Donald Haines Movies

Mugs McGinniss (Leo Gorcey), top dog of the East Side Kids, takes a job at an airplane plant. Here he grows suspicious of Dr. Nagel (George Pembroke), operator of a flying ambulance service. Mugs becomes convinced that Nagel is using his plane to smuggle aviation secrets to a gang of enemy agents, but he can't prove his allegations. With the help of his East Side pals Danny (Bobby Jordan), Scruno ("Sunshine Sammy" Morrison), Peewee (David Gorcey) and Louie (Bobby Stone), Mugs gets the goods on the duplicitous Doc-but nearly gets killed in the process. A not-bad combination of comedy and melodrama, Flying Wild offers the viewers a more intelligent group of "East Side Kids" than they're accustomed to. Even so, this is the film in which Leo Gorcey introduces the comic malapropisms for which he became famous. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In their first of two Monogram spook comedies, the East Side Kids and Bela Lugosi square off in yet another haunted house. On their way to summer camp, the malapropism dependant East Siders are warned of a "monster killer" loose in the area, and, sure enough, almost immediately encounter Nardo (Lugosi) and his weird little helper Luigi (Angelo Rossitto). Nardo does very little to repudiate the Kids' impression of him as a vampire (the Kids say "vulture" lest Monogram should get in trouble with Universal, who held the rights to Dracula), but is he really the monster killer? Perhaps Doctor Von Grosch (Dennis Moore) knows, the famed mystery writer and "monster hunter" having arrived like clockwork at the creepy Billings mansion with camp nurse Linda Mason (Dorothy Short) in tow. Although Peewee (David Gorcey) is at one point feared to have become the victim of the "vulture," the smart aleck turns up safe and sound, and Muggs (Leo Gorcey) and the Kids decide to trap the killer. And so they do, ably assisted by young attorney Jeff Dixon (Dave O'Brien), who, for reasons not immediately clear, has a vested interest in the well being of the East Side Kids. O'Brien and leading lady Dorothy Short were married in real life. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Previously filmed in 1916 with Mary Pickford's brother Jack in the lead, Booth Tarkington's irresistable coming-of-age novel Seventeen serves as a tailor-made vehicle for 18-year-old Jackie Cooper. The star is cast as William Slyvanus Baxter, a high school boy who is undergoing the pangs of First Romance. The object of his affections is flirtatious debutante Lola Pratt (Betty Field), an "older woman"-at least a whole year older! Losing his head completely, William spends all of his hard-earned money on the fickle Lola, only to learn a valuable (and very expensive) lesson about loving neither wisely nor too well. Norma Nelson is hilariously hateful as William's tattletale kid sister, while Otto Kruger and Ann Shoemaker are quietly effective as the boy's exasperated but understanding parents. Obviously rushed into production to capitalize on the successful teaming of Jackie Cooper and Betty Field in 1939's What a Life!, Seventeen is an excellent effort in its own right. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Police detective Pat O'Day (Leon Ames) involves himself with a gang of slum kids led by Dutch Kuhn (Hally Chester) and Danny Dolan (Harris Berger). He tries to keep them from getting into trouble and to help out Danny, whose brother, Knuckles Dolan (Dave "Tex" O'Brien), is about to be executed for a murder allegedly committed as part of his involvement in a counterfeiting ring. O'Day knows Knuckles, having tried to keep him on the right side of the law, and knows that he couldn't have done the shooting, regardless of the circumstantial evidence, because Knuckles resolutely refused to carry a gun -- the real killer is the gang leader, Mileaway (Dennis Moore), a smooth-talker who earned his nickname through his knack for always being "a mile away" whenever a crime is committed by his gang. O'Day not only wants to catch Mileaway, but tries to keep the teenagers from falling in with the hood. When the detective starts to get too close, Mileaway sets him up for a brutality charge using crooked shop owner Schmidt, and gets O'Day busted back to uniformed patrolman. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

Good-ol' sheriff Holt is determined to prove that prisoners can be rehabilitated and released into society in this prison drama. In charge of a new kind of program, the sheriff places inmates in a clean environment and makes them build a road. Despite the improved conditions, the criminals continue to pull off a few shady shenanigans as an innocent man who is sent there soon discovers. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Bob Hope and an all-star cast have great fun in this frothy romantic comedy about a wealthy tycoon who learns that he only has one month left to live. Not realizing that the tests were wrong, he decides to make hay while the sun still shines. He dumps his fiancee and then heads for the lovely Bad Gaswasser Spa in Switzerland. There he meets a young heiress who is being forced to marry a prince rather than the bus driver she loves. Taking pity on her and having nothing to lose, he marries her and plans to leave her his fortune so she will be free to marry anyone she wants. During their honeymoon, on which the bus driver accompanies them, the groom learns that he will live. Unfortunately for the bus driver, true romance has bloomed between the newlyweds. Of course they don't find this out until a little later. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Based on a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, Three Comrades represented one of the few successful screenwriting efforts of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in Germany in the years just following World War I, the film stars Robert Taylor, Franchot Tone and Robert Young as three battle-weary, thoroughly disillusioned returning soldiers. The three friends pool their savings and open an auto-repair shop, and it is this that brings them in contact with wealthy motorist Lionel Atwill--and with Atwill's lovely travelling companion Margaret Sullavan. Taylor begins a romance with Sullavan, who soon joins the three comrades, making the group a jovial, fun-seeking foursome (this plot element bears traces of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, as well as the 1931 film The Last Flight). Though Sullavan suffers from tuberculosis (her shady past is only alluded to), she is encouraged by her male companions to fully enjoy what is left of her life. This becomes increasingly difficult when one of the comrades, Young, is killed during a political riot (it's a Nazi riot, though not so-labelled by ever-careful MGM). In the end, the four comrades are only two in number, with nothing but memories to see them through the cataclysmic years to come. Despite its Hollywoodized bowdlerization of the Remarque original, Three Comrades remains a poignant, haunting experience. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Before sitting down to watch Love and Hisses, it's important to know that columnist Walter Winchell and bandleader Ben Bernie were engaged in a phony but highly publicized feud in the late 1930s. For the purposes of this film, the source of the Winchell-Bernie contretemps is pretty nightclub singer Simone Simon. Secretly signing the girl to a contract, Bernie spreads rumors that the girl has no talent, knowing full well that his "friendly enemy" Winchell will then give her a huge build-up in his newspaper column. Upon finding out that he's been hoodwinked, Winchell gets even by having Bernie kidnapped by a gang of phony hoodlums. With all this going on, it's easy to forget that legendary Broadway clown Bert Lahr is also in Love and Hisses. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

It is a tale known well, filmed many times over the years, but never better than this early black and white version from the MGM Studios, David O. Selznick producing. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"-- Charles Dickens juxtaposes England and France, George and Louis, tradition and revolution. One of the most beloved of Dickens' stories, finding not only countries and conditions compared, but also two individuals thrown up in stark contrast to one another: -- the dissolute barrister Sydney Carton (Ronald Colman) and the young, somewhat callow aristocrat Charles Darnay (Donald Woods), both in love with Lucie (Elizabeth Allan), daughter of a victim of the French Regime. Their lives intertwine until the violent revolution that overtook an entire nation engulfs them all as well.

Dickens' story has stood the test of time; remade frequently since the release of this1935 version. It is this version by director Jack Conway's that is best remembered and to which all others are compared. The settings, cinematography, and direction are all right on the mark, recreating the streets of London and of Paris with great skill and realism. The supporting cast, filled with faces we have grown to cherish-- Reginald Owen, Edna May Oliver, Claude Gillingwater, Walter Catlett, H. B. Warner, Basil Rathbone, and E. E. Clive-comes through with crystalline performances which add substance to the inexorable stream of events. Blanche Yurka's bravura turn as Therese de Farge delights us even as we shudder at her intensity. Second unit directors Jacques Tourneur and Val Lewton, who would both go on to memorable careers as leading directors in their own right, staged the storming of the Bastille and other "revolutionary" scenes brilliantly, managing to combine fervor with panache. It is, however, Colman's portrayal of the lonely man redeemed by love and sacrifice which stands at the center of the story.

Sydney Carton first saves Charles Darnay from a charge of treason, thereby meeting those who care for him: the beautiful Lucie Manette, her father, Doctor Manette (Henry B. Walthall), released from the Bastille after many years of unjust incarceration; Lucie's servant Miss Pross, (Oliver) and Mister Lorry (Claude Gillingwater), an functionary of Tellson's Bank. His relationship with this circle of kind friends grows rocky when Darnay marries Lucie, whom Carton has loved from afar, but even this turn of events cannot change his feelings for them all and he grows to love them even more when daughter Lucie comes along. He reforms, leaving old ways behind and enjoying a familial warmth he has never known. This happy life is shattered when Darnay returns to France during the first revolutionary struggles, intent on saving his old tutor from the guillotine. He soon finds himself behind bars and facing the blade instead. The Revolution does not forget an aristocrat, even one who has recanted and lived life abroad as a commoner. The whole family makes the channel crossing to come to the young man's aid and Carton seeks a way to save him, discovering only one path to free Darnay and return everyone to safety. It is a sacrifice easily promised and quickly made.

Ronald Colman had long wanted to make a film of this story and, when he finally got his chance, he happily shaved off his signature mustache in an appropriate gesture to historical realism. Reviews of his work indicate his portrayal of Sydney Carton surpassed all his previous endeavors; he had been accused of walking through light parts, once he started making "talkies," and not putting his many talents to good use. "A Tale of Two Cities" put rest to those complaints. He dominates completely the scenes he which he does appear, and his skill gives substance to a literary achievement, a melancholy man of intelligence and wit, given to drink and despair, whose life seems to attain meaning only when it is given up for someone else. It is one of the portrayals for which Ronald Colman has come to be remembered.

There are various remake versions of A Tale of Two Cities. Dirk Bogarde played Carton in 1958 and Chris Sarandon starred in a television remake in 1980. While these and other versions have all been good films, none has achieved the stature of the 1935 version and its excellent combination of star power, technical brilliance and great storytelling. ~ Rovi

Though the names have been changed to protect the guilty, this romantic crime drama offers a relatively factual account of the life of Arnold Rothstein, an infamous bookie and is based upon a story by his widow. The story tells how he gambled his way to the top of his profession. Though he originally promised his wife that he would stop gambling once he made $200,000, he became addicted and decided he had to make $300,000 more before he could be happy. Soon his greed leads him to crooked gambling. Things get worse when he openly carries on an affair with a singer. The bookies dirty dealings get him into trouble and his wife is kidnapped while he is out of town. While rushing back to save her, he has a car accident and his lover is killed. By the time she is rescued, the wife has decided enough is enough and takes off to get a European divorce. The greedy gambler finds himself utterly lost without his two lovers and so after selling his wife's jewels takes out a large insurance policy upon himself. On an interesting footnote: Inez Norton, Rothstein's real-life widow, has a bit part in the film, as does then-ingenue Susan Fleming, AKA Mrs. Harpo Marx. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A tough youth gang leader learns the true meaning of courage in this moving and thoughtful drama. He is the leader of a troop of boys involved in an elaborate game of "capture the flag." He is idolized by a sickly boy on the block who begs to be allowed to join the leader's group. Eventually the older boy gives in and "enlists" the weakling as a private. Though he treats the young lad with contempt, the boy is so enamored of his hero that he doesn't notice. Eventually the gang's rivals, the "Red Shirts" steal their flag. To prove himself, the sickly boy risks his life and frail health. The allegorical, anti-war story is based on Hungarian playwright Molnar's autobiographical novel. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Four of the "Our Gang" kids fabricate elaborate excuses to get out of school so they can go fishing. Unfortunately, the boys have picked the very day that their teacher is taking the whole class for a free excursion to the Seaside Amusement Park. The rest of the picture finds the would-be fishermen trying to sneak into the park without attracting the attention of the eagle-eyed truant officer. Originally released on January 28, 1933, Fish Hookey is a watershed "Our Gang" film: in addition to featuring the current crop of "Gang" members, the film also accommodates guest-star appearances by four former members from the silent era: Mary Kornman as the teacher, Mickey Daniels as the fun-loving truant officer, and Joe Cobb and Allen "Farina" Hoskins. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi