Lynn Bari Movies

Set during World War I, Lancer Spy stars a young George Sanders as Michael Bruce, an officer in the British Navy who bears an uncanny resemblance to the recently-captured Baron Kurt von Rohbach (also Sanders). Rohbach is highly connected in the German aristocracy, and his capture has been kept quite secret. This allows Bruce to be drafted into service to impersonate the German officer, infiltrate the enemy at the top level, and send back information that can turn the tide in the war. Bruce does a remarkable job and fools just about everyone; only the head of the secret police Major Gruning (Peter Lorre) has his doubts, but he can hardly accuse someone of the Baron's standing on nothing more than suspicions. He therefore engages a comely nightclub singer Dolores Daria Sunnell (Dolores Del Rio) to seduce Bruce and find out if his suspicions are sound or baseless. Unfortunately for Gruning, the singer finds her heart genuinely stolen by the imposter. She discovers the truth, but refuses to out him. Meanwhile, Gruning has laid his hands on some evidence of his own, and he moves to capture Bruce. Having accomplished his mission, Bruce flees to Switzerland. Gruning captures Dolores instead and puts her to death for her betrayal. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide

Ladies in Love transplants 20th Century-Fox's favorite film plot--three girls on the prowl for rich husbands--into the Budapest of the mid-1930s. Janet Gaynor, Loretta Young and Constance Bennett combine their earnings to rent a luxurious apartment, in hopes of attracting wealthy potential husbands. Young falls for a nobleman (Tyrone Power), who is engaged to another woman. She contemplates taking poison, but the lethal dose is accidentally ingested by Gaynor, whose plight results in a house call from Dr. Don Ameche, whom Gaynor has worshipped from afar. It is Bennett who snags the wealthy husband, middle-aged businessman Wilfred Lawson. Though Tyrone Power's part was small, he clicked immediately with the audiences, prompting the studio to give Power the big buildup. Ladies in Love would be reworked several times in the future, most obviously as How to Marry a Millionaire. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first of 20th Century-Fox's college musicals, Pigskin Parade is also close to the best of them in musical terms -- though they were all at least pretty good on that level -- principally thanks to the presence of 13-year-old Judy Garland, playing an Arkansas farm girl with surprising sincerity and success (in addition to belting out a couple of numbers with the depth and sincerity of a performer at least twice that age). The plot starts rolling when the Yale University football team, looking for a credible but not too tough opponent for a charity game, accidentally invites the team from tiny Tesax State University (enrollment 700) instead of the University of Texas (enrollment 7500). Texas State has also just gotten a new football coach, Slug Winters (Jack Haley), who's had a lot of success coaching high school back in Flushing, New York but still has to prove himself with college players -- he arrives with his brassy, outspoken wife (Patsy Kelly) just ahead of the invitation from Yale, which nearly sends them running back to New York. Through sheer luck and Mrs. Winters' brainstorm, however, they figure out a way they can meet the Yale team on the field and not get steamrollered -- they come up with a fast, highly mobile brand of football that makes them contenders, but then they lose their star-player. Mrs. Winters manages to stumble onto Amos Dodd (Stuart Erwin), an Arkansas farm boy who developed his arm by tossing watermelons around, and brings him and his sister (Judy Garland) to the college. But now they have to make Amos -- who never finished high school -- eligible, and keep him interested enough in the team and the college to get him to the game. It's all a lot of fun, with lots of comic antics and a song spicing up the pace every few minutes, and Haley and Kelly are a delight to watch together. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, a girl whose father was murdered by gangsters wants to marry into a rich family. Her fiance's mother hates the idea, but consents to the marriage so that she can break it up later. However, she changes her mind about the whole thing when it is revealed that her other son was involved with the murder. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide

Bebe Daniels, all of 34, portrays an ageing movie star who refuses to admit she's too old for the ingenue role in an upcoming musical. Alice Faye is a hopeful chorus girl, while Ray Walker is a would-be director. All the young people get their deserved breaks when Daniels gets wise to herself and settles for a character role in the film--and also admits that the young girl (Rosina Lawrence) whom she's been passing off as her sister is really her daughter. Both Alice Faye and Bebe Daniels are given plenty of opportunities to sing and dance, which is as it should be. But Music is Magic falls short of perfection thanks to the doggedly unfunny comic relief of Frank Mitchell and Jack Durant, who may well be the worst team in motion picture history. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A sharp satire of small-town politics, Thanks a Million stars Dick Powell as the leading man of a travelling musical show. During a short stopover, the troupe witnesses a political rally where a pompous candidate (Raymond Walburn) is wallowing in ineptitude. Sensing a quick-buck opportunity, the show's manager (Fred Allen) offers to entertain on the politician's behalf. The upshot of all this is that Powell, rather than the political hack, becomes the party's candidate for governor! Thanks a Million was remade in 1946 as If I'm Lucky, with Perry Como and Phil Silvers, respectively, in the Dick Powell and Fred Allen roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on an idea by Will Rogers, the story concerns the efforts by the President of the United States to get the public's mind off the Depression. To this end, he appoints Broadway impresario Lawrence Cromwell (Warner Baxter) to the new cabinet position of "Secretary of Amusement." Wasting no time, Cromwell sets about to nationalize the entertainment industry, organizing singers, dancers, actors and other variety artists into batallion-like touring units. Cromwell is fought at every turn by a cartel of wealthy industrialists, who've been profiting from the Depression and have no desire to see America pull itself upward. Happily, every effort to bribe or cajole Cromwell into giving up his mission is thwarted and the Department of Amusement goes on to help the the country at a time when its citizens most needed it. Among the highlights are an energetic "revival-meeting" musical number by Aunt Jemima (Theresa Gardella), and 6-year-old Shirley Temple's rendition of "Baby Take a Bow." Originally released at 80 minutes, Stand Up and Cheer was edited to 69 minutes for reissue, then to 65 minutes (removing most of Stepin Fetchit's scenes) for television: it was this last version which was computer-colorized in 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Virtually everybody except President Roosevelt was in the lavish MGM backstage musical Dancing Lady. Joan Crawford stars as Janie Barlow, an impoverished dancer reduced to working in a seedy Manhattan burlesque house. While on a slumming party with his society friend, wealthy young Tod Newton (Franchot Tone) spots Janie in the burleycue chorus line and immediately falls in love with her. When the joint is raided, Tod pays Janie's bail, but she resists his entreaties to become his mistress, promising instead to pay back every cent she owes him "honestly." With Tod's help, Janie is able to secure work in a big-time Broadway musical being staged by Patch Gallegher (Clark Gable), who is certain that the girl is an untalented opportunist and does everything he can to sabotage her audition. When he realizes that the girl "has something," he refuses to admit it but does, grudgingly, hire her for the show. Through a combination of skill and damned hard work, Janie ends up as the star of the show, whereupon Tod, worried that he'll lose the girl to the Great White Way, buys the show and promptly closes it. But Janie, who's fallen in love with Patch, teams with her new sweetheart to restage the show with their own meager savings -- and surprise of surprises, it's a smash hit. Truly an embarrassment of riches, Dancing Lady introduced Fred Astaire to the movie-going public, solidified the popularity of MGM's new tenor Nelson Eddy, and offered a wide berth for the comedy antics of Ted Healy and his Three Stooges -- Moe Howard, Curly Howard and Larry Fine (Larry, performing his role in a Jewish dialect, has a wonderful double-take bit with a jigsaw puzzle which turns out to be a portrait of Adolf Hitler). As a bonus, the film offers spectacular musical production numbers, not to mention the enduring song hit "Everything I Have is Yours." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide