Phyllis Barry Movies

Daphne du Maurier's novel formed the basis for this romantic adventure saga. Lady Dona St. Columb (Joan Fontaine), an English noblewoman, is unhappily married to the weak-willed Harry St. Columb (Ralph Forbes), while Harry's sinister best friend Lord Rockingham (Basil Rathbone) makes no secret of his desire for her. When she discovers the ship of a French pirate, Jean Benoit Aubrey (Arturo DeCordova), docked near her estate, she makes the acquaintance of the dashing buccaneer, and she soon finds herself infatuated with him. Dona impulsively joins Jean as he stages a raid against wealthy landowner Lord Godolphin (Nigel Bruce); when Dona learns that Harry and Rockingham plan to capture the pirate, she stages a dinner party to distract them and then sends word to Jean that he is in danger. Jean soon appears at the St. Columb estate, putting Harry and Rockingham behind bars and urging Dona to run away with him. She declines, choosing not to follow her heart but to instead stay home to raise her children; however, Rockingham overhears this conversation and uses it to blackmail Dona into having his way with her. Frenchman's Creek earned an Academy Award for Sam V. Comer's set decoration and design. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Veteran screen menace Jack LaRue is the unlikely hero of Monogram's Gentleman From Dixie--and no one seems more surprised at this atypical casting than LaRue himself! The star is cast as ex-convict Thad Terrill, who upon his release heads to his family estate in the Deep South. It is here that Thad proves he's really a swell guy underneath by reuniting his young niece Betty Jean (Mary Ruth) with her long-estranged mother Margaret (Marian Marsh). He also manages to prove that he was innocent of the charge that sent him to prison by exposing the actual miscreant. Stereotypically cast as a faithful black retainer, Clarence Muse manages to invest a great deal of dignity and warmth in his two-dimensional character, and even gets to sing a couple of his own musical compositions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Hollywood "establishment" had been waiting a long time for maverick director Gregory La Cava to fall from grace, and when his Unfinished Business failed to live up to its expectations, La Cava's enemies swooped down like vultures. Seen today, the film is hardly one of the director's best efforts, but neither is it his worst. Irene Dunne stars as aspiring singer Nancy Andrews, who falls desperately in love with playboy Steve Duncan (Preston Foster). When it becomes clear that Steve isn't about to take their casual relationship seriously, Nancy marries his brother Tommy (Robert Montgomery) on the rebound. After a fun-filled honeymoon, the couple can't seem to adjust to the "normalcy" of married life; as a result of this and Nancy's ongoing fascination with older brother Steve, the disillusioned Tommy walks out on her and joins the army. Only when Nancy deals with the "unfinished business" of her unrequited love for Steve can she and Tommy find true happiness. There are many deft LaCava-esque directorial touches in Unfinished Business, but for the most part the film could have been made by any Hollywood director; still, the film does not deserve its current tarnished reputation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Secrets of a Model was an "exploitation" picture, designed for theatre-by-theatre distribution and a quick financial turnover. Sharon Lee heads the cast as Rita Wilson, a country girl who comes to the big city in hopes of becoming a model. To make ends meet, she takes a job at a carhop, providing the opportunity for a brief but tantalizing sequence in which Rita and her coworkers strip to their undies before donning their uniforms. While on duty, Rita is ardently wooed by handsome milkman Bob Grey (Julien Madison) and by shifty-looking Jack Thorndyke (Harold Daniels), whom the audience pegs as a villain because he wears a mustache. Jack promises to find a modelling job for Rita, but this is merely a come-on to trap her in his boudoir. In the nick of time, Bob breaks down the bedroom door, trounces Thorndike and rescues Rita from a fate worse than death (though the scene is nebulously directed, suggesting that perhaps Rita has been deflowered by the caddish Thorndike). It's hard to tell whether the producers were taking this thing seriously or not: in its own way, Secrets of a Model is as ineptly hilarious as that granddaddy of exploitationers, Reefer Madness. Incidentally, leading lady Sharon Lee later changed her name to Cheryl Walker, and under this monicker was one of the leading players of the 1943 morale-booster Star Door Canteen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Boris Karloff starred in this rather static whodunit from the Warner Bros. B-unit as Jeffries, a civilian employee at a military outpost who is accused of killing an ordnance expert, Reilly (Harlan Tucker). The murdered man is discovered by Pvt. Eddie Pratt (Eddie Craven) and his dumbbell bride Sally (Marie Wilson), whom he has managed to smuggle into the otherwise tightly secured military camp. Suspects at first, the couple prove too stupid to have killed anyone and the finger of suspicion instead points to Jeffries, a man with a past. As Colonel Bob Rogers (Cy Kendall) of the Intelligence Department explains, Jeffries has served time for embezzling government funds, a crime he has always maintained was actually committed by Reilly, the murder victim. And Jeffries is indeed innocent, a fact that becomes clear when Sally stumbles over the real killer. Jeffries is wounded in a heroic effort to prevent the culprit from fleeing, and Eddie and Sally are finally able to enjoy their honeymoon. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The Three Stooges play inept Navy tailors for the Republic of Telvana in this comic short. The Admiral has been invited to a luncheon by Count Gehrol, a possible spy, but Curly intercepts the telegram and puts on the Admiral's suit himself. Moe and Larry are temporarily tossed in the brig for hitting an officer -- Curly. But he gets them out (for five dollars), and they borrow a couple more officer uniforms and head for the luncheon. The count sends a woman-spy to get secret information out of Curly, and her technique sends him into throes of ecstasy; he also gets the seat of his pants stuck on a couch spring. When the real admiral shows up, the Stooges allow a policeman to cart him off as an impostor. "We'll be shot at sunrise for this," Moe remarks. "Maybe the sun won't come out tomorrow. It might rain," replies Curly, who promptly gets poked. The Stooges get into even more trouble when the Count and his female associate hold them at gun-point on a submarine, but somehow the boys manage to knock them unconscious. They also get the sub off the ocean floor only to discover that the Navy is trying to bomb it to keep it out of enemy hands. Some of the submarine footage for this short came from Columbia's 1937 film Devil's Playground. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Marriage Forbidden is the film version of Eugene Briaux' once-notorious 1912 stage drama Damaged Goods. This pioneering study of the consequences of venereal disease had been praised by none other than George Bernard Shaw; the film version likewise boasted a "famous name", muckraking novelist Upton Sinclair, who is credited with the adaptation. George (Douglas Walton), a young man from a good family, makes the mistake of going "all the way" with Margie (Phyllis Barry), a girl with a bad reputation. Feeling guilty, George tries to wriggle out of his upcoming marriage to Henrietta (Arletta Duncan), the daughter of a congressman. The wedding proceeds as planned, however, with the expected long-range tragic results for Henrietta and her child. Acting as the "voice of reason" is Pedro de Cordoba as kindly Dr. Walker. Produced in 1936 by Phil Goldstone (who directed under the name of Phil Stone), the film was first released as Damaged Goods in 1937, then under its Marriage Forbidden cognomen the following year. Neither version was able to earn a production code seal, and both ran into heavy censorship problems when distributed nationally. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A remake of the French comedy Monsieur Sans-Gene, One Rainy Afternoon gets under way when film-actor Phillippe Martin (Francis Lederer) heads to a darkened Parisian movie theater for a romantic rendezvous with his married sweetheart Yvonne (Countess Live de Margaret). But our hero sits in the wrong seat and kisses the wrong young lady: Monique Pelerin (Ida Lupino), the daughter of a powerful publisher Joseph Cawthorn. This innocent mistake snowballs into a national scandal, fomented by the hatchet-faced president (Eily Malyon) of the Purity League, with Phillippe earning the onus of "The Kissing Monster." It all culminates in one of those zany courtroom trails which proliferated in screwball comedies of the 1930s, wherein Phillippe defends himself by insisting that it is in a Frenchman's nature to be romantic, even with perfect strangers -- and as a result he becomes an international hero! One Rainy Afternoon was the first of a handful of United Artists talkies personally produced by studio vice-president Mary Pickford. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Comparatively little known, this Monogram thriller is a remarkably concise adaptation of Wilkie Collins' lengthy 1868 mystery novel The Moonstone. On a dark and stormy night, Franklin Blake (David Manners) and his Hindu manservant Yandoo (John Davidson) arrive at Vandier Manor to deliver the Moonstone, a priceless gem stolen from an Indian temple way back in 1799. The recipient is Anne Verinder (Phyllis Barry), who despite being warned to lock the Moonstone away in the family vault, chooses to place it under her pillow. Sure enough, the gem is stolen during the night, right from under the sleeping Anne. Scotland Yard inspector Cliff (Charles Irwin) has quite an array of suspects to choose from, the most obvious of whom is usurious Septimus Lucker (Gustav von Seyfertitz). One murder and one assault later, Inspector Cliff reveals the genuine culprit -- who, in time-honored tradition, is the least likely and most cooperative of the suspects. The Moonstone is a prime example of what can be accomplished on a small budget with a little extra time and care. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Where Sinners Meet was based on The Dover Road, a whimsical play by A. A. Milne. Clive Brook and Diana Wynyard, stars of the 1933 Oscar-winner Cavalcade, are reunited herein. A reclusive eccentric who has survived two unhappy marriages, Mr. Latimer pursues the strange hobby of arranging traffic accidents so that he can "kidnap" extramarital couples to warn them of the pitfalls of infidelity. His latest captives are Anne and Leonard (Wynyard and Reginald Owen) and Eustacia and Nicholas (Billie Burke and Alan Mowbray), all four of whom are escaping what they believe to be mismatched marriages. Genteelly imprisoning the two couples in his comfortable country estate, Mr. Latimer allows them enough time together to get on one another's nerves and realize that they should all return to their legal mates. Both Leonard and Nicholas are sufficiently frightened to make a break for it, but Anne and Eustacia insist upon remaining with their host -- which isn't exactly what Latimer had in mind! Where Sinners Meet was previously filmed in 1927 as The Little Adventuress. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Goodbye Love is a lampoon of what was once designated the "alimony racket." Refusing to meet his wife's exorbitant alimony demands, Sidney Blackmer volunteers to go to jail, where he finds that his cellmate is his own valet (Charlie Ruggles), incarcerated because he can't make his alimony payments. Finally able to raise enough money to secure his freedom, Ruggles heads to Atlantic City, where he makes the acquaintance of a gold-digger Veree Teasdale. Eventually Teasdale marries Blackmer for the express purpose of later divorcing him and claiming his bank account. When Blackmer learns the truth, he enlists the aid of Ruggles and newspaperman Ray Walker to get even with both his past and present wife. The frivolous storyline requires Charlie Ruggles to pose as a British nobleman and a big-game hunter, which he does with his usual comic aplomb. The final production of Jefferson Pictures Corporation, Goodbye Love was released by RKO Radio. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After saving RKO Radio from receivership with King Kong, producer-director Ernest B.. Schoedsack relaxed a bit with the comparatively sedate crime caper Blind Adventure. King Kong co-star Robert Armstrong plays Richard Bruce, an American in London who stumbles into the lair of a kidnap-blackmail gang. Playing his cards close to his vest, Bruce manages to get his hands on the "secret papers" that are so important to everyone in the story. He also wins the heroine, the aptly named Rose Thorne (Helen Mack, Armstrong's vis-a-vis in Son of Kong). Of the supporting players, Roland Young is terrific as a dry-witted burglar. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide