Edward Gargan Movies
The older brother of stage and film leading man William Gargan, Brooklynite Edward Gargan joined his performing family in stage work before heading to Hollywood in 1933. Though he occasionally played crooks, teamsters, ward heelers and the like, Gargan specialized in portrayed dumb detectives who spent their lives misinterpreting clues and arresting the wrong people. His best-known role in this capacity was as incurably dense city detective Bates in the RKO Falcon "B"-movies of the '40s. Like his brother Bill, Edward Gargan was also quite busy on radio, preceding Larry Keating as the narrator of NBC's popular This is Your FBI. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1931
Renowned American-born London stage star Tallulah Bankhead made her feature sound film debut in this drama based on Donald Ogden Stewart's story New York Lady. Bankhead plays Nancy Courtney, a gold-digging socialite who sets her sights on Norman Cravath (Clive Brook), a wealthy tycoon. Their marriage exasperates Nancy's ex-boyfriend, DeWitt Taylor (Alexander Kirkland), and her rival, Germaine Prentiss (Phoebe Foster). Nancy soon grows tired of the tedium of marriage and returns to making her rounds in nightclubs (some scenes were shot on location in a Harlem club). Nancy finally gets her own job and becomes increasingly independent even after she has a child. But Cravath's fortune is wiped out in the stock market crash. Nancy feels bad for her husband and returns to him, and for the first time they discover true love together, unsullied by the pursuit of material wealth. This film was the first feature directed solely by George Cukor, who would go on to be the champion of "women's pictures" such as The Philadelphia Story. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tallulah Bankhead, Clive Brook, (more)
- 1931
Though he'd been given top billing at other studios, Charles Ruggles attained star status at his home lot of Paramount for the first time in 1931's The Girl Habit. Hoping to escape the murderous wrath of a gangster, wealthy middle-aged playboy Charlie Floyd (Ruggles) tries to get himself arrested. He finally succeeds, only to be thrown into the same cell as the gangster! Then there's the problem of getting out of jail, which comes about when Charlie uncovers evidence revealing the warden to be a crook. And all of this comes about simply because Charlie's sweetheart Sonya (Tamara Geva) tried to cure our hero of his flirtatiousness. Based on a play by A.E. Thomas and Clayton Hamilton, The Girl Habit was something of a enigma, garnering huge laughs in some theaters and stony silence in others. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlie Ruggles, Tamara Geva, (more)
- 1933
In this melodrama, a female physician encounters professional and personal turmoil when she finds herself having an affair with an alcoholic peer. He impregnates her and she travels to Paris to have the baby in private. As she is returning to the States, the baby dies from infantile paralysis. This does not prevent her from saving the lives of two other children aboard the same ocean liner. When she returns, she discovers that her lover has divorced his wife and wants to marry her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kay Francis, Lyle Talbot, (more)
- 1933
If Queen Christina is not the best of Greta Garbo's films (as many Garbo fanatics insist), it is certainly the most luxuriously romantic of her talkie features. The star is cast as 17th-century Swedish queen Christina, who feels that she can best function in a male-dominated world by adopting men's clothes and attitudes (this cross-dressing element adds a subliminally gay subtext which curiously makes the subsequent events all the more poignant). Fiercely devoted to her country and the welfare of her people, Christina has long since abandoned all thoughts of pursuing any kind of a romance -- but changes her mind when she meets and falls in love with Spanish envoy Antonio (John Gilbert). After an idyllic night together, Christina and Antonio are compelled to part, but the Queen vows then and there to relinquish her throne in favor of marriage to the envoy. Alas, the complex political machinations between their two countries permanently separate the two lovers, leaving Christina more alone in the world than ever. The chemistry between Garbo and Gilbert -- who as the whole world knew in 1933 had once been real-life lovers -- is positively mesmerizing, especially in the classic scene wherein Christina, after consummating their passion, walks dreamily around their room, touching and memorizing every detail (so persuasive is her pantomime in this scene that her last-minute explanation as to what she is doing is not only unnecessary, but downright jarring). Equally unforgettable is the final shot of Garbo staring enigmatically past the camera, allowing the viewer to "fill in" her thoughts (director Rouben Mamoulian always claimed that he ordered Garbo to think about "absolutely nothing," but one wonders). While some of Garbo's earliest talkies tend to creak a bit, Queen Christina is as fascinating today as it was nearly seven decades ago, and will undoubtedly continue to remain just as fascinating for the next seven decades. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, (more)
- 1933
A large urban hospital provides the setting for this drama. The staff there has seen it all and this is reflected in their hard-bitten demeanor, their cynicism, and the cruel jokes they play. One of them, an excellent surgeon gains a new outlook on life after he gets involved with investigating the death of a mobster, fatally shot in his hotel suite during a card game. The police call him to the scene to look at the corpse. There he discovers a lipstick-stained cigarette butt. He begins to search for the woman who smoked it. Later that day, the woman, severely beaten, shows up in the hospital emergency room. The surgeon miraculously saves her, and then falls for her. As she lays healing, she is seen by a mobster who had come to pay his respects to the cop who killed two members of his rival gang. The mobster later sends one of his thugs to make sure that the woman stays eternally quiet. The thug's attempt to kill her is thwarted by a young intern who is wounded in the ensuing scuffle. The gangster then gets himself admitted into the hospital where he plans to kill the woman himself. This proves to be a fatal mistake as the vengeful intern "accidently" injects the gangster with a deadly poison and then claims that the mobster was D.O.A. The woman is now safe. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Dunn, Gloria Stuart, (more)
- 1933
Three-Cornered Moon is regarded by many film buffs as the first of the genuine "screwball comedies." Claudette Colbert stars as the only level-headed member of a wacky Brooklyn family. Her mother (Mary Boland) loses the family fortune in the stock market, forcing Colbert's knuckleheaded brothers to look for work. Unfortunately the boys seem interested only in jobs for which they're uniquely unsuited. Even Colbert has her weak moments, especially when she falls for a callow writer (Hardie Albright), but she eventually finds happiness with sensible doctor Richard Arlen. Three-Cornered Moon was written by the gloriously named Gertrude Tonkonogy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudette Colbert, Richard Arlen, (more)
- 1933
A professional gambler masquerading as a businessman boards a train and sets off across the country. During the journey he meets a lovely, wealthy young woman. This drama follows what happens after she (also a gambler in disguise) persuades him to buy a financially sinking gambling ship. At first he is reluctant, but when he learns that his enemy is running the rival ship, he purchases the vessel in hopes of getting sweet revenge. But the rival isn't so easily destroyed and he perpetrates a devastating tragedy on the gambler's vessel. Fortunately, it all works out for the two secret gamblers and in the end, a romance blooms amongst the ashes. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cary Grant, Benita Hume, (more)
- 1934
This off-beat romantic melodrama contains elements of comedy not usually found in the genre as it tells the story of the love between a show girl fleeing from her husband, a grifter. She heads to a mining company and ends up involved with a dam engineer. When a dam accidentally breaks, the engineer's wife is conveniently swept away. Happiness ensues. The flood footage was lifted from The Johnstown Flood (1926). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Boles, Claire Trevor, (more)
We Live Again was based on Tolstoy's Resurrection; the title was changed upon producer Sam Goldwyn's theory that it meant the same thing as Resurrection and was easier to understand. The film was meant as an introductory showcase for Goldwyn's latest discovery, Russian actress Anna Sten. The story, much laundered from the Tolstoy original, depicts the downfall of a peasant girl who is seduced by a Russian prince (Fredric March). The once-callous nobleman tries to make amends for the hurt he has inflicted on the girl, who has wound up in prison for solicitation. The first American version of Resurrection, directed by D. W. Griffith, was made in 1909 and lasted ten minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Sten, Fredric March, (more)
- 1934
In this sudsy hospital melodrama, a married nurse finds herself falling in love with one of two surgeons when her husband goes mad and needs an operation. One of the surgeons regards his pursuit a lark, while the other harbors genuine affections for the nurse. At first, she is attracted to the cad, but after her husband follows the suggestion of another insane patient and dives out of a window to his death, she seeks consolation in the arms of the other surgeon. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bebe Daniels, Lyle Talbot, (more)
- 1934
In this drama, two carneys, a card-sharp, and a peep-show performer, find themselves booted out of the show and decide to team up--platonically. They immediately get adjoining rooms in a hotel. Though the huckster constantly tries to romance the girl, she demurely rejects him. He comes to respect that; and she eventually comes to respect him, despite his tough-guy posturing. Together they try to eke out a living, but eventually, both are arrested: he for purse-snatching, and she for a past offense. In court the card-player staunchly defends the girl. The judge is so moved, that he drops all charges and marries the two. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sylvia Sidney, Fredric March, (more)
- 1934
Marshall Neilan, a great silent film director on the verge of obscurity, had one last big-studio stand with The Lemon Drop Kid. Lee Tracy plays a racetrack tout who calls himself a "horse medium"--that is, he reads the horse's minds for the gullible bettors. He quits the track for the love of a good woman (Helen Mack) and settles down in a small town, determined to go straight. But when his wife falls ill, Tracy goes back to his old crooked ways to raise money for her treatment. Adapted from a Damon Runyon story, Lemon Drop Kid was refilmed in 1951 with a whole new plot to accommodate Bob Hope, the Christmas season, and the hit song "Silver Bells". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Tracy, Helen Mack, (more)
- 1934
Previously filmed in 1915, David Harum is the story of an upstate New York rancher devoted to trotting races. Will Rogers makes no attempt to alter his Oklahoma accent as David Harum, but audiences in the 1930s came to see Rogers and not the character. After several examples of his horse-trading savvy, David settles down to the business at hand: playing Cupid for young Evelyn Venable and Kent Taylor. The film ends with the anticipated championship trotting race, with Harum's horse being galvanized into action by the song "Ta-ra-ra-Boom-de-yay".David Harum has a wonderful improvisational feel about it, especially in the scenes between Rogers and African-American comedian Step'n Fetchit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Louise Dresser, (more)
- 1934
Originally titled It Ain't No Sin until the censors prevailed, then St. Louis Woman and Belle of New Orleans, until complaints were registered from those two communities, Belle of the Nineties was Mae West's first post-Production Code film. West is cast as cabaret entertainer Ruby Carter, plying her trade along the Mississippi. Having no trouble surviving on her own terms in a man's world, Ruby fends off the unwarranted attentions of a steady stream of libidinous males, reserving her affections for a muscular boxer called The Tiger Kid (Roger Pryor). In keeping with the star's casual liberality, a number of black entertainers and athletes are given ample opportunities in this film, notably Duke Ellington and His Orchestra. The surest sign that the Code had "tamed" West a bit is the fact that she actually marries the hero at film's end. The musical highlights include West's unforgettable rendition of "My Old Flame". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mae West, Roger Pryor, (more)
- 1934
Robert Young had to be the busiest leading man in Hollywood in 1934. He appeared in no fewer than nine pictures, four of them at his home studio of MGM. The Band Plays On features Young as one of four close pals, who have grown up together and are now college football champs known as "The Four Bombers". So inseparable are these chums that, when one is injured in a car accident, the remaining three quit the team. But everyone is back on the field for the inevitable Big Game, including Young, who of course scores the winning T.D. Robert Young plays a football star as realistically as he'd played a baseball star in the earlier Death on the Diamond (34)--meaning that the film relies a heavily on stunt doubles and process screens. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Young, Stuart Erwin, (more)
- 1934
Sally Bates (|$Isabel Jewell) is a young Texas woman trying to make it to Hollywood on too little money and driving a car that's too old. She gets stranded one night, nearly out of money and gas, in a college town where she meets Bill Cutler (Larry "Buster" Crabbe), a poor-but-honest and hard-working campus hunk -- he's a football hero and also runs the local drive-in restaurant for his mother (Maidel Turner). They take a light-hearted liking to each other and are thrust together even more forcefully when she helps break up a robbery. Sally ends up being taken into Bill's mother's home and working at the drive-in; but Bill is always spending time with his longtime steady Clara Berry (Sally Blane), who's got a lot of money and a lot of interest in Bill -- she and her family have big plans for him, when they marry, and Sally doesn't want to get in the way. She ends up going out with Clara's brother Jack (Regis Toomey), whose fun-loving nature masks a drinking problem and a mean and reckless streak. A series of misunderstandings ensues, culminating in Bill beating Jack to death -- despite the evidence that it was, at worst, manslaughter, the district attorney (Wallis Clark) does his best to prove murder. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Isabel Jewell, (more)
Flamboyant, egomaniacal theatrical impresario Oscar Jaffe (John Barrymore) transforms chorus girl Mildred Plotka (Carole Lombard) into leading lady Lily Garland, the toast of Broadway. Once she's ascended to stardom, Mildred/Lily cannot abide Jaffe's obsessive control of her life and career. When he hires a private detective (Edgar Kennedy) to keep tabs on her, it's the last straw. Lily whisks herself off to Hollywood, where she quickly becomes a top movie star. Months pass: without his "creation" to star in his productions, Jaffe goes bankrupt. With his faithful stooges O'Malley (Roscoe Karns) and Webb (Walter Connolly) in tow, Jaffe boards the Twentieth Century Limited, one step ahead of his creditors. By an incredible coincidence, Lily is also on the Twentieth Century, accompanied by her stuffy fiance George Smith (Ralph Forbes). With near-maniacal glee, Jaffe undertakes the herculean task of signing Lily to star in his upcoming spectacular staging of "The Passion Play". Now the laughs, which have been erupting at safe intervals for the past 45 minutes, really begin to cascade, with Oscar, Lily, and a wide variety of eccentrics chasing each other around the Twentieth Century as it speeds its way from Chicago to New York. Based on the Broadway play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, Twentieth Century is "screwball comedy" at its screwiest. Director Howard Hawks once claimed that he was the first to treat his romantic leads like comedians: whether he was or not, it is true than Barrymore and Lombard deliver two of the funniest performances of the 1930s. Nearly 50 years after the release of Twentieth Century, the property was revived as a Broadway musical, On the 20th Century, starring Kevin Kline and Madeline Kahn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Barrymore, Carole Lombard, (more)
- 1935
A wealthy young heir rebels when his snooty parents refuse to allow him to marry a lovely young secretary. Deciding to teach them a lesson, he goes West where he falls in love and marries the daughter of a Native American chief. He brings her home to meet his parents, who are naturally appalled, and vengeance is his. Unfortunately their marital bliss is disturbed when a woman shoots her married lover and the Indian girl is blamed for the crime. The husband then goes to the police and confesses the crime to protect her. Fortunately, the astute police put the couple together in a room bugged with a concealed microphone. They then learn that both are innocent. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sylvia Sidney, Gene Raymond, (more)
In this drama, a gun moll eludes the pursuing police by hiding out on a fishing vessel. There she meets and falls in love with captain. They get married, and she quietly--he knows nothing of her past--goes straight. Trouble ensues when the police finally capture her. Though she has a baby, they send her to prison anyway. This leads the captain to commit a crime so he can be near her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lola Lane
- 1935
Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell, the female Laurel and Hardy of Warner Bros., share top billing in We're in the Money. This time Blondell and Farrell are cast respectively as Ginger and Dixie, intrepid process-servers for goofy lawyer Homer Bronson (Hugh Herbert). Things go from the ridiculous to the even more ridiculous when the girls are ordered to serve a summons to Ginger's wealthy boyfriend C. Richard Courtney (Ross Alexander), who's entangled in a breach-of-promise suit. Our heroines are also called upon to deliver their missives to a nightclub singer (Phil Regan), a brawny wrestler (Man Mountain Dean) and a surly gangster (Lionel Stander), with predictable but hilarious results. With so many expert farceurs in the cast, poor Ross Alexander virtually ends up as dramatic relief! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Blondell, Glenda Farrell, (more)
- 1935
Ruthless criminal attorney Raymond Cortell (Sidney Blackmer) is not above bending and twisting the law to suit his purposes, making him a well-paid pariah amongst his peers. Practically the only person who believes that Cortell's tactics are ethical is his faithful assistant Mary (Judith Allen), the daughter of police-lieutenant Jim Kennedy (Purnell Pratt). Mary finally gets a wake-up call when a criminal whom she's helped to acquit shoots down her father during a robbery. She then switches her allegiance to young detective Dave Britten (Norman Foster), who's been waiting a long time to get the goods on the unscrupulous Cortell. Behind the Green Lights was Mascot Pictures' next-to-last feature production before the studio was reorganized as Republic. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Norman Foster, Judith Allen, (more)
- 1935
This fast-paced Warner Bros. comedy stars James Cagney and Pat O'Brien as brothers who fight over the same girl. Mrs. O'Hara (Mary Gordon) is the loving mother of three sons: fireman Mike (Frank McHugh), policeman Pat (O'Brien), and the boxing promoter Danny (Cagney). Mike wants to marry Lucille Jackson (Olivia deHaviland), the daughter of his boss, Captain Jackson (John Farrell MacDonald). However, Lucille falls for Danny, causing a fued between the two brothers at the Fireman's Ball. Danny believes he can make a fortune when he meets up with boxer Carbarn Hammerschlag (Allen Jenkins), who starts fighting whenever he hears a bell. On the night of his big fight against champion boxer Joe Delancey (Harvey Parry), Carbarn gets a toothache and Mike gives him some gin. He ends up getting drunk in the locker room and Danny has to fight Delancey in his place. With the help of his brothers, Danny wins the fight and the girl. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, (more)
Former Miss America Irene Ware stars in the standard Chestefield Pictures social drama False Pretenses. Ware is cast as lunch-counter waitress Mary Beekman, who intends to crash society and land a wealthy husband. She is helped along by affable millionaire Kenneth Alden (Sidney Blackmer), who loves Mary but won't admit it. Our heroine winds up with retired bootlegger Pat Brennan (Russell Hopton), who mistakenly believes that Mary is a bonafide member of the "The 400." What starts out dramatically ends comically, with everyone -- even the unsympathetic characters -- getting what he or she really wants out of life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irene Ware, Sidney Blackmer, (more)
- 1935
In this romantic comedy, Marilyn David (Claudette Colbert) is a stenographer who has become good friends with Peter Dawes (Fred MacMurray), a newspaper reporter who takes the same subway as she does each morning. While Peter is crazy about Marilyn, she has her eye on Charles Gray (Ray Milland), a wealthy Englishman. Charles is the son of Lloyd Granville (C. Aubrey Smith), a titled British nobleman, which means Charles is rich, good looking, and minor royalty, tipping the scales in his favor. Charles proposes marriage to Marilyn, but after a sudden argument, she turns him down. Peter is ecstatic at this bit of news and publishes an article about the working girl who passed on a chance to marry into money and nobility. Marilyn is suddenly famous as "The No Girl," and is even able to turn her sudden notoriety into a new career as a nightclub performer. Marilyn's fame causes Charles to take a second look at her; he asks her to reconsider, but Marilyn wonders if she might be better off with Peter after all. The Gilded Lily was the first co-starring vehicle for Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray, who would go on to make seven movies together. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, (more)
- 1935
Ceiling Zero is an adaptation of the Broadway play by Frank "Spig" Wead. James Cagney and Pat O'Brien are supremely typecast as, respectively, Dizzy Davis, a cocky civil aviator and Jake Lee, a sober-sided ground commander. Dizzy ducks out of a dangerous mission in order to dally with pretty Tommy Thomas (June Travis). Texas Clark (Stuart Erwin) takes Dizzy's place, and the unpolished young pilot dies in a fiery wreck. Disgraced in the eyes of his co-workers after Clark's death, Dizzy redeems himself by taking a crucial test flight in fog-laden "ceiling zero." Dizzy dies a hero, leaving behind his pal Jake to deliver the eulogy. Isabel Jewell co-stars as Clark's wife, given yet another opportunity to shake the rafters with her emotionally supercharged acting. Ceiling Zero was remade in a wartime setting as International Squadron (1940). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, (more)
