Sam Hardy Movies

William Colt MacDonald's 1934 story based on the Three Mesqueteers characters was brought to the screen the following year by RKO, who billed it "the Barnum and Bailey of Westerns" and seems to have rounded up every Western star not under exclusive contract. The Western, in fact, could boast of no less than 13 former silent screen cowboy heroes: Harry Carey, Hoot Gibson, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Bob Steele, Tom Tyler, Buzz Barton, Wally Wales (aka Hal Taliaferro), Art Mix (aka George Kesterson), Buffalo Bill Jr. (aka Jay Wilsey), Buddy Roosevelt, Franklyn Farnum, William Desmond, and William Farnum. Carey, Gibson, and Williams played Tucson Smith, Stony Brooke, and Lullaby Joslin, respectively -- the Three Mesqueteers -- who happen upon a stage robbery in progress. They catch the bandit (Ethan Laidlaw) red-handed rifling through the mail and discover that one of the letters is meant for them. Without their knowing, a young friend, the Guadalupe Kid (Steele), has bought a ranch in their names and is awaiting their arrival. The ranch, however, is located in an area controlled by greedy saloon proprietor turned political boss Steve Ogden (Sam Hardy), who takes umbrage to their presence to the point of hiring a professional gunslinger, Sundown Saunders (Tyler). Provoking a confrontation, Sundown challenges Tucson to his trademark sundown showdown. The wily Tucson realizes that Sundown prefers an encounter in the dusk because of failing eyesight and only lightly wounds his opponent. Although a recuperating Sundown turns down Tucson's request to join the fight against Ogden, in the ensuing shootout the gunslinger heroically takes a bullet meant for Tucson. After forcing a confession out of the crooked sheriff (Adrian Morris), the Mesqueteers confront Ogden who is killed in a fight with Tucson. Filmed on locations at Kernville and Newhall, CA, Powdersmoke Range was not the first film version of MacDonald's Mesqueteers. That honor goes to Law of the .45's, a cheap, independently made Western that had starred Guinn "Big Boy" Williams as Tucson and perennial sidekick Al St. John as Stony. (The film omitted the third mesqueteer, Lullaby Joslin, altogether). Despite the success of Powdersmoke Range, RKO failed to follow up with a regular series. Bob Steele would play the character of Sundown Saunders in an independently produced Western of that name in 1936 but the Three Mesqueteers as a group found a regular berth with Republic Pictures, which went on to produce 51 highly successful and influential B-Westerns between 1935 and mid-1943. Through several cast changes both Bob Steele and Tom Tyler would at one point or another play one of the mesqueteers, as would Robert Livingston, Ray "Crash" Corrigan, ventriloquist Max Terhune, John Wayne, Raymond Hatton, Duncan Renaldo, Rufe Davis, Ralph Byrd, and Syd Saylor. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Katharine Hepburn suffers nobly while her philandering conductor husband Charles Boyer dallies with the likes of Helene Millard in this overheated melodrama directed by Philip Moeller of the renowned Theater Guild. Although receiving plenty of warning, prim lady composer Constance Roberti (Hepburn) is still devastated when her new husband, Franz (Boyer), is spotted dining with glamorous Sylvia (Millard) and promptly leaves him. A dipsomaniac, Roberti finds solace in a bottle and is soon reduced to playing in a seedy dive. Constance finds him there and after playing "their song" on the honky-tonk, Roberti resolves to go straight and return to the world of classical music. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Carole Lombard's only MGM film, The Gay Bride has been cited by some as a precursor to 1988's Married to the Mob -- only without the laughs. Adapted by the usually reliable Samuel and Bella Spewack from Charles Francis Coe's magazine story Repeal, the film charts the misadventures of gold-digging chorine Mary (Lombard), who marries powerful bootlegger Shoots Magis (Nat Pendleton) so that she can live in the lap of luxury -- only to suffer a major disappointment when Prohibition is repealed. After a few amusing episodes with the deadly but basically likeable Magis, he's unexpectedly bumped off by gangster Dingle (Sam Hardy). Mary takes this in stride and moves in on Dingle, whereupon he's killed by mob boss Mickey (Leo Carrillo) -- so guess whom Mary snuggles up to next. Handsome "Office Boy" (Chester Morris), Magis' former chauffeur/bodyguard, continues carrying a torch for Mary throughout the picture, undoubtedly hoping that all of his rivals will eventually kill each other off. Wavering uncertainly between screwball comedy and gangster melodrama, The Gay Bride was met with indifference by the public -- and by its studio, which virtually threw the picture away. In later years, Carole Lombard tagged the film as her worst; it's not that by any means, but it's a far distance from her best. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

While crossing the Atlantic aboard a luxury liner, a radio troupe (led by Jack Benny) becomes involved in a murder mystery among a buffet of romance, music, trickery and blackmail--ornamented with a few musical numbers. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi

Perhaps the most memorable of all of the movies based on Damon Runyon's story because of the winning presence of Shirley Temple (although it was remade three times), this is the story of a little girl who is left as a marker for a $20.00 bet. Temple's father kills himself and the bookie doesn't know what to do with the young girl. Needless to say, she wins over the hearts of all and sundry and the bookie turns over a new leaf to make this little girl happy. Through all the complications the bookie runs in to, including eventually marrying his long-time girlfriend to provide a home for the child, there is a tenor of love and joy that was not matched in any of the remakes. ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi

In this romance, two travelling sign painters find themselves inspired by a young woman's lovely smile. Soon her face is found painted on signs and barns throughout New England. Eventually one of the painters and the girl get married. Soon after the wedding, the painters are offered job in New York. There they are challenged to paint an enormous sign. Again, it is the bride's lovely face that inspires them. Meanwhile, the lonely bride decides she cannot bear to be away from her love. By herself, she travels to the Big Apple and finds him on her very first day there. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Goldie dreams of being a movie star. One day she decides to leave her New Jersey home and her boy friend to head for Hollywood. She eventually arrives, but not before having a close call with a crooked beauty contest promoter. Once in Tinseltown, the is surprised to discover that her old boyfriend got their first and he is a major star. Wasting no time, she becomes one too, but by that time, the luster of stardom has worn off for the fellow and he exchanges the excitement for the quiet life back home. Will Goldie go too? ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

"How would you like to star opposite the tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood?" Enticed by these words, brunette leading lady Fay Wray dyed her hair blonde and accepted the role of Ann Darrow in King Kong -- and stayed with the project even after learning that her "leading man" was a 50-foot ape. The film introduces us to flamboyant, foolhardy documentary filmmaker Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong), who sails off to parts unknown to film his latest epic with leading lady Darrow in tow. Disembarking at Skull Island, they stumble on a ceremony in which the native dancers circle around a terrified-looking young girl, chanting, "Kong! Kong!" The chief (Noble Johnson) and witch doctor (Steve Clemente) spot Denham and company and order them to leave. But upon seeing Ann, the chief offers to buy the "golden woman" to serve as the "bride of Kong." Denham refuses, and he and the others beat a hasty retreat to their ship. Late that night, a party of native warriors sneak on board the ship and kidnap Ann. They strap her to a huge sacrificial altar just outside the gate, then summon Kong, who winds up saving Ann instead of devouring her. Kong is eventually taken back to New York, where he breaks loose on the night of his Broadway premiere, thinking that his beloved Ann is being hurt by the reporters' flash bulbs. Now at large in New York, Kong searches high and low for Ann (in another long-censored scene, he plucks a woman from her high-rise apartment, then drops her to her death when he realizes she isn't the girl he's looking for). After proving his devotion by wrecking an elevated train, Kong winds up at the top of the Empire State Building, facing off against a fleet of World War I fighter planes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This 1933 movie version of Sinclair Lewis's novel Ann Vickers stars Irene Dunne in the title role. Left alone and pregnant by her soldier sweetheart (Bruce Cabot), Ann turns her life around by devoting herself to social work. A frustrating tenure as psychologist in a poorly maintained woman's prison only strengthens Ann's resolve to improve the world around her. She falls in love with the politically progressive judge (Walter Huston) who helps finance her career, standing by him when he is unjustly accused of graft. Ann Vickers contains one startling sequence in which Ann, following the premature end of her pregnancy, walks with great discomfort around her garden while she speaks wistfully about,"the daughter I'll never have." Otherwise, the film suffers from its adaptors' soap-opera mindset, as well as the decision to cram Lewis's complex novel into a brief 75 minutes' screen time. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Joan Blondell, borrowed for the occasion from Warner Bros., earned top-billing in this delightful Hollywood parable, but the real star is of course Stuart Erwin as the irrepressible grocery clerk Merton Gill. Paramount screenwriters Saul Mintz, Walter De Leon and Arthur Kober based their witty scenario on Henry Leon Wilson's 1922 novel Merton of the Movies, the 1923 Broadway play by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly, and the 1924 Famous Players silent version starring Glenn Hunter. By 1932, the story was indeed well-known: Aspiring to become a famous screen cowboy, small-town delivery boy Merton Gill arrives in Hollywood, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and complete with a diploma from the National Correspondence Academy of Acting. Crashing the gates of Majestic Pictures (read: Paramount), Merton manages to fumble his one line bit in the latest Buck Benson (Dink Templeton) western and is fired on the spot. Unwilling to leave the studio, the hapless thespian survives on leftover scraps from the extra's lunch boxes until discovered by comedy starlet "Flip" Montague (Blondell), who takes pity on him and arranges a meeting with Jeff Baird (Sam Hardy), head of the slapstick comedy unit. Bestowed a new name, Whoop Ryder, Merton is starred in what he assumes to be a serious western melodrama but what in reality is yet another burlesque featuring cross-eyed low comic Ben Turpin. Although a big hit with preview audiences, a humiliated Merton is ready to return to the grocery business when "Flip" persuades him to stay by telling him that he is "darn near perfect." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

In this screwball comedy, Annabelle Leigh (Jeanette MacDonald) happily spends the $5,000 sent her each month by her husband, whom she hasn't seen since eleven hours after they were married. She explains to friends that while in Montana, she was injured and cared for by a burly, bearded miner, Hefty Jack (Victor McLaglen), who later married her for the sake of appearances. Less than a day later, Annabelle fled back to New York; Hefty Jack struck it rich, and has been sending her money ever since. Now Annabelle finds herself in financial hot water and desperately turns for help to John Rawson, a newcomer to the city; Annabelle is unaware that he is the now-beardless Hefty Jack. ~ Bill Warren, Rovi

A well-meaning but dimwitted electrical worker-turned-lyricist Frederick Martin Stevens (Jack Oakie) arrives in New York determined to become a successful songwriter. He meets a nice girl , Edna Baker (Frances Dee), and a couple of bad ones, one of whom, Eileen Fletcher (June MacCloy), nearly marries him to snag the couple of thousand dollars he's come into. All the while, he tries to make songs out of some of the worst lyrics to be heard in many a year, to the exasperation of pianist/song-plugger Maxie (Harry Akst), who actually ends up feeling sympathy for the poor dope. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

George Arliss is the millionaire of the title, a retired auto tycoon who's been ordered by his doctor to rest and avoid exercise. Arliss is shaken out of his sedentary existence by an insurance salesman who advises him to pick himself up and enjoy life. The old man heads to California, where he conceals his identity and goes to work for a service station. Given a new lease on life, the millionaire amuses himself by playing matchmaker with his own daughter (Evelyn Knapp) and the go-getting young service station manager (David Manners). Barely distinguishable from George Arliss' other non-historical vehicles, The Millionaire is given an added dimension by James Cagney, who shows up for three wonderful minutes as the friendly insurance agent. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi