Kay Johnson
- 1954
In this adventure, four explorers search for a vast treasure in the Amazon jungle. One of the explorers is a woman who got involved after she traveled from California to marry her fiance whom she hasn't seen in two years. Another man tries to convince her that her fiance has become an alcoholic idealist obsessed with finding gold in the jungle. Another takes her into the jungle to find her love. En route he falls in love with her. Later they learn that her fiance has been killed by the Jivaro headhunters. The other man, who went in before them is also attacked, but the woman's guide saves his life. This film did not use stock footage. Much of it was actually filmed in the jungle to provide the backgrounds. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernando Lamas, Rhonda Fleming, (more)
- 1944
Dismissed by critics as corny and obvious in 1944, this overlong but sincere biopic looks pretty good when seen today, cliches notwithstanding. Fredric March, 47 at the time, convincingly plays American author Sam Clemens, aka Mark Twain, from his early 20s to his death at 75. In typical movie-biography fashion, every single incident that happens in Twain's life is an INSPIRATION: he hears the depth-indication call "Mark Twain" while working on a riverboat and his face lights up; he engages in a jumping-frog contest against Bret Harte (John Carradine) and comes up with his first popular published story; and so on. Alexis Smith is better than usual in the role of Twain's wife Olivia Langdon, even keeping a straight face while Twain courts her in Fluent Quotation ("Everybody talks about the weather but nobody ever does anything about it", he says during a Hollywood-romance cloudburst). Though the script barely touches upon the dark side of Twain's nature, we are not spared his financial reverses (brought about by bad investments and his struggle to publish Ulysses S. Grant's memoirs. The closing sequence, with Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn beckoning the spirit of Mark Twain to heaven as Halley's Comet fills the skies, may seem laughable on paper, but works quite well on film; even director Irving Rapper expressed amazement at the effectiveness of this scene! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fredric March, Alexis Smith, (more)
- 1943
- NR
One of Cary Grant's most financially successful 1940s vehicles, Mr. Lucky finds Grant atypically cast as a shifty, out-for-number-one gambler. Having dodged the draft by adopting the identity of a dead man, Grant sets his sights on purchasing a fancy gambling ship. To raise the necessary funds, he pretends to be working hand in glove with the American War Relief society. Once he meets Laraine Day, however, Grant is seized by an uncontrollable bout of honesty. It takes him awhile, but he finally does the right thing. The film is framed in flashback, as old seaman Charles Bickford explains why a tearful Laraine Day waits at the dock each evening for a certain ship to come in. Also in the cast is Paul Stewart as a cold-eyed but nonetheless semi-comic hoodlum, and Kay Johnson and Gladys Cooper as elegant but gullible society women. The best aspect of this breezy comedy-drama is Grant's cockney propensity for "rhyming slang," a running gag better heard than described. Mr. Lucky was later adapted into a TV series in 1959, with John Vivyan in the Cary Grant part and with Blake Edwards at the production controls. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cary Grant, Laraine Day, (more)
This period swashbuckler film is based on the adventure novel Benjamin Blake by Edison Marshall, who also wrote The Vikings (1958). When his brother dies, scheming Arthur Blake (George Sanders) kidnaps his own nephew, Benjamin (played as a youth by Roddy McDowall and as an adult by Tyrone Power). Arthur's purpose is to claim his brother's dukedom for himself. Put to work as a stable boy, Benjamin grows up and develops a crush on his own cousin Isabel (Frances Farmer). When Arthur discovers this, he mercilessly beats Benjamin, who runs away and sails to India on a cargo ship to make his fortune. In Polynesia, he and a friend, Caleb (John Carradine), jump ship and set up camp on a tropical island paradise. There, Benjamin and Caleb become rich mining pearls, while Benjamin falls in love with a native girl, Eve (Gene Tierney). Now that he has amassed wealth, however, Benjamin is determined to return to England and get his revenge on Uncle Arthur. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, (more)
- 1939
Set during the turn-of-the-century Moro uprising in the Philippines, The Real Glory stars Gary Cooper as an American Marine doctor and David Niven and Broderick Crawford as a pair of rowdy mercenaries. While staving off the insurgent Moros, Cooper must also combat a cholera outbreak. Once this matter is disposed of, Cooper joins Niven and Crawford in attempting to blow up a dam built by the Moros to cut off the American fort's water supply. After all this activity, it's small wonder that Cooper elects to return to private practice in the States with his new bride Andrea Leeds. While The Real Glory never skimps in the action department, the film is somewhat lacking in historical accuracy: the Moros were hardly the bloodthirsty savages depicted herein. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Cooper, Andrea Leeds, (more)
- 1938
Based on another of Lloyd C. Douglas' "better living through faith" short stories, White Banners stars Claude Rains as a chemistry professor who invents an icebox that requires no ice. The invention is stolen, throwing Rains and his faithful young assistant Jackie Cooper into a deep depression. Rains' housekeeper Fay Bainter buoys the inventor's spirits with her happy demeanor, wise homilies and good cooking. Through her influence, Rains and Cooper return to the lab and create an even more advanced refrigeration device. And just what is Bainter's stake in all this? Why, she's Cooper's long-lost mother...but don't you dare tell him. Though Fay Bainter was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in White Banners, the film itself is so forgettable that it doesn't even rate a mention in most mass-market movie ratings books. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claude Rains, Fay Bainter, (more)
- 1935
In this adaptation of author de la Roche's chronicle of the passionate lives of the strange Whiteoaks of Jalna, their beautiful family estate located in souther Ontario. The story begins as a young Whiteoak, a novelist travels to New York where he encounters a charming woman, marries her, and takes her back to Jalna. There she encounters many difficulties as she attempts to adjust to life with his odd family. It does not help that several soap-operatic events transpired while he was gone when his brother married the illegitimate daughter of a despised neighbor. One day a "sexy dame" suddenly shows up on the family porch. Soon she and the novelist are trysting away, but before he can consummate their affair he is killed during a terrible fall. The new widow then realizes that it is a different brother that she loves. They soon marry. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kay Johnson, Ian Hunter, (more)
- 1935
This drama presents a dim view of life in a small town populated by back-stabbing, narrow-minded, hypocritical and maliciously gossipy bigots who meet at the town general store to spread their vicious lies. The current slander centers upon a young man who has an innocent crush on another man's wife. The constant snickers and asides of the husband's neighbors cause him to believe that his wife really is involved with the young man. Enraged he tries to kill the young man. This near-tragedy does nothing to stop the gossip-mongers from choosing a new victim, whom they hope to drive to suicide so they can spice up their dull lives. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Randolph Scott, Kay Johnson, (more)
- 1935
The title might not mean much now, but in 1935 Jalna was familiar to readers everywhere as the best-selling first novel by Mazo de La Roche. Set in Canada, the story concerns the many members of the Whiteoak family, with special emphasis on Eden Whiteoak (David Manners). Eden is a writer, who marries his Manhattan publisher (Kay Johnson) and takes her back to meet his family. Alas, Eden has also brought back a few big-city vices, and before long he is attempting to seduce Pheasant (Molly Lamont), the illegitimate daughter of the Whiteoaks' next door neighbor (Nigel Bruce) and the wife of Eden's half brother Piers (Theodore Newton). True to form in soap operas such as these, Eden dies, leaving his widow to find comfort in the arms of another Whiteoak, Renny (Ian Hunter). Since all of this takes place in a crowded 75 minutes, it's no wonder that the film version of Jalna didn't completely satisfy fans of the novel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The first of three film versions of Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage stars Leslie Howard as sensitive, clubfooted artist-cum-med student Philip Carey. Despite his yearnings for the finer things in life, Carey cannot extricate himself from a mutually destructive relationship with sluttish waitress Mildred Rogers (Bette Davis). After an incredible series of emotional disasters, Carey finally finds happiness in the arms of Sally Altheny (Frances Dee). The industry buzz in 1934 indicated that Bette Davis was a shoe-in for an Academy Award for her savage portrayal of Mildred, but her home studio Warner Bros. failed to mount an adequate publicity campaign on Davis' behalf, allegedly because she'd made the film on loan-out to RKO and Warners wasn't about to heap praise upon a rival. It is now generally conceded that Davis' Oscar win for 1935's Dangerous was consolation for her losing the statuette in 1934. Long out of circulation due to the 1946 remake, the 1934 Of Human Bondage has since slipped into the public domain, and is now seen more often than either of the subsequent remakes (the last was in 1964). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, (more)
- 1934
Paramount's Eight Girls in a Boat was a remake of the 1932 German film of the same name. Impregnated by medical student David Perrin (Douglass Montgomery), European schoolgirl Christa Storm (Dorothy Wilson) contemplates killing herself. Wisely, she chooses instead to explain her plight to her sympathetic teacher Hanna (Kay Johnson), who arranges a marriage for the girl despite the protests of her wealthy father (Walter Connolly). Before this happens, however, Christa's seven best friends agree to mutually adopt the girl's baby, and are sorely put out when she opts for matrimony. Many cynical reviewers presumed that Eight Girls in a Boat was merely an excuse to show off an octet of well-developed ingenues in shorts, tight blouses and bathing suits. Perhaps it was, but few filmgoers complained back in 1934. The film was one of the few made by starlet Barbara Barondess before she forsook acting for a lucrative career as a Hollywood interior decorator. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Wilson, Douglass Montgomery, (more)
- 1934
Jane Mufin's stage play Love Flies in the Window was the basis for the RKO Radio assembly-line romance This Man is Mine. Happily married to dull but dependable Jim Dunlap (Ralph Bellamy), level-headed Toni Dunlap (Irene Dunne) suddenly finds herself forced to fight for her husband's affections. The cause of it all is Toni's old school chum, the recently divorced Fran Harper (Constance Cummings). Fran graciously makes no secret of her intention to steal Jim away. With equal graciousness, Toni beats her rival at her own game. In addition to the sterling contributions of its stars, This Man is Mine benefits from a well-honed supporting performance by Kay Johnson, who two years earlier had co-starred with Constance Cummings in Frank Capra's American Madness. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irene Dunne, Ralph Bellamy, (more)
- 1934
In this comedy, two sisters work as assistants to a magician. The trouble begins when the day before a big show, the magician's psychic quits. In desperation he enlists the aide of one of the assistants. The three end up hired by a woman who is trying to help her wealthy, widowed sister see that her doctor is a charlatan by holding a bogus seance in the widow's creepy mansion. During the ritual, the widow tries to contact her late husband. When the ghost really does appear, the "medium" is shocked; she is more shocked when the spirit tells her he was murdered. The three performers become sleuths, solve the murder, and prove that the physician is a money-grubbing fake. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- ZaSu Pitts, George "Slim" Summerville, (more)
- 1932
Bank president Thomas Dickson (Walter Huston) has instituted a lending policy that shows great faith in ordinary people but which also irritates his board of directors, as does his claim that an increased money supply will help end the Depression. Elsewhere in the bank, criminal Dude Finlay (Robert Ellis) has coerced head cashier Cluett (Gavin Gordon) into cooperating with a robbery by threatening to reveal Cluett as a habitual gambler. Dickson's neglected wife Phyllis (Kay Johnson), upset that Thomas has forgotten their anniversary, agrees to go out with Cluett, but they're spotted by head teller Matt Brown (Pat O'Brien). Matt goes to Cluett's apartment and convinces Phyllis to leave with him just as the robbery takes place back at the bank. Because he was responsible for locking the vault, Matt is assumed to be in league with the robbers, and he's arrested. News of the robbery leads to frantic depositors demanding their money back from the bank; Dickson cannot talk them out of it, and the bank is running out of money. This gives the board of directors the leverage over Dickson that they've been seeking, and they try to force his resignation. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Huston, Pat O'Brien, (more)
- 1932
In this suspenseful drama, an embittered woman exacts revenge upon the 12 women who wronged her in college. The trouble began when the woman, who was of Japanese and Indian heritage, was ejected from a college sorority because she wasn't white. Still angry, the woman hires an astrologer to create 12 terrifying horoscopes for each of the dastardly dozen. These grim predictions terrify the victims into doing dreadful things. One commits suicide, while another commits murder. More mayhem ensues until the astrologer makes some dire predictions about the vengeful woman herself. She doesn't like it, and using her psychic powers she forces him in front of an oncoming train. She then resumes her revenge by trying to poison the son of the remaining woman. This causes a police inspector to get suspicious, and he follow the murderous woman to the train station where she plans to kill the woman. A chase ensues culminating in the evil woman's demise. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irene Dunne, Myrna Loy, (more)
- 1931
In this comedy, a lady-bootlegger does her 90 days in jail, gets released and becomes the secretary for a prominent millionaire. The magnate falls madly in love with his new secretary and they marry. Unfortunately, she has not revealed her shady past to him, and when friends from her smuggling days suddenly show up as employees, mayhem ensues. The marriage almost ends when she gets illicitly tipsy one night. Fortunately, it all works out in the end and they live happily henceforth. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1930
In this high-seas adventure, a ship's steward goes 'round the bend, mutinies, throws the captain into the briny, and turns into an utter tyrant. He is protected by the simple-minded, enormously strong cook. Fortunately for the crew, the crazed steward goes completely mad and ends up leaping to his own death. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Conrad Nagel, Kay Johnson, (more)
- 1930
The second of Cecil B. DeMille's talkies (as well as his second for MGM), Madam Satan is an exercise in incoherence, but this doesn't detract one iota from its entertainment value. Kay Johnson plays the sedate wife of philandering Reginald Denny, who is currently carrying on with "jazz baby" Lillian Roth. In a desperate effort to win back her husband, Johnson disguises herself as the alluring, provocatively clothed "Madame Satan." In this guise, she attends a lavish charity costume party being thrown by socialite Roland Young on a dirigible moored high above New York Harbor. Failing to recognize his mousey little wife, Denny arranges for a rendezvous with Madame Satan. When she reveals her true identity, Denny is outraged and threatens divorce. Suddenly, the dirigible is struck by lightning; it breaks loose from its moorings, tossing its terrified passengers around and about. Denny behaves heroically in shepherding the passengers into their parachutes; meanwhile, Johnson gives up her own parachute to save Roth. Coming to the mutual realization that each is worthy of the other's love, Johnson and Denny are reunited. Though when taken out of context, the dirigible sequence appears to be the ultimate in campy melodrama, this scene and all the scenes that built up to it are played for laughs: DeMille didn't take this farrago any more seriously in 1930 than we do today. Highlights include several unexpected and charmingly innapropriate musical numbers, including a bizarre "Ballet Mechanique" featuring dancer Theodore Kosloff. Though DeMille carefully threw in every ingredient that he hoped would appeal to a mass audience, Madam Satan was one of his few box office flops. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1930
The tall and virile Johnny Mack Brown portrays the short and dyspeptic outlaw William Bonney, a.k.a. Billy the Kid. Wallace Beery is more effectively cast as Pat Garrett, the sheriff who's sworn to bring in Billy dead or alive despite his grudging friendship for the young killer. Hardly the "homicidal moron" described by western historians, the movie's Billy has a certain amount of charm, though he's shown to be a cold-blooded killer when the opportunity arises. The film's ending was shot twice: One ending retained fidelity to the facts by having Garrett kill Billy, while the other denouement allowed Billy to ride into the sunset, as Garrett beatifically looked on. Over the protests of western purists, the second ending was used in the American release version, though the more tragic climax was seen by European audiences. Billy the Kid was originally released in a 70mm widescreen process called Realife; to avoid confusion with MGM's 1941 Billy the Kid, the earlier film has been retitled The Highwayman Rides for television. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Johnny Mack Brown, Wallace Beery, (more)
- 1930
In this drama, a two wealthy cousins find themselves involved in an unfortunate love triangle. The trouble begins when the one cousin, whose wealth came from marriage convinces the other, an heiress, to marry the family chauffeur. Years pass, and the first cousin ends up falling for the chauffeur herself and trying to break up the marriage. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kay Francis, Kay Johnson, (more)
- 1930
Filmed in 1929 and released early in 1930, Dynamite was Cecil B. DeMille's first all-talking feature. As one observer has noted, this 128-minute opus has enough plots for seven pictures. The basic storyline here involves spoiled heiress Cynthia Crothers (Kay Johnson) who will lose her fortune if she isn't married right away. Her love Roger Towne (Conrad Nagel) isn't interested in marriage, so Crothers decides to wed convicted murderer Hagon Derk (Charles Bickford). Her plan: Derk will die, then she'll be a millionaire, free to chase after Towne without benefit of clergy. Unfortunately for Crothers, Derk is pardoned at the last minute when the real killer (Leslie Fenton) confesses. Crothers tries to drive Derk out of her life by humiliating him at a fancy party, only to discover that the conditions of her inheritance require that she live with her husband for a set period of time. She swallows her pride and heads for Derk's home town, a grimy mining village. Touched by Crother's inept efforts to keep house and cook dinner, Derk eventually falls in love with her--though he makes it clear that he wants no part of her money. Crothers, in turn, falls genuinely in love with her brutish but basically decent husband. It must needs be that fortune-hunting Towne arrives in the mining village, leading to a powerful climax wherein Derk, Crothers and Towne are trapped in a mine cave-in. Though the dialogue is occasionally quite silly (after the killer commits suicide in a crowded restaurant, one of the patrons is heard to complain "It's ruined my dinner!") and the performances overripe at times, Dynamite actually holds up better than you'd expect. DeMilles' utilization of sound is both innovative and imaginative, especially during the noisy climactic sequences. The film was a success, paving the way for DeMilles' camp classic Madame Satan (1930). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Conrad Nagel, Kay Johnson, (more)
- 1930
This third film version of Rex Beach's rugged Yukon novel The Spoilers was also the first talkie adaptation. This time, Gary Cooper and William "Stage" Boyd are cast as gold prospector Glennister and crooked Alaska politician McNamara. In partnership with Dextry (James Kirkwood), Glennister is the proud owner of the Midas gold mine, but McNamara and the corrupt Judge Stillman (Lloyd Ingraham) conspire to gain control of the mine, using legal but highly unethical maneuvers. Preparing to shoot each other full of holes, Glennister and McNamara are temporarily dissuaded by Glenister's sweetheart Helen (Kay Johnson), who suggests that the courts handle the dispute. But saloon owner Cherry Malotte (Betty Compson), jealous of Helen, lies to Glennister, telling him that Helen and McNamara are conspiring to cheat him again. Matters come to a head when Glennister and McNamara settle their differences with a spectacular fistfight. During filming of The Spoilers, the stars of the 1914 version William Farnum and Tom Santschi showed up frequently on the set, ostensibly to serve as "technical advisers" for the climactic set-to (one suspects that their advice was merely for the benefit of the Paramount publicity department). The Rex Beach story would be filmed again in 1942 with John Wayne and Randolph Scott, and yet again in 1955 with Jeff Chandler and Rory Calhoun. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Cooper, Kay Johnson, (more)
- 1930
In this espionage drama set during WW I, a French agent sneaks behind enemy lines into Alsace-Lorraine and decides to see his mother, who owns an inn. While there, the spy falls for a German general's wife and with her embarks upon a passionate romance. The romance is destroyed when the spy admits that he caused his lover's nephew's death. The angry mistress reports this to her husband who has the spy executed. The wife then kills herself. Meanwhile the spy's strong mother decides to fulfill her son's mission herself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
