Wright Kramer Movies

This sequel to 1934's Anne of Green Gables stars Anne Shirley as Anne Shirley, the plucky Canadian orphan girl created by novelist Lucy Maude Montgomery. Now all grown up, Anne takes on the job of vice-principal of the only school in Windy Poplars Unfortunately, she must contend with the opposition of the community's most powerful and contentious family, the much-hated Pringles. Helping matters a bit is the fact that handsome Tony Pringle (James Ellison) falls in love with Anne. It takes a near-tragedy to wash away all misunderstandings, prejudices and hypocricies and restore happiness and stability to the community. Based on L. M. Montgomery's novel Anne of Windy Willows, Anne of Windy Poplars was remade for Canadian television in 1985. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Showdown was the second 1940 entry in Paramount's "Hopalong Cassidy" western series. William Boyd (who else?) stars as Hoppy, while his sidekicks on this trip are Russell Hayden as Lucky Jenkins and Britt Wood as Speedy. When his rancher friend dies of a heart attack after being swindled by a gang of crooks, Hoppy vows to see that justice is done for the sake of the dead man's niece (Jane Clayton, aka Jan Clayton, who at the time was Mrs. Russell Hayden). There's action aplenty in Showdown, ranging from a burning barn to a runaway train, but the film's highlight is a rigged poker game, wherein supposed tenderfoot Hoppy flummoxes the bad guys. Perennial "Cassidy" heavy Morris Ankrum seems to be having a wonderful time posing as a European count, though he reverts to his usual Ugly-American self in the final scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Frank Capra's classic comedy-drama established James Stewart as a lead actor in one of his finest (and most archetypal) roles. The film opens as a succession of reporters shout into telephones announcing the death of Senator Samuel Foley. Senator Joseph Paine (Claude Rains), the state's senior senator, puts in a call to Governor Hubert "Happy" Hopper (Guy Kibbee) reporting the news. Hopper then calls powerful media magnate Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold), who controls the state -- along with the lawmakers. Taylor orders Hopper to appoint an interim senator to fill out Foley's term; Taylor has proposed a pork barrel bill to finance an unneeded dam at Willet Creek, so he warns Hopper he wants a senator who "can't ask any questions or talk out of turn." After having a number of his appointees rejected, at the suggestion of his children Hopper nominates local hero Jefferson Smith (James Stewart), leader of the state's Boy Rangers group. Smith is an innocent, wide-eyed idealist who quotes Jefferson and Lincoln and idolizes Paine, who had known his crusading editor father. In Washington, after a humiliating introduction to the press corps, Smith threatens to resign, but Paine encourages him to stay and work on a bill for a national boy's camp. With the help of his cynical secretary Clarissa Sanders (Jean Arthur), Smith prepares to introduce his boy's camp bill to the Senate. But when he proposes to build the camp on the Willets Creek site, Taylor and Paine force him to drop the measure. Smith discovers Taylor and Paine want the Willets Creek site for graft and he attempts to expose them, but Paine deflects Smith's charges by accusing Smith of stealing money from the boy rangers. Defeated, Smith is ready to depart Washington, but Saunders, whose patriotic zeal has been renewed by Smith, exhorts him to stay and fight. Smith returns to the Senate chamber and, while Taylor musters the media forces in his state to destroy him, Smith engages in a climactic filibuster to speak his piece: "I've got a few things I want to say to this body. I tried to say them once before and I got stopped colder than a mackerel. Well, I'd like to get them said this time, sir. And as a matter of fact, I'm not gonna leave this body until I do get them said." ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Spunky Joan Blondell is practically the whole show in the diverting comedy Good Girls Go to Paris. Blondell is cast as ambitious college-campus waitress Jenny Swanson, who yearns to see the sights in Gay Paree. She gets her chance by latching onto British exchange professor Ronald Brooke (Melvyn Douglas), who is en route to the City of Light. Once she sets foot on French soil, Jenny proves the veracity of the film's title by straightening out the wayward family of dyspeptic millionaire Olaf Brand (Walter Connolly)-though for a while it looks as though she's a "bad girl", merely out to take the Brands for every penny they've got. In later years, Joan Blondell ruefully recalled that the film's original title was Good Girls Go to Paris Too, but the Hays Office nixed that harmlessly suggestive monicker. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Harold Lloyd plays a professor of Egyptology, frightened by the notion that he has fallen under an ancient Egyptian curse. Lloyd has the opportunity to join an archeological expedition to search for a missing tablet that will determine his fate, but he has to travel from Los Angeles to New York before the party sails to Egypt. Alas, Lloyd is also required to appear in court to answer charges of "indecent exposure" (it's a long story). The rest of the film is a frantic chase with the authorities pursuing the fugitive professor across the country, highlighted by a daredevil sequence atop a moving train. Most of the individual gags are funny, but Professor Beware is several notches below the standard set by Harold Lloyd's silent films. The lukewarm boxoffice response to this film would convince Lloyd that he should retire from performing--which he did, returning to the screen only for 1947's Sins of Harold Diddlebock. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide