Edmund Lowe Movies
The son of a California judge, Edmund Lowe attended Santa Clara University. He worked briefly as a teacher before joining a Los Angeles stock company. Lowe made both his Broadway and movie debut in 1917. Seemingly born to wear tuxedos and dinner jackets, Lowe became a popular leading man on both stage and screen. His career went off into a new direction when he was cast against type as the brawling, swearing Sergeant Quirt in the 1927 film version of What Price Glory. This led to several reteamings with his Glory co-star Victor McLaglen, nearly always portraying those friendly enemies Quirt and Flagg, forever spouting dialogue of the "Sez you? Sez me!" variety. In 1956, Lowe and McLaglen were teamed for the last time in the all-star Around the World In 80 Days. Lowe remained in demand for leading character roles into the 1940s, including the father of the title character in Dillinger, where he was billed over the film's ostensible star Lawrence Tierney. On TV, Lowe played two-fisted reporter David Chase on the 1951-52 series Front Page Detective. The actor was married three times; his second wife was Lilyan Tashman, who died in 1934. Edmund Lowe's final film was 1960's Heller in Pink Tights; halfway through shooting, Lowe fell seriously ill and had to be doubled in long and medium shots by actor Bernard Nedell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1920
Barbara (Olive Tell) has grown tired of the endless chores at her mother's boarding house so she decides to get rid of her penniless sweetheart and marry a rich young man. Unfortunately he loses his wealth shortly after the wedding, then he dumps Barbara when he catches her flirting with an elderly man -- no matter that she was only doing it to get a stock tip. So she strikes out on her own and opens up a millinery shop. It goes under and she decides that maybe her place is with her ex-husband after all. This drab feature was based on a novel, Nothing a Year, by Charles Belmont Davis. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
Razzle-dazzle showman Michael Todd hocked everything he had to make this spectacular presentation of Jules Verne's 1872 novel Around the World in 80 Days, the second film to be lensed in the wide-screen Todd-AO production. Nearly as fascinating as the finished product are the many in-production anecdotes concerning Todd's efforts to pull the wool over the eyes of local authorities in order to cadge the film's round-the-world location shots--not to mention the wheeling and dealing to convince over forty top celebrities to appear in cameo roles. David Niven heads the huge cast as ultra-precise, supremely punctual Phileas Fogg, who places a 20,000-pound wager with several fellow members of London Reform Club, insisting that he can go around the world in eighty days (this, remember, is 1872). Together with his resourceful valet Passepartout (Cantinflas), Fogg sets out on his world-girdling journey from Paris via balloon. Meanwhile, suspicion grows that Fogg has stolen his 20,000 pounds from Bank of England. Diligent Inspector Fix (Robert Newton) is sent out by the bank's president (Robert Morley) to bring Fogg to justice. Hopscotching around the globe, Fogg pauses in Spain, where Passepartout engages in a comic bullfight (a specialty of Cantinflas). In India, Fogg and Passepartout rescue young widow Princess Aouda (Shirley MacLaine, in her third film) from being forced into committing suicide so that she may join her late husband. The threesome visit Hong Kong, Japan, San Francisco, and the Wild West. Only hours short of winning his wager, Fogg is arrested by the diligent Inspector Fixx. Though exonerated of the bank robbery charges, he has lost everything--except the love of the winsome Aouda. But salvation is at hand when Passepartout discovers that, by crossing the International Date Line, there's still time to reach the Reform Club. Will they make it? See for yourself. Among the film's 46 guest stars, the most memorable include Marlene Dietrich, Charles Boyer, Jose Greco, Frank Sinatra, Peter Lorre, Red Skelton, Buster Keaton, John Mills, and Beatrice Lillie. All were paid in barter--Ronald Colman did his brief bit for a new car. Newscaster Edward R. Murrow provides opening narration, and there's a tantalizing clip from Georges Méliès' A Trip to the Moon (1902). Offering a little something for everyone, Around the World in 80 Days is nothing less than an extravaganza, and it won 5 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Cinematography. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Niven, Cantinflas, (more)
- 1932
In this drama, an ambitious lawyer doesn't think twice about convicting an innocent man on circumstantial evidence to further his own career, at least not at first. But as time passes he feels increasingly guilty and many year's later tries to quietly make amends when the son of the man he falsely imprisoned is acquitted of murder charges. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Lowe, Evelyn Brent, (more)
Although John Greenleaf Whittier wrote the poem Barbara Frietchie, it was actually the Clyde Fitch play that served as inspiration for both this and the 1915 film by the same name. In the days before the Civil War, southerner Barbara Frietchie (Florence Vidor) falls in love with Captain Trumbull (Edmund Lowe), a northern friend of her brother, Arthur (Charles Delaney). But when the war between the states breaks out, Trumbull must fight for the North. His troops take over Frederickstown, where the Frietchies live, and Barbara discovers her love for him overrides her feelings for the Confederacy. The couple goes to Hagerstown to marry, but a Confederate advance prevents the wedding. Arthur Frietchie wounds Trumbull and takes him into his own home. Because she believes her sweetheart is dying, Barbara hangs the stars and stripes out the window as the Confederates march by. The crowd is furious, but Stonewall Jackson, impressed by her courage, announces that anyone who harms her is to be shot. One man, Trumbull's rival, Jack Negly (Joe Bennett), ignores the order and shoots Barbara. She is not seriously wounded, and she then discovers that Trumbull is still alive. She nurses him back to health, and after the war they are finally married. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Florence Vidor, Edmund Lowe, (more)
- 1926
Black Paradise begins as lifelong crook Jack Callahan (Leslie Fenton) promises that he'll reform for the sake of his sweetheart Sylvia Douglas (Madge Bellamy). But he can't, and when detective Lawrence Graham (Edmund Lowe) comes calling, Jack takes Sylvia by the hand and escapes to the safety of the schooner owned by criminal chieftain Murdock (Ed Peil Sr.), moored 12 miles outside of San Francisco. Graham boards the schooner, only to be caught by Murdock and forced to work as a crewman. The vessel ends up in the South Seas, where Jack takes up with a local native girl; meanwhile, Sylvia falls in love with the captive Graham. Murdock orders Sylvia to "give in" to him, threatening to kill Graham if she doesn't. Only the timely eruption of a volcano saves Sylvia from sacrificing her virtue to save the man she loves. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Madge Bellamy, Leslie Fenton, (more)
- 1935
The Black Sheep is professional gambler John Dugan (Edmund Lowe), who gets his kicks out of fleecing wealthy suckers during a Transatlantic ocean voyage. But when Dugan sees innocent young Fred Curtis (Tom Brown) being made the fall guy for a jewel robbery, he decides to help the poor boy out. What Fred doesn't know is that Dugan is his own father, desperate to make amends for his past indiscretions. Never revealing his true identity, Dugan rescues Fred from the clutches of beautiful predator Millicent Bath (Adrienne Ames). The musical score is by Oscar Levant, whose legendary dislike for thick-eared Hollywood executives never prohibited him from picking up his paycheck. Black Sheep represented director Allan Dwan's first effort for the newly former 20th Century-Fox Corporation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Lowe, Claire Trevor, (more)
- 1934
Universal's Bombay Mail adheres to the pattern established by Paramount's Shanghai Express, with a group of Calcutta-bound train passengers thrust into a life-or-death situation. In the course of the 36-hour journey, a high-ranking British official (Ferdinand Gottschalk) and an equally prominent Maharajah (Douglas Gerrard) are both murdered. Police inspector Dyke (Edmund Lowe) would like to make an arrest, but is stymied by a lack of evidence -- or even a murder weapon. Complicating matters is a scheme hatched by a couple of other passengers to steal a valuable ruby. It turns out that a poisonous cobra is the instrument of death, and that the murderer is...well, no fair giving it away here. Future gossip queen Hedda Hopper appears as one of the most suspicious-looking suspects. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Lowe, Shirley Grey, (more)
- 1930
This drama is set during the mid Twenties when gangsters were a bit more genteel than their 1930s counterparts. Based on a true story, it profiles the experiences of a young gangster who, after getting caught during a robbery is given a choice: he can either go to prison or join the military and fight. He chooses the military. There he becomes a hero. But when he returns home, he immediately returns to gangster life. Trouble ensues when he falls for an aristocratic woman with a daughter. Their happiness is interrupted by an old enemy who kidnaps the girl. The protagonist successfully saves the girl and kills his enemy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Lowe, Catherine Dale Owen, (more)
- 1942
This RKO Radio programmer reunites Edmund Lowe and Victor McLaglen in an enjoyable rehash of their earlier Quirt-and-Flagg antics in What Price Glory. The two venerable action stars are respectively cast as Curtis and McGinnis, who after several years' hiatus rejoin the Marines as sergeants. While stationed in San Diego, they duke it out over the attentions of toothsome cabaret singer Vi (Binnie Barnes), who turns out to be linked up with a gang of enemy saboteurs. The plot is secondary to the comedy in this outing, with most of the laughs generated by a tasteless but undeniably hilarious routine involving a speech impediment. In addition, the producers managed to cram six songs into the proceedings, most of them performed by the King's Men Quartet and Six Hits and a Miss. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victor McLaglen, Edmund Lowe, (more)
- 1925
Edmund Lowe plays a writer whose efforts to seek out story material leads him into an exhilarating adventure. Lowe gets mixed up in a murder case in which the father (Alec B. Francis) of his sweetheart (Barbara Bedford) is the principal suspect. The writer not only clears the old man but also exposes a master criminal with a dual identity. Champion of Lost Causes was based on a story by Destry and Dr. Kildare creator Max Brand. It was adapted for the screen by Thomas Dixon Jr., son of the man who wrote The Birth of a Nation (1915). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Lowe, Barbara Bedford, (more)
- 1932
Based on the radio serial of the same name, Chandu the Magician is a veritable rollercoaster ride of thrills and terror, boasting some of the best special effects of its period. Edmund Lowe stars as suave Frank Chandler, better known to his enemies as Chandu the Magician. Though he tries to keep his supernatural powers a secret from his beloved sister Dorothy (Virginia Hammond), niece Betty Lou (June Vlasek, aka June Lang) and nephew Bobby (Nestor Aber), Chandu's hand is forced by megalomaniacal villain Roxor (Bela Lugosi at his ripest). Holding Dorothy's scientist husband Robert Regent (H. B. Walthall) captive, Roxor hopes to force Regent to reveal the secret of his death ray (created, of course, "for the good of mankind") by kidnapping the scientist's wife and kids. Chandu manages to remain one step ahead of Roxor, performing all manner of miraculous magical feats to confound his enemy, but even our hero temporarily falls victim to the villain's machinations when Roxor abducts Chandu's sweetheart, Princess Nadji (Irene Ware). The production-design expertise of co-director William Cameron Menzies is never so obvious than when Chandu and his friends are subjected to the various serial-like perils imposed upon them by Roxor; some of these cliffhangers would seem to have been the inspiration for similar situations in Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark. Counterpointing the excitement is the comedy relief of Herbert Mundin, cast as a bibulous valet who is bedeviled by a remonstrative, pint-sized "alter ego." Two years after Chandu the Magician, the film's villain, Bela Lugosi, was offered the rare opportunity to play the heroic Frank Chandler himself in the exhilarating 12-part serial The Return of Chandu. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Lowe, Irene Ware, (more)
- 1931
The Cisco Kid was to have been the sequel to the pioneering 1929 talkie In Old Arizona, with Warner Baxter repeating his Oscar-winning role as "O. Henry's Robin Hood of the Old West". Unfortunately, Fox Studios temporarily lost the rights to the Cisco Kid character, thus Baxter was starred as Cisco-in-name-only in The Arizona Kid. The rights were then reclaimed, and The Cisco Kid went into production as the third in the Baxter series -- and, by all accounts, the best of the trio, beautifully photographed and blessed with a thrilling musical score. Running just under an hour, the film finds good-hearted Cisco robbing a bank to save pretty widow Sally Benton (Nora Lane) from losing her ranch. Developing a strong affection for the widow's two children, Cisco risks arrest when he mistakenly believes that one of the kids has been injured. The hero's "friendly enemy" Sgt. Mickey Dunn (Edmund Lowe, likewise a carry-over from In Old Arizona) is so touched by this display of devotion that he "accidentally" allows Cisco to escape to new adventures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warner Baxter, Edmund Lowe, (more)
- 1943
Stalwart supporting actor Allyn Joslyn is afforded a rare leading role in the Columbia mystery meller Dangerous Blondes. Joslyn and Evelyn Keyes play Harry and Jane Craig, a road-company Nick and Nora Charles. A popular mystery writer, Harry occasionally indulges in amateur detective work, with wife Jane at his side; their friendly nemesis is Inspector Clinton (Frank Craven), who'd prefer that the Craigs would stay home and mind their own business. This proves impossible when Ralph McCormick (Edmund Lowe), the owner of a swank fashion studio, is accused of murdering his wife for the love of designer Julie Taylor (Anita Louise). Snooping around on their own, the Craigs find the real killer-and nearly wind up victims themselves. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Allyn Joslyn, Evelyn Keyes, (more)
- 1921
Stage star George Arliss had been a huge success in the 1906 stage play on which this film was based. Other versions had already been filmed, but nothing could compare to Arliss when he decided to reprise his role on screen. His character, Dr. Mueller, is the devil incarnate, determined to ruin the lives of four young lovers -- Georges, a banker (Roland Bottomly), Marie, his fiancée (Lucy Cotton), Georges' artist friend, Paul (Edmund Lowe), and Mimi, his model (Sylvia Breamer). When Marie insists that truth will always win out over evil, Mueller puts her assertion to the test. He sees that Marie and Paul are thrown together so that they fall in love with each other. Then he encourages Mimi to seduce Paul, who is guilty about betraying Georges. Just as Marie and Paul have decided to be together, Mueller convinces her that Paul is still seeing Mimi. Mueller plays with the young lovers as if they were puppets on a string, and nearly wins out. But Mimi figures out his evil lies and machinations. Before he will admit defeat, Mueller makes an unsuccessful stab at abducting Marie, but he is held at bay by a ghostly cross. The last we see of Mueller, he is smilingly engulfed in hellish flames, waiting for a new opportunity. Though new to screen technique, Arliss is delightful in this -- he turns the role into high camp as only an old ham can do. At 53, this strange looking but charismatic actor became as popular on screen as he was on stage. His wife, Florence Arliss, appears as Marie's mother. Also billed is a certain Frederick Bickel, who would later become more well known as Frederic March. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Arliss, Sylvia Breamer, (more)
Dillinger, the was the ninth effort from the enterprising King Brothers, and their most financially successful film to date. Lawrence Tierney became an overnight cult favorite with his gritty portrayal of maverick bank robber John Dillinger, though top billing is bestowed upon Edmund Lowe as gang chieftain Specs. The film traces Dillinger's criminal career from his first petty theft to his spectacular 1934 demise outside Chicago's Biograph Theater (incidentally, this film was banned in Chicago for several years). Anne Jeffreys plays Dillinger's fictional moll Helen, while Elisha Cook Jr., Marc Lawrence, and Eduardo Ciannelli go through their usual crime-flick paces. The film's set piece is an elaborate armored-car holdup, lifted in its entirety from footage originally shot for Fritz Lang's You Only Live Once (1937). Screenwriter Philip Yordan, fresh from his Broadway triumph Anna Lucasta, earned an Academy Award nomination for Dillinger. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Lowe, Anne Jeffreys, (more)
Based on the Broadway hit by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber, Dinner at Eight is a near-flawless comedy/drama with an all-star cast at the peak of their talents. Social butterfly Mrs. Oliver Jordan (Billie Burke) arranges a dinner party that will benefit the busines of her husband (Lionel Barrymore). Among the invited are a crooked executive (Wallace Beery), who is in the process of ruining Jordan; his wife (Jean Harlow), who is carrying on an affair with a doctor (Edmund Lowe); a fading matinee idol (John Barrymore), who has squandered his fortune on liquor and is romantically involved with the Jordan daughter (Madge Evans); and a venerable stage actress (Marie Dressler), who since losing all her money has become a "professional guest." Nothing goes as planned, due to various suicides, double-crosses, compromises, fatal illness, and servant problems. But dinner is served precisely at eight. The script by Herman Mankiewicz, Frances Marion, and Donald Ogden Stewart is a virtual enclyopedia of witty lines and scenes, right down to the unforgettable closing gag. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, (more)
- 1931
This French-style farce is set at a large party. There a young misogynist explains why he cannot trust women. A man overhears him and wagers $10,000 that the woman-hater will not succeed in getting the next woman through the door to kiss him. He has 48 hours to succeed or fail. Unfortunately the woman turns out to be the wagerer's wife. She gets wind of the bet and decides to teach both her hubby and the bitter young man an unforgettable lesson. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Lowe, Roland Young, (more)
- 1936
Gunrunners who even kill their enemies through the use of train wrecks are being trailed by Yankee detective Lowe and girlfriend Cummings. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1941
In this drama two children return from their separate boarding schools to a nasty surprise. The father of one is romantically involved with the other's aunt. The two immediately try to destroy the love affair. They all get involved with chasing some thieves and end up in jail. There the judge marries the lovers and the children are finally able to accept it. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Lowe, Una Merkel, (more)
- 1928
Most of Dressed to Kill takes place at a swank nightclub which serves as an Underworld rendezvous. Heroine Jean (Mary Astor) hopes to recover the bonds that her imprisoned sweetheart is accused of stealing. To do this, Jean sidles up to mob boss Mile-Away Barry (Edmund Lowe), figuring that he was the mastermind behind the theft. Unfortunately, the crooks play for keeps, and by Reel Five it looks as though Jean is going to be taken "for a ride." But Mile-Away Barry undergoes a sudden change of heart, putting his own life on the line to save Jean's. One symbolic touch -- the chief heavy dying from police bullets under an advertising billboard reading "You Can't Win" -- was borrowed from Josef Von Sternberg's Salvation Hunters and would be used again, with variations, in Howard Hawks' Scarface. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Lowe, Mary Astor, (more)
- 1925
The exotic Pola Negri is given the role of a half-English, half-Chinese girl in this drama based on W. Somerset Maugham's play and directed by Raoul Walsh. In spite of the illustrious names attached to this production, however, it was a weak film which did justice to none of them. When Daisy Forbes (Negri) returns to China after being educated in England, she discovers that her father has died, and she has been ostracized from white society because her mother was Chinese. Daisy had no idea of her origins because her real mother had been posing as her nurse all this time. Although George Tevis (Edmund Lowe) loves her, his uncle convinces him to avoid her. Lee Tai (Sojin Kamiyama), a Mandarin, is determined to have Daisy, and he uses all his wiles to abduct her. She is saved by Harry Anderson (Rockliffe Fellowes), and out of gratitude she marries him. But when he finds himself snubbed by society because of her, he begins treating her cruelly. Nevertheless, he refuses to let her go -- he threatens to kill Tevis if he sees him with her. But Anderson is removed from the picture when he drinks a poisoned glass of wine that Lee Tai had meant for Tevis to drink. Tevis and Daisy return to England together and Lee Tai is executed. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pola Negri, Edmund Lowe, (more)
- 1937
The notorious Orient Express provides the setting for this romance involving two rival reporters in pursuit of a munitions baron. The two rivals eventually fall in love, but not before they are implicated and subsequently cleared of a plot to kill the arms maker. The munitions man also falls in love and decides to use his skills for making more peaceful products. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Lowe, Madge Evans, (more)
- 1937
Paramount spent a record one million dollars on its 1937 Mae West vehicle Every Day's a Holiday. La West portrays a turn-of-century confidence trickster who poses as a famous French chanteuse to avoid arrest. In this guise, she manages to expose crooked police chief Lloyd Nolan and smooths the path for reform mayoral candidate Edmund Lowe. A strong cast of supporting comedians, including Charles Winninger, Charles Butterworth and Walter Catlett, match Mae quip for quip. Elaborately produced and snappily directed by Eddie Sutherland, Every Day's a Holiday should have been the hit that Mae West needed to save her flagging film career. Unfortunately, her vogue had passed, plus she was under fire from America's bluenoses because of her previous "racy" vehicles and her recent "lewd and lascivious" appearance on Edgar Bergen's radio show. (When heard today, West's "Adam and Eve" sketch seems harmless enough, but remember the formidability of the Bible Belt back in 1938.) As a result, Every Day's a Holiday lost every penny it cost and then some -- and effectively ended Mae West's relationship with Paramount, the studio she had single-handedly rescued from bankruptcy with She Done Him Wrong back in 1933. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mae West, Edmund Lowe, (more)
- 1919
Clara Kimball Young stars in this mystical tour de force. She plays a woman who goes to an Oriental fortune teller in an effort to decide the path in life she should take. The seer shows her the outcome of three of the four choices she has: duty, wealth and fame. In the end she chooses love, the only road she hasn't seen. Rudolph Valentino, who was only known as a Latin dancer at the time, has a small role. It is easy to see why Young made this movie (she was also the producer) -- it was the perfect opportunity to play, basically, four different characters in one scenario. This story had a lot of appeal to other famous actresses in addition to Clara Kimball Young. Marjorie Rambeau was a sensation when she played the lead role on stage. In 1927 Gloria Swanson remade it as Love of Sunya. Not only was it Swanson's first attempt at producing, she also had Albert Parker direct it -- he was the one who directed the Clara Kimball Young version. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1941
Flying Cadets is basically a vehicle for William Gargan and Edmund Lowe, doing a Flagg-and-Quirt act as a pair of eternally bickering ex-WWI pilots. The "official" plot is carried along by Frank Albertson as Bob Ames, a young airplane fancier who hopes to create a school for aspiring aviators. He also wants to land a government contract for the development of a speedy new aircraft that he's designed in his spare time. Both of these goals are intertwined when Ames is able to establish his school, with grouchy-but-loveable Trip (Gargan) as his assistant and Trip's grouchier-but-more loveable brother Rocky (Lowe) as chief flying instructor. Flying Cadets has the "look" of one of Universal's Richard Arlen-Andy Devine adventure quickies, even down to its heavy reliance on stock footage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Gargan, Edmund Lowe, (more)
