John Garrick Movies

In his last film assignment, portly Walter Connolly fills the title role (in more ways than one) in The Great Victor Herbert. Very little of Herbert's life story is incorporated in the screenplay (a closing title actually apologizes for the film's paucity of cold hard facts); instead, the writers allow the famed composer's works to speak for themselves. In the tradition of one of his own operettas, Herbert spends most of his time patching up the shaky marriage between tenor John Ramsey (Allan Jones) and Louise Hall (Mary Martin). Many of Herbert's most famous compositions are well in evidence, including "Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life", "March of the Toys" and "Kiss Me Again", the latter performed con brio by teenaged coloratura Susanna Foster. Evidently, the producers were able to secure the film rights for the Herbert songs, but not for the stage productions in which they appeared, which may explain such bizarre interpolations as having a song from Naughty Marietta, which takes place in New Orleans, performed before a wintry Alpine backdrop! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Visiting barber Nelson Keys becomes entangled in a revolution in the land of Ruritania in this comedy. ~ All Movie Guide

The life of poet George Gordon, Lord Byron is portrayed in this musical biography as played by Malcolm Graham. ~ All Movie Guide

Having flunked out as Sam Goldwyn's answer to Greta Garbo, Russian actress Anna Sten retreated to Britain for the 1936 historical drama A Woman Alone. Based on a novel by Fedor Ozop, the film is set in 19th century Russia. Sten plays a peasant girl who falls in love with military captain Henry Wilcoxon. The subsequent emotionally supercharged complications are reminiscent of the similar ill-fated romance in Tolstoy's Resurrection (which Sten had earlier filmed as We Live Again). Produced by Anna Sten's husband Eugene Frenke, A Woman Alone was originally released in Britain as Two Who Dared. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this musical melodrama, a young man's ascent from humble sailor to ship captain is chronicled. His career is going swimmingly until his ship is rammed and he, in order to save the lives of all aboard, is forced to jump ship. Later, the dishonored fellow is stripped of his command and forced to retire into the country with his family. Several years later, his good-hearted son reassembles his father's old crew, puts them aboard the old boat and gets his father to be the captain once more. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a pet shop owner endeavors to help his new friend, a busker, extricate himself from the criminals he is mixed-up with by helping the singer get a spot on the radio. His budding career is abruptly nipped when he is falsely arrested for a murder. Fortunately, the businessman's brother investigates the murder and exposes the real culprit allowing the accused to go free and resume his singing career. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

For 400 years, the Fosdyck family were the only fishermen in a tiny British coastal village. Now, the Fosdyck's predominance is threatened by the arrival of a new clan, the Lunns. Patriarch Uncle Isaac Fosdyck (J. Fisher White) regards the Lunns as invaders, declaring them persona non grata in his household. Now comes the BIG SURPRISE: Ruth Fosdyck (Geraldine Fitzgerald) falls in love with Marney Lynn (John Garrick). After a minimum of muss-and-fuss, the two families bury the hatchet and elect to share their piscatorial plunder. Perhaps the original Leo Walmsey novel Three Fevers was more innovative than this by-the-numbers film version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The timeworn British stage musical Chu Chin Chow had already been made into a silent picture when this talkie version made its bow in 1934. Based on Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, the film stars corpulent music-hall comedian George Robey as Ali Baba, sinister Fritz Kortner as robber captain Abu Hahan, and exotic Anna May Wong as slave girl Zahrat, who saves Ali's life by properly applying oil to a collection of not-so-empty barrels. The obligatory romantic subplot is handled by John Garrick and Pearl Argyle, while comedy relief is supplied by a vaudevillian named Jetsam (that's right, of the team of "Flotsam and...") Director Walter Forde does little to "cinematize" the old property, which is just as well. Originally released at 93 minutes, Chu Chin Chow was shorn of about 5 minutes before its American release; presumably some of the sexier "nautch" dances were among the excised scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lily of Kilarney stars John Garrick as Sir Patrick Cregeen, an heir who must raise a great deal of money in a hurry, lest he lose his family's ancestral castle and his intended, Eileen O'Connor (Gina Malo), to the vile Sir James Corrigan (Stanley Perrins).

Cregeen enters a steeplechase race, but in order to win the big prize he'll have to beat Corrigan's steed. Veteran music hall favorite Stanley Holloway is in fine fettle as a singing priest, while Sara Allgood of the Abbey Players contributes another of her well-rounded characterizations. Bride of the Lake was based on the popular Dion Boucicault theatrical barnstormer Colleen Bawn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Writer/director Tay Garnett reunited the stars of his fabulously successful Her Man (1930) for the 1931 RKO crime drama Bad Company. Ricardo Cortez plays a ruthless, near-psychotic gangster who withal follows his own code of honor. Helen Twelvetrees co-stars as a trusting young woman who marries mob lawyer John Garrick, never dreaming that both her husband and her brother Frank Conroy are involved in the rackets. When she does learn the horrible truth, it is she who determines to "cleanse" her family of the tinge of crime by dealing directly with Cortez-and we mean directly. Drawing most of its incidents from actual events, the screenplay even serves up a fascinating variation on the St. Valentine's Day massacre (it's staged in a hotel room rather than a garage, and it's the best scene in the film). Bad Company was adapted by Garnett and Thomas Buckingham from Put on the Spot, a novel by New York "expose" journalist Jack Lait. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide