Paul Hurst Movies
When American actor Paul Hurst became the comedy sidekick in the Monte Hale western series at Republic in the early '50s, he came by the work naturally; he had been born and bred on California's Miller and Lux Ranch. While in his teens, Hurst attained his first theatre job as a scenery painter in San Francisco, making his on-stage debut at age 19. In 1911, Hurst ventured into western films, wearing three hats as a writer, director and actor. He worked ceaselessly in character roles throughout the '20s, '30s and '40s, most often in comedy parts as dim-witted police officers and muscle-headed athletes. He also showed up in leading roles in 2-reelers, notably as a punchdrunk trainer in Columbia's Glove Slingers series. On at least two memorable occasions, Hurst eschewed comedy for villainy: in 1943's The Ox-Bow Incident, he's the lynch-mob member who ghoulishly reminds the victims what's in store for them by grabbing his collar and making choking sounds. And in Gone with the Wind, Hurst is Hell personified as the Yankee deserter and would-be rapist whom Scarlet O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) shoots in the face at point blank range. Paul Hurst kept busy into the early '50s; at the age of 65, he ended his career and his life in suicide. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1939
In this entry in the "Jones Family" comedy series, the Jones have just arrived from a Hollywood vacation when they receive a telegram informing them that a recently deceased and very wealthy uncle has left them a gold mine near the Grand Canyon. Happily the family packs up and heads for Arizona; there, they contract a guide who takes them high up a mountain to an isolated cabin, which turns out to be a robbers' lair. Mayhem ensues until the children catch the crooks and collect a handsome reward. The film was written by former silent film great Buster Keaton. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jed Prouty, Spring Byington, (more)
- 1939
In this musical, a composer abandons vaudeville in favor of the legitimate stage. He soon finds himself entangle with a Russian ballet company that contains his old childhood lover, but when the troupe mistake him for a traitor trouble ensues. Perhaps the film is most notable for Balanchine's choreography of "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue." Songs include: "There's a Small Hotel," "Quiet Night," "On Your Toes," "Princess Zenobia Ballet." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vera Zorina, Eddie Albert, (more)
- 1939
In this comedy/mystery a milquetoast ad man finds his good ideas constantly copped by ambitious coworkers. His boss doesn't even seem to see him. The ad man's wife pushes her husband into confronting his boss during a party. Unfortunately, the timid fellow finds himself accused of murder after a corpse is found in the trunk of his car. He is quickly incarcerated for the crime. Meanwhile his wife begins investigating in an attempt to prove his innocence. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stuart Erwin, Gloria Stuart, (more)
- 1939
In his feature film debut, Glenn Ford plays a department-store clerk who saves up enough money to buy a small patch of land in Arizona. Unable to afford a car, Ford hitchhikes to his new home, and along the way teams up with a transient (Richard Conte) and an illegal alien (Jean Rogers). The girl is torn between both men, but ultimately opts for the clerk. To save the girl from deportation, the clerk marries her, and together they make a new life for themselves in his tiny Arizona homestead. Adapted from a story by Dalton Trumbo, Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence was directed by former silent film star Ricardo Cortez. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Rogers, Raymond Walburn, (more)
- 1939
Bad Lands is a remake of John Ford's The Lost Patrol, with the locale changed from the Mesopotamian to the Arizona desert. The year is 1875: A posse headed by sheriff Robert Barrat is held at bay by Apache warriors. Following the pattern established by the Ford film, the posse members are decimated one by one, until only Barrat is left. Not content with merely changing the location and time-frame, scriptwriter Clarence Upson Young added a subplot involving a much-coveted vein of silver ore. This contrivance aside, Bad Lands is a worthy revision of the original Lost Patrol, though not quite as good as such later WW2 variations as Bataan and Sahara. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert H. Barrat, Noah Beery, Jr., (more)
Gone With the Wind boils down to a story about a spoiled Southern girl's hopeless love for a married man. Producer David O. Selznick managed to expand this concept, and Margaret Mitchell's best-selling novel, into nearly four hours' worth of screen time, on a then-astronomical 3.7-million-dollar budget, creating what would become one of the most beloved movies of all time. Gone With the Wind opens in April of 1861, at the palatial Southern estate of Tara, where Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) hears that her casual beau Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard) plans to marry "mealy mouthed" Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland). Despite warnings from her father (Thomas Mitchell) and her faithful servant Mammy (Hattie McDaniel), Scarlett intends to throw herself at Ashley at an upcoming barbecue at Twelve Oaks. Alone with Ashley, she goes into a fit of histrionics, all of which is witnessed by roguish Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), the black sheep of a wealthy Charleston family, who is instantly fascinated by the feisty, thoroughly self-centered Scarlett: "We're bad lots, both of us." The movie's famous action continues from the burning of Atlanta (actually the destruction of a huge wall left over from King Kong) through the now-classic closing line, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." Holding its own against stiff competition (many consider 1939 to be the greatest year of the classical Hollywood studios), Gone With the Wind won ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress (Vivien Leigh), and Best Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American to win an Oscar). The film grossed nearly 192 million dollars, assuring that, just as he predicted, Selznick's epitaph would be "The Man Who Made Gone With the Wind." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, (more)
Otis Ferguson has said of Each Dawn I Die that "the story is of the kind you would have to see to disbelieve." And to be sure, the film is nothing more than a sampler of '30s prison-film conventions. But with the brilliant acting by James Cagney and the fast-paced and hard-edged direction of William Keighley, the film clatters past like an express train. Cagney plays Frank Ross, an innocent newspaperman who is railroaded into prison by a corrupt district attorney. In prison, he meets hardened-con Stacey (George Raft). Frank, at first, doesn't want to associate with Stacey and the other prisoners, but trapped in the hellhole prison, he more and more turns into a bitter con. Finally granted a hearing from the parole board, Frank pleads his innocence, but the parole board is headed by Grayce (Victor Jury), the man responsible for his imprisonment, and his parole is denied, and Frank becomes more hardened and embittered. By this point, Stacey has befriended him and agrees to help Frank prove his innocence. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, George Raft, (more)
- 1939
Jeanette MacDonald and Lew Ayres make strange bedfellows in the overproduced MGM musical Broadway Serenade. She plays aspiring singer Mary Hale, and he plays her husband, struggling songwriter James Geoffrey Seymour. The couple's vaudeville act breaks up when Mary is hired for a big-time Broadway revue. As she rises to the top of the show-business heap, Seymour hits the skids, having lost his inspiration. On the verge of divorcing Seymour to marry a wealthy producer, Mary finally realizes that her life will be incomplete without her husband by her side. Saving the film from drowning in a sea of cliches are Jeanette MacDonald's musical renditions, not to mention the comedy relief of Frank Morgan and veteran vaudevillian Al Shean. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanette MacDonald, Lew Ayres, (more)
- 1939
In this off-beat love story, wealthy socialite Linda Bronson (Greer Garson) is about to marry Sky Ames (Lou Ayres) but then falls in love with handsome Jeff Holland (Robert Taylor). They become engaged. Unfortunately, Jeff is obsessed with work and has no time for an elaborate wedding. Instead they visit the justice-of-the-peace. The honeymoon ends quickly because Jeff spends so much time working that he completely ignores Linda. Fed up, she files for divorce. Good old Sky, who was so gentlemanly when she dumped him, sees that Linda is about to make a grave mistake and so comes up with a creative way to bring her and Jeff back together: he will slip them a memory-loss drug and then reintroduce them in hopes that they will once again fall in love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Taylor, Greer Garson, (more)
- 1939
Paramount's Café Society applies a glossy new coat of paint to a wheezy old plotline. Madeleine Carroll plays a debutante named Christopher, who after a whirlwind courtship marries newspaper photographer Crick O'Banion (Fred MacMurray). But when Crick finds out that he's been rushed to the altar so that Christoper can win a bet with society columnist Sonny DeWitt (Allyn Joslyn) he vows to teach her a good lesson. With the sub rosa help of Christopher's wealthy uncle (Claude Gillingwater Sr.), Crick contrives a latter-day "Taming of the Shrew" scenario. It's all been done before and would all be done again, but the stars are attractive and the production values top-rank. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Madeleine Carroll, Fred MacMurray, (more)
- 1939
Banking on the popularity of the Warner Bros.' boxing saga Kid Galahad (37), the studio rushed into production with another, similarly titled prizefight picture. In Kid from Kokomo, Wayne Morris once more plays a small-town rube who's good with his fists. The "kid" becomes convinced that a drunken harridan (May Robson) is his mother, and invites her to move in with him. Since the old lady is a kleptomaniac, it doesn't take long for the law to breathe down Morris' neck. Pat O'Brien hangs around as Morris' manager, while Joan Blondell and Jane Wyman supply the feminine interest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pat O'Brien, Wayne Morris, (more)
- 1938
Every so often, the delightful Dorothea Kent would break away from dumb-blonde roles to play a "straight" romantic lead. One such instance was Universal's The Last Express, wherein Kent, as Amy Arden, finds herself unwillingly mixed up in a series of murders. At the behest of the district attorney, private detective Duncan MacLain (Kent Taylor) investigates the probability of corruption in high government circles. With his partner Spud (Don Brodie) and subway ticket-taker Amy, MacLain searches for a batch of incriminating documents, stolen right from under the noses of the authorities. Someone is willing to kill to keep these documents from resurfacing, and for a while it looks as though MacLain and his entourage are next on the "hit list". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kent Taylor, Dorothea Kent, (more)
- 1938
This tuneful campus comedy features aging star John Barrymore as a sly, blustery Southern governor with his eye on the Senate (aka Louisiana's Huey Long). He sees opportunity knocking when he learns how desperate his constituents have become to build their miserable state college football team into winners. He figures that if the team wins, so will he. To this end, he surreptitiously recruits a number of burly professional wrestlers to pose as football players. Unfortunately his chief opponent is running a similar racket with a rival university. When the governor's trickery is revealed on the eve of the big game, things look bleak until a quick-thinking coed shows up to save the day. The story is also titled Hold That Girl. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Barrymore, George Murphy, (more)
- 1938
In this musical comedy of errors, David Brassard, Sr. (William Collier, Sr.) has his heart stolen from him by a conniving, gold-digging nightclub singer named Josette (Tala Birell). Brassard's two sons, Pierre (Robert Young) and David Junior (Don Ameche) are both horrified and vow to lure the temptress away from their dad. However, they somehow become convinced that the woman in question is Renee LaBlanc (Simone Simon), who is merely posing as a chanteuse in order to help out her friend Barney Barnaby (Bert Lahr), whose nightspot is in trouble. In time, Pierre and David Junior both realize that they've been chasing the wrong woman -- but they also realize that they've both fallen in love with her. The supporting cast includes William Demarest and Lon Chaney, Jr., the latter only a year before One Million B.C. would reshape his career and make him a star of horror and science fiction films. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Ameche, Simone Simon, (more)
- 1938
A female reporter is faced with a tough decision in this romantic comedy. She is engaged to another reporter. Though they want to marry soon, they are constantly kept apart by widely differing assignments. At last they settle on a wedding date, but then the woman finds a missing person that her lover has been seeking for ages. Now she must decide whether to tell him, or get the big scoop for herself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Arlen, Mary Astor, (more)
- 1938
The slick Universal programmer Secrets of a Nurse was based on a Collier's Magazine story by distinguished journalist Quentin Reynolds. This story in turn was based on a true incident, in which a gangster "returned from the dead" to save an innocent young man from the electric chair. The nurse of the title is Katharine McDonald (Helen Mack), in love with prizefighter Lee Burke (Dick Foran). As Burke recovers from a beating inflicted by crooked gamblers, Katharine must fend off the advances of shady criminal attorney John Dodge (Edmund Lowe). Hoping to rid the world of his romantic rival for good and all, Dodge arranges for Burke to be framed for murder. Convicted and sentenced to death, Burke walks the dreaded "last mile", as miles away Katharine struggles to revive a mortally wounded gambler who may be able to save her sweetheart from electrocution. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Lowe, Helen Mack, (more)
His Aunt Sophie (Helen Westley) and his teacher Professor Heinrich (Jean Hersholt) are sure that Roger Grant (Tyrone Power) will be a famous classical violinist, but Roger's more interested in popular music. He and his friend, pianist Charlie (Don Ameche), audition at a saloon in San Francisco's Barbary Coast, using sheet music left by singer Stella Kirby (Alice Faye), which had been sent to her by a friend in New York, Irving Berlin. The number, "Alexander's Ragtime Band," proves to be a sensation, and Stella goes along with Charlie's plea to sing with the band, which soon becomes famous for its ragtime numbers. Charlie has fallen in love with Stella by the time they open at the Cliff House, but he soon realizes that she and Roger are in love. Stella is invited to New York by a famous producer, but Roger's against this, and angrily fires her, so Charlie quits, too. When Roger returns from World War I, he meets Stella, only to learn she and Charlie have been married for a year. Another year passes, and Charlie and Davey have formed a new band with Jerry Allen (Ethel Merman) as their lead singer. Charlie knows Stella still loves Roger, so he divorces her, but Roger sails for Europe with the new band. Back in New York, Roger is set for a major concert in swing at Carnegie Hall. Charlie tells Roger about the divorce, and that Stella still loves him. Unable to get a ticket, Stella listens to the concert in a cab. Explaining that he is playing it for one particular person, Roger and his band perform "Alexander's Ragtime Band" as their encore, bringing Stella into the theater, where she's reconciled with Roger. He brings her onstage to perform the number with his band. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, (more)
- 1938
In this drama, a woman is betrothed to a district attorney. When a man is falsely convicted of murder and condemned to death, the woman postpones her wedding to prove him innocent. She enlists the help of a former gangster and eventually succeeds in saving the innocent man's life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gloria Stuart, Michael Whalen, (more)
In Old Chicago was 20th Century-Fox's spin on MGM's San Francisco--a personal saga played out against the backdrop of a famous 19th Century disaster. Alice Brady plays Mrs. O'Leary, a widow who brings her two young boys to the sleepy village of Chicago. As the city grows in prominence and prestige, so do the boys: One son (Tyrone Power) becomes a rascal who dreams of creating his own entertainment empire, while the other son (Don Ameche) matures into an honest, straight-laced lawyer. Both boys woo a beautiful singer (Alice Faye), who favors the more reckless of the two. As the headstrong son gains control of the more disreputable forms of Chicago entertainment, the serious son becomes the city's Mayor. The requisite rivalry between the two reaches a fever pitch just before their mother's cow knocks over a lantern and sets off the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The O'Leary boys unite in trying to fight the conflagration and rescue the populace; the mayor dies, and the wastrel son vows to mend his ways and help build a "new" Chicago. In Old Chicago is climaxed spectacularly by the famous fire, a masterwork of special effects courtesy of 20th Century-Fox's Fred Sersen. The film, which originally ran 115 minutes, is currently available only in its shorter (and better paced) reissue version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, (more)
- 1938
Thanks for Everything is an unjustly forgotten lampoon of media promotional stunts. Jack Haley wins a contest sponsored by an ad agency, which is looking for the perfect "average American." The contest's avaricious promoters (Adolphe Menjou and Jack Oakie) use poor Haley as a merchandising tool by having him endorse all sorts of products. When Haley's girl friend (Arleen Whelan) realizes that the hapless fellow is being exploited as a means of controlling the advertising industry, Haley insists that the promoters cease and desist or he'll blow the whistle. The promoters respond by discrediting Haley as a crackpot, but justice triumphs in the end. Thanks for Everything is capped by a bizarre sequence in which Menjou and Oakie convince Haley that World War II has broken out--a sequence filmed one year before this actually occurred! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adolphe Menjou, Jack Oakie, (more)
- 1938
In this drama, a tuna fisherman is wrongly convicted for murder. Because he is a model, and oft-times heroic prisoner, he is up for early parole. While parole is better than prison, it is still not justice for the man as he is unable to travel far and marry his beloved. He decides that his only real option is to escape and begin looking for the real killer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barton MacLane, Glenda Farrell, (more)
- 1938
- NR
Except for a few clips from 1937's Topper, Cary Grant is absent from the proceedings of the 1939 sequel Topper Takes a Trip, though his Topper co-stars Constance Bennett, Roland Young, Billie Burke and Alan Mobray are back in harness and in fine fettle. Picking up where the first film left off, we find mild-mannered banker Cosmo Topper (Young) being sued for divorce by his wife Clara (Burke). It's all because of Topper's questionable behavior while at the mercy of mischievous ghosts George and Marion Kerby (Grant and Bennett). All the ghosts had wanted to do was "liberate" Topper from his stuffy existence, thereby performing a good deed that would allow them entree into Heaven. George Kirby was permitted to ascend to the Choir Invisible, but for obscure reasons the spirit of Marion was left behind. She decides that the only way she'll be allowed past the Pearly Gates is to reunite Mr. and Mrs. Topper, and to that end follows Clara to Paris and Monte Carlo. This time, Marion is joined in her mission by Skippy, a ghostly pooch who, like his mistress, can appear and disappear at will. As in the earlier Topper film, Roy Seawright's special effects vie for top comedy honors with the superb performance by Roland Young as the ever-flustered Cosmo Topper. Equally amusing are supporting players Veree Teasdale, Franklin Pangborn and Alex D'Arcy. The second of producer Hal Roach's Topper films (based on the novels by Thorne Smith), Topper Takes a Trip would be followed in 1941 by Topper Returns...and, of course, by the eternally-rerun TV series of the 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Constance Bennett, Roland Young, (more)
Previously filmed in 1917 and 1932, Kate Douglas Wiggins' bucolic novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is herein refashioned--and completely, totally, utterly rewritten--as a vehicle for 10-year-old Shirley Temple. Unable to land a radio contract for himself and his niece Rebecca Winstead (Temple), fly-by-night vaudevillian Henry Kipper (William Demarest) leaves the girl in the care of her aunt, Miranda Wilkins (Helen Westley), who runs a little farm with the help of hired hands Homer (Slim Summerville) and Aloysius (Bill Robinson). Miranda has an intense dislike for "show folks", but her next-door neighbor Anthony Kent (Randolph Scott), a talent scout for a major radio network, sees great possibilities in the talented Rebecca and secretly arranges an audition. In short order, Rebecca becomes the biggest sensation on the airwaves, whereupon the mercenary Kipper returns out of nowhere and demands that Miranda return the girl to his care. By now, Rebecca and Miranda have grown to love one another dearly, and the girl doesn't want to leave the farm, but she does what she is told--only to foil the conniving Kipper with a convenient last-minute "illness" (a scene that provides a showcase role for Franklin Pangborn) as a nervous standby organist). Future Titanic costar Gloria Stuart appears as Gwen Warren, obligatory love interest for Anthony Kent. Musical highlights include a medley of hit tunes from Shirley Temple's previous films (including, inevitably, "On the Good Ship Lollipop"), and a climactic tap duet spotlighting Temple and the inimitable Bill Robinson, danced to the tune of Raymond Scott's "Toy Trumpet". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shirley Temple, Randolph Scott, (more)
- 1938
Sonja Henie is the "lucky star" in this enjoyable 20th Century-Fox musical. Henie plays Kristina Nelson a humble department store sales clerk who is spotted while skating by George Cabot Jr. (Cesar Romero_, son of the store's owner. George is so taken by Kristina that he gets her an athletic scholarship in a major university. It is hoped that our heroine will serve as a living advertisement for the store by strolling around in an expensive sports wardrobe; instead, she incurs the jealousy of her fellow students, causing a slump in sales. George also loses out romantically when Kristina falls in love with handsome teacher Larry Taylor (Richard Greene). Expelled from college, Kristina recovers from the blow when she's hired by a popular ice capades-style extavaganza. The film's highlight is Sonja Henie's "Alice in Wonderland" ice ballet, originally released in Sepiatone. Those not interesting in skating will be compensated by the lunatic comedy of supporting actress Joan Davis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sonja Henie, Richard Greene, (more)
- 1937
Its title notwithstanding, We Who Are About to Die has nothing to do with Roman Gladiators. Rather, the film is based on the true story of San Quentin inmate David Lamson, who spent 13 agonizing months on Death Row before the Supreme Court reversed his conviction. Renamed John (and played by John Beal), the Lamson character knows he's innocent but also knows that the date of his execution is drawing ever nearer. Meanwhile, his sweetheart Connie (Ann Dvorak), in collaboration with private eye Matthews (Preston S. Foster), races against time to unearth new evidence and expose the guilty party. Rather pokey for the most part, We Who Are About to Die turns into a real nail-biter during the final 15 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Preston S. Foster, Ann Dvorak, (more)
