Eddie Kane Movies
Tall, distinguished-looking Eddie Kane was never remotely a star in movies or television, but he played just about every kind of important supporting and bit role that there was to portray in a Hollywood career that stretched over a quarter century. Born in 1889, Kane entered show business by way of vaudeville and rose to the top of that field as a member of the team of Kane & Herman. Hollywood beckoned with the coming of sound and his first role was typical of the kind of work that he would do for the next 25 years. In MGM's The Broadway Melody, although uncredited, Kane played the important supporting role of Francis Zanfield (a thin burlesque of Ziegfeld), the theatrical producer whose interest in one of the two sisters, played by Anita Page and Bessie Love, gets the backstage plot rolling. In later films, the actor's parts varied from anonymous head waiters and hotel managers to essential supporting roles, small but telling in the plot. He was apparently at least a nodding acquaintance of James Cagney, playing important bit parts in two of Cagney's movies: in Something To Sing About, Kane portrayed the San Francisco theater manager who shelters Cagney from the crowds swarming around him on his return from an ocean voyage; in Yankee Doodle Dandy he played the actor in Little Johnny Jones who tells Cagney's George M. Cohan, in the title role of Jones, of the plan to fire a rocket from the ship when the evidence clearing him has been found. Kane's range of roles ran from business executives and impressarios to maitre d's and as he grew older and more distinguished-looking, his delivery grew even sharper onscreen. Kane is probably best known to audiences from the 1950s and beyond for his portrayal (uncredited, as usual) of Mr. Monahan, Ralph Kramden's boss at the Gotham Bus Company, in The Honeymooners' episode in which Kramden impersonates a bus company executive to impress an old rival. Kane retired from movies and television after the 1950s and died in 1969 of a heart attack at his home. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide- 1935
In this countrified musical, a farm boy and his girl head for the big city to find fame on the radio. When he becomes popular their relationship is strained and the two break up and begin pursuing other relationships. Fortunately, they are reunited in the end. Look closely for a brief appearance by Roy Rogers who appears under his real name Leonard Slye. Songs include: "Moonlight in Heaven," "Somehow I Know," "The Plowboy," and "When the Old Age Pension Check Comes to Our Door." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Carlisle, Lawrence Gray, (more)
- 1935
Based on an obscure stage comedy, the Paramount musical Two for Tonight stars Bing Crosby as would-be composer and playwright Gilbert Gordon. Hired by music publisher Alexander Myers (Maurice Cass) to write a musical for temperamental stage star Lilly Bianca (Thelma Todd), Gordon is less than thrilled to discover that he must complete the job in one week. As he toils away at his task, our hero becomes convinced that he's in love with the troublesome Lilly, causing heartache for his erstwhile sweetheart Bobbie Lockwood (Joan Bennett). The magnificent Mary Boland commands the audience's attention as Gordon's much-married mother. Elements of the plot of Two for Tonight were later satirized in the 1979 spoof Movie Movie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bing Crosby, Joan Bennett, (more)
- 1935
Obviously filmed on a tight budget, RKO Radio's Hooray for Love nevertheless has as much sheer entertainment value as any high-priced Busby Berkeley spectacular. Gene Raymond plays Doug, a college boy who aspires to become a Broadway producer. With reluctant songstress Pat (Ann Sothern) as his star, Doug stages a big-time revue, financed by Pat's father, a seedy con artist known as the Commodore (Thurston Hall). When it turns out that The Commoder hasn't a cent to his name, Doug is tossed into jail, but salvation is at hand in the form of a wealthy widow (Georgia Caine) who's set her cap for Pat's reprobate father. Lionel Stander has several choice moments as a temperamental Russian orchestra leader, as does Pert Kelton as a talentless soubrette, but the film's strongest selling card is the presence of the matchless Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Fats Waller. The musical highlight is Robinson's "I'm Living in a Great Big Way," accompanied by Waller and Jeni Le Gon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Sothern, Gene Raymond, (more)
- 1935
In this children's movie, a married vaudevillian team learns that talent scouts are looking for the new Shirley Temple. Unfortunately, they have an adorable little boy. This does not prevent them from dressing up like Temple and entering him in a contest, which he, unfortunately for him, wins. He then finds himself bewigged and train-bound for Hollywood. The hapless lad, would rather die than face life as a little girl, and so leaps from the speeding train. He soon encounters a friendly vagabond and a gang of fugitive bank robbers who think the lad may be able to help them with their nefarious schemes. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arline Judge, Ray Walker, (more)
- 1934
A story by Earl Derr Biggers, of Charlie Chan fame, was the springboard for the Monogram melodrama Take the Stand. An abrasive Winchell-type columnist (Jack LaRue) manages to accumulate dozens of enemies, at least one of whom has murder on the mind. While many of the victims of the journalist's vitriol are gathered in his outer office, he is heard delivering his nightly radio broadcast, when suddenly he cries "Don't shoot" -- and a shot is fired. The detective (Russell Hopton) can't figure out "who done it" since all the suspects have air-tight alibis: nor can he run a ballistics test, since there isn't any bullet. The solution to the mystery is one which would be recycled numerous times in the future, most memorably by the Dick Tracy comic strip. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Thelma Todd, Gail Patrick, (more)
Frank Capra's seminal screwball comedy, which won all five major Academy Awards for 1934, is still as breezy and beguiling today. Claudette Colbert plays Ellie Andrews, a spoiled heiress who has married fortune-hunting aviator King Westley (Jameson Thomas), despite her father (Walter Connolly)'s objections. To keep Ellie from marrying this lothario, her father has been holding her prisoner aboard his yacht. But Ellie bolts from the yacht, swims ashore in her clothes, and eventually slips onto a Greyhound bus bound for New York. Aboard the bus is newspaper reporter Peter Warne (Clark Gable), who has recently been fired for drinking on the job. Peter gets the last seat on the bus -- but when he gets up to argue with the bus driver, Ellie takes his seat. Since it is the last seat on the bus, they have to share it. When Ellie has her purse stolen and she refuses to report it, Peter begins to suspect something. The next morning, they both miss the bus after a leisurely breakfast, and Peter reveals that he knows her identity. She makes a deal with him: if he helps her get to New York, he can write a scoop about her for his paper. Peter thinks she is a spoiled brat, however, and refuses a monetary bribe: "I'm not interested in your money or your problem. You, King Westley, your father -- you're all a lot of hooey to me!" But as they travel northward and engage in a series of misadventures, the gruff newspaperman and the spoiled rich girl, thrown together by circumstances, fall in love with each other. This movie set the pace for the "screwball" comedy, the witty and romantic clash of temperaments between a man and a woman mismatched in both personality and social position, a type of movie often associated with Katherine Hepburn in such classics as Bringing Up Baby (1938), The Philadelphia Story (1940), and, with Spencer Tracy, Adam's Rib (1949), Pat and Mike (1952), and Desk Set (1957), among others. The only other movies to win all five major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, and Screenplay) were One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, (more)
Based on Al Jolson's 1931 Broadway hit, Wonder Bar transposes the "Grand Hotel" formula to a lavish nightclub in Paris' Montmartre district. Presiding over the evening's entertainment is manager-emcee Al Wonder (Jolson), who after greeting his guests in a multitude of languages (a la Joel Grey in Cabaret) introduces a steady stream of top variety acts. The star attraction of the Wonder Bar floor show is the Latin dance team of Inez (Dolores Del Rio) and Harry (Ricardo Cortez). Al worships Inez from afar, but she is hopelessly in love with Harry, a no-good louse who is carrying on with Liane (Kay Francis), the wife of prominent banker Renaud (Henry Kolker). Meanwhile, German military officer Captain Von Ferring (Robert H. Barrat), who has lost his fortune to bad investments, enjoys one last fling at the Wonder Bar before committing suicide. The two main subplots converge when Inez stabs Harry out of pique, whereupon the ever-loyal Al deposits Harry's body in Von Ferring's car, knowing full well that Von Ferring intends to drive himself off a steep hill to his death. Never letting Inez find out that she killed Harry, Al stands stoically aside as she finds true happiness with composer Tommy (Dick Powell). Lest this all sound heavily somberly serious, it should be noted that Wonder Bar is chock full of laughs, from both Jolson (who runs through quite a repertoire of tried-and-true routines) and the drunken antics of "tired business men" Hugh Herbert and Hobart Cavanaugh. The musical numbers staged by Busby Berkeley range from sedate to incredible, with the bizarrely racist 10-minute "Goin' to Heaven on a Mule" (truly a jaw-dropping experience) falling into the latter category. The film's most outrageous moment, however, is an uninhibited chunk of homosexual humor on the dance floor ("Boys will be boys!", crows Jolson) which just barely squeaked past the Hollywood censors! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kay Francis, Dick Powell, (more)
- 1934
A satire on radio crooners, Twenty Million Sweethearts stars Dick Powell as a singing waiter--fake handlebar mustache and all. Publicity man Pat O'Brien discovers Powell and gets him a radio gig, leading to nationwide adulation for the nonplused tenor. All of this jeopardizes Powell's happy marriage to Ginger Rogers, but he proves faithful to her despite the twenty million sweethearts (i.e. female radio fans) referred to in the title. Twenty Million Sweethearts is fitfully amusing, with some of the best moments concentrated at the beginning wherein the Radio Rogues imitate several popular personalities of the airwaves. This film was remade in 1949 as My Dream Is Yours, with Doris Day (!) in the Dick Powell role but with the same "signature" tune, "I'll String Along with You." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pat O'Brien, Dick Powell, (more)
Loretta Young, who became known almost exclusively for playing sweet, wholesome roles, is kind of a shocker in this romantic drama as Letty Strong, an unwed mother who survives by living life as a grifter and the next thing to a prostitute -- all for the good of her son Mickey (Jackie Kelk), who, not yet 10 years old, is turning into a street hustler every bit as devious and untrustworthy as she is. Then, one day, he's skating on the street and gets hit by a milk truck, which happens to be driven by Malcolm Trevor (Cary Grant), the owner of the dairy, who was spot-checking his operation. Letty and Mickey try to take Malcolm for a hefty sum in court until their case is blown out of the water, but Malcolm also finds himself appalled by the kind of life that Letty is setting up for the boy. He gets her to agree to let Mickey move in with him and his wife Alice ($Marion Burns), at their estate outside the city. And after some extremely rough patches, Mickey begins to see that there's more to being a boy -- or becoming a man -- than what you can steal or cheat off the next guy. But Letty isn't about to let her son get away that easily, or let Malcolm get away with taking him from her, even if he is right. She tries to wreck Malcolm's home and marriage, all to get her son back and take revenge on him in the process. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Loretta Young, Cary Grant, (more)
- 1934
As the title song says, you go to those shows to see those beautiful dames--and there's dames aplenty in this 1934 Busby Berkeley extravaganza. The wisp of a plot is motivated by one Ezra Ounce (Hugh Herbert), a silly millionaire who spearheads a national anti-fun movement. Ounce's distant cousin Dick Powell is a producer of musical comedies. Ounce's partner is Guy Kibbee, whose daughter is Ruby Keeler. Kibbee is also the "sugar daddy" of Joan Blondell, Powell's friend and co-worker. Fill in the rest of the blanks yourself. If the plot doesn't interest you (and there's no reason why it should), sit back and enjoy the humongous production numbers based on the Warren/Dubin songs "I Only Have Eyes for You", "The Girl on the Ironing Board", and of course the title number. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, (more)
- 1934
Though the names have been changed to protect the guilty, this romantic crime drama offers a relatively factual account of the life of Arnold Rothstein, an infamous bookie and is based upon a story by his widow. The story tells how he gambled his way to the top of his profession. Though he originally promised his wife that he would stop gambling once he made $200,000, he became addicted and decided he had to make $300,000 more before he could be happy. Soon his greed leads him to crooked gambling. Things get worse when he openly carries on an affair with a singer. The bookies dirty dealings get him into trouble and his wife is kidnapped while he is out of town. While rushing back to save her, he has a car accident and his lover is killed. By the time she is rescued, the wife has decided enough is enough and takes off to get a European divorce. The greedy gambler finds himself utterly lost without his two lovers and so after selling his wife's jewels takes out a large insurance policy upon himself. On an interesting footnote: Inez Norton, Rothstein's real-life widow, has a bit part in the film, as does then-ingenue Susan Fleming, AKA Mrs. Harpo Marx. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Helen Twelvetrees, (more)
- 1934
Surprisingly original for an independent production, Two Heads on a Pillow is a fascinated precursor to the more celebrated Tracy-Hepburn vehicle Adam's Rib. Neil Hamilton and Miriam Jordan a play couple of young lawyers who fall in love and marry. Thanks to her mother's interference, the couple eventually divorces. Years later, Hamilton and Jordan find themselves facing each other in court on opposite sides of an alienation-of-affections suit. Despite the fact that Hamilton's client is wealthier and more powerful, Jordan wins the case -- and reclaims her own husband in the bargain. Two Heads on a Pillow is distinguished by credible, naturalistic performances by all concerned; even stereotypical Italian Henry Armetta keeps his patented mannerisms in check. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Appleby, Mary Forbes, (more)
- 1934
The Human Side was adapted by Frank Craven and Ernest Pascal from a play by Christine Ames. Long married and the parents of four children, Gregory and Vera Sheldon break up when Gregory begins keeping time with seductive Alma Hastings (played by Betty Lawford, Peter's mom). Despite the subsequent divorce, Gregory can't resist visiting his ex-wife from time to time, which arouses Alma's jealous nature. The story isn't straightened out, however, until the four Sheldon kids -- Lucille (Charlotte Henry), Phil (Dick Winslow), Tom (George Ernest) and Bobbie (Dickie Moore) -- take a hand in the matter. Befitting the title, The Human Side is realistically written and acted, enhancing the audience's empathy with the characters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adolphe Menjou, Doris Kenyon, (more)
- 1934
Born on the proverbial wrong side of the tracks, Lady Lee (Barbara Stanwyck) rises to prominence as a professional gambler. Though she works in a somewhat shady casino, our heroine enjoys a reputation for utter honesty, refusing all entreaties to turn crooked. Impressed by this quality, wealthy young Garry Madison (Joel McCrea) falls in love with Lady Lee and asks her to become his wife. Madison's friends and family assume that Lady Lee is merely a gold-digger, but she proves them irrefutably wrong when she saves him from a murder charge. According to some sources, Tyrone Power can be spotted in a bit role in this "A-minus" Warner Bros. programmer. Gambling Lady would make an interesting double feature with the later Stanwyck vehicle The Lady Gambles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, (more)
- 1933
Broadway Bad stars Joan Blondell as a wisecracking but goodhearted chorus girl whose husband (Ricardo Cortez) is an abusive lout. Blondell's plight makes the headlines, which results in an upswing in her career. Rather than wallow in self-pity, she trades on the publicity to become a star, while hubby mutters dark promises of revenge. This film was based on the real-life relationship between Broadway star Hal Skelly and a promiscuous young actress who assumed several professional names. Though its cast and subject matter might suggest that Broadway Bad is a Warner Bros. epic, the picture was actually produced and released by Fox Studios. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Blondell, Ricardo Cortez, (more)
- 1933
Columbia's The Thrill Hunter is more of straight action film than a western, though leading man Buck Jones still wears his traditional cowboy garb. Jones plays a small-town spinner of tall tales who claims to be a top-notch stuntman. He's forced to put up or shut up when a movie company, filming an adventure flick, shows up in town. Offering his services as a stunt double, Jones passes muster as a racecar driver, but he loses his job when he cracks up an airplane. Our hero redeems himself by catching a bunch of criminals who aren't play-acting. Dorothy Revier, allegedly the girlfriend of Columbia Pictures chieftain Harry Cohn, is the incongruously glamorous heroine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buck Jones, Dorothy Revier, (more)
- 1933
A whole slew of former silent-film favorites shows up in Mayfair's Secret Sinners. Dilettante songwriter Jack Mulhall falls in love with chorus girl Sue Carol and promises to marry her -- as soon as he can get a divorce from his wife Natalie Morehead. As the months pass, Carol becomes convinced that Mulhall has been stringing her along. Out of spite, she begins a romance with fellow hoofer Nick Stewart. When it turns out that Mulhall was sincere all along, Stewart obligingly steps out of the picture to allow our heroine a happy-ever-after. No secrets, no sinners. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Mulhall, Sue Carol, (more)
- 1933
A man's addiction to betting on the horses severely disrupts his love life in this comedy. He, a plumber, and his fiancee, a manicurist, are getting ready for their nuptials when she learns that he is planning a honeymoon at the racetrack. She immediately calls off the wedding. The man is a gambling addict. He finds it doubly hard to quit since he started on a winning streak following his break-up with the girl. His father advises him to stop before it's too late, but his son doesn't listen until he loses everything. The humbled young man awakens and returns to his true-love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lew Ayres, Ginger Rogers, (more)
- 1933
In this grim drama, a conniving young man is brought up on charges of reckless driving. To "prove" his innocence and good character, he goes to a nursing home and adopts an old woman whom he presents as his loving mother. Unfortunately for him, she really gets into her role and when he falls in love with a seductive, shady lady, the old lady does all she can to protect him from her; this includes getting him tossed in jail and shooting the young trollop. Afterward, the old lady must stand trial. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Evelyn Knapp, Margaret Seddon, (more)
- 1932
Western Limited is another of the "Grand Hotel on wheels" films so popular in the early 1930s. Stealing a valuable diamond at a Los Angeles society function, gentleman thief Edmund Burns boards a train bound for Chicago. A murder occurs during the journey, casting suspicion not only on Burns but on every other passenger. Once the gathered suspects get over the surprise that Burns is not a thief, but instead an insurance investigator assigned to protect the jewels, our hero can get down to the business of revealing the murderer's identity. Former silent-screen vamp Estelle Taylor, billed first, plays a more sympathetic role than usual. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Estelle Taylor, Edmund Burns, (more)
- 1932
A newspaper journalist must choose between the two women he loves in this drama. On one hand, he is in love with a publisher's daughter. On the other, he also loves a stage star who came to Tinsel Town to seek her fortune but finds she can only get parts as an extra. The hard working reporter soon finds himself promoted to city editor after he provides a couple of gangland scoops. For a while, he stops seeing the actress in favor of the publisher's daughter. The jilted actress then becomes a gangster's moll. It is during a car chase in which the editor is chasing the crooks, that he must finally choose whether to continue chasing them or to follow the car containing the actress. Naturally, he chooses hers. Love ensues. Meanwhile, the publisher's daughter is left out in the cold. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marion Shilling, Rex Bell, (more)
The Mummy represented Boris Karloff's second horror starring role after his "overnight" success in Frankenstein. Brought back to life after nearly 3,700 years, Egyptian high priest Imhotep wreaks havoc upon the members of the British field exposition that disturbed his tomb (shades of the King Tut curse). While disguised as a contemporary Egyptologist, he falls in love with Zita Johann, whom he recognizes as the latest incarnation of a priestess who died nearly 40 centures earlier. Spiriting Zita away to the tomb, he relates the story of how he had dared to enter her ancestor's sacred burial crypt, hoping to restore her to life. Caught in the act, he was embalmed alive and his tongue was cut out for his act of sacrilege. Now that he has returned, he intends to slay Zita, so that they will be reunited for all time in the Hereafter. Despite its melodramatic trappings, The Mummy is essentially a love story, poetically related by ace cinematographer and first-time director Karl Freund. Jack Pierce's justly celebrated makeup skills offers us two Karloffs: the wizened Egyptologist and the flaking, rotting mummy, who though only seen for a few seconds remains in the memory long after the film's final image has faded. Best line: "It went for a little walk." The Mummy was followed by four stock footage-laden sequels, none of which approached the power and poignancy of the original. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Boris Karloff, Zita Johann, (more)
- 1932
Based on the stage comedy by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, Once in a Lifetime is a satire of Hollywood's early-talkie era. A down-and-out vaudeville trio (Jack Oakie, Aline MacMahon, and Russell Hopton) takes advantage of the confusion attending the talkie revolution by heading to Hollywood and posing as voice experts. George (Oakie), the team's dimwitted straight man, falls in love with a pretty young miss (Sidney Fox) who has come to Hollywood to become an actress -- and won't let her utter lack of talent get in the way. Fast-talking themselves into jobs at the Glogauer Studios, the phony vocal specialists eventually wear out their welcome and are on the verge of being fired. But George, who has been listening to the complaints of a disillusioned screenwriter, suddenly spouts those complaints word for word to Mr. Glogauer (Gregory Ratoff) -- and is lauded as a genius for being the first man to stand up to the despotic studio head. George is made a producer, and immediately sets about filming an expensive movie vehicle for his girlfriend. Unfortunately, George had found the script for his film in a wastebasket, and winds up shooting the wrong picture. He and his vaudeville chums are fired, but when his picture (an incomprehensible farrago shot in darkness because George forgot to turn on the klieg lights) is previewed, it is hailed as a daringly original masterpiece. George is made the supervising producer of Glogauer Studios, and all ends happily for himself and his friends. An interesting precursor to the Singin' in the Rain school of Hollywood kidding itself, Once in a Lifetime has tarnished a bit over the years but is still well worth seeing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Oakie, Aline MacMahon, (more)
- 1932
Upon her release from prison, Joyce Greeley (Edwina Booth) is promptly and mysteriously murdered. Fledgling crime reporter John Martin (Regis Toomey) wants to find out why and also wants to discern the role of Joyce's lawyer Judson (Earl Foxe) in this whole sordid mess. Martin befriends the dead woman's sister Ellen (Betty Bronson) then extracts an important piece of evidence from deaf-mute Dummy Black (Mischa Auer in his pre-comedy days). Things come to a head when the villain is trapped in his own web of deceit -- and by his own accomplice. Former boxing great Jim Jeffries and silent comedy star Snub Pollard appear as themselves in a nightclub sequence. This Midnight Patrol is sometimes confused with the 1933 Laurel and Hardy two-reeler of the same title. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Regis Toomey, Betty Bronson, (more)
- 1932
This imitation-Lubitsch romantic comedy stars William Powell as an elegant jewel thief plying his trade in Vienna. Powell's latest victim is bored baroness Kay Francis, who is much taken by the gentleman crook's handsomeness and poise. Since Francis is casting about for a new lover and newer thrills, Powell meets her qualifications, criminal or no. But the lady's husband (Henry Kolker) is not so easily charmed, and he sets about to bring Powell to justice. Jewel Robbery was based on a play by Ladislas Fodor, previously filmed in an Austrian version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Powell, Kay Francis, (more)
