Robert Lowery Movies

Lily Becker (Hope Hampton) is the musically talented daughter whose mother forces her into a marriage to the son of a wealthy man. Mistreated by the callous husband, she flees to New York to make it in the music business. She gives birth to a child and attempts suicide when she nearly starves to death for lack of work. A sympathetic young songwriter who has been down the same road takes her in and offers her the benefit of his musical experience. Lily becomes a successful opera singer the very night her husband perishes in a train wreck. She also must overcome the tragic death of her beloved baby. Lily overcomes her misfortunes to become a successful singer. After her husband dies, she is free to pursue romance with the young maestro in this routine melodrama. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Loretta Young is the wife, Warner Baxter the doctor and Virginia Bruce the nurse in this 20th Century-Fox trifle. Society gal Young marries Park Avenue medico Baxter, little guessing that humble nursie Bruce also loves the doc. Young raises vociferous objections, compelling Bruce to leave. Baxter's practice suffers due to Bruce's absence. Young realizes that the doctor needs his nurse, while Bruce comes to accept that Young needs her doctor. You may need one too after 85 minutes of this. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The hyped-up 1930s radio feud between bandleader Ben Bernie and columnist Walter Winchell is all but forgotten today, but that doesn't lessen the entertainment value of the Bernie/Winchell vehicle Wake Up and Live. Amidst the bickering of the two stars, the film traces the progress of mike-shy singer Jack Haley (whose singing voice was dubbed by Buddy Clark). Leading lady Alice Faye tricks Haley into singing on the air with Bernie's orchestra, which results in Winchell doing his best to discredit both Bernie and Haley. Eventually Haley and Alice Faye fall in love, and Ben and Walter patch up their differences. So successful was Wake Up and Live that 20th Century-Fox rushed Bernie and Winchell into a follow-up, Love and Hisses (38), but by that time their feud had taken second place in the hearts of America to the equally contrived "battle" between Jack Benny and Fred Allen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Ritz Brothers play three goofballs working their way through college by putting in time at a tailor shop. The college football team's star player is Nat Pendleton, a wealthy Native American who has donated a large amount of money to the school. As long as Pendleton is able to play, the football coach (Fred Stone) feels safe in putting the Ritz boys in the game at the last minute, when their zany antics can't possibly effect the final score. In Jim Thorpe fashion, the Indian student is disqualified when it is learned he once played professionally. Thus the coach is forced to utilize an untried player(Dick Baldwin) in the Big Game--and when that player is injured, it's the Ritz Brothers to the rescue. Life Begins in College gives plenty of attention to the comedy of the Ritz Brothers, if that's your idea of a good time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set during World War I, Submarine Patrol stars Preston S. Foster as a naval officer demoted for dereliction of duty. He is forced to commandeer a battered old submarine chaser and its ragtag crew. Anxious to redeem himself, Foster transforms his loser underlings into a crack combat team, chalking up numerous enemy sinkings. Richard Greene costars as Foster's junior officer, a rich wastrel who matures into a worthwhile individual during his tour of duty. Deftly directed by John Ford, Submarine Patrol was enthusiastically received by audiences and critics alike in 1938. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

For reason unknown, the otherwise thorough 1980 volume The Films of Twentieth Century-Fox utterly ignores the zany 1938 Fox release Passport Husband. Stuart Erwin plays Henry Cabot, overaged busboy at the Club Habana. Whenever the nightclub's singer Conchita Montez (Joan Woodbury) is accosted by a masher, the usually mild-mannered Henry flattens the bounder, which gets in a whole heap of trouble. There's even more trouble in store for our hero when he marries Conchita to keep her from being deported, enraging the girl's gangster boyfriends Tiger Martin (Douglas Fowley) and Blackie Bennett (Harold Huber). And when Henry suddenly inherits $1,000,000 from an eccentric uncle, everybody closes in on him, including cigarette girl Mary Jane Clayton (Pauline Moore). The film takes yet another unexpected turn when it develops that Mary Jane is actually the heroine of the piece! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The blue grass of Kentucky was seen in three-strip Technicolor for the first time in this rambling racetrack drama. Sally Goodwin (Loretta Young) falls in love with Jack Dillon (Richard Greene), but the arrangement is complicated by a decades-old feud. Sally's uncle Peter (Walter Brennan, who won his second Academy Award for this appearance) has hated Jack's family ever since sides were chosen up in the Civil War. Jack secretly trains Peter's horse for the Kentucky Derby, causing the old man to nearly withdraw from the event out of pique. All is forgiven when the horse wins, but Brennan dies of the excitement, and his eulogy is read by a member of the family with whom he'd been feuding for nearly 70 years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

His Aunt Sophie (Helen Westley) and his teacher Professor Heinrich (Jean Hersholt) are sure that Roger Grant (Tyrone Power) will be a famous classical violinist, but Roger's more interested in popular music. He and his friend, pianist Charlie (Don Ameche), audition at a saloon in San Francisco's Barbary Coast, using sheet music left by singer Stella Kirby (Alice Faye), which had been sent to her by a friend in New York, Irving Berlin. The number, "Alexander's Ragtime Band," proves to be a sensation, and Stella goes along with Charlie's plea to sing with the band, which soon becomes famous for its ragtime numbers. Charlie has fallen in love with Stella by the time they open at the Cliff House, but he soon realizes that she and Roger are in love. Stella is invited to New York by a famous producer, but Roger's against this, and angrily fires her, so Charlie quits, too. When Roger returns from World War I, he meets Stella, only to learn she and Charlie have been married for a year. Another year passes, and Charlie and Davey have formed a new band with Jerry Allen (Ethel Merman) as their lead singer. Charlie knows Stella still loves Roger, so he divorces her, but Roger sails for Europe with the new band. Back in New York, Roger is set for a major concert in swing at Carnegie Hall. Charlie tells Roger about the divorce, and that Stella still loves him. Unable to get a ticket, Stella listens to the concert in a cab. Explaining that he is playing it for one particular person, Roger and his band perform "Alexander's Ragtime Band" as their encore, bringing Stella into the theater, where she's reconciled with Roger. He brings her onstage to perform the number with his band. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide

John Ford directed this outdoor adventure set in the American Colonial period. Gilbert and Lana Martin (Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert) are a young couple trying to make a home in New York State's Mohawk Valley, but repeated attacks by Indians drive them, along with other settlers in the valley, into a nearby fort, where they watch helplessly as the natives lay waste to their farms and cabins. A spinster with a large farm, Sarah McKlennar (Edna May Oliver), comes to their rescue when she hires Gilbert to work as a field hand and gives the Martins a place to stay. The rugged life of the farm and frontier doesn't always sit well with Lana, who was raised in wealthy and comfortable circumstances; in time she develops a thicker skin and learns to love their new life in the Mohawk Valley, especially after giving birth to their first son. Gilbert joins the militia, who must do battle both with the local Indian tribes and the British soldiers who are provoking them to battle. Gilbert returns wounded, and as he recuperates, a healthy crop rises in the fields, but their satisfaction is short lived when the Indians once again hit the warpath. 1939 was a stellar year for John Ford; along with this highly successful adventure tale, which was nominated for three Academy Awards, Ford also released the ground-breaking western Stagecoach. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Peter Lorre stars as the famous Asian detective Mr. Moto in this remake of Murder in Trinidad, in which Moto is asked to help the United States government crack a smuggling ring bringing in stolen diamonds from Puerto Rico. Moto's deductive powers quickly prove impressive as he matches wits with the slow-minded gangster "Twister" McGurk (Warren B. Hymer). This was Lorre's seventh film as Mr. Moto; he would make one more before the series was retired at the end of 1939. Originally shown as Mr. Moto on Danger Island. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Sidney Toler made his second appearance as oriental sleuth Charlie Chan in the above-average Charlie Chan in Reno. It all begins when nervous young Mary Whitman (Pauline Moore) shows up in Reno to seek a divorce from husband Curtis Whitman (Kane Richmond). Before long, Jeanne Bentley (Louise Henry), another divorce-seeker, is found slain, and the police are certain that Mary, or her estranged husband, is responsible. It so happens that the Whitmans are from Honolulu, the stamping grounds of Charlie Chan, which is why our wily hero shows up in Nevada with son Jimmy (Victor Sen Yung) in tow. Every so often, the mystery slows down long enough for an amusing battle of wits between Chan and local sheriff Fletcher (Slim Summerville), who admittedly has only half the necessary ammunition. The billing order of the supporting cast is as usual a giveaway of the true killer's identity, but this doesn't lessen the enjoyment of this well-crafted programmer. Charlie Chan in Reno was based on Death Makes a Decree, a story by Philip Wylie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Ford's fine direction distinguishes this highly fictionalized account of the early life of Abraham Lincoln. The film shows Lincoln (Henry Fonda) as he rises from a country boy born in a log cabin to a lawyer in Springfield, Illinois defending two young men unjustly accused of murder. The film, produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, received an Academy Award nomination for "Best Original Screenplay" for its screenwriter Lamar Trotti. Henry Fonda perhaps the most American of actors, is at his best playing Lincoln as the quintessential, compassionate American hero. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

17-year-old Linda Darnell received her first big break in the appropriately titled 20th Century-Fox production Star Dust. Discovered by talent scout Thomas Brooke (Roland Young), teenager Carolyn Sayre (Darnell) is brought to Hollywood, where she is turned down for a contract because she is considered too young. Down but not out, Carolyn falls in love with studio contractee Bud Borden (John Payne), who promises to help her achieve her career goals. Teaming up with Brooke, Borden succeeds in winning a screen test for Carolyn, and the rest is gravy. As can be seen, Star Dust draws most of its inspiration from Linda Darnell's real-life rise to fame, which gives the cliched screenplay a bit of added depth and humanity. It's also amusing to watch William Gargan, cast as studio executive Dane Wharton, perform a devastating (albeit affectionate) take-off of 20th Century-Fox head man Darryl F. Zanuck, right down to DFZ's habit of swinging a polo mallet during story conferences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide