Irving Bacon Movies

An inventor attempts to sell his new invention and still has time to fall in love in this romantic comedy. The fellow becomes so obsessed with perfecting a new type of gasoline engine that he ignores the customers who patronize his mechanics garage. One day the car of an automobile tycoon and his daughter breaks down and they must visit the mechanic's business. Opportunity seems to be knocking so he doesn't hesitate to pitch his invention to the stranded magnate. Impressed, the automaker calls in his head engineer. The fellow comes in and it's plain that he resents the inventor's attention towards the pretty daughter. He dismisses the new engine and in the end, the two iron out their differences at the race track. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Baroness Gerda Wallentin (Pola Negri) walks out on her philandering husband Count Dietrich (Paul Lukas) and heads to Vienna. En route, she meets musician Raoul Stanislaw (Tullio Carminatti) and agrees to a romantic rendezvous during a stopover at a small village. In the throes of passion, Gerda and Raoul miss their train, which is subsequently involved in a terrible accident. Reported killed in the crash, Gerda, guilty over her indiscretion, decides to remain "dead" for her husband's sake. She dyes her hair, changes her name, and finds work at a gambling casino. Years pass: Count Dietrich inevitably pays a visit to the casino, and with equal inevitability falls in love with Gerda, whom he does not recognize. Our heroine is about to rekindle her romance with the Count but changes her mind when she discovers that he's still keeping company with his mistress. Telling the Count the truth, Gerda leaves him for good and departs for America, intending to start life over for a third time. Three Sinners was based on Das Zweitte Leben, a play by Bernauer Osterreicher. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this murder mystery, set in a carnival, a performer loses her boyfriend, a trapeze artist, when his partner "accidently" misses him during an aerial act. The young woman knows full well that the jealous partner deliberately missed him, but she is afraid so she jumps aboard a train and flees from the carnival. On board she meets a man with whom she becomes good friends. She does not know that he too, is an aerialist en route to her former carnival where he is to replace her lover. She returns with him, and together they expose the murderer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This crime drama chronicles the exploits of three Irish brothers who have taken dramatically different life paths. Tom is an amiable policeman while Matt is a surgeon. The third brother, Owen, is the family black sheep who makes his living running illegal booze. He operates under the alias Barney Muller. His more honest brothers have no idea what Owen does for his money. Things go well for the Muller gang until they commit a murder and the newly promoted Tom is assigned to investigate the case. Meanwhile, Tom's beloved goes to a party at Muller's house in Manhattan. There she overhears some damning information about Muller. She goes back to Tom and Matt with the info and together the three learn the truth about Muller's identity. When Muller learns that a cop is dogging his gang, he orders him killed. He has no idea that it is his own brother. The killers prepare a trap for the unwitting cop, but suddenly Owen shows up and tries to stop it; as a result he is shot and dies in the arms of Tom. Later Tom lies to their parents to save them from unbearable shame. He tells them that Owen has gone away on a very long trip. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This fact-based drama chronicles the events that led to the murder of a notorious gambler. The story begins when a young cardsharp goes to see his brother, whom he believes is a stockbroker. In reality, the brother is a famed gambler who is trying to quit and try to rebuild his marriage. When the professional gambler sees that his card-playing sibling is preparing to make the same mistakes he did, he decides to risk his life and gamble one more time to teach him an unforgettable lesson. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In his third Western for low-budget company Tiffany, Ken Maynard plays Ken Neville, a cowboy returning to the old homestead to find his father (Lafe McKee) and a fellow rancher (Robert Homans) killed. The dead neighbor's daughter, Mary Warner (Virginia Brown Faire), blames Ken, whom she believes to be the leader of a gang of rustlers. Overhearing a plot by Rance Collins (Frank Mayo) to rustle Mary's steers, Ken pretends to be looking to join the gang. Unfortunately, Ken's sidekick "Repeater" Simpson (Irving Bacon) unwittingly gives away his real identity and Rance has him locked up in a cabin. Aided by his wonder horse Tarzan, who breaks through a window, Ken makes his escape and is later able to round up the entire gang. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Ken Maynard's Branded Men wasn't up to the standards of his previous Range Law, but it was still better than the usual "B"-western of the era. On this occasion, hero Maynard is travelling in the company of pint-sized comedy relief Billy Bletcher (later the voice of the Big Bad Wolf and Black Pete in the Disney cartoon) and gangly Irving Bacon. Falsely accused of a crime, the intrepid trio spends the rest of the picture clearing themselves, but not before being forced to divest a pompous judge (Wilfred Lucas) of his fancy clothes. June Clyde, a busy musical comedy star, may well be the most talented of Maynard's early-talkie leading ladies. For some reason, Branded Men is the one Ken Maynard western which still pops up with frequency on television. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Warner Bros.' hard-hitting chain-gang movie was a faithful adaptation of the similarly titled autobiography of Robert Elliot Burns. Paul Muni plays World War I veteran James Allen, whose plans of becoming a master architect evaporate in the cold light of economic realities. Flat broke, Allen is forced to pawn his war medals, which have become a glut on the market. When Allen is innocently involved in a restaurant holdup, the police don't buy his story that the robber (Preston S. Foster) had forced him to clean out the cash register, and Allen is sentenced to ten years on a chain gang. The brutal scenes that follow make the later chain-gang movie Cool Hand Luke (1967) look like a picnic in the country. Unable to stand any more, Allen escapes and heads to Chicago. Using an alias, he builds a new life for himself and within five years is the respected president of a bridge-building firm. His landlady (Glenda Farrell), learning about his past, forces Allen to marry her. When he falls in love with another girl (Helen Vinson) and asks for a divorce, his wife turns him over to the authorities. The real-life Robert Elliot Burns was still a fugitive when he wrote his exposé of the chain-gang system; the publication of Burns' book led to the abolishment of that system and an erasure of Burns' sentence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a story by Robert Andrews, If I Had a Million is a multipart comedy-drama employing Paramount's top directorial and acting talents. Refusing to leave his fortune to his grasping relatives, dying millionaire Richard Bennett selects several people at random from the phone book and bestows upon each of them a check for one million dollars. The first recipient is henpecked husband Charlie Ruggles, who cheerily enters his former place of employment, a china shop, and smashes every bit of crockery in the place. Prostitute Wynne Gibson uses her money to escape from her sordid lifestyle and finally sleep in a bed all by herself. Forger George Raft finds that he can't convince anyone that his check is genuine, and ends up handing the check to a flophouse manager--who promptly burns it. Husband and wife W.C. Fields and Alison Skipworth, dismayed that their new car has been destroyed by a "road hog," utilize part of their million dollars to purchase a fleet of cars and then smash up every road hog in sight! Convicted murderer Gene Raymond hopes that his million will help finance a new trial, but the execution is carried out on schedule. Newly rich clerk Charles Laughton calmly makes his way through a series of offices, reaches his boss' desk, and delivers a loud Bronx cheer. Gary Cooper, Roscoe Karns and Jack Oakie play three brawling marines who think the check's a joke and sign it over to an illiterate lunch-counter owner. The last million-dollar recipient is May Robson, an elderly woman confined to a dismal nursing home. She spends her money to turn the home into a joyful resort for old people, forcing the formerly repressive nursing-home staffers to earn their paychecks by sitting all day in rocking chairs. The millionaire who started the plot rolling is given a new lease on life by May Robson's example, and he recovers from his "fatal" illness. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A Grand Hotel derivation set in a major metropolitan train terminal, Union Depot features most of the reliable Warner Bros. stock company. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. stars as a slick thief; Joan Blondell costars as a stranded chorus girl; Alan Hale Sr. is featured as a phony baron absconding with company funds; and Frank McHugh does his drunk act. Other arrivals and departures include Guy Kibbee, David Landau, and George Rosener (as a sexual deviate stalking Ms. Blondell!) The huge depot set built for this film may seem like an unnecessary expenditure, but the set would come in handy for future, less costly Warners endeavors. The British title for Union Depot was Gentleman for a Day, reflecting the crooked Fairbanks' good-guy turnaround at the end of the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Confidence woman Martha Hicks (Alison Skipworth), better known to those who know her at all as "the Countess," is a career criminal who has just been paroled. She would like to slip away from the authorities and leave the country, but first she wants to look in on the only decent, respectable part of her life, the two daughters whom she left behind with her onetime husband, Elmer Hicks (Richard Bennett), a small-town hotel owner. She arrives to find that Elmer, in his well-meaning but dithering way, has let their younger daughter (Gertrude Messinger) fall in with the wrong crowd, including a two-bit criminal, Jack Houston (George Raft). He has filled her head with stories about what a big man he is and plans to take her to Chicago with him, until Martha intervenes -- she manages to turn the interest of veteran lawman John Adams (J. Farrell MacDonald) to her advantage and nearly gets Houston thrown in the slammer. When he proves tougher to get out of the way than she'd thought he'd be, Martha has to choose between freedom or the well-being of her daughter, and gets some unexpected help from Elmer. Skipworth is charming and the rest of the cast is first-rate in this sly, fast-paced, and enjoyable comedy drama. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

This early musical is a bit slim on story but features a number of vintage performances by a stellar cast, including some of the most popular radio stars of the day. George (George Burns) manages a radio station that is on the brink of bankruptcy. Leslie McWhinney (Stuart Erwin), a carefree millionaire, comes up with an idea to pull the station back into the black: persuade a host of big stars to appear on a special broadcast. One of the station's employees is a guy named Bing, played by an obviously well-cast Bing Crosby in one of his first major film appearances; Crosby gets to sing several tunes, as do Kate Smith, Cab Calloway, The Boswell Sisters, and several others. Young George Burns also performs several comic routines with his wife and partner Gracie Allen, who here plays Burns's stenographer. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide