Robert Armstrong Movies
Forever remembered by film buffs as the man who brought King Kong to New York, American actor Robert Armstrong was a law student at the University of Washington in Seattle when he dropped out in favor of a vaudeville tour. Learning by doing, Armstrong worked his way up to "leading man" roles in a New York stock company run by veteran character man Jimmy Gleason. Gleason's play Iz Zat So? led to a film contract for Armstrong, whose first picture was The Main Event (1927). The actor's stage training served him well during Hollywood's switchover to sound, and he appeared with frequency in the early talkie years, at one point costarring with Broadway legend Fanny Brice in My Man (1930). An expert at playing sports and showbiz promoters, Armstrong was a natural for the role of the enthusiastic but foolhardy Carl Denham in King Kong (1933). Armstrong enjoyed some of the best dialogue of his career as he coerced erstwhile actress Fay Wray to go with him to Skull Island to seek out "money, adventure, the thrill of a lifetime", and as he egged on his crew to explore the domain of 50-foot ape Kong. And of course, Armstrong was allowed to speak the final lines of this imperishable classic: "It wasn't the planes...It was beauty killed the beast." Armstrong played Carl Denham again in a sequel, Son of Kong (1933), and later played Denham in everything but name as a shoestring theatrical promoter in Mighty Joe Young (1949), wherein he brought a nice giant gorilla into civilization. Always in demand as a character actor, Armstrong continued to make films in the 1940s; he had the rare distinction of playing an American military officer in Around the World (1943), a Nazi agent in My Favorite Spy (1942), and a Japanese general in Blood on the Sun (1945)! In the 1950s and 1960s, Armstrong was a fixture on TV cop and adventure programs. Perhaps the most characteristic moment in Armstrong's TV career was during a sketch on The Red Skelton Show, in which Red took one look at Armstrong and ad-libbed "Say, did you ever get that monkey off that building?" ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1937
More ambitious than its budget will permit, Three Legionnaires details the misadventures of comrades-in-arms Chuck (Robert Armstrong), Jimmy (Lyle Talbot) and Grant (Donald Meek). In the days just following the Armistice, American doughboys Chuck and Jimmy separate themselves from the rest of their platoon and stumble into a remote Russian town. Falling in love with White Russian princess Sonia (Anne Nagel), our heroes attempt to rescue her from the Bolsheviks, enlisting the aid of crackpot scientist Grant. Stanley Fields makes a convincing Russian general, while wrestler "Man Mountain" Dean is at least a visually imposing presence as a Soviet peasant who breaks down walls when he can't find the door. On the other hand, there's French-accented Fifi D'Orsay as local Slavic tootsie Olga, who's about as convincing as a set of wooden teeth. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Armstrong, Lyle Talbot, (more)
- 1937
The rollicking music of Gilbert and Sullivan is featured in this musical. It tells the story of a dance hall girl with a love of money. She will spend it every chance she gets as long as it is not hers. Trouble ensues when she sponges off a bookie during a date. To get revenge, he becomes her manager and forces her to join a Gilbert and Sullivan troupe. Any money she makes is to be his. Songs include: "The Mikado," "Patience," "Pirates of Penzance," and "Ruddigore." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Armstrong, Irene Hervey, (more)
- 1937
In this lively adventure aimed at youthful audiences, a wiseacre fireman soon finds himself in trouble with his fire captain after the smarty pants begins dating the captain's sister. Mayhem ensues, culminating in a fist fight. In the end, the young fireman saves the captain from certain death in a great fire and the two reconcile their differences. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dick Foran, Ann Sheridan, (more)
- 1936
In this drama, a flamboyant womanizing airline pilot competes with another, rather dull, pilot for the love of a fetching flight attendant. At first she ignores her sister's advice and has a fling with the charming cad, who gets back at the meddlesome sister by hitting her on the head. The two lovers return to their jobs. During a flight, a terrible storm erupts and the cowardly pilot bails out, leaving the flight attendant to fly the passenger- filled plane by herself. Fortunately, the good pilot is in the tower and calmly guides her safely to the ground. Meanwhile the other pilot gets his just desserts when his parachute fails to open. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sally Eilers, Robert Armstrong, (more)
- 1936
Margaret Lindsay stars in the title role, playing a young woman imprisoned for a crime which she didn't commit. The real culprit is her jailbird husband (Cesar Romero), a smooth jewel thief with a jealous streak. Margaret hopes to put her past behind her by taking up with a society man (Dick Foran), keeping the affair secret lest her fugitive husband kill her lover. Released in England as G-Man's Wife (Lindsay ends up with government agent Pat O'Brien), Public Enemy's Wife was based on a story co-written by none other than David O. Selznick. The film was remade as a 50-minute "B," Bullets for O'Hara (41), with a young Anthony Quinn as the criminal and Joan Perry (later the wife of Columbia chieftain Harry Cohn) as his wife. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pat O'Brien, Margaret Lindsay, (more)
- 1936
The "ex" of the title is daffy mystery-writer Jean Arthur, former wife of urbane doctor William Powell. When Powell becomes the prime suspect in a murder case, Arthur endeavors to solve the case herself -- and to reclaim her ex-hubby in the process. After a well-directed semiclimax at a race track, the killer is revealed during one of those expository scenes in which all the suspects are gathered together in one room. The murderer attempts to escape, and Powell is knocked cold in the process. When he awakens, he discovers that Arthur has set up some projection equipment, and is running a film of a minister reciting the wedding vows. Curses! Trapped again! Like William Powell's previous RKO effort Star of Midnight, The Ex-Mrs. Bradford was an attempt to cash in on the popularity of Powell's Thin Man films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Powell, Jean Arthur, (more)
- 1936
Bucolic Elmer Lamb (Stuart Erwin), who only wants to raise dairy cattle, is a mathematical prodigy; he's even a whiz at playing bridge. Circus pitchman Bill (Robert Armstrong) and circus owner Jeffrey Crane (Edmund Gwenn) want to make money off Elmer, but Jeff's daughter Kitty (Betty Furness) finds herself drawn to him. Eventually, Elmer is pitted against the reigning bridge champion (E.E. Clive) -- whom he's already beaten in an informal match -- which involves shady Pudgy (Edward S. Brophy) and gangster Al (Dewey Robinson). ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stuart Erwin, Robert Armstrong, (more)
- 1936
In this melodrama the captain of a decrepit boat must get it to port but finds that racketeers are trying to prevent him from making it by sneaking their thugs on board. The henchman are told to sink the barge and the collect upon a substantial insurance policy. They blow a large hole in the hold. The brave captain goes down amidst the rushing water and tries to block it. Meanwhile his philandering wife makes a pass at the second mate, the captain's best friend. The captain successfully saves the ship and comes back on deck. He soon discovers his best friend and his wife ensconced in a passionate clinch. She says that the mate had attacked her and the captain decks him. It is not long before he learns the truth. He and the second mate resume their friendship and the boat is safely sailed to London. There he receives $10,000 from Lloyd's of London for his good work. He also is given a new boat to helm. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Holt, Robert Armstrong, (more)
In G Men, Warner Bros. "bad boy" James Cagney plays James "Brick" Davis, a young lawyer whose education has been financed by soft-hearted racketeer McKay (William Harrigan). When Cagney's best pal, detective Eddie Buchanan (Regis Toomey), is killed in a gangland shooting, James decides to become a G-Man. Though scrupulously honest, Davis is looked upon with suspicion by his fellow agents because of his association with the crooked McKay. He proves he's a "good guy" when his former girlfriend, Jean Ann Dvorak, now the wife of mobster Brad Collins (Barton MacLane), tips him off to a "Little Bohemia"-style gangster hideaway. Jean later sacrifices her own life to help James rescue his new girl, nurse Kay McCord (Margaret Lindsay), from the vengeful Collins. Based on Gregory Miller's book Public Enemy No. 1, G-Men was reissued in 1949, with an added prologue featuring David Brian as an FBI trainer who advises his students not to laugh at the old-fashioned costumes and slang in the 1935 film; seen today, it is Brian's superfluous opening comments that seem hopelessly dated, while the film itself is as exciting and entertaining as ever. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, Margaret Lindsay, (more)
- 1935
In the wake of Shirley Temple, every Hollywood studio scrambled to find a child star who might possibility match Temple's selling power. Warner Bros.' candidate was South Africa-born Sybil Jason, who starred in several of the studio's short subjects and was headlined in a handful of features like Little Big Shot. Here she is cast as Gloria Gibbs, whose daddy is knocked off by gangsters early in the picture. Left in the care of confidence tricksters Steve Craig (Robert Armstrong) and Mortimer Thompson (Edward Everett Horton), it doesn't take long for Gloria to twist her surrogate "parents" around her little finger. With the help of Steve, Mortimer and lunch-counter waitress Jean (Glenda Farrell), our heroine not only puts the finger on the gang responsible for her father's demise, but collects a huge reward as a result. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sybil Jason, Glenda Farrell, (more)
- 1935
Rudy Vallee made his third feature-film starring appearance in the breezy Warner Bros. musical Sweet Music. Vallee is appropriately cast as singer-bandleader Skip Houston, who falls in love with aspiring dancer Bonnie Haydon (Ann Dvorak). Though Bonnie feels the same way about Skip, the two leads indulge in a movie-long quarrel before the long-awaiting final clinch. This is one musical comedy where there's definitely more comedy than music, what with a chucklesome supporting cast including Ned Sparks, Allen Jenkins, Alice White and veteran vaudevillians Joseph Cawthorn and Al Shean (of "Gallegher and Shean" fame). Despite such heady competition, the film is stolen by the hilarious Frank and Milt Britton Band, a zany precursor to the Spike Jones aggregation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rudy Vallee, Ann Dvorak, (more)
This peppy Monogram meller stars Robert Armstrong as a big-city newspaper reporter. After getting a bonus, Armstrong over-celebrates and wakes up in faraway St. Louis without a penny to his name. He finagles passing-stranger Maxine Doyle into posing as his wife so that he'll be able to get a hotel room. While thus occupied, Armstrong finds time to solve a local mystery and secure another bonus that will enable him to marry Doyle for real. Mystery Man was directed by Leo McCarey's kid brother Raymond, a veteran of the Hal Roach and Columbia 2-reel comedy factories. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Armstrong, Maxine Doyle, (more)
- 1935
In this romance, set during the Great Depression, an impoverished socialite is forced to work by her financial situation. She gets a job working as a hostess at Club HeeHaw. How degrading! It gets worse for her when her boss promotes her to "gigolette" in his posh club Casino de Monaco. Her boyfriend is appalled, and the romance threatens to fall apart. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adrienne Ames, Ralph Bellamy, (more)
- 1935
In his second Monogram vehicle, William Cagney (James' brother) is teamed with rough-and-ready Robert Armstrong. The stars are typecast as Lucky Davis and Bob Owens, a pair of reckless high-explosive experts (hence the title). After several hair-raising adventures in the U.S., the story shifts to South America, where Lucky, Bob and their mutual chum Jimmie Pearson (Edgar Kennedy) get mixed up in a banana-republic revolution. The boys' thoughtless act of shooting off fireworks at a local political rally results in a series of disastrously comic consequences. The film's requisite dark-eyed senorita is played with mucho gusto by Maria Alba. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Armstrong, William Cagney, (more)
- 1935
In the wake of The Thin Man, every studio in Hollywood scrambled to churn out sophisticated mystery-comedies wherein murders are solved by a wealthy, attractive, fun-loving young couple. One of the best of these Thin Man derivations was Universal's Remember Last Night, adapted from Adam Hobhouse's novel Hangover Murders. During a wild cocktail party at the Long Island estate of Tony and Carlotta Milburn (Robert Young and Constance Cummings), one of the guests is murdered. It does not help at all that the revellers were too drunk to remember exactly what happened -- nor is it beneficial to the case that Detective Danny Harrison (Edward Arnold) is a personal friend of all the suspects. In addition, no one but Harrison seems willing to take the case seriously, though of course eventually Tony and Carlotta are obliged to do a bit of sleuthing on their own. The light-hearted aspects of the film are offset by moments of genuine terror, notably the scene in which Professor Jones (Gustav von Seyffertitz) attempts to solve the mystery by hypnotizing the suspects, only to become a victim himself when he gets too close to the truth. An unbilled E.E. Clive provides some great black-humor moments as a police photographer who prefers to "artfully" arrange the corpses. As always, director James Whale invests his material with several of his visual trademarks, including his fascination with elaborate set decorations. There are probably more off-angle close-ups of fancy wall clocks in this picture than in any other Hollywood film -- and how about that cocktail bar in the Milburn's living room, designed in the shape of a yacht? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward Arnold, Constance Cummings, (more)
- 1934
Scrappy society belle Geraldine (Ann Sothern) is The Hell Cat in this peppy Columbia potboiler. Fed up with the intrusions of brash newspaper reporter Dan Collins (Robert Armstrong), Geraldine punches him in the nose -- whereupon he promptly punches her back. Feeling humiliated, Geraldine plots a diabolical revenge by vamping Dan, intending to drop him like a hot potato the minute he falls in love with her. Instead, Dan ends up saving Geraldine's hide by capturing a gang of crooks who've been using her father's yacht to smuggle aliens. In his first major film role, Benny Baker scores a comic bull's-eye as photojournalist Snapper Dugan. The basic plotline of Hell Cat would be reworked by Columbia several times, most memorably as Atlantic Adventure in 1935. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Armstrong, Ann Sothern, (more)
Based on the popular comic strip by Ham Fisher, this fast-paced and funny boxing outing follows the exploits of a boxing manager and the up-and-coming fighter he mentors to. The film is also known as Joe Palooka. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jimmy Durante, Lupe Velez, (more)
Based on a novel by Cornell Woolrich, Manhattan Love Song charts the misadventures of the madcap Stewart sisters, Jerry (Dixie Lee) and Carol (Helen Flint). Suddenly finding themselves broke, the girls are forced to become the servants of their former chauffeur Williams (Robert Armstrong) and maid Annette (Nydia Westman). This seemingly untenable situation ends happily when Jerry falls in love with Williams. Because of this Monogram production, Fox's movie version of Kathleen Norris' novel Manhattan Love Song had to be retitled Change of Heart. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Armstrong, Dixie Lee, (more)
- 1934
Kansas City Princess came at the tail end of the "gold-digger" movie cycle. The inevitable Joan Blondell plays Rosie, a saucy-eyed manicurist who takes it on the lam when she loses a diamond entrusted to her by her gangster boyfriend Dynamite (Robert Armstrong). With nary a dime between them, Rosie and her pal Marie (Glenda Farrell) charm their way onto an ocean voyage to Paris. Also on board is daffy millionaire Junior Ashcraft (Hugh Herbert) enroute to the City of Light to check out rumors that his wife has been unfaithful. Unfortunately for Rosie, Ashcraft has hired himself a bodyguard -- none other than old friend Dynamite! Our heroine manages to wriggle out of her mess by saving Ashcraft from a frame-up engineered by his divorce-minded wife and her shifty attorney (Osgood Perkins). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Blondell, Glenda Farrell, (more)
- 1934
Few studios ground out as many aviation melodramas as Columbia. In Above the Clouds, Robert Armstrong stars as Scoop Adams, an ace newsreel cameraman whose love affair with the bottle all but destroys him professionally. Scoop manages to get his photographer pal Dick (Richard Cromwell) fired as well, but he promises to restore Dick's reputation, some way or another. He gets his chance while covering a dirigible wreck (some three years before the Hindenburg), saving the day for both Dick and himself. The outcome of the plot hinges on a telephoto lens, a relatively new device in 1934. Dorothy Wilson hangs around in the obligatory but hardly necessary role of the love interest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Armstrong, Richard Cromwell, (more)
- 1934
Back in the 1930s, the "Search for Beauty" contests were designed to scout the hinterlands of America and England for beautiful girls and handsome men who might qualify as movie contractees -- though most the winners were drawn from the ranks of Hollywood residents. These contests, coupled with a play by Schuyler E. Gray and Paul R. Milton, formed the basis for this 1934 comedy. Real-life "Search for Beauty" winners Larry "Buster" Crabbe and Ida Lupino (both of whom had already appeared in a few films) head the cast in this story of a contest staged by a two-bit "physical culture" magazine. When the winners, Don Jackson (Crabbe) and Barbara Hilton (Lupino), realize that they've been hired exclusively to pose in bathing suits for the pin-up trade, they leave for the greener pastures of a legitimate health farm. The magazine's crooked publishers try to extort money from Don and Barbara, but they're foiled by a local justice of the peace (Frank McGlynn Sr.) who turns out to be an agent of the U.S. Department of Justice! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Ida Lupino, (more)
- 1934
This drama is set within a carnival and centers on a young woman who falls in love but is unable to act upon her feelings because she is married. Her husband, the owner of the carnival, is a real louse. The whole mess comes to a head one day when a tiger escapes and gets into the house of the owner and the woman. Their baby is in the house, and the owner does all he can to save his child. Unfortunately, the tiger ends up consuming the villain. Suddenly a fire erupts, and, to save her baby, the mother stuffs it in the refrigerator and flees the house. Later the babe is discovered safe and sound with a necklace of weenies around its neck. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Arlen, Sally Eilers, (more)
- 1933
After saving RKO Radio from receivership with King Kong, producer-director Ernest B.. Schoedsack relaxed a bit with the comparatively sedate crime caper Blind Adventure. King Kong co-star Robert Armstrong plays Richard Bruce, an American in London who stumbles into the lair of a kidnap-blackmail gang. Playing his cards close to his vest, Bruce manages to get his hands on the "secret papers" that are so important to everyone in the story. He also wins the heroine, the aptly named Rose Thorne (Helen Mack, Armstrong's vis-a-vis in Son of Kong). Of the supporting players, Roland Young is terrific as a dry-witted burglar. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Armstrong, Helen Mack, (more)
"How would you like to star opposite the tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood?" Enticed by these words, brunette leading lady Fay Wray dyed her hair blonde and accepted the role of Ann Darrow in King Kong -- and stayed with the project even after learning that her "leading man" was a 50-foot ape. The film introduces us to flamboyant, foolhardy documentary filmmaker Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong), who sails off to parts unknown to film his latest epic with leading lady Darrow in tow. Disembarking at Skull Island, they stumble on a ceremony in which the native dancers circle around a terrified-looking young girl, chanting, "Kong! Kong!" The chief (Noble Johnson) and witch doctor (Steve Clemente) spot Denham and company and order them to leave. But upon seeing Ann, the chief offers to buy the "golden woman" to serve as the "bride of Kong." Denham refuses, and he and the others beat a hasty retreat to their ship. Late that night, a party of native warriors sneak on board the ship and kidnap Ann. They strap her to a huge sacrificial altar just outside the gate, then summon Kong, who winds up saving Ann instead of devouring her. Kong is eventually taken back to New York, where he breaks loose on the night of his Broadway premiere, thinking that his beloved Ann is being hurt by the reporters' flash bulbs. Now at large in New York, Kong searches high and low for Ann (in another long-censored scene, he plucks a woman from her high-rise apartment, then drops her to her death when he realizes she isn't the girl he's looking for). After proving his devotion by wrecking an elevated train, Kong winds up at the top of the Empire State Building, facing off against a fleet of World War I fighter planes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, (more)
- 1933
This drama chronicles the devoted love of a woman who tries to reform her lover, a black marketeer with a compulsive gambling problem. Unfortunately, he is killed by two crooks whom he bilked. Just before he dies, he marries his loyal girl. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Lowe, Nancy Carroll, (more)
