George Bancroft Movies

A couple of down-and-out British aristocrats buy an American roadhouse in this uproarious farce from Paramount. Naming the establishment after their estate in the old country, Twicket-on-Topping, Lady Beulah (Alison Skipworth) and her brother Sir Reginald (Roland Young) run afoul of American gangsters and when an attempt to sell the place to unsuspecting capitalist Mr. Stephens (DeWitt Jennings) comes to naught, Lady Beulah turns the roadhouse into an upscale café, the Boots and Saddles. The stout Englishwoman, however, staunchly refuses to provide liquor from bootlegger Nutty Bolton (Warren Hymer) and the latter attempts to ruin the establishment's recent goodwill by spiking the drinks. In the end, Lady Beulah is rescued by her niece Cecily (Sari Maritza), whose American boyfriend finally cons Stephens into buying the place right before it is raided by the police. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The felicitous screen team of Mary Boland and Charles Ruggles once more collaborated with director Norman Z. McLeod for the delightful Mama Loves Papa. Middle-class Wilbur Todd (Ruggles) is content with his lot in life, but his wife Jessie (Boland) is an inveterate social climber. Convinced that clothes make the man, Jessie dresses up her spouse in garish new suits, which elicit shouts of derision rather than murmurs of admiration. Frustrated by his wife's nagging, Wilbur goes off on a toot and becomes innocently involved with village vamp Mrs. McIntosh (Lilyan Tashman). It's all very basic material, but in the hands of its stars, its director, and ace screenwriter Nunnally Johnson, Mama Loves Papa emerges as something truly special. The National Board of Review selected the film as one of the best of its year, quite an honor for what was officially a "B" picture. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Roland Brown's Blood Money (1933) has lost none of its ability to entertain and startle over the seven decades since its release. The title refers to the business of affable, ambitious bail bondsman (and politically-connected grifter) Bill Bailey (George Bancroft), who, in the course of his work, crosses paths with every kind of offender there is, from first-time defendants to career criminals. Among the latter is Drury Darling (Chick Chandler), the brother of Bailey's paramour, nightclub owner Ruby Darling (Judith Anderson). Bailey is popular enough in the criminal world, over his providing the means for gang members to stay in circulation while awaiting trial, and he knows how to spread the money around to make the wheels of government run more smoothly (and not run over any of the speakeasies, casinos, clip-joints, and other enterprises of the gangs to which he is closest). Then, one day, he meets Elaine Talbert (Frances Dee), a thrill-seeking socialite whose penchant for excitement has ratcheted up from shoplifting in the better stores to fast cars and fast men. Bailey doesn't quite know what to make of her -- she's attractive enough, and drawn to him, but her lust for illicit and dangerous diversions runs counter to the common sense that he applies to his life, every place but where women are concerned. His quasi-legal and extra-legal maneuvering is fun for a while, but what she really wants, as she tells Bailey, is a man who will "take charge" and dominate her, physically and in every other way. Eventually, she tires of the middle-aged Bailey and gravitates toward Drury Darling, whose exploits as a bank robber, willing to fight the law head on, are more in line with some of the excitement that she craves. When Darling is arrested, he depends upon her to pass along the money that Bailey needs to bail him out, and that's when the smoothly operating life that Bailey has arranged for himself grinds to a halt. A cache of worthless bonds, a war within the underworld itself, and an assassination attempt on Bailey are just part of the double-dealing and blood-letting that ensues, climaxing with game of pool involving a booby-trapped eight ball (a variation of a famous sequence from Keaton's Sherlock Jr., later re-used by the Three Stooges in I'll Never Heil Again). And the finale for Elaine Talbert is a sequence that might not even have gotten past the politically-correct censors of the 1980's. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Alison Skipworth and W.C. Fields play Tillie and Augustus Winterbottom, a husband-and-wife team of con artists. The larcenous couple is summoned to a small town by their niece (Jacqueline Wells) and her husband (Clifford Jones) when the niece's father dies. Hoping for a sizeable inheritance, Tillie and Gus discover that the legacy consists of one rundown ferry boat. When they notice that a local lawyer (Clarence Wilson) seems unusually interested in obtaining this seemingly worthless vessel, T and G decide to help their niece restore the boat and keep the ferry line running. The climax occurs during a boat race between Tillie & Gus and the duplicitous lawyer; the prize is a large cash settlement from a major ferry franchise. Disappointingly restrained for a W.C. Fields film, Tillie and Gus is still good for a few quiet chuckles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This western is an adaptation of a Zane Grey novel and chronicles the exploits of a simple-minded cowpoke who proves his mettle and wins the heart of his employer's daughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Russian Revolution provides the backdrop for Paramount's The World and the Flesh. Marked for death by the Bolsheviks, a group of incognito aristocrats try to escape Russia by boxcar. The story focuses on one of these refuges, Maria Yasaka (Miriam Hopkins), the mistress of Grand Duke Dmitri (Alan Mowbray). Arriving in a French seacoast village, the little party is about to sail to England when the town is taken over by Russian sea captain Kylenko (George Bancroft). To save her travelling companions from arrest and execution, Maria pulls a Boule de Suif and sleeps with Kylenko -- only to fall in love with him. There's suspense aplenty in the final scenes of World and the Flesh, when it appears that everyone, heroine included, is doomed to face a firing squad. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Charles Dickens' novel Dombey and Son is set in 1931 America in this interesting drama that centers on an egotistical, over-ambitious owner of a shipbuilding company. So focused is he on succeeding that he forgets his family and their needs. He begins looking for a successor to his wealth and immediately ignores his capable daughter (after all, a woman couldn't possibly manage a business now could she?) in favor of her younger, more frail son whom he is determined to turn into a "real man." When the father's wife dies, he does not allow his poor son to grieve. This causes the sickly youth to become physically weakened; he dies. This does not deter the ice-hearted father who again ignores his daughter and soon marries another woman so she can bear him an heir. Meanwhile the lonely daughter marries the son of her father's rival. The father's new bride is made miserable by his obsession and leaves him. Finally all his grief comes crashing down and in his subsequent rage, the man single-handedly destroys his newest ship, the one that would have brought him even more money for he has finally learned the bitter lesson that love is more important than material gain. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Though he plays an Italian-American character in Ladies Love Brutes, George Bancroft refreshingly avoids the ethnic stereotype so prevalent in films of the early 1930s. Bancroft is cast as Joe Forziati, a rough-and-tumble building contractor who is suddenly thrust into great wealth. He tries to remain his same down-to-earth self, but soon he's putting on airs in hopes of impressing attractive divorcee Mimi Howell (Mary Astor). Forziati ultimately drops his social pretenses and puts up his dukes when both his son Joey (David Durand) and Mimi's boy Jackie (Freddie Burke Frederick) are kidnapped by Capone-like gangster Mike Mendino (Stanley Fields). Billed third, Fredric March is rather wasted as Mimi's former husband. Ladies Love Brutes was based on Pardon My Glove, a play by Zoe Akins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The disastrous 1929 Stock Market crash was still several months in the future when Wolf of Wall Street made its screen debut. George Bancroft stars as ruthless stock manipulator Jim Bradford, who plays his customers for suckers and laughs all the way to the bank. Cornering the copper market at the expense of his hated rival David Tyler (Paul Lukas), Bradford taunts Tyler in public, prompting the latter to plan a sweet revenge. Tyler inaugurates an affair with Bradford's status-seeking wife Olga (Olga Baclanova), which indiscretion is witnessed by the Bradford's maid Gert (Nancy Carroll). Armed with plenty of "inside information," Gert decides to get on the Wall Street gravy train by talking her boyfriend Frank (Arthur Rankin) into investing in copper futures. Alas, things don't go as planned, and soon the impoverished Frank is embezzling from his boss to cover his losses. When Frank is thrown in jail, Gert confronts Bradford, blaming him for Frank's plight. Bradford laughs in her face, whereupon Gert angrily spills the beans about Olga and Tyler. Instead of buying a gun, Bradford handles his wife's infidelity in characteristic fashion by financially ruining Olga, Tyler, and himself. This last bit of stock manipulation has the salutary effect of making Gert and Frank millionaires, which pleases the inscrutable Bradford, who now has ample reason to laugh at himself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this melodrama set during WW I, a gangster joins the army and is promoted to major. He then returns from war torn Europe to tell a family that their beloved son had died in his arms during a battle. The major then falls in love with the late soldier's sister and decides to accept a position in town as the new police commissioner. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide