Reed Howes Movies
One of several male models to achieve some success in action films of the '20s, Hermon Reed Howes was forever saddled with the tag "Arrow Collar Man," despite the fact that he had been only one of several future luminaries to have posed for famed artist J.C. Leyenecker's memorable Arrow ads. (Future screen actors Fredric March and Brian Donlevy also did yeoman duty for the company.)A graduate of the University of Utah and the Harvard Graduate School, Howes had served two and a half years in the navy prior to entering onto the stage. He became a leading man for the likes of Peggy Wood and Billie Burke, and entered films in 1923, courtesy of low-budget producer Ben Wilson, who cast the handsome newcomer as the lead in a series of breathless melodramas released by Rayart. Howes reached a silent screen pinnacle of sorts as Clara Bow's leading man in Rough House Rosie (1927), but his starring days were over with the advent of sound. There was nothing inherently wrong with Howes voice, but it didn't do anything for him either. His acting before the microphone seemed too stiff. He was still as handsome as ever, but his good looks were often hidden behind a scruffy beard or mustache. The veteran actor then drifted into supporting roles in B-Westerns and serials, his appearances sometimes devoid of dialogue, and more often than not, he was unbilled. Howes did his fair share of television in the '50s as well, but ill health forced him to retire after playing a police inspector in Edward D. Wood Jr.'s The Sinister Urge, filmed in July of 1960 and a guest spot on television's Mr. Ed. He died of cancer at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1934
This racist horror film from director Marshall Neilan was inspired by "Chloe -- Song of the Swamp," a minor hit for Eva Taylor. Silent film star Olive Borden is Chloe, a woman of mixed parentage who lives in the swamps with an elderly black voodoo practitioner named Mandy (Georgette Harvey), who hates whites because her husband was lynched. Romance is present in the form of Jim, who wrestles an alligator to rescue Chloe, and her true love Wade (Reed Howes), who works at the local turpentine factory. All the black characters despise white people, and even Mandy turns against the mulatto girl she raised, trying to cut her heart out in a voodoo ritual. As in many such efforts, "whiteness" wins out in the end. This is a sad spectacle to behold today, but was par for the course in 1934. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Olive Borden, Georgette Harvey, (more)
- 1932
Clark Gable was officially elevated to stardom with this airborne MGM action-adventure, but good old Wallace Beery (whom Gable disliked in real life) ended up with more screen time. They played Naval officers training in the newfangled art of dive bombing while spending a great deal of time squabbling over who is more macho. The two rivals, of course, end up crashing on a deserted atoll only to discover that behind the tough veneer they share a common goal. In the end, the gruff but lovable Beery sacrifices himself so that Gable and the stolid Conrad Nagel may live. As usual in this kind of testosterone-driven action fare, the girls are given short shrift and have to literally shout to be heard above the din. Dorothy Jordan is forgettable as Gable's love interest, but both Marjorie Rambeau and Marie Prevost, as a couple of goodhearted floozies, make the most of their all too brief moments. Hell Divers is the kind of film where action in the skies makes up for the lack of any real drama and where characters are constantly uttering such lines as "Gee honey, I'm just goofy about you!" The film was produced with full co-operation from the U.S. Navy on-location at San Pedro and in Panama. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clark Gable, Wallace Beery, (more)
- 1932
It may be hard to believe, but Gorilla Ship is almost as ludicrous as its title. Wheeler Oakman plays Mr. Wells, a millionaire yachtsman who is insanely jealous of his "friend" Dave Burton (Reed Howes). Believing that Burton is in love with Mrs. Wells (Vera Reynolds), Mr. Wells sets a deadly trap for the younger man during a yacht excursion. The vessel is shipwrecked, whereupon all three protagonists are rescued by the "gorilla ship" skippered by the brutish Captain Larsen (Ralph Ince). A few fistfights and mutinies later, the plot is resolved -- or rather, the film comes to a halt. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ralph Ince, Vera Reynolds, (more)
- 1932
This "gimmick" murder mystery begins during a crucial college football game. Wally Clark (Johnny Mack Brown), the team's star player, is killed just before making the winning touchdown, as the titular 70,000 witnesses look on. Wally's teammate Buck Buchanan (Phillips Holmes), the younger brother of gambler Slip Buchanan (Lew Cody), had previously refused to drug Wally at Slip's bequest. Even so, when Wally drops dead, the leading suspect is poor Buck. It's up to bibulous reporter Johnny Moran (Charles Ruggles) and Wally's sister Dorothy Clark (Dorothy Jordan) to save Buck before local detective Dan McKenna (David Landau) railroads the boy into the electric chair. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Phillips Holmes, Dorothy Jordan, (more)
- 1931
The title character is played by Dorothy Revier in this lower-case melodrama. She plays a gossip columnist whose brother, a prizefighter, is murdered. To uncover the killer, Revier (whose photograph has evidently never been published by her newspaper) goes undercover, posing as a hard-boiled nightclub hoofer. The single new aspect of this predictable effort is finding Dorothy Revier, normally cast as a scheming Other Woman, playing the heroine for a change. Anybody's Blonde was produced by a poverty-row studio bearing the name of Artclass. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Revier, Reed Howes, (more)
- 1931
Independent producer Jack Irwin went to town with this early sound western, which came complete with two (badly dubbed) songs -- "Just a Song at Twilight" and "My Mother's Prayer," as well as a motley group of former silent screen personalities that included veteran villain Tom Santschi, former Universal cowboy Ted Wells, Reed Howes (the erstwhile "Arrow Collar Man"), comedians Billy Franey and Tom Murray, and, presumably to keep the costs down even further, Mrs. Ted Wells. All this "talent" amounted to very little in a trite triangle melodrama about a carnival pitchman who loses his wife to an even slicker operator. The story is set on a wagon train west, but this was no epic -- to put it mildly -- but merely a way for the producer to squeeze the last drop of box-office potential from actors who still enjoyed some support in rural theaters. The film was eventually dumped on an unsuspecting public by the dubious Weiss Bros. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1930
Clancy (Charles Murray) is a pugnacious Irish-American plumber in partnership with parsimonious Scotsman Andy MacIntosh (Lucien Littlefield). Though tight with a dollar himself, Clancy accidentally begins playing the stock market, and before he knows what's happening he's become a millionaire. His efforts to entertain the cream of high society are both disastrous and hilarious, and by the time he's lost all his money in the Wall Street crash, Clancy is more than happy to team up with MacIntosh again. The obligatory romantic subplot is handled as unobtrusively as possible by Miriam Seeger and Edward Nugent. Clancy in Wall Street represented little more than an extension of Charlie Murray's standard Hibernian characterizations in the "Cohens and Kellys" series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lucien Littlefield, Aggie Herring, (more)
- 1929
In this comedy, a meddlesome and grouchy publisher pushes his son and his wife a little too hard to make a few grandchildren and nearly causes them to divorce. It seems the wife is almost unnaturally bonded with her poodle and has no interest in children. Their marriage nearly disintegrates during a sojourn to Paris. The two then go to divorce court where a wise judge sees that they are still in love and helps them realize it. More happiness ensues when the grandfather learns that his daughter-in-law is expecting twins. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hallam Cooley, Edna Murphy, (more)
- 1929
Come Across was based on The Stolen Lady, a short story by William Dudley Pelley. Debutante Lina Basquette, believing that handsome Reed Howes is a crook, is irresistibly attracted to the handsome rogue. Actually, Howes is no criminal but merely a playwright who is frequenting underworld hangouts to gather research for his next play. Both hero and heroine get plenty of first-hand experience in the ways of the Mob when they fall into the clutches of the film's villains. Flora Finch, who two decades earlier had co-starred with John Bunny in a series of popular domestic comedies, plays a minor role in Come Across. The film was released as a silent, save for a six-minute dialogue sequence at the conclusion of the story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lina Basquette, Reed Howes, (more)
- 1928
Danny Eagan (Reed Howes) is on trial for his life, charged with the murder of a prominent gangster leader. Danny refuses to defend himself, knowing that it would mean jeopardizing the reputation of his sweetheart Mary Norfleet (Josephine Dunn). Making matters even dicier is the fact that Mary is the daughter of the prosecuting attorney (Lee Shumway). Finally, the girl comes forth to deliver the vital evidence that she was with Danny on the night of murder, and together, hero and heroine uncover the identity of the real killer. Mary Carr, perennial movie mother of the silent era, plays Danny's ma. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Reed Howes, Mary Carr, (more)
- 1928
Popular film lore has it that The Jazz Singer was the film that established the talkie as the pre-eminent film medium in 1927. But it was Al Jolson's follow-up film, The Singing Fool that actually introduced the sound film to the general film-going population of the United States and it was the popularity of The Singing Fool that paved the way for the wide-acceptance of sound features. Jolson plays Al Stone, a singing waiter at Blackie Joe's cafe, who writes a hit song and sky-rockets to success as a Broadway headliner. Looking ahead to unlimited success, Al falls in love with scheming golddigger Molly Winton (Josephine Dunn), whom he marries. When Molly gives him a son, Sonny Boy (Davey Lee), Al is beside himself with love for his cutey-pie offspring. But when Molly deserts him for small-time gangster John Perry (Reed Howes) and takes Sonny Boy with her, Al is heartbroken. His spirit shattered, Al becomes a bum and, after a time, regains his singing waiter job at Blackie Joe's. Back at the dive, Grace (Betty Bronson), a cigarette girl secretly in love with Al, convinces him to make a comeback. Al struggles and regains his confidence and hits the stage like a trouper -- even when he hears that his beloved Sonny Boy has died in a hospital ward. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Al Jolson, Betty Bronson, (more)
- 1928
Another of First National's successful Jack Mulhall-Dorothy Mackaill vehicles, Ladies' Night is a toned-down adaptation of the venerable stage farce Ladies Night in a Turkish Bath. Womanizing ironworker Speed Dawson (Mulhall) promises to change his roving ways when he falls in love with lunch-counter waitress Helen (Mackaill). Shortly thereafter, Helen's parents (James Finlayson and Sylvia Ashton) unexpectedly strike it rich. While Ma Slocum goes on an expensive diet, Pa Slocum goes out on the town. Pa and Speed accidentally meet at a stag party held in a raucous nightclub -- while next door, Ma Slocum and Helen relax at a Turkish bath. Inevitably, Ma and Helen get locked out of the establishment clad only in towels, just as the nightclub is raided by the police. The fun really begins as Speed, Helen, and the Slocums try to avoid each other while simultaneously evading the Law. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Mackaill, Jack Mulhall, (more)
- 1928
Fashion Madness is The Taming of the Shrew, Roaring '20s style. Claire Windsor plays the spoiled-rotten daughter of a wealthy Wall Street broker. With her daddy's implicit blessing, Windsor is "kidnapped" by physical culturalist Reed Howes. The hero spirits the heroine away to a mountain cabin, where she is forced to do without the luxuries of life and fend for herself. Initially resentful of her gentleman abductor, Windsor eventually falls in love with him, duking it out with Indian maiden Laska Winter over Howes' affections. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claire Windsor, Reed Howes, (more)
- 1928
Educational Films, a curiously-named firm specializing in 2-reel comedies, branched out into features with the aviation actioner Sky Ranger. Based on the popular "Russ Farrell" magazine stories, the film stars Reed Howes as the dashing, devil-may-care flyboy hero. For the sake of heroine Marjorie Daw, Howes undertakes a flight to a tough border town, where Daw's daddy is being held captive by Chinese smugglers. An expert stuntman, Howes was not essentially an aviator, thus most of the more dangerous flying stunts were performed by doubles. Diminutive short-subject funster Bobby Dunn provides marginal comic relief. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Reed Howes, Marjorie Daw, (more)
- 1927
"Rough House Rosie" Reilly (Clara Bow) just can't seem to stay out of trouble. Hoping to become a Broadway actress, Rosie gets mixed up with rowdies and ends up in jail. Much the same thing happens when she tries to crash High Society. Eventually, Rosie finds her true niche in life when she falls in love with handsome prizefighter Joe Hennessey (Reed Howes) and helps him to win the championship bout by using her goo-goo eyes to distract his opponent. Arthur Houseman, later one of screendom's favorite "comic drunks," plays a comparatively straight role as gambler Kid Farrell, while Joseph W. Girard, perennial police chief in many a talkie serial, goes through his usual paces here. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clara Bow, Reed Howes, (more)
- 1927
Handsome Reed Howes once again played a racecar driver in this silent action melodrama produced and directed, low-budget style, by Harry J. Brown. Howes portrayed Jack Harlowe, the son of an auto manufacturer who falls for the daughter of his father's business rival. The girl (Ruth Dwyer) wants him to drive for her father (Myles McCarthy) in the big race, but Jack is committed to pilot the Harlowe car. Until, that is, he learns that a rival (Ernest Hilliard) plans to throw the race. With his father's (James Bradbury, Sr.) permission, the daredevil youth beats the odds to win the race for his future father-in-law. Although not an official remake, The Racing Fool bore an uncanny resemblance to The Crack O'Dawn, a 1925 Harry J. Brown production which had also starred Howes and Dwyer. A former male model, Reed Howes had little more than a nice physique to offer and was reduced to playing bit parts after the changeover to sound. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Reed Howes
- 1927
The Romantic Rogue is handsome Reed Howes, the scion of a disreputable family of peddlers. In the tradition of his forebears, Howes sets up shop in a small town to sell his family's line of patent medicine. But whereas the previous members of Howes' brood knew that their snake oil is bogus, our hero genuinely believes in the stuff -- and his faith in the medicine is contagious, resulting in "miracle cures" that are more due to self-determination and optimism than anything else. In the end, Howes realizes that his wares are worthless, but it hardly matters, since his goodwill-spreading has won him the heart of heroine Ena Gregory. James Bradbury and Syd Crossley co-star as a pair of Mutt-and-Jeff comic sidekicks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Reed Howes, Ena Gregory, (more)
- 1927
Better known for his good looks than any acting capabilities, former male model Reed Howes starred in this silent action melodrama as the ne'er-do-well son of a railroad tycoon who attempts to regain his father's trust by landing an all-important ore-hauling contract. A rival railroad entrepreneur (J.P. McGowan, who also directed) does his best to sabotage the endeavor, but Howes perseveres against the odds. The film was built around footage of a spectacular train collision, which was in reality a stunt photographed at the South Dakota State Fair some years previously. Director J.P. McGowan's long love affair with trains had begun with The Hazards of Helen, a legendary 2-reel series that had starred his then-wife Helen Holmes. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ruth Dwyer, Dot Farley, (more)
- 1927
Reed Howes stars as Mike O'Malley, a daring racecar driver, known as "The Scorcher" for his tendency to "burn up" the track. The wealthy heroine (Thelma Parr) is in love with Mike but feels that he's too irresponsible for marriage. But when the future of his business partner Goldberg (Hank Mann) is at stake, Mike shows that he's comprised of equal parts bravado and common sense. The last-reel race sequence is the best part of the picture, combining clever camerawork with razor-sharp editing. Director Harry Joe Brown later went into the production end of the business, forming a lucrative partnership with western star Randolph Scott. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Reed Howes, Hank Mann, (more)
- 1927
The titular Royal American is a young shanghaied sailor, played by Reed Howes. Forced to work as a deckhand on a rough-and-tumble transport vessel, Howes ends up in South America, where his brutish captain intends to sell guns and ammo to a band of revolutionaries. Besting the villains, Howes gets into the thick of things himself, ultimately rescuing the heroine -- likewise "shanghaied" by the captain -- from Certain Doom. Reed Howes may not have been in the Douglas Fairbanks league, but he was an A-number-one athlete, and this film showed him off to excellent advantage. Most of the action takes place on an old-fashioned square-rigger ship, which looked as if it had been borrowed from a much more prestigious production. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Reed Howes
- 1926
That fine physical specimen Reed Howes stars in the airborne actioner High Flier. An erstwhile inventor, Howes befriends a titled Frenchman who likewise enjoys tinkering with gadgets. The plot contrives to have Howes pose as the French nobleman, which earns him the temporary scorn of heroine Ethel Shannon, the daughter of a wealthy plane manufacturer. All turns out well for the hero when his propeller invention is proven a smashing success -- but not before he is forced to "take the air" himself. A heady combination of laughs and thrills, High Flier delighted its target audience back in 1926, and might well be worth seeing again -- if one could locate a print, that is. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Reed Howes, Ethel Shannon, (more)
- 1926
Admittedly, gridiron flash Harold "Red" Grange was more at home on the football field than before the cameras, but he was an agreeable screen presence in his handful of starring films. In Racing Romeo, his second movie vehicle, Grange is cast as auto mechanic and aspiring racer Red Walden. For the sake of the lovely Sally (Jobyna Ralston), Red enters the obligatory Big Race. Three guesses as to who crosses the finish line ahead of the other cars (and the first two guesses don't count!) Providing strong support for the personable Mr. Grange are such sure-handed comic performers as Trixie Friganza and Walter Hiers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Reed Howes
