Guy Kibbee Movies

Babbitt, Sinclair Lewis' satirical novel of the American "middle class" was first filmed as a silent in 1924, then as a talkie ten years later. In this second version, Guy Kibbee portrays George Babbitt, a small town businessman whose sense of self-importance has turned him into a pompous ass. Only Babbitt's loving wife (Aline MacMahon) sees the decent man behind the fatuous facade. Babbitt's ego gets the better of him when he is inveigled by a lovely but duplicitous young lady (Claire Dodd) into promoting a shady land deal. On the verge of ruin, Babbitt is rescued by his wife, though there's every indication that he hasn't completely learned his lesson. While the sting of Sinclair Lewis' original novel has been blunted, One couldn't ask for a better George Babbitt than Guy Kibbee. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A plucky orphan girl runs away from the orphanage. Her only possession is her beloved Bible in which she has complete faith and this helps her cope with the often cruel realities of life on the run. Eventually the young fugitive teams up with a street-wise shoe-shine boy who takes her to a kindly newspaper editor who provides her with the home she has searched for. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Guy Kibbee trots out his small-town blowhard routine in the title role of Big Hearted Herbert. He plays a former plumber who strikes it rich in the bathroom-fixture manufacturing business (guess which fixture we don't see in this Post-Code film). A stingy soul, Kibbee prefers the company of pinchpennies like himself. Though it's fun to see him tweak the noses of the local big spenders, Kibbee learns the error of his strict parsimony when his wife requires an emergency operation. Based on a play by Sophie Kerr and Anna Steese Richardson, Big Hearted Herbert was remade in 1940 as Father is a Prince. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When British actor Robert Donat dropped out of Warner Bros. Captain Blood, the studio took a chance on its new contractee, Tasmania-born Errol Flynn. Adapted from the novel by Rafael Sabatini, the film is set during the oppressive reign of King James II. Irish physician Peter Blood (Errol Flynn), arrested for treating a wounded anti-crown rebel, is condemned to slavery in Jamaica. Here he earns several privileges after treating the governor (George Hassell) for gout; this does not rest well with Lionel Atwill, the wicked owner of the plantation on which Blood is forced to work. Nor is Atwill pleased with the growing relationship between his niece Arabella (Olivia DeHavilland) and the imprisoned doctor. An attack on Jamaica by Spanish pirates gives Blood and his fellow slaves the opportunity to become buccaneers themselves. After several months of fighting and plunder, Blood's men capture a merchant ship bearing Arabella. Blood fights a duel with a French pirate (Basil Rathbone) over the girl; having "won" her, Blood intends to have his way with her, but his more decent instincts prevail. When King James is overthrown by William of Orange, Blood is given a commission and lauded as a hero as a reward for his bravery against the Spanish galleons. He is appointed governor of Jamaica, wins the hand of the lovely Arabella, and genially forces Atwill to eat crow. This seemingly outsized swashbuckler was actually a very economical production, using stock footage from several silent films. Captain Blood transformed the 26-year-old Errol Flynn into a star; he's a little clumsy in the dialogue department at times, but cuts a dashing figure in the action scenes. The film also represented the cinematic debut of composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold, who wasn't completely happy with his hastily written score and asked that his on-screen credit be diminished to "musical director". Long available only in its 99 minute re-issue version, Captain Blood has been restored to its full, glorious 119 minute length. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Two small-town youths head for the Big Apple and somehow get mixed up with mobsters during a visit to the title park in this episodic comedy drama filmed on location. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Cinderella Swings It was the last in a series of RKO programmers based on the popular radio series Scattergood Baines (its original title, Scattergood Swings It, was changed in the light of the poor reception afforded the earlier series entries). Guy Kibbee stars as small-town busybody Baines, who in this outing tries to make a big star out of local songstress Betty Palmer (Gloria Warren). One of his strategies is to spotlight the girl in a USO benefit show, which takes up most of the film's 70-minute running time. The supporting cast include juvenile actors Butch and Buddy (Bill Lenhart and Kenneth Brown), who'd previously bedevilled W. C. Fields and Abbott &Costello over at Universal, and future 3 Stooges straight woman Christine McIntyre. Cinderella Swings It was packaged by Pyramid Productions, the same concern responsible for RKO's radio-inspired "Lum and Abner" series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Practically every member of the Warner Bros. stock company except Glenda Farrell shows up in the rowdy, raunchy pre-Code comedy Convention City. Joan Blondell plays Nancy Lorraine, an enterprising lass who is employed by a big-city hotel as a "hostess" for out-of-town conventioneers. She spends a great deal of the film in the company of small-town businessman George Ellerbe (Guy Kibbee), who goes to great lengths to avoid his nagging wife (Ruth Donnelly). Weaving in and out of the proceedings are inveterate practical jokers Goodwin (Frank McHugh) and Hotstetter (Hugh Herbert), who use the convention as an excuse for a three-day binge. The plot rears its ugly head when Nancy finds her affections torn between slick CEO T.R. Kent (Adolphe Menjou) and handsome young salesman Jerry Ford (Dick Powell). The New York Times described it as, "Not a dull foot. One of the few comedies that can truthfully be called positive entertainment." Unfortunately, there are no known surviving prints of Convention City, so it remains one of the era's many "lost films." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sudden success can be a double-edged sword as this drama aptly proves. An aspiring musician finds success when his manager has him switch from playing the sax to vocals. He soon becomes a popular star. Unfortunately as his popularity swells, so does his head. His arrogance and megalomania cause his downfall. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Rosalind Russell stars as a no-nonsense judge who dabbles in sculpting in her spare time. Walter Pidgeon costars as a reporter assigned to discredit Rosalind after she rules against his boss (Edward Arnold) in a divorce case. Pidgeon plans to frame the judge in a compromising situation, then blackmail her into reducing the alimony. He succeeds in humiliating Rosalind, but regrets his actions when he realizes he's fallen in love with her. All ends happily in this glossy derivative of MGM's earlier Libelled Lady (36). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

High-rolling gambler "Odds" Owen (Warren William) establishes an American insurance agency created along the lines of Lloyd's of London. Owen insures Kentucky colonel Jefferson Davis Youngblood (Guy Kibbee) against the possibility that Youngblood's actress daughter Marilyn (Claire Dodd) might get married, thereby cutting off the Colonel's allowance. After scaring away several prospective suitors, Owen messes things up by falling in love with Marilyn himself. Odds are that the 60-minute Don't Bet on Blondes would be completely forgotten were it not for the presence of new Warner Bros. contractee Errol Flynn, who appears in two brief scenes as one of Marilyn's boyfriends. It was Flynn's first speaking role at Warners, and he carried it off with class if not distinction. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Joe E. Brown was an ideal choice for the character of Alexander Botts, the brash, arrogant "natural born salesman" created for The Saturday Evening Post by William Hazlett Upton. As a representative for the Earthworm Tractor company, Botts tries to convince old-fashioned lumberman Guy Kibbee to buy his newfangled products. Several disastrous slapstick sequences later (including an hilarious setpiece in which Botts unwittingly tows away Kibbee's entire house!), Botts closes the deal, winning the hand of Kibbee's daughter June Travis in the process. Despite the character's unremitting cockiness, Joe E. Brown manages to make Alexander Botts immensely likeable. Earthworm Tractors was the next-to-last film on Joe E. Brown's Warner Bros. contract, and (with rare exceptions like 1938's The Gladiator) his last truly worthwhile vehicle of the thirties. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Joe E. Brown plays a small town fireman who is also the town's star ballplayer--and an itinerant inventor on the side. Brown is offered a pitching contract with the St. Louis Cardinals; he accepts, reasoning that the money he'll earn will help finance his invention. While in spring training, Brown becomes entangled with a seductive "good time girl" (Noel Francis), which severely compromises his game playing ability and also strains his relationship with his hometown sweetheart (Evalyn Knapp). On the day of the Cardinal's World Series clincher, Brown arrives at the doorstep of the Zenith Fire Extinguishing company, which has invited Joe to demonstrate his invention, a baseball-shaped "extinguisher bomb." A mix-up in briefcases nearly causes Brown to burn down the Zenith company, but eventually he proves the efficiency of his invention. The local fire chief then rushes Brown to the big game, where he pitches his team to victory. Though just as much a "zany inventor" comedy as a baseball yarn, Fireman Save My Child qualifies as the first of Joe E. Brown's "baseball trilogy", followed by 1933's Elmer the Great and 1935's Alibi Ike. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide