Reginald Barlow Movies
Gray-haired and dignified, Reginald Barlow was a busy presence in Hollywood films of the 1930s. Having toured with a minstrel group from the age of nine, Barlow later served in no less than three wars, including World War I, during which he was made a colonel. Returning to acting in 1916, Barlow appeared in a few silent films, most prominently perhaps the low-budget Love's Flame (1920), for which he billed himself "Colonel Reginald Barlow." Turning to films permanently after the changeover to sound, the now veteran performer usually played men of means, military officers, senators, and bankers -- turning up as a chaplain in Ann Vickers (1933), the Duke of Newcastle in Last of the Mohicans (1936), the sheriff in Tower of London (1939), and the professor ostracizing mad scientist George Zucco in The Mad Monster (1942). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1932
- Add I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang to QueueAdd I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang to top of Queue
Warner Bros.' hard-hitting chain-gang movie was a faithful adaptation of the similarly titled autobiography of Robert Elliot Burns. Paul Muni plays World War I veteran James Allen, whose plans of becoming a master architect evaporate in the cold light of economic realities. Flat broke, Allen is forced to pawn his war medals, which have become a glut on the market. When Allen is innocently involved in a restaurant holdup, the police don't buy his story that the robber (Preston S. Foster) had forced him to clean out the cash register, and Allen is sentenced to ten years on a chain gang. The brutal scenes that follow make the later chain-gang movie Cool Hand Luke (1967) look like a picnic in the country. Unable to stand any more, Allen escapes and heads to Chicago. Using an alias, he builds a new life for himself and within five years is the respected president of a bridge-building firm. His landlady (Glenda Farrell), learning about his past, forces Allen to marry her. When he falls in love with another girl (Helen Vinson) and asks for a divorce, his wife turns him over to the authorities. The real-life Robert Elliot Burns was still a fugitive when he wrote his exposé of the chain-gang system; the publication of Burns' book led to the abolishment of that system and an erasure of Burns' sentence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell, (more)
- 1932
A Bavarian orphan, raised by a wealthy family, grows up to become a promising physician (Richard Barthelmess). Meanwhile, the privileged young man (Norman Foster) with whom Barthelmess has grown up fails to make the grade at medical school. When Foster bungles an operation, Barthelmess nobly accepts the blame, thereby ruining his own career. The truth comes out after several scenes in which self-sacrificing Barthelmess is pilloried by all those who'd once loved and trusted him. Alias the Doctor reportedly features Boris Karloff as an autopsy surgeon, though in most existing prints the role credited to Karloff is played by John St. Polis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Barthelmess, Marian Marsh, (more)
- 1932
Based on a story by Robert Andrews, If I Had a Million is a multipart comedy-drama employing Paramount's top directorial and acting talents. Refusing to leave his fortune to his grasping relatives, dying millionaire Richard Bennett selects several people at random from the phone book and bestows upon each of them a check for one million dollars. The first recipient is henpecked husband Charlie Ruggles, who cheerily enters his former place of employment, a china shop, and smashes every bit of crockery in the place. Prostitute Wynne Gibson uses her money to escape from her sordid lifestyle and finally sleep in a bed all by herself. Forger George Raft finds that he can't convince anyone that his check is genuine, and ends up handing the check to a flophouse manager--who promptly burns it. Husband and wife W.C. Fields and Alison Skipworth, dismayed that their new car has been destroyed by a "road hog," utilize part of their million dollars to purchase a fleet of cars and then smash up every road hog in sight! Convicted murderer Gene Raymond hopes that his million will help finance a new trial, but the execution is carried out on schedule. Newly rich clerk Charles Laughton calmly makes his way through a series of offices, reaches his boss' desk, and delivers a loud Bronx cheer. Gary Cooper, Roscoe Karns and Jack Oakie play three brawling marines who think the check's a joke and sign it over to an illiterate lunch-counter owner. The last million-dollar recipient is May Robson, an elderly woman confined to a dismal nursing home. She spends her money to turn the home into a joyful resort for old people, forcing the formerly repressive nursing-home staffers to earn their paychecks by sitting all day in rocking chairs. The millionaire who started the plot rolling is given a new lease on life by May Robson's example, and he recovers from his "fatal" illness. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton, (more)
- 1932
The Russian Revolution provides the backdrop for Paramount's The World and the Flesh. Marked for death by the Bolsheviks, a group of incognito aristocrats try to escape Russia by boxcar. The story focuses on one of these refuges, Maria Yasaka (Miriam Hopkins), the mistress of Grand Duke Dmitri (Alan Mowbray). Arriving in a French seacoast village, the little party is about to sail to England when the town is taken over by Russian sea captain Kylenko (George Bancroft). To save her travelling companions from arrest and execution, Maria pulls a Boule de Suif and sleeps with Kylenko -- only to fall in love with him. There's suspense aplenty in the final scenes of World and the Flesh, when it appears that everyone, heroine included, is doomed to face a firing squad. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Bancroft, Miriam Hopkins, (more)
- 1932
Night Court is one of those pictures that "hooks" the viewer with one audacious plot twist after another. Walter Huston is eminently hissable as Judge Moffett, a corrupt jurist who has managed to buy off practically everyone in town, all the while maintaining a facade of respectability. When evidence of Moffett's skullduggery accidentally falls into the hands of Mary Thomas (Anita Page), the wife of good-guy cabdriver Mike Thomas (Phillips Holmes) and the mother of a bouncing baby boy, the Judge contrives to frame Mary on a prostitution rap. Coercing Mary to plead guilty as her "only hope," Moffett railroads the poor girl into prison, while Mike can only stand helplessly by. Later on, Moffett is confronted with proof of his crimes by his reform-minded political opponent Osgood (Lewis Stone), whereupon Moffett kills Osgood and manages to plant the blame on Mike! As the last reel of Night Court tumbles across the spool, the audience is confronted with the unpleasant possibility that Moffett might actually get away with all his perfidy -- but the scriptwriters still have one more ace up their sleeves. Those who have to get up early in the morning are advised not to start watching Night Court when it pops up on the Late Late Show. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Phillips Holmes, Walter Huston, (more)
- 1932
In this WW II drama, the commander of the French cruiser Lafayette is sunk by a German U-boat. Following the rescue of the survivors, the commander undergoes an investigative hearing to determine his culpability in the sinking. He didn't know it at the time, but his philandering young wife was trysting with a handsome young officer and ended up stuck on the cruise. The woman survived the incident. To save her husband's career, she tearfully admits her adultery in court. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lil Dagover, Walter Huston, (more)
- 1932
Blessed Event is one of several early-1930s films inspired by the meteoric rise to fame of gossip columnist Walter Winchell--and like most such films, its title is based on a Winchell tag line. Lee Tracy plays a glib-tongued reporter who is conducting a feud with popular singer Dick Powell (making his film debut). Along the way, Tracy offends a powerful gangster, and in so doing becomes entangled with chorus girl Mary Brian. The film is at its best when parodying commercial radio of the era (notably an inane jingle for "Shapiro Shoes" warbled by Dick Powell). The original Broadway stage version of Blessed Event was written by Manuel Seff and Forrest Wilson--and reportedly inspired by the career of Ruby Keeler, who rose to stardom thanks in part to the patronage of a New York mobster. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Tracy, Mary Brian, (more)
- 1932
Directed by Victor Fleming, Wet Parade chronicles the effects of alcoholism and the Prohibition on the lives of two families from very different backgrounds. The Tarletons reside in New York City, where the family patriarch (Walter Huston) repeatedly drowns himself in liquor and local bars. The Chilcote family has the same type of problem, though they live in the deep south. Colonal Roger Chilcote (Lewis Stone) also drinks heavily, and illegally makes his income by selling moonshine. Ultimately, both families are torn apart by the alcoholism. The two stories collide when Kip Tarleton (Robert Young) and Maggie May (Dorothy Jordan), both children of alcoholic fathers, join in a common fight against alcohol, feeling it was a key factor in the destruction of their lives. Wet Parade also features actor Jimmy Durante in a small role as a bearded federal agent. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Jordan, Neil Hamilton, (more)
- 1925
After his impressive screen debut in Sally, stage comedian Leon Errol became a full-fledged film star with this picture, set in New England's colonial days. Tidd (Errol) is a henpecked tailor who secretly dreams of being a pirate. In fact, he even makes himself a pirate costume, which unnerves his wife, Betsy (Dorothy Gish). He winds up hiding in a small boat, where he is found by a rough crew and mistaken for notorious pirate chief Dixie Bull. He is taken on board where he gets to live out his dreams. Betsy and Tidd's niece, Nancy Downs (Edna Murphy), board the Frolic in their search for Tidd, and their vessel gets in a battle with the pirate ship. Tidd wins and demands that the women be handed over -- of course, they are Betsy, Nancy, and a vamp, Madame LaTour (Nita Naldi). Tidd finally comes face-to-face with the real Dixie Bull (Walter Law) and he agrees to a duel. When Bull trips and falls, Tidd leaps on him and declares himself the victor. The truth is he is more than happy to go back to his normal, bland life, with one change -- now he can order his wife around. Dorothy Gish's then-husband, James Rennie, has a supporting role as Nancy's sweetheart. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leon Errol, Dorothy Gish, (more)
- 1920
Marion Davies' fifth feature film had the mark of William Randolph Hearst all over it. It was produced by his production company, adapted from an E. Phillips Oppenheim story that appeared in Cosmopolitan magazine (a Hearst publication), and it gave Davies (who was Hearst's longtime mistress) every chance to look beautiful and wear lovely clothes, but practically no chance for her to show off any possible acting talent (it was discovered later in her career that she did have a great comic flare). Aspiring actress Elizabeth Dalston (Davies) has been sent abroad by rich financier Synvanus Power (Anders Randolph) so that she can become educated. On the way to the ship that will take her back to New York, she witnesses a fight between two brothers, Philip Romilly (Nigel Barrie) and Douglas Romilly (W. Scott Moore). From what she can tell, Philip kills Douglas. Later, on the steamer, she meets Philip and discovers that he's an up-and-coming playwright. She gets Power to produce a play of his, with her as the star. It's a huge success, and Philip declares his love for Elizabeth, who has justified the killing in her mind as self defense. That same night, Powers, who is married, unsuccessfully propositions Elizabeth. Scotland Yard finally tracks Philip down, but then it is discovered that Douglas wasn't killed after all. He reappears, thus clearing Philip, and he is free to be with Elizabeth, while Power is stuck with his wife. Conway Tearle was originally supposed to play the part of Philip, but when he refused to do any retakes, Hearst fired him from the film and re-shot his scenes with Barrie instead. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
