James Finlayson Movies

Back at Hal Roach Studios for the first time since 1938's Block-Heads, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy star in the uneven but generally rewarding A Chump at Oxford. The boys are cast as street-sweepers who hope to better their lot in life by attending night school. Fate intervenes when Stan and Ollie are instrumental in the capture of a bank robber, whereupon they are rewarded by the bank's grateful president (Forbes Murray) with an all-expenses-paid education at England's Oxford University. Arriving on the venerable old campus dressed in Eton jackets, our heroes are pounced upon by a group of prankish students and subjected to all manner of practical jokes. After spending most of the night trying to escape from a maze, Stan and Ollie are installed in their "new quarters"-which turns out to be the bedroom of the Dean (Wilfred Lucas). This sort of collegiate nonsense comes to an end when it is discovered that simple-minded Stan is actually Lord Paddington, the brainiest student and finest athlete that ever attended Oxford. According to Meredith the valet (Forrester Harvey), His Lordship wandered away from the university upon being rendered an amnesiac by a blow on the head. An accidental tap on the noggin restores Stan to his aristocratic Lord Paddington status, whereupon he beats up a crowd of bullying students and deposits them one by one in a nearby ditch. Though Ollie is aghast to learn that Stan-er, His Lordship-has no recollection of their previous friendship, he decides to stay on at Oxford as Paddington's manservant. After having been humiliated once too often by his vain and condescending employer, Ollie angrily packs his bags and prepares to head for home, when yet another bop on His Lordship's skull causes him to revert to lovable, bumbling old Stan again. Originally intended as a four-reeler (running approximately 45 minutes), A Chump at Oxford was completed in the spring of 1939, whereupon Laurel and Hardy were loaned out to producer Boris Morros to star in The Flying Deuces. When shooting was finished on the latter film, the team was summoned back to Roach to film a 2-reel "prologue" for Oxford, bringing the film's running time up to 63 minutes. The new footage consisted of a reworking of the boys' 1928 comedy From Soup to Nuts, with temporary servants Stan and Ollie unintentionally wrecking a dinner party held by Mr. and Mrs. Vandevere (played by veteran L&H supporting players James Finlayson and Anita Garvin). The patchwork stucture of A Chump at Oxford works against its overall effectiveness, but the scenes in which Stan Laurel undergoes a complete change of character as the genius-level Lord Paddington more than make up for the film's earlier shortcomings. One of the students (the tall, mustachioed one) is played by Peter Cushing, in his second Hollywood film appearance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This hilarious slapstick comedy from Mack Sennett finds Sam Smith (Ben Turpin), the resident of a small town, accused of stealing. The jealous villain J. Wellington Jones (James Finlayson) orchestrated Sam's frame-up to keep him from wooing Mary (Phyllis Haver), the prettiest single girl in town. Sam moves to Hollywood where he meets movie-star Marcelle Mansfield (Marie Prevost). He manages to get into the film business and stars as a Roman gladiator, but his helmet keeps slipping down over his crossed eyes. He gets a job as a stuntman when he tries to kill himself and lands a part as a western hero. Sam returns to his hometown a celebrity, but Jones once again tries to discredit him and abduct Mary. Sam uses his acting skills to chase down the villain -- the ensuing chase destroying the entire town -- and save the damsel in distress. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Generally considered one of director Ernst Lubitsch's lesser works, Angel stars Marlene Dietrich as Maria, the neglected wife of Sir Frederick Barker (Herbert Marshall), a British diplomat who travels often and seems little concerned with his spouse. Maria has nearly reached her breaking point when she travels to Paris to visit her old friend Anna Dmitrivena (Laura Hope Crews), a Grand Duchess who also operates an exclusive bordello. While in Paris, Maria meets Anthony Halton (Melvyn Douglas), a visitor from America who seems quite taken with her. While Maria enjoys Anthony's attentions, she backs off and retreats to England. Shortly after her return, Maria and Frederick attend the races and she spots Anthony in the crowd. Maria is tempted to continue her romance with Anthony (who now realizes that she's married), while Frederick begins to wonder if his wife might be growing restless. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A seriously injured boxer seemingly falls for his pretty nurse, who begins arranging their wedding. In this drama, the trouble begins when the fighter chickens out and jilts her at the altar. Later he re-enters the ring, and when he is once again injured it is then that he sees the light and goes to do right by his devoted nurse. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Stan (Stan Laurel) and Ollie (Oliver Hardy) are selling Christmas trees door-to-door. Stan unintentionally insults their first customer (a single woman) when he asks, "If you had a husband, would he buy a tree?" The second house has a sign up that says "No Peddlers." Ollie rings the bell anyway and gets a couple of knocks on the head with a hammer. When they come to Jimmy Finlayson's (James Finlayson) house, he tells them that he doesn't want a tree, and he closes the door -- on a tree branch. They ring the bell again, and Finlayson says that he still doesn't want a tree. He closes the door again, and Stan's coat is stuck in it. So they ring the bell again. Soon, tempers begin to flare, and the orgy of destruction starts small. Finlayson chops their tree in half and cuts Ollie's tie with scissors. Laurel and Hardy rip out Finlayson's phone and the doorbell. By the end of the movie, Finlayson has destroyed our boys' trees and their car. They have smashed his furniture, dug up his yard, and cut down all of his landscaping, as a crowd forms to watch the spectacle. ~ All Movie Guide

Often mistakenly identified as a sequel to My Friend Flicka, Thunder in the Valley actually has more in common with the Lassie saga. Lon McAllister plays the son of truculent Scottish sheepherder Edmund Gwenn. Though he has no time for people, Gwenn is quite fond of his collie dog. Partly as a means of defying his intractible father, McAllister raises his own dog and beats Gwenn at an annual contest. Father and son are brought closer together when Gwenn is forced to do away with his collie, who has gone mad. Breathtakingly photographed in Technicolor (those nocturnal Highlands scenes are terrific!), Thunder in the Valley is based on the popular Alfred Ollivant novel Bob, Son of Battle. Lending excellent support to stars Gwenn and McAllister are Peggy Ann Garner and Reginald Owen; reportedly, perennial Laurel and Hardy foil James Finlayson also appears in the role of a judge. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jewish comic Max Davidson stars in this Hal Roach farce that would most likely have been completely forgotten had not Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, and Charley Chase turned up in cameo appearances. Davidson, wife Lillian Elliott, and son Spec O'Donnell are attempting to sell their house, which is located right next door to an insane asylum inhabited by a group of would-be radio announcers (the Messieurs Laurel, Hardy, Chase and James Finlayson). At the end of their ropes, the Davidsons finally find a buyer willing to swap houses, "no questions asked." The proud little family takes possession of their new abode, the street number of which is 1313, but it proves to be a lemon of gargantuan proportion where everything is topsy-turvy. A housewarming party ends in a free-for-all that nearly wrecks the house, and, after surveying the damage, the Davidsons discover that the insane asylum has relocated as well -- to right next door. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Not only has Oliver Hardy established a successful business -- in fertilizer -- he has also decided to run for mayor. General manager Stan Laurel interrupts his duties (which involve a fly swatter) in the sample room to help Ollie with a speech. Ollie's old flame (Mae Busch) barges into the office, flashing a compromising photograph from Ollie's bachelor days and requesting money for her silence. The boys frantically hide the blackmailing ex-girlfriend when Mrs. Hardy (Thelma Todd) arrives. She tells her husband to be home that night to entertain guests. Ollie sends Stan to his ex-girlfriend's house to keep her busy while the Hardys have their gathering. Mae keeps herself busy by abusing Stan and calling Ollie's house. Finally in a fit of rage, she storms off to the Hardys, followed by Stan. A gossipy friend of Stan's wife sees them. When the pair arrive, Ollie pawns his ex-girlfriend off as Mrs. Laurel; this tactic is a bit late, as Mrs. Hardy is already steaming over what she can gather from Ollie's strange behavior. The other guests make their exit, leaving Stan and the blackmailer behind; Ollie, in desperation, threatens her with a gun, and she faints. They try to sneak the unconscious woman out the door but are interrupted by Stan's real wife, axe in hand. Both Stan and Ollie are chased out into the night. Chickens Come Home is an almost literal remake of a 1927 Roach silent called Love 'Em and Weep. Although Laurel and Hardy both appear in this earlier film, they weren't yet a team. Mae Busch (who plays the same character as in the later film) has top billing, and James Finlayson has Hardy's role. Originally filmed in black & white, a colorized version was released in the late 1990s for home video. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This feature-length comedy-melodrama was not one of the best from Mack Sennett, or his talented director, F. Richard Jones. Country boy Michael Flint (George O'Hara) arrives in the city to seek his fortune. He's a bit better off than your average naïve youth because he has a letter of introduction to his rich Uncle James (Noah Beery). The connection pays off and Michael gets a job in uniform -- as a street cleaner. Nevertheless, he finds himself pursued by various females, including his landlady (Dot Farley), who somehow manages to become engaged to him. Michael is somehow able to break the engagement, but then his uncle is reported killed and he becomes entangled with a mercenary vamp, Grace St. Clair (Ethel Grey Terry), who involves him in a breach of promise suit. Meanwhile, Michael has fallen in love for real with debutante Ruth Anthony (Kathryn McGuire, who later became Buster Keaton's co-star in Sherlock, Jr. and The Navigator). Luckily for the hapless young man, Uncle James shows up very much alive. Michael wins Ruth's hand by saving her father (Herbert Standing) from financial ruin. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Until the rediscovery of Duck Soup in the 1970s, this comic short was thought to be the first time that Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy appeared together in something akin to their now-familiar personas (before teaming up, Laurel and Hardy appeared in quite a few of the same films at the Hal Roach studios -- just not as a duo). It isn't quite yet a Laurel and Hardy film -- the boys are given silly names (Stan is Ferdinand Finkleberry and Ollie is Sherlock Pinkham) instead of using their given names. In addition, as Judge Foozle, James Finlayson's role is as important as the boys'. There are also smaller details which indicate that the duo was still a ways off from refining their act -- the titles refer to Laurel as "the world's second worst detective" and Ollie is the worst. The way we know Laurel and Hardy now, it would be the other way around. But there is a lot that is familiar -- the bowler hats which get switched around (although Stan's isn't exactly the same as he would wear in later films), and many of the pair's mannerisms here would become part of the act. While this was a funny picture, it would still be a few more films before the team was considered official. Which picture signals this is still up for debate -- many (including Hal Roach and Stan Laurel himself) claimed it was Putting Pants on Phillip, others say it was The Second Hundred Years. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Harold Lloyd's second talkie finds The Bespectacled One playing a shoe clerk in Honolulu. Harboring dreams of becoming an executive, Lloyd passes himself off as a millionaire to heiress Barbara Kent. As the plot merrily rolls along, Harold stows away on a ship bound for the mainland, and ends up at the top of a dizzying skyscraper. In a reversal of his dilemma in 1923's Safety Last, Lloyd must find the safest way to climb down the building--with the dubious assistance of bumbling black janitor Willie Best (here derogatorily billed as "Sleep 'N' Eat"). Attempting to extend his silent-film technique into the talkie era, Harold Lloyd is successful about half the time. The climactic building-climbing sequence, though amusing, pales in comparison to Lloyd's earlier excursions into "high and dizzy" humor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

William Powell stars in this drama as William Foster, a gifted defense attorney with a gift for making cases go his way. Foster's winning record in the courtroom has earned him a colorful clientele, including several notorious criminals, but he doubts his abilities when his girlfriend Irene Manners (Kay Francis) is charged with manslaughter after a violent incident which occurred while she was drinking. Wanting to protect Irene, Foster tries to pull a few strings, but the results find Foster facing a five year sentence for jury tampering. While Foster certainly doesn't want to be separated from the woman he loves, he also knows that in prison he'll have to face several former clients whose defense didn't pan out. For The Defense was based in part on the true story of William Fallon, a well-known attorney of the day. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide