Edmund Lowe Movies

The "Little Tough Guys" get involved in a circulation war between a paper with underhanded tactics and a paper being mismanaged by the woman who inherited it. The Tough Guys' leader is partial to the latter, since it took him in when his sheriff father was murdered. He helps draw readers away from the other paper and gets to avenge his father's death, since the man playing dirty is his father's killer. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide

The Carter Family finds itself in serious financial difficulty when its patriarch, druggist Doc Carter (Frank Craven), is all but forced out of business by a neighboring chain store. Doc isn't worried so much for himself and his wife Emma (Fay Bainter) as he is for his five children, played by Scotty Beckett, Bennie Bartlett, Donald Brenon, Mary Thomas and Gloria Carter (who real name is the same as her "reel" name). But there may be a way out: wealthy Bill and Gloria Hastings (Edmund Lowe, Genevieve Tobin), longtime friends of the Carters, have offered to adopt the couple's polio-stricken son Dickie (Beckett) for a substantial fee. Doc and Emma refuse this offer, but their somewhat more practical children offer themselves up for adoption rather than separate little Dickie from his parents. The ultimately happy denoument suggests that Paramount Pictures hoped to develop a "Carter Family" series, though no such project developed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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

Based on an Edgar Wallace novel, this is an involved story of the consequences within the underworld of a big-time diamond heist. It also tells the story of a disgraced inspector who is trying to catch the infamous jewel fence known as the "Squeaker" to help clear his name again. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

Gloria Stuart's trouble only begins when she inherits a newspaper in this routine, but at times, quite hilarious comedy from Universal. Overhearing a chauvinistic remark from senior editor Hank Gilman (Edmund Lowe), Joan Langford decides to begin her newspaper business career from the bottom and incognito. Gilman, however, quickly discovers the ruse and sends the girl out on the most arduous assignments he can find. After threatening to quit, the heroine unwittingly gets herself involved with a gang of blackmailers but Hank is watching over her and together they bring the gang to justice. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Edmund Lowe made his only screen appearance as S. S. Van Dine's dilettante sleuth Philo Vance in The Garden Murder Case. The story wastes no time getting started, with Floyd Garden (Douglas Walton) being killed in the first reel from a fall in a steeplechase. It looks like an accident -- but then, so do the subsequent deaths of Lowe Hammle (Gene Lockhart) and Mrs. Fenwick-Ralston (Frieda Inescourt). The police are baffled, but Philo Vance (Lowe) deduces that the victims were done in by a very clever -- and very deadly -- hypnotist. The revelation of the killer's identity won't be surprising to longtime mystery buffs, but it proved quite a shock to audiences in 1936. The tense final scene, in which the murder attempts to mesmerize Vance into committing suicide, was effective enough to be "borrowed" for the 1946 Sherlock Holmes film The Woman in Green. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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

The Great Impersonation is based on the E. Phillips Oppenheim espionage novel of the same name, previously filmed in 1921. During WW I, drunken, dissolute British nobleman Everard Dominey (Edmund Lowe) wanders into the African jungle, where he meets his exact double, German spy Von Ragenstein (also Edmund Lowe). The scene shifts back to England, where, apparently, Von Ragenstein has assumed Dominey's identity after the latter is reported killed. The actual identity of the protagonist is kept secret until the very end. Either way, it's a story of redemption: If he's really Von Ragenstein, he may very well be persuaded to cast his lot with the British; if he's really Dominey, he might just sober up and assume his proper place in society. The film is brightened by the presence of two former Bride of Frankenstein co-stars: Valerie Hobson, then only a teenager, delivers one of her best performances as Dominey's distraught wife, while Dwight Frye goes through his usual "Renfield" paces as a roving lunatic. Both the 1935 Great Impersonation and the 1945 remake with Ralph Bellamy and Evelyn Ankers were later included in Universal's "Shock Theater" TV package, even though both films are more suspenseful than shocking. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Edmund Lowe stars as big-time gambler King Solomon, so named because of his fairness and sagacity. Naturally, our hero has several enemies to whom fair play is anathema. One of these is gangster boss Ice Larson (Edward Pawley), who demands Solomon's cooperation as payment for a gambling debt. But Solomon becomes Larson's best pal when he clears the man of a phony kidnapping charge by romancing Nikki Bradbury (Louise Henry), the wealthy and gorgeous ex-kidnap victim. All of this does not rest well with King Solomon's ever-lovin' girlfriend, whose name is -- what else? -- Sheba (Dorothy Page). Bespectacled crooner Pinky Tomlin, of "The Object of My Affections" fame, guest-stars as "himself." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Most of the Fox productions of the 1930s had a "continental" flavor, and Thunder in the Night was no exception. Edmund Lowe stars as amorous Budapest police captain Torok, whose best friend Count Alvinczy (Paul Cavanaugh) has just been elected president of the Hungarian cabinet. When Alvinczy's future is threatened by a blackmailer, Torok tries to get to the bottom of things. It isn't long before the blackmailer is murdered, with suspicion shifting from one character to another. The most likely suspect is Alvinczy's lovely wife Madaline (Karen Morley), but Torok wisely deduces that appearances are deceiving. Thunder in the Night was based on A Woman Lies, a play by Ladislas Fodor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tobu (Edmund Lowe) and Nick (Jack Holt) are championship scuba divers who fall out when Tobu loses his arm saving Nick's life. Tobu then gets mixed up with jewel thieves, warning Nick to butt out of his business. The two former friends dive into the depths during the climax, though only one emerges from the water. Also appearing Best Man Wins is Bela Lugosi, who does not don scuba gear at any time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The rivalry between two deep-sea diver is chronicled in this adventure. The trouble begins when a young woman inherits one of the diver's boats and promptly hires his rival to help out. At first they swear to stay away from her, but they cannot and many arguments ensue culminating in a fistfight aboard a roller coaster in an amusement park. During the scuffle, one of the men falls and lands in the ocean. He quickly swims away and is presumed dead causing the other man to be arrested for murder. Later a ship filled with gold founders, and the surviving salvager and his new partner must retrieve it with the agreement that they will split the take. Unfortunately, the new partner is avaricious and during the dive attempts to kill the other. Fortunately, the embattled salvager is saved by his ex-partner who was recently released from jail. They defeat their foe, but end up in the hospital where they continue arguing until the woman comes in and announces that she is engaged to the ship's captain. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

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