Lee Kohlmar Movies

George S. Kaufman's sturdy stage comedy The Butter and Egg Man was the inspiration for no fewer than four Warner Bros. talkie versions. The first of these was The Tenderfoot, starring Joe E. Brown as a wealthy but naive cowboy alone in the Big Apple. The producers of a down-and-out musical revue hope to convince Brown to put his money in their show, sending out cute chorine Ginger Rogers as the "convincer." After having his heart broken a few times and tangling with gangsters, Joe comes through and the show goes on. Warners followed The Tenderfoot with a 1937 musicalization of Butter and Egg Man, Dance Charlie Dance; this in turn was remade as An Angel From Texas in 1942. The final variation on this theme (so far!) was Three Sailors and a Girl (53). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this musical comedy, a Jewish songwriter pursues and conquers a society blonde. Unfortunately, the indecisive fellow realizes that he really loves his female partner and dumps the blonde on their wedding day. Songs include "Leave It That Way," "Dust," "Girl Trouble," "A Couple of Birds with the Same Thought in Mind," and "The Whole Darned Thing's for You." ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Sparring landladies provide the focus of this comedy. The two women are constantly competing to take in the most boarders at their respective homes. Though outwardly jealous rivals, the women are actually best friends. The competition gets more intense when one woman's daughter falls for the other's son. Now the women, who have secretly made a killing playing the stock market, try to see which one can put on the fanciest wedding. In the end, the couple weds and the women renew their friendship. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this drama, a Viennese composer kills his wife and her lover in a jealous rage, and then heads for the US with his daughter where he becomes a successful musician in a Broadway restaurant. Eighteen years later, his grown daughter gets a job as an arranger for a jazz combo. The trouble begins when she and her boyfriend arrange one of her father's old tunes. It becomes popular, and the Austrian authorities follow up on it and capture the criminal composer. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Producer Samuel Goldwyn had first become familiar with Montague Glass' "Potash and Perlmutter" series of stories when he was a glove salesman. In 1923, he decided to make a film of the play (also written by Glass with Charles Klein), which went against the preference of most moguls of the day -- they shunned anything Jewish, although most of them were Jewish themselves. This ethnic comedy was Goldwyn's first as an independent producer. Alexander Carr as Morris Perlmutter and Barney Bernard as Abe Potash reprise the roles they played on Broadway; Vera Gordon, who played a Jewish mother in Humoresque, does so again here as Abe's wife Rosie. Potash's tailoring business is a failure, so he latches onto the more prosperous Perlmutter as a partner. Their enterprise promises to be a success, but they have an enemy in Feldman (Edward Durand), the rich attorney Potash has picked out as a husband for his daughter Irma (Hope Sutherland). Irma, however, has fallen in love with Boris Andrieff (Ben Lyon), a starving musician that Potash has hired as a fitter. When a murder is committed at the partners' establishment and Andrieff is charged with the crime, Feldman shows his true colors by refusing to clear the young man's name. Andrieff is eventually found to be innocent and proves to be a suitable husband for Irma. The film was so successful that Goldwyn made several more Potash and Perlmutter comedies. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

Having turned the creaky old stage melodrama Way Down East into a money-spinning film, director D.W. Griffith set about to perform the same magic with the barnstorming theatrical piece The Two Orphans. Adolphe Philippe Dennery's play told the story of two orphaned girls, one blind, who are separated early on and undergo innumerable deprivations before their tearful reunion. Though the play took place in France, it had nothing whatsoever to do with the French Revolution; this didn't stop Griffith from plunking the storyline smack dab in the middle of that late-18th-century maelstrom, allowing him full scope for the spectacular scenes which had brought him worldwide fame. Lillian Gish plays Henriette, the sighted sister, while Dorothy Gish is cast as the visually impaired Louise. Henriette brings Louise to Paris, in search of a surgeon who might be able to restore her sister's sight. Henriette is kidnapped by a lascivious nobleman, leaving Louise to wander helplessly about until she too is "stolen" by a family of beggars. Rescued by kindhearted aristocrat Chevalier de Vaudrey (Joseph Schildkraut), Henriette begins the arduous search for her lost sister. Just before the film's intermission, Henriette hears Louise begging on the streets. Before they can be reunited, Henriette is arrested by minions of the evil nobleman who'd earlier tried to seduce her. Released from the Bastille by the revolutionaries, Henriette resumes her search, only to be arrested again--this time because she has consorted with the aristocracy, and is therefore a candidate for the guillotine. The stage is thus set for a thrilling "race to the rescue" climax, and of course the reuniting of the two orphans. Orphans of the Storm was filmed at Griffith's east coast studio in Mamaroneck, New York, which explains why the exteriors are always so overcast. In an effort to be topical, Griffith took every opportunity possible to equate the French revolution with the recent Bolshevik rebellion in Russia, and to warn his audience of the dangers of mob rule (this from a man who glorified the Ku Klux Klan in Birth of a Nation!) The film opened to excellent reviews and great business; Griffith, who always placed art above commerce, poured virtually every penny of profit into his "smaller" project, Isn't Life Wonderful, which died at the box office. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Two Dutchmen, kindhearted Jan Saxe (vaudevillian Lee Kohlmar in his motion picture debut) and ambitious Peter Harlingen (Rudolph Christians) immigrate to America. On the voyage over they both fall in love with the same girl, but Peter wins her. The self-sacrificing Jan gives his all to help them get started in life. But the young woman dies, leaving a little girl, Bertha. As she grows to womanhood (to be played by Gladys Walton), Jan becomes as devoted to her as her father. When she is old enough to be married, Peter wants to see her wed a wealthy young man, but Bertha is in love with a boy of more modest means. Jan helps convince his old pal that Bertha should marry whoever she wants. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi