Lloyd Hughes Movies
Dubbed by the French artist Andre de Bourget as the "typical American boy," handsome but somewhat bland leading man Lloyd Hughes starred opposite Mary Astor eight times and was Colleen Moore's leading man in five of her most popular films. As Mary Pickford's stalwart love interest in Tess of the Storm Country (1922), Hughes met his wife, Gloria Hope, on the set. Although gifted with an all-American face, the actor could be villainous if the occasion called for it and proved a fairly good adversary for Milton Sills in The Sea Hawk (1924). This was not the last time he would portray the hero's weakling brother, but his Derek in John Barrymore's highly augmented version of Moby Dick, The Sea Beast (1930), was perhaps his final worthwhile assignment. It was downhill from there, all the way to Puritan Pictures and Rip Roaring Riley (1935), whose apocalyptic poisoned gas plot wasn't the film's only putrid element. Former co-star Mary Astor, in her very frank autobiography, summed it all up perfectly: "Hughes was a nice guy who should never have been an actor and he knew it." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1939
Set in a northern California logging community the trouble in this western begins when a lumberjack is killed while sawing down a tree. No one believes it was accidental as everyone is aware that the deceased had just stolen the heart of his partner's girl. Unfortunately, the partner, while jealous sure enough, is innocent and sets out to prove it. He finally wins their belief when he saves the town from a raging forest fire. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Bickford, Jean Parker, (more)
- 1938
Jack LaRue goes through his usual unsavory paces in the not-bad cheapie I Demand Payment. The film is one of several late-1930s exposes of the loan-shark racket, with LaRue playing head shark Smiles Badollo (five points for that name alone!) Among the victims of Badollo's usury are heroine Judith Avery (Betty Burgess) and doctor Craig Mitchell (Lloyd Hughes). When Judith's sister Rita (Sheila Terry) is murdered by the villains, it's the beginning of the end for Badollo and company. Cast as Jack LaRue's cowardly second-in-command is Matty Kemp, who later ruffled more than a few Hollywood feathers as Mary Pickford's no-nonsense business manager. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack LaRue, Betty Burgess, (more)
- 1938
Ken G. Hall, Australia's premiere filmmaker of the 1930s, was responsible for the surprisingly elaborate romantic drama Lovers and Luggers. Former Hollywood film favorite Lloyd Hughes plays famed concert pianist Daubenay Carshott (no, really!) who gives up his musical career for the love of the luscious Lorna (Shirley Ann Richards). At Lorna's behest, Carshott heads to Thursday Island and becomes a pearl diver, allowing Hall to indulge in some pretty fancy underwater footage. Therafter, things move at a rapid pace towards a spectacular finale. Lovers and Luggers was freely adapted from a novel by Gurney Slade. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lloyd Hughes, James Raglan, (more)
- 1938
For many years, producer-director Ken G. Hall was the Australian film industry. One of Hall's 1938 contributions was Broken Melody, a wide-ranging tale of disgrace, redemption, love lost and love found. Expelled from college because of his drunken misbehavior, Lloyd Hughes is likewise disowned by his family. Fortunately, he discovers a latent musical talent, and within a few years he is one of England's top composer-conductors. His signature piece is "Broken Melody", an opera dedicated to his ex-sweetheart. A happy ending ensues when his lost love reappears on the occasion of "Broken Melody"'s London debut. The film was one of several made in Australia by former silent-movie leading man Lloyd Hughes after his Hollywood career petered out. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lloyd Hughes
The Man Betrayed in this Republic actioner is hero Eddie Nugent, though this doesn't occur until the film is half over. Framed for a murder he didn't commit, Nugent finds support from an unlikely corner: a group of crooks, led by John Wray, set about to prove the boy's innocence. All of this meets with the benign approval of clergyman Lloyd Hughes, whose beatific good influence turns out to be contagious. Evidently intended to be longer than its present 58 minutes, Man Betrayed contains several gaping plot and continuity holes, the result of what seems to have been ruthless wholesale editing. The film makes even less sense on TV, where it was pared down to 53 minutes -- and then, to accommodate extra commercials, was whittled down further to 48 minutes (whew)! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Nugent, Kay Hughes, (more)
- 1937
Silver-haired silent film leading man Herbert Rawlinson plays Scotland Yard inspector Sir James Blake in this 15-episode serial. Blake has financed a death ray designed by young inventor Ralph Byrd. The ray will be a boon to mankind (sure!) so long as it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. Those hands belong to "The Scorpion", a hooded mystery villain in league with a Teutonic munitions manufacturer. After several weeks' worth of hidden panels, explosions, kidnappings and other activity, the Scorpion is revealed to be....Aw, you'll guess it in episode one. Blake of Scotland Yard was put together with spit and vinegar by pinch-penny independent producer Sam Katzman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Herbert Rawlinson, Ralph Byrd, (more)
- 1936
In this drama, a writer, dissatisfied with his flagging career, decides to raise some money by walking from New York to San Francisco in six months. Along the way, he will be writing about the experience. One of his buddies bets that the writer won't make it, and this makes him even more determined. Along the way, a terrible storm erupts forcing the intrepid ambler to take refuge in a cabin. There he encounters a runaway and her two little sisters. Trouble ensues when the cabin's owner and some mobsters show up to retrieve their loot. The writer is ecstatic. At last he has some decent material to write about. He joyfully begins to write. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Neil Hamilton, Irene Hervey, (more)
- 1936
Two of Hollywood's finest juvenile actors, Frank Coghlan Jr. and Dickie Moore, top the cast of The Little Red Schoolhouse. Coghlan plays orphaned Frank Burke, who drops out of school and heads to New York City in the company of his faithful dog. He soon learns that life in the Big City is a bit too rich for his blood, and before long he's bundled off to reform school. Fortunately, he cleans up his act in time to see to it that his kid brother Dickie (Moore) doesn't make the same mistakes. Charles W. Lamont, who'd proven his prowess in handling kids and pets in Educational Pictures' "Baby Burlesks" series, handles the direction. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Coghlan, Jr., Dickie Moore, (more)
- 1936
Silent screen juvenile Lloyd Hughes, who once starred opposite Mary Pickford, found himself headlining this ultra-low-budget melodrama, the final release from Poverty Row company Peerless Pictures Corp. Searching for his long-lost love, Bruce Donaldson (Hughes) makes the acquaintance of Shark Moran (Walter Miller), a Singapore planter who eventually makes him his partner. Unbeknownst to Bruce, his missing fiancée, Claire Martineau (Jacqueline Wells), is working as a dancer in a Singapore dive under the name of Marty. Shark, who is bankrolling the dive, asks Marty to marry him but she is still pining for the man who once left her because his wealthy family took a dim view of showgirls. When Marty presents him with a photograph of Bruce, Shark flies into a rage and is stabbed by the girl's faithful servant (Jimmy Aubrey). While trying to flee, Marty runs into Bruce who brings her to the plantation. There, Tiana (Carlotta Monti), Shark's servant who has been trying to seduce Bruce, accuses Marty of murdering her employer. In the end, however, a witness acknowledges that Shark was killed in self-defense by Marty's servant and the lovers are reunited. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lloyd Hughes, Julie Bishop, (more)
- 1936
A radio-controlled bomb accurate within 200 miles is the cause of much mayhem in this low-budget science fiction-thriller based on a story by pulp writer Peter B. Kyne. A hayseed prizefighter, Lefty (Fuzzy Knight), and his manager, Red (Syd Saylor), are hired by Dr. Marston (Forrest Taylor) to bodyguard the device but both are knocked unconscious and the secret blueprints are stolen when a tear gas bomb explodes in the laboratory. Assigned to investigate both the blast and the theft, Secret Service Agent Ted Kelly (Lloyd Hughes) discovers that Dr. Walsh (John Elliott), the uncle of Marston's pretty secretary (Sheila Manners), was the real inventor of the bomb, Marston having stolen the formula by using his hypnotic powers. Pretending to fall under Marston's spell, Kelly solves the case and the world is once again safe from Marston and his minions. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
A homicidal hunchback known as The Fiend is stalking a theater company in this ultra low-budget whodunit ostensibly based on a short story The Great Mono Miracle by Peter B. Kyne. Looking into the mysterious goings-on, Reporter Frank Gordon (Lloyd Hughes) joins drama editor Jean Monroe (June Collyer) and intrepid, but bumbling, photographer Elmer (Al St. John) in an attempt to flush out the murderer. One of the actors, Reardon (Jack Mulhall), makes himself the prime suspect by behaving highly suspicious, but he, too, is murdered. The Fiend, as Elmer learns the hard way, is someone else entirely, someone who holds a deep-rooted grudge against the company. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1935
Produced by parsimonious Majestic Pictures, Reckless Roads stars Regis Toomey as perennial wise-guy Speed Demming. To gain access to haughty heroine Edith Adams (Judith Allen), Speed poses as a reporter and for a long while gets away with it. He also manages to dissuade young Wade Adams (Ben Alexander) from frittering away his life. Somehow this all ends at the racetrack, with Wade winning a huge sum of money on a long-shot, neatly negating Speed's warning that nothing comes easy in life. Typical of the film's patchwork construction is a cabaret scene in which the film's least likeable character suddenly bursts into song. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judith Allen, Regis Toomey, (more)
An overly verbose screenplay all but sinks this otherwise standard whodunit from Poverty Row company Reliable Pictures Corp. A reform-minded but hardheaded chief of police, James Sullivan (James Farley) has a yen for making enemies of both colleagues and family members, including daughter Diane (Claudia Dell), whose romance with plainclothes detective Dan Burke (Lloyd Hughes) is met with stern disapproval. Sullivan, however, is brutally murdered by a dart laced with curare and the same fate befalls the attending physician (Francis Sayles). Enter noted criminologist Professor David Graham (top-billed Reginald Denny), whose investigation soon points the finger directly at Lieutenant Burke. But is Burke guilty or is someone else behind the killings? A Spanish language version, El Crimen del Media Noche, was filmed simultaneously and starred Ramon Pereda, Adriana Lamar, and Juan Torena in the roles originally played by Denny, Dell, and Hughes. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1935
Produced on a reasonably lavish scale by the usually parsimonious Mascot Pictures, Harmony Lane was the first of three filmed biographies of 19th-century songwriter Stephen Foster (the others were Fox's Swanee River [1939] and 1952's I Dream of Jeannie, produced by Mascot's successor, Republic Pictures). Douglass Montgomery stars as Foster, with Evelyn Venable and Adrienne Ames as the women in his life and William Frawley as minstrel impresario E.P. Christy (the part played by Al Jolson in Swanee River). The film follows Foster from his early attempts to study for the ministry to his first flush of success in the years just prior to the Civil War, ending with his death in drunken poverty in New York. Just what was it that so attracted Hollywood to this melancholy tale? Perhaps it was the fact that Stephen Foster's songs were in the Public Domain, thereby allowing producers to sidestep expensive copyright and licensing fees. Harmony Lane was written and directed by Joseph Santley, a prolific if uninspired helmsman of early-talkie musicals. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Douglass Montgomery, Evelyn Venable, (more)
- 1935
In this comedy, a woman lives with her recently impoverished family who would do anything to regain their former wealth and status. They use the young woman, and every time any likely person comes to call, they try to foist her upon them. One of these visitors is the son of a conniving lawyer who wants the rest of their fortune for himself. The attorney's other son is a bug collector. The family is so busy with their farfetched money grubbing schemes that they pay no attention to the level-headed young woman's attempts to get by. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lois Wilson, Lloyd Hughes, (more)
- 1935
Set up essentially to produce cheap westerns, low-budget Puritan Pictures occasionally ground out a contemporary actioner like Rip Roaring Riley. Lloyd Hughes stars as Riley, a two-fisted G-Man who is dispatched to faraway Diamond Island. Riley's mission is to capture the sinister Major Grey (Grant Withers) who is busily manufacturing poison-gas bombs. Our hero must also rescue the inventor of the noxious gas, Professor Baker (John Cowell), and Baker's shapely daughter Ann (Marion Burns). Former silent comedians Eddie Gribbon and Kit Guard provide laughs as a pair of two-bit thugs who spend the bulk of the film outsmarting themselves. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lloyd Hughes, Grant Withers, (more)
- 1935
This truly offbeat filmization of Jean Bart's stage drama The Man Who Reclaimed His Head has been misleadingly released to TV as part of the "Shock Theater" package, even though the film is more melancholy than horrific. At the height of WW I, the trembling, near-lunatic Paul Verin (Claude Rains) arrives at police headquarters, carrying an ominously heavy handbag. Before revealing the bag's gruesome contents, he relates his tragic story in flashback. At one time a promising writer, Verin was married to the beautiful and ambitious Adele (Joan Bennett), who pushed and prodded him to advance himself. Accordingly, he sold his "head" -- that is, his integrity -- to powerful publisher Henri Dumont (Lionel Atwill), ghostwriting Dumont's anti-war editorials. By the time he realized that the hypocritical Dumont had himself sold out to the pro-war business interests, Verin had lost his wife and child to the scheming publisher. Driven mad on the battlefield, he made his way back to Dumont's mansion, exacting a horrible but appropriate revenge (hence the film's title). The Man Who Reclaimed His Head was remade in 1945 as Strange Confession -- with the pacifist angle completely removed! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claude Rains, Joan Bennett, (more)
- 1932
Lloyd Hughes, a silent star on the downslide, heads the cast of the 1932 programmer Heart Punch. Hughes plays a boxer who accidently kills his opponent (George J. Lewis) with a punch to the heart. Hoping to make amends, Hughes approaches the dead man's sister (Marion Schilling), offering to help in any way he can. Understandably, she tells him to get lost, but by film's end she forgives him with open arms. Among the veteran performers assembled for Heart Punch is former serial star Walter Miller and the "ever popular" Mae Busch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lloyd Hughes
- 1932
A San Francisco gangster hot foots it out of town to cool down after his crime boss is suddenly killed. He ends up in a little coastal town where he begins devising one of the nastiest little con games around. It seems there is a faith healer in town with the ability to help the crippled walk again. The crook's plan is to use a contortionist pretending to be a cripple to convince people that the healer is for real. He will then further exploit the healer by having him broadcast live over the radio. Unfortunately, the gangster and his men didn't count on the fact that the healer is the real deal. As they all get to know him, real miracles occur, and the gangsters suddenly find themselves using their loot to build the town a brand new chapel. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sylvia Sidney, Chester Morris, (more)
- 1932
In this drama, an orphan girl marries a kindly crook to stay out of reform school. The crook is the head thief in a robber ring that preys on homes of the wealthy, but his new wife doesn't know this. She innocently gets a job with the district attorney, and there learns the truth. Still she is loyal and uses her job to help her husband cover up the information that could destroy the DA's bid for to become governor. As a return favor, the DA gives the crook a minimal sentence. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lucille Powers, Theodore Von Eltz, (more)
- 1932
World War I flying aces, American Bill (Lloyd Hughes) and German Otto (Norman Kerry), now perform for a carnival, and both are attracted to Eve, who's really in love with Otto. When they get to Bill's hometown, Eddie (Matty Kemp), Bill's younger brother who is training to be a pilot, meets Eve, and he, too, is drawn to her. Otto has criminal plans that require Eddie's involvement, so he uses Eve in an effort to enlist the younger man's aid. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Norman Kerry, Lloyd Hughes, (more)
