Andrea Leeds Movies

This musical presents a romantic and sanitized biography of distinguished American songwriter Stephen Foster. The story begins with the romance between Foster (Don Ameche) and a pretty southern belle and sets up a home in Kentucky--actually the real Foster married a girl from Pittsburgh. His songwriting career takes off when he sells a song to the famous minstrel E.P. Christy (Al Jolson). His career takes off until the Civil War erupts. Accused of siding with the Confederates, Foster and his family flee to the North. There, he begins to literally drink himself to death. The Oscar-nominated soundtrack feature some of Foster's most loved standards including the title song, "Camptown Races," "Oh, Susanna" and "My Old Kentucky Home." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This musical drama follows a young ghetto kid who dreams of being a classical musician like his idol Jascha Heifetz. He first hears the renowned violinist after finding a ticket to Carnegie Hall on the sidewalk one day. The young man is so inspired by what he hears that he enrolls in Professor Lawson's inner-city music school. Unfortunately, the school teeters on the brink of bankruptcy. Fortunately the determined young boy convinces his street buddies to help him plead with Heifetz to help them save the school by doing a benefit concert. The master violinist agrees and saves the day. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A master blend of high comedy and tense emotional drama, A Letter of Introduction reteams Adolphe Menjou, Andrea Leeds, and Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy, who'd previously costarred in the negligible Goldwyn Follies. Menjou plays John Mannering, a Barrymoresque actor who years earlier had divorced his wife and severed his relationship with his daughter Kay (Andrea Leeds). Now a grown woman, Kay aspires to an acting career, fully determined to make it on her own without her father's help. She goes so far as to change her last name to Martin, and to keep her actual relationship to Mannering a secret from the public. This set-up leads to a dizzying series of complications, including the breakup of Mannering's romance with a tootsie named Lydia Hoyt (Anne Sheridan), who falsely assumes that Kay is Mannering's mistress, and Kay's own romantic travails with vaudeville hoofer Barry Paige (George Murphy). Meanwhile, Kay's ventriloquist friend Bergen and his dummy McCarthy rise to superstardom on radio. It is, in fact, Bergen and Charlie who are instrumental in reuniting the estranged Mannering and Kay, paving the way for the film's tear-stained conclusion. Unavailable for many years, A Letter of Introduction re-emerged on the Public Domain circuit in 1975. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It Could Happen to You is one of those captivating "little" pictures whose reputation is built up via word of mouth. Alan Baxter and Owen Davis Jr. star as Bob and Fred, the sons of immigrant Pa Barrett (Al Shean). Fred is a dutiful offspring, but Bob, an adoptee, is a no-good, stealing money from the old man to further his ambitions. When Pa Barrett confronts Bob with this discovery, the young man accidentally kills his stepfather. As fate would have it, Fred has become a lawyer, and it is he who takes on the job of defending Bob in court. Fred wins an acquittal, but Bob learns to his chagrin that he will never be able to escape the "judge and jury" of his own conscience. The script for It Could Happen to You was co-written by Nathaniel West, later the author of the trenchant anti-Hollywood novel Day of the Locust. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cowboy star Kermit Maynard's rope-twirling skills are seen to good advantage in Song of the Trail. Maynard is cast as a wandering rodeo performer named Jim, who settles in one place long enough to save an old pal in trouble. The fact that the old pal has a pretty daughter only serves to strengthen Jim's resolve to set things right. The biggest budgeted of Kermit Maynard's westerns for Ambassador Pictures, Song of the Trail is an excellent showcase for Maynard's athletic prowess, with the hero emulating Douglas Fairbanks throughout. Heroine Antoinette Lees later enjoyed a brief starring career at Goldwyn Studios as Andrea Leeds. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The excellent box-office returns for the previous Laurel & Hardy comic operas The Devil's Brother and Babes in Toyland encouraged Hal Roach to cast the team in still another operatic adaptation, a self-styled "comedy version" of William Balfe's The Bohemian Girl. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy play members of a gypsy tribe wandering through middle Europe sometime in the early 19th century. As if he hasn't got enough trouble trying to train dimwitted Stan to be a "first-class pickpocket," Ollie is also saddled with a faithless wife (Mae Busch), who is in love with dashing gypsy robber captain Devil's Hoof (Antonio Moreno). While trying to break into the palace of gypsy-hating Count Arnheim (William P. Carleton), Devil's Hoof is captured and flogged. In retaliation, Ollie's wife kidnaps Arnheim's little daughter Arline (Darla Hood of "Our Gang" fame) and leaves the child in Ollie's care, explaining that the baby is his ("I didn't want to tell her who her father was until she was old enough to stand the shock!") Twelve years later, Arline (now played by Jacqueline Wells) has grown into a beautiful young woman who's forgotten all about her aristocratic childhood, except whenever she dreams "she dwelt in marbl'd halls" (from the song of the same name). By coincidence, Arline one day finds herself wandering around the grounds of her ancestral home. She is captured by the Captain of the Guards (James Finlayson) and sentenced to be flogged, whereupon her foster-daddy Ollie and her drink-besotted Uncle Stanley race to her rescue. There's a happy ending for Arline, but not for Stan and Ollie, who wind up the picture with one of their famous "physical distortion" gags. A troubled production, The Bohemian Girl had to be extensively reshot and re-edited after previews because of the sudden (and still unsolved) death of co-star Thelma Todd, who was originally cast as the Gypsy Queen. It was decided out of respect for Todd to retain only one of her musical numbers and to refilm the rest of her scenes with other actors; as a result, Bohemian Girl is one of the patchiest and most uneven of the Laurel & Hardy features. Fortunately, Stan and Ollie's scenes are well up to par, especially the classic bit wherein Stan inadvertently becomes progressively drunker as he tries to bottle a cask of bubbling wine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Carnival barker Spencer Tracy befriends elderly concessionaire Henry B. Walthall, who owns a picturesque but stodgy display depicting Dante's Inferno. Walthall is more interested in the spiritual aspects of Man's fascination with Hell, but Tracy uses hoopla and exaggeration to get the suckers into the Inferno. His interest isn't altruistic; Tracy is enamored of Walthall's niece, Claire Trevor. Through his publicity savvy, Tracy builds the Inferno into a major attraction, complete with full orchestra and scantily clad "devil girls". He also buys up the rest of the carnival, using cold-blooded tactics that result in the suicide of a fellow concessionaire. Within five years, Tracy is a millionaire tycoon of the Entertainment industry. While loved by his wife (Trevor) and son (Scotty Beckett), Tracy conducts his business ruthlessly, bribing a city official to look the other way regarding structural defects in his Inferno display. When this duplicity results in a disastrous accident at the exhibit, the bribed official kills himself. Tracy is exonerated thanks to legal chicanery, but his wife is fed up; she walks out on him, taking their son along. Injured in the accident, Inferno creator H. B. Walthall warns Tracy of the pitfalls of success, using an illustrated edition of Dante to make his point. For nearly ten minutes, the movie audience is treated to a lavish depiction of Hell, magnificently photographed by Rudolph Mate. When the plot resumes, Tracy is on hand for his latest venture, a sumptuous gambling ship. Thanks to the drunken negligence of the crew, the ship catches fire, and it is only upon learning that his son has sneaked aboard that Tracy realizes the consequences of his greed. Tracy labors heroically to rescue the passengers--and, incidentally, to atone for his past sins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide