Vera Lewis Movies
Affectionately described by film historian William K. Everson as "That lovable old wreck of a busybody," actress Vera Lewis was indeed quite lovable in person, even though most of her screen characters were sharp-tongued and spiteful in the extreme. Lewis first appeared in films in 1915, playing bits in such historical spectacles as D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916) and the privately-funded Argonauts of California. By the 1920s, she was well-established in such venomous characterizations as the remonstrative stepmother in the 1926 Colleen Moore starrer Ella Cinders. She continued playing small-town snoops, gimlet-eyed landladies, irksome relatives and snobbish society doyennes well into the talkie era. Even when unbilled, Lewis was unforgettable: in 1933's King Kong, she's the outraged theater patron who mercilessly browbeats an usher upon finding out that the mighty Kong will be appearing in person instead of on film. When all is said and done, Vera Lewis was never better than when she was playing a gorgon-like mother-in-law, as witness her work as Mrs. Nesselrode in W.C. Fields' Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935) and as Andy Clyde's vituperative mom-by-marriage in the 1947 2-reeler Wife to Spare. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1940
For the purposes of this inconsequential 61-minute musical, Paramount Pictures shelled out a great deal of money to film on location at showman Earl Carroll's Hollywood cabaret, and to highlight several of the performers appearing therein on a nightly basis. Since Carroll claimed to have "The Most Beautiful Girls in the World" in his chorus line, audiences could be forgiven if they didn't remember the particulars of the film's plotline. For the record, the story hinges on the kidnapping of Carroll and his star players so that the show won't go on. But retired showgirl Ramona Lisa (Rose Hobart) and press agent Barney Nelson (Ken Murray) save the day by slapping together an "instant" floor show featuring an entourage of veteran vaudevillians. Heavy doses of politically incorrect humor are provided by comic drunk Jack Norton and by Blanche Stewart and Elvia Allman in their radio characterizations of man-hungry spinsters Brenda and Cobina. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ken Murray, Rose Hobart, (more)
- 1940
British army pilot Stephen (George Brent) falls in love with jewel-thief Felice (Isa Miranda), tricking her out of some stolen diamonds. Stephen and South African Police Commissioner Lansfield (Nigel Bruce) set a trap for her partner Barclay (John Loder), but Felice falls for it instead. She's given parole in order to help Stephen and Lansfield trap a new, murderous ring of thieves, and she and Stephen start to fall in love. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Brent, Isa Miranda, (more)
- 1933
Released in Great Britain as Sealed Lips, this WWI melodrama stars Constance Bennett as Carla, aka Russian spy "K-14." Though there's no room for romance in her line of work, Carla falls in love all the same with Austrian captain Rudi (Gilbert Roland). When he discovers that she's working for the enemy, Rudi is forced to arrest Carla, a turn of events which she takes in stride as the fortunes of war. Though slated for a firing squad, Carla manages to escape and after the war is reunited with Rudi at the train station where they first met. One of the screenwriters was Worthington Miner, later a leading light of the TV anthology series Studio One. Coming at the tail end of the early-1930s "spy cycle," After Tonight lost $100,000 at the box office, forcing RKO Radio to rethink the studio's contract with Constance Bennett. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Constance Bennett, Gilbert Roland, (more)
- 1940
Stalwart Warner Bros. contract player George Reeves, better known as TV's Superman, was given an early opportunity to "carry" a picture in the 1940 quickie Always a Bride. Wealthy Rosemary Lane, dissatisfied with her dishwater-dull fiance John Eldredge, throws him over in favor of Reeves. To make certain that her new beau will be acceptable to her parents, Lane contrives to have Reeves enter a mayoral campaign. As election day draws close, criminals complicate matters (one of the "disreputables" is Ben Welden, later a frequent Superman guest star) The 58-minute Always a Bride was pared down from a three-act play by Barry Conners. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rosemary Lane, George Reeves, (more)
Childhood chums Rocky Sullivan (James Cagney) and Jerry Connelly (Pat O'Brien) grow up on opposite sides of the fence: Rocky matures into a prominent gangster, while Jerry becomes a priest, tending to the needs of his old tenement neighborhood. Rocky becomes a hero to a gang of teenaged boys (played by Dead End Kids Billy Halop, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Bobby Jordan and Bernard Punsley). Father Jerry despairs at this, asking Rocky to lay off so he can keep the kids on the straight and narrow. Then Rocky's crooked business associates George Bancroft and Humphrey Bogart attempt to end Father Jerry's radio campaign against the rackets by killing the priest. Rocky (whose cynical outlook on life has been softened by his romance with true-blue Anne Sheridan) shoots them down and takes it on the lam. Arrested and convicted of murder, Rocky sits smugly on death row, fully intending to go to the chair with a smile on his face. A few moments before the execution, Father Jerry pleads with Rocky to "turn yellow" so that the tenement kids will despise his memory. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, (more)
- 1919
Although a New Yorker by birth, silent screen actress Edith Storey had appeared in westerns as early as 1910 when she was engaged by Gaston Mèliés as the leading lady of his San Antonio-based Star Film Ranch. Storey's career was on the wane, however, when she played the dainty "Colonel Billy" in As the Sun Went Down, a rather commonplace western melodrama in which a romance with a handsome would-be crook (Lew Cody) is rudely interrupted by a blackmailer. A true screen pioneer who was one of the Vitagraph company's strongest assets in the mid 1910s, Storey retired in 1921. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1939
This gangster film is based upon fact as it tells the tale of a determined reporter who has decided to make sure a certain notorious gangster gets his just desserts. It takes a long time, but eventually the reporter succeeds and the gangster is sent up river. Unfortunately, once there, he becomes the leader of the prisoners and, though incarcerated, is soon up to his old tricks of trying to corrupt local politicians and the warden. The obsessed journalist is infuriated and so gets himself sent to prison to stop the gangster once and for all. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Garfield, Rosemary Lane, (more)
- 1938
Once a staple of summer stock and community theatres, Bella and Samuel Spewack's Broadway farce Boy Meets Girl dates rather badly when seen today. The 1938 movie version is also a bit mildewed, though it is saved by the dynamo-like energy of James Cagney and Pat O'Brien. The stars are cast as Robert Law and J.C. Benson, a pair of iconoclastic Hollywood screenwriters based upon Ben Hecht and Charlie McArthur. Cynically declaring that every film can be boiled down to "Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl", Law and Benson drive their studio-executive bosses crazy with their zany irreverence. Their pet target is bigwig C. Elliot Friday (Ralph Bellamy), a delicious take-off of 20th Century-Fox prexy Darryl F. Zanuck. Friday orders the boys to concoct a screenplay for cowboy star Larry Toms (Dick Foran), whose popularity is on the wane. Upon making the acquaintance of pregnant, unmaried waitress Susie (Marie Wilson), Law and Benson hit upon a brilliant scheme: they'll transform Susie's baby into a child star and team the kid with Toms in his latest epic ("based on an original story by William Shakespeare"). Complication piles upon complication, reaching a high point of hilarity when the baby gives Larry Toms the measles. Ronald Reagan appears briefly as a radio announcer covering the Hollywood premiere of Law and Bensen's newest masterpiece. Boy Meets Girl was originally conceived as a Marion Davies vehicle, with the comedy team of Olsen & Johnson playing the screenwriters, but things changed radically (and for the better) when Davies' sponsor William Randolph Hearst huffily pulled his Cosmopolitan Pictures unit off the Warner Bros. lot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, (more)
- 1924
Ultra suave Adolph Menjou plays an urbane, filthy rich bachelor who finds himself falling for a socialite just as carefree as he. At first he is delighted by her gadabout ways, but after a while her cocquettish ways towards others begin to grate upon him. Deciding he needs a break from shallowness he lets a room in a boarding house for theater people. There he meets a struggling ex-convict. Her prison record causes her to lose her job. Smitten by her beauty and earthiness, the playboy takes her in and tries to help her integrate into his glittering world by telling people that she is his ward. things are finally looking up when a crooked detective appears and tries to blackmail her. Fortunately, her millionaire hero isn't about to let her life be destroyed again. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adolphe Menjou, Norma Shearer, (more)
- 1942
Long before Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock joined forces in Speed (1994), there was the strikingly similar Warner Bros. B-picture Busses Roar. A gang of Axis spies decide to use a California passenger bus to secretly transport a demolition bomb to a coastal oil field. The bomb is set to go off upon arrival, wiping out the passengers along with the oil deposits. Among those passengers is Army sergeant Ryan, who senses that something's amiss and then races against time to save himself and the others from being blown to smithereens. Another of the hapless commuters is played by Eleanor Parker, making an excellent impression in her first feature film appearance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Travis, Julie Bishop, (more)
- 1940
Poor Mr. Trippe, a spineless spouse, finds himself brow-beaten by his overbearing nag of a wife who constantly reminds him that she should have married her dashing, successful ex-boy friend Armstrong. Fortunately, Trippe's daughter Betty understands and tries to help him cope with his battle-axe wife. Betty has fallen in love with handsome Williams. One day, Trippe finally gets sweet revenge upon his constantly nattering wife when Armstrong shows up at their back door. Impoverished and fleeing from the law, he begs Trippe for shelter and help. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Tobias, Lucille Fairbanks, (more)
- 1938
Despite the presence of Busby Berkeley in the director's chair, Comet Over Broadway contains nary a single musical number. Instead, the film concentrates on the lachrymose private life of stage star Eve Appleton (Kay Francis). While appearing in amateur theatricals, Eve indirectly causes the death of a fellow actor at the hands of her husband Bill (John Litel). When Bill is thrown into jail, Eve goes on the road, appearing in one cheap stock company after another to earn enough money for her husband's parole. Seven years pass, during which time Eve becomes the toast of Broadway. Falling in love with playwright Bert Ballin (Ian Hunter), Eve almost forgets the reason that she climbed to stardom in the first place, but by the final reel she elects to give up personal happiness to remain loyal to her incarcerated husband. Way, way down the cast list of Comet Over Broadway is Linda Winters, who as Dorothy Comingore achieved stardom in Orson Welles'Citizen Kane (1941). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kay Francis, Ian Hunter, (more)
- 1936
Dancing Pirate was the second feature-length production by Pioneer Pictures, whose earlier effort Becky Sharp was the first three-strip Technicolor feature. Pirate was likewise filmed in the three-strip process, but the film is currently available only in its black-and-white reissue version. London and Broadway musical comedy favorite Charles Collins stars as Jonathan Pride, a mild-mannered dance instructor in 1820 Boston. En route to visit relatives, Jonathan is shanghaied by a band of zany pirates and forced to work as a galley boy. When the pirate vessel arrives at the port of Las Palomas, Jonathan, clad in buccaneer's garb, makes his escape. Everyone in Las Palomas, including Governor Alcalde (Frank Morgan) and fetching senorita Serafina (Steffi Duna), assumes that Jonathan is the pirate chieftain, leading to a series of typical comic-opera complications. Featured in the cast are the Dancing Cansinos, whose daughter Rita Hayworth was just beginning her own screen career. The Rodgers & Hart score, like the film itself, is pretty lackluster, but Charles Collins is a pleasing screen personality who should have gone much farther in movies than he did. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Collins, Frank Morgan, (more)
- 1924
Eve Quinn (Marie Prevost) is the classic, flirty, 1920s flapper. She easily outshines her quieter, more reserved half-sister, Cornelia (Helene Chadwick). So even though Cornelia loves Lewis Dike (Monte Blue), Eve is the one who wins him. Dike's love is not enough for Eve -- almost immediately after the wedding she begins carrying on with Wilfred Meadows (John Patrick). Although Cornelia finds out about their liaisons, she keeps her mouth shut out of loyalty to Eve. The secret eventually comes out and Dike tries to convince Eve to stop seeing Meadows. She refuses to listen to him so he leaves her. Cornelia, meanwhile, has decided to travel to Europe. Dike meets her at the ship and tells her that he and Eve are getting a divorce. After he declares his love for her, Cornelia takes off, knowing he will be waiting for her when she returns. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marie Prevost, Monte Blue, (more)
- 1923
Madalyn Harlan (Estelle Taylor), the daughter of wealthy socialites, falls in love with the chauffeur Jerry Ryan (David Butler) in this uneven society drama. She and Jerry are secretly married, but Jerry's mother tells Madalyn that Jerry is through with her. She takes poison in the cabaret that holds so many happy memories. Jerry moonlights as a cabbie and discovers too late that the drunken woman at the bar is his own wife. He steers the cab towards the river as he considers plunging to his death. The film suffers from uneven editing. Although credited, performances of Noah Beery, Frank Currier, and Hank Mann have bee eliminated, Marguerite de la Motte, John Bowers, and Walter Long co-star. The apparent lack of communication between studio heads, the editor, and those in charge of continuity give an ironic twist to the term "the silent era." Watch for comedian Chester Conklin in a small part. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marguerite de la Motte, John Bowers, (more)
This landmark western -- which, along with Stagecoach, has often been credited with revitalizing what had become a stagnant genre -- stars Errol Flynn as Wade Hatton, a cattle man who arrives in the frontier community of Dodge City, which is overrun by footloose cowboys and outlaws. When Hatton helps Dodge City lawmen capture a gang of cattle rustlers led by Jeff Surrett (Bruce Cabot), he's asked to help guide a wagon train into town with his friends Rusty Hart (Alan Hale, Sr.) and Tex Baird (Guinn Williams). En route, an impulsive young cowpoke named Lee Irving (William Lundigan) needlessly fires off his pistol, sparking a cattle stampede that leads to his death. When Hatton and his men arrive in Dodge, they discover Surrett is once again at large, and his gang has taken over the city. Appointed the city's new sheriff, Hatton is determined to clean up the town and put the outlaws out of business. In his rare moments off duty, Hatton tries to win the affections of Abbie Irving (Olivia de Havilland), but she believes that Hatton is responsible for the death of her brother Lee; Hatton's habit of flirting with dance hall girl Ruby Gilman (Ann Sheridan) does nothing to improve her opinion of him. A solid box office hit, Dodge City was the first of a series of westerns for swashbuckling star Flynn; his next oater, Virginia City, followed in 1940. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, (more)
- 1941
Three different Universal pictures made between 1922 and 1941 bore the catchall title Don't Get Personal. The 1941 film stars Hugh Herbert as a ditzy pickle manufacturer whose favorite radio program stars Jane Frazee and Robert Paige. The couple plays a bickering husband and wife on the air, and Herbert mistakes their scripted bouts for the real thing. He heads to the radio station to patch up their differences, but succeeds in embroiling the actors in a real battle. Don't Get Personal seems to have been made at the same time as Universal Hellzapoppin' (41), with at least four actors (Hugh Herbert, Robert Paige, Jane Frazee and Mischa Auer) appearing in both films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hugh Herbert, Mischa Auer, (more)
- 1936
In this romantic comedy, two college boys get expelled because they could not pay tuition. They decide to scare up some cash by auctioning off their services in Central Park. A pretty woman makes the highest bid. She hires the boys to drive her and her car to Ohio. The adventure culminates with one of the boys stealing the woman away from her groom on her wedding day. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sally Eilers, James Dunn, (more)
Otis Ferguson has said of Each Dawn I Die that "the story is of the kind you would have to see to disbelieve." And to be sure, the film is nothing more than a sampler of '30s prison-film conventions. But with the brilliant acting by James Cagney and the fast-paced and hard-edged direction of William Keighley, the film clatters past like an express train. Cagney plays Frank Ross, an innocent newspaperman who is railroaded into prison by a corrupt district attorney. In prison, he meets hardened-con Stacey (George Raft). Frank, at first, doesn't want to associate with Stacey and the other prisoners, but trapped in the hellhole prison, he more and more turns into a bitter con. Finally granted a hearing from the parole board, Frank pleads his innocence, but the parole board is headed by Grayce (Victor Jury), the man responsible for his imprisonment, and his parole is denied, and Frank becomes more hardened and embittered. By this point, Stacey has befriended him and agrees to help Frank prove his innocence. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, George Raft, (more)
- 1943
- NR
The Norwegian resistance to the Nazi occupation of their country inspired several wartime films from Hollywood, including this Warner Bros. production, filmed in and around Monterey, California. In October 1942, a German observation airplane discovers a seaside village named Trollness where the Norwegian flag is flying over the town square. A ground patrol discovers an empty town littered with corpses, including a number of Nazi officials. The story of the massacre is told in flashback. Errol Flynn plays Gunnar Brogge, a fisherman engaged to Karen Stensgard (Ann Sheridan), whose father, Martin (alter Huston), is the village physician. Gunnar and Karen are working to undermine the Nazis. The town is divided, with the minister leading a contingent which believes that violence, even against the sadistic Germans, is morally wrong. Karen is concerned about the imminent arrival of her brother, who is known to be friendly to the German occupiers; she fears he may learn of plans by the British to deliver a supply of guns to the resistance. The Nazi commandant, Captain Konig (Helmut Dantine), keeps up the pressure to learn of any opposition to his administration, eventually deciding to execute a selected number of the villagers to force someone to reveal the extent of the resistance's schemes. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Errol Flynn, Ann Sheridan, (more)
- 1926
Silent film star Colleen Moore and Charlie Plumb's comic strip character Ella Cinders had two basic things in common: their dutch-bob haircuts and their winsome, wide-eyed charm. As played by Ms. Moore, Ella is a moviestruck small-town girl who wins a talent contest purportedly sponsored by a film studio. First prize is a trip to Hollywood and a screen test, but when Ella arrives in Tinseltown, she discovers that the contest was a fraud. Momentarily disheartened, Ella vows to get into pictures by any means possible. Finally wangling a screen test, Ella convinces producers that she is a great dramatic actress by reacting in terror to a fire that has accidentally broken out on the set. She realizes her dream of becoming a star--at least until her hometown boyfriend Lloyd Hughes offers a "lifetime contract" of his own. A thoroughly delightful minor effort, Ella Cinders displays Colleen Moore at her peak, notably in one sequence in which she imitates her contemporary Lillian Gish; there's even time left over for a brief cameo from comedy great Harry Langdon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Colleen Moore, Lloyd Hughes, (more)
- 1925
While it seems extremely tame now, Clive Arden's novel was considered quite racy in its day. While doing relief work in Belgium, Leonore Bewlay, a little American girl (Mary Astor), meets Richard Valyran, an opera singer (Ian Keith). After the war's end, they meet again in Switzerland. Leonore, or Leo, has grown into a lovely young woman, but she doesn't realize that this changes her relationship to Valyran, who becomes infatuated with her. Leo is hurt in an avalanche and she's shocked when Valyran kisses her after coming to her aid. She marries Englishman Henry Wallis (Clive Brook), whom she really loves, but his relatives disapprove of her. Valyran's wife sues for divorce and names Leo as corespondent. Wallis believes she really has done something wrong. To keep Leo's life from being ruined, Valyran kills himself. Wallis, humbled by Valyran's sacrifice, reunites with Leo. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Astor, Ian Keith, (more)
- 1939
Unlike many another pre-WW II spy melodramas, Espionage Agent clearly identifies the villains as Germans. Joel McCrea plays Barry Corvall, the son of a recently deceased US diplomat. Boarding a Berlin-bound train, Corvall attempts to swipe a briefcase stuffed with documents which will prove that the Nazis have been infiltrating vital industrial centers in the United States. He is helped along by Brenda Ballard (Brenda Marshall), whose behavior suggests at times that she might not be all that trustworthy. According to the Warner Bros. publicity machine, Warren Duff's screenplay was based on actual events. Coming on the heels of the studio's Confessions of a Nazi Spy, Espionage Agent was indication enough that Warners had declared war on Germany long before President Roosevelt made it official. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joel McCrea, Brenda Marshall, (more)
- 1925
Eve's Secret is that she's not the elegant society woman she seems to be. In fact, Eve (Betty Compson) is an unkempt country girl who's been "transformed," Pygmalion style, by European duke Poltava (Jack Holt). He has done this because he's fallen in love with her and wants her to be accepted by polite society. The duke begins to regret his decision when Eve's beauty attracts other men. Indeed, she begins dallying with a nouveau riche peasant boy from her own province. It takes a duel to the (almost) death for Eve and the duke to renew their love. This convoluted concoction was based on The Moon-Flower, a play by Zoe Akins and Lajos Biro. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Betty Compson, Jack Holt, (more)
- 1940
Father is a Prince is a scaled-down remake of the 1934 comedy-drama Big Hearted Herbert, itself based on a play by Sophie Kerr Underwood. Grant Mitchell plays tyrannical paterfamilias Mr. Bower, who runs his home like he runs his carpet-sweeper factory: pinching pennies, turning off lights, and interfering in every aspect of his loved ones' private lives. What with trying to manage things at home and attempting to hoodwink the IRS at the factory, Bower is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The limit comes when he humiliates his daughter Connie (Jan Clayton) at the home of his prospective in-laws with his obnoxious behavior. But Bowers' essential decency and humanity finally surfaces when his wife (Dora Bryant) is forced to undergo emergency surgery. The nominal leading man is future Superman star George Reeves, though perhaps the role should have gone to John Ridgely, who makes a meal of his bit part as a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nana Bryant, Grant Mitchell, (more)
