Selmar Jackson Movies

District attorney Walter Pidgeon pursues the conviction of criminals so diligently that word has gone out in the state prison to "get" Pidgeon at the first opportunity. The DA has several enemies on the outside as well, one of whom frames him on a bribery charge. Pidgeon is sentenced to the prison where he has sent so many miscreants in the past. Dodging attempts on his own life, Pidgeon makes several valuable convict friends and manages to clear himself during a climactic jailbreak. 6,000 Enemies runs only 61 minutes--an average of about 100 enemies per minute. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Although some purists hold out for Duck Soup (1933), many Marx Brothers fans consider A Night at the Opera the team's best film. Immediately after the credits roll, we are introduced to Groucho Marx as penny-ante promoter Otis B. Driftwood. After a sumptuous dinner with a beautiful blonde at a fancy Milan restaurant, Driftwood tries to cadge another free meal from his wealthy patroness, Mrs. Claypool (Margaret Dumont). The dignified dowager complains that Driftwood had promised to get her into high society, but has done nothing so far. Otis B. counters by introducing Mrs. C to pompous opera entrepreneur Gottleib (Sig Rumann); all Mrs. Claypool has to do is invest several hundred thousand dollars in Gottleib's opera company, and her entree into society is in the bag. Contingent upon this plan is Driftwood's signing of Rodolfo Lassparri (Walter Woolf King), a self-important tenor. Backstage at the opera, Driftwood meets Fiorello (Chico Marx), who poses as a manager and offers to sell Driftwood the "world's greatest tenor"-not Lassparri, as Driftwood assumes, but Fiorello's pal Ricardo Baroni (Allan Jones). Instantly the two sharpsters try to draw up a contract ("The party of the first part shall hereafter be known as the party of the first part..."), which they proceed to tear up piece by piece whenever coming across a clause that displeases them (Driftwood: "That's a sanity clause"; Fiorello: "You no foola me. There ain't no Sanity Claus"). Having lost Lassparri to Gottleib, Driftwood sails back to America with Mrs. Claypool and the opera company. Gottleib arranges for Driftwood to get the tiniest, least accessible stateroom on the ship. Unpacking his trunk, Driftwood discovers that he's got to share his postage-stamp quarters with Ricardo Baroni, who has stowed away because he's in love with the opera troupe's leading lady Rosa (Kitty Carlisle). Also hiding out in Driftwood's trunk is Fiorello, who's come along because he's still Ricardo's manager, and the wacky Tomasso (Harpo Marx), Lassparri's former dresser, who has come along for the hell of it. Anxious to arrange a tete-a-tete with Mrs. Claypool in his stateroom, Otis finds out that his unwelcome guests won't leave until they're fed ("Do you have any stewed prunes? Well, give them some black coffee, that'll sober 'em up"). After ordering a huge dinner, Otis and his new friends are crowded even farther by a steady stream of intruders, including an engineer and his assistant, a cleaning lady, a manicurist, a girl looking for her Aunt Minnie, and a dozen waiters. The celebrated "stateroom scene" comes to a rollicking conclusion when Mrs. Claypool has the misfortune of opening the door. On the last night of the voyage, Fiorello, Tomasso and Ricardo sneak out of their stateroom to enjoy an impromptu ethnic festival in steerage. Ricardo sings, Fiorello "shoots the keys" on the piano, and Tomasso plays the film's theme song Alone on the harp. The stowaways are caught and thrown in the brig, but with Driftwood's help they escape. To avoid recapture, the stowaways don heavy beards and pose as three famed Russian aviators. After making a shambles of a public reception, the three reprobates hide out in Driftwood's New York apartment, where everyone conspires to drive an investigating detective (Robert Emmet O'Connor) crazy. Driftwood is fired from the opera company for associating with the stowaways, while Rosa is dismissed for refusing Lassparri's affections. In order to restore Rosa's job and put the deserving Ricardo in Lassparri's place during the opening performance of La Traviata, Driftwood, Fiorello and Tomasso concoct a scheme that will reduce the opera to comic chaos. The actual night at the opera in A Night at the Opera must be seen to be believed, but the spirit of the scene can be summed up by Gottleib's anguished cry "A battleship in Il Trovatore!" Opera was the Marx Brothers' first film for MGM, and they dearly coveted a hit after the disappointing box-office showing of their final Paramount films. With the blessing of MGM production chief Irving Thalberg, the Marxes went on the road with their brilliant writing staff (including George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind and Al Boasberg) to test their comedy material before live audiences. As a result of this careful preplanning, Night at the Opera was a smash-hit gigglefest, grossing over $3 million and putting the Marxes back on top in the hearts and minds of filmgoers everywhere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ostensibly based on the life of World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker, whose smiling visage opened each of the 13 chapters, this fanciful serial depicted the travails of a globe trotting airline company. It seems that a villain known only as The Dragon (Arthur Loft) is determined to sabotage the company, who in desperation hires daredevil pilot Ace Drummond (John King) to investigate. By the time of the serial's 13th and final chapter -- "The World Akin" -- Drummond has not only managed to destroy The Dragon but also reunited lovely Peggy Trainor (Jean Rogers) with her long lost father (Montagu Shaw) and discovered a hidden mountain containing a fortune in jade. A former band singer with Ben Bernie, the rather bland John King later became "Dusty" King and enjoyed a minor career in B-Westerns. A legendary serial queen, blonde Jean Rogers gained her lasting reputation that same year when Universal cast her as Dale Arden in Flash Gordon. An edited feature version of Ace Drummond was released later in 1936 as Squadron of Doom. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Released in Great Britain as Sealed Lips, this WWI melodrama stars Constance Bennett as Carla, aka Russian spy "K-14." Though there's no room for romance in her line of work, Carla falls in love all the same with Austrian captain Rudi (Gilbert Roland). When he discovers that she's working for the enemy, Rudi is forced to arrest Carla, a turn of events which she takes in stride as the fortunes of war. Though slated for a firing squad, Carla manages to escape and after the war is reunited with Rudi at the train station where they first met. One of the screenwriters was Worthington Miner, later a leading light of the TV anthology series Studio One. Coming at the tail end of the early-1930s "spy cycle," After Tonight lost $100,000 at the box office, forcing RKO Radio to rethink the studio's contract with Constance Bennett. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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

A nurse (Jane Greer) suspects that something is amiss when her patient, a woman on the verge of recovery, suddenly dies. Nonetheless, the nurse marries the woman's widower, Gilbert Hughes (Jane Greer). Later on, she relates her suspicions to lawyer Paul Brett (Robert Webber), who informs her that no matter what she thinks about her husband, she cannot testify against him in court. Ultimately Hughes commits suicide and the nurse ends up marrying Brett -- then makes a startling confession. This episode was originally telecast under the title "A True Account." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Although storekeeper Mrs. Gruber (Jesslyn Fax) has purchased a gun for protection, she finds herself incapable of pulling the trigger when she is robbed by a teenager named Jimmy Philips (Bob Paget). Not so timorous is Mrs. Gruber's customer Gerald R. Clarke (George Nader), who grabs the gun, chases Jimmy down, and shoots the boy to death -- managing to avoid arrest himself by claiming "self-defense." This leads to a fateful confrontation between Gerald and the dead boy's mother (Audrey Totter). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this rollicking adaptation of Ring Lardner's short story, Joe E. Brown plays an ace baseball player whose insistence upon making up excuses earns him the nickname "Alibi Ike." In the course of his first season with the Chicago Cubs, Brown also falls in love with Olivia De Havilland, sister-in-law of the team's manager. Brown's "alibi" habit prompts De Havilland to walk out on him, whereupon he goes into a slump-- which coincides with attempts by gamblers to get Brown to throw the World Series. The plot weaves its way towards a climax in which Brown escapes the gamblers by commandeering an ambulance and driving onto the ball field during the final Series game. Alibi Ike was the most successful of Joe E. Brown's "baseball trilogy" (which included Elmer the Great and Fireman Save My Child), and one the best baseball comedies of all time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this '40s film Kay Kyser parades an entertainment group all over the globe providing laughs for the boys in battle. This film realistically portrays the role of the USO during the WW II time period. ~ All Movie Guide

Few actresses other than Joan Crawford could have successfully pulled off the melodramatic excesses of Autumn Leaves. Though a very attractive fortysomething, Crawford remains aloof from romance until she meets Cliff Robertson, a young man half her age. An ardent and persistent suitor, Robertson finally breaks down her resistence to marriage. After a few weeks of wedded bliss, Crawford is confronted by Vera Miles, who claims to be Robertson's first wife. Miles further insists that Robertson is mentally unbalanced...and his subsequent behavior seems to bear this out. What Crawford doesn't know-but the audience does-is that the real villains of the piece are Miles and her middle-aged lover, Robertson's own father (Lorne Greene). Autumn Leaves works far better on screen than it does in print, thanks to the virtuoso performances of practically everyone in the cast. And, as anyone who's listened to top-40 radio during the past four decades already knows, the film also yielded a hit title song, written by Joseph Kosma, Jacques Prevert, and Johnny Mercer and performed during the credits by Nat King Cole. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the play New York Town by Ward Morehouse, Mervyn LeRoy directs the black-and-white 1932 comedy drama Big City Blues. A small-town innocent from Indiana, Bud Reeves (Eric Linden) inherits money and goes to New York to get in all sorts of trouble. He meets up with his cousin Gibby (Walter Catlett), who introduces him to chorus girl Vida Fleet (Joan Blondell). Bud and Gibby then throw a drunken hotel party with bootleg liquor that gets out of hand and a young woman (Josephine Dunn) is hit on the head and accidentally killed. Bud and Vida go gambling and drinking to escape the cops, but they are caught and arrested with everyone else from the party. Eventually, the police find the real killer and release everyone. Bud leaves for Indiana, but plans to go back, get his dog, and marry Vida. Humphrey Bogart appears in a brief uncredited role as Shep Adkins, a guy who gets into a fight with Lyle Talbot during the party. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

The title tells all in the Monogram "expose" Black Market Babies. Alcoholic physician Dr. Jordan (Ralph Morgan) joins forces with gangster Eddie Condon (Kane Richmond) and shyster lawyer Anthony Marco (George Meeker) in a crooked adoption racket. Coercing unwed mothers to give up their babies for adoption, the unholy trio operates a supposedly philanthropic baby farm which caters to childless couples who have been frustrated by the legal adoption system. The villains rake in oodles and oodles of cash before the authorities close in. But once the jig is up, the crooks fall out, resulting in murder. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Cartwright boys' fraternal horseplay takes a painful turn when they accidentally injure their hired hand Jebediah Milbank (John Carradine). As Milbank recovers in Ben Cartwright's bedroom, Ben orders his rambunctious sons to tend to Jeb's unfinished responsibilities-and to that end, he dispatches Adam, Hoss and Joe to three different directions. Also appearing are Jena Engstrom as Ann, Claude Johnson as Paul, Denver Pyle as Theodore and John Qualen as Parley. First telecast October 1, 1961, "Springtime" was written by John Furia Jr.. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide