Evelyn Knapp Movies
A graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, blonde Evelyn Knapp made her Broadway debut in Channing Pollock's Mr. Moneypenny (1928). With a proven track record of more than 20 Vitaphone short subjects and a series of comedy two-reelers with George LeMaire, she was awarded a contract with Warner Bros. and made an auspicious screen debut opposite Grant Withers in Sinner's Holiday (1930). The secondary team of James Cagney and Joan Blondell ran away with most of the notices but at least one critic thought Knapp gave a "credible performance" as a naive girl caught between rum runners and a young carnival barker.In typical Warner fashion, Knapp was hurried from one project to another with very little thought to the appropriateness of the vehicles. From a muscular Northwest adventure with Charles Bickford, River's End (1931), she was rushed into playing George Arliss' refined daughter in The Millionaire (1931) with barely a chance to shift gears. In all her films, Knapp was pleasant and unobtrusive and in 1932, motion picture advertisers voted her a WAMPAS Baby Star. Being inconspicuous, however, was not exactly a star-making trait and Warners dropped her option, despite a starring role opposite John Wayne in the 1933 . Freelancing, she reportedly beat 50 actresses for the title role in Universal's remake of The Perils of Pauline (1934) and although Knapp was hardly in a league with the original Pauline, silent serial queen Pearl White, the chapterplay has proven the production for which she is best remembered. It was downhill from there, alas, and Knapp spent her remaining years in films in low-budget fare. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1930
Based on the play Penny Arcade, Sinner's Holiday marked the film debut of James Cagney. After seeing the performance on Broadway, Al Jolson bought the rights to the play and sold it to Warner Bros. under the agreement that both Cagney and co-star Joan Blondell reprise their stage roles for the screen. The story concerns an overprotective mother, Ma Delano (Lucille LaVerne), who runs a penny arcade in Coney Island and lives with her children: Harry (James Cagney), Joe (Ray Gallagher), and Jennie (Evelyn Knapp). Harry works for a sideshow ran by liquor-dealing gangster Mitch McKane (Warren B. Hymer), who wants to date ennie. Grant Withers plays Angel, Harry's co-worker and the hero that saves Jennie from Mitch's advances. When Mitch goes to jail, Harry takes over his shady liquor business and keeps the extra money for himself, leading to a deadly gunfight. When he's accused of murder, Harry begs his mother for protection and she frames Angel with the weapon out of a bizarrely obsessive love for her son. agney would go on to play other tough-guy characters with overly loving mothers in his next film, The Public Enemy ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Grant Withers, Evelyn Knapp, (more)
- 1930
The pain of raising children alone is presented in this tragedy that centers on the failure of a widowed mother of four bratty children to raise her children correctly. Each of them grows up to a sad adult life. One daughter endures a grim May-December marriage. One son, a talented architect, must leave town or be ruined by a scandal. His brother become a petty hood who winds up murdering his own sister when she attempts to protect her lover from him. In the end, the bad brother gets the chair. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Peterson, Helen Chandler, (more)
- 1931
The delightful Winnie Lightner was afforded her own movie vehicle in Side Show. Lightner stars as Pat, one of several members of a traveling carnival troupe managed by the eternally besotted Colonel Gowdy (Guy Kibbee). A Jill-of-all-trades, Pat does everything from high-diving to hula dancing, with time left over for a romance with meek-and-mild Sidney (Charles Butterworth), a man incapable of uttering an intelligent remark. There are moments of melodrama and pathos -- especially when Pat tries to save her younger sister, Irene (Evelyn Knapp), from a lecherous carny barker -- but comedy predominates throughout, culminating in a slapstick big-top finale. Unseen for many years, Side Show was resuscitated in the early '90s by the Turner Classic Movies cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Winnie Lightner, Charles Butterworth, (more)
- 1931
Philip Barry's wistful comedy You and I was brought to the screen by its original stage director Robert Milton. All it lacked was its original title; First National Pictures felt that The Bargain was a more saleable cognomen. Lewis Stone stars as a successful soapmaker who'd wanted to be a painter in his youth. Stone's son John Darrow likewise forsakes the world of art for the world of business. The frustrated Stone retires and tries to paint again, but he's lost the gift. He then determines that his son will not make the same mistakes that he had. The type-cast cast includes ingenue Evalyn Knapp, philosophical butler Charles Butterworth, and wise-cracking comedy relief Una Merkel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Evelyn Knapp, Charles Butterworth, (more)
Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney were teamed for the only time in their careers in Smart Money. Robinson has the larger part as a small-town barber who fancies himself a big-time gambler. He travels to the Big City in the company of his younger brother Cagney, who wants to make sure that Robinson isn't fleeced by the high-rollers. Unfortunately Robinson has a weakness for beautiful blondes, most of whom take him for all his money or betray him in some other manner. The cops aren't keen on Robinson's gambling activities, but they can pin nothing on him until he accidentally kills Cagney in a fight. The incident results in a jail term for manslaughter, and a more sober-sided outlook on life for the formerly flamboyant Robinson. Watch closely in the first reel of Smart Money for an unbilled appearance by Boris Karloff as a dope pusher. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward G. Robinson, Evelyn Knapp, (more)
- 1931
George Arliss is the millionaire of the title, a retired auto tycoon who's been ordered by his doctor to rest and avoid exercise. Arliss is shaken out of his sedentary existence by an insurance salesman who advises him to pick himself up and enjoy life. The old man heads to California, where he conceals his identity and goes to work for a service station. Given a new lease on life, the millionaire amuses himself by playing matchmaker with his own daughter (Evelyn Knapp) and the go-getting young service station manager (David Manners). Barely distinguishable from George Arliss' other non-historical vehicles, The Millionaire is given an added dimension by James Cagney, who shows up for three wonderful minutes as the friendly insurance agent. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Arliss, Evelyn Knapp, (more)
- 1931
The second of three versions of James Oliver Curwood's pulp fiction drama of a mountie and his separated-at-birth prey stars Charles Bickford as both Sgt. Conniston and accused murderer John Keith. The latter is persuaded to prove his innocence by impersonating his captor, who has conveniently died from a "frosted heart." Everyone at the Mountie outpost likes the "new" Conniston, especially the dead mountie's girlfriend, Miriam (Evelyn Knapp), who just happens to be the daughter of the commandant (David Torrence). This idyll, however, is rudely interrupted when a jealous rival (Walter McGrail) reveals that Conniston has a wife and child stacked away in faraway England, a development that forces Keith to show his hand. River's End had been filmed in 1920 as a vehicle for Lewis Stone and would be remade in 1940 starring Dennis Moore. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Bickford, Evelyn Knapp, (more)
- 1932
A huge box office success and a key film in James Cagney's rise to stardom, this drama stars Cagney as Matt Nolan, a gritty New York City cab driver who is being squeezed by a monopolistic taxi trust which uses force to run him and other independent cabbies away from the most profitable locations. Nolan joins forces with Pop Riley (George Kibbee), whose cab is smashed by a truck when he refuses to cooperate with the syndicate. Kibbee is sent to prison for shooting at the truck driver. Nolan is dating his daughter, Sue (Loretta Young), and they enter a Peabody dance contest at a local nightclub. Cagney dances on screen for the first time, and so does George Raft as Willie Kenny, another dancing tough guy who was a friend of Cagney's, who pushed Warner Bros. to give Cagney the role. Nolan marries Sue Riley, and she tries to get him to cool down. But the taxi trust goons kill his brother Danny (Ray Cooke), and Nolan goes on a rampage. In several filmed gun battles, live machine-gun bullets are used, as they were in Cagney's famed The Public Enemy. This is the last time Cagney allowed that. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, Loretta Young, (more)
- 1932
Based on Abel Kandel's 1931 play Hot Money, this delightfully daffy comedy from Warner Bros. is a typical example of that studio's turbo-charged dialogue and irreverent attitude. William Powell, at the top of his game here, plays Gar Evans, the "world's foremost promoter," hired by Jewish entrepreneur Ginsberg (George Sidney) to boost a new discovery that may turn sewage into artificial rubber. Unfortunately, after Evans and his minions have talked untold suckers into buying stocks in the dubious venture, the inventor (Harry Beresford) goes missing. The good professor turns up eventually but proves to be quite demented and the entire scheme is about to fall apart when Evans, more or less at the seat of his pants, manages to sweet-talk himself into an even better deal. William Powell is a marvel in this comedy, whether cheerleading a gaggle of would-be salesmen or attempting to persuade a disillusioned Francine (Evelyn Brent), his good luck charm, to stay onboard despite ever impending doom. Miss Brent, who usually had only one expression -- sullen hauteur -- is quite charming as Powell's long-suffering girlfriend; and Frank McHugh, whose comedy relief often proved more grating than funny, is more than tolerable this time around as Powell's rah-rah second lieutenant. And finally there is veteran dialectician George Sidney, whose worried entrepreneur offers some of High Pressure's best laughs. A French-language version, La Bluffeur, was produced later in 1932 featuring Andre Luget as the promoter and Danish comic Torben Meyer as Ginsberg. Warner Bros. remade the story under its original title, Hot Money, in 1936, this time featuring Ross Alexander and Joseph Cawthorn. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Powell, Evelyn Brent, (more)
- 1932
This drama, made while New York mayor Jimmy Walker was still being reviled by newspapers for similar actions, follows a big-city mayor who loves sports, the theater, the night life, and a beautiful actress. When the press gets a hold of this information and a scandal ensues, he has the actress marry his writer friend to get the media off his back. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Tracy, Evelyn Knapp, (more)
- 1932
In one of his first westerns, Johnny Mack Brown plays Kirby Tornell, who does the "Robin Hood" bit on the wide open spaces. When not flummoxing the Cavalry, Kirby relaxes by playing the piano and rendering a song or two. Despite Kirby's notorious reputation, Carol Winfield (Evalyn Knapp), the daughter of the hero's perennial foe General Winfield (George Irving), can't help falling in love with him. And in the end, Carol surrenders totally to Kirby, riding off with him into the sunset. A strong cast of silent-film veterans (ZaSu Pitts, J. Farrell McDonald, Raymond Hatton) helps lift Vanishing Frontier well above the norm. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Johnny Mack Brown, Evelyn Knapp, (more)
- 1932
Confidence woman Martha Hicks (Alison Skipworth), better known to those who know her at all as "the Countess," is a career criminal who has just been paroled. She would like to slip away from the authorities and leave the country, but first she wants to look in on the only decent, respectable part of her life, the two daughters whom she left behind with her onetime husband, Elmer Hicks (Richard Bennett), a small-town hotel owner. She arrives to find that Elmer, in his well-meaning but dithering way, has let their younger daughter (Gertrude Messinger) fall in with the wrong crowd, including a two-bit criminal, Jack Houston (George Raft). He has filled her head with stories about what a big man he is and plans to take her to Chicago with him, until Martha intervenes -- she manages to turn the interest of veteran lawman John Adams (J. Farrell MacDonald) to her advantage and nearly gets Houston thrown in the slammer. When he proves tougher to get out of the way than she'd thought he'd be, Martha has to choose between freedom or the well-being of her daughter, and gets some unexpected help from Elmer. Skipworth is charming and the rest of the cast is first-rate in this sly, fast-paced, and enjoyable comedy drama. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alison Skipworth, Richard Bennett, (more)
- 1932
Veteran stage and screen star George Arliss forsakes his biographical roles for domestic comedy in A Successful Calamity. Arliss plays an elderly millionaire saddled with a selfish young second wife (Mary Astor) and a pair of spoiled grown children (William Janney and Evelyn Knapp). To test his family's mettle, Arliss pretends to have gone broke. Just as he suspected they would, his children rally to their father's side and change their ways: The daughter forsakes a fortune hunter (Hardie Albright) for the nice young man she's really in love with (Randolph Scott), while the son applies for a demanding job and performs admirably. Only Arliss' young wife seems to desert him--but even she turns out to be true blue, hocking her jewels to save Arliss from ruin. A Successful Calamity was based on a play by Claire Kummer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Arliss, Mary Astor, (more)
- 1932
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
- Starring:
- Joe E. Brown, Evelyn Knapp, (more)
- 1932
The fast-paced world of polo provides the backdrop for this sports drama that centers upon John Steele, a US Army captain obsessed with polo. The trouble begins when he tries to get revenge upon the polo player who took liberties with his daughter Mickey. The vengeful captain causes Charles, the polo player, to have a fatal accident on the playing field. Investigators are not fooled by the "accident" and justice eventually prevails, but not before the whole mess goes to trial. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Holt, Evelyn Knapp, (more)
- 1932
In this strange, convoluted tale, a hotel clerk ends up pregnant and alone after she has a brief fling with a wealthy playboy. Shortly after her daughter's birth, she hooks up with a criminal. She does not realize that the good-hearted bellboy with whom she works secretly loves her. When the criminal inadvertently involves her in a murder, an eager-beaver reporter, who also grows to lover her, hatches a clever scheme to save her and win her hand. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Dvorak, Lee Tracy, (more)
- 1932
Based on the play New York Town by Ward Morehouse, Mervyn LeRoy directs the black-and-white 1932 comedy drama Big City Blues. A small-town innocent from Indiana, Bud Reeves (Eric Linden) inherits money and goes to New York to get in all sorts of trouble. He meets up with his cousin Gibby (Walter Catlett), who introduces him to chorus girl Vida Fleet (Joan Blondell). Bud and Gibby then throw a drunken hotel party with bootleg liquor that gets out of hand and a young woman (Josephine Dunn) is hit on the head and accidentally killed. Bud and Vida go gambling and drinking to escape the cops, but they are caught and arrested with everyone else from the party. Eventually, the police find the real killer and release everyone. Bud leaves for Indiana, but plans to go back, get his dog, and marry Vida. Humphrey Bogart appears in a brief uncredited role as Shep Adkins, a guy who gets into a fight with Lyle Talbot during the party. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Blondell, Eric Linden, (more)
- 1933
In this crime drama, a highway patrolman gives an oil magnate a ticket. He later quits the force to begin working for the tycoon as a guard for the refinery. He is to prevent gangsters from sabotaging the operation for the duration of a price war. In the end he single-handedly defends the refinery from the mobsters. He also finds time to fall in love with the tycoon's lovely daughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Regis Toomey, Evelyn Knapp, (more)
- 1933
Preston Foster, Mischa Auer, and Evalyn Knapp star in this tale of political intrigue centering on the quest of a powerful mayor to clear his name. Political leaders are being assassinated - stealthily shot dead by bullets made of ice - and when the blame falls on the mayor he must race to find the real killer before it's too late. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Evelyn Knapp, Preston S. Foster, (more)
- 1933
In this drama, an unmarried pregnant woman is forced to marry a complete stranger to maintain a sense of propriety. The man who helps her is opposed by his mother who wants him to marry someone else. He is preparing to divorce, but suddenly finds himself bonding to the baby and decides to stay after all. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 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)
A very young John Wayne is atypically cast as a randy playboy in His Private Secretary. Much to the dismay of his businessman father, Dick Wallace (Wayne) prefers a life of wine, women and more women to honest work. The elder Wallace demands that Dick take a job as his company's collection manager, and it is in this capacity that our hero heads to the small town of Somerville to collect a debt. Here he meets pretty Marion (Evelyn Knapp), the granddaughter of the man from whom Dick must extract overdue payments. Immediately putting the moves on Marion, Dick is rebuffed with a slap and several harsh words -- and for the first time in his life, the prodigal son is really in love! Inevitably, Marion ends up working as a secretary for Dick's dad, driving the poor boy crazy in his efforts to make up for his previous boorish behavior. Excerpts from His Private Secretary have frequently shown up in TV documentaries about John Wayne, as "proof" of his inability to act in his pre-John Ford years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Evelyn Knapp, John Wayne, (more)
- 1933
Police Car 17 is one of a handful of non-westerns made for Columbia by cowboy star Tim McCoy. Motor patrolman Tim Conlon (McCoy) and his partner Bumps O'Neill (Ward Bond) vie for the attentions of Helen Regan (Evelyn Knapp), daughter of a fellow cop. Our hero not only wins Helen but also the undying admiration of his fellow lawmen through a series of incredible acts of heroism. All things considered, Police Car 17 is a western in modern dress. All that's missing is the final shootout at High Noon, but this is neatly compensated for by a climactic fistic battle in an abandoned garage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Evelyn Knapp, (more)
- 1933
Quite a bit of stock footage accompany this aerial melodrama from Columbia, which was directed by low-budget action specialist Albert S. Rogell. Pretty TWA air hostess Kitty King (Evalyn Knapp) falls in love with and marries dashing stunt pilot Ted Hunter (James Murray), despite the young man's rather rough lifestyle. She willingly accepts his plans for building a new kind of airplane in Albuquerque, NM, but upon arrival there finds him in the arms of a haughty socialite (Thelma Todd). A dejected Kitty hurriedly boards a train for home, unaware it is headed straight for a collapsing bridge. Learning of the possible disaster, Ted takes to the air in a final effort to warn the train's engineer. But the latter ignores the roaring plane and Ted is forced to crash land right on the tracks. None the worse for wear, the heroic pilot apologizes to Kitty for his bad behavior and they fly home to happiness. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Evelyn Knapp, Arthur Pierson, (more)
