June Lang Movies
Onetime dancer June Lang became a blond movie starlet at Fox Studios at the age of 16. For the first two years of her career, she was billed under her given name of Vlasek; her most memorable role during that period was in the elaborate Fox fantasy Chandu the Magician (1932). After "becoming" June Lang in 1934, she appeared with Laurel and Hardy in Bonnie Scotland (1935) with Warner Baxter and Fredric March in The Road to Glory (1936), and as Shirley Temple's mother in Wee Willie Winkie (1937). She also co-starred with brunette Fox contractee Lynn Bari in Meet the Girls (1938), an abortive attempt to launch a series of "smart girl/dumb girl" comedies. After her marriage to convicted mobster John Rosselli, Lang's career spiraled downward. By 1943, she was playing unbilled bits in films like Flesh and Fantasy (1943) and Up in Arms (1944). June Lang's last film was the PRC quickie Lighthouse (1947). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Previously filmed as a vehicle for Baby Peggy Montgomery in 1922, Laura E. Richard's Captain January was warmed up as a Shirley Temple picture 14 years later. Temple plays Star, a child of divorce who is looked after by crusty-but-lovable lighthouse keeper Captain January (Guy Kibbee). Truant officer Agatha Morgan (Sara Haden) determines that the Captain is not providing Star with suitable surroundings or a proper education, and before long our sobbing heroine is whisked away to a boarding school. She is rescued by kindly Mr. and Mrs. Morgan (George Irving and Nella Walker), distant relatives who try to provide the girl with a decent home, but the poor child still yearns for the company of Captain January and his friends Paul (Buddy Ebsen) and Nazro (Slim Summerville). All ends happily when January and his two chums are hired as crew members on the Morgans' yacht. One of Shirley Temple's best films, Captain January would be memorable if only for her singing-dancing duet with Buddy Ebsen, "At the Codfish Ball." Thanks to a legal loophole, the film has lapsed into public domain, joining A Little Princess as the most accessible of Temple's vehicles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shirley Temple, Guy Kibbee, (more)
- 1935
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
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
- Starring:
- Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, (more)
- 1934
Though the names have been changed to protect the guilty, this romantic crime drama offers a relatively factual account of the life of Arnold Rothstein, an infamous bookie and is based upon a story by his widow. The story tells how he gambled his way to the top of his profession. Though he originally promised his wife that he would stop gambling once he made $200,000, he became addicted and decided he had to make $300,000 more before he could be happy. Soon his greed leads him to crooked gambling. Things get worse when he openly carries on an affair with a singer. The bookies dirty dealings get him into trouble and his wife is kidnapped while he is out of town. While rushing back to save her, he has a car accident and his lover is killed. By the time she is rescued, the wife has decided enough is enough and takes off to get a European divorce. The greedy gambler finds himself utterly lost without his two lovers and so after selling his wife's jewels takes out a large insurance policy upon himself. On an interesting footnote: Inez Norton, Rothstein's real-life widow, has a bit part in the film, as does then-ingenue Susan Fleming, AKA Mrs. Harpo Marx. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Helen Twelvetrees, (more)
- 1934
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
- Starring:
- Gloria Swanson, John Boles, (more)
- 1934
In this romantic comedy, a chanteuse singing in a trashy Shanghai bar finds hope for escape when a rakish sailor comes to town and falls in love with her. They are happy during his brief layover, but then his ship departs and he must return Stateside. The sailor doesn't make a lot of money and fears that he could never adequately support his new love, and so writes her a letter explaining that they can never meet again. He sends the letter, but it is intercepted by two practical jokers who write a new letter telling the singer how much the sailor loves her. Upon receiving the love letter, the hapless lady sets sail for Los Angeles. Unfortunately, her lover refuses to acknowledge her. Now the two jokers try to do everything they can to bring the two back together. Songs include: "Here's the Key to My Heart" (Richard Whiting, Sidney Clare), "She Learned About Sailors" (Clare, Whiting) and "If I Were Adam and You Were Eve" (James J. Hanley). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1933
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
- Starring:
- Preston S. Foster, Zita Johann, (more)
- 1932
Based on the radio serial of the same name, Chandu the Magician is a veritable rollercoaster ride of thrills and terror, boasting some of the best special effects of its period. Edmund Lowe stars as suave Frank Chandler, better known to his enemies as Chandu the Magician. Though he tries to keep his supernatural powers a secret from his beloved sister Dorothy (Virginia Hammond), niece Betty Lou (June Vlasek, aka June Lang) and nephew Bobby (Nestor Aber), Chandu's hand is forced by megalomaniacal villain Roxor (Bela Lugosi at his ripest). Holding Dorothy's scientist husband Robert Regent (H. B. Walthall) captive, Roxor hopes to force Regent to reveal the secret of his death ray (created, of course, "for the good of mankind") by kidnapping the scientist's wife and kids. Chandu manages to remain one step ahead of Roxor, performing all manner of miraculous magical feats to confound his enemy, but even our hero temporarily falls victim to the villain's machinations when Roxor abducts Chandu's sweetheart, Princess Nadji (Irene Ware). The production-design expertise of co-director William Cameron Menzies is never so obvious than when Chandu and his friends are subjected to the various serial-like perils imposed upon them by Roxor; some of these cliffhangers would seem to have been the inspiration for similar situations in Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark. Counterpointing the excitement is the comedy relief of Herbert Mundin, cast as a bibulous valet who is bedeviled by a remonstrative, pint-sized "alter ego." Two years after Chandu the Magician, the film's villain, Bela Lugosi, was offered the rare opportunity to play the heroic Frank Chandler himself in the exhilarating 12-part serial The Return of Chandu. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Lowe, Irene Ware, (more)
