William E. Lawrence Movies

Based on a play by Leslie Storm, Tonight and Every Night is a musical wartime morale booster in which star Rita Hayworth is but one of a lively ensemble. Set in battle-scarred Britain, the action takes place in a seedy old music hall, which never misses a performance even at the height of the "blitz". Five times a day like clockwork, American-born entertainer Rosalind Bruce (Rita Hayworth) and her British cohorts put on a show for their ever-appreciative audiences. Along the way, a romance develops between Rosalind and RAF pilot Paul Lundy (Lee Bowman). Providing excellent support are Janet Blair as the troupe's plucky ingenue and Broadway alumnus Marc Platt as the entourage's resident eccentric dancer. The individual numbers are inventively staged, with one scene creatively harnessing the Technicolor process in an eye-popping manner seldom seen in 1940s films. All that Tonight and Every Night lacks is a memorable score, though Rita's solo number "Anywhere" enjoyed brief hit-parade popularity. Incidentally, one of the chorus girls is a slim-and-trim Shelley Winters! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sudden Bill Dorn gets under way when a prospector strikes gold. Within what seems to be minutes, the entire population of a nearby town packs its mining equipment and race off to the lucky strike. One of the few speculators keeping his wits about him is the eponymous hero, played by Buck Jones. That's because he already has his hands full contending with heroine Lorna Kent (Noel Francis), fetching senorita Diana (Evelyn Brent), and black-hearted villain Mike Bundy (Harold Hodge). By the time Universal's Sudden Bill Dorn was released in early January of 1938, Buck Jones had already left the studio and pitched camp at Columbia. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Veteran western star Buck Jones both co-produced (with Lesley Selander) and directed this well-mounted Universal B-Western co-starring the competent Kay Linaker and a host of familiar supporting players. A gang of blackmailers terrorizing the Swiftwater area leaves black aces cards with their ransom notes. Lackadaisical rancher Ted Ames (Jones) also receives a card but to the dismay of girlfriend Sandy McKenzie (Linaker) fails to do anything about it. But after losing his ramshackle ranch in a poker game with brothers Len (Fred Mackaye) and Jake Stoddard (Bernard Phillips), Ted is later accused of killing the latter, who is found on the Ames spread with a black ace left on his body. When Ted comes across blacksmith Henry Kline (Raymond Brown), yet another victim of the Black Aces gang, the two men decide to work together and catch the murderous blackmailers. Although he later finds Henry's money in the saddlebags belonging to Boyd Loomis (William E. Lawrence), Ted realizes that the real leader of the gang is someone much more powerful. On the advice of an old prospector (Arthur Van Slyke), Ted heads to a basin where he suspects the gang is holed up. Also arriving at the spot is Sandy, who manages to send her horse with a message to the sheriff (Charles LeMoyne) before being captured. The surprising identity of the gang leader is revealed just before the arrival of the sheriff and his men. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Buck Jones was producing as well as starring in his own western series by the time Ride 'Em Cowboy hit the screen. A heady combination of old and new, this one casts Jones as champeen auto racer Jess Burns, who reverts to his horse when called upon to rout the villains. The story comes to a thrilling conclusion as Burns, framed on a phony robbery charge, tries to elude the sheriff long enough to enter the Big Race. As in earlier Jones vehicles, the hero is an inveterate practical joker who turns serious just in time. Ride 'Em Cowboy was directed by frequent Buck Jones collaborator Lesley Selander, whose inbuilt sense of rhythm and pacing keeps this contemporary western constantly on the go. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When he's shipped off to prison on a tax-evasion charge, millionaire Van Dyke (Walter Connolly) breathes a sigh of relief: at least he'll be free of his dizzy, spendthrift wife (Billie Burke) and spoiled-rotten daughter Carol (Joan Bennett). Once behind bars, Van Dyke strikes up a friendship with amiable reformed bootlegger Ricardi (George Raft). Since Ricardi is to be sprung first, Van Dyke suggests that the ex-crook take on the task of "taming" the incorrigible Carol. Unwilling to be stifled by a former jailbird (even a good-looking one), Carol decides to get even by persuading one of Ricardi's former cohorts, a shady character named Tex (Lloyd Nolan) to stage a fake kidnapping. Trouble is, Tex kidnaps the girl for real, obliging Ricardi to race to her rescue -- but only after deliberately breaking every traffic law known to man, so that he'll be pursued by a veritable battalion of motorcycle cops (this hilarious finale was later re-used in the 1941 Buster Keaton two-reeler So You Won't Squawk). A heady blend of screwball comedy and crime melodrama, She Couldn't Take It is one of the fastest and funniest films of 1935. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A "B" picture with "A" ambitions, Hell Bound stars Leo Carrillo as ruthless but basically decent racketeer Nick Cotrelli. Worried that singer Platinum Reed (Lola Lane) may know too much about his crooked operation, Cotrelli marries the girl so that she can't testify against him in court. Believing that Cotrelli isn't interested in her, Platinum falls in love with Robert Sanford (Lloyd Hughes), the young doctor who nursed her through a serious illness. At first inclined to bump off both his wife and her lover, Cotrelli thinks the better of it and in the end sacrifices his own life to insure Platinum's future happiness. Singer Russ Columbo is credited with writing the film's signature tune "Is It Love?" but did not appear in the film, as has sometimes been reported. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of American Western star Buck Jones' finest silents, A Man Four-Square is a screen version of William McLeod Raine's popular tale of a rancher who finds himself falsely accused of murder while attempting to help a friend in need. Jones, needless to say, not only saves his friend (two-reel Western lead William E. Lawrence), but vindicates himself and gets the girl (Marion Harlan). This fast-paced Western marked the first of many screen encounters between Jones and the always hissable Harry Woods. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Universal showed off their impressive back lot in this comedy-western starring Hoot Gibson as a cowboy turned movie stunt-man. The plot is something about a visiting Arabian prince (fellow studio western hero William E. Lawrence) but the film mainly functions as an excuse to parade a host of studio stars. Among the Universal contract players playing themselves were Billie Dove, Norman Kerry, King Baggot (the studio's first star), Mary Philbin and Reginald Denny. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Drifter Dick Manners (John Gilbert) arrives at a ranch owned by Colonel Angus McClelland (James Gordon). When he wagers that he will be able to ride a wild bronco and kiss the ranchman's haughty daughter, Jean (Carmel Myers) -- and wins -- he lands a job there. But Manners and Jean really fall in love and Colonel McClelland fires him. He then meets a woman who is dying, and she begs him to marry her so that her child will have a name. Manners obliges, and then Jean finds out about the situation. It turns out that the woman will recover, but the little girl overhears Manners and Jean talking and repeats what she knows to her mother. The mother decides to get herself out of Manner's way via suicide. In the meantime Jean has learned to admire Manners' willingness to sacrifice herself, and after the mother dies, they reunite and adopt the little girl. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Bebe Daniels breezes through the comic complications of Ducks and Drakes. Daniels plays Teddy Simpson, the flirtatious fiancee of sportsman Dick Chiltim (Edward Martindel). To teach her a lesson, Dick talks his pal Rob Winslow (Jack Holt) into posing as an escaped convict. At first thrilled at the prospect of being kidnapped by the handsome "fugitive," Teddy is scared silly when Winslow prepares to "have his way" with her. She skeedaddles back to the arms of her fiancé, vowing never to flirt again. More nonsense from the "pregnant-barefoot-kitchen" school of comedy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In somewhat of a departure from his usual fare, Western star Buck Jones played a Scottish coal miner-turned-Northwest Mounted Police Officer in this silent outdoors melodrama. Jock MacTier (Jones) loves Margaret MacPherson (Helene Rosson), but she ups and marries mining pay master Arthur Whitman (William Lawrence). After nobly saving his rival's life in a mine flood, MacTier makes the aforementioned change of occupation. In the Canadian Northwest, he makes the acquaintance of lovely Lenore De Marney (Beatrice Burnham), whose father is having trouble with a gang of thieves. In one of those coincidences only found in cheap melodrama, the leader of the gang is none other than Whitman, MacTier's old nemesis, who has already abandoned his wife. MacTier beats Whitman once and for all and earns the love of Lenore. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Even though her marriage to Charles Chaplin was history, Mildred Harris retained star status for a little while longer. In this drama, she plays a spoiled young girl, something the public may have seen as typecasting (even if it wasn't necessarily true in real life). Irene (Harris) is the daughter of wealthy Richard Fletcher (Emmet C. King). Fletcher doesn't let on that he's having financial trouble, and continues to spend scads of money to make her happy. She has two suitors -- one is John Marshall, a struggling young architect (William Lawrence) and the other is Charles Munson (Walter McGrail), a rich clothing designer (this gave the filmmakers a chance to show off the latest extravagant fashions -- a box office plus in the 1920s). Both young men propose. Before Irene can choose one, she gets in a fierce argument with her father and falls down a flight of stairs. While unconscious, she dreams that Munson offers to bail her father out of his financial bind, providing that he gets Irene to marry him. She has already secretly married Marshall, so Munson takes back his offer, and Fletcher shoots himself. When she comes to, Irene decides to stop being so selfish, and chooses Marshall as her husband. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide