Dean Jagger Movies

Filmed silent, but outfitted with a Movietone musical score and sound effects, Woman From Hell was inspired by From Hell Came a Lady, a play by Jaime Del Rio, George Scarborough and Lois Leeson. The title character, played by Mary Astor is Dee Renaud, the principal attraction of a cheap sideshow. The seedy barker promises the yokels that if they're able to catch the "Lady From Hell," she will reward them with a kiss. When rapacious customer Slick Ericks (Roy D'Arcy) tries to go beyond kissing, Dee is rescued by lighthouse keeper Jim Coakley (Dean Jagger, in his film debut). Marrying Jim out of gratitude, Dee unsuccessfully tries to convince Jim's salty old father (James Bradbury Sr.) that she'll be a good and faithful wife. Alas, she is a slave to her passions, and it isn't long before she has become smitten by Jim's best friend Alf (Robert Armstrong), who responds in kind, inviting the girl to run off with him. When Jim's dad is incapacitated, however, Dee loyally remains in the lighthouse to operate the beam and avert a shipwreck. Realizing that Dee's true place is with her husband and father-in-law, Alf does the "right thing" and walks out of her life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adapted from Owen Davis's stage comedy The Nervous Wreck (itself filmed in 1927), Flo Ziegfeld's musical spectacular Whoopee! was one of the solid hits of the 1928-29 Broadway season, thanks largely to the irrepressible Eddie Cantor. The property was transferred to film virtually intact in 1930, again produced by Ziegfeld (in collaboration with Sam Goldwyn) and again starring Cantor. The star plays Henry Williams, a wide-eyed hypochondriac who heads to a western resort town in the company of his long-suffering nurse Mary Custer (Ethel Shutta). Meanwhile, Wanenie (Paul Gregory), the son of an Indian chief, pines away out of love for white heiress Sally Morgan (Eleanor Hunt), who has been forbidden to marry Wanenie because of their racial differences. One of the most unsympathetic heroines in screen history, Sally coerces Henry into helping her elope then allows the poor boob to be accused of kidnapping. All sorts of zany complications ensue, not least of which is the side-splitting scene in which Henry, disguised as an Indian, adopts a thick Jewish accent while trying to sell a rug to a tourist. The Sally/Wanenie dilemma ends happily when the young man turns out not to be Indian after all, while Henry, cured of his ills by all the excitement, marries nurse Marie. The "Ziegfeld Touch" is most obvious in the final reels, when the story stops dead in its tracks to offer a long, drawn-out parade of "Glorified" Follies girls wearing enormous headdresses and precious little else. But the film's highlight is Eddie Cantor's sly, insinuating rendition of the title song, in which he details in humorous fashion the pitfalls of "makin' whoopee" with the wrong girl. Featured among the Goldwyn Girls are such future stars as Claire Dodd, Virginia Bruce, and 14-year-old Betty Grable, who energetically performs the very first chorus of the very first song in the film. Lensed in eye-pleasing early Technicolor, Whoopee was a success, launching a long and fruitful cinematic collaboration between Eddie Cantor and Sam Goldwyn. It was remade by Goldwyn in 1944 as Up in Arms, a showcase for the producer's "new Cantor" Danny Kaye. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Paramount Pictures' annual college musical of 1934 is a pip, as they used to say. Jack Oakie plays Finnegan, a conceited gridiron hero whose prowess on the football field is exceeded only by his appreciation of the ladies. But his strutting manner and accompanying overbearing ego have alienated his one-time best friend Larry Stacey (Lanny Ross), a serious, more scholarly type who deeply resents the adulation heaped on Finnegan. Things go wrong for Finnegan after he graduates, as he pins his hopes on a job offer from a business firm that folds soon after. He finally shows up at Stacey's department store, where Larry -- the owner's son -- has taken over as general manager; and Larry, finally having the advantage over Finnegan, seeks to humiliate him in the course of helping him out with a menial job. But as it turns out, Larry is no sterling success either -- he's turned his father's once-thriving department store into a haven catering only to the very rich, of whom there were precious few in the midst of the Great Depression; Larry is also such a self-involved prig in his own way, wallowing in self-pity where Finnegan wallows in self-adulation, that he scarcely notices that his own secretary (Helen Mack) is almost dying in her unrequited love for him. In order to save his business, Larry's father, J. P. Stacey (eorge Barbier), turns to Finnegan, the football hero who used to sell 60,000 tickets a week on the playing field -- Finnegan understands ballyhoo, and what the public wants, and is put in charge of the store, and also becomes captain of a football team fielded by the store. Soon the place is jumping, especially when Finnegan brings back his old college team waterboy Joe (Joe Penner) and his duck mascot Goo-Goo, and fetching blonde cheerleader/singer Mimi (Lyda Roberti). Larry is reduced to running a department in the store and finally decides its time to step up and take on Finnegan head-to-head, joining the store's football team. But there's treachery and dirty tricks afoot -- in between a bright score by Mack Gordon and Harry Revel -- when Stacey's takes on a team fielded by their arch-rival store, Whimple's, in a bitter grudge-match fueled by the two owners' mutual dislike for each other. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

A wealthy young heir rebels when his snooty parents refuse to allow him to marry a lovely young secretary. Deciding to teach them a lesson, he goes West where he falls in love and marries the daughter of a Native American chief. He brings her home to meet his parents, who are naturally appalled, and vengeance is his. Unfortunately their marital bliss is disturbed when a woman shoots her married lover and the Indian girl is blamed for the crime. The husband then goes to the police and confesses the crime to protect her. Fortunately, the astute police put the couple together in a room bugged with a concealed microphone. They then learn that both are innocent. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Former child star Jackie Coogan made a somewhat awkward transition to adulthood in Home on the Range. Based on Zane Grey's novel Code of the West, the film casts Coogan and Randolph Scott as the Hatfield brothers, Tom and Jack. Owners of a racing stable, the boys figure that one of their ponies, a magnificent animal named Midnight is a sure winner. Before they're able to prove this, however, Tom and Jack fall victim to a gang of race-fixers who use high-powered rifles to ensure that their horses will win. This doesn't stop Tom from risking his life to ride Midnight to victory. Radio crooner Joe Morrison, whose chief claim to fame was the western ballad "Last Roundup", shows up in Home on the Range long enough to sing the title tune. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This Zane Grey adaptation stars Dean Jagger as Adam and Gail Patrick as Ruth, two rugged individuals heading to gold country by riverboat. The couple's burgeoning romance is interrupted when Adam inadvertently gets involved in a murder. On the lam from the authorities, he links up with grizzled old prospector Dismukes (Edward Ellis), the titular wasteland wanderer. In typical Zane Grey fashion, hero and heroine are ultimately reunited by a series of convenient coincidences -- but there's still villainous Big Ben (Buster Crabbe) to contend with. Hefty vaudeville headliner Trixie Friganza also shows up in a choice supporting role. Previously filmed by Paramount in 1924 (in Technicolor, no less), Wanderer of the Wasteland was remade by RKO Radio in 1945. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jane Withers plays "little Miss Fixit" in Pepper with a minimum of sentimental goo and a maximum of laughs. Though she's been warned not to do so, Pepper Jolly (Withers) intrudes upon the solitude of grouchy old millionaire John Wilkes (Irvin S. Cobb). Her unbridled good spirits virtually strong-arm the old fellow into cracking a smile for the first time in his life -- and of course has a reciprocal positive effect on everyone whom Wilkes himself has previously made miserable. The plot winds to a close as Pepper and Wilkes join forces to prevent his daughter Helen's (Muriel Roberts) marriage to an oily gigolo (who else but Ivan Lebedeff?) The scene in which Pepper coerces Wilkes into taking all of her friends to an amusement park is a riot, especially when Wilkes himself endures the happy agony of a roller-coaster ride. Recalling her co-star Irvin S. Cobb in 1975, Jane Withers told film historian Don Stanke, "He was a wonderful gentlemen. He thought I was going to be what I was like in Bright Eyes (in which she played a hateful brat), and he got the surprise of his life when I wasn't. We got along marvelously." Indeed, the warm rapport between the two stars shines through every frame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It's a Great Life served as a vehicle for once-popular radio singer Joe Morrison (who can also be seen in W.C. Fields' It's the Old Fashioned Way). Morrison plays a young unemployed fellow who joins the Civilian Conservation Corps. Enjoying the twin euphoria of steady work and fresh air, Morrison and his new pal, hobo Paul Kelly, burst into song at the slightest provocation. A rift comes between Morrison and Kelly when Morrison's girl Rosalind Keith falls in love with the tramp, but all differences are swept away during a climactic bursting-dam sequence. It's a Great Life was co-written by future "Dagwood Bumstead" Arthur Lake, who in 1943 would star in a Blondie entry titled...It's a Great Life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Designed as a follow-up to the Halperin Brothers' phenomenally successful White Zombie, Revolt of the Zombies unfortunately isn't nearly as good. The story is set in Cambodia in the years following WWI. Evil Count Mazovia (Roy D'Arcy) has come into possession of the secret methods by which dead men can be transformed into walking zombies and uses these unholy powers to create a race of slave laborers. An expedition is sent to the ruins of Angkor Wat, in hopes of ending Mazovia's activities once and for all. Unfortunately, Armand (Dean Jagger), one of the members of the expedition, has his own agenda. Stealing a set of secret tablets, he sets about to create his own army of zombies, targeting those whom he considers to be enemies. But Armand is hoist on his own petard when the zombies rebel and turn against him. The anachronistic moviemaking techniques which contributed so much to the atmosphere and entertainment value of White Zombie are totally out of place in Revolt of the Zombies; also, Dean Jagger's performance lacks the conviction necessary for this sort of horror fare. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Exiled to Shanghai uses the then-waging wars in Spain and China as backdrops for a familiar "rival reporters" yarn. Wallace Ford plays Ted Young, a brash newsreel cameraman who is fired by his dyspeptic editor Fred Sears (Dean Jagger) for photographing the wrong general during the Spanish Civil War. Down but not out, Ted embraces a new form of technology, establishing the first television newsreel service (and this was two years before commercial TV made its "official" American debut at the New York World's Fair). As a result, Ted is rehired and promoted to editor, while poor Fred ends up being transferred to China (hence the film's title). While all this is going on, Ted and Fred still find time to battle over heroine Nancy Jones (June Travis). A pretty good film on its own merits, Exiled to Shanghai has gained curiosity value by virtue of its use of TV journalism as a dramatic device. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

For a studio specializing in glossy soap operas, costume pictures and musicals, MGM made an inordinate number of "B"-grade crime thrillers in 1937. The first on the docket that year was Under Cover of Night, starring Edmund Lowe as intrepid sleuth Christopher Cross. This time the killer is an overachieving psychopath who strikes only at night, and is unaware that he is a murderer. Thus, the question here is not "who done it," but rather -- when will Christopher Cross catch on to what the audience knows almost from the beginning. The best performance is rendered by Henry Daniell as the respectable college professor who literally moonlights as the killer. MGM would resurrect the "Christopher Cross" character as a female private eye (played by Joyce Compton) in 1939's Sky Murder. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a milque-toast socialite is drowning in San Francisco Bay. Fortunately, he is saved by a kindly Italian fisherman who takes him in and teaches him how to be manly. During his slow recovery, the wimpy fellow is cared for by the fisherman's lovely daughter who is studying to become an opera singer. Trouble ensues when they all find themselves entangled with mobsters. Suddenly the boy becomes a real man and saves them. While San Francisco burns to the ground, he and the daughter finally acknowledge their love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Based upon Arthur Kober’s play (which was subsequently musicalized onstage as Wish You Were Here, Having Wonderful Time stars Ginger Rogers as Teddy Shaw, a typist who goes to a summer camp for a little rest and relaxation. She’s also getting away from Emil (Jack Carson), whose interest in Teddy is no longer returned. Arriving at Camp Kare-Free, she’s offered a ride by Chick (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.), who works at the camp as a waiter. Unfortunately, they get off to a bumpy start when Chick spills her suitcase and an argument ensues. Once at camp, she makes friends with Fay (Peggy Conklin), Miriam (Lucille Ball) and Henrietta(Eve Arden). Chick apologizes to Teddy, and over the next six days their relationship blossoms, concurrently with that of Miriam and another guest, Buzzy. However, when Chick makes an improper advance during her last night at the camp, Teddy gets angry and leaves him. She dances with Buzzy to make Chick jealous and makes sure she is seen entering Buzzy’s cabin. She takes steps to see that nothing happens and leaves unscathed the next morning, but not before causing trouble between Buzzy and Miriam. Emil has arrived and plans to bring her home after breakfast. While they are eating, Emil proposes to Teddy. Both Chick and Miriam overhear this proposal, after which Miriam loudly comments that Teddy stayed overnight with Buzzy. In the ensuing confusion, Chick decks both Buzzy and Emil, and offers his own proposal to Teddy – which she happily accepts. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide