Tenen Holtz Movies

Moving from Saturday to Thursday evening for its sixth season on CBS, Perry Mason kicks off the new year with another baffling murder case. This time the victim is Joseph Kraft (Maurice Manson) a crooked book dealer who traffics in forgeries of rare first editions. Not long after firing his clerk Ellen Carter (Phyllis Love) for misplacing a copy of Tristam Shandy), Kraft is found dead in a locked room, apparently the victim of a gas leak. Ultimately, the police decide that Kraft was murdered, and that Ellen is the most likely suspect. Enter Perry Mason (Raymond Burr), who intends to prove Ellen's innocence while setting a trap for the real killer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originally filmed in Sepiatone, Let Freedom Ring is a satisfying Nelson Eddy musical with patriotic overtones. Set in the years following the Civil War, the story focuses on the battle of wills between Harvard-educated idealist Steve Logan (Eddy) and bullying railroad magnate Jim Knox (Edward Arnold). Launching a newspaper aimed at combatting Knox's engulf-and-devour tactics (could the villain be intended as a frontier Hitler?) Logan is disowned by his wealthy family and frozen out by his society friends. But with the help of woman-of-the-people Maggie Adams (Virginia Bruce), Logan sticks to his guns and perserveres. Let Freedom Ring goes out of its way to erase Eddy's "Singing Capon" image by having him engage in as much virile physical activity as possible, including a well-staged fistic bout with the gargantuan Victor McLaglen. Fey comedy relief is provided by Charles Butterworth, who does the most with the least material. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

International Crime is the second of two Grand National programmers inspired by the popular "Shadow" pulp novels by Maxwell Grant. Rod La Rocque plays Lamont Cranston, famed criminologist and (in this film at least) radio crime reporter. This time around Cranston does not "cloud men's minds" hypnotically to become the invisible Shadow: he remains fully visible from beginning to end, with nary a clouded mind in sight. In attempting to solve the murder of a wealthy financier, Cranston exposes a gang of foreign saboteurs. Based on the story "The Fox Hound" by Ted Tinsley (not Maxwell Grant, as the credits claim), International Crime includes several of the supporting characters from the "Shadow" pulps. However, the heroine (Astrid Allwyn) is Phoebe Lane, not Margot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

British Agent starred the Hungarian/British actor Leslie Howard in the title role, was directed by full-fledged Hungarian Michael Curtiz, and costarred American leading lady Kay Francis as a Russian spy. Based on the memoirs of R. H. Bruce Lockhart, who had been the unofficial British emissary to the Russian Revolutionary government in 1917, British Agent spends more time on its romantic subplot than in recreating the birth of Bolshevism. Leslie Howard's purpose in this film is to dissuade the Bolsheviks from signing a separate treaty with the World War I German regime. It is obvious to modern-day viewers that Howard is merely looking after Britain's interests and has no concern for the Russians; this was par for the course in a 1930s film, but does not play well with less jingoistic audiences of the 1990s. The most interesting aspect of British Agent is the performance of saturnine Irving Pichel as a young Josef Stalin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Action expert "Breezy" Eason called the shots on this quickie comedy-melodrama. Frank Albertson stars as the publicity man for a Poverty Row studio. Thrown off the lot because of his drunken insolence, the PR man plans a comeback by convincing a foreign director (John Davidson) to film the life story of a notorious gangster. A stickler for realism, the director insists that a genuine gangster be engaged to play the leading role. The publicity man engages the services of a tough-looking bit player (Jose Crespo), only to discover that he's actually hired the crook whose life is about to be immortalized on celluloid! All ends happily when the PR man's renegade production makes a major star out of his sweetheart (June Clyde). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Silent screen star John Gilbert had a tough time adapting to the talkies--not due to his voice, as is commonly believed, but because his type of florid romantic fare was no longer popular. Gentleman's Fate attempted to alter Gilbert's image by casting him as a bootlegger...albeit a reluctant one. A wealthy socialite, Gilbert learns to his chagrin that he has been financed by his supposedly dead father (Ernest Torrence), a notorious rum runner. Ruined socially, Gilbert joins the rackets himself, vying with his brother (Louis Wolheim) for control of the bootlegging territory. The love of a good woman (Leila Hyams) leads Gilbert to attempt to break up the racket, but he loses his life in the process. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a Viennese composer kills his wife and her lover in a jealous rage, and then heads for the US with his daughter where he becomes a successful musician in a Broadway restaurant. Eighteen years later, his grown daughter gets a job as an arranger for a jazz combo. The trouble begins when she and her boyfriend arrange one of her father's old tunes. It becomes popular, and the Austrian authorities follow up on it and capture the criminal composer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

While the silent comedy team of Karl Dane and George K. Arthur made some very entertaining films in the latter half of the 1920s (Rookies, for example, was a winner), this feature didn't quite live up to the duo's potential. That said, having Dane play a big, dumb hotel detective and placing the boyish, diminutive Arthur in the role of a bellhop was inspired casting. The two of them are rivals for the heart of Lois, a typist at the hotel where they are working (Marceline Day). There's a jewel thief at the hotel and for all his bragging, Dane can't seem to get a handle on solving the case. Determined to win Lois and show up Dane, Arthur gets on the case himself. Their investigation takes both of them to a strange house miles outside of town which contains trap doors and secret passageways. The thief, who has been posing as a professor of Egyptology, is finally rounded up, and the jewels recovered -- by the bellhop. He and Lois walk off together, leaving the hotel detective -- whose presence has more often hindered than helped -- to suffer the scorn of the cops. There are a few truly amusing moments, most notably when Arthur dresses up as a maid and can't get Dane to stop pawing him. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Despite its title, this "Our Gang" comedy was a silent film, albeit one outfitted with a synchronized music and sound-effects track. The spotlight is on chubby Gang member Joe Cobb, who tries to take care of his squalling baby brother Rupert, while he himself is suffering from the Grandaddy of all toothaches. Once the Rupert situation is settled, Joe submits to an "oral surgery" experimented conducted by his pals Allen "Farina" Hoskins, Harry Spear, Jay R. Smith and Jean Darling. Somehow this all ends up with a hectic chase, as do most "Our Gang" two-reelers from the late silent period. Noisy Noises was first distributed to theaters on February 9, 1929. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a Yiddish fellow cannot keep from kibitzing into other people's lives. Trouble ensues when he is mistakenly given a huge fortune in stocks that he can spend any way he pleases. At the same time, his daughter has fallen in love with an impoverished, but good hearted boy. When the kibitzer suggests he bet all his money on a dog of a racehorse, the lad does it. Against all odds, the horse wins, and suddenly the young man is quite wealthy. One day the stock bottoms out and the advice giver finds himself financially ruined. Fortunately, his brother comes to the rescue when he is asked in English whether or not he wants to sell the other's stock. The only English he knew was "Yes, sure, certainly." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Latest from Paris takes place in New York's garment district, where business rivals Blogg (George Sidney) and Littauer (Tenen Holz) have been carrying on a feud for years. In the tradition of Romeo and Juliet, heroine Ann Dolan (Norma Shearer) works for Blogg, while her sweetheart Joe Adams (Ralph Forbes) is employed by Littauer. Without the knowledge of either boss, Ann and Joe develop their own clothing line, with Ann serving as model. The happy result of all this industrial intrigue is a merger -- in every sense of the word. It was during filming of The Latest From Paris that Norma Shearer became the wife of MGM production chief Irving Thalberg. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The ancient tale of brothers, separated at birth, who grow up on opposite sides of the law, is given yet another working-over in this lavish MGM western starring Tim McCoy. A former Indian language translator, McCoy was the studio's first and only attempt at creating a series western star. Sound interrupted what seemed to have been a lucrative series, but Metro nevertheless stayed away from series westerns for good, the only major Hollywood studio to do so. Rex Lease, a personable actor being groomed for a stardom that never really materialized, played McCoy's bad-seed younger brother, and the two meet without knowing each others identity. Having learned the truth (they possess identical tattoos!), Lease redeems himself by sacrificing his own life for the sake of brother McCoy's. If not exactly The Law of the Range, the noble gesture was certainly the law of Hollywood, where crime must always be punished. A young Joan Crawford, who was being punished herself by the studio for being too opportunistic both on and off the screen, earned a few moments in the film as McCoy's love interest. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide