Lorena Layson Movies
- 1934
Kansas City Princess came at the tail end of the "gold-digger" movie cycle. The inevitable Joan Blondell plays Rosie, a saucy-eyed manicurist who takes it on the lam when she loses a diamond entrusted to her by her gangster boyfriend Dynamite (Robert Armstrong). With nary a dime between them, Rosie and her pal Marie (Glenda Farrell) charm their way onto an ocean voyage to Paris. Also on board is daffy millionaire Junior Ashcraft (Hugh Herbert) enroute to the City of Light to check out rumors that his wife has been unfaithful. Unfortunately for Rosie, Ashcraft has hired himself a bodyguard -- none other than old friend Dynamite! Our heroine manages to wriggle out of her mess by saving Ashcraft from a frame-up engineered by his divorce-minded wife and her shifty attorney (Osgood Perkins). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Blondell, Glenda Farrell, (more)
- 1934
This is the second movie version of Willa Cather's Pulitzer Prize winning novel that tells the story of a bride-to-be whose fiance is near-fatally injured by the jealous husband of a woman he had an affair with. The poor young woman is so upset by the situation that she swears she will never love another and takes off to live in an isolated mountain retreat. There she feels terribly sorry for herself. One day she is moping along a rough trail, falls and hurts herself. Fortunately, she is rescued by an elderly lawyer who helps her heal both physically and psychologically. The grateful girl ends up marrying him. Unfortunately she meets a handsome young man with whom she falls passionately, but chastely in love. Now she regrets marrying the old attorney. She decides to tell the lawyer her true feelings. When she is finished he promptly keels over with a heart attack. It might be noted that after Cather saw this film, she forbade the further sale of her works to Hollywood. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Stanwyck, Frank Morgan, (more)
- 1934
Actually this film should have been titled "Here Comes Jimmy Cagney Again, so Duck!". James Cagney is a bantam-cock sailor who runs up against chief petty officer Pat O'Brien. Seems that Cagney and O'Brien had come to blows early in the film when O'Brien stole Cagney's date at a dance hall. O'Brien resents both Cagney and Cagney's attentions towards O'Brien's sister (Gloria Stuart). The animosity intensifies when O'Brien court-martials Cagney for going AWOL. But all passions are spent when Cagney heroically rescues his shipmates from a raging fire. Here Comes the Navy proved to Jimmy Cagney's fans that he could still deliver the goods even with the tighter movie censorship imposed in 1934. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, (more)
- 1934
James Cagney runs a shady missing-heir tracing service, occasionally providing phony heirs in order to collect his fee. He suffers a tinge of jealousy when he takes a gander at the offices of a legitimate tracing firm, where his former girlfriend (Bette Davis) has taken a job. Jimmy soon learns that the reputable organization's boss (Alan Dinehart) is more crooked than Jimmy ever was, but he can't convince the girl of this fact. Using his own street smarts, Cagney exposes the "honest" heir tracer and agrees to go straight if his girl will come back to him. At the time Jimmy the Gent was filmed, James Cagney was getting tired of the formula pictures being handed him; rather than go on suspension, he expressed his displeasure by shaving his hair almost down to the bone, which is why he appears in this film with an uncharacteristic buzz-cut. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, Bette Davis, (more)
- 1934
In this melodrama set in San Francisco, a businesswoman gives a job to an unemployed, homeless sailor. Later she becomes his wife. They are happy for a while, but then one day a woman shows up and claims that the sailor fathered her child. The couple adopts the child, but then the wife's sister tries to steal the sailor, who had been known to wander a bit. But the sailor has found himself in fatherhood and has decided to remain true blue to his wife and son. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Aline MacMahon, Paul Kelly, (more)
- 1933
The end of prohibition spells the end of business as usual for Chicago gangster Bugs Ahearn (Edward G. Robinson in this delightful spoof of mob melodramas from Warner Bros. Paying off their latest moll, Edith (Shirley Grey, Bugs and chief lieutenant Al Daniels (Russell Hopton) grab their ill-gotten gains and go west, hoping to crash polo playing Santa Barbara society. Bugs acquires a rental mansion and a high class girlfriend, Polly Cass (Helen Vinson), but the estate actually belongs to kind but down-on-her-luck socialite Ruth Wayburn (Mary Astor) -- whom the former mobster retains as his social secretary -- while Polly and her relatives prove to be bigger crooks than he ever was. The Little Giant was reportedly filmed in 18 days on a budget of $197,000. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward G. Robinson, Mary Astor, (more)
- 1933
The second talkie version of the Avery Hopwood's theatrical war-horse The Golddiggers of Broadway, Gold Diggers of 1933 was the second of three back-to-back 1933 Warner Bros. musicals benefiting from the genius of Busby Berkeley. The basic plot is retained from the Hopwood play: Showgirls Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler and Aline McMahon attempt to find financial backing for the new show planned by producer Ned Sparks. Songwriter Dick Powell, an incognito man of wealth, offers to put up the money, a fact that brings down the wrath of his older brother Warren William, who despises show folk. Attempting to buy off the three girls, William is placed in a compromising position by the crafty Blondell and is compelled to bankroll the musical himself. The oddest aspect of Gold Diggers of 1933 is the fact that the mood of the songs is wildly at variance with the plot. The film begins with dozens of chorus girls (led by Ginger Rogers) happily chirping "We're In the Money", a rehearsal number interrupted when the finance men burst in to claim the sets and props from the impoverished troupe. At the end, when everyone is genuinely in the money, the troupe stages a downbeat "Brother Can You Spare A Dime"-style production number, "Remember My Forgotten Man"--and it is on this doleful indictment of the Depression that the film fades out! Other Berkeley-staged musical highlights include "Pettin' in the Park" (yes, that salacious little baby really is Billy Barty) and the neon-dominated "Shadow Waltz", all written by the prolific Harry Warren and Al Dubin. As spectacular as Gold Diggers of 1933 was, it would be topped by the last of Berkeley's 1933 trilogy, Footlight Parade. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warren William, Joan Blondell, (more)
- 1933
In this drama, the owner of a Chicago meat-packing company falls in love with a beautiful opera singer. Unfortunately, his selfish, social climbing wife refuses to divorce him. He continues the affair on the sly. As his lover's career begins to ascend, so does his business when he becomes the leader of a meat packing trust that sends cured beef to the troops fighting in Cuba. Later, the newly elected president, Theodore Roosevelt indicts him, but then the charges are dropped. By this time, the opera singer has become a star. Her lover too tries to find success, but instead, his business ends up going bankrupt. He then leaves for Greece. When his lover finds out, she too drops everything and follows him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward G. Robinson, Kay Francis, (more)
The quintessential "backstage" musical, 42nd Street traces the history of a Broadway musical comedy, from casting call to opening night. Warner Baxter plays famed director Julian Marsh, who despite failing health is determined to stage one last great production, "Pretty Lady." Others involved include "Pretty Lady" star Dorothy Brock (Bebe Daniels); Dorothy's "sugar daddy" (Guy Kibbee), who finances the show; her true love Pat (George Brent); leading man Billy Lawlor (Dick Powell); and starry-eyed chorus girl Peggy Sawyer (Ruby Keeler). It practically goes without saying that Dorothy twists her ankle the night before the premiere, forcing Julian Marsh is to put chorine Peggy into the lead: "You're going out there a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!" Delightfully corny, with hilarious wisecracking support from the likes of Ginger Rogers, Una Merkel, and George E. Stone, 42nd Street is perhaps the most famous of Warners' early-1930s Busby Berkeley musicals. Based on the novel by Bradford Ropes (which was a lot steamier than the movie censors would allow), 42nd Street is highlighted by such grandiose musical setpieces as "Shuffle Off to Buffalo," "Young and Healthy," and of course the title song. Nearly fifty years after its premiere, it was successfully revived as a Broadway musical with Tammy Grimes and Jerry Orbach. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, (more)
