Billy Gilbert Movies

Tom Destry (James Stewart), son of a legendary frontier peacekeeper, doesn't believe in gunplay. Thus he becomes the object of widespread ridicule when he rides into the wide-open town of Bottleneck, the personal fiefdom of the crooked Kent (Brian Donlevy). His detractors laugh even louder when Destry signs on as deputy to drunken sheriff Wash Dimsdale (Charles Winninger). But the laughter subsides when Destry casually proves himself a crack shot, despite his abhorrence of firearms. Later, when saloon chanteuse Frenchy (Marlene Dietrich), Kent's gal, takes umbrage at Destry's indifferent reaction to her charms, she vows to make a fool of the new deputy. A huge moneymaker, Destry Rides Again served as a spectacular comeback for Marlene Dietrich, who two years earlier had been written off as "box office poison." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Under-Pup served to introduce Universal's new preteen songstress--and potential Deanna Durbin replacement--Gloria Jean. Producer Joe Pasternak sagaciously based the leading character on Jean herself: A shy, self-effacing 11 year old girl, thrust into a glamorous lifestyle beyond her ken. She plays a small-town thrush who wins a music scholarship to a fancy Interlochen-style music camp. Her rich classmates snub Jean at first, but she wins them over with her indefatigable good spirits and her angelic singing voice. While The Under-Pup made Gloria Jean a star, she never did become the new Deanna Durbin as planned--partly because the old Deanna Durbin still had a decade's worth of movies left in her. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Twenty years after the Armistice, doughboy Stan Laurel continues guarding a trench in France--simply because no one told him the war was over. His rescue coincides with the first wedding anniversary of his old pal Oliver Hardy. Heading to town to pick up a gift for his wife (Minna Gombell), Ollie discovers that Stan has been located and is now residing at the Veteran's Home. The two buddies share a warm reunion, whereupon Ollie invites Stan home to enjoy a "big thick juicy steak" prepared by Mrs. Hardy. As a result of Ollie's hospitality, Stan inadvertently wrecks Ollie's brand new car; the boys spend half the afternoon trudging up and down 13 flights of stairs; Ollie gets into a fight with belligerent Jimmy Finlayson; Mrs. Hardy angrily walks out on her husband; the boys manage to blow up the kitchen while preparing their own meal; and Hardy's beautiful next-door neighbor (Patricia Ellis) ends up minus her dress in Ollie's steamer trunk, with both Mrs. Hardy and the neighbor's husband, big-game hunter Billy Gilbert, converging upon our bethumped heroes. Essentially a remake of the 1929 Laurel and Hardy two-reeler Unnaccustomed as We Are, Block-Heads is a brilliant parade of virtuoso comedy turns. The best bits of business include the mountain of bean cans representing Stan's two decades in the trenches; the "white magic" gags involving Stan's pulling down the shadow of a window shade, producing a glass of water from his pocket and smoking his thumb like a pipe; and an uproarious "black" joke involving Ollie's mistaken belief than Stan has lost a leg in the war. The film sustains its high level of humor for 56 of its 57 minutes, faltering only in its disappointing closing gag (borrowed from the 1928 short We Faw Down). Among the writers of this chucklefest was former silent comedian Harry Langdon. Erroneously announced in 1938 as Laurel and Hardy's final feature, Block-Heads was indeed the last of the team's genuine classics. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Boy soprano Bobby Breen dons a pair of skates in the oddball musical Breaking the Ice. Escaping his super-strict Mennonite relatives, our hero gets a job singing at a Philadelphia ice-skating rink. Here he tries to earn enough money to help his beloved widowed mother (Dolores Costello) wrest herself free of those selfsame relatives. The plot requires canary-voiced Breen to share the spotlight with six-year-old skating sensation Irene Dare. Within a year, Breaking the Ice producer Sol Lesser attempted to launch another series of family musicals built around the talents of little Ms. Dare, but the first entry in this project--Everything's on Ice--was also the last. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Happy Landing was another Sonja Henie moneyspinner from the 20th Century-Fox film factory. The story gets under way when skirt-chasing bandleader Duke Sargent (Cesar Romero) pitches woo to Trudy Ericksen (Sonja Henie) while on a tour of Norway. To Duke, it's just another harmless flirtation, but Trudy takes him seriously and trails him back to the USA, where she finds enormous success as an ice-skating star. When Duke's manager Jimmy Hall (Don Ameche) falls in love with Trudy himself, he cooks up a scheme to marry off Duke to vocalist Flo Kelly (Ethel Merman). As always, the plot takes a back seat to the skating, with Sonja Henie at her professional peak. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"Discovered" for American films by Cecil B. DeMille, popular Hungarian actress Franceska Gaal made the last of her three Hollywood screen appearances in MGM's The Girl Downstairs. A Cinderella yarn, the film stars Gaal as scullery maid Katerina Linz, who is romanced by callous playboy Paul Wagner (Franchot Tone). Actually Paul is in love with Katerina's mistress Rosalind Brown (Rita Johnson), and is using our heroine merely as a means to gain access to Rosalind. Ultimately, however, a chastened Paul realizes that he's genuinely in love with Katerina-but now he must prove himself worthy of her. Comedy relief (and what a relief) is provided by the ever-reliable Walter Connolly and Billy Gilbert. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The trials faced by the US Army when it first attempted to trade horses for tanks provides the basis of this actioner. The tale centers upon the love affair between an Army post commander's daughter and a young tank specialist who is trying to prove that the new technology is better than horses. The old soldiers disagree and a race upon a special course is arranged. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Another of RKO's movie vehicles for radio comic Joe Penner ("You na-a-a-asty man!"), Mr. Doodle Kicks Off stars Penner as the son of a wealthy and influential businessman. Penner's dad is disappointed at how sonny has turned out (we can't blame him), but is bound and determined to enroll Joe in his alma mater and turn him into a college football hero. Penner falls for June Travis, daughter of the college president, and sets his mind (what there is of it) to make good. Incredibly, Joe makes it into the Big Game, where he pulls a "Roy Riegels" and runs the wrong way. The best moment in Mr. Doodle Kicks Off, if indeed there is one, features Joe Penner conducting a college orchestra while strapped in a straitjacket. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Outcasts of Poker Flat is an adaptation of Bret Harte's western story of the same name, with elements of Harte's The Luck of Roaring Camp thrown in for good measure. Set during the California gold rush, the story traces the destinies of several divergent individuals. Preston S. Foster is gambler John Oakhurst, a seemingly underhanded gent with an untapped streak of decency. Jean Muir is a schoolteacher who tries to find some good in the gambler. Margaret Irving is the duchess, a woman of (presumed) ill repute. And Virginia Weidler is "Luck," the diminutive mascot of the mining town of Roaring Camp. Van Heflin is also around and about as the minister of the mining community. The film spends its first half establishing the characters and its second half placing them in a life-threatening situation wherein the true natures of all concerned are revealed. The Outcasts of Poker Flat, previously filmed in 1919, was remade (minus the "Luck of Roaring Camp" subplot) in 1952. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy drama (a remake of 1932's Ladies of the Jury), an apparently bubble-headed but mule-stubborn jurist is convinced of the defendant's innocence and refuses to change her verdict. Unlike the others, she listens to her own common sense and looks carefully at the facts and decides that there is no way the accused could have committed the murder. She then sets off with a fellow jurist and long-time pal to prove it. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This musical parody follows the exploits of American performers in Hungary. The story begins as a Yankee wrestling trainer becomes friends with a gringo singer who works in the same Budapest nightclub as a female ventriloquist. When the singer is dumped, the trainer offers to help him with his romantic life. The singer then gets involved with the ventriloquist who is married to a notorious swordsman who has successfully killed 40 men in duels. Trouble ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A couple of American soldiers of fortune are hired by the wife of a Chinese general to deliver a priceless diamond to a shopkeeper in Shanghai in this low-budget whodunit from the RKO "B"-unit. Just as the gem reaches its destination all hell breaks lose. When the dust settles, the diamond is gone and Tom Baldwin (Vinton Haworth) and sidekick Joe Dugan (Gordon Jones) are left with a group of highly suspicious witnesses. The entire assembly, including pretty but mysterious Jane Dunn (Constance Worth), then boards a liner headed for San Francisco. After several shipboard murders and the revelation that Jane is a custom agent, the culprit is caught red-handed. A lady detective ought to have made a refreshing change but, sadly, China Passage delivers few surprises and the armchair detective is never truly tested. Usually a supporting player of little merit, Vinton Haworthproves a rather weak-chinned hero and is certainly no match for the ash-blonde Worth, an Australian actress turned Queen of Hollywood B-movies. The rest of the supporting cast perform their assignment in the expected manner, Dick Elliott being the standout as an eternally tipsy traveler. China Passage was directed by Edward Killy, who later helmed the studio's series of Tim Holt B-Westerns. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

It was called "Disney's Folly." Who on earth would want to sit still for 90 minutes to watch an animated cartoon? And why pick a well-worn Grimm's Fairy Tale that every schoolkid knows? But Walt Disney seemed to thrive on projects which a lesser man might have written off as "stupid" or "impossible". Investing three years, $1,500,000, and the combined talents of 570 artists into Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney produced a film that was not only acknowledged a classic from the outset, but also earned 8,500,000 depression-era dollars in gross rentals. Bypassing early temptations to transform the heroine Snow White into a plump Betty Boop type or a woebegone ZaSu Pitts lookalike, the Disney staffers wisely made radical differentiations between the "straight" and "funny" characters in the story. Thus, Snow White and Prince Charming moved and were drawn realistically, while the Seven Dwarfs were rendered in the rounded, caricatured manner of Disney's short-subject characters. In this way, the serious elements of the story could be propelled forward in a believable enough manner to grab the adult viewers, while the dwarfs provided enough comic and musical hijinks to keep the kids happy. It is a tribute to the genius of the Disney formula that the dramatic and comic elements were strong enough to please both demographic groups. Like any showman, Disney knew the value of genuine horror in maintaining audience interest: accordingly, the Wicked Queen, whose jealousy of Snow White's beauty motivates the story, is a thoroughly fearsome creature even before she transforms herself into an ancient crone. Best of all, Snow White clicks in the three areas in which Disney had always proven superiority over his rivals: Solid story values (any sequence that threatened to slow down the plotline was ruthlessly jettisoned, no matter how much time and money had been spent), vivid etched characterizations (it would have been easier to have all the Dwarfs walk, talk and act alike: thank heaven that Disney never opted for "easy"), and instantly memorable songs (Frank Churchill, Leigh Harline, Paul J. Smith and the entire studio music department was Oscar-nominated for such standards-to-be as "Whistle While You Work" and "Some Day My Prince Will Come"). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide