June Lang Movies

The Man Who Dared was inspired by the career of Chicago mayor Anton Cermak, here called "Jan Novak" and played by Preston S. Foster. The first portion of the film dwells upon Novak's early years in Chicago's Bohemian community, then follows him on the political trail. In the face of governmental corruption, Novak is scrupulously honest; despite the pressures of big-business barons, Novak tirelessly champions the working man. Elected mayor of Chicago during the Prohibition era, Novak stands his ground against gangsterism. At the end, he is shot down by a sniper who was aiming at President-elect Roosevelt (just as Anton Cermak was shot at the Chicago Century of Progress exhibition in 1933). As Novak dies, he expresses no regrets, declaring his gratitude that Roosevelt was spared. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The 1932 Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein Broadway hit Music in the Air was brought to the screen two years later by Fox Studios. Temperamental Bavarian prima donna Frieda (Gloria Swanson) and equally volatile lyricist Bruno (John Boles) spend half their time quarrelling and the other half making love. To arouse each other's jealousy, Frieda and Bruno pair off respectively with music teacher Lessing's (Al Shean) virginal daughter Sieglinde (June Lang) and her schoolmaster fiancee Karl (Douglass Montgomery). The impressionable young couple respond to the attentions heaped upon them until they realize they're being used, whereupon the tables are turned upon the main characters. Though boasting such lilting tunes as "The Song is You" and "I've Told Every Evening Star" and the stylish direction of Joe May (perhaps his best American film), audiences didn't respond to Music in the Air; as a result, star Gloria Swanson vowed for the millionth time to "permanently" retire from pictures, a promise she kept to herself for a whole seven years. Incidentally, one of the screenwriters of Music in the Air was Billy Wilder, who later co-wrote and directed Swanson's 1949 "comeback" feature Sunset Boulevard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Stanley MacLaurel (Stan Laurel), the American "black sheep" of the MacLaurel clan, stows away on a cattle boat to Scotland in the company of his pal Ollie (Oliver Hardy) so that he can claim his share of his late uncle Angus Ian MacLaurel's fortune. Alas, Stan's inheritance consists of a snuffbox and a pair of bagpipes, while the bulk of the estate goes to Angus' granddaughter Lorna MacLaurel (June Lang) -- provided she move from Scotland to India, where she and her aunt Lady Vi Ormsby (Anne Grey) will reside with Vi's handsome brother, Colonel Gregor MacGregor (Vernon Steele) of His Majesty's Service. After nearly setting fire to their lodgings while trying to cook a fish, the penniless Stan and Ollie are booted out into the street, with Ollie rendered pants-less by a previous misadventure. Heading to a tailor shop to get a new suit of clothes on approval, the boys inadvertently join the British Army, and soon they're shipped off to Colonel MacGregor's regiment in India. Accompanying our heroes is Lorna's sweetheart, law clerk Alan Douglas (William Janney), who has joined the army to be reunited with his lady love. This could prove disadvantageous to Lady Vi, who has been scheming to separate Alan from Lorna and marry off the girl to Col. MacGregor, thereby gaining control of Lorna's fortune.

Meanwhile, Stan and Ollie get off on the wrong foot with their grouchy Sergeant (James Finalyson), redeeming themselves only when they help put down a native uprising (with the assistance of several fully-occupied beehives!) Though it proved to be their biggest moneymaker to date, Bonnie Scotland was one of the weaker Laurel & Hardy features, with far too much time devoted to the supporting characters. Too, the picture was rather raggedly re-edited after several unsatisfactory previews: as it now stands, the film stops cold after 80 minutes, without even bothering to wrap up the plotline. Still, it contains two of the team's funniest sequences: the boys' impromptu dance to the tune of "A Hundred Pipers", and the classic marching scene, wherein an out-of-step Stan manages to convince everyone in the regiment that they're out of step! Bonnie Scotland was later reissued theatrically as Heroes of the Regiment, and was distributed to TV in four abridged versions, each running approximately 20 minutes: All Wet, In a Mess, The Rookies and Bang! Bang! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The cinematic saga of The Jones Family began modestly in 1936 with Every Saturday Night. Jed Prouty and Spring Byington star as Ma and Pa Jones, with June Lang, Kenneth Howell, George Ernest, June Carlson and William Mahan as the five Jones kids and Florence Roberts as feisty Granny Jones. In this entry, the scattershot storyline concerns Bonnie Jones' (June Lang) efforts to become a movie star, Jack Jones' (Kenneth Howell) attempts to buy a car, and Bobby Jones (William Mahan) sets up his own junior "loan office." When the film was first previewed, the family's name was Evers, but this was changed at the very last minute. Based on a story by Katherine Kavanaugh, Every Saturday Night was successful enough to spawn 16 additional "Jones Family" epics between 1936 and 1940, few of which have ever been shown on television. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

To finance such major productions as Ramona and Lloyds of London, 20th Century-Fox had to maintain a quota of such minor but entertaining potboilers as White Hunter. Warner Baxter plays the title character, Captain Clark Rutledge, a safari guide who can't stop brooding over the long-ago death of his father. When he is hired by Michael Varek (Wilfred Lawson), the man responsible for his father's demise, Rutledge at first seeks revenge. He is deflected from his murderous course when he falls in love with Varek's daughter Toni (June Lang). Though set in Africa, White Hunter was filmed in its entirety at Fox's Western Avenue backlot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Autograph hound Al Babson (Eddie Cantor) accidentally disrupts the filming of a movie about Ali Baba, and is injured in the process. The filmmakers try to buy him off, but nurse Dinah (Virginia Field) suggests he be hired as an extra. He takes an overdose of painkillers, and his Arabian Nights dreams combine with the plot of the movie. His name leads the populace to think he's the son of Ali Baba, and he's taken to the palace of Sultan Abdullah (Roland Young), who's so impressed by Al that he makes him prime minister. Princess Miriam (June Lang) is in love with Yusuf (Tony Martin), the leader of the peasants, while Al has fallen for Deenah (also Virginia Field), whose father Omar (Maurice Cass) is trying to make a carpet fly. Meanwhile, the evil Prince Musah (Douglas Dumbrille) is conspiring with Sultana (Louise Hovick), one of Abdullah's many wives, to capture the princess, take over Bagdad, and kill Abdullah and Al as well. Miriam and Yusuf are unhappy because royalty and commoners cannot marry, so Al comes up with a plan to help his friends, but the plan spectacularly backfires, and Abdullah orders him to be boiled in oil. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide

Nancy Steele was the baby daughter of a munitions tycoon who was kidnapped by an antiwar activist who did it to protest the magnate's support of WW I. This drama provides a sympathetic portrait of the kidnapper who leaves the baby with two close friend who assume it's his and raise her. The activist later gets arrested during a fight and sentenced to two years in prison that become a life sentence after he is framed during a failed escape. One night, he sleeps in his cell when his cellmate overhears the sleeping protestor talking about the notorious kidnapping. When the protestor if finally released, he immediately visits the girl, whom he regards as his daughter. She thinks he is her father too. Together, the two go to New York, where he gets a job working as a gardener for her real father. Trouble comes in the form of his blackmailing cellmate and in the end, the protestor must make a difficult decision involving the fate of his daughter and himself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

20th Century-Fox's Meet the Girls was the vanguard of an intended series about the misadventures of two trouble-prone chorus girls. June Lang and Lynn Bari star as Judy Davis and Terry Wilson, who after losing their jobs in a Honolulu nightclub also manage to misplace their ticket money for the boat trip home. Stowing away on a San Francisco-bound liner, Judy and Terry get mixed up with a comic-opera gigolo (Erik Rhodes), a hypochondriac (Gene Lockhart) and a mysterious jewel thief. As if that weren't enough, our heroines must fend off the friendly advances of well-dressed boozer Mr. Brady (played by perennial movie souse Jack Norton). A minor success, Meet the Girls spawned a sequel, Pardon Our Nerve (1939), but no series materialized. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This exciting adventure is set in the rugged Australian outback back when the continent was used as a giant penal colony for criminals of the British empire, and tells the story of a fugitive leader and his band who like Robin of old try to prevent a greedy governor from stealing rancher's land. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

To dim-bulb accountants find themselves working for a bookie in this comedy. Their jobs and their lives are placed in jeopardy when they accidently fumble $50,000 worth of the bookie's cash over to the secretary who wastes no time in spending $44,000 of it in less than 8 hours. The bookkeepers are given 36 hours to get all of the money back by their infuriated boss. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this actioner, a U.S. border patrol agent stationed in Tijuana loses his job and gets into deep trouble after a friend is shot while the agent was doing an investigation. When the agent discovers that it was he, not his friend, who was targeted for the hit, he decides to get revenge upon the gang that did it. As he investigates, he is nearly blown up in a booby-trapped truck. He eventually succeeds and the gang gets its just desserts. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Originally slated for released through Grand National Pictures, Isle of Destiny was redirected to RKO Radio when Grand National folded in late 1939. June Lang stars as Virginia Allerton, a famous aviatrix who crashlands in a remote South Sea Island (a la Amelia Erhardt!) and is promptly kidnapped by gun-runner Barton (Gilbert Roland). Coming to Virginia's rescue are two-fisted US marines Stripes Thornton (William Gargan) and Milly Barnes (Wallace Ford). Also figuring into the storyline are Katherine DeMille as a sultry native with a predilection of disposing of her enemies with poison darts, and septugenarian Etienne Girardot (in his last film appearance) as Barton's semi-comic assistant. Too long by about two reels, Isle of Destiny has the advantage of eye-pleasing Cosmocolor cinematography. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide