Hattie McDaniel Movies

Newlywed Carolyn Martin (Barbara Stanwyck) has been raised to expect the finer things in life, but these are things that can't be provided by her working-stiff husband Michael (Gene Raymond). Hoping to supplement the family coffers, Carolyn offers to take a job, but the chauvinistic Michael won't hear of it, insisting that the couple live on his measly 35 dollars per week, causing no end of trouble when wifey overextends her bank account. When millionaire Hugh McKenzie (Robert Young) enters her life, Carolyn is sorely tempted to walk out on her husband -- and, as indicated by the film's title, she does. Ultimately, however, money flies out the door when love flies back in the window. Counterpointing the marital travails of our hero and heroine is the contentious union between Mattie and Paul Dodson (Helen Broderick and Ned Sparks), who've learned to be happy while miserable. Black comic actor Willie Best is prominently billed in The Bride Walks Out, but his role was cut down to a mere walk-on. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A remake of 1928's Glorious Betsy (itself based on a stage play by Rida Johnson Young), Hearts Divided is based, believe it or not, on a true story. Marion Davies stars as 19th-century Baltimore belle Betsy Patterson, who falls in love with Jerome Bonaparte (Dick Powell) -- the younger brother of Napoleon Bonaparte (Claude Rains) himself. Though in real life Betsy and Jerome were married, for the purposes of the film they are parted before the nuptials, as part of Napoleon's long-range plans to place a Bonaparte at the head of every European nation. The Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart musical score emphasizes the artificiality of the whole endeavor, which despite its basis in fact is never believable for a single moment. The film's brevity (70 minutes) is its principal redeeming factor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Spanky tries to escape his "command performance" at the Spring Street School's annual Arbor Day show, but local truant officer Smithers (George Guhl) is a little too fast for him. Meanwhile, a pair of wisecracking midgets (George and Olive Brasno) take an unauthorized day off from their performance schedule at a local sideshow. Disguised as children, the midgets are spotted by the indefatigable Smithers, who assumes that they're also trying to duck out of the Arbor Day festivities. Forceably dragged into the School, the midgets are told to sit down and keep quiet while the show proceeds. After an endearingly clumsy kiddie ensemble piece and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer's ear-piercing rendition of "Trees, the midgets decide to get even with Smithers by putting on a show that no one will ever forget. In addition to the aforementioned adult cast members, the film is also graced by the presence of Maurice Cass as the pompous principal, future Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel as the mother of Billy "Buckwheat" Thomas, and Rosina Lawrence in her first appearance as the Gang's pretty schoolteacher Miss Lawrence. Originally released on May 2, 1936, "Arbor Day" was the last two-reel "Our Gang" comedy; thereafter, with the special exception of "Our Gang Follies of 1938," all of the series' releases would be one reel (approximately ten minutes) in length. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gladys George, a superlative actress often wasted in secondary roles, carries her starring assignment in Valiant is the Word for Carrie with singular brilliance. George plays the town trollop, who for the love of two orphaned children sets up a successful dry-cleaning business. Her past comes back to haunt her, but she perseveres, giving up all thoughts of personal happiness to provide a decent upbringing for her adopted family. A real four-hanky film, Valiant is the Word for Carrie might never have been made if it hadn't been for Mae West. Paramount had signed Gladys George to star in a filmization of her stage hit Personal Appearance, but this property was deflected to Ms. West and retitled Go West, Young Man. As compensation, Gladys George was offered Carrie--and she certainly made the most of this rebound opportunity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After several appearances as a "good girl," little Jane Withers returns to her patented screen brattiness in Gentle Julia. Based on a novel by Booth Tarkington, the film stars Withers as Florence Atwater, precocious kid-sister of flirtatious Julia Atwater (Marsha Hunt). After spending most of the film bedeviling Julia's hometown sweetheart Noble Dill (Tom Brown), Florence shows that she's really a good kid underneath it all by saving her sister from an unfortunate marriage to phoney-baloney city-slicker Mr. Crum (George Meeker). The film's comic high point is a fancy lawn party, which Florence sabotages by releasing a frightening array of bugs, mice and snakes. Gentle Julia represents Jane Withers' second co-starring appearance with her male counterpart, diminutive screen menace Jackie Searl (the two young actors, neither one of which were as nasty in real life as they could be on screen, got along splendidly). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Charming but ruthless fugitive gangster Dutra (Brian Donlevy) demands that a doctor (Oscar Apfel) perform plastic surgery upon him. Emerging from the bandages with a new face, Dutra murders the doctor, changes his name to Dawson, and heads to California, secure in the belief that no one who can identify him is still living. Unfortunately for him, the sole link to Dawson's past, nurse Molly Lamont, is now working in Hollywood -- where Dawson is enjoying a whole new career as a movie star! Things move along comically until Dawson tips his hand by taking his leading lady Sheila (Phyllis Brooks) hostage. Salvation comes in the unlikely form of obnoxious studio-press-agent Joe Haynes (Wallace Ford). Also released as It Happened in Hollywood, Another Face is a very uneven blend of comedy and melodrama, making up in energy what it lacks in coherence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Katharine Hepburn stars as Booth Tarkington's would-be society belle Alice Adams. The product of a family of modest means, Alice nonetheless dreams of being accepted by the "better people." Luck of luck, she meets well-to-do young Fred MacMurray at a social gathering; he is charmed by her pathetic attempts at putting on airs and accepts her invitation to dine at the Adams home. The meal is a disaster: Alice's parents (Fred Stone and Anne Shoemaker) are obviously way out of MacMurray's league, while the servant (Hattie McDaniel) that the family hired for the occasion shows up drunk and very surly. Alice Adams was the first major directorial assignment for George Stevens, as well as one of the few Katharine Hepburn vehicles of the 1930s to score a hit with the public. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lost in the Stratosphere is one of three Monogram vehicles for James Cagney's look-alike brother William (later a successful producer). Inspired by the U.S. Army's recent experiments with atmospheric balloons, the film stars Cagney and Edward Nugent as inveterate practical jokers Cooper and Wood. Their friendship cleft in twain by the arrival of pretty Evelyn (June Collyer). The climax occurs when one of the boys' pranks misfires, sending both of them aloft in a fragile weather balloon. By the time they've managed to land the darned thing, they've become heroes. The film's laughable special effects (one can see the process-screen clouds "bleed" through the actors) are counterbalanced by the overall energy and enthusiasm of its stars. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a toothpaste magnate's mischievous daughter, tired of her father's traditional ways of conducting business, joins forces with her father's rival and a crazy inventor. Together they create "Cocktail Toothpaste." The new concoction tastes like whiskey in the morning, a martini at suppertime, and champagne at night. The stuff is a big success thanks to radio advertising. This teaches her stodgy old dad a good lesson. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

One of Bela Lugosi's least remembered films, this ultra low-budget whodunit with science fiction overtones features the murder of a professor who had recently perfected the new invention of television. Suspects are plentiful and include Bela Lugosi's rivaling academician Dr. Perry. Alas, the good doctor proves yet another Red Herring and is soon enough found stabbed to death himself. Or is he? Perry suddenly appears to have risen from the grave and the real culprit quickly confesses. Produced by perhaps Hollywood's cheapest entrepreneur, William Pizor, Murder by Television was filmed at the low-rent Talisman Studios and came complete with a song, "I had the Right Idea", composed by future Academy Award winning songwriter Oliver Wallace and performed by June Collyer. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Little Spanky McFarland's appointment as treasurer of the Ancient and Honery Order of Woodchucks occurs on the same day as his parents' wedding anniversary. Absent-minded as usual, Spanky's father (Johnny Arthur) inadvertently hands over the Woodchucks' treasury as an anniversary present for his wife (Claudia Dell). Meanwhile, Spanky accidentally gets hold of the real anniversary money, and, mistaking it for the treasury, hides it in the cookie jar -- an act witnessed by his Mom, who jumps to the wrong conclusion. Inevitably, the other Woodchucks demand the return of their "dough," but Spanky can't accommodate them, leading to a wild and wooly conclusion wherein Spanky's dad is duly punished for his faulty memory. A brisk and bright comedy of errors, the "Our Gang" comedy "Anniversary Trouble" was originally released on January 19, 1935. The version included in the present "Little Rascals" TV package has been radically edited, removing the sequence in which Spanky dons blackface to disguise himself as Billy "Buckwheat" Thomas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Evidently inspired by Paramount's screwball comedy Three Cornered Moon, Chesterfield-Invincible Studio's In the Money is actually more entertaining than its costlier predecessor. The main characters are members of a zany, perpetually improvident family, all of whom take polite little bows as they're introduced to the audience by narrator-co-star Skeets Gallagher, cast as a two-bit fight manager. Our genial host then tells the viewers exactly what each character is going to do in the course of the next 66 minutes -- and, by golly, they do just what they're supposed to. Facing financial ruin after purchasing a worthless stock, Gallagher and his confreres Lois Wilson, Sally Starr, Frank Coghlan Jr. et al. are rescued by the pugilistic skills of punchdrunk Warren Hymer. Coghlan Jr. went on to repeat his role in the 1936 remake of In the Money, Red Lights Ahead. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

If you can accept blonde, blue-eyed Marion Davies disguising herself in blackface, chances are you'll swallow the rest of Operator 13. Davies plays a Belle Boyd-like actress who agrees to become a Northern spy during the Civil War. She assumes the identity of an octoroon servant and heads into Southern territory. Marion meets dashing Confederate captain Gary Cooper, and instantly falls in love with him. Later, she assumes the disguise of a Southern belle to prevent Cooper from recruiting Southern sympathizers in the north. This time Cooper falls for Davies, which makes it hard for her to carry out her mission. After several more reels of espionage and romantic interludes, including a gently kinky sequence in which Cooper and Davies are handcuffed together, the lovers part company, promising to meet again when the war is over. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide