lowell Sherman) is shot backstage, and it is assumed thanks to several plot convolutions that Jolson is guilty of the deed. He heads for the hills, but returns to the show, his reputation restored but his love for the actress unrequited. Maudlin in the extreme, Mammy is salvaged by several enjoyable songs by Irving Berlin and by its Technicolor photography (though most TV prints are black and white). The film's fascination with modern viewers rests with the presence of Al Jolson--and with the casual use of profanity during his confrontation scene with Lowell Sherman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Helen Twelvetrees became a major star in this laundered version of the "naughty" Broadway play Frankie and Johnny. A singer in a Havana dive, Frankie is fought over by the proprietor, Johnny (Ricardo Cortez), and Dan O'Keefe (Phillips Holmes), an American sailor who sees some good in the girl. When Frankie decides to leave Havana with Dan, Johnny has his henchmen abduct the couple, but is himself accidentally killed in the ensuing melee. A successful combo, Twelvetrees and Cortez were reunited with director Tay Garnett for the gangster melodrama Bad Company (1931). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The comedy team of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey made their fourth film appearance of 1930 in the hectic comedy-melodrama Hook Line and Sinker. This time the boys are cast as itinerant insurance salesmen Wilbur Boswell and J. Addington Ganzy ("Not Pansy -- Ganzy, with a 'G'"!) After talking their way out of a traffic ticket, Wilbur and Addington make the acquaintance of penniless socialite Mary Marsh (Dorothy Lee), who is fleeing a wealthy marriage arranged by her mother Rebecca (Jobyna Howland). Falling in love with Mary himself, Wilbur talks Ganzy into helping her renovate a seedy hotel willed to her by her uncle. With the dubious aid of a decrepit bellboy (George F. Marion) and a nutty house detective (Hugh Herbert), the boys turn the hotel into a thriving enterprise. The plot thickens when a gang of jewel thieves and a band of bootleggers register at the hotel, followed in short order by Mary's mother and the girl's prospective fiance, lawyer John Blackwell (Ralf Harolde) -- who happens to be in league with the bootleggers! A wild gangland shoot-out and nocturnal chase caps this dated but amusing Wheeler and Woolsey vehicle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this western, a wealthy eastern returns from a polo match to find that his father has been murdered. Later, he is riffling through his father's papers when he discovers that his family may have had a different name. He then finds evidence that causes him to suspect that a certain western rancher may be implicated in the killing. He hops in a plane and heads West, but he doesn't make it as he plane ends up crashing into the bathroom of a pretty woman. She falls in love with him, but this causes great friction with her lover, a ranch foreman. Meanwhile the bad rancher orders the foreman to bring the son to him--unarmed. Fortunately, the young man escapes and goes to meet the rancher for a final showdown. He then learns that he is his real father. The rancher then tells him that the other man's death was accidental, that he had only gone back East to confront him as he had stolen his wife and son. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The peripatetic spouses referred to in the title are all travelling salesmen, scooting to and from their wives via train. In Detroit on business, young unmarried salesman Barry (Frank Albertson) finds himself at a wild party where his fellow drummers, husbands all, are being entertained by a bevy of call-girls. One of these cuties is Ruby (Evelyn Brent), who ends up shooting libidinous salesman Ben (Carl Miller). For a while, it looks as though the cops are going to pin the shooting on Barry, but Ruby confesses at the last moment; meanwhile, Ben recovers from his wound, but may not be able to patch up his marriage when his wife shows up unexpectedly at the scene of the crime. Some much-needed laughs are provided by Hugh Herbert, dropping his usual "woo woo" gestures in favor of a philosophical Jewish characterization. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first talkie version of Zane Grey's classic yarn Riders of the Purple Sage proved a suitable vehicle for Fox Studios' resident cowboy star George O'Brien. Within an astonishingly brief running time, the film manages to pack together all the plot ingredients in the Grey original, save one: chief villain Noah Beery is no longer an amoral Mormon elder but instead a crooked judge. O'Brien is cast as Texas Ranger Jim Lassiter, who devotes his life to rescuing his sister and daughter, who've been kidnapped by Lew Waters (Beery). Taking a job at the ranch owned by Jane Withersteen (Marguerite Churchill), Jim learns from Jane that Waters is now living pseudonymously as "respectable" Judge Dyer. The famous finale, in which Jim and Jane escape a posse by sealing themselves off in a fertile valley seems a bit ludicrous when seen today, but works within the context of the film. Magnificently photographed by George Schneiderman, the 1931 Riders of the Purple Sage remains the best adaptation of this Zane Grey classic (A remake of a 1925 Tom Mix vehicle, it would itself be remade, less effectively, in 1941). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In director Leo McCarey's film The Kid From Spain, actor Eddie Cantor plays mischievious college boy Eddie Williams, who, with his buddy Ricardo (Robert Young), is kicked out of college for sneaking into the women's dormitory. Ricardo (Young), on his way back to Mexico, suggests Eddie (Cantor) come along. First, however, Ricardo must stop at the local bank for some cash. Unfortunately, the bank is robbed as the two boys are leaving, and the fleeing thieves mistake Eddie for their getaway driver. In a panic, Eddie races off towards the Mexican border in hopes of getting way from them. Realizing that the bank robbers will go after him--Eddie, after all, is the only one who saw their faces--he convinces a skeptical border guard that he, too, is a Mexican. Once in Mexico, he's mistaken for a renowed bullfighter, and plays along with his newly assigned identity in order to avoid the American detective on his trail. Mayhem ensues, and Eddie eventually falls in love with Rosalie (yda Roberti), a young Mexican woman with an over-protective father. The musical numbers in The Kid From Spain were staged by a young Busby Berkeley and feature the oldwyn Girls, whose ranks in this film include Betty Grable, Paulette Goddard, and Jane Wyman. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

This first film version of H.G. Wells' Island of Dr. Moreau stars Charles Laughton as Dr.Moreau, a dedicated but sadly misguided scientist who rules the roost on a remote island. Shipwrecked sailor Edward Parker Richard Arlen finds himself on Moreau's island, agreeing to stick around until another boat can come along and take him home. But that's not quite what Moreau has in mind: he'd rather Parker stay on the island and marry the exotic Lota (Kathleen Burke), who curiously possesses the characteristics of the panther. In fact, all the island's natives seem more animal than human, especially the hirsute Bela Lugosi. And why not? They are animals who've been transformed by Moreau into humanlike creatures via surgery. Moreau's plans to mate Parker and Lota are complicated by the arrival of Parker's fiancee Leila Hyams, who has been brought to the island by ship's captain Stanley Fields, one of Moreau's flunkies. When Moreau kills Fields for this insubordination, he makes the mistake of breaking one of the rules he himself has imposed on the island: That no creature shall kill another. Island of Lost Souls does its job of inducing goosebumps so well that one can forgive the cherubic excesses of Charles Laughton in his portrayal of Dr. Moreau. The film would be remade under Wells' original title in 1978, with Burt Lancaster in the Laughton role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dolores Del Rio plays Dolores in Girl of the Rio -- which, one supposes, makes perfect sense. The heroine is a cabaret dancer who attracts the eye of her boss, slick gambler Don Jose (Leo Carrillo). When Dolores falls for handsome gringo Johnny Powell (Norman Foster), Don Jose pulls a few strings to have the boy carted off to a faraway prison. Using a few tricks of her own, Dolores manages to secure Johnny's release, whereupon Don Jose, his back to the wall, "gracefully" bows out of her life. Adapted from the old Willard Mack play The Dove (previously filmed under that title in 1928), Girl of the Rio was remade in 1939 as The Girl and the Gambler, with Leo Carrillo reprising his role from the 1932 film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famed tale is set in contemporary London and follows Holmes and Watson as they seek to bring the nefarious Professor Moriarty to justice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide