Ralph Lewis Movies

In this western, a singing outlaw and a US marshal kill each other in a fight. Their demise is witnessed by an opportunistic fellow who assumes the dead lawman's identity. He soon finds himself in over his head when he tries to stop cattle rustlers and gain the love of a rancher's daughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The MGM historical "spectacular" San Francisco was allegedly based on a three-sentence synopsis, submitted verbally to producer B.F. Zeidman by studio troubleshooter Bob Hopkins. The story begins on the Barbary Coast on New Year's Eve, 1906, as rakish but likeable political boss Blackie Norton (Clark Gable) hires demure young singer Mary Blake (Jeanette MacDonald) to perform at his rowdy Paradise gambling house. Local priest Father Mullin (Spencer Tracy), Blackie's best friend, disapproves of the exploitation of the lovely Mary, feeling that she's suited for classier surroundings. Jack Hurley (Jack Holt), Nob Hill socialite and Blackie's political rival, agrees with Father Mullin and offers the girl the opportunity to sing with the San Francisco Opera. Blackie, who's fallen in love with Mary but won't admit it to himself, jealously holds on to her contract, forcing Mary to walk out on him. For the rest of the film, Mary is torn between the "respectable" lifestyle offered her by Hurley and the baser creature comforts provided by Blackie. It looks for a while that Hurley has won out, but fate takes a hand in the form of the devastating San Francisco Earthquake of April 18, 1906 (a special effects tour de force for art directors Arnold Gillespie and his uncredited associate James Basevi). Hurley is killed in the holocaust, while Blackie, desperately searching for Mary in the rubble, at long last finds religion and prays to God for his sweetheart's salvation. At the end, an unidentified bit player shouts defiantly "We'll build a new San Francisco!" -- and by golly, they do! The Hollywood censors were not so much bothered by the sexual subtext of San Francisco or its harrowing earthquake finale as they were by a scene in which Father Mullin is knocked down by an unrepentant Blackie. To "purify" this potentially blasphemous sequence, screenwriter Anita Loos quickly added an earlier scene in which Mullin and Blackie, both dressed in turtleneck sweaters, genially duke it out at an exercise gym, whereupon the priest cold-cocks Blackie with the greatest of ease. By establishing that Mullin could have punched out Blackie, but chooses not to in the controversial later scene, not only allows that scene to pass, but also strengthened the priest's character. San Francisco proved to be one of MGM's biggest hits, remaining in almost constant reissue for the next three decades. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A curious mix of B-Western heroics and gangster film melodramatics, Sunset Range was the first of two very low-budget Westerns Hoot Gibson would make for Gower Gulch company First Division Productions. Mary Doran, a blonde starlet who had played gangster's molls during the heyday of that genre in the early 1930s was cast as Bonnie Shea, a Chicago girl whose brother Eddie (James Eagles) is a member of a gang headed by hoodlum Grant (Walter McGrail). When Bonnie is leaving to take over her brother's Arizona ranch, Grant forces Eddie to hide the loot from the gang's latest bank heist in her suitcase. In Arizona, Bonnie immediately faces staff problems when sloppy cowhand Reasonin' Bates (Gibson) refuses to work for a lady. But despite Reasonin's early misgivings, he and his fellow cowboys show a united front when Grant and his gang of city slickers arrive to retrieve the loot. As usual in these low-budget affairs, Gibson earned certain casting privileges and Sunset Range featured several long-time associates of the popular star, including Fred Humes, Fred Gilman and stunt-men Len and George Sowards. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

A streamlined, fast-paced silent B-Western, this Tom Tyler vehicle was one of several oaters featuring a very young, still brunette, Jean Arthur. She plays Eunice Morgan, the daughter of a businessman (Fred Gambold) who loses his Western ranch to an unscrupulous employer (LeRoy Mason). Unbeknownst to Morgan, there is oil on the property and it is up to ranch foreman Tyler to catch the villain before he can get the deed notarized. The stalwart Tyler does just that and wins the love of Arthur in return. Tyler's usual sidekick, juvenile actor Frankie Darro, was joined by Buck Black, a toothy ten-year old who had played a young Theodore Roosevelt in Lights of Old Broadway (1925). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Buster Crabbe plays one of his more offbeat roles in Mayfair's Badge of Honor. Crabbe is cast as Bob Gordon, a spoiled society boy who finds himself in a small town, rife with political corruption. Hoping to bring the crooks to justice, Bob poses as a hotshot reporter, getting away with all sorts of outrages by explaining "Well, a newspaperman can do a little bit of everything." He manages to thwart the villains and win the heroine (Ruth Hall), all in a tight 62 minutes. Long believed lost, Badge of Honor was rediscovered in South America in the 1980s: currently available prints are in English with Spanish subtitles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this fluffy romance, a young woman fights against the narrow-minded residents of her small town. The trouble begins when a young woman flees her boarding school to stay with her retired aunt, a former actress, who try as she might, has never been welcomed into the snobbish community in which she resides. The young woman too, is shunned and ends up being victimized in witchcraft trial and ducked into a pool of water. A handsome newspaper editor arrives to check out the story, and he and the girl fall in love. In the end, she moves to New York; when he gets a good job at a New York paper, he moves there too, and happiness ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this western, John Wayne plays a bronc buster who flees to Mexico after he is falsely accused of rigging a stagecoach race. Living as an outlaw, he joins a gang and finds that the son of his old rodeo boss has been roped into joining them. While trying to save the youth from a life of crime, The heroic Wayne also manages to save a silver mine and find true love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Bank president Thomas Dickson (Walter Huston) has instituted a lending policy that shows great faith in ordinary people but which also irritates his board of directors, as does his claim that an increased money supply will help end the Depression. Elsewhere in the bank, criminal Dude Finlay (Robert Ellis) has coerced head cashier Cluett (Gavin Gordon) into cooperating with a robbery by threatening to reveal Cluett as a habitual gambler. Dickson's neglected wife Phyllis (Kay Johnson), upset that Thomas has forgotten their anniversary, agrees to go out with Cluett, but they're spotted by head teller Matt Brown (Pat O'Brien). Matt goes to Cluett's apartment and convinces Phyllis to leave with him just as the robbery takes place back at the bank. Because he was responsible for locking the vault, Matt is assumed to be in league with the robbers, and he's arrested. News of the robbery leads to frantic depositors demanding their money back from the bank; Dickson cannot talk them out of it, and the bank is running out of money. This gives the board of directors the leverage over Dickson that they've been seeking, and they try to force his resignation. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide

In this melodrama, a dancer works in a sleazy Marseilles portside dive that is really the front for a bordello. While dancing one night she meets a sailor and agrees to be his bride. Unfortunately, one of her former suitors suddenly shows up and a terrible fight ensues. The sailor kills his rival and ends up sentenced to Devil's Island. The only females allowed there are the wives of the guards, so, not wanting to be far from her beloved, the dancer marries the meanest guard in the prison. During a prison riot, the sailor proves his mettle and gets pardoned. The couple happily decide to return to the dancer's native Britain. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

To date, this D.W. Griffith epic is the only talking-picture effort to encapsulate the entire life of Abraham Lincoln, from cradle to grave. The script, credited to Stephen Vincent Benet, manages to include all the familiar high points, including Lincoln's tragic romance with Ann Rutledge (Una Merkel, allegedly cast because of her resemblance to Griffith favorite Lillian Gish), his lawyer days in Illinois, his contentious marriage to Mary Todd (Kay Hammond), his heartbreaking decision to declare war upon the South, his pardoning of a condemned sentry during the Civil War, and his assassination at the hands of John Wilkes Booth (expansively portrayed by Ian Keith). This was D.W. Griffith's first talkie, and the master does his best with the somewhat pedantic dialogue sequences; but as always, Griffith's forte was spectacle and montage, as witness the cross-cut scenes of Yankees and Rebels marching off to war and the pulse-pounding ride of General Sheridan (Frank Campeau) through the Shenandoah Valley. Thanks to the wizardry of production designer William Cameron Menzies, many of the scenes appear far more elaborate than they really were; Menzies can also be credited with the unforgettable finale, as Honest Abe's Kentucky log cabin dissolves to the Lincoln Memorial. As Abraham Lincoln, Walter Huston is a tower of strength, making even the most florid of speeches sound human and credible; only during the protracted death scene of Ann Rutledge does Huston falter, and then the fault is as much Griffith's as his. Road-shown at nearly two hours (including a prologue showing slaves being brought to America), Abraham Lincoln was pared down to 97 minutes by United Artists, and in that length it proved a box-office success, boding well for D.W. Griffith's future in talkies (alas, it proved to be his next-to-last film; Griffith's final effort, The Struggle was a financial disaster). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cavern-mouthed comedian Joe E. Brown made his motion-picture debut in the FBO "special" Crooks Can't Win. Surprisingly, Brown was seen in the non-comic role of newspaper reporter Jimmy Wells. The main story concerns a young rookie cop (Sam Nelson), the adopted son of a retired policeman. Though hailed as a hero for nabbing a bank robber on his first day on the beat, the novice cop is summarily dismissed when he refuses to divulge the name of the informant who tipped him off about the robbery (the informant was his own brother). Landing a job as a truck driver, our hero begins to suspect that his ex-boss, the police commissioner, is in league with the local criminal element. With the help of roving reporter Jimmy Wells, the former cop gets the goods on the "commish." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the popular railroad ballad, Casey Jones stars Ralph Lewis in the title role. Actually, the ballad itself is dealt with only in the early scenes, when Casey's beloved daughter is killed in a train wreck. The bulk of the storyline is carried by Casey Jr. (Jason Robards), a humble baggage handler. Father and son work shoulder to shoulder in the climax to prevent a couple of professional "train wreckers" from causing widespread havoc. It should be noted that leading lady Anne Sheridan is no relation to popular talkie star Ann Sheridan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide